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Closing my eyes, I took a moment to enjoy the overwhelming sense of peace and power. The moon called me, tugged at my soul, and compelled me to answer its call. Maybe I needed to shift before we had this talk. Run to clear my mind. But I didn’t shift. Didn’t run. I only stood under the rays of moonlight and waited.
A few moments later, I opened my eyes, refreshed, ready to have a conversation that probably wouldn’t go well.
Ty watched me, his gaze soft as if he understood and was trying to comfort me. He reached for my hand, intertwining our fingers as he smiled knowingly at me. “Ready to talk?”
I asked the question that had been burning inside me since Stone spoke his mysterious words: “Are you keeping something from me?”
Chapter 27
Ty
If I had the ability to freeze time, I would have done just that. I watched as Liza stood in the moonlight, her platinum blonde hair reflecting its beams as she closed her eyes. A peaceful smile spread across her face. Her arms were outstretched, her face raised to the sky as if she were calling on a higher power. Were I an artist, this would be my masterpiece, and I would title it Serenity.
Warm contentment swelled deep within my chest as I watched peace wash over her. I didn’t dare attempt to interrupt her.
After a moment, though, she opened her eyes, and reality set in, the gravity of our situation returning. I had nearly ripped Stone’s throat out when I spotted him with Liza. I’d sure as fuck intended to. He had no right to corner her, and it wasn’t the first time he’d done so.
Stone was smart—not smart enough to know to stay away, though— and he wasn’t fucking around. He knew exactly what he wanted. Since he had me by the balls, he was forcing my hand.
My mind swirled with the possible outcomes of my situation with Stone. If I stood by and did nothing, he would tell Liza the truth. Then he planned to take her for his own. Hell, she would probably go willingly when she found out I’d kept the truth from her.
He’d given me an ultimatum, and even though I wasn’t one to be bossed around, I didn’t really have a choice. He had a card to play, and I was certain he was going to play it soon. I had to make the next move, and quickly.
Liza, snapped out of her meditative state and frowned at me. “Are you keeping something from me?”
My heart pounded a thousand beats per second as I let Liza’s question sink in. I wasn’t ready for this conversation. I stared into the trees at the edge of the clearing, hoping to spot some type of distraction or interruption. I needed more time to gather my thoughts and figure out exactly how to explain everything to her.
The forest was still, almost as if the other animals knew that the alpha and the omega were preparing to have a serious conversation. One that required privacy and the utmost respect.
I was certain of only one thing: I had to get rid of Stone. That was my priority, but I couldn’t very well leave Liza in the middle of the woods to go handle it, especially after she’d point-blank asked me if I was hiding something from her.
I sighed. I had to tell her something. Finally, I decided on the lesser of the two evils. She’d be pissed at me either way. Me keeping facts from her while she had been struggling to understand why she was different from other shifters was the lesser offense. I believed she could forgive me for that and hopefully see that I only wanted to protect her. We might be able to come back from that.
Me telling her that my family murdered her pack and basically kidnapped her, on the other hand, was unforgivable. She would never trust me again. It would end us.
I took a step toward Liza and met her glare. “I was curious about you, Liza. You piqued my curiosity, first with your light hair and skin, then with the pheromone situation at the coffee shop.” This was harder than I’d thought, not for any reason other than I wanted to tell her everything. And because I didn’t want to lose her, I couldn’t tell her. It was killing me.
She pursed her lips. “It makes sense that you were curious about me.” She paused, and the silence stretched because I didn’t want to go on. “There’s more, though, isn’t there?”
I nodded. “I looked into your past, but there was nothing to find. Literally. Nothing.”
Liza crossed her arms. “What do you mean you looked into me?” She shook her head once.
Shit. This wasn’t the part I thought she would stick on, but it was the easiest to explain. I didn’t want to tell her I’d hired Zephyr, but I also didn’t want to lie right to her face. “I have a guy on the payroll. And investigator of sorts.” She didn’t balk or flinch or get pissed off at my answer, so I continued. “Bryce and I had conversations about you. You know how men talk.” She had brothers. Of course, she knew. “And Bryce has been my best friend for ages.”
“Yeah.” She sighed loudly, and I couldn’t tell if she was already pissed or just bracing for whatever I was about to admit.
“Bryce had his suspicions about you from the beginning.” I held up my hands as her gaze narrowed. “Not in a malicious way. He just noticed your differences, your hair, your eyes, and he… and I—that is, we—wondered if there might be something special about you aside from what I could already see.” I wasn’t a stammering, stuttering kind of guy, but I had a feeling I was standing at the beginning of the end.
“Special?” Liza asked.
I rubbed my chin. Fuck, this was more awkward than I had imagined it would be. “Yeah. I told him about the incident with the rabbit in the woods that night when we shifted for the first time. It only spurred him on. He was always chirping about it. He couldn’t stop talking about how you were even more special than he initially realized.”
I didn’t want to mention Stone because then I’d have to explain why he knew who Liza was. That would lead to the premature beginning of the conversation we would have to have at some point down the road. I absolutely planned on telling her the truth about her family and mine, but not yet. Later. I sure as hell couldn’t do it right now with the anger flaming in her eyes, and certainly not while she was standing with her feet apart and her arms crossed like she was ready for battle. I didn’t want that battle to start with me. Unfortunately, she was already suspicious of Stone, so I couldn’t leave him out completely.
I thought fast and settled on the direction of my explanation. “Stone overheard a conversation between Bryce and me. I was in the middle of telling him about the conversation I had with your parents the night we had dinner with them.” I was using all the tricks, trying to bring her parents into it to soften her anger—nope, it was rage.
And I felt worse because I’d just told her a blatant lie, but I was backed into a corner. I silently hoped Liza wouldn’t ask for more details because I didn’t want to make any more shit up.
