Page 6 of Wolf Revealed

Mike didn’t say anything for a long time. Instead, he gazed at her, his face unreadable.

“How are you a werewolf?” he finally asked, the sudden change in topic enough to almost give her whiplash. “I don’t understand what you mean when you say you were born a werewolf, and that your whole family is werewolves, too. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Lark wanted to ask how it was possible Mike didn’t know about this kind of stuff, but she quickly squashed that thought, knowing it was unfair. She’d been born into her werewolf heritage, sitting with her parents and grandparents around the kitchen table along with her siblings from the time they were kids, playing board games together while they’d told stories about how werewolves came to be.

“You’ve probably noticed I smell different than the werewolves in your pack, right?”

When he nodded, she continued.

“Well, to put it simply, there are two kinds of werewolves. Hereditary werewolves like me, where the trait is passed from parent to child. And hybrid werewolves like you, where external events push the change.”

“External events?” Mike repeated with a soft snort. “That’s a nice way to describe getting shot.”

“You were shot?” she repeated, her heart seizing. The idea of Mike going through something traumatic was one thing, but knowing he’d been shot was another thing completely. “I’m afraid to ask.”

“Then don’t ask,” Mike said flatly. “It’s a long story, and now really isn’t the time for it.”

All Lark could do was nod and stare down at the floor, not sure what else to say. The silence stretched between them until it became uncomfortable. It had never been like that when she and Mike were together. Of course, that was before she’d left him. That was always a sure way to ruin a good thing.

“How did Roman know where you were?” Mike asked.

The reminder that Roman had their son was all it took to twist Lark’s stomach further into knots.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, lifting her head to look at him. “At first, I thought Kal had gone to a friend’s house without telling me. When I realized he wasn’t there, my pack and I immediately searched everywhere for him. Luckily, someone remembered seeing an unfamiliar black SUV near our house. We tracked it to a ravine a few miles outside the county, where they’d dumped it, but unfortunately, even with all our resources, we couldn’t get a lead on who’d been driving the vehicle or where they’d taken Kal from there.”

“How did you figure out Kal was in Dallas then?” Mike asked.

“I didn’t,” Lark admitted, giving him an embarrassed look. “When Kal was taken, my father suggested we needed to look at the most obvious suspect first.”

Mike’s dark eyes went wide at what she’d left unspoken, pain reflected there. “You thought I took him? That I’d somehow figured out you and Kal were alive and tracked you down to Washington State so I could kidnap him? I can’t believe you’d think I’d do something like that.”

“I didn’t want to,” she said softly, hating that she’d hurt him yet again. “But it’s not like I could have blamed you if you had, since that’s what I did. I had to at least assume it was a possibility.”

He clenched his jaw. “So, you came to Dallas to find out for yourself?”

“Not at first,” she admitted. “Dad thought it would be better to send out some scouts first.”

Mike frowned. “Scouts?”

“Werewolves who are used to spending time outside the safety of the pack boundary,” she explained. “A few of them came down here several weeks ago to sniff around and see what they could learn. They ended up having some run-ins with you and some of the other members of your pack.”

“I guess that explains what they were doing here,” Mike said with a nod, as if just realizing something important. “We caught them stalking us a few times, but never realized they were focused on me. I assume they were following me, hoping it would lead them to Kal?”

“That was the idea.” Lark winced. “They were supposed to be discreet and not let you see them. They didn’t realize you and the other guys were werewolves until it was too late. You could have knocked me over with a feather when they called and told me. At first, I thought they’d tracked down the wrong Mike Taylor––until they sent me a photo. After they got over their surprise about you being a werewolf, they quickly figured out you didn’t have Kal.”

Mike tilted his head a little to the side, regarding her thoughtfully. “If you didn’t think Kal was here, why did you come?”

She reached up to run her hand through her long, dark hair. “Once I learned you weren’t involved in Kal’s disappearance, I was relieved, but also terrified because then I had no idea where to turn. I didn’t know who had taken our son, the cops didn’t have any leads, and I didn’t know what to do next.”

“So, you decided to ask me for help,-” Mike finished.

The way he said the words hurt almost as badly as if she’d spoken them herself.

Lark looked down at the floor again. “I know I don’t have any right to expect anything from you. Not after everything I’ve done. I’d apologize if it wasn’t all so completely unforgivable.”

“Let’s just skip the apologies and the expectations,” Mike said harshly. “This is about finding our son. We’ll worry about everything else after that.”

Part of her hoped Mike would accept her apology, even if she hadn’t actually said the words, and give them a chance to move forward right then. The other part knew that had been expecting too much.