Hale

Chapter Thirteen

Memories rushed in where before pain held sway. Hale and Doc pulled him to his feet, but McKinley couldn't stop staring at his sister.

“You've grown,” he said stupidly.

She laughed through tears. “So have you.”

Roane held her close, comforting his mate. And something in McKinley eased. No longer just McKinley or Robbie or that freak Circ. He was Robert McKinley Chase. And he had a sister.

He'd always known in the back of his mind the details of his early life, before the change that had turned him into what he was today. But the particulars had never seemed very important. He couldn't turn back into a normal male. He'd assumed his family had died, and his beast took care of the rest. His survival had depended upon being strong. A man with no past, and only the future to look forward to, had few vulnerabilities.

Hale gently pushed him forward, toward his sister.

“You used to steal my baseball cards.”

“And you used to hide my Barbies.”

She met him halfway, and in her, he saw his mother. An overwhelming sadness took him by surprise, and he had to blink to clear his eyes. Caitlyn didn't seem to mind the tears streaming down her cheeks as she sniffed and sobbed.

She held her arms out and wrapped them around his middle before he could think to protest. For a man who didn't like being touched, he didn't seem to mind Hale, Paige, and now Caitlyn.

His mind blanked when she hugged him. She felt like home.

“God, I can't believe you're alive! They said you'd all died. That Dad lost control of the car, and you all burned up in the fire.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hale and Doc pull Roane with them. Hale nodded at him and smiled, then walked out the door with the others. He remained alone with Caitlyn.

“Who is 'they?' I remember us driving, being excited to see you again. I'd missed you.” He cleared his throat, still holding her. “I was in college, and I hadn't seen you in a while. You were at Elliot's lab, a place I hated. Mom and Dad were going to pull you from Elliot's little program, you know. Except we never made it. Someone rammed us from behind and sent us through the guardrail. Over the mountain.” He didn't remember the tumble, or even getting thrown from the car. “When I woke up, I was like this. Not a scratch on me. But I wasn't Robert anymore. I couldn't remember much more than the accident and vague images of Mom and Dad.”

“How did you find Elliot Pearl after all that time? What did you do after the accident? You never came after me.”

“I didn't remember you. I don't know why. It took me years before I could leave the woods where I woke up. Look at me, Caitlyn. I can't ever pass for normal with these eyes.” He opened his mouth and fingered his teeth. “Even in my 'normal' state, my teeth are pretty sharp, as are my nails. And you can't ignore my size.” She stared at him. “No, you can't.” She was quiet a moment. “So what happened?

How did you live, where did you go?”

He rubbed a tired hand over his face and stepped back. His head no longer throbbed, but he still teetered on an emotional precipice. God, he had a sister. He loved her, that hadn't changed. But she was here. She was Circ.

She was Circ.

“What they did to Mom and Dad affected you too.” He studied her from the top of her head to her feet. “You're Circ. I heard Pearl talk about you more than once, though I didn't know it was you he was talking about.”

“I don't understand.”

“I was nineteen when our parents died and everything changed. I spent two years living in the woods. I ate what I hunted and fished. Dad taught me how to survive, remember?”

She smiled through her sorrow, grief there for their lost parents.

“I admit, I occasionally stole what I needed from the smaller towns edging the mountains. It took time, but I began to remember bits and pieces. I think my inner beast was developing at its own rate. When it was ready, it showed me how to right the wrong done to us. I remembered Elliot Pearl, and I started investigating.

“When I ran across information about you, I avoided it. My beast wouldn't let me sense you. I don't know why, but I never knew who you really were, at least, not until I got here. Whenever I'd think about you or hear about you, my head hurt.”

“Repressed memories,” she whispered.

“I guess. Before I found Pearl, I made a living doing odd jobs. Mostly security work. I caught the attention of some government folks. Right time, right place, you could say. And there I met Mike Shields. He was a colonel then. A good man. He smelled right,” he joked, pleased when she grinned back at him.

“So then what?”

“Then Mike convinced me to join his team. All unofficial. Mike has friends in high places even Kohl can't touch. When Project Dawn started, I was training with his men in foreign countries. I did some work for Uncle Sam. But Mike knew what I was after.

