Page 75 of Manix
Courtland’s eyes flashed with irritation, but still, he did what he was asked. “Naja, this is Rosa. She’s your half-sister. The first of your mother’s offspring with Iago.” He said it so coolly, like it didn’t matter that she was the product of something horrible, or that I’d killed her dad. For her part, she didn’t seem to care either.
“I kinda killed your father. I’m sorry.”
She snorted. “No you’re not, and neither am I. Scum,” she said, fake spitting on the ground.
I laughed, and she laughed with me. But the sound, the sweet tinkling joy made my heart hurt. It sounded just like my mother’s laugh, back when she hadn’t been a shell of herself.
“So you’re…?” Seven asked. I elbowed him in the ribs, because that was kinda rude, but he shrugged. “Every person in this room is waiting to hear with bated breath. That guy is a Manix. What if she is too? I can’t tell over all the scents in here.”
Courtland gave Seven a narrow-eyed stare, but Rosa just laughed. “Sorry, big guy. Full-blooded tigress from what I can tell, as are the rest of my siblings. No systematic savior of the Manix race here, but I gotta say, these little cuties must give them hope. Hey, little guy,” she cooed at Noble.
We talked about the cubs for a while until Courtland cleared his throat. “We should go. We have to return to your siblings, and then I must return to my business.”
I swallowed hard, remembering the last time I’d seen most of them, the last time I’d seen Rosa. She hadn’t been named Rosa; she hadn’t had any name at all. She’d been a tiny, squawling infant torn from my mother’s dazed arms.
“Did you really save them all?”
Courtland nodded. “Yes, all eleven, including Rosa.”
I shook my head, refusing to believe it was true. “But why?”
Courtland’s face gave nothing away. “I failed you and your mother. It was the only promise my father asked of me—that I protect you both, and I failed. It was my atonement to your mother, and to you until I could save you from Iago himself.”
I looked at the man in front of me. He had to be thirty, but not much more. “You were what, ten? Twelve? You can’t hold a child to that kind of promise, Courtland.”
He shrugged. “They say evil prevails when good men do nothing, Naja. I am not good, but I could not let this stand.” He cleared his throat. “Should you wish to meet the remainder of your siblings, I have left my number with your Alpha. They are all with loving families, and some of them have even grown up together.”
Rosa rolled her eyes. “What he means to say is that the first five of us were raised by his Abuela. Your Abuela.”
I shook my head, looking between them both. “Thank you. Both of you. I just… I thought they were all in a mass grave in the compound, or that he sold them for drugs or something.”
Courtland’s jaw clenched. “He did sell them. He was reprehensible.” He looked at my sister. “We need to go.”
Rosa gave me a quick hug. “Don’t be a stranger.”
With that, they melted back into the crowd. I shook my head, looking up at Sev, who pulled me tightly back against his chest. “That guy sets off all my alarms,” he grumbled and I shrugged.
“Mine too, but I don’t think he’s a threat to us.”
He harrumphed and moved us back through the crowd. Looks like he was done with show and tell for the day. He made a hand gesture to Gatlin, and he nodded. I didn’t even get to say goodbye before he was herding me up the stairs. When I reached the nursery, I realized Raiden was already here, as were Amity Jane and Hale, who were in their cribs. Apparently, they’d been squirelling the babies up here for a while. When Ellar appeared with another two cubs, I knew that we’d all had enough of having people in the Pack house.
Raiden flopped down into a rocking chair, and Ellar placed a baby against his chest. He rocked back and forth, humming. “Why didn’t anyone tell me this whole parenthood thing was exhausting?” He looked at us all accusingly.
I laughed, because I couldn’t argue. I walked over and kissed him on the lips. “Raiden? Parenthood is exhausting,” I said against his lips, giggling as he slapped my ass. I gave him a stern look. “If you’d let me finish, I was going to say, we’re all here to help. These cubs have the most amazing parents ever. And who knows... maybe next year, we’ll have six more?”
“No!” everyone yelled at once, and I collapsed into Raiden’s lap with a laugh, carefully curling myself around the tiny life we’d created that was sleeping against his chest.
So maybe no more cubs for a while yet, because what we had right here and right now? It was perfect.