“I don’t know why you’re both so against the idea. I’d get married.” Raymond kept typing as he joined the conversation.
“You’d have to leave the basement for that to happen,” Stefan teased.
“Leave him alone. Raymond will meet the right girl when the time is right,” Mom declared.
“Why does he get to wait and I don’t?” Stefan growled.
“Because you’re closer to forty. Everyone knows a man who doesn’t marry before forty is doomed to be single and die younger than his married friends.” Mom and her damned proclamations.
“Bullshit.” Yet he wondered, was it true? Dammit. He’d have to ask Raymond to research it later when Mom couldn’t hear him asking. “Nothing wrong with being single. I’d hate to share my closet.”
“I’ve seen your closet. It has no room for anyone else. Tiger my ass. I think you might be a peacock.” Dominick flapped his arms like wings and made a screech that almost sent Stefan diving between the seats.
“You’re just jealous because I have style.”
“A man doesn’t need more than two pairs of shoes. His everyday pair and his good pair.” Dominick snorted.
“Slippers are the most important footwear,” was Raymond’s contribution from the back. His brother had a thing for moccasins, which drove Stefan nuts.
“You don’t get to speak about style. I’ve seen the state of your T-shirts.” Stefan shuddered
“It’s known as vintage,” Raymond intoned.
“He’s got a point. Old is in,” Dominick agreed.
Mom chose Stefan’s side. “A rag is a rag.”
“Thank you!” Stefan exclaimed.
All the bantering meant they had almost arrived. At a traffic light, Mom leaned over and patted his cheek. “Remember to smile pretty at the ladies.”
“Yeah, Stef, smile. And bat those lashes,” Dominick teased.
Stefan bared his teeth. “How’s this?”
“Stop bugging your brother. It wasn’t too long ago you were being an idiot. It’s a wonder Anika puts up with you.”
“It’s not easy.” Anika’s dry reply.
“Are you sure you’re healthy? Sane? Or is he paying you to pretend to like him? Because I don’t get it.” Stefan lived to bug Dominick.
“You leave those two alone. At least he managed to get a girlfriend, while you continue to waste your life and seed away.”
Stefan choked. “Mom!”
“Don’t think I haven’t heard about your antics,” his mom chided.
“All consensual.”
“How about trying to make one of your conquests full time so you don’t need testing every other week?”
It was monthly, actually, and he used protection. “Why are you harassing me? I don’t hear you saying shit to Raymond, even though this is only the second time he’s left the house in the last two weeks.””
“Raymond is shy.”
“Raymond is a pussy who hides behind a computer screen all day.”
“Making big bucks at it, too!” Raymond retorted, barely lifting his head. The man was always fiddling with something electronic. Had been since they were kids and Mom got him his first computer. He’d been bullied in school, and Mom opted to have him learn from home.
“I’m working on some ideas for Raymond. But you…” She huffed. “You need a firm hand.”
Odd how he suddenly pictured Nimway, a woman not easily cowed. He’d not stopped thinking of her since their meeting. Thought of what he’d say when he ran into her again. Because he had no doubt he would. Looked forward to it even. Craved it with an excitement once reserved for Christmas morning.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
5
The sudden panic was very real. Stefan opened his mouth to tell Mom to let him out.
Too late.
“We’re almost there.” Mom turned off Eagleson into a neighborhood with houses crowded too close together. It made him claustrophobic. He blamed sharing a room with two brothers growing up.
As they prowled the residential road with its Watch the Children signs, he noticed nothing odd until they turned onto the street they were looking for. For one, it had more than a few couples pushing strollers or walking hand in hand, seemingly perfect, until they turned their heads as if on a possessed pivot to stare at them as they drove by.
“What’s up with the people?” Dominick asked, letting Stefan know it wasn’t his imagination.
“How many members did you say this pack had?” Because Stefan had already counted eighteen that he would wager were part of the group.
“Well, do the math. Fifty houses, probably one to two adults per household… At least a hundred, maybe more?” Raymond said.
“All werewolves?” Anika asked, frowning out the window.
“Unless they’re inbreeding, you gotta figure some are married to humans. I’ll have to run backgrounds on the names to see.” Raymond kept tapping away at his laptop.
Stefan couldn’t hold his tongue. “How do you not already have this information? You’ve had since Thanksgiving.” Just under a week ago, which was usually long enough for Raymond to dig up the dirt.
“I’ve been busy.”
“With what? What could be more important than a threat to this family?” Stefan demanded.
“Maybe you’re not curious, but I want to know who was behind the lab. Who made us? Why?” It stunned Stefan to realize what his brother had been seeking. Information about their pasts. Their origin. Because it turned out they were not simple orphans. They’d been created in a lab. Experiments. Failures. Defective versions slated for death.
Dealing with it might take time and some AA meetings because he could feel himself craving something to quell his sudden anxiety.
It was Dominick who dared to ask, “Did you find anything?”
“Nothing yet,” Raymond replied.
During it all, Mom remained silent. Apparently, she was good at that. She’d held on to this secret their entire lives.
It made him surly. “Ask Mom. I’m sure she knows.”
“Leave her alone,” Dominick growled.
“I’m sorry.” Something she’d said a hundred times since the revelation. “I only ever wanted to protect you.”
Even with the apology, the resentment proved hard to tamp. How could she do this to them? As kids, he could understand not burdening them, but for fuck’s sake, he and a few of his sibling were in their thirties. As old as she had been when she chose to take action and save their lives.
Stefan had a harsh suggestion. “You should put our past on a backburner. It’s waited this long. It can wait a little longer. We need to know more about this wolf pack.” Because it was one thing to act blasé when a handful of folks posed a threat, but judging by the flow of people, this pack appeared to be numerous.
The danger level doubled.
“Well, excuse me for not giving them the same priority as you,” Raymond snapped.
“Can’t you see the danger they pose? Have you forgotten what they did to Dom and Anika?”
“They never actually hurt me,” Anika reminded.