Austin’s fist flew down on the table, rattling the glasses and bottles. I tensed, recognizing Lorenzo had indirectly insulted Austin.
I glanced over my shoulder at Ivy and then back to Lorenzo, keeping my voice low. “I could say the same about you, Mr. Church. A Packmaster with only one child hardly has room to talk.”
He nodded his head in acquiescence and polished off his wine.
Austin settled back in his chair, the angry lines in his forehead easing as he popped a cheese cube into his mouth. A sensible Packmaster didn’t hold grudges. They gave warnings and acted on threats, but men who bottled up hate and carried it around made poor decisions and lost allies.
“What do you know about my real father?” I asked.
Lorenzo choked a little on his wine. “I thought you didn’t care about your father.”
“I don’t care about him. But maybe I’m a little curious as to how he hooked up with my mother and why she would have slept with a rogue when she had a mate.”
Lorenzo laced his fingers together. “What happened between them is only speculation. My father believed that my uncle couldn’t get her pregnant, so she shared her bed with another alpha. Either that or my uncle avoided her because he didn’t want children. I’m sure you can imagine the shame a woman would feel to be rejected by her mate in her most important time of need.”
God, Lorenzo had put his foot in his mouth without realizing we were having similar problems.
“Did anyone ever meet him?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Know his name?”
Lorenzo ran the pointed end of his arrowhead pendant across his lower lip. “You would want to acquaint yourself with a coward who shamelessly impregnated a woman in her heat cycle and destroyed a pack?”
“Maybe he didn’t know she was pregnant.”
Lorenzo scooted his chair back, and the legs noisily scraped against the wood floor. “Every Shifter knows the odds of pregnancy when you mate with a woman in heat. Men like him are no better than dogs.”
“Something you’ll never understand, Lorenzo, is what it feels like to not know where you’re from. Meeting second and third cousins will never get rid of the shitty feeling of knowing my mother is dead and nobody has a clue who my real father is. Maybe he’s no one important, and I never said that I wanted a relationship with him. But it’s the not knowing that’s eating away at me as time goes by. I’m obviously Native American, but what else? German? Irish? Was my father even a wolf? If he’s not, then that means there’s a slim chance that my children could wind up being a deer or moose. How am I supposed to explain that to a child raised by a pack of wolves?”
“Not likely,” he said, turning his glass in a circle.
“But possible.”
“There are many unknowns in life, especially the magic within each of us.” He leaned forward, stroking his smooth chin. “Do you think knowing who made you will change anything? Or will it simply change how you feel? Your confidence and self-worth should come from here,” he said, tapping his forehead. “And here.” Lorenzo placed his hand across his heart.
Austin scratched his jaw. “She has a right to know.”
“And I thought you would support my position on this one, Cole.”
Austin’s brows rose. “Think again, Church. If this is something important to my mate, then it’s important to me. So if you’re concealing any information, then you better give it up. Doesn’t do any good to keep secrets. You of all people should know that by now.”
“I know nothing,” Lorenzo said, holding up his hands. “I was young when all that happened, and there was much talk. My uncle shamed his family and is no longer here to tell the tale.”
I tapped my fingers on the table, deep in thought. “Did she have any sisters or friends she would have confided in? She might have spilled some of her darkest secrets to a close friend.”
Dammit. Now I was the one sticking my foot in my mouth. My face flushed with embarrassment, and I took a long sip of wine to steady my quickening pulse. The last thing I needed was Austin to think I’d blabbed about our private affairs to one of my girlfriends. Maizy was the only one I’d told, but she was my sister, and we’d made a pact to never keep secrets from each other. Maybe men can live alone in their pain, but women rely on friends to help us get through the crazy shit. Someone who listens, understands, and reminds us that it’s okay to laugh.
Thankfully, Austin was temporarily distracted when Reno discovered the pie.
“Be sure to save me some of that,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “If I get up and see half that pie is gone, your ass is going out in the snow.”
“Reno!” April hissed, staring at his plate with rounded eyes. “Cut that in two.”
Lorenzo stood up when he overheard Ivy wrapping up the phone call. “Ivy, I want to speak to my daughter.”
“I’ll send her your love,” she called out over her shoulder.
He strode toward her. “I will have no one send affection on my behalf,” he grumbled.
“She’s playing a game with Caleb and Moreland.”