Dredging this up sent a knife into his heart, but he needed to tell her. Jenny needed to know his dark past.
“I was seventeen and got into a fight with my oldest brother. Winston always was a jerk to me. Six years older and he called me a baby. Always teasing me and doing things when my folks weren’t looking. Kid stuff that I had to put up with, like salting my iced tea. Got worse as I grew older. Once he slit the tires on my bike. The final straw came when he thought it would be funny to toss a firecracker into the metal garbage can just as I lifted the can to take it to the curb.”
She gasped, but he ignored it. Had to push on telling it, or he’d never get up the courage again.
“Winston didn’t care that he could have put my eye out. I jumped back but not before I got sparks in my hair, had to roll around to keep my damn hair from catching on fire.”
He raked a hand through his short hair. “One reason I’ve kept it short since that day.”
“That was a cruel thing to do!” she cried out.
“Reckon so, but Lupines revere their eldest sons and heirs. Winston could do no wrong in the eyes of mama and daddy. He was just a little high spirited, my mama always said. Me, I was the one who was wrong.”
Troy’s guts knotted again and his jaw clenched. “Knew Winston would keep tormenting me, so I showed him a little justice of my own. Took my folks a good half hour to stop the bleeding on his face and throat. They ended up rushing him to a Skin ER. He spent the night in the hospital. They told the attending doc he was in a knife fight.”
She shook her head. Damn. He hoped she would understand. Maybe not. Maybe his kind were not the kind of Lupines anyone could understand or accept.
Then to his amazement, she reached over and kissed his cheek. Oh, so soft and warm her lips felt against his chilled skin. Almost like a redemption.
Acceptance.
“You did what you had to. Your older brother sounds like a bully, Troy. Bullies need to be put into place. Your parents didn’t do it, so you had no choice!”
Hellfire, it felt so good to hear those words from her. For years he felt as if he were always the one in the wrong. No one ever took his side before.
Not until this little spitfire of a Lupine had.
But she needed to know all of it.
“I’m violent, Jenny. I can control it now, but not when I was seventeen. My entire family started to fear me. Know what that’s like? To walk into the kitchen for a cold drink and have everyone run away from you? They went to Europe and didn’t leave a forwarding address. The pack followed them. My folks left me a bank account filled with more than two million dollars. I guess that was their way of assuaging their guilt. Especially after my father pointed a shotgun in my face and said if I followed them, he’d shoot me to protect his pack.”
He stared at his hands again, remembering the last touch of his mama, her soft hand stroking his hair, tears in her eyes as she whispered for him to take good care of himself.
“I spent some of that money hiring a private detective to find them. I couldn’t believe my own mother would abandon me. Maybe she would change her mind if I promised to, I don’t know, remove my claws or something. Anything. Got an address, sent a letter to my mama. She mailed me a postcard with four words.
This was harder than he thought. Hadn’t dare think about this in years.
“What did she say?”
So soft. Jenny’s voice was so soft and gentle, filled with understanding. Maybe that was why they found each other. Two lost souls who had both lost everything.
Troy took in a deep breath. “Don’t write me again.”
Her mouth dropped open. Moisture filled her eyes. Jenny knew, damnit, he hated that she knew exactly how much those four words hurt.
He rubbed his nape, gave her a rueful smile. “Guess I got my answer. I miss them. But they never missed me. Not living like that. Not afraid of their own flesh and blood turning on them in a savage burst of temper if they said or did the wrong thing.”
Jenny drew back a little. “The wrong thing? Troy, did you ever attack anyone for no good reason? What about your other brothers and sisters? You told me you had four brothers and two sisters. Tell me, did you ever attack anyone ever than the precious heir Winston?”
He shook his head.
“You never had reason to defend yourself, and you did against that … meanie. It’s not your fault for standing up for yourself!”
A slow grin lifted his mouth. “Meanie?”
“Well, he was. You deserved better.” Her voice dropped. “You deserved a family who loved you as much as they did everyone else, no matter how different you are.”
Something inside him eased. She got it. It felt good to have a friend who did and did not criticize or look at him sideways as if she also feared him.
“You’re not afraid of me,” he murmured, reaching over and putting his hand over hers.
Jenny blinked hard and wiped her eyes. “How could I be afraid of you? You’re the best friend I ever had, the only guy who ever cared what happens to me.”
His chest tightened. He felt so damn emotional after spilling his sorry life story, couldn’t fall to pieces now. So he joked instead.
“Not only that, but you could easily kick my ass with your powers if you wanted to.”
“Damn right I could.” Jenny grinned.
They laughed.
Troy glanced outside. Full dark now. He hated leaving her alone here. “I’ll go
