Healing in Paradise Read online

  Once situated in the back of his truck, Blake looked down at his mate and studied her face. Did it upset him that she had suffered while he remained ignorant of her existence? Yes. Did it matter that scars covered her face and hands? No.

  All that mattered was that his mate was alive and physically well—her collapse in the diner notwithstanding.

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  He gazed down at her face, wishing he could look into her eyes, to see what colour they were.

  Were they the same mixture of green, brown and blue as her sisters or were they different? Identical twins usually were not really identical. There were usually some subtle differences. He couldn’t wait to see in what way she differed from her sister.

  The scars? They didn’t matter. In fact, he was certain that after a bit more time spent in her company, inhaling her intoxicating scent, that he would no longer even notice them.

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  Chapter Four

  Anna awoke on her bed and frowned. How did I get here? The last thing she remembered was being at the diner. The events leading up to her lapse in memory had her shaking. How could she have forgotten she had a sister? She should have searched for her… She sighed. They should have searched for each other.

  Had…Nina known about her? Had she tried to find her? Was that why she didn’t look as shocked as Anna felt when they met? She’d been crying before they even entered the diner. Had her sister known she would find her there?

  The questions swirled around inside her mind as she swung her legs over the side of her bed.

  Tilly wouldn’t hear of her laying on her back in the middle of the day. If one thing was certain, the old woman never knew a lazy moment in her life.

  Constantly on the go, Tilly ran from one end of the state to the other, searching for and picking up 43

  slabs of wood she would eventually turn into one of her creations. She must have spent a fortune on supplies, but not once did she ever ask for a dime when delivering them to the people for whom she made them.

  Scrubbing her face with her hands, Anna sat still for just a moment, wondering who had carried her up the stairs and into the room.

  Moving to the window, she looked out at the driveway below and another memory hit her. She saw the pick-up pulling from Tally’s driveway as Nina fought to get to the door from the middle of the seat. The woman held her in place as they continued to back out of the driveway.

  Anna fell to her knees and looked out through the glass. This was the same room, the same window, she peered through when she was so young and watched her sister taken away.

  “We had to do it, you know.”

  Turning around, she faced the woman who convinced her to come back to this place and wondered what else Tilly planned to take from her. The old bitch had already taken her family, what more did she have to take?

  “You had to do what? Rip a little girl from her family. Steal her sister,” she paused as another memory came to the surface. “Correction. Steal her sisters away from her and leave her alone in the world? Do you have any idea how scared I 44

  was—how scared we all were?” She caught her breath on a sob. “It all happened here, didn’t it?

  We trusted you, just as I trusted you when I came back.”

  Standing, she moved to the closet and pulled her suitcase out. Throwing it on the bed, she unzipped it and flipped it open. She didn’t bother to make sure her clothes went in neatly. She threw them all in haphazardly. She just wanted to get the hell out of here before something else horrible happened.

  She would leave and send for her sister, somehow. These people couldn’t be trusted. She couldn’t trust any of them, even the three men she felt so attracted and attuned to. For all she knew, Tilly, if that was even her real name, had given her some sort of aphrodisiac to make her want those three men more than she ever would have under normal circumstances.

  It just wasn’t normal for three men to attract her the way those three had. And she didn’t even like blonds! That in itself should tell her something beyond the normal was going on here.

  She heard her door close and hoped Tilly had left before she called her an unforgivable name.

  Turning, she stopped when she saw her twin standing with her back against the door.

  “It wasn’t her fault you know.”

  “Now I know I have to find a way to get you out 45

  of here. They’ve got you brainwashed.”

  Nina shook her head. “No they don’t. I wasn’t brought up here either. I was brought up in several different foster homes until I finally ran away. TJ Woodward took me in and gave me a home. I came to Paradise to spread his ashes on the mountains.” She moved away from the door and walked to the bed, sitting on the other side.

  “I won’t leave here with you, if you think that’s a possibility. My life is here. Your life is here if you’ll just give us a chance.”

  “Uh, uh.” Anna shook her head. “I can’t trust everything you’re saying just because you have the same face.” She brought her hand up to her scarred cheek. “We used to have the same face…”

  She wanted to trust her. God knew she needed a family. Someone who knew her history. These people could tell her about her real parents and…

  “What happened to our other sister?”

  “Don’t you mean sisters?” Nina smiled softly.

  “There were four of us.” Taking a deep breath, Nina sighed. “It’s a long story and one you must hear. Maybe after you know, you will decide to stay.

  “In nineteen eighty-four, our parents, our real parents loaded us all in their car and left Paradise.

  The council at the time were mad. They deemed any girl old enough to bleed was old enough to breed.

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  “Our oldest sister, Oriana, had just turned thirteen and had her first period. They ran and took us with them. Unfortunately, the council sent assassins after us and ran them off the road. Our father, and a few men loyal to him, killed the attackers, but not before they killed our mother.

