Chapter 39 AURORA
In the confusion of the attack on Connell, Dane and I both forgot about the amulet. Once it was clear Connell was alive but not going to regain consciousness, I returned home with Trajan and Evander.
When I told my grandmother I wasn’t the chosen one, she got very terse. Then she hung up on me.
My hands trembled as I set my phone down, but I chose to push her reaction from my mind.
She hadn’t called me home. That meant I’d keep moving forward.
The children arrived home that evening, and the next day I spent re-examining the journal and the page Esther had given me as Trajan stood just inside my door, dutiful and quiet as he always was.
I didn’t turn up anything new.
“Argh! I’m a pirate Alpha!” The twins came running into my room. Tristan had a wooden sword and was chasing Seraphina, who screamed with laughter.
“Mommy, save me!” she giggled.
I smiled and set the book aside, scooping her up. I was more than glad for a distraction. “You’ll never take us alive, pirate Alpha!”
“Come on, Trajan! Help me be a pirate!” Tristan called.
“I’ll keep watch on the ship from here, Alpha Caplain,” Trajan replied stoically. But I could see the small smile on his face.
We ran around the room, laughing and playing until Evander showed up a few minutes later.
“Goddess, they’re fast,” he panted. “I just wanted to take a shower. I thought they were watching a movie.”
I smiled. Evander was excellent with the children, but he was a pack warrior, not a full-time nanny like Mrs. Melville had been. Finding her replacement wouldn’t be easy. “You’re doing great, Evander. Thank you.”
He took the kids to eat lunch and I sat down to work again, but I couldn’t seem to focus. I decided to go to the High Alpine offices in Atlanta and do some work there instead.
Trajan drove me. As I was going into the office, I bumped into an older woman hard enough to knock her back. I reached out and steadied her. “Oh! I’m so sorry. I’ve been so distracted lately, but that’s not an excuse.”
The woman looked up at me. She was wearing a large hat, and as soon as I saw her face beneath the brim, I gasped. “Nanny Mary?”
This woman had been my nanny at the Broken Forest pack house when I was small. Of all my hazy memories from that time, she was one of the few good ones.
The older woman’s face broke into a smile. “It can’t be little Ann Reed. But you have the same silvery hair and those pretty lilac eyes.”
I hid the involuntary flinch that came every time I heard that name. “It’s Aurora now. Aurora DeVere.”
She pressed her fingers to her lips. “Oh, my darling. You did escape, after all. That’s wonderful. I can’t tell you how much I longed to take you out of that place.”
Tears brightened her eyes, and I took her hand. “Please, come up to my office. Let’s have coffee together.”
“I would love that,” she said. “I want to hear all about everything that’s happened to you.”
I took her upstairs and we had coffee and caught up with each other. I told her as much about my life as I could, then asked, “What about you?”
She sighed sadly. “The child I was tending just turned fourteen, so the family let me go. I’m in between jobs right now.”
I set down my teacup. “Actually, Nanny Mary–or Mrs. Jamison, whichever you prefer–”
“Mary, please,” she said. She smiled. She was an older woman—at least old enough to be my mother–but she was still beautiful and young-looking.
“Mary,” I said. “I actually happen to be looking for a nanny for…” I caught myself before saying “my own children” even though if she worked for me long enough, she’d figure it out. “For some children living in my home right now. Four year old twins, a boy and a girl.”
She clapped her hands together. “Really? I’d love to come and meet them. We can see if we’re a good fit.”
“That would be wonderful,” I said. “If you’ll give my assistant your address, I’ll have Trajan come pick you up tomorrow.”
At least one thing in this terrible week was going right.
Two days later, it was as if Mary had been part of our family the whole time. The children loved her, and suddenly the house was ten times more orderly.
I sat in my home office, studying the old journal again. The weather had been cool and rainy lately. I rubbed the scar on my left forearm, which prickled sometimes when the weather changed.
Even with the new peace of having the twins taken care of, ever since the ceremony, things felt unsettled. With Evander free, I sent him to be my representative with Blue Ridge. He was more relaxed than Trajan and better at putting people at ease.
According to him, things were still tense there as well, and Connell Montague was still in his coma.
I couldn’t shake the fear those shadows raised in me, either. Dane and I would have to talk about it sometime. What were they, and what should we do about them?
Most importantly, did it have something to do with the ceremony, or the relic we were searching for?
There was a quiet tap at my office door. “Come in.”
The door opened, and to my surprise, I saw Piper standing there. I frowned at Dane’s pretty younger sister. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, like it always was, and she had a worried look in her brown eyes.
“I need to speak with you about something,” Piper said.
I gestured for her to come in and sit. Like her brother, she wasn’t much for small talk. She cut right to the point. “I did something…gave something to Dane. Something that could have put your future in jeopardy. I was so sure at the time…but now I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Fear twisted around my stomach, and I set down the pen I’d been taking notes with. “What did you give him?”
Piper shifted uncomfortably. For all she was an excellent warrior, she was also very young. “He asked me to…” She shifted again, huffed out a breath, then said, “Aurora, if the twins are his, you need to tell him. Now. Because if he finds out on his own, he will never forgive you.”
I swallowed. “What do you mean? How would he…”
“I collected samples of their DNA. He’s having them tested. My grandfather’s condition might have delayed him, but he’ll know soon if he doesn’t already. You need to call him. Now.”