Riley's Redemption (A Moon's Glow Novel) (14 page)

Marisa squealed, but
Sadie frowned. “I can’t let you do that, you guys have been so helpful
already.”

I laid a hand on her
leg, hoping to comfort her. While I have never struggled for money, given my
line of work, I understood her apprehension to taking handouts. “I insist.
Lauren will be home as well, we’ll make a day of it.”

Sadie’s face
brightened. Most likely feeling included for the first time since we found
them.

Nate smiled at me,
admiration shining in his eyes. Then he focused his attention on Adrian. “So,
the fridge and cupboards are stocked.” When Adrian’s eyebrow rose in question,
Nate added, “I called when we were on the road to arrange it.” He paused as he
moved out into the hallway. “And if you need anything else just give us a call.
And if not, meet us at the cottage at about six?”

Adrian nodded. “Sounds
good, thanks.”

When we entered our
house, I practically cried when I fell into the soft cushions of our sofa. It
was so good to be home. I leaned back with my feet up on the coffee table as
Nate went over everything with Sadie—the spare room, the guest bathroom and
kitchen. Once he finished, she excused herself so she could unpack and set up
her room.

Nate fell into the sofa
next to me and sighed. “It’s good to be home isn’t it?”

I nodded my head up and
down, staring off into space. I was tired and as I had sat down my body seemed
to deflate. I heard Nate turn the TV on and I shifted so I could lean on his
shoulder. That was the last thing I remembered before I fell asleep.

Tension

A knock woke me from my
nap. The sound of a strong heartbeat reminded me where I was—on the couch,
leaning on Nate’s comfortable chest. The TV was turned off and Joe and Lauren
were on the other side of the door. I could smell their combined scents,
despite the foggy sleepiness that had settled in my brain. I felt Nate tense
under my head and sat up. I watched him rub his face in agitation. His eyes
were half glazed indicating that he had fallen asleep as well.

“Don’t be too hard on
him,” I whispered, so the werewolves on the porch wouldn’t hear me.

“Why shouldn’t I?”

Instead of answering
him, I gave him a pointed, stern look.

“Fine,” he retorted in
a childish, petulant way that I would expect from me, but never from him.

I couldn’t help the
smile that grew from seeing this side of him. He only scowled at me, clearly
annoyed, which was also out of character for him.

We both stood up and I
took his hand for support, squeezing his warm fingers.

When Nate opened the
door Joe’s expression was guarded as he flared his nostrils, his eyes darting
around the room. He avoided the penetrating glare Nate was giving him.

“Hey guys, I’m so glad
you’re back,” Lauren cried cheerfully, rushing into my arms. She was wearing a
sunny yellow sundress and her sandy hair was up in a ponytail. She looked as
fresh as springtime. I had just seen her two weeks ago in Vegas, but since I
had been so far away, the distance made it seem like it had been much longer.

“It hasn’t been that
long,” I said with laughter in my voice, as the smell of her guava shampoo
wafted around me. I pulled away from her and smiled a greeting to Joe, who
remained in front of the door, looking reserved. His gray eyes pointed behind
me. He must have caught Sadie’s scent.

Nate closed the door
with a soft click as Lauren and I moved to the sofa. Joe remained standing, his
hands in the pocket of his jeans.

“Is there someone else
here? I smell another werewolf,” Lauren asked, getting comfortable by folding
her legs out in front of her.

Nate stepped toward us
and leered at Joe as he answered Lauren. “Yes. We have a houseguest. Can you
guess who it is, Joe?” Although his voice sounded cheerful, the glare he was
shooting Joe could scare a child.

Joe shifted his feet
and stared down at the floor. “Nate,” he began, but was quickly cut off by my
annoyed husband.

“How could you lie to
me for so long?” You could hear the hurt and anger in his voice, it tore at my
heart and I wanted to comfort him.

“Just let me explain.”
Joe’s voice had taken on his thick Irish brogue. It always happened when he was
upset. Sometimes it was hard to understand him, other times if he was happy he
almost sounded American.

“Explain what? That you
wanted to protect me from a vampire that you knew wasn’t after her. I told you
who shot me when I woke up. Why didn’t you tell me then so I could find her?”

Lauren watched their
exchange with confusion. “Vampire?” Her hazel eyes went wide and she gazed at
me. “They’re real?”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

Joe’s attention went
from Nate, to Lauren and then back to Nate. “For all I knew he was still bloody
well after her. She asked me to help protect you, so I did. He may not have
been the one that shot you, but he could have been watching her. So I made it
look like she died.”

Joe’s explanation did
nothing to change Nate’s demeanour. If anything, he seemed more fired up. His
eyes turned yellow and his face hardened with rage. “What the hell did you
bury?”

