Jordan's Misunderstanding (7 page)

“Father, these are my mates, and I would thank you to remember that. That they are cats should tell us something, don"t you think?” She said briskly, in her no nonsense business voice.

Her father"s frown deepened. She had never used that tone with him before. “Young lady, I was asking a question, just wondering if I need to get the litter box out. Would you care to explain why you have your back up?”

Her mother had stood and looked at her with a shocked expression on her face. “Mates?

Honey, what are you talking about? And Daniel, really do you think this is a time for insults?”

Sid stood up also and growled. “Yeah, I talked to you yesterday and you said nothing about mates. Who are they? Do we need to get a scratch pad?” Larkin and Romy stepped forward and pushed Jordan behind them. They may be her family, but right now, they felt the need to protect her. “My name is Larkin Night and this is my partner and mate, Romy Night. We are cat shifters, which is true, black panthers. I would really like it if you toned it down a little. My cat is thinking that you are threatening my mate and isn"t liking it one bit. So, unless you want to have a cat and dog fight, I would suggest we take a deep breath. As for the insults, at least we don"t pee on fire hydrants. Now, I think we are even, let"s grow up a little.” Her mother, always the voice of reason said, “Of course, we apologize. Don"t we Sid, Daniel, my name is Margareta. This is my mate, Daniel and our sons, Sid, Brian, Anthony, and Lee. Please come in and make yourselves at home. Mates to Jordan, this is wonderful.” She said happily.

Jordan narrowed her eyes as she looked at her brothers who sat down with a huff. Her father remained standing as they walked farther into the room. Romy stepped forward and held out his hand to him.

“Sir, it"s nice to meet you.” He said and waited for the man to shake his hand. Jordan held her breath, ready to walk back out the door if her father refused to shake hands with her mate. She was not in the mood to play around. Finally, her father raised his hand and shook Romy"s. Then Larkin held out his and said the same thing. They went down the line introducing themselves and shaking her father"s, mothers, and brother"s hands. At least this part was okay.

“So, father, why am I here?” Jordan said once again briskly and sat down between her mates on the couch that was remaining.

Her father looked at her with his eyes narrowed letting her know that he was not pleased with her tone of voice. Well tough. He was going to have to get used to it.

“Jordan.” Her mother said with a shocked tone. “We have raised you better than to be so disrespectful.”

She sighed and nodded. “I know, sorry. I guess I"m on edge. I guess I will throw this out there. Someone has contacted me on the website that I have for shifters. He told me some things about my past. I assume that is why everyone is here. I would really like an explanation though, why am I just now getting told about my past.” Her mother drew in a sharp breath and her father"s frown deepened. “What do you mean you were contacted about your past? Was it these guys? What have you told her?” He bellowed.

Jordan jumped up from the couch and yelled. “Don"t you dare blame your lies on my mates! They have never kept anything from me, nor would they. And for your information, no, it was not them. It was someone else. Someone who called himself The Master, I don"t know his real name. Although he is under the mistaken assumption that I am his mate, which as you can see is impossible because Romy and Larkin are my mates. They have claimed me, so don"t think for one minute that you can get rid of them.”

Her father jumped up also and replied. “This is still my house and you are my daughter.

I will not be talked to like this.”

“Fine, we are leaving and by the way, if I were your daughter, you would have not lied to me all these years. Families don"t do that.” She said with tears in her eyes.

“Jordan, calm down. You aren"t going anywhere, and dad, sit down before you have a coronary. We need to all take a deep breath and talk about this calmly. So far, no one has actually said anything. Jordan, what exactly do you know?” Sid said loudly over the growls and hisses that were coming from her mates and her father.

Jordan allowed herself to be pulled down again by her mates and her father sat down slowly, looking at her mates with a warning. She took a deep breath and pulled out the papers she had printed off this morning. It had the entire chat recorded. So she read directly from the pages. She could hear her mother gasp when she heard what the man told her and her father growl again.

