Pretty Baby [Wolf Creek Pack 7] (21 page)

“Yeah.”

Tommy started to lean in and kiss Elliot when a sudden knocking on the door made them both jump. “Chase and Donovan are back,” Nate called through the door. “You want to come out of my pantry or should we all just join you in there?”

Elliot giggled.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “We’ll be out in just a moment, Nate.”

“We’ll be in the living room.”

Tommy leaned his forehead against Elliot’s, chuckling lightly. “I guess we have to go, huh, pretty baby?”

Elliot’s baby blue eyes blinked up at him as he leaned into Tommy, tilting his face upward. “We could always pretend that we didn’t hear them.”

“Somehow, I believe Nate when he says they would all just join us in here.”

Elliot’s giggle filled the small room. “You’re probably right.”

Despite his words, Tommy was disappointed when Elliot turned and opened the pantry door. He blinked several times as the light in the kitchen blinded him for a moment. He hadn’t realized how dark the pantry was until now. When his vision cleared, Tommy stepped out of the pantry after Elliot and grabbed his hand.

“Come on, pretty baby, let’s go see what all the uproar is about.”

Tommy was glad Elliot had a smile on his face when they left the kitchen and rounded the corner of the living room. Several people filled the room, two that Tommy had never seen before. He paused at the threshold, pulling Elliot close to him.

“Chase, Donovan.” Tommy nodded at the two men. “I take it your trip was successful?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Chase snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’d like you to meet our father, Andre Morgan.”

“Your father?” Tommy glanced at the older man, noting the way his eyes seemed to be glued to Elliot. He took a step over to place himself between Elliot and Andre. He didn’t care who the man was. He didn’t like the intense way Andre eyed his mate.

“This is our brother, Flynn.”

“I know you,” Elliot whispered. He inhaled suddenly “You were in the bed next to me when I was sick.”

Tommy heard a low growl come from his left. He turned to see Chase bearing down on him and Elliot. Much to his surprise, Elliot stepped back and pointed his finger at Chase. “Touch me and I will bite your balls off!”

Chase stopped, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. Slowly, a grin started to move across the man’s face followed by rich laughter. “I’d prefer to keep them, thank you very much. I have a couple of guys to keep satisfied.”

“How did you end up in the bed next to me when I was sick?” Elliot asked as he looked back at Flynn.

Tommy followed Elliot’s gaze to a man that stood silently next to Donovan. He looked scared to death, his small frame nearly vibrating with fear. His eyes darted frantically around the room until they finally settled on Elliot as he stepped out from behind Tommy.

Flynn frowned, his brow furrowing as if he was trying to figure something out in his head. His hand shook as he pointed at Elliot. “Yo-you were there.”

Elliot nodded and stepped farther into the room. Tommy saw everyone step back as they watched the two men walk up to each other. Elliot looked Flynn up and down then glanced over at Tommy.

“Flynn was there?” Tommy asked.

Elliot nodded and turned back to Flynn. “He—the things they did to him…” Elliot shook his head. His face had paled. He looked agonized. “He screamed so much. I thought they were killing him but my father said—”

“That man is not your father!”

Tommy growled deep in his chest as he quickly crossed over to stand by Elliot. He didn’t care who Andre Morgan was. No one snapped at his pretty baby like that. “Watch your tone, Morgan.”

“Philip Spencer is not his father.”

“How do you know who Philip Spencer is?” Tommy asked as he slowly placed himself in front of Elliot once again. He could feel both the animosity coming off of Andre and the fear from Elliot. The others in the room, with the exception of Flynn, who was shaking, were tense but still.

“I’m more curious as to how he knows Philip Spencer isn’t Elliot’s father,” Joe said.

Tommy looked over to see Joe standing partially in front of Nate, just as he stood in front of Elliot. A glance around the room found Daniel doing the same with his wife, and Donovan and Jim vying for the protective position. All of them were doing the best to shield their mates from any and all perceived threats.

Tommy let out a deep sigh. “Okay, look, this isn’t getting us anywhere. We’re all too busy trying to protect our mates to even talk about this reasonably. I think we all need to step back and calm down. I’m sure that Andre will explain things if we let him. Right, Andre?”

Tommy grabbed Elliot and walked him over to a tan-colored overstuffed chair by the fireplace. He sat down and pulled Elliot onto his lap. Joe did the same with the other chair and Nate, the rest of the people in the room finding places around the living room.

Chase stood by the fireplace, alone. Tommy knew the man had met his mates, Justin and Taylor, recently, but they were still working out the dynamics of their relationship. Tommy hoped they worked it out soon. No one should be without their mate, especially in times like these.

“Andre,” Tommy said as he looked over at the man, “how do you know that Philip Spencer isn’t Elliot’s father?”

Andre’s eyes flickered to Elliot then to his sons, one at a time before coming back to rest on Elliot. “I should probably start at the beginning.”

Tommy barely suppressed his snort by pressing his lips together. The beginning would be nice, but so would the entire conversation. “Please, start where ever you need to.”

“My wife, Summer, was pregnant with our fifth child when she disappeared. Flynn was barely three years old, Chase, Devlin, and Donovan a few years older.” Andre’s lips curved up in a sad little smile. “She was so excited. She was just positive that this time it would be a girl. She’d already given birth to four boys and she wanted her girl. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much pink in my life.”

The smile slowly slid off Andre’s lips and his eyes began to sparkle with unshed tears. “And then one day she was gone, just gone.” He shook his head, staring down at the floor. “I don’t know what happened to her. I couldn’t find her for the longest time.”

