Love's Liability Read online

  “No,” Linden whispered in horror, shaking his head. “No, my family is very clear that we don’t mate until we’re four or five thousand years old because if we aren’t strong enough to survive that long, then we shouldn’t be allowed to pass on the Henning name.”

  “Would a bastard get the last name?” I snapped, chilling my rage when he reacted like I hit him. “Zara would never have lied about something like this, and she was terrified because it was clear from what she’d heard that they took the children from the mothers. That’s why they picked nobodies or servants. How would they ever stand up to the Henning name?”

  Linden stood and scrubbed his hands over his head. “My family are assholes, I know that. It was why I’ve always wanted away from them. I’ve tried everything besides just running and being on my own because no matter where I went I would be a pawn, as my family has reach so no others would want to get involved unless to use me. I’ve been waiting for the right chance, but even for them this is—”

  “I hired a private investigator even after Zara flew out to me,” I pushed. “This wasn’t just one overheard conversation, Linden. That woman your brother knocked up, I found her. Zara heard enough for us to find her, and they took her baby because he was a warrior. They don’t take babies that aren’t warriors. Your family is using their bastards to build up the warrior ranks and has been for a long time.”

  He looked ready to faint, so I gave him a few moments to sit with this, glancing over at Danek’s friend to confirm Linden didn’t know and wasn’t part of it. My heart healed a bit when he promised the shock we were seeing was real.

  “What else did she hear?” he whispered as he stopped pacing and leaned on the kitchen counter. “She went to tell him she was pregnant and heard all of this?”

  “Yes, she thought they would mate, and instead she learned that if their child was a warrior, he’d steal the baby and send it to be raised by strangers focused on making perfect expendable soldiers.”

  “I’m so sorry, Zara,” he rasped, tears falling down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Zeke. I never would have thought my family would go so far, be so cruel.”

  “So the twins are warriors?” someone checked.

  “Yes, twin warriors, which is unheard of,” I confirmed. “Twins are rare in vampires, but from what I’ve learned there hasn’t ever been twin warriors.”

  “Not to my knowledge,” Danek confirmed. “They will probably be vastly powerful. I’ve met other twin vampires, and they normally have an additional gift or two that’s joint ones.”

  “Yes, right before their transition,” I whispered, wiping my own eyes. “Even fraternal twins as right before our transition we started to be able to feel and share energy at times. We weren’t living together, but I went home for my transition. I hated the way my parents treated her, and asked her to come with me, but she was in love.

  “She said it was the only way she made it through her pregnancy, but well, I would suspect even human women have a hard time with twins. She was on bedrest earlier in the pregnancy, and there were a few problems, but nothing in the world would have stopped her from making sure the twins were born. She gave her life for them, and I will die before I ever let your brother or family take them.”

  “I won’t ever let that happen,” Linden promised. “I swear it, Zeke. I’ll do whatever I can. It would be different if she ran because he wouldn’t mate her or… I can’t even see that of Zara or anything else other women have tried to pull on my family because we have money. That would be different, but I won’t ever let my family have them either.”

  “I’m glad.” I let out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”

  He shook his head, wiping his eyes again as he stared out the back window. “I don’t blame you. I would have assumed it too. I honestly have no idea why they kept it from me or this is the first I’m hearing of this.”

  “I’ve met others in your family,” Seneca said quietly. “They aren’t stupid, and anyone who knows you even a little would know this is something you wouldn’t ever be a part of or throw a fit over.” He sighed when I flinched. “You were at the eye of the storm, Zeke. I didn’t mean that to be pointed. I would worry and not risk the chance either.”

  “Yeah, so would I, and I completely understand. I’m not upset at you at all, and I’m glad we cleared this up because I needed to know,” Linden told me.

  I didn’t know what came next though.

  4 ~ Linden

  I needed some time to process the bomb Zeke had dropped on me in the kitchen. Once everyone agreed I was in the clear and not involved, after I apologized to Zeke, I left with more apologies knowing they were going to discuss what my family was doing. I knew I had to face it, but I just needed a moment to breathe.

