The Half-Breed Who Found His Other Half (2 page)

His father had received an invite for an important reunion of nation leaders organized by the Sidhe king, Sterling, and his nephew, Prince Winter. Isaac knew and liked Winter, and he was happy the Sidhe had found a mate in Isaac’s friend, Corbin. But he felt out of depth in this place full of important people. He was just Isaac. He’d always done his best to stay out of the limelight so that no one would
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discover his secrets. Why would he suddenly want to be involved with heads of state?

There were so many people there, some of whom Isaac had known since he was a child, others who were complete strangers.

Isaac wished they’d all reach a decision already so that he could go home. Perhaps he could meet up with Reed. Out of their old group, only a couple of them had remained without mates. It felt quite strange, especially since, by rights, all of them were still so young.

Isaac wondered if he would ever find his own soul mate. He hoped so.

All his previous liaisons had been unsatisfying, shadowed by the secrets Isaac was forced to keep. Where was that person who could understand Isaac, who could complete him?

“Isaac? Are you listening to me?”

Isaac looked at his mother again and realized he’d completely zoned out on her. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“Your father tells me King Sterling is on his way toward us,” she told him with a berating expression. “Pay attention.”

Isaac felt like a scolded child, and he didn’t like it. He’d already met Sterling at Winter’s wedding and had no interest in seeing the arrogant Sidhe again.

All of a sudden, the feeling of inadequacy was replaced by a strange new awareness. He was struck by the knowledge of rightness, and he stood there, frozen, breathless. He spotted the king approach, but unlike the first time they’d met, the king was not alone. Or rather, his entourage held someone else other than his usual posse. A young man with hair like spun gold and jet-black eyes stood behind him, seeming as uncomfortable here as Isaac felt.

The youth looked up, and their gazes locked and held. Isaac forgot about where he was and anything else that didn’t rotate around the man in front of him. His wolf awoke, howling at him.
Mate. Mate.

Isaac had no idea what to do in these circumstances. Twenty years back, his brother, Brody, had essentially kidnapped his own mate, but Isaac doubted that would work here.

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Thankfully, the Sidhe seemed to sense his confusion, need, and apprehension. He offered Isaac a small, shy smile. It drew Isaac like a moth to the flame, and he took a step forward before he could stop himself.

It was his mother’s voice that snapped him out of his trance.

“Greetings, King Sterling,” she politely said to the elder Sidhe.

“And to you, Annabelle. I can call you Annabelle, right?”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Isaac’s mother said. “It would be an honor. You remember my son, Isaac?”

The king turned toward Isaac, and Isaac did everything he’d been taught, regaling Sterling with a polite greeting as was suited to his station. The only thing he actually wanted was to be introduced to Sterling’s companion. Who was the blond beauty? Could he be Sterling’s lover? God, Isaac hoped not. He didn’t think he could compare with the Sidhe king as a mate, but he just might not be able to help it. The mere thought of anyone else except him touching the gorgeous stranger drove him crazy, and that wasn’t a good thing.

He needed to get a grip. They didn’t even know each other, for God’s sake. Isaac might have animal-like instincts, but he was also a person, and he had to be reasonable.

Thankfully, the Sidhe king saved him from his predicament. He turned toward the new arrival and said, “This is Chantay Arceneau.

He’s helped me with an important issue and is currently learning a little more about our culture.”

Chantay. Of course. Isaac had heard talk about Rhys Whitaker’s half brother. It was mostly secondhand information, but his friends had commented about meeting Chantay as well as what the young man had done to help Winter and Corbin.

“Isaac Wade. It’s a pleasure.” Isaac extended his hand just as Chantay did the same. The moment their palms touched, Isaac felt as if an electrical current were running through him. He saw Chantay’s eyes widen, and he realized his mate must have sensed the same thing.

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“The feeling is completely mutual,” Chantay replied in a soft, lightly accented voice. It was like velvet, almost a physical caress on Isaac’s skin. And for the first time in his life, Isaac realized he’d truly found a person who could understand him. A half-breed like him.

