Page 28 of The Beta’s Heart (Five Fangs #5)

Tyler

The air was thick with the scent of decay and neglect as we approached the old house. Its frame, teetering on its last legs, looked like it could collapse at any moment. a ghostly reminder of a past I couldn’t recall clearly, but needed to understand.

After I told Ash what I was looking to do, he directed me to Roger Poe, the oldest surviving member of Dark Woods, who was able to give me a basic idea of what my old house looked like and where it was located. He did warn me that, as far as he could remember, it was close to the alpha house, which meant it had probably been destroyed during the invasion.

Still, I knew I had to check it out, and that’s how Peri and I found ourselves standing before my old home on a muggy afternoon at the end of August.

“Sunshine, I don’t think you should go in there.” I began, my voice tinged with concern. “Wait out here and let me—”

“Dammit, Tyler, I am a werewolf ! If the fucking roof falls in on me, I’ll dig my way out! Now let me by!” Peri snapped, fierce determination lighting up her eyes.

“Yes, ma’am.”

With a formal bow, I made a flourish with my hand for her to proceed me up the rickety stairs. When her sassy self marched right by me with her nose in the air, I couldn’t resist lighting her backside up with my other palm. She gasped and whirled on me with a dropped jaw.

Leaning down, I whispered in her ear, “And that’s twelve dollars in the swear bear, my love.”

“Dammit!” she squalled, and my smirk grew into a wide grin.

“Fourteen.”

The house creaked and groaned as we stepped inside, the rotted floorboards protesting under our weight. The damage might not have been so bad if most of the roof hadn’t collapsed, letting in sixteen years of wind and rain and snow.

The living room was a mess of overturned furniture and scattered debris. Dust motes danced in the faint light filtering through the broken windows, and we moved cautiously, searching for any clues about my parents.

When we made our way to the small office at the back of the house, Peri scanned the room, then headed straight for the metal filing cabinet in the corner. It took some grunting, but she managed to open all of the drawers except for the top one.

“Ty, help me with this,” she said.

Going over, I grabbed the handle and heaved, the old metal groaning in protest. Papers spilled out as the drawer flew open, and I left her to rifle through them as I went back to searching.

“Ty?” she called a few minutes later, her voice tight with excitement.

“Yeah?”

“Tyler?” she said again, more urgently.

“Yeah?”

“I found your birth certificate.”

“All right. Thanks.”

“Come read it.”

“I think I know my birthday, Sunshine,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Get your ass over here and read it!” she demanded, thrusting the paper into my hands when I joined her.

“Man, Per, you’re going to fill up that swear bear today—” My words died off as my eyes skimmed the document. It looked right. Tyler Quinn James. Born July 8. Mother Bekah Allison James. Father—

I blinked and my fingers crumpled the edges of the paper. Father Hunter Duke James.

“Hunter Duke James?” I whispered, my voice trembling with shock as my eyes flew up to meet Peri’s.

“Seymour wasn’t your father,” she whispered back, her eyes wide. “Dr. Myers was right!”

My entire life had been a lie. The man I thought was my father wasn’t. My mind raced, trying to piece together what this meant.

Then the floor under us started to teeter and creak, our moving around inside obviously more than it could handle, and I grabbed her arm.

“We need to get out of here!”

“No, not yet!”

“Leave it, Peri! The truth about my past isn’t worth even the smallest risk to my future!”

Ignoring me, she yanked the entire drawer out of the filing cabinet as the house groaned again, more ominously this time. Before she could argue, I scooped her up—drawer and all—and sprinted out of there.

We barely made it outside before the entire structure collapsed behind us with a deafening crash, sending a cloud of grit and dust into the air. Coughing, I set my mate down gently and brushed off the debris as best I could, considering I was covered with it, too.

“You could have gotten yourself killed, Sunshine,” I scolded her quietly, relief and adrenaline mingled in my voice.

“Yeah, well, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” she retorted, holding up the drawer triumphantly.

Before I could take the heavy thing from her, River woke up with a start.

What Ty-Ty and mate do? he asked with a mix of curiosity and sulkiness. Have fun wifout me?

“ So much fun, Riv,” Peri rasped, then bent over and coughed.

Not look like fun. Dovie, was fun?

No, my sweet. Remember I explained sarcasm? Peri was being sarcastic.

Oh. Dat. River rolled his eyes and blew a raspberry at her.

“Considering we both almost died, I think a little sarcasm is warranted here,” Peri defended herself the second she stopped choking.