When she finished she laid the paper on the table for anyone to pick up. It was Devon, the New Council Pack Beta and her brother-in-law that picked it up. He held it out and read it to himself again, frowning at the paper.

Her father stood up and began pacing, the silence in the room was deafening. She knew that they had lied to her. Nothing she said had been a surprise. How could they do this to her, especially when she had poured her heart out about wanting to be like them?

They must have been laughing behind her back this whole time. She sat up straighter and refused to allow them to see how crushed she was by this. Obviously, they were not her family. Now she had Romy and Larkin. She reached and took each of their hands in hers and allowed them to comfort her with a squeeze of their hands.

Her father was the first one to speak. “Jordan. First of all, yes we knew that you were special from the day that we got you.” Jordan snorted and looked around at her so called family.

Jordan spoke up. “How long? That"s all I want to know, how long did you keep this from me? It"s my life, I should have been told right away.” Sid held up his hand. “Jordan, it was my fault. I told them not to tell you. I wanted to make sure, before I put a target on my sister"s back. You know how it has been. Then we could not communicate with anyone, so I talked to Quin and Jaden. They agreed that you must be the human that belongs on the Council. But I swear, I knew nothing about your parents; this is the first I heard that they were killed. Quin and Jaden don"t know either. They are the ones who talked to Oliver and he told them about your parents.”

Jordan looked at her brother and yelled. “Oliver, the man who killed my parents is still alive? What did he say? That you needed to finish the job? Is that why you are all here?”

“Don"t be stupid, Jordan. He never told Quin or Jaden anything like that. As far as I know, he was just as excited about finding you as we were. You know we have been working to find the Chosen; we had no clue that you were one of them. We just put it all together. I would never keep something like this from you!” Sid said hotly.

Her parents were not adding to the conversation and she turned to them. “I want to know what you have known and for how long.” She said quietly.

Her mother was wringing her hands and looking at her father, who was sitting there with a blank look on his face. There was silence in the room and she dreaded the answer she was about to get. Finally her father spoke.

“When I found you, there was a note. It explained that your parents had disappeared and were presumed dead. It left their names, and the fact that you had family in the United States. We contacted your grandparents. They were distraught. They claimed that you would not be safe with them.”

Jordan sat back and began to shake. Her mates took her hands and held onto them giving her support. They had known, all of this time, the people who she trusted all her life had lied to her about her past.

“Jordan, I am so sorry. They said that if you were found, you would be killed. They said you were a human, a weak link. I did what I did in order to protect you.” Her father said and she could see the anguish in the man"s face. But it did not matter. She had a right to know about her past.

Her mother whispered. “Jordan, please, think of it from our point of view. We wanted to keep you safe. Your father and I fell in love with you the moment you opened your eyes. Your brothers loved you too. We would do anything to protect you. We did not know that you could not be changed. I am so sorry that we never did any of the research about you. It was out there, but we didn"t. When Quin and Jaden formed the New Council they were so inexperienced, so much was happening in Denver, it seemed like they were being attacked every other day. We waited. We made that decision so you would be protected when you went. When Sid became mated to Devon and Casey, we wrote him. We told him the truth and asked that he approach the Alphas. He spoke to your brothers first, and they made a plan. They wanted you protected before you went, considering how many of the Chosen have been targeted.” Jordan took a deep breath and looked around the room. “So what you are saying is, not only did you know who I was when I was born, but you don"t trust me to run my life, or take care of myself. What? Am I not as intelligent as you? You trust me to run the company, but not run my life. Wait, maybe you don"t trust me to run company. Did you have someone checking my work? My whole life has been a sham!” She cried and buried her face into Romy"s neck. She felt Larkin rub her back and she calmed down.

Her mates had a calming effect.

They would help her; they would never lie to her. Larkin and Romy had both told her that they were overprotective, but they would always tell her the truth about what was going on. She believed them; right now, she needed someone in her corner that she trusted.

“I think this is enough for right now. Maybe we could take a break and come back to this later.” Larkin said quietly.

“Pussy cat, don"t tell me how to deal with my daughter. I know her better than you.” Her father growled and stood up. Larkin did the same and stood nose to nose with the Alpha.