Like Isaac, Chantay was the product of a union considered forbidden. However, Chantay’s parents were magical creatures, his father an incubus and his mother a Sidhe. Oddly enough, before conceiving Chantay, his father, Romaine Arceneau, had given birth to Rhys with another man. The incubus in question was the Whitaker family patriarch and Alexis’s father.

Isaac had found this interesting when his friends had first mentioned it. Chantay’s family tree somewhat reminded Isaac of his own, and even then, he’d itched to know the other half-breed.

Something inside him had told him they could be great friends. He’d had no idea how right he’d been.

Distantly, Isaac registered King Sterling talking to Annabelle and drawing her aside. “If your son doesn’t mind, I’d like to have a word with you in private,” the older Sidhe said.

Isaac’s mother accepted the offer, and the duo left, therefore allowing Chantay and Isaac privacy. For a few moments, Isaac had no idea what to say. He just stared at his mate’s beautiful face, dumbfounded.

“You can let go of my hand now,” Chantay suddenly told him.

At the other man’s words, Isaac realized that indeed, he hadn’t released Chantay’s palm from his hold. He should have been embarrassed, but instead, he grinned. “Do I have to? Your hand just feels really good in mine.”

Chantay blushed prettily, his creamy skin turning an adorable shade of pink. “That might be true, but you don’t want to flirt with an incubus at a party filled with VIPs. I might make you do something embarrassing.”

“I don’t think anything’s embarrassing when one is in pursuit of…” He cut himself off just before saying love. Hell, they’d barely
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exchanged a couple of words. Starting to talk about profound feelings would certainly send Chantay running in the other direction.

“In the pursuit of what?” Chantay prodded.

“New friendships,” Isaac finished. He released Chantay’s hand, deciding to slow down a bit.

“New bonds.”

Was it Isaac’s imagination, or did Chantay look a little disappointed? Isaac tried to figure out what he’d done wrong, but Chantay didn’t give him time to panic. He smiled once again. “I like that,” he said. “Friendship is such a rare thing these days.”

Friendship wasn’t exactly what Isaac wanted from Chantay, but it would be a good beginning. Isaac scanned the crowd, seeking his mother and the king among all the people. When he couldn’t find them, he turned toward Chantay and asked, “Do you think King Sterling would mind terribly if I stole you away for a little while?”

Chantay shook his head. “His Majesty wants me to socialize. He believes it will be good for me.”

Isaac hooked his arm through Chantay’s. “And what do you think?” he inquired. “Does it bother you that he makes decision for you?”

The other man offered him a tiny smirk, just a barely there twist of lips. “So who’s the incubus now? Are you in my mind, in my heart?”

Isaac chuckled. “Hardly. I just understand how it feels like to live in the shadow of an important person.”

His eyes found his father’s imposing figure in the crowd. He loved and respected the elder werewolf dearly, but there were things about Isaac that Kevin Wade would never understand.

“What’s he like, your father?” Chantay inquired, having obviously seen the direction of Isaac’s gaze. “I met him briefly, and he gave me the impression of a very powerful leader.”

“He is that and so much more,” Isaac replied. “He did his best to help me when I needed him. In spite of what everyone said, he
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supported my brothers and married my mother. But…I get the feeling I’m always letting him down.”

Isaac released an awkward laugh as he realized just what he’d said. He was supposed to be trying to impress Chantay, not regaling the man with stories of his insecurities. “Why am I telling you this?

We’ve only just met.”

“And yet, it feels like we’ve known each other forever,” Chantay replied. His eyes glowed like black diamonds when he looked at Isaac. “You and I are alike, Isaac. I can feel it. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but we were meant to meet.”

Isaac stared at his beautiful mate, unable to believe his ears. Those words were exactly like what he’d been thinking earlier, only he’d been afraid to utter them, afraid that he would lose Chantay before he even had the man.

Chantay’s incubus abilities seemed to fail him. “I don’t mean that the way it sounded,” he hastily said, freeing himself from Isaac’s grip.

He laughed, hiding his eyes under his long bangs. “You must think I’m such a freak, talking about destiny with a perfect stranger.”

