The beer slipped out of his grip, rolled off the table and onto the floor, leaving a trail of suds in its wake. “Twins?” Marcus jumped up, grabbed her, and spun her around like a rag doll, only stopping when Gee cleared his throat. He quickly set her back on her feet and pulled out her chair. “Two of them? You’re serious.”
She nodded and he laughed, sinking back into the seat.
“We’re going to have babies.” Marcus shoved a hand in his hair and began to pace. “I never imagined…twins.”
“Well, they do run in the family,” Xio said. “Sit. Now about that story, Gee.”
“On it.” The bear spun a chair around and straddled it. But before I start, I want to tell you something. What you do with the information is up to you. Your mother isn’t dead, Xio. Magnum ran her off after your father died in the “hunting accident.” The old Alpha didn’t agree with mixing humans and wolves. He was going to drown you and your brother in a stream, but the pack stopped him.”
“Where is she?”
“Texas. She’s living with the El Paso pack. They took her in after they learned what happened and threatened to come up here and start a war if Magnum did anything to you or your brother.”
“I don’t understand? How could he do that? We were babies. She was our mother.”
Gee shrugged. “He was crazy. He planned to mate you with one of the alpha’s sons down in Texas when you came of age and create a treaty of sorts to get the pack off his back. What he didn’t realize is that fate already decided you belonged to one of them. Marcus, one way or the other, would have been your mate. Soul mates. As the story with your grandparents, so are you.”
“I can’t believe she’s alive.”
Marcus sat up. “What’s her name?”
“Lily. She’s a pack doctor but was a surgeon in Rapid City. It’s how Xio’s father met her. He’d gotten shot by a hunter targeting weres—someone old-school who used silver, knew what they were doing. The wound nearly killed him. When Magnum discovered they’d secretly married months later, and worse, started a family, he went off the deep end. I think you’ll discover Xio and Xan’s father’s death was no accident. Lily always wanted to come back for you, but couldn’t. By the time Magnum was dead, you and your brother were gone.”
“I know Lily. She’s a good woman.” Marcus looked over at Xio. “You want to make a road trip? Meet her?”
“Yes.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “She’s alive. I have a mother. I can’t believe....”
“Okay,” the bear grunted. “This is touching, but I have a story to tell and work to get back to. You two can get all gooey about it later, on your time.”
Xio smiled at the grumpy bruin and wiped the tear away. “Then go on. I didn’t learn Chinese for nothing.”
“Mai Ling served meals to the men laying the rails. When the railroad came through the Badlands, she met your grandfather, Eli Snow.”
“What’s for chow?” he asked.
Startled, Mai Ling lifted her gaze from the stew. She noticed a tall man with blond hair and fancy clothes leaning on the chuck wagon she’d brought out to where the men worked. Slung low across his hips was a holster, and in the hand-tooled leather rested an even more impressive revolver that would certainly send her to her backside if she tried to fire it. Big man. Big gun. “You work with crew?”
“No, ma’am. I’m passing through to Los Lobos.”
He stared at her from under the brim of a weathered cowboy hat. There had been enough heat in his eyes to make her turn red, even though there was ice on the ground and a wind that blew down from the north, making the day quite frigid.
She wanted to tell him the food was for the crew only, but something in the man’s expression told her he wouldn’t take no for an answer. So she lied. “Dog.”
The gunslinger straightened his spine, scowling at the kettle hanging over the fire. He sniffed and curled his lip. “Dog?”
“You no like?”
“No, ma’am. I no like.”
“Why you no like?” She lifted the ladle to her mouth and took a bite of the beef stew, watching him cringe.
“I guess you could say I’m a bit of a mongrel, and eating that would make me feel like a cannibal.”
“It’s good. You try some.” Scooping up another portion, Mai Ling thrust the utensil out to Eli. “You no look like dog.”
“I suppose I don’t. I’m more wolf than dog.” He eyed the food she shoved under his nose. “There’s a lot of things I’d like to take a bite of, but that isn’t one of them, darlin’.” He pushed it away.
“Okay, you no like my stew.” Mai Ling shoved the spoon back in the pot. “What you like a bite of, then?”
“Ma’am, I’d love to take a bite of you.” He tipped his hat to her. “And that’s not dog.” With a wink, he turned and walked away, his spurs clanking with each step.
“You not so scary, Mr. Wolf.”
Mai Ling knew the moment she’d seen him, Eli was meant to be hers, and from the look he’d given her, she knew he felt the same. What she didn’t know at the time, however, was that Eli really was a wolf in gunslinger’s clothing.