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I shook my head.
“Don’t even bother looking in our history textbook. I already did. If he’s the original, or an original, assuming he didn’t lie to my mom…why haven’t we heard of him?” Minx scrubbed her hands over her face. “I have a lot going on with my mates and school, but I can’t let this go. Now that I know, I have to see where I come from. Where we come from.”
“Sister investigation?” I asked, trying to bring some lightness in to the conversation.
Minx snorted. “Sounds fun. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before.”
I waved her off. “I was a stranger claiming to be your sister. I would’ve reacted the same way. No apologies necessary.”
She leaned over the table. “Now, tell me about this harem of yours.”
Chapter Nineteen
Goderick. I thought the name in my mind and said it aloud multiple times in the solitude of my room. It sounded like something from the Middle Ages. Was my bio dad as old as that? Or was it a family name? A glance at the clock showed I had only a few hours to rest before my alarm went off, but this single bit of information was enough to make it unlikely I’d get any rest at all. I snuggled deeper under the covers and reached up to fluff my pillows.
When I had trouble sleeping as a little girl, my father, or stepfather as it were, used to tell me to just lie still and close my eyes. I would protest that I’d still be awake, but he said it was better to get a little rest even if I didn’t sleep.
And, inevitably, sleep would come. Then. But, since Dad was no longer my sire, his prescription for a good night’s rest seemed to have lost its magic. Minx’s mother said that our father, Goderick, was her true mate. And, since I was a bit older than her, presumably Goderick, an original or the original shifter, had already found his way into Mom’s bed at least often enough to impregnate her with me.
Were they also true mates? If I could have three mates, if Minx could, was it beyond the pale that this Goderick could have been fated to both Minx’s mom and mine? Behind my tightly closed lids, my imagination threw up mental pictures of my parents together, replacing Dad that I knew with the faceless man who had impregnated both her and Minx’s mother.
Had he loved one or both of them?
How I wished I had the same ability as Minx to ask questions. My information, of course, had come when that was impossible. But even her mom’s answers were vague, and I had so many more questions.
A soft rap on the door startled me from a near doze just as the sky was graying to the east. “Ava?”
“Come in.” I scooted up against the headboard to see Wolfe peeking in.
“You sure it’s all right?”
“It’s not like I’ve been sleeping. I’ve had some things on my mind.”
“You skipped dinner, then you were already in your room when we got back. Your light was out, and we didn’t want to bother you. Are you feeling all right?”
“Oh yeah.” It was sweet that he couldn’t wait until morning to check. “Minx talked to her mom and got confirmation about her fathering. Her mother said our mutual father was her true mate. But he left her when she got pregnant.”
Wolfe moved over to the bed and sat on the edge. “That doesn’t seem very much like a true mate. And he presumably did the same to your mom before that.”
“Yeah.” I reached for his hand and closed mine over it. “What a gem, leaving them that way with babies growing inside them.”
“Maybe he had a good reason?”
“I spent my whole life up until recently having a relationship with a man who raised me as if I was his own. Presumably he also knew I was not, but he never said a word about it or acted as if I was anything but his genetics. Even if he was grumpy sometimes and maybe strict, I never doubted his love. All those days and weeks he spent teaching me weapons and defense moves? So, now I had to shift my mind from my dad is awesome to my dad dumped me when I was the size of a lemon or a grape or whatever and never looked back.” Way to spew it all!
“Your bio dad would not get father of the year, for sure.” He patted my hand with his free one. “But not many people’s would.”
“Anyway, you asked why I was awake, and that’s a good part of it. When I told Minx about our father, I might have still been in shock a little because I feel like it’s only now really sinking in.” I sucked in a breath, and emotions that had been bottled up came pouring out, accompanied by tears and snot and sobs and all the really ugly crying stuff. “I want my daddy back. The real one who tucked me in at night and read me stories and loved me.” Doubled over, I shook with the grief of losing my dad twice. Added to Mom…
Wolfe scooted up beside me and pulled me against him, holding me firmly while I cried myself out. About the time the sun topped the horizon, I was hiccupping and coming out the other side.
I sat up and blinked away the last of the tears, leaving my mate’s shirt sopping wet with my tears and other icky things. “I’m so embarrassed; look what I did to you.”
“Embarrassed?” He tipped my face up and kissed my lips. “I’m honored that you would spend your grief in my arms. And it’s a big loss so it will come up again, but if you feel better, maybe we can all go out on our date tonight?”
“That would be nice.” I sniffled and tried to give him some kind of smile. “That would be wonderful. Where are we going?”
“You leave that to us. Just put on whatever you like for a fun night on the town, and we’ll pick you up here at eight.”
