Chapter 104

Rachel POV

Interstate Highway

Nathan had driven on the way to Moonglow Pack. Art had insisted he didn't drive. Lindy and I were both ruled out as potential drivers for reasons I didn't want to think about too closely because the last thing I needed was to piss off my wolf.

Rayne hated being treated as weaker because she was a female. Her gender didn't define her. My wolf knew her strength as well as the best ways to capitalize on it.

In the end, Nathan wound up driving Tyler's sedan with Art as his traveling companion while Adam drove our rental car with Lindy at his side while I sat in back with Tyler.

We were a strange company.

Lindy cried silently without stopping for the first half-hour of the drive. Her tanned face was stained with red blotches from the force of her emotions; her full lips were bitten until they bled. She didn't say a word after Tyler agreed to take her with us.

Adam had argued strongly for taking me and Tyler alone in the sedan while leaving Nathan, Lindy, and Art in the rental. He was still angry an hour into the trip home as evidenced by the ticking muscle in his jaw from where he clenched his teeth so hard it made my jaw hurt in sympathy.

Art had insisted upon traveling with me -I was the subject of his investigation- until Tyler began to show signs of losing his control.

If I hadn't seen it myself, I never would have believed it, but Alpha Inspector Art Windsor gave up at the first sign of Wynd overtaking Tyler's features. It was as if he were scared to push Tyler too far, but he'd not been afraid of Nathan even when Nathan went Lycan.

What did Art think Tyler would do? Or was it what Wynd would do that worried him so much?

Tyler and I refused to be separated for reasons I thought had to be obvious to everyone.

Now I had him as my mate, fully and completely my mate, I never wanted to let him go.

Tyler hadn't spoken to me since we'd started traveling back home, but I felt his silence was more contemplative than anything else. I got no sense he was angry---at least not with me and wasn't that amazing?

We'd spent very little time together without anger corrupting the space between us.

I was content to relax in Tyler's arms. One was slung over my shoulders, his big hand cupping my belly possessively while his other arm was braced on the door. For such a large man, Tyler had managed to make himself comfortable at my side in the backseat of the car.

I was choosing to attribute part of his ease to the fact our wolves were dozing in our minds, finally at peace after being reunited.

A whole hour into the trip, I had to clear my throat to speak up.

"Can we take a break at the next rest stop? I need the bathroom. Baby thing."

I flushed a little at announcing I needed a pee break, but I was just a pregnant woman. Surely they couldn't hold it against me I needed a break on a long trip?

Adam nodded his understanding and I met his eyes in the rearview mirror. He winked at me, making me feel a lot better. I was lucky Tyler had such an understanding Beta. He was perfect to balance out Tyler's stubbornness, too.

"I need a break, too," Lindy whispered, "Can I get out of the car or will you try to leave me behind?"

Silence descended with the force of a hammer striking an anvil.

Why would Lindy think we'd leave her behind? Had she been left behind before? What kind of life had this girl lived before declaring herself Nathan Lewis's mate and stowing away with the female he professed to love more than any other?

"No one is going to leave you behind, Lindy," I said, trying to sound kind, "Why would you think that?"

Lindy shook her head without answering out loud. I didn't want to frighten her or upset her so I chose to let the subject drop.

I was surprised when Tyler's voice rumbled in my ear, "She's aware of what we've done. We took her away from her pack, her father, without permission or even telling anyone. Given she's currently the heir to House Campbell? We've abducted their future Luna and if that's not a declaration of war? I don't know what is."

"You didn't abduct me. I came on my own. I chose. Myself."

Lindy's words were strong, but her voice was a breathy whisper. I couldn't imagine she'd spoken up for herself much in her life. I doubted she'd been given a chance to speak for herself often. The way her father had treated her made me think she was accustomed to being treated as too fragile to make decisions.

"Would you care to call your father and tell him that?" Tyler asked, freeing his cell phone from his pocket to offer it over the seat to her.

Lindy reached for the phone with a shaking hand only to pull it back before taking it.

I exchanged a look with Tyler before trying to figure out what was going on. Was Lindy setting us up as abductors? Was this part of a plan on Alpha Campbell's part to try to start a feud with House Wright? Or a war between Moonglow Pack and Moonrise Pack which would take the focus away from his knowledge of my existence as his daughter?

"Lindy?" I prompted.

She didn't answer and Adam began to signal we were going to take an exit off the interstate. I looked behind us to make sure Nathan followed us in the sedan, seeing he did, I turned back around to try again with Lindy.

"Lindy, what's going on? Why don't you want to call your dad? Are you afraid he'll be mad?"

"I know he will," she murmured, "I'm not allowed to go anywhere by myself. Someone might take me. Hurt me. Claim me. I'm the future of House Campbell. He can't have another daughter or a son. My mother---"

She broke off. I watched her throat work as she swallowed her emotions. I was glad to see she didn't seem to be crying again. How many tears could one person shed before they couldn't cry anymore?

"I thought your mother died before you were born? Or the day you were born," I corrected myself, "Do you know much about her?"

Lindy shook her head no and I leaned forward, curiosity gnawing at me. I suddenly wanted to know everything about her. What had her childhood been like? Had Richard Campbell been kind to her? What was it like to have a father who loved her so much he'd do anything to protect her?

"They told you she was Elena Campbell though, didn't they? What do you know about her from before the accident?"

I refused to believe she hadn't learned anything about my mother. Her mother? Our mother?

It was hard to figure out how to think of my relationship to Lindy. The worst part was how very much she looked like me---and how very much she looked like my mother.

If I had seen Lindy first and me second, I would have guessed she was Elena Campbell's daughter first and me second. She was beautiful even with her face all blotchy and red from her crying.

I knew I was a beautiful woman, too, but my hormones were making me doubt myself in a way I hadn't before. I hoped she didn't find a way to take my place even as I recognized how stupid the thought was given the circumstances.

"I don't know very much. Not much at all. It hurts my father to talk about her. He loved her very, very, very much."

Lindy spoke with a breathless whisper as if she was afraid speaking too loudly would get her in trouble. Had she been told to keep quiet? Was she raised with the old-fashioned theory they should keep females seen yet unheard?

I wanted to know her. I wanted to know all about her.

"Did he tell you that himself or is it what you heard around the pack?"

"He told me," Lindy whispered, "Every night when he says goodnight. He tells me he loves her every night. He tells me I look just like her. How can that be? How can I look just like her and you're her daughter?"

There were the tears again and I felt terrible for making her cry.

I felt worse because I didn't know what to tell her to make her feel any better. How could she look so much like Elena Campbell yet I was the only child Elena was supposed to have had? Where did the House Campbell secrets start and where did they end?

Adam parked us in front of a rest stop, announcing, "Rest stop! Everybody out."