Joe’s face clouded with
guilt, as he looked down at the floor. “A dead wolf.”

“Are you serious?” Nate
spat out angrily. “You think a vampire is stupid enough to fall for that?”

Joe’s eyes flashed with
annoyance. “How should I bloody well know?” His voice rose. “I’ve thankfully
never had to meet one.”

“Well they`re not. If
we could smell the difference between a real wolf and a werewolf then so can
they.” Nate was now yelling and I could hear movement in the spare room. Sadie
must have been sleeping before, but she was up now.

“Then answer me this
Nate, why didn’t
you
know the difference?” Joe asked. His accent was so
thick it was hard to understand. He grimaced when he saw the look that crossed
Nate’s face. “I’m sorry, alright?” he stammered.

“I was shaken by the
fact I had just lost my best friend and I was too overcome by sorrow to
notice.” Nate’s eyes returned to their natural color, but were now narrowed. “I
might understand why you lied when it first happened, but what about all the
years since? What else have you lied to me about?”

“What’s going on?”
Lauren whispered to me, gazing at the men in front of us with apprehension.

I opened my mouth to
answer her, but the sound of the spare bedroom door opening interrupted me.

Sadie stepped into the
living room. Her face was edged with uncertainty and her lips were turned up in
a shy smile. Her long brown hair was again in a braid that fell over her left
shoulder. She had changed into a white peasant, short-sleeved top and a long
faded jean skirt. Her appearance must be close to the way it was when Nate met her
back in the sixties. The words flower child came to mind. All that was missing
was a peace sign.

We all turned to look
at her.

“Hi Joseph,” she
greeted him hesitantly.

Joe gave her a sharp
nod. “Sadie.” His voice was as terse as his expression.

“What, that’s all you
have to say to a girl that came back from the dead; the one that you helped
fake?” Nate asked, raising his voice louder. I had never heard him speak to
anyone the way he was with Joe, his closest friend. His usual calm demeanour
was nowhere to be seen. This angry crazed werewolf was so unlike him. An ache
formed in my chest, at the sound of their arguing. I hated seeing him like
this.

“I’ve said how sorry I
am. I don’t know what else to say.” Joe ran his hand roughly through his mop of
auburn hair.

“There is nothing to
say now. You should have said a lot more for the last fifty years.” Nate’s face
went hard, his jaw locked, a vein pulsed in his neck.

I stood up and moved
toward him. “Nate, calm down,” I said gently, rubbing his back. The cotton from
his gray shirt bunched up under my hand.

His eyes flicked to
mine and he took a deep breath, his face relaxing just a tiny bit.

“I’m going to go have a
shower before dinner.” He leaned into me and kissed the top of my head. With
one more scowl in Joe’s direction he went into the bedroom, slamming the door
behind him with a
bang,
causing
the windows to shake.

We all jumped at the
loud noise.

“I’m sorry Joe. I
didn’t expect to see him and when he asked me what happened, I didn’t know what
to say,” Sadie explained softly, her voice wavering with emotion.

“It’s alright,” Joe
said shaking his head. “He’d have found out eventually.”

Lauren gazed at me,
imploring me with her eyes. She was in the dark and getting frustrated.

“Lauren this is Sadie,
an old friend of Nate’s and the girl that has raised Marisa,” I explained,
knowing she was extremely confused.

Lauren’s mouth fell
open in shock. “You’re the one that took Marisa from Adrian?”

Guilt clouded Sadie’s
features as she nodded slowly.

For some reason I felt
the need to defend her. Even though I was and always would be on Adrian’s side,
I knew this situation was not black and white. She had had good reasons to keep
Marisa from her brother. She just didn’t know that those reasons were lies
thought up by a sadistic werewolf set on ruining people’s lives for fun.
“Charlotte told her that Adrian killed his parents. She thought she was
protecting her,” I explained. “And she’s Adrian’s mate.” I couldn’t help add
that little nugget of info. For some reason I was amused at what fate had
thrown at Adrian and I could barely hold in a giggle.

Lauren’s jaw dropped
even further. “No way!” she gasped at me.

Sadie shot me a look of
embarrassment, her cheeks flushing red.

“I invited Sadie and
Marisa to invade my closet at home and then do a day of beauty tomorrow. Do you
want to come?” I asked Lauren.

“Sure, it sounds fun,”
Lauren replied, eyeing Sadie and then Joe who was now sitting on an arm chair
stiffly, staring at his shoes. “What did Nate mean when he said you helped fake
her death?”

Joe closed his eyes and
sighed heavily. “I’ll fill you in on the way home. We should be going, so we
can go get ready for dinner.” He stood up and held his hand out for Lauren to
take.