“What happened to Little Miss ‘If the fucking roof falls in on me, I’ll dig my way out!’ Hmm ?” I smirked.

“Aha! Finally!” Making me wonder if she’d hit her head, Peri set down the drawer and started gyrating around in a happy dance. “That’s ten dollars in the swear bear, Mr. James! Bwahahaha!”

“Per, I don’t think it counts if I’m quoting someone,” I started to say, but she cut me off ruthlessly.

“Rules are rules, Tyler,” she scowled and poked my chest with her pointer finger. “You swore, you pay. No exceptions.”

Meanie mate! River let out a playful growl, and I chuckled.

“Fine, fine. I’ll pay up when we get home.”

“This alone was worth the trip over here—and the scare.” She waved the birth certificate at me. “Now, let’s go before any more houses decide to collapse on us.”

“Agreed,” I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders.

#

Winding our way around tables and giving quick hellos to those we knew, Peri, Ash, and I finally reached the kitchen, where Roger Poe reigned supreme.

“Alpha Ash!” he called out the second we stepped into his domain, although his eyes stayed locked on his sizzling burgers and chicken. “Beta Ty and pretty Peri! What brings you three to my humble diner? The cheeseburgers or the cheesesteaks?”

“Well, we probably won’t be leaving without one or the other,” Ash joked with a grin, “but we need some information first.”

“What kind of information?”

“About my parents,” I said, my voice raspy, and I quickly cleared my throat.

Roger stopped flipping burgers and finally looked at us, his dark brown eyes boring into me as sorrow flickered in their depths.

“Hey, Bridge! Take over for a sec!” he called over his shoulder, and Bridger Donahue trotted over from the sink, drying his hands on a dishtowel and giving the three of us a nod before he took the metal spatula Roger held out.

“Let’s talk outside,” Roger muttered and led us out of the back door. “I guess I gave you good enough directions for you to find your old place, huh?”

“Found it and salvaged some papers out of it before it finished collapsing,” I said. “Unfortunately, all it did was give me even more questions.”

“You’ve shared a lot of information with me about my family over the years, Rog,” Ash added, “but do you know anything about Ty’s?”

“Well, like I said before, alpha, I’m from your grandparents’ generation, not your parents, so I knew them better than your dads. I ran around the most with your grandpas, Beta Ty. On your dad’s side was Malcolm, who we all called Mackie, and on your mom’s side was Abraham, who we all called Abe. Once they started finding their mates and settling into careers, we stayed friends, but didn’t see each other as much, especially once I opened my diner here. She always did take a lot of my time and energy!”

As he told me my grandfathers’ names, a little ping of envy went through my heart. I was jealous that he’d had the chance to get to know them and I hadn’t.

“What were my grandmas’ names?” I asked him.

“Mackie’s mate was named Laurie, and Abe’s mate was Heather.” His face broke out into a huge grin as he shook his head. “Man, that Heather! She was one hell of an omega, I’ll tell you that! She could walk right up to a pair of wolves mid-fight, blast out a wave of peace, and have them eating out of her palm like pups!”

“Why can’t Bram do that?” Peri looked over at Ash. “He’s an omega with a fair bit of moon magic.”

“Can’t share what he don’t have,” Roger muttered and scratched the top of his head, his eyes falling to his shoes. “I don’t know the boy well, but if Bram has no peace or calm inside him, he has none to spare for others. Might want to look into that, alpha.”

That made me cut my eyes over to Ash, who gave me a curt nod.

“I’ll swing by there next and see if I can find out what’s going on,” he promised, then added, “Rog, someday you have free time, I’d like you to help me make family trees for us younger Dark Woods survivors.”

“Happy to, alpha, least as much as I know and can remember.” Roger tapped his forehead with his pointer finger. “The old thinker don’t always work as well as it used to.”

“Well, on Ty’s family tree, who was Hunter Duke James?” Peri blurted out in her impatience, and I put my arm around her and pulled her against my side.

His gray eyebrows shooting up, Roger blinked a few times, but I wasn’t sure if he was taken aback by her tone or her question.

“Wait. What?” he asked in a quiet voice. “Bekah—Bekah never told you?”

“Told me what ?” I tilted my head to the side, a ball of anxiety and eagerness forming in the pit of my stomach now that I was so close to finally learning the truth.

“I always assumed you knew.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and blew out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, beta. Now I feel like I let you down. I’m not sure it’s my place to tell you, though. It would be better coming from family.”

“Family?” I scoffed and hugged Peri a little tighter. “I don’t have any family left to ask.”

“Actually, you do.”