The walls were dilapidated. The entrances marked with different colored doors.
Did this have anything to do with what Mae had said about using a blue door?
Range continued. “Quake is open to witches, shifters, vampires, and elementals. For the most part each supernatural type remains segregated inside. Supposed to keep the peace. All enter through specific colored doors. Shifters use the blue one. The red is for witches. The green for vampires. Black for elementals.”
“Nothing for Valkyrie,” Eira said with a pout.
“My love, Valkyrie don’t exactly like to show themselves to other types.”
“True,” Emme added. “We are forbidden from making ourselves known to others. Except now, it seems all of you, plus Mae and Griz are aware of us.” Then it occurred to her. “And anyone else Eira might have told while at Bear Canyon Valley.” Or anywhere else her sister had been. This would open up a host of fury from the Valkyrie Tribunal if they discovered what Eira had been up to. The urge to protect her sister became even more powerful. The Tribunal would certainly become even more motivated to have her punished if word got out.
“We won’t let anything happen to Eira,” Davin said. “She’s a sister to us.”
Emme didn’t want to feel jealous. She should be happy Eira had men who loved her as these wolf shifters evidently did. But now, Emme, who’d been so needed by her sister and such a major part of Eira’s life was on her own. A bitter pill to swallow. What was she doing here? They didn’t need her. She didn’t fit in.
Sitting next to her, their legs touching, Asa’s muscular quad against hers, he leaned in. “What’s going on?” His voice was low.
“What do you mean?” she whispered back, unwilling to explore her thoughts with anyone.
“It’s obvious something’s bothering you.”
Obvious to whom? she wondered. It wasn’t as though anyone was glancing back to study her expression.
He watched her expectantly.
“I’m fine. Just mulling over some things in my mind.”
“We’re going into territory that might not be friendly. I need someone on my side, someone who’s watchful,” he said, close to her ear.
What about your brothers? she wanted to ask, but she already knew the answer. His brothers had their own battles to fight with their wolves. Their beasts were on the side of Asa’s wolf, and that wolf wanted to kill him.
Range opened the door, helping Eira out. Asa held a hand out to Emme. She squeezed her way out of the back of the van.
“What about my bag?”
“It’ll be fine in the plane,” Range assured her.
She took a deep breath. The air was warm, wet, tropical almost.
They walked up a set of stairs leading to a blue door. Jason knocked. It cracked open, but Emma couldn’t see a face. It closed.
Jason looked back at Range and shrugged. “Now what?”
“We wait,” Range said.
Seconds later, the door opened fully and the man Griz appeared before them. He was huge. Tall, muscular, scary, even. And that said something because Emme wasn’t one to feel fear easily.
“Come in.” His voice was deeper than it had been over the video messaging app.
Mae stepped forward. “We have a private area.” She was much shorter than Griz. Shorter than Emme and Eira. She hugged the Wulfsen brothers one at a time, hugged Eira, then wrapped her arms around Emme. “Nice to meet you. Your sister talked about you all the time when she visited. She missed you greatly.”
Emotions flooded to the forefront. Emma’s eyes burned with unshed tears. She glanced at Eira, who was watching with barely contained sentiment herself. “I missed her, too,” Emma confessed. “More than words can say.”
Eira snaked an arm around her waist, drawing her close. “I won’t let you out of my life now that you’re in it.”
Emme found herself breathing a small sigh. Relief swamped her. She leaned her head against her sister’s shoulder. Words couldn’t express how she felt right now.
“Let’s go.” Griz brought the quiet conversations amongst them to a stop. “I know this is pressing on you.” He grabbed Asa by the shoulder. “We’ll get this figured out. Trust me, we will.”
They walked down a narrow corridor with hardwood floors, antique yellowing fleur-de-lis wallpaper, and smoke-darkened sconces on the walls. It seemed the place hadn’t seen an update in interior design in more than a century, if Emme were to take a guess. Mae led them to a room with a long table that sat a dozen. The room was empty. The windows darkened by drawn shutters.
“Have a seat, everyone,” Mae said. “First, I want to bring you up to speed on a few things. Then I need to introduce you to someone. When he gets here.”
Without further ado, they all grabbed a spot. Asa on one side of her, Eira on the other.
“What we are about to reveal to you can go no further,” Griz said. “It’s not for others to know, and if you weren’t personally involved, you wouldn’t be in on this at all. But you are and in a very definite way.
Chapter Fifteen
Beneath the cover of the dark rosewood table, Asa reached for Emme’s hand. He couldn’t have said what prompted him to do so. He needed the connection. That was it.
Griz blew out a breath, remaining on his feet. “There are a certain few supernatural beings who walk the earth today. They remain private and do not consort with those of us who are not like them.”
“What do you mean, not like them?” Davin asked. “Since when are shifters not supernatural beings?”
“Yeah, not what I meant,” Griz said. “They are called Ancients. They are old, though you already know we do not age quickly. These are older than old and are sometimes the originals of their species. Also, they are supremely powerful. One such owns this establishment, some of you might be aware of that.”
“Exactly,” Mae added, still standing, next to Griz. “Quake is owned by an Ancient called Quaker, though some call him Quake. That isn’t the name he was born with. I don’t know if anyone knows that name. He’s from the elemental lines. He controls the elements.”
“Right,” Griz intercepted. “Another is called Vayne. She is a sorceress. Then there’s Omar. An Ancient who is a shifter. Omar had a daughter called Catriona. A wolf shifter.” He pointedly turned his piercing gaze on each of the Wulfsen brothers.
Is that our mother? Asa wondered. Are we descended directly from the daughter of one of these Ancients?
“I suppose you know where we’re going with this,” Mae said. “Catriona is your mother.”
I knew it. “So, this Catriona is the one who brought us to you?” he asked Mae.
“No. You were brought to us by your father. Your mother had stayed in her wolf form. She preferred it to being a human.”
Jason scratched his head. “Who is our father, then?”
Griz put his hands on the back of the chair, leaned forward. “Your father is an Ancient called Magnus.”
“So, he’s another wolf shifter,” Asa said. That might explain why their wolves were larger and more powerful, if they were descended from two Ancients, both of whom were Ancients.