She gave me and Sadie a
weak smile and placed her hand in his. Together they escaped the tension-filled
cottage.

The room was suddenly
silent, as if all the noise was sucked out the door with them.

“That was intense,” I
muttered, hoping to break the awkwardness that lingered in the room.

Sadie let out a long breath,
as if she had been holding it for a while. She moved slowly to the arm chair
and fell into it. “It sure was.” She leaned her head up and gazed at the
ceiling, the hair that had come loose from her braid stuck out around her head.

I sat back down on the
sofa and sprawled my legs onto the coffee table, flipping the TV back on to
avoid conversation.

We were quiet for a
while. Clearly I wasn’t the only one that felt uncomfortable. I glanced outside
at the lake, where Nate’s red speedboat was docked. I craved the relaxation a
ride would give me: the crisp air blowing through my hair, the water splashing
my skin, cooling me from the hot weather. We hadn’t been out in quite some
time.

I was watching the
water slap against the hull when I heard Sadie sigh heavily. As I turned back
around, she groaned.

“Is there something
you’d like to talk about?” I asked, taking her not so subtle hint.

“I just wish I could
change almost every decision I’ve ever made, you know?” She paused, twirling
her long braid around her finger. Strands of brown hair curled along her skin.
“Everything is so screwed up because of my decision fifty years ago. Nate is
angry at Joe. And because I believed Charlotte`s lies, I put Marisa and Adrian
through hell. I should leave. I’m just in the way here.”

I didn’t think it was
possible, but I actually felt sorry for the girl that had kept Adrian from his
sister. She didn’t mean to cause problems. She was just a pawn in Charlotte’s
games. She shouldn’t feel responsible.

I hit mute on the TV
and turned to face her. “Sadie, we all make mistakes. I’ve made my share and so
have the others. Nate bit me. Adrian didn’t stop Charlotte from kidnapping me
and Lauren. And Joe lied to Nate. It was his choice, you didn’t make him.” She
dropped the braid and it fell behind her, resting on her back. “If someone told
me that a child was in danger, I would have done the same thing you did. That
is all on Charlotte. You didn’t know she was an evil bitch.”

Sadie pursed her lips
and squeezed her eyes closed. Her body shook with a silent sob. “But if I had
just looked into it more. What if they had family out there? I didn’t even look
to see if there were grandparents who could have taken her. Living with humans
would have been a lot better for her than being with a teenage werewolf that
never ages.”

I sighed, feeling a
sensation of deja vu. “Okay, I’m going to give you advice that Adrian gave to
me six months ago.” I pulled my legs off the table and leaned forward. “As you
know, Nate bit me.” When she nodded, I went on. “I was devastated. I couldn’t
believe that the man I loved had taken away my humanity without asking me. I
knew it was a mistake, but that didn’t matter at the time. I dwelled on the
negative. Nate had bit me and I saw nothing else.

“I was miserable without
him and he was miserable without me. We were mated and we were in love. But I
was stubborn and refused to see anything other than his sharp teeth, piercing
my skin.”

Sympathy washed in her
chocolate brown eyes. “That is understandable.”

“What you may not know
is that Lauren was turned as well, by Charlotte. Her DNA was diluted with a
sleeping drug and Lauren had a hard time turning into a wolf. For hours she
writhed in pain, turning back and forth.”

Terror for another
werewolf flashed over her face. “That sounds awful.”

“It was and if Nate
hadn’t bit me the night before, without either of us noticing, I would have
suffered through the same torture.” I took in a breath, ready to get to my
point. “What I’m trying to say is that Adrian pointed something out to me.
Instead of dwelling on the fact that I would have turned into a werewolf, even
if Charlotte hadn’t shot me with her DNA, I should focus on the pain that he
had saved me from. It didn’t matter what might have happened. It was what
actually happened that was important. Nate saved me from the pain and you
trusted Charlotte. Plus, you took care of Marisa when Adrian couldn’t.” I
winked, leaning forward even more to pat her leg. “And from what I have seen,
you did a great job.”

Sadie smiled. “Thank
you Megan. I appreciate your advice.”

I had been so wrapped
up in my story that I didn’t notice Nate standing in the doorway. He was
leaning against the doorjamb with a lopsided grin on his face. His eyes were
filled with pride, as well as remorse as he gazed at me. I knew he was happy
that I was trying to cheer up his friend. But he hated being reminded of that
fateful night six months ago. Even though he was trying to hide it, the look of
regret was just the tip of what he felt for that small act of carelessness.

“I guess you heard all
that?” I asked when I noticed him.

Sadie swung around in
his direction.