Thanks to my editor sleeplessgurl.
Thank you everyone for the comments and emails on chapter 3. As always, they are deeply appreciated. I hope everyone enjoys chapter 4 even though I'm afraid this may be a bit shorter than normal. The Mississippi River-if you live in the States then you probably know about this mess-is flooding and things have been tense at work.
I do have plans for two series to arc off this with 'Finding' in their titles. It will be about two certain half-brothers and their lives.
This is a copyrighted work of fiction by the author durablue. All rights reserved.
*
Chapter 4
Ivy smiled, and held her arms out. Daylon picked her up and carried her into the water. The look of bliss, of happiness, told Daylon how much Ivy loved the water. She hugged him hard, then swam out to explore the falls, her movements carefree. This was their time; there would be time enough to worry about Dolmas, her step-brothers, Mary and Sam... right now he wanted to hold his mate and forget, just for a while. Daylon knew that Dolmas wouldn't forget the humiliation handed to him by Ivy, and he worried about how to protect his mate and the ones she cared for.
He had good reason to be worried.
* * * *
Dolmas watched Surlak walk away.
"How dare he show up here and lay his judgment down on me about how things are going to be," Dolmas snarled to himself.
And to find out there would be no restitution for Mary being... He growled and for a brief moment control wavered and Dolmas' wolf strained at the leash, yearning to break free. For one wolf to turn his back on another was the ultimate insult as far as Dolmas was concerned. How dare Surlak turn his back on him? Control slipped farther, his eyes lightened, and his wolf snarled in anger. Who did Surlak think he was dealing with?
"By god, we need a new leader, one who is strong and fearless, someone who will take our pack and turn them into a name to be feared... someone like...
me
."
The more Dolmas thought about it, the more convinced he became. Clenching his fists, Dolmas wrestled his wolf back under control. He'd deal with Surlak later; right now he needed to focus his attention on what mattered most...
her
. The bastard child he raised, the one who caused him such humiliation, that freak who was responsible for him.... he couldn't think about it.
His mind refused to accept what he felt, down toward his crotch, when he woke up. Dolmas walked back in the house and started cleaning up the tattered remains of furniture. His anger rose again. Mary should be there to clean up this mess. That thought led to where she was, what she doing, and with whom. More dark thoughts entered his mind, and he began to plot. Hours later headlights flashed across the yard, and Dolmas watched the pickup truck park in the drive.
Kern and Caleb stepped from the truck, both the worse for wear. They approached the house, moving with the exaggerated carefulness of someone looking for danger. Dolmas opened the door, backlit by the room's light. Kern and Caleb stood frozen, eyes glued on Dolmas. Both scanned his body language, trying to read him.
"Where have you boys been?"
"We, ah, we went to the local watering hole and, ah..."
"What Caleb is trying to say is we went out and had a few drinks," Kern said. "We figured you wanted to be alone for a while."
All three men stood silently, eyeing each other. Dolmas scanned their appearance, noting that while they were battered and bruised, neither seemed drunk. Thankfully they had their wits about them. Dolmas motioned for them to come inside, then turned and walked out into the room. Caleb looked at Kern and shrugged. Both followed their father inside the house.
"Help me clear away the debris, then we need to decide what to do about this situation," Dolmas said.
"Ah, Dad, we ran into Surlak in town. He said you agreed to drop this whole deal." Kern was holding what was left of the coffee table.
"I never agreed to that," Dolmas said. "The simple minded old fool actually believes I'm going to take this kind of insult. Well, I'm not. So get busy cleaning, then we got plans to make."
Several hours later the house was cleaned, the broken furniture removed, and Kern lay in bed. His door opened, and Caleb slipped inside.
"You awake?"
"Yeah, what's up?" Kern asked as Caleb shut the door.
"I'm worried. I've never seen Dad like this. What he was talking about..."
"I know. Trouble with a capital T. But I don't know what to do. If we don't stand with him... Caleb, things are going to get bad." Kern rubbed his hands over his face.
"Do you really think he means to do what he said?"
"God help us both, but yeah," Kern said.
"This could cost us our lives'." Caleb stared at the floor. "I don't want to die, Kern, especially over things that we know nothing about."
"Look, try to stay away from the old man as much as possible. I'll... think of something."
"What?"
"I have no idea," Kern said, and sighed. "Go on to bed. We have to go to Lowe's tomorrow for some sheetrock. Maybe a new day will bring some new options... and all that shit."
"Yeah, maybe. Night."
Kern watched his younger brother leave. Sleep was a long time in coming. As far as he could see, there were no easy answers here.
* * * *
Mary and Sam walked hand-in-hand to his house.
"Any particular movie you want to see?" Sam asked. "You used to have a thing for action movies, if I remember correctly."
"Oh Sam, I haven't watched a movie in ages, so it doesn't matter to me. But..."
Sam grinned. "Yeah?"
"Has that new movie, with the fast cars, come out on DVD yet? You know, it has that actor with the bald head and sexy voice."
"I know the one, and I do have it. Is that what you want to watch? Not a nice romance?"
"Yes, that one. Frankly the romance movies... well, real life never works like that," Mary said quietly.
"Mary..." Sam rubbed a head over his head. "True love does exist. Sometimes, well, sometimes things get in the way, but—"
"That's one way of putting it. Let's not talk about the past, Sam. I don't want to ruin this by going over old, horrible memories."
"Neither do I, but Mary, I want to see you."
