The Gamma's Birthright - Book 2

Two days later, she was driving to the border town of Emlinase.

She’d put in a request to see the human that caused the car crash from drinking too much and therefore the death of her parents.

Within two hours, the request had been approved, something she hadn’t expected and not that fast.

There was a two-day wait until the meeting occurred, to allow for the human to change his mind, but while she’d expected him to back out, he hadn’t.

The two days had given her time to lick her wounds over Andy and for Tyra to heal a little.

It was probably the safest time to make this trip, her wolf wasn't needed and no wolf can enter human territory without a reason or invitation.

Ironically, it would be the last place anyone looked for her.

Despite rejecting Andy, the weight of their broken bond seemed to be weighing heavily on both Tyra and herself.

While she was physically okay, emotionally she probably wouldn't heal until he accepted the rejection, she just hoped that it would be sooner rather than later.

Focussing on preparing for her upcoming fight, she was once again attempting to separate the emotions from her life as she had done for years as the Gamma, but this seemed to be so much harder to do.

Ten minutes ago, she’d become Gamma Woodfield again, pinning the wig in place and changing into the uniform and cloak she's known for.

Hiding all trace of the other clothes she’d purchased, her face is now bleak and foreboding, slipping back into her old role is far too easy for her.

She can't decide in what persona she's now at greater risk, Andy knows all about Emma, but maybe if she remains 'The Dark Gamma' the fear people harbour of that name will mean, people will not talk about her.

Creating fear isn't something she likes to do, but in this case, it may be safer to do so, something she will need to think about after this visit.

Signing all the appropriate paperwork, she allowed the tracker to be attached to her wrist, and the thin silver wrist cuffs, to stop her shifting, due to the nature of the meeting, the humans were keen to ensure they minimised the risks.

Supernaturals are always tracked when they are in human territory unless they enter illegally.

It took fifteen minutes for her escort to read her the rules, and while they drive to the meeting place at midday, he will wait around, dart gun at the ready, in case she ‘loses’ it.

Colin, the human driver that hit her parents’ car, is there already, as she gets out of the car, the escort does a final check with Colin that he still wants to proceed, before he steps back, giving them some privacy, outside a coffee shop.

Toni takes her time to assess the human, he’s sweating his heartbeat is faster than she believes is normal, and she can smell his fear and nervousness.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet me”

She holds out her hand

“Gamma Antonia Woodfield”

He stares at her hand as if it is dangerous for ten long seconds before he takes it.

“Colin, Colin Jenkins” His voice has a trembling quality

Toni looks at the human, he’s older than she expected, but then it’s eleven years since the accident and he’s clearly into his forties, as humans go, he’s not a small man in build or height, but he gives off a very humble, unassuming feeling to her.

“Before we start, I’m just here to close off the past, I’m not after retribution or blame.

I understand you spent six years in prison after you pled guilty, so your punishment has been served and I’m at peace with what happened.”

Toni’s words seem to relax Colin, at least his heartbeat is calming, slowly, but his fear is still there.

“Coffee?”

She’s technically asking a question, but she just walks confidently into the coffee shop and as expected he follows like a lamb, most humans are just like low-level members of a pack, seeking direction when they are unsure of themselves.

They sit in the back corner of the coffee shop after getting their drinks, Toni has taken the seat facing the door, back to the wall, truly back into Gamma mode, on the alert, for the first few minutes, they sit in silence.

The annoying ticking of a clock on the wall beats the time, something Toni hasn’t ever understood about humans, why they wanted to have noisy clocks marking the passing of time for their short lives.

Granted werewolves only lived to one hundred and twenty, sometimes one hundred and fifty, but that was still almost double the average human life.

No matter how loud the clock sounds, it doesn’t drown out the racing beat of Colin’s heart, nor the annoying employees' loud whispering, all trying to guess why a wolf is in the shop, she hears everything.

But it's the ticking of the clock that is like an itch she cannot scratch, like a doomsday clock, reminding her each second is bringing her closer to meeting the Goddess.

“So how do we do this” he mumbles

His eyes have not raised to look at her, they just stare at a stain on the tablecloth as he absently stirs his coffee.

The smell of Colin’s fear is subsiding slightly

“Just tell me what happened, that’s all I want, don’t sugar coat it, don’t tell me they died instantly if they lived for a few hours and if you don’t know, just tell me outright.

I just want to learn the truth.”

Colin’s heart rate spikes on her last sentence and his eyes flash to her face quickly, before falling away, his breaths are shorter and faster, and he’s going into panic mode.

This was a mistake, she was not even sure why she cared about the little anomalies between the report the Nightshade pack had and the ones she’d come across from the human police report she’d accessed from the Royal Pack.

Whether her parents had died immediately, the human police report, or a few hours later in a human hospital, the pack report, didn’t change the fact they died.

Finally, she realised it was she who had made a mistake, she’d accepted, even if not mourned their deaths years ago, so what did it matter, why was she spending her limited time chasing down issues that didn’t matter?

She sighs, finally at peace with not needing to know the exact details, what good would it have done anyway, doesn’t bring her family back, nor change what happened to her.

“It’s okay, thank you for at least meeting me”

Toni stands, putting some money on the table to cover the tip before she starts walking to the door

“Wait”

Colin’s voice is cracked and barely above a whisper, she turns.

“Are you, their daughter?”

His eyes flick to Toni’s briefly before she answers him

“Yes”

“You were supposed to be with them.”