  And somehow was standing outside his suite where the twins were. I was an uncle. Apparently I was an uncle a lot and I’d had no clue. None of my siblings had mated yet, and not only did they have kids no one ever told me about, they were… The whole thing was fucking crazy.

  It. Was. Insane.

  I didn’t realize what I was doing until I was already in the twins’ room, Marissa napping on the daybed there. I moved closer to the kiddie beds and stared down at the twins with tears in my eyes.

  “If your emotions change to something dark, I don’t care if you’re Wyrok. I will wrap you up in that and melt your mind,” Marissa warned me quietly, obviously not asleep anymore.

  I bobbed my head. “I didn’t mean to—I had to—I needed—” I let out a shaky breath. “I’m so sorry, Zara. God, I’m so sorry.”

  “Their mother?” she whispered. “Zeke’s sister?”

  I nodded. “The twins look just like Zeke and Zara did. I mean, obviously a bit different than Zara but not really. They are carbon copies of him at this age.” I glanced at her as I wiped my eyes. “Who is who?”

  “I won’t tell you that without Zeke’s permission,” she said gently.

  “Right, no, of course, sorry,” I whispered, backing away so she wasn’t worried given I was Wyrok and not acting all that rational at the moment. I found myself sitting on an overstuffed chair, but really, I might have plopped down if nothing had been there I was so shaken. “I had no idea. I was so lost in my own—” I shook my head. It was no excuse. I had missed so much, and it was unforgiveable.

  “No one is perfect, and no matter how closely we look we can’t always see everything,” she murmured.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face. “He was the cutest kid I’ve ever met.”

  “I would argue only because my son was the cutest kid ever.”

  I smiled, knowing she was trying to ease the tension and upset. It was natural for an empath to do because they literally felt and experienced what people did around them and it was hard not to try and help.

  “He was maybe their age the first time he said he wanted to marry me,” I told her, careful to keep quiet so I didn’t wake the twins. “I was home for the holidays because even if I was a warrior, even if I became Wyrok, nothing was more important than being a Henning, the family image. I hated it. I hated every second of being the perfect son, listening to my parents brag and people talk of me like…”

  “You were a resume and not a person?” she offered.

  I nodded. “More than that, like I was a stud horse dangled in front of them and their bloodlines since our family doesn’t mate until at least four thousand years old so we’re always the strongest of the strong and that gets passed down. So I wasn’t allowed to even consider something real but pushed to always flirt and woo and tease with what people couldn’t have and the alliance that wouldn’t come.

  “It disgusted me. I came home at the last possible second and tried any mission or assignment that would prevent it, but my parents had sway and I didn’t want other people to get chewed because I was trying to avoid home. So I’m home, ready to drink all the alcohol in the house just to make it through one more of these parties, and I see these ridiculously adorable twins hiding
behind the drapes in the music room.

  “It made me smile. You couldn’t not smile around them. I ended up playing with them, chasing after them to their delight, but really I needed their smiles. I didn’t know they were the children of the family who tended to the estate gardens and provided the flowers for all the parties, but eventually their parents found them. Zeke came over to me and asked if we could play again.

  “I told him I would love that, and the little bugger said he wanted to be my bride so I would always smile. He was just a tiny tyke, and here he figured out I was upset when no one else seemed to notice or care. His mother freaked, apologizing for his rudeness, acting like my family was royalty and they were just servants or slaves. It was horrible, and to reprimand a tyke for something like that was ridiculous.

  “But he just listened to her as she told him it wasn’t okay. Then he comes over to me and hugs my legs, apologizing for upsetting me. I tell him it’s fine, that I’m not upset, and I shit you not, he looked right at his mother and said ‘then I did nothing wrong and I can be his bride.’ That was always Zeke. It didn’t matter what people said or told him, he knew in his heart what was right and wrong.