  Our father died protecting us.”

  Nina stood and moved to the window and looked out. “They trained us to find Tilly. We called her Aunt Myrtle at the time. We found her and she hid us from the council at great risk to herself. She found us all homes the only way she knew how.”

  “Why didn’t they find one home for all of us?”

  Anna’s chest hurt at the thought that anyone could be so evil as to want to force themselves on a thirteen-year-old girl. “Why did they separate us? Why not find us a home where we could all stay together?” She sat heavily on the bed, unable to believe she was buying into all of this.

  “Because we would have been too easy to find.

  Think about it, Anna. We were redheaded twins with an older and younger sister. Four girls would have been so much easier to find than one.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “Kaylana managed to find her way home just a few months ago. We still don’t know where Oriana is.”

  Anna sighed. She had two sisters here in this 47

  town. Could she make herself believe this story or go on believing that her sisters had been brainwashed? Whatever she decided to do, she would most likely live to regret it.

  “Where is Kaylana?”

  “Right here.”

  Anna looked up to see a beautiful blonde walk through the door. “I managed to find my way home just a few months ago. She closed the door and leaned against it, much like Nina had done. “I remember our house.” She blushed. “I live in it with my mates. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Why would I mind?” She waved her hand. “I don’t have any designs on it. Hell, I didn’t even know it existed before.”

  “Okay. What’s with this weird town anyway?

  Do you all run around with bodyguards or something?”

  Both of her sisters laughed. “No. We don’t have bodyguards. Paradise is…different.” Kaylana made her way over to the corner of the room and sat down in the large beanbag chair that sat against the wall. She glanced at Nina as though looking for support. “As hard as it is to believe, were a town full of shape shifters.”

  “Riiiiight.” Anna laughed. “Now I know they have you two brainwashed. She stood and continued to pack. “Thanks for making it easy to make the decision to leave.”

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  “You know were going to have to show her.”

  Kaylana stood and took a deep breath. “I’ll do it. I need the practice. You’ve been doing this for a few years now. I’m still new at it.”

  Before her eyes, Kaylana turned into a leopard.

  Her body shimmered with some sort of magic as the sound of bones cracking filled the room as her sister’s body grew shorter and more compact. Her muscles grew thicker, more dense and her face elongated into that of a female jungle cat’s.

  Anna felt her mind grow fuzzy and knew she was about to faint again. Instead, she spun around and began to pace. “This can’t be happening.” She shook her head. “I’m not like you. These people…” She waved her hand. “The people here have done something to you.”

  “You can do this, too, Anna.” Nina moved over to the leopard and stroked its head. “You’re our sister, our blood. You can do this and no one needs to touch you.”

  “I would know if I’d ever changed into a leopard. Believe me. I haven’t.” She held her hand out and shook her head. “Just stay away from me.”

  God, she’d never been so scared in her life.

  What had happened to her sisters? Were they really her sisters or some sort of weird science experiment? Her gaze bounced between them.

  “I’m leaving. Today. And no one ha
d better try to 49

  stop me.” She threw her suitcase closed and zipped it, careful to keep one eye on her sisters.

  The idea of a town full of shape shifters would be laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d just witnessed proof of such a thing. “I think I would know if I’d ever turned into an animal, thankyouverymuch.”

  “There’s more to it than that.” Nina stood and moved to the door. “We have mates. Plural. I’m mated to two men. The two men you saw with me at the diner.” She nodded toward Kaylana. “Kayla is also mated to two men.” She grinned. “Don’t you find that the least…intriguing?”

  It was intriguing, but Anna wasn’t sure she would ever admit to that. “Right,” she said with a snort. “It’s hard enough to please one man. What would I want with two?” She looked at each of her sisters and raised a brow. “What would you want with two?”

  They both blushed. “It does have its advantages. Take my word for it.” Nina grinned.

  “I can’t imagine what advantages it could have beyond variety in the bedroom.”

  “Who knows?” Nina said with a shrug as she turned to walk toward the door. “We should get going. The men are all wondering how you are.

  They’re more fragile than you would think. They tend to take our protection and wellbeing a bit too seriously.” She laughed. “All of them wanted to 50

  call the doctor up here for some reason. Like they’d never seen a woman faint before. Hell, if I hadn’t known you existed beforehand, I may have joined you.” She touched her lips before continuing, “I just wondered…” She waved her hand by her right cheek. “What happened, or don’t you want to talk about it? You weren’t…attacked or anything, were you?”

  Anna shook her head. “No. It was an accident. I was a fire-fighter and a floor collapsed beneath me.

  When I fell, instead of just allowing the fall and rolling out of it and depending on my gear to protect me, I panicked.”

  She held up her hands. “I grabbed onto a broken beam and my gloves came off. Then the visor on my helmet broke off. It caught on something on the way down. The strap on the helmet would have choked me to death if the strap hadn’t broken under my weight.”

