Un.Wavering (Claimed Series Book 3) (20 page)

They said Julian shared the face of his father, of the infamous Logan Crow. But to Hayden, he didn’t share the face of a stranger, but of her own, elusive father, Kevin Grey.

It was as if she looked through a distorted mirror, or maybe even an old photograph.

Hayden shared many similar facial features as her estranged father. From the long nose to the almond-shaped eyes. She even possessed his square jawline and his upturned lips.

All those features of her father mirrored back at her in Julian Crow. Only, Julian also shared their father’s hazel eyes and the same slicked-back blond hair. Though, his shade of blond possessed some of Celeste’s warm red.

Hayden stood in absolute silence, her body stiff and clammy with anxiety. Not only did she reel over the revelation that her father was the very same ghost they were recklessly hunting after, but also the fact that her father had not simply abandoned his family, but had died a couple years ago.

In her mind, she’d always considered him dead.

However, knowing it was actually true devastated her.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Julian coaxed, his voice nearly earsplitting in the stunned, observing silence. “Logan Crow slept around quite frequently. An offspring or two were bound to happen. Of course, none as
special
as
you
.”

His tone was sour and his eyes flashed bitterly.

A bombshell like this wasn’t supposed to happen to Hayden. She’d been a simple human, bitten on accident and dragged unwillingly into the werewolf world. They were looking for Xavier Slayter’s dirty secrets, not hers, not her father’s.

She could sense the skeptical eyes and feel the weight of the focused attention from the surrounding spectators. Questions burned her throat and pressed heavily on her chest, yet nothing came out of her mouth.

She stood there stupidly, staring at the younger version of her father.

And he was younger.

She drank the sight of him, morbidly fascinated. He was not yet a full-fledged male werewolf. Built like Hayden, he was slender with long limbs. His shoulders were broader, though, and his body was on the cusp of adulthood.

One thing Hayden kept turning over in her head was that her father was a
werewolf
and why she still couldn’t see it, even now. Did her mother know? Course not. Then, how could she not have known, having slept with the man, having conceived a child with the man, having
married
the man?

Although, he
had
been gone for work the majority of the time... a convenient way to cover the fact he lived a double life.

Her eyes landed on Nicolas, narrowing her sights on him. Just yesterday, he’d questioned her specifically on her father. His career in particular. “You knew,” she accused softly. “All those questions about my father. You knew all this time.”

“I had my suspicions, and only just recently.”

“No one knew,” Julian interrupted, drawing Hayden’s attention once again. “With the exception of myself, my mother, and a few close friends of my father.”

Celeste.

It suddenly dawned on Hayden that Celeste had known all along.

It had been too ironic that Tracer had showed up on her Aunt’s property that night of the full moon. Celeste planned Hayden’s transformation into a werewolf from the very beginning, or maybe, the woman had hoped Hayden had died that night.

“I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many bastard children Logan Crow spawned. He’s lived a very long time.”  Julian glided off the last step and slowly advanced. “It’s not uncommon. But what
is
uncommon is for a werewolf to impregnate a human woman and conceive a human child.”

Hayden knew it wasn’t impossible, though. Fergus and Nathan were living proof of that theory. While they were twins, Fergus had been born a human.

“His one and only little girl. He wanted to stick around and play house with the humans for as long as possible.”

It was impossible to ignore his disgust and envy. He was upset over his father’s deceit and he saw Hayden as the perfect scapegoat. “You sound bitter,” she said dryly, recognizing this would not be a happy family reunion.

He raised a finely shaped eyebrow. “Shouldn’t I be? Shouldn’t
you
be? He destroyed my mother and lived a double life. The only difference is that I knew his true self, while you were raised with a deceitful and neglectful father.”

She trembled. The truth and his words hit her hard.

Julian studied the trio, looking especially at the way Nicolas and Cole stood unmoving on either side of her. “Ironic you keep the company of Slayters. Just like our father.” He looked at Cole. “I know exactly why you’ve come here. And I’m afraid I can’t give you the answers you’re looking for.”

With one last assessing sneer, Julian turned his back and retreated towards the pack house. Other werewolves began following suit, apparently dismissing the conversation and company entirely.

Hayden exhaled in surprise, subconsciously reaching out a hand toward his retreating back. “That’s it?” she demanded sharply. A hand landed on her shoulder, holding her back. “You can tell me about our relation, but you won’t give answers on Xavier Slayter?”

“You don’t want information about Xavier Slayter,” Julian countered fiercely, turning his heel and facing her once more. “You want information about what he was involved with while in the company of my parents.
You
want to take my mother down, armed with enough information to use against her.”

“Yes,” she admitted without hesitation.

Why deny it when it was so painfully obvious?

His expression remained firm, unreadable. “I’ll tell you what,” he started slowly. “I will challenge you to a hand-to-hand combat. Without your favorite knives.  If you win, I’ll give you answers.”

At the spoken offer, laughter chorused across the ranch. Hayden finally tore her eyes away from Julian and assessed her surroundings. Werewolves were everywhere. Seeing the numbers in person was far more impressive than hearing about it.

Julian truly had a significant amount of manpower behind his every order.

All of them, at least four dozen, appeared amused at Julian’s offer; as if they all shared a secret only they were privy too. Hayden recognized the ridicule in their eyes, the fire behind their amusement.

To them, a mere female wouldn’t stand a chance against their Alpha male.

“And if you win,” Hayden prompted impatiently.

Julian smiled sinisterly. “We need another female in our pack. Especially a daughter of Logan Crow. Even if you are a Mutt, you still come from a predominant pedigree to produce strong offspring.”

