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“THERE’S SOMETHING YOU need to prepare yourself for, Raina,” Alex said solemnly when it drew close to the time Uncle Mark would be arriving.
“What’s that?” my mate asked nervously.
“Zeus has a unique way of greeting the people he loves,” my little sister said.
Raina looked at me and picked up on my memories of how Zeus welcomed his pack. “He doesn’t even know me yet,” she protested.
The Rottweiler arrived in the kitchen with Uncle Mark in tow just as Raina gestured with her hand. He vanished, then reappeared directly in front of her. She gasped in fright when he lunged forward to engulf her hand with his mouth.
“Don’t fight it,” Yas suggested with a grin. “Just let him drool all over you so he’ll be happy.”
Snickers broke out when Zeus took a step back to grin at my mate. Raina made a face at the saliva that dripped from her hand. “Thanks for the kind welcome,” she said diplomatically, then waved her hand to make the spit disappear.
“You must be Raina,” Uncle Mark said, noting how her eyes darkened and her irises briefly spun when she’d used magic.
“You’re not going to put my hand in your mouth, too, are you?” she asked him warily as he crossed to the living room.
Yas shrieked with laughter and the rest of us broke up as well at the amused look on Uncle Mark’s face. “I hadn’t planned on it,” he said, then offered her his hand. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said and she stood up to shake his hand.
Emma looked at Alex for permission, then leaped onto Zeus’ back when she nodded. The pair vanished, presumably going outside to play with the herd.
Uncle Mark took a seat and Raina sat next to me again. “Can I ask what species you are?” he queried politely. As always, he wore a dark suit, a white shirt and a tie.
“I’m half fae and half werewolf,” she replied.
His eyebrows rose before he could stop himself. “Half fae?” he asked in concern.
“She’s not like Kurt Jorgen,” I reassured him. “She was afraid of humans and men in particular, but she doesn’t hate them like he did.”
“I don’t plan to make a deal with demons and take over your world,” Raina said with a small smile.
“That’s a relief,” Uncle Mark said. His tone was serious rather than joking. “You implied that you’d been in trouble when you called,” he said to me. “What happened?”
I gave him a condensed version of the story I’d told the others. He nodded and made mental notes which he would add to the file he’d probably already started on my mate. I showed him the photos I’d taken of the snake, then Raina introduced him to Kappa to finish our story.
With his own magical form of efficiency, Uncle Mark took a wallet out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Welcome to the Shifter Squad, Agent Levine-Garrett.”
Raina flipped it open and smiled when she saw her photo. I knew he took them from the images of footage in our coms room when our prints were scanned. He changed the background to make it look like they’d been taken elsewhere. “Thank you, Agent Steel,” Raina said. “I’ve never lived with a large group of people before. It’ll take some time for me to adjust.”
“I’m sure you’ll fit in just fine,” he said with a smile.
“There’s one thing I’d like to know,” I said casually and everyone tensed slightly. “Do you have any theories about how Alex survived Killion’s toxin, how Nick and Freya survived a silver bullet to the heart and how Raina and I survived the snake’s poison?”
His expression became shrewd, but I saw him flinch at my slightly accusing tone. He swept his gaze over us all, then sighed almost imperceptibly. “I assume you’re all aware that Lauryl’s blessing was passed on to you?”
“We are now,” Nick said dourly. “Raina figured it out. She said we’re all blessed, except Yas, Crowmon and Ike, who have their own forms of immortality.”
Uncle Mark rubbed his chin, then sat back in his chair. “We were aware that the younger generation are immortal,” he confessed. “We didn’t know it could be passed on through a mating bond until after Harlan joined us and Charles tested his blood.”
“How could you have kept this from us?” Syd asked. Her tone was hurt rather than angry.
“I thought I was going to die!” Nick said. “Freya would have if I hadn’t bonded her to me!”
Brynn just shook her head, unable to speak through her disappointment. Alex just watched, reserving judgment because she didn’t know him as well as we did.