He helped me when I needed it, and I helped him right back.

“He managed to hook me up with Elliot Pearl a little over three years ago. I became Pearl's bodyguard and Mike's eyes and ears. We've been trying to take Pearson Labs down for years, but General Kohl and Senator Kuntz were unexpected additions to an already top-heavy organization. Seemed like anytime we thought we had an airtight case, a witness died or evidence disappeared.”

“How can you make evidence like that disappear? There are Circs running around committing murder.”

“Tell that to a federal judge with hands deep in Pearl's pockets. Or an investigative team who relies on Kuntz's authorized funding to increase their spending.

Investigations into illegal activities at the lab were always forewarned. No one ever saw any evidence of wrongdoing, or the hint that a Circ might exist.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “But Mike thinks it's time. We're closing in on that hellhole.” She nodded.

They fell into an awkward silence.

“So,” they both said at the same time.

“Go on.” He waited for her to speak first.

“I was just going to ask you what you think will come next. I mean, I feel like I've just found you. I don't want you to go away anytime soon.”

“Oh.” He was having a hard enough time dealing with the present. What the future held, he couldn't say. “I, ah, I think I have two mates. I don't think they'd like me to leave just yet either.”

She smiled. “That's right. Hale's the best. He won't let you go.” After a moment, she blushed.

“You okay?”

“Oh, sure.” She shifted, and he caught the full force of her scent.

It was ripe with a subtle sweetness. His sister was pregnant. No longer a young girl, the woman she'd become verged on motherhood. “Shit. I have to sit down.” He sat in the middle of the mat on his ass, completely floored.

“Are you okay? You want me to get Doc? Roane?”

“Hell, no.” He groaned at her crestfallen expression. “I guess I'll have to try harder to get along with Roane now that we're related, huh?”

“Yes. He's really not so bad, once you get to know him.”

“Does he treat you well?”

“He loves me.” She snapped her fingers. “And that's all I need to do to keep him in line.”

McKinley grinned. “Nice. Wish I could say the same.”

“I don't know. The way Paige looks at you, she's definitely in love.” He thought about that. Paige had never made any pretense about the way she felt.

And she'd been trying like hell all week long to make him see how well they fit together, sexually and otherwise. He felt himself blushing and glanced away. When he caught Caitlyn's eye, he saw her trying to stifle a smile.

“What?” he growled.

“You still embarrass easily,” she teased. “God, Robbie. I used to call you that, you know.”

“I remember.” Probably why it had felt so right when he'd first told Paige to call him that.

“I'm so happy right now. I know we're not out of danger, that until Pearson Labs closes for good, we'll always have to worry. But finding you is just so incredible. It was so hard after the crash…” She started crying again.

They talked for another hour, then two, sharing parts of their lives they'd never told anyone else. Their relationship healed as if it had never been severed. As youngsters they'd been close; as adults, this new intimacy felt like a natural progression.

Caitlyn clearly loved her mate and all of Circe's Recruits. She approved of Robbie, especially of his relationship with Paige and Hale. The way she blushed when she mentioned Hale a few times made him take note to talk to his mate about his past relationship with Caitlyn. It couldn't have been improper, though, not with Roane such a possessive jackass.

He grudgingly admitted his respect for the male, and he promised to make an effort to get along. She also prodded him not to leave without saying good-bye. As if he'd just ditch Caitlyn and the others without a by-your-leave.

He opened his mouth to disabuse her of that notion when Hale rushed in.

“We've got a problem. No one can find Doc, and there's an odd scent in the house.

I can't be sure, but I think there's been a struggle in his study. Doc's papers are out of whack, at least according to Kelly. You ask me, the place always looks like that.” Shit. McKinley had a bad feeling. He'd known this respite was too good to be true.

“I need to make a call. If Doc's not out for a drive and not in his lab belowground, my guess? The PPA has him. Kohl finally found himself a new head scientist.”

Paige had no idea what to do. She'd finally felt as if she and Evan had connected.