“Wait, you couldn’t find her for the longest time?” Chase whispered. “You mean you did find her? You found our mother?”

“I didn’t find her, but the people who have her found me.”

“Have?” Donovan shouted as he pushed away from Jim and jumped to his feet. “You said have. Is our mother still alive?”

Tears started trailing down Andre’s pale cheeks as he nodded. “Yes, your mother is still alive.”

“And you never told us?” Chase shouted.

“Son, you have to understand, I couldn’t tell you.” Andre wiped the tears off his face as he looked up at his sons. “I couldn’t. They said they would kill her if I told anyone.

“She’s our mother!”

“And she’s my mate!” Andre countered loudly. He waved his hand at Flynn. “Look what they did to your brother. If you know they can do that, what do you think they could do to your mother? I did what I had to do to keep her alive.”

“What?”

Andre leaned back on the couch and rubbed his hands over his face then dropped them into his lap. “After your mother was taken, I searched for her. Other packs searched for her. We never had a hint of where she was. Then one day, a little more than ten years ago, I received a phone call from someone that said they had her. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but then they kidnapped Flynn.”

“How did you know it was them?” Tommy asked.

“They let me speak to my mate.”

“You spoke with Mom?” Donovan whispered. “How was she? Was she okay? Did they hurt her like they hurt Flynn?”

“Do you remember several years ago when I was injured?” Andre asked, looking up at Donovan and Chase. “I told you I had been injured in a car accident. I spent almost two weeks in bed recovering.”

Chase and Donovan nodded.

“I tried to free her. It was after my failed rescue mission that they took Flynn. It was their way of proving that they could get to any of you any time that they wanted. They had total control, and I couldn’t keep any of you safe from them.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Chase asked as he walked over to kneel at his father’s feet. “We would have helped you. The other packs would have helped. We could have saved them both.”

Tommy tensed when Andre’s eyes went to the man curled up on his lap. “They had Elliot,” Andre said softly.

“Elliot?”

“He was the child your mother was carrying when she was kidnapped.”

Chapter 14

“You’re my father?”

Andre nodded. “My wife was pregnant with you when she was kidnapped.”

“But, I thought…” Elliot frowned. “Philip Spencer isn’t my father?”

“No.” Andre shook his head. “If they had kept you all in the same place, I would have asked the other packs to help me rescue you, but Philip Spencer was raising you as his own son. I knew where they were keeping Summer and Flynn, but Spencer kept moving you around. I could never get a lead on exactly where you were.”

“What about our stepmother?” Donovan growled. “How did she come into the picture?”

“She’s not your stepmother!” Andre snapped. “I would never betray your mother like that. Sophia works for Philip Spencer. She was sent in to keep me in line. As long as I agreed to have her there and do as she said, they would let me see your mother once a month.”

Donovan’s mouth dropped open. “They let you see her?”

“Every month on the full moon, I’m allowed three days with your mother.”

“That’s where you go every month,” Chase whispered. “We thought you—”

“I know what you thought,” Andre snapped. “You thought I was a drunk that didn’t care about his family.”

“Dad, we—”

Andre waved a dismissive hand at his sons. “I know, I gave you that impression, and I’m sorry. It was the only way. If I did what they said, they promised not to take any more of my children. They let me see your mother.” Andre swallowed hard, his eyes watering again. “They let your mother keep
Tereza.”

“Tereza?”

“Your sister.”

“We have a sister?” Chase asked.

“She was conceived at their facility on one of my visits.
She just celebrated her tenth birthday. They promised they would let your mother keep her and not experiment on her, but I suspect they are just waiting for her to hit puberty and shift.”

“I didn’t shift until a few days ago,” Elliot said. “Maybe she will be like me and not shift.”

“She’s already showing signs of shifting, Elliot. I figure we have a few more months, tops, before she hits puberty, and then all bets are off. Once they have an unmated female shifter in their hands there is no telling what they will do to her.”

“Why are they doing this?” Elliot asked. “Why do they need an unmated female shifter? Wasn’t your wife enough?”

“Summer is mated to me, which means she can’t mate with anyone else. Tereza doesn’t have a mate. Her genetic makeup is different than a mated female’s.”

“To what purpose?”

“They want to create the perfect combination of genetics and mind power with the aim to create a killing machine controlled totally by them. They could sell his services to the highest bidder, the government, other governments, private businesses, millionaires, etc. They would make millions.”

“Sell his services?” Nate snorted. “They sound like the Teacher.”

“The teacher?” Andre looked confused.

“
The Teacher was made my guardian after my mother died. He used people like me to make him money, lots of money. I have certain abilities that make me very popular among the Teacher’s clients. The Teacher sold my services to the highest bidder, government agencies, businessmen, drug dealers, you name it, and he sold our services to them. That’s how he’s gained so much power.”

“And he made money off of this?”

Nate nodded. “He made a lot of money. I personally brought in a lot of money for him, some of it was supposed to be mine. He said he was investing my percentage for me, but I think he just kept lining his pockets with it. I know I never saw any of it.”

Elliot frowned at the eyebrow Tommy cocked. “What?”

“Does anyone besides me see a connection here?”

“What connection?”

“The Teacher made millions selling the services of Nate and his friends. He invested a lot of that money, money that was supposed to go to them. Philip Spencer owns one of the biggest investment firms in the area, hell, maybe the entire country. And we know for a fact that Spencer has a lot of shady deals going on. Could the Teacher and Philip Spencer have been working together?”