  “And minus your gloves and helmet, you were vulnerable to the flames.”

  “We’re always vulnerable. Even having the gear on and in proper working order only affords a finite amount of protection.”

  “But in this instance?”

  “The fire wasn’t hot enough to cook me right away or have me screaming in agony as my skin blistered even while protected by my gear. The exit wasn’t far. The guys on my team ran in and 51

  pulled me out, but not before…” She sighed. “If I hadn’t panicked, I probably would still look just like you.”

  When Nina took Anna’s hand in hers and squeezed it, Anna jumped. No one but her doctor ever touched her hands on purpose. It was almost as though people thought her scars were contagious. Whatever she was, Nina was no coward.

  “Come on downstairs before the men convince Tilly to call in the doctor.”

  “Your doctor makes house calls?” Could this town get more strange—or perfect?

  “Of course he does,” Nina answered like it was the most normal thing in the world.

  Anna stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Why were there so many men here? What did they care that she fainted in the middle of the diner? She looked into the living room and frowned.

  Tilly say on the sofa, flanked by two of the three men she had lusted after at work. The third man sat on the arm next to the taller of the three.

  Four other men milled about, pacing as though awaiting the birth of a much-anticipated baby.

  Two of them she recognized. They were apparently Nina’s husbands. She glanced at the remaining pair and surmised that they belonged to Kaylana. It was the only logical explanation.

  Anna turned her back on the group, intending 52

  to march right back up the stairs, but something stopped her. She wasn’t sure if it was the look of concern on everyone’s face or if it was the strange pull the three men seemed to have on her.

  Whatever it was, she didn’t want any part of this weird town and their screwed up way of doing things. Two or three men as husbands or lovers may sound wonderful at first blush, but she would be the one who got hurt when it was all over.

  Sooner or later they would get tired of seeing her scars and leave.

  A sob lodged in her throat as she thought about Mike, then Larry. Both of them pursued her extensively before her accident. Afterward, though, they couldn’t seem to leave her company fast enough. Hell, neither of them had been able to look her in the eyes since. If they had, they would have had to look at her scarred face. There was no such difficulty here in Paradise. Here, everyone looked at her with such intensity it made her nervous.

  She bit her lip, ignoring the flare of heat in the three men’s eyes at the action, then said, “I certainly hope you people don’t expect me to do tricks „cause it’s just not happening.”

  The blond laughed. He seemed so much more relaxed than the rest of them. Though they all looked a similar age, he seemed younger than the rest, for some reason. She didn’t know why, but 53

  the others seemed to have a strange, old-world quality he lacked.

  Standing, he held out his hand and smiled. “Hi.

  I’m Tucker.” He didn’t move. He just stood there, looking at her with his hand out as he waited patiently for her to take it.

  Normally, Anna wouldn’t have hesitated. She usually wore gloves that covered her scars, except when she was at the diner. Which, incidentally, was where her gloves were at, at the moment.

  Gathering her courage, Anna braced herself for rejection as she slowly placed her hand in his. To her surprise, he grasped her fingers in a firm grip, bent down and pressed his warm lips to her scarred flesh.

  Anna gasped at the rush of heat that travelled up her arm at the contact. Warmth bloomed in her middle and her womb clenched. Her mouth went dry and her panties grew wet as she stood there, her hand still in his as he smiled down at her.

  “It is very nice to meet you, Anna.”

  She would have asked him how he knew her name, but she figured the whole town knew who she was by now. “I…um, hi.” Damn! When had she lost her wits? What was it about the three men in this room who had no woman with them?

  Tucker pulled gently on her hand and led her over to an empty chair. “Sit down, love. You look like you’re about to keel over again.”

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  He glanced back at his friends. “By the way, you can thank Blake for catching you. He’s always been fast on his feet. That’s him on the left side of the couch. You know Tilly and Ryder is sitting on her left.”

  He knelt in front of the chair, a hand on either arm. He stared deep into her eyes for a moment, making her feel trapped. “We’ve been looking all over for you and your sisters. We’re happy to have you home.”

  Anna couldn’t help throwing Tilly a glance filled with resentment. “You knew. All this time you knew who I was and didn’t say anything.”

  “I wasn’t sure who you were until you came to Paradise, dear. Then I figured you wouldn’t believe me if I told you who you were.” She waved toward Nina. “I had to wait for your sister to get home. There’s nothing quite like meeting a twin you didn’t remember to dispel doubt.”

  “She’s right, you know,” Kaylana said from one of her husband’s laps. “I could have stepped forward, but we look nothing alike. The shock of seeing yourself, unscarred, walk through the door of the diner got your attention like nothing else could.”

  Anna sighed. How could she argue with logic like that? And how could she blame an old woman for seeing to the safety of defenceless children? “I don’t know how we’ll get around 55