A set of heavy hands fell on top her shoulders just as high-pitched whistles and cheers erupted amongst the men of Julian’s pack. Cole clutched her, his expression as dark as she’d ever seen it before. Even Nicolas, who liked to remain aloof when it came to Hayden’s safety, stepped in front of her territorially.

“Those sound like reasonable terms. We will agree to them,” Nicolas informed icily. “Only, I will be taking Hayden’s place in combat.”

Julian laughed hollowly. “I am not stupid. I will do everything in my power for favorable outcomes, even if that means being a pompous ass for challenging a female.” He shook his head. “I can’t beat you, not yet, anyway. My offer only extends to
her.
”

“Then I’m afraid she won’t be accepting.”

Hayden grinded her teeth at Nicolas’ bold intervention. Just as she was about to argue, the Alpha male turned abruptly and caged her against Cole’s unmoving chest.

“No,” he told her simply, yet sternly, as if he anticipated her forthcoming rebuttal. His eyes then flickered above her head at Cole. “Do you not agree?”

“I don’t think it’s your decision to make, or Cole’s either,” Hayden argued quietly. Pitching her voice lower, she said, “If I lose the challenge, I don’t think you’d let them take me. There is enough room on their property to make an escape—”

“That is not why I think you should refuse.”

“Why then?”

Nicolas’ jaw clenched. “Your ego.”

Hayden went from being reluctantly flattered at Nicolas’ apparent protection to downright insulted that he thought so lowly of her abilities. She lifted her lip, flashing him a look of disdain. He simply stared back, completely unbothered.

Cole tightened his grip on her shoulders and bent down near her ear. “I think what he is having difficulty admitting, Hayden, is that he is worried about you.”

“I’m sure that’s exactly what he meant,” she growled out.

“After what you just learned about your father, I believe he intends to use the challenge in order to put you in your place.” Cole squeezed her collarbone, a forewarning to control her rising anger. “He will go out of his way to humiliate you, to hurt you, to show his pack who the true successor is to Logan Crow.”

Hayden dropped her shoulders, shaking off Cole’s hold. “I don’t care about
him
; I don’t care about my father. I only want answers. I’m willing to put my ego on the line for that chance.”

“If you lose, you are essentially agreeing to be seen as a breeding bitch.”

Pinning Nicolas with a severe look, Hayden immediately noticed he was on edge, from his locked jaw to his rigid shoulders. Her ire over his comment diminished somewhat and sadistic amusement took its place.

It was nice to know even Nicolas Slayter grew anxious.

“Isn’t that how every female werewolf is looked at anyway?” Hayden asked sharply. “It doesn’t matter how powerful or smart she is, males will always look down on her.”

“Now we know where she gets her intolerable obstinacy.”

Ignoring Nicolas’ murmured insult, Hayden sidestepped the two males and looked pointedly at Julian. “I accept.”

Cole sighed wearily behind her, his aura exuding heavy disapproval. Julian, however, smiled widely, a glint of predator glee in his eyes.

Around them, the werewolves howled excitingly and hurriedly made their way to the training stadium. They threw open the double doors and light flooded inside the dusty structure. Something told Hayden that challenges around Julian’s pack were common.

“I will meet you in the arena.” Julian motioned toward his pack members. “I will give you three a chance to either leave beforehand, or try to formulate an escape plan for when she loses.”

Hayden stared at his proud face, eerily reminded of her father.

“I’d recommend the earlier option,” he continued airily. “Despite your infamous Slayter
talents
, you are sadly outnumbered. She will hold her end of the bargain despite your intentions to prevent otherwise.”

With a superior spring to his step, he abandoned them in order to make an entrance inside the arena. She seethed at his arrogance and slowly unbuttoned her blouse, ignoring the tension exuding from her companions.

Because she couldn’t use her knives, she didn’t want their weight hindering her movements. Unfastening her holster, she passed the assortment of throwing knives to Cole. Fortunately, he accepted the weapons without any argument.

Stifling his displeasure, Nicolas began lecturing. “We will assume he is similar to Logan in skill level, but keep in mind he has not yet reached maturity.”

Nicolas and Cole didn’t think she could beat Julian.

Maybe they were right. She might be in over her head, but adrenaline coursed through her body, her mind in chaotic disorder, and her resolve to get answers suffocated her. If Julian wanted to make a game out of it, so be it. If he wanted to put her in her place, she’d just have to make it difficult for him.

“Logan was very skilled,” Cole continued quietly, “but he was also arrogant and conceited. Before Logan and our father were comrades, he underestimated Xavier in the beginning, which led to his defeat.”

“Julian is leading the majority of this pack on name alone.” Nicolas walked Hayden to the stadium, Cole in step beside them. “He may underestimate you. You may be able to play on that particular weakness by going slow in the beginning. Lead him to a false sense of security.
Make
him underestimate you.”

They had good information, experienced knowledge, but in the end, they truly didn’t know how good Julian was at combating. They were making assumptions, just as they were betting Julian was making assumptions of her.

The only problem to their theory was that Julian already knew so much about Hayden from Celeste’s information. Despite his claim of staying neutral in this conflict between the traditional wolves and his mother, it was painfully obvious he kept in contact with Celeste.

Hayden stopped at the entrance of the stadium, absorbing her surroundings.

The center ring was enormous and empty of everything but a hard layer of sand. Werewolves, buzzing with excitement, surrounded the ring, sitting or propping themselves against the metal gate that extended around the perimeter.

Her eyes drifted upward, toward the dim, industrial lights hanging from the vaulted rafters. Dust and sand danced high in the air, coating the abandoned and yellowed windows.

The air was stale and warm, a layer of perspiration already coating her skin. In the center of the ring, Julian stood waiting, having already discarded his shirt and shoes.