  “And it was… I’d never seen anything like that. Here he’s a toddler, and he’s got bigger balls than me who’s never stood up to anything my family has said. Right then I just wanted to gobble him up. That changed. He got bigger and a bit saucier but always the sweetest kid ever. I didn’t see them all the time, only at holidays or like a summer event, but he made coming home bearable.”

  “But that changed?” she asked when I stopped talking, lost in my head.

  I nodded. “I missed a few parties because of this and that, top priority missions that even my parents didn’t interfere with. It was good bragging material, but it made me miss some, and I didn’t get to see him for a few other trips home, so it was almost two years one time instead of months here and there.” I shook my head. “I barely recognized him.

  “Gone was the cutie kid with chubby cheeks and mischief in his eyes, and instead there is this stunning young man with gorgeous milk chocolate curls hanging in his face and emerald eyes that sparkled more than any gem. He belonged at a photo shoot or starring as a teen heartthrob, but instead his parents were still acting like he was a serf of olden days, annoyed he wanted more.

  “And I couldn’t get over it. The best was he was oblivious to it. He spent most of his time shooing away anyone interested in his equally stunning twin and completely missed that he was just as gorgeous.” I smiled at the memory. “And then he pretended like he had no idea who I was, upset I’d ‘abandoned’ my future bride. What eighteen-year-old talks like that? It was—he was perfect.”

  “So what happened?”

  I frowned. “He left. His parents wouldn’t talk about it, and my family of course wouldn’t bother themselves with knowledge of the servants’ children. I was home for the summer party after he turned eighteen, and Zara was helping set up, but he wasn’t there. I finally got her alone and asked if he was okay, where he was. She told me he was accepted into some confectionary apprentice program in France.

  “She was so excited for him, scared, worried, sure, but excited. His parents acted like he was dead, and it annoyed me.” I sighed, scrubbing my hand over my head. “I was going to check in on him, shocked he was in France when I knew he’d never traveled. That had to be terrifying for someone so young and going against their family’s wishes. Then I got assigned an important mission—it didn’t go well.”

  “You can’t talk about it,” she guessed. “How long?”

  “Three years,” I sighed. “It was horrible and complicated, and while the good guys won in the end, it affected me more than almost any other mission. The people involved weren’t zakasacs, and I didn’t understand how that level of evil didn’t come with red eyes. I took some time to travel, several months after having a talk with the head of the Wyrok.

  “She’s awesome. I think having a female as head of the Wyrok is one of the wisest decisions. She’s as hard core and badass as any male I’ve ever met, but she never lets pride or bullshit get in the way of what’s right. Most men would have told me to suck it up, real men don’t cry or whatever, but she recognized the signs of burn out and did what was best for me instead of risking I’d be distracted on a mission and get killed.”

  “Smart woman.”

  I nodded. “I asked about him when I went home next, but Zara was cagey, and then I didn’t get to see her again. I caught a glimpse of him when he came home for his transition since he lived among humans and the coven doctor had to help, as it was his birth coven, but then he was gone again, and I got an emergency Wyrok call. I didn’t get to speak to him again and find out more.

  “I left a message with the coven doctor to give him my cell and inform me of his transition immediately, and I don’t know he ever got the message, but I assumed he didn’t want to talk. It wasn’t like him and worried me. Then Zara’s gone and no one knows where and her family speaks of both of them like they never existed.

  “I looked for them.” I sighed. “Not hard enough, I admit it, but I did. I was able to trace a few years after he left, but something blew up at home and I got lost in my own everything trying to navigate the waters. That was when I knew I couldn’t survive being in that family anymore, that I had to get out, but I didn’t know how. I’m over two thousand years old, and yet I’m more a kid than he is in a lot of ways.

  “All my everything was tied up in family accounts, and anytime I tried to get my pay separated, my parents would speak to whomever and ‘fix’ the oversight. My trust, everything I earned was under their control. It was ridiculous how much they controlled us, but making a huge stink over it would unleash hell, as I knew exactly how vindictive my parents are.