Freak
. It was the word that had been Isaac’s self-assigned label ever since he’d been old enough to understand wolves weren’t meant to have fleece. “No, baby,” he said. “I don’t think. I don’t think that at all.”

He reached for Chantay’s hand and pulled the younger man out of the large ballroom. Much to his relief, Chantay didn’t protest. Isaac would have very much liked to go with Chantay on a walk through the large gardens of the Cunningham manse, but there were far too many people around, and Isaac needed privacy.

Thankfully, as a good friend of the family, Isaac had access to wings of the mansion that were off-limits to most visitors. As such, he led Chantay upstairs and into a balcony near the Cunninghams’

personal wing. No one stopped him or asked any questions, already knowing of his family’s close relationship with the shark-shifter and his seahorse mate.

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Finally, they were alone. As they stepped in the balcony, they could see other people moving around in the gardens. Chantay took a deep breath, as if greedy for oxygen. “Thank you,” he said. “I felt like I was choking down there.” He leaned against the banister, staring into the distance. “I’m not used to having many people around.

There’s so much emotion. I don’t know how to filter it, how to control it. My father has done his best to help me, but now…Now I can’t go back home. I can’t go to him.”

Their situations were strikingly similar, with one huge exception.

In spite of his somewhat-strained relationship with his father, Isaac still had his family. Chantay seemed to have been deprived of it.

They sat down on the empty chairs, and for a few moments, a comfortable silence fell. Now more than ever, Isaac was aware of how strange this situation was. Just fifteen minutes earlier, he hadn’t even known Chantay. Now, he was ready to open his heart to the man.

In a strange way, it felt as if he’d been waiting for this all his life, for someone with whom he could have kinship. His friends and family cared about him, but they couldn’t understand how it was like to be torn between two contrasting impulses.

“Why can’t you go back?” he asked Chantay, knowing the other man needed to talk about it.

Chantay looked toward him, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“You know why. You know what he did. I have to atone for it. I have to make sure nothing like that happens again.”

Yes, Isaac knew. Even if it wasn’t exactly common knowledge, their close circle of family and friends were all informed about the circumstances behind Layton Cunningham’s strange infatuation with Corbin Mckenna. Chantay’s father, Romaine, had been one of the people instrumental in creating the spell that had nearly separated Layton from his true mate, Preston. Even worse, that very same spell had left behind a dark trace that had nearly killed Layton’s son, Shea, and later, Sidhe prince Winter.

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But none of that was Chantay’s fault. “You’re not to blame for your father’s mistakes,” he told Chantay. “Besides, that’s all over now. The spell is gone. You helped defeat it.”

“Yes, but how long until someone else strikes another deal with the devil? My father meant well when he agreed to it. That’s the only reason he isn’t rotting in some cell right now. He did it for us, for me and my mother. But no one should have to be forced into something so awful. No one should have to withstand the consequences.”

Chantay’s gaze was earnest as he reached for Isaac’s hand. “I want to understand our world, to help stop the prejudice separating our people. But it’s so hard. How do you do it, Isaac? How?”

Isaac thought back at all the stories he’d been told growing up.

Wolves and sheep were natural enemies, and they’d reached a tentative truce only a few years before Isaac’s birth. Things weren’t perfect even now, but his parents’ longtime mating had helped prove that they weren’t so different after all. Even so, Isaac knew all too well that in spite of this progress, many still considered Isaac unworthy to be the son of the werewolf elder. No one had the courage to actually come out and say it, but not even his father’s efforts could wipe out prejudice deeply ingrained inside people.

Yes, they were still struggling, and wolves were doing better than other shifter races. Felines often discarded the new rules and chose to live their own way, by the old code that focused on their animalistic side. It had even happened at the United Paranormal Academy, where all students were supposed to be safe from their natural enemies.

“I wish I could give you an answer,” he replied to Chantay. “The only thing I know is that we need time and perseverance. People won’t just understand from the very beginning that hating someone else just brings sorrow for everyone involved in the conflict.”