Devon finally spoke up and said, “Sir, with all due respect, that is not going to get us anywhere. Jordan, we have a security detail waiting for you. They will be following you until we get back to Milliken. You do understand that since you are one of the Chosen that you belong in Colorado with the rest of the New Council. Quin and Jaden would have liked to come and talk to you but since the last attack, they are trying to figure out who and what we are up against. So they sent me and Casey since we are family.” Jordan took a deep breath, pulled her head from her mate"s shoulder, and looked at Devon. She had liked him and Casey when they met, but now they seemed like the enemy, just like the rest of her family. There were so many conflicting emotions running through her mind right now, she could not sort them out. She needed to get away, with her mates, so that she could think and talk without an audience.

“Devon, I am sorry to say that I will respectfully decline the invitation to come to Denver. Also, if you send someone to follow me, that is your problem, but I will not accept them interfering in my life. As far as I am concerned you can keep them too, but I have the feeling that you will not listen. So, basically I am going to ignore them. My mates and I are leaving. We will contact you after we have discussed things and made a decision. I can tell you one thing though; I will not go to Colorado while the man who killed my parents is free and unpunished.” Jordan said and stood up and held out her hands to her mates.

Jordan"s mother began weeping and she almost went to her to give her comfort. But she refused to let them suck her back in. They had betrayed her. She walked stiffly from the room, as her father demanded that she remain. She ignored him.

Larkin. Romy, and Jordan walked out of the house and got into the car and drove off as the people she called family stood on the front porch watching her, some crying and some yelling. She refused to look at them or acknowledge them. She sat in the back of the car with Larkin at her side and Romy driving. When they finally cleared the driveway, she broke down and sobbed. Larkin pulled her into his arms and rocked her back and forth will Romy drove quickly to their penthouse.

Their plan for the day changed. Neither of them thought the morning would go down like this. Wow, their mate was one of the Chosen. It was a matter of time before shifters found out. She would be in danger.

Romy said quietly from the front seat. “Baby, I know that you don"t want it, but I think you need some protection. I understand why you denied it from your family, but would you please allow us to call out Prime and ask for some help? He will understand and provide us with what we need.”

Jordan just nodded and continued to cry in Larkin"s arms.

Romy pulled out his phone and called the familiar number. Larkin and Romy may be black panthers, but they were rich, black panthers and their Prime respected that.

“Gorge, how are you?” Romy said into the phone quietly.

“Good, my friend, to what do I owe this surprise phone call?” Gorge said.

“Larkin and I met our mate. Her name is Jordan, uh, Jordan Grey.” Romy said slowly and heard the sharp intake of breath from his Prime.

“Well, holy fuck, you mated a dog?” Gorge said slowly, as if testing the word on his tongue.

“No, Jordan is human, she is adopted. Okay, this is a very long story so I"m going to give you the condensed version. Jordan was adopted, the Grey's found her, raised her all her life thinking she was just a human in the wolf world. Today we found out that they had lied to her, she is one of the Chosen. We need protection for her.” Romy said.

“Once again, holy fuck. Wait, you mated to Jordan, you and Larkin?” Gorge said.

“Yep.” Romy said and grinned when he heard his Prime clap.

“You are part of the Council. This is what we have wanted, someone to represent the cats, in the mutt world. Jordan is part of our Pride; she is one of us now. We will protect our own; tell the dogs we got this.” Gorge said briskly and he could hear him talking to someone in the background. “You going home?”

“Yeah, be there in ten.” Romy said.

“Someone is already on their way.” Gorge said.

They continued talking briefly and then Romy hung up the phone. “Jordan, our Prime would like to extend his congratulations and also an invitation to his house for dinner tomorrow.”

Jordan who was still crying nodded and whispered, “Whatever.” Larkin pulled her tighter against him and sighed. He hated that his mate had to go through that. It sucked. He could not believe her family, the arrogance that they all showed. Like it was okay to lie to Jordan, and not tell her who she was.