The words are so quietly spoken, so innocuously and yet they create a maelstrom of emotions in her head, while his voice appears to freeze time.

She can’t even hear the annoyingly loud clock beating out the time anymore, just the loud irregular beating of her own heart.

The rushing of blood in her ears

It feels like hours have passed, but, unless the clock has stopped it’s barely been a minute.

If Colin had looked nervous before, he looked downright terrified now.

She was just pleased his back was to the window, or she’d probably already been darted by the watcher assuming he was in danger.

Her body is screaming out to take action, any action.

It takes every ounce of control she has to relax and slide back into her chair.

Unable to stop herself, her wolf rises to the surface, she leans forward slightly, not being able to help the forced dominance Tyra is pushing her body into, watching the human recoil in front of her.

“You..."

She licks her dry lips.

"You... a human... killed them... on purpose?”

She hears the words come out of her mouth, sounding controlled, calm and quiet but very, very cold, she can smell his fear as he pushes himself as far away as he can, as if he’s hoping the chair will absorb him and offer protection.

What surprises her is it’s totally unlike the chaos that is carving a path through her mind, trying to find a way out of the cage that is her body, wondering how this human had managed to plan and kill her parents.

Years of hiding her emotional response is the only thing that allows her to look less threatening to this human, to forcibly relax her body in expectation of his answer, to stop emotion from seeping into her voice and to keep her hands from shifting to claws and ripping his throat out.

“No, No, No, I didn’t kill them, I haven’t killed anyone, well not directly.

I was paid to take the blame for the accident.”

The words tumble from his mouth hurriedly, he screws his eyes shut trying to find the inner strength he needs to face her.

“I’ve waited eleven years to tell this story, I need you to know what happened.

What I did was wrong and I regret it but please understand, I was in a bad place and owed money to the cartels.

I know, at least now, it wasn’t the right thing to do, but at the time it seemed like my only way out when I was approached.

I don’t expect you to fully understand, not even sure if I do anymore, but I need to explain, be honest, about everything, but not here.

What I have to say, well I’d rather no one else heard.”

His head has dropped, like a scolded pup.

Closing her eyes, she forcibly slows her racing heart, controlling her breathing before she opens them and gazes once more at this human.

The weight of knowledge now hung heavily over her, she had to hear him out, she couldn’t walk away now, even if she wanted to, this was a wound she had inflicted on herself and no band-aid would ever be enough to cover it.

“The rules for meeting you require that we remain in a public place.

If you whisper, I will still hear you don’t worry about other people, I can make sure they keep away from us, if you move to the left, you will feel more comfortable”

Toni can feel the tenseness in her jaw, the cold hard look she knows her eyes would hold, and she pushes out enough of her command aura to know that the waitresses won’t want to come closer, no human would, but protecting Colin from the force of it, allowing him to talk, but not run.

For the next hour, Colin talked and Toni listened as he bared his soul to her, her mouth dry with a bitter taste by the time he finished.

“So how much were you paid?” Toni finally breaks the silence

“Two hundred thousand for the final arrangement.

Then a further seventy-five thousand for each year I served in prison and finally fifty thousand for the following six years after my release.

The initial sum covered my debt to the cartels and was the payment for two adults, originally, if you had been included it was going to be three hundred and fifty thousand.

The seventy-five thousand payments went straight to my ex-wife and children.

I need you to know that during my stay in prison, I finally got help for my addictions.

Once I was released, it was the realisation that I’d been effectively paid in blood money that shook me; so the account that gets the fifty thousand payments, routes it all to charities, I couldn’t take it, I think the last but one payment is next month.”

He hands over bank statements

“Keep them, so you can see it’s the truth.” he nods at the statements.

Toni is silent, trying to work out how she feels.

Sick was the overriding physical feeling she had, but apart from that she was mostly numb and overwhelmingly betrayed, assuming what Colin said was true, but at no point, had she smelt a lie.

“Are you going to report me?” his voice broken

“What for?”

“I served time for Driving under the influence and Causing death by dangerous driving.

“Not for, you know” he waves his hand “everything else”

“The file I was given says you are a family man now, are you good to your kids?” Toni asks

“Yes, I try to be”

“Are you clean and sober?”

“I take each day as it comes, but I’ve not faltered since.

I’ve hoped I’d have a chance to atone, to talk to someone about the truth, it’s part of the process we take, make amends to people we’ve hurt through our actions.” He shrugs sadly

“I’ll never be cured, but I speak to my sponsor if I think I’m having, or going to have a bad day before I get a chance to hit the fuck it switch.

I called them before I came here today and he’s expecting a call after you’ve left”

He swallows slowly, his body still tense.

She nods slowly before speaking again

“Have you broken the law since?”

All the while she’s asking, she’s monitoring the human for any evasion or lies.

“No”

She sighs, part of her wishing she’d walked out earlier, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

“Past actions aren’t who we are, it’s who we were, or who we were forced to be.

So no, I won’t be reporting you.”

Her words are no longer cold, but gentle, seeing in this person a small portion of what happened to her, forced into a situation he had no control over.

Toni gets up and looks at the human for one last time, he was a pawn, as much as she had been, but she was sure that they could both agree this had been one fucked up game of chess and right now, she needed to get out of the human territory before she lost it.

The more she thought about it, the greater her desire to release her wolf, the initial shock at the information she’d been given was transforming into a sharp pain in her chest.

There was only so much she could take and this was one straw too many.