He was so sweet. He went out of his way to make her feel at home. He'd even persuaded her to look at house plans, trying to convince her to stay here with him and the others. “You’ll need a bigger room than Hale’s to fit all three of you,” he'd said without judgment. To Evan, Circ sexuality was merely a part of the whole package.

During the past week, though Paige continued to prod him to do more tests on her, he refused. He wanted her to think about it and not confuse their growing friendship with anything more. Evan was so careful not to exploit her or her feelings that she couldn't help wishing she'd met him years ago. What would it have been like to grow up with him as a father?

Not that Evan didn't have his faults. He regularly missed meals, kept a disorganized study that had Kelly, his assistant, on edge, and could lose himself in his work if no one reminded him to come up for air.

But he was loyal to a fault with Circe's Recruits, the men and women he considered family. Caitlyn had confided how incredibly happy they all were to finally find her. Doc had been misled by someone he dearly loved not long ago. And though he and Elliot hadn't been close, family meant something to Evan. Losing his brother right after that other loss had debilitated him. He'd lost weight, looked unhappy, and spent too much time away from the others. Finding Paige had become a lifeline for him.

Knowing Evan helped fill a huge void in Paige's own life. The need for unconditional familial love was something she'd longed for. Elliot would never help her there. Her mother had died, and she'd had no one else. Or at least, she hadn't considered Evan an answer before Hale had brought her here.

And now he was missing.

She'd been the first to call attention to his absence. He'd gone to his study for just a minute, leaving her waiting for him to finish another story about her mother. The minute turned into several. Instinct told her something wasn't right. When she checked the study, she found him gone. Her senses flared; the scent of unwelcome visitors a foreshadowing of major trouble on the horizon.

She immediately sought her mates and found Hale first. He sat with his teammates playing cards while Sabrina and Kelly argued over the remote control for the TV.

“Hale.” She felt instant relief. Just being near her mate soothed her beast.

“What's up?” He drew another card and frowned at his hand. Glancing at her with a distracted smile, he looked back at his cards, then froze. He snapped his attention back to her. “What's wrong?”

Everyone else stopped what they were doing.

“It's Evan. He's gone.”

Hale scowled. “Gone? Gone where?”

“I don't know. We were sitting together talking when he left for a minute. That was a good twenty minutes ago. But he's not in the study or the bathroom, and it's not like him to just leave me without at least saying good-bye.”

“I sense trouble.” Hale stood.

“I'll look downstairs,” Ace offered.

“Good, go. Zack, check your house and mine,” Roane ordered. “Derrick, check upstairs. Sabrina, can you grab the guest wing? I suddenly have a bad feeling.” Everyone scattered, and Roane turned to Paige. “Paige, can you stay with Kelly while I check out the garage?” He strode to the family room and looked out a side window. “I still see his car in the driveway, but that doesn't mean anything. I'll be right back.”

“I'll check out the study,” Hale said. “Honey, everything will be fine. We'd never let anything happen to your uncle.”

She nodded. “I know.” Then she realized Caitlyn and Robbie were gone. “Where's Robbie?”

“Damn. I'll let them know too.” He started to say something more, then shook his head. “Robbie's going through some family stuff. He's fine, don't worry,” he said, seeing the panic on her face. “But he needs some time alone with Caitlyn.”

“Caitlyn?” Her hackles rose at thoughts of her mate alone with another female.

The alpha female with Robbie?

“His sister,” Hale whispered. “I know, bizarre. I'll explain it when I can. Let me find Doc first.”

She watched him leave, stunned. Talk about dropping a bombshell. Robbie and Caitlyn were brother and sister? They didn't look much alike. Then again, Robbie didn't look like anyone she knew. The knowledge settled her beast, at least. Now she could focus her worry on Evan.

“I wish everyone would stop treating me like an invalid,” Kelly snapped. “I'm pregnant. I'm not sick.”

“Talk about a redhead with a temper,” Paige teased and joined Kelly in the kitchen, where everyone seemed to gravitate at one point or another during the day.

She sobered at the worry on Kelly's face. “Hey, I'm just kidding. I want to be out there looking for him too. But you know, if someone did take Doc, there's only one group of people I know that it might be. And they'd do anything to get their hands on a pregnant Circ.”

