Blood Bride

Chapter 13 (1st Draft) 1798

A half lycanthrope brother? Meadow was reeling.

She couldn't wrap her mind around it. The Niko Rask she knew wouldn't even go near a lycanthrope to ask for directions let alone sleep with one. But, the more she recalled Eddie's face and his mannerisms that first night she met him, the more she realized just how much he and Forrest, in particular, were alike. The family resemblance was unmistakable now that she was sitting across from Forrest and staring him straight in the eye.

They had the same bright hazel eyes with dark lashes and thick black brows. Their eyes were also deep set like their father's, though Niko's eyes were just an ordinary brown. All three shared the same square forehead with a slightly receding hairline and relatively thick wavy dark brown hair. However, their father's hair, which was quite a bit thinner now, had gone mostly grey sometime in his fifties.

Still, there was no doubt, on close inspection, just how many physical features these three shared. Both Eddie and Forrest had also inherited the Rask family hawk-nose, which their father had. It was a prominent feature that could be seen in the pictures and portraits of most Rask men back three or four generations. Yes, there was no doubt that Eddie was her father's son.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Forrest asked anxiously after she went several minutes without speaking.

Meadow was too stunned to open her mouth though. She was busy working through this astonishing news. Why couldn't he understand that she needed to to think?

Had her Dad been some local lycanthrope's mate? Human-lycanthrope mates were very rare, as far as Meadow knew from all her work at the Bureau, but they did occur. And knowing how the Lycanthrope community valued mates, it was unlikely that a lycanthrope female, whether a teen or not, would give herself to a human man if she wasn't sure he was hers for life. Whatever Eddie's origins, the story had to be quite complicated as all human-lycanthrope relationships were, even now.

And just how old was Eddie? Did her father have him before he married their mother or was Eddie the outcome of an extramarital affair? Was Eddie's mom still in her Dad's life? Meadow couldn't picture it. She couldn't imagine any female lycanthrope being satisfied with 'mistress' status. And, as for her mother, Noora would be too devastated to stay in a love triangle of any kind.  Meadow hoped to God Eddie's mom and her father were not having an affair for everyone's sake.

"Does Mom know? Does she know Eddie is Dad's son?" she grilled Forrest in a bit of a panic.

He looked at her like she was stupid and said, "Of course she knows."

Realizing the tight knit family bonds that were the backbone of the lycanthrope community, Meadow already guessed that every lycanthrope in Arrowfield had to know. That meant the Greek restaurant owners, who mentioned to her that her brothers and their wives frequented the their place, and the Ranger, who proved to be so knowledgeable about the town and its people, had to know as well.

But, did they know that this secret had been kept from her, his own half sister? Had he confided in the lycanthrope community that he wasn't to tell her who he was? That they couldn't let it slip either when she came home on holidays? Had his people conspired for over three years to keep her from finding out?