His to Protect: Book 1 in the Bound to Him Series by Sandra Antoni (the reading list TXT) 📗

they killed Marissa while she was still pregnant,” he whispered, and I leaned against his arm. He reached his arm around me and pulled me against him.

“Chelsea, do you want to get to know me?” he asked softly, and I could hear the vulnerability in that question. I leaned forward and looked up at him.

“Of course!” I replied. “I’m here because of you and my mother. This is all still new to me, being a shifter and all, but I have always felt incomplete. That void could never be completely filled until I found you…and Zeke,” I said, turning to look at the man who had become everything to me. His eyes were full of love, and his tender expression caused my heart to skip a beat.

“And now, knowing the circumstances of how I was adopted, I know that it was all done out of love and to protect me,” I explained, looking back at my father.

“My adoptive parents are good people. They were good parents, and I had a good life. I was happy. But this, finding you, I needed this,” I continued.

“Governor,” Zeke said from the other side of me.

“Please, it’s Richard. At least, here among friends and family. It’s just Richard,” my father said. Zeke nodded his head in agreement.

“Richard, do you have any idea who might be after Chelsea? I mean, did you ever discover who killed Marissa?” Zeke asked next. My father sighed deeply.

“I never found out exactly who. However, I discovered that whoever it was had ties to the council. There are only three current council members who were on the council at that time, and those three are the only ones who would have something to lose if Marissa’s killer were ever found,” he told us.

He told Zeke the name of the three council members, and he and Brady left the room. I knew that they were going to look into those three names. One of them had been responsible for my mother’s death and was also trying to kill me.

“Chelsea,” my father said, and I looked up at him. “You have to understand, shifters taking humans as mates was against our laws at the time. But when I found your mother, none of that mattered to me anymore. The council took that as a sign of my disloyalty to our kind.”

“Times have changed since then, but ultimately, we have to keep what we are a secret. Hollywood has turned what we are into a vicious thing, and if humans ever found out that their horror movie werewolves were real and living among them, there would be panic.”

“There is a small committee of humans in the government who know about us. They help us to preserve our way of life, and the council deals directly with them. That committee is responsible for maintaining our anonymity among humans and dealing with any actions of shifters against humans.”

“Whoever is after you obviously thought that you were dead as well. The only thing that I can assume is that, now that they know you are alive, they probably think that you know who they are. They are trying to silence you, and only a council member would have something to gain by making sure that you don’t reveal who they are.”

I thought about that for a moment. Obviously, I had no idea who was trying to kill me. I mean, I had only been a few months old when my mother was killed. But if they knew who I was now, were my adoptive parents safe? Whoever was after me might think that they knew something as well.

“What about my parents? My adoptive parents?” I asked Richard. “I mean, what if whoever tried to kill me finds out about them and thinks they might know something? Are they safe?”

“Well, considering that you are here in Arizona, and whoever is after you knows that you are here as well, I believe that your parents are safe. These people found you here in Tucson, so I believe it is safe to say that they are going to remain here as well. It’s you they want,” he replied softly.

That made me relax again. Not that having someone trying to kill me should make me relax, but I felt comforted that my parents would be safe.

“Chelsea, when we find whoever is after you and this is all over, would you visit me in Phoenix? I’d like to be able to show you my home and introduce you as my daughter. My father is still alive, and I would like you to meet him as well, that is, if you are okay with that,” he said next, surprising me.

There was no hesitation on my part. Of course, I wanted to know him better. He had loved me before I was even born, and now that I knew the whole truth about who and what I was, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know him.

My adoptive parents had raised me well, but they could not teach me about what I was. They could not teach me about being a shifter, but my biological father could. Him and Zeke, and I needed both of them in my life.

When Zeke and Brady walked back into the room, I noticed Zeke’s concerned expression when he looked at me. I flashed him a brilliant smile and his expression instantly relaxed. I saw only love in his eyes. Sure, I was still in danger, but my life had come full circle, and I knew that I was right where I belonged.

My father reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card and a pen. Then he wrote something on the back of it and handed it to me.

“This is my personal cell number. You can call me or text me any time you want,” he told me gently. I took the card and looked at the number. Then I pulled out my cellphone and entered his number in my contacts.

It was too awkward to