Blake motioned for him to sit down. “Oh, you’ve no idea. Amelia just kicked my sorry ass.”
“Wow!” Seth turned to Amelia, his eyes filled with pride. “Please tell me you can do it again. I have to see that! Roman too.”
He had just finished his sentence when there was another knock on the door and the old Inari came in without waiting for an invitation. His sensitive ears had caught their conversation from down the corridor. “I knew Seth would know exactly what kind of woman you needed.” He chuckled and winked at Amelia. “You remind me of my late wife, sweetheart. She could kick my ass all right.”
Amelia smiled awkwardly. Her heart was still pumping too much adrenaline into her veins, making it hard for her to regain her composure.
“I see you’ve already started a new game.” Roman Sylfur sat down slowly in the nearest armchair, his eyes locked on the board, as if he was waiting for some sort of magic to happen.
“Yes, but Amelia was just telling me something.” Blake turned to her. “Go on…”
“Shit,” she thought. “What now? You’re stupid, so stupid…” Seth shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, drawing her attention. Roman’s eyes moved away from the board, where nothing was happening anyway, and locked on her. “I… I don’t know.” She struggled to find her voice. “Maybe this isn’t a good time.”
“What’s this all about?” asked Roman.
“We were talking about shifter-brides and boarding schools,” explained Blake. “It sounded important, and if it has to do with the system, then we all want to hear it.”
Amelia didn’t appreciate his encouragement. Now there was no way she could back down without raising suspicions. The three men in front of her were bounded by family and friendship, and if one of them thought what she had to say could affect the clan, then they would insist until she confessed everything. But that was insane! She couldn’t possibly look Blake and Roman in the eyes and tell them she had just slept with Seth. A shifter-bride cheating on her Alpha with his Beta - that should have been punishable by death. No, she had to come up with something else, something good enough to cover her stupidity for now.
She took a couple of steps towards the window and stopped to look at the pale crescent moon for a long minute. This wasn’t easy. But it was okay. It wasn’t supposed to be easy. “It’s actually a good thing you’re all here now. I’ve been thinking of telling this to my husband, but it’s even better if you all hear it.” Their silence indicated she had gained their attention. She wondered if Seth was boiling with fear and anxiety now, but she didn’t want to turn around and find out. “Yes, the boarding school system is not the best even if it managed to consolidate the peace between humans and the shifter factions, but it’s not that bad either. For many of us, shifter-brides, it was a life saver.”
“A life saver?” asked Blake. There was a hint of incredulity in his voice, and Amelia couldn’t understand why he cared so much. He was an Alpha fox. If anything, the peace treaty and the system it had established worked in his favor.
“Please, let me finish and you’ll understand. This isn’t easy.” She made another pause, waiting to see if anyone had anything else to add. When she was sure no one would interrupt her again, she continued. “You already know I’m an orphan because it was in my file, and Seth studied it carefully before interviewing me. But the profiles shifter-brides get in their House catalogs never mention the details of their past. I’ll make it short. My parents were murdered when I was 3 years old. The investigation didn’t lead anywhere, so to this day I don’t know why they were killed while my life was spared. I remember that night too well: two people broke into our home and shot my parents in their sleep. One of them… a man, I think… checked my bedroom, saw me shaking under the covers, but simply left me there and closed the door. Having no other relatives, I was placed into an orphanage. The living conditions were horrible, the food was disgusting, and all children had only two changes of clothes. The teachers didn’t even pretend they were doing their job, and when Monique Delacroix, the headmistress of Alma Venus Boarding School, bought me from the orphanage and took me to Myrtle Valley, I didn’t even know how to read and write. I was 8, a wild little thing, dirty and underfed, with no hope and no future, but Miss Delacroix saw something in me and took me in. I was the only girl she bought that day, and while I felt sorry for the friends I was leaving behind, I was determined to make the best of the chance I was given and become a worthy shifter-bride. There was nothing waiting for me out in the world, and I knew I had to leave my past behind and focus on my future.” She finally turned towards the three men who could have been her new family if she hadn’t screwed up so royally. “I wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for Alma Venus and for the headmistress who decided I was worth the investment.” She looked at Blake. “When Seth bought me for you, he helped me pay the boarding school back for the education and upbringing I received there, and for that I must thank Clan Sylfur. So, I don’t want you to ever see me as a victim of the system or the peace treaty. I’m not. It was my choice to be here, even though it might not look like it. I want to be here. I worked hard for this.”
“I… I’m sorry. I had no idea about your parents.”
It was Blake who spoke, and Amelia cursed her heart for wanting Seth’s compassion, not his. Maybe she should have told Seth on the boat. But, if Blake’s eyes were filled with sadness and regret, Seth’s were sparkling with anger.
“Just say the word and I’ll reopen the case,” the Yako said. “We can’t let those bastards get away with something like this.”
Amelia sighed. “It was years ago…”
“How many? Twenty? They’re probably still out there, enjoying their petty little lives while you had to grow up among strangers and deal with the loss of your parents.” Seth stood up and started pacing the room. “You should have told us earlier, the second you got here. Blake, what do you think?”
Blake looked at his father, but the old Inari didn’t say anything. It was obvious he was letting the young men of the clan decide, and it made sense. It was a matter of time until his son would take his place, and he had to get used to leading and making hard calls.
“I agree. We can’t let this go.”
Amelia stepped away from the window. She had opened this old wound to cover the humongous mistake she had made, not have them start an investigation. This was wrong. So wrong. “It was a long time ago. I’ve made my peace with what happened.”
“But you shouldn’t have!” Seth was seething with anger.
Blake, on the other hand, was calmer and more calculated. “Don’t you want to know?” he asked her gently.
The care and concern she saw in his eyes disarmed her, and it took her a couple of minutes to calm down and put her thoughts in order. “I do… I do want to know.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Blake
His hot, wet lips on her neck made her shudder. His hands were squeezing her butt possessively and her body responded against her will.
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
She couldn’t believe how good his breath felt on her skin. Her palms were still on his chest, meekly trying to push him away. “I didn’t want to.”
“What’s wrong, my love?”