Kelly glared, the ice blue of her eyes piercing. “I know, dammit. And I'm not mad at you, Paige. I just… I wish I could do more. I'm only five months along, and I feel like a whale. This is going to be a weird pregnancy all around. I need Doc here. Not just to help me. He's like a father to me, you know?”

Paige did. The time she'd spent with the others had shown her how much her uncle was loved. From talking with them, she'd learned that Kelly had grown up with Evan, who acted like a surrogate uncle. A friend of her family's, and then her boss, he'd employed her for years. Caitlyn had joined the group just over six months ago, but she thought the world of him. As did Sabrina, who'd recently mated Derrick and left Pearson Labs. Sabrina knew what the men who worked for the labs were really like, and she adamantly stated that Doc was nothing like them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

He'd saved her life, and she'd move the moon for him if she could.

The men of Circe's Recruits loved him as well. Paige's beast liked being part of this pack, this group. She still hadn't figured out how she felt about Roane, only because he and Robbie were still at odds. But she trusted Roane on a fundamental level.

She respected the men and women here, and she knew she could become good friends with Sabrina, Kelly, and Caitlyn. They treated her like a real person. They knew what it was like to be Circ, human yet not. And they didn't judge her.

If all these people whom she respected loved Doc, how could she question him anymore? Not that she did, but their opinions made her decision to accept Evan so much easier. Even Robbie liked him. And Robbie barely liked anyone.

Except Hale and her. She hid a secret smile from Kelly, half listening as the poor woman ranted about her stubborn mates. Ace and Zack bent over backward for Kelly, clearly in love with her. A most fortunate woman. Like me.

Hale and Robbie were incredible lovers. Hardheaded men who pretty much kowtowed to her, though Robbie still controlled the small trio in the bedroom. Evan was right. They'd need more space if they planned to live on the compound. And she wanted a future here, with her new friends. People who finally understood her differences. With her uncle, who seemed to really love her. And her mates. Hale belonged here. Robbie didn't fit in at Pearson Labs. He needed her and Hale, even if he didn't want to admit it.

“Have you heard a word I've said?” Kelly asked, exasperated. But there was a twinkle in her eye. “It's never wise to bait a pregnant woman.” Paige blushed. “Sorry. I'm trying not to think about Evan. And my mind wandered—”

“To the gorgeous Hale and that giant Robbie.” Kelly leaned forward. “You know, I think Robbie's hot. Don't tell Ace or Zack. But those muscles of his, whooee. You are one lucky girl.”

Paige laughed, almost embarrassed to feel happy when she knew Evan might be in trouble. “I know. I just hope all this luck holds out. I've just met my uncle. I don't want to lose him.”

Kelly patted her hand, the gesture curiously soothing. “You won't. The guys won't let it happen. And neither will the rest of us.” She smiled, pleased at their solidarity, when she smelled them. A lot of them, and they were coming closer. “Kelly, you need to do exactly as I say,” she ordered in a low voice. “I'm going to walk with you to the elevator, quietly. Then I want you to find Ace and hole up in one of the labs downstairs.”

Kelly's eyes widened, but she remained silent and nodded.

“Quickly.” Not thinking about it, Paige began growing. She'd taken to wearing elastic pants and large, stretchy shirts. But she hadn't thought about her undergarments. On the go, she sliced through her bra and ripped under her pants at her underwear. Both garments fell off as she expanded. To her surprise, fangs pushed past her gums, telling her to beware a very real threat.

They reached the elevator. Kelly punched in a code and the door opened. “Come with me.”

“No. Don't worry. I know how to handle these guys. I'm not in any danger. But you are.”

Kelly gaped at whatever she saw over Paige's shoulder. “Mutants,” she hissed.

“Paige, please.”

Paige reached inside and punched a button. “Go.” The door closed. She turned around and stared at half a dozen mutants. Just as twisted as the last bunch she'd seen, and they stirred as much pity. She released her pheromones and drew them closer.

“Why are you all here?” she asked, hoping against hope that she wasn't the reason.