  “As much as I wanted away from them and my independence, I couldn’t risk my standing with the Wyrok. Being a warrior and Wyrok was all I knew, all I ever wanted. So when Seneca was looking for someone to help locate vampires who were high risk on their own or didn’t know they were vampires, Mahala gave him my name, having figured out what I needed and not able to help me.”

  “That’s the head of the Wyrok?” she checked, nodding when I did. “That is one kickass woman. I like her already.”

  “She is a force to be reckoned with. I was always jealous of her and Zeke. It always seemed so clear to them what was right and where the line was for things. I grew up in such murky everything I just—there was no path besides where I was pushed. I was the baby and five hundred years younger than my next eldest sibling.” I blew out a harsh breath. “I’m whining when he lost his sister and my family—”

  “You’re not whining,” Zeke said gently from the doorway. “And I remember just how horrible your family was to you, and I wasn’t old enough to understand it all. They treated you like the exhibit at the art museum people have to pay extra to see and is behind the security and glass. You were separate from everyone, the youngest, and baby, and final prize of your parents’ coupling. It was gross, but it left you alone.”

  I stared at him in shock. “All the years I’ve tried to describe what I felt like in my family, understand what was so wrong or different than other families, and just like that you lay it all out. I never know what’s swirling inside of me, but you’ve always known what I felt and needed. It’s always amazed me.” My body went hard when he flushed, and I had to remind myself of Marissa and the twins.

  “I’ll leave you two to start flirting,” Marissa chuckled quietly as she stood.

  “Actually I was going to ask what are your favorite flavors. I thought I’d make some huge lollipops for everyone who helped because they’d get a kick out of it, but I have to do that when the twins nap because they want one and they’re way too big for toddlers to have and not die from all the sugar.”

  “I like a little of everything,” she told him with a smile. “Gary and I get a bit of this and that and share so we don’t miss out. It amuses Lynx and Proxim
o to no end since we’re so used to it and do it seamlessly.”

  “Rainbow it is,” Zeke chuckled before giving me a look. “Want to help? I could use the help now that everyone had to get back to their own work or take shifts.”

  “I’d love to.”

  He smiled at me and then nodded over to the twins. “Ethan and Evan. Ethan’s in the blue shirt. It’s his favorite color.” He turned and left, his ears turning pink after admitting he’d heard almost everything I’d told Marissa since that had been at the start of the conversation.

  She simply smirked at me when I glanced at her, fully aware he’d been there. Brats, I was surrounded by brats.

  Maybe that was what I needed.

  I jogged after Zeke and caught him before the stairs, smiling as he yelped when I pushed him up against the wall and leaned in. “Thank you for not busting my fib.”

  Understanding filled his eyes and he nodded. “I was seventeen when I pretended not to know you and acting bratty, not eighteen.”

  “I sound like a perv if I admit you were that young and I knew you as a baby.”

  He snorted, raising his nose up and turning away. “I was always ahead for my age and wise beyond my years, an old soul if you will, so of course I never seemed so youthful.”

  I cupped his face and lowered my lips to his, loving that guy I’d known was still in the man before me. He was shocked at first, but then just as I went to pull away, he moved his hands behind my head and dove in for more. I moved my free hand to his hip and slid it around to his pert, firm, and very fine ass.

  He pulled away, releasing me and thumping against the wall he did it so fast. “Wait, wait, sorry—shit, I’ve dreamed of that for so many years I couldn’t—sorry, I can’t.”

  “Why?” I asked, sounding completely confused and a bit annoyed even to my own ears. I flinched at the hurt look he gave me like I’d bully him to get what I wanted. “Sorry, your explanation included dreaming of kissing me for so many years, but yet you can’t. You gotta admit that’s slightly confusing, and my blood currently isn’t in my brain. It’s in my cock. That wants to be inside of you.”