“We tested your blood after you were all born and realized it regenerated,” Uncle Mark explained. “We decided to keep the knowledge from you until you were older. We wanted you to have normal lives, or as normal as they could be considering your origins.”
“You have no idea how terrified Raina and I were when that snake poisoned us,” I said, struggling to keep control of my emotions.
“Don’t I?” he said sardonically. “I only found out I was immortal after my neck was broken and I should have died,” he reminded me. “How do you think it would have affected you if you’d known you were immortal when you were children?”
I looked at Nick and we came to the same conclusion. “We would have taken stupid risks,” my little brother admitted with a grimace. “We would have put you guys through hell worrying about us constantly.”
“Exactly,” Uncle Mark said in agreement. “When you and Freya have children of your own, I imagine you’ll come to the same decision.”
Freya looked startled and put a hand on her stomach. “I hadn’t even thought of that possibility,” she said in amazement. “I was dead for so long that I’m still adjusting to being alive again.”
“I don’t have to worry about getting knocked up,” Yas said with a smirk. “That’s something I can be thankful for.”
“Don’t you like kids?” Alex asked.
“What’s there to like about them?” her bestie retorted. “They’re smelly, loud and annoying. Then there’s all that poop you have to clean up when they’re babies.” She shuddered in horror. “No thanks. That’s a hard pass for me.”
Crowmon snorted out a laugh that set Alex and Yas to giggling.
Uncle Mark rolled his eyes at their childish antics. “I’m sorry we kept such a big secret from you,” he said once their laughter had died down. “We should have told you the truth once you became adults.”
“Why didn’t you?” Syd asked. She was still wounded and Harlan was rubbing her arm soothingly.
“We were waiting for Alex to come home,” Uncle Mark said and effectively killed the dregs of our resentment. “We planned to tell you all together. Thanks to Raina, you figured it out for yourselves.” His tone was proud and perked us up again. He had a gift for boosting our morale without even trying. He was our boss and our mentor and we all strived to make him proud of us.
“Are there any other big secrets that we haven’t been told about?” I asked.
I saw a momentary flicker in his eyes before he shook his head. I had the horrible suspicion that they were keeping something from us and that it was important. “You should know that Charles is aware that you’re all immortal. He notified me that Harlan’s and Freya’s blood shares the same regenerative properties as the rest of you. Gedniah was already immortal, but he now shares the blessing with Brynn as well.”
It was hard to be angry with Charles. The doc had done a lot for us all over the years and he was a good friend. “We won’t give him a hard time about it,” I vowed and received nods of agreement from the rest of the team.
Uncle Mark stayed for another hour, learning more about Raina while letting Zeus and Emma play with the herd. He could get his zombie mouse to take him back to Europe, but he wanted to spend some time with us first. When he finally got up to leave, he hugged everyone, then took me outside so we could talk in private. It was a useless ploy, since Raina was linked to my mind and both Alex and Ike could listen to us through Delta’s ears. There was little chance of privacy on our squad now.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, noting his pensive expression.
Uncle Mark shook his head. “No. I just wanted you to know how proud I am of you. You’ve exceeded my hopes that you would turn out to be an excellent leader.”
I had to blink away tears at his praise. “You taught me everything I know, Uncle Mark,” I said and gave him a tight hug. “Our team wouldn’t even exist without you.”
He patted me on the back, then pulled away and smiled. “You’d better let your parents know you’ve found your mate.”
“You didn’t tell them?” I asked in surprise.
“They’re on a mission,” he replied. “But I’m sure they’ll take your call if you tell them you have something important to say.”
“Alex is the only shifter left on our team who doesn’t have a true mate now,” I mused. Again, I saw Uncle Mark flinch slightly.
Zeus materialized with Emma riding on his back before I could ask him what was going on. “It’s time to head back to Europe, Zeus,” Uncle Mark said.
Emma leaped onto my shoulder, then waved at the Rottweiler. He grinned up at her, then took Uncle Mark back to their secret base.
