Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)
Reborn: Chapter 8

Simone and I were best friends. True best friends.

We had grown up together, and she was literally the only one in this pack to never turn her back on me. That meant it was my duty to ensure she wasn’t being held in some creepy fuck’s basement, having her toes licked.

Toe fetish was only cool when you were into it, not when it was being forced upon you.

And as the alpha-mate of Torma, it was even more important that we ensured the safety of one of our pack. Torin was going to be furious when he found out about this, and I sure as fuck wasn’t about to keep it from him when he had a ton more resources to help track her down.

“We had to protect her place in the pack,” Mika said, still making excuses as tears trailed down her cheeks. “I never thought she would leave the pack without permission, but she did. We played it off as a vacation so that she wouldn’t be punished upon return. Thankfully, Torin is much more accepting than Victor, and he’s just allowed us to update him without pushing to speak with her himself.”

Accepting or lazy. The jury was still out on that fuckhea… alpha whose help I needed. “We have to tell him now.” My tone made it clear that if they argued with me about this, I was going to bring the full force of Torma down on them. “She’s been missing for too long. If anything has happened to her…”

If I hadn’t had my memories stolen from me, I would have been onto this shit weeks ago. My anger and frustration over what happened had reached a crescendo, exploding in growls and curse words. To say I was pissed was an understatement. I’d woken up in my underwear, in the bed of a man I detested, with no memory of how I’d gotten there or the weeks that had passed since my first change. I’d woken to replace that someone had messed with me in the most terrible of ways, a true abuse of power, and now it seemed that Simone was involved as well. Maybe hurt—or worse—because of me…

I was finally seeing the bigger picture. “I get it now,” I said slowly. “It’s all finally starting to make sense.”

The Lewisons were understandably confused.

“I’ve been furious since I woke up,” I explained further, “and no matter how much Jaxson and Sisily and everyone else in the damn pack tell me that I should just let it all go and enjoy being alpha-mate, the truth is, I feel like I was completely violated. My life stolen from me. My best friend stolen from me, so I would have no choice but to rely on Torin.”

Mika stepped closer. “No, Mera. You cannot think that Torin would ever act inappropriately toward you; he’s been nothing but a gentleman.”

I nodded. “Uh-huh, sure. Just like the time he rejected me and then fucked Sisily in front of me. A true, true gentleman, that one.”

Wow, the silence was so awkward that even I wondered if I’d gone too far.

“Let’s focus on Simone,” Mika finally said. “She’s our priority.”

“Let’s go to the alpha,” Gerad added, backing up his mate. “Hopefully, Torin has resources above my own because as far as I can tell, Simone isn’t anywhere in America. We’d have heard something by now.”

A heavy weight settled deep in my stomach, but I couldn’t lose it yet. Simone needed me to keep it together and ensure that this was everyone’s top priority.

Mika and Gerad were quiet as they led me to their Mercedes G-Wagon, one of five cars in their roomy garage. Including… Simone’s old truck?

I hurried toward it. “She didn’t drive? Was she taken?”

When I turned back to Simone’s parents, their faces were blank. “There was no sign of a struggle,” Gerad finally said, and I seriously wanted to throat-punch a motherfucker.

I didn’t, choosing instead to spend my time combing over her vehicle for clues, but there wasn’t a single thing that stood out. It looked, and smelled, exactly as I remembered. Her truck had nothing to do with how Simone had left Torma.

When I’d exhausted that as a lead, I joined the Lewisons in their car, throwing myself into the smooth leather seats with all the dramatic flair of a toddler who’d had their toast cut in triangles instead of squares. But, dammit, these assholes should have cared more about their daughter’s well-being than her place in the pack. It was too late now to do anything except damage control, all the while praying that Simone was okay.

When Gerad exited onto the main road, I decided that I’d never have a better opportunity to question these two, so I leaned forward. “Tell me about my father.”

Gerad hit the brakes, all of us jerking against our seatbelts, as he ground to a stop in the middle of the street. A stunned silence followed, which I ignored. “Why did he attempt to kill the alpha?”

Leaning back against the dark, buttery leather, I crossed my arms. “I’m just going to keep asking,” I said softly.

“Why are you questioning this now, after all of these years?” Gerad finally muttered. “Why can’t you let the ghosts of the past rest?”

I snorted. “They’ve never rested for me. I suffered every single day for what my father did, and I wanted to ask every damn day for years, but if I even thought about it, I was punished. Now I’m finally in a position where most shifters would think twice about hurting me. So I’m finally asking the damn questions.”

“What about Simone?” Mika choked out, reminding us that we’d been heading to Torin for her. I hadn’t forgotten, of course, but killing two birds with one stone sounded like a great plan.

“You can drive and talk,” I reminded them. “We have plenty of time.”

We didn’t. It was at most a ten-minute drive out to the pack house, probably less at this time of the day, but they got my point.

“Your father was a complicated man,” Gerad said as he set the car in motion again. “Always searching for answers, even when no one asked the question. Right around your fifth birthday, he told everyone that you created a fire in the yard. Using just your hands. No matches. No accelerant. Not even a beam of sunlight.”

Mika cleared her throat. “There was evidence of a little fire that day, but it was determined to be from other pups playing with a lighter.”

What? Seriously, what?

I must have looked unhinged as I stared between them.

Gerad nodded. “Yes, it was investigated, but Lockhart couldn’t let it go. In his later years, he started to believe that you were not his child. He said that you had dark energy, that you’d turned your mother into an alcoholic, tainting her soul. Victor refused to indulge him in his insane ramblings, and your father grew more distant and unstable until eventually, he attacked.”

“That… makes no sense,” I finally choked out.

My father had been a loving figure in my life. At least in my memories, he had been. Were those early days of my life covered in a rose-colored sheen due to the unconditional love a child had for their parent?

Mika broke through my inner turmoil. “Lockhart had been trying to get Victor to use alpha coercion on all the shifters who’d been present at your birth. But we’d all been observing you as a child, and there was no sign of anything untoward. You were a normal, happy, sweet little girl.”

“His request was denied.” Gerad confirmed his mate’s story.

I wasn’t sure what answers I’d expected to get after so many years of wondering, but it really hadn’t been this. I’d never expected that the attack had been about me. Not for one second. I’d believed I’d been punished all of these years due to my father’s actions, but maybe there had been so much more to it. Maybe some of it had been my fault? Maybe Victor had hated me just a little extra because part of him had wondered if my father had been right.

“My father called me ‘Sunny’ because of my hair. Callahan hair,” I murmured, half-caught in the past.

Mika shot me a commiserating stare. “He called you ‘Sunny’ for more reason than one. He said you had the power of a burning light inside you. A demon power.”

I was floored, trying to merge this new information with the life I remembered in my head. The life before my father’s death had been the golden age, but maybe it had simply been Jaxson’s presence that had made it brighter. Maybe I’d never really had parents who’d cared.

“Has anyone ever given a proper single fuck about me?” My words were a sad, woe-is-me whisper, meant more for me than any other ears.

But, of course, one of the assholes in this car witnessing my breakdown had to answer. “Simone has always truly loved you,” Gerad said gruffly. “No matter how much it hurt her or our family, she would never turn her back on you.”

That knocked some sense into me, and I pulled myself from the dark thoughts that had been wrapping around my mind. “We have to replace her,” I said, the emptiness falling from my voice as determination filled me. Fuck my parents and their bullshit that had been apparently ruining my life since birth. They would get no more energy from me.

It was time for me to focus on Simone. I had to save my one true friend and family, no matter the cost.

My palm itched and my chest fluttered at the thought, and this time, I was going with that being a positive sign that I was finally on the right path.