"How are you feeling?" Craig popped up out of the chair and came to her. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. She was an inch taller than him, but he'd filled out a lot in the time she was away. He felt more like a man and less like the little brother she'd left behind.

She'd missed so much of his life. A lump caught in her throat and she struggled to swallow it back. She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't. It was weak and changed nothing. She needed to be strong. For all of their sakes.

"I'm okay." What else was there to say? She couldn't tell them she felt like a stranger to herself, how odd and almost frightening it was to be able to move around and do whatever she wanted after a year and a half of having her every move dictated by others. How she didn't feel safe even now.

She moved out of Craig's embrace and sat on the edge of the bed. She still tired easily and would rather sit than stand.

Quinn's eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. She knew he'd caught the slight trembling in her legs but said nothing. She glanced away from his all too perceptive gaze and focused on Craig who settled on the bed beside her. "How are you doing? Any news?" She knew both of them had been working with the rest of the pack and a vampire, no less, to try to find Brian and the rest of his pack.

It hadn't surprised her to discover Brian was part of a larger group of males who wanted mates. She'd scented another werewolf on several occasions during her captivity, but he'd been kept away from the lab where she was held.

What had surprised her was how willing Meredith and her pack were to help her. She was a stranger to them, yet they'd opened their home and offered her their protection. They'd helped to rescue her, they'd fed and watched over her, and now they were trying to help her brothers find the rest of the males responsible for her captivity. Their generosity was overwhelming.

Craig shook his head. "Nothing new. I'm still looking. And so is Damek."

Quinn growled low in his chest. Craig simply smiled and shook his head. "I don't know why you dislike Damek so. I find him fascinating."

"He's dangerous." Quinn paced away from the window and flung himself down in the chair, extending his long legs in front of him.

"Of course he's dangerous," Craig agreed. "But so are you and I like you."

Chrissten smiled in spite of herself. She'd missed this. Missed the banter between her brothers. At least this hadn't changed.

"Yes, but I don't want to have you for a snack," Quinn pointed out.

Chrissten's palms went damp and she grabbed Craig's hand. "Is he that dangerous?" She'd never met Damek, but she'd heard the others talking about him in hushed tones.

Craig shrugged, looking totally unconcerned. God, he should be in college somewhere worrying about classes and girls, not trying to discover where to find dangerous werewolves and putting himself at risk by working with a vampire.

"He's very powerful, no doubt about that." Craig pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. "You can sense it the moment he walks into a room. None of the others have any idea exactly how old he is, but he's been around a long, long time. He wouldn't hurt me. I trust him."

Her brother was obviously fascinated with Damek. Chrissten could hear it in his voice. And when Craig set his mind on something there was no way to dissuade him. He could teach stubborn to a mule. She glanced at Quinn and they shared a look, a moment, a pledge to protect their younger brother at all costs.

A warm feeling flooded through her. Oh, she'd missed this sense of connection, of belonging that she had with her brother, her twin.

"Enough about Damek. You'll meet him soon." Craig slung his arm over her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. "We've brought you something."

"Really? What?" Craig's obvious excitement was contagious.

Quinn walked over by the door and she noticed the two boxes sitting there. They were plain brown packing boxes with no markings on the outside. Her twin grabbed one and brought it over, setting it on the floor in front of her.

"Thought you might like some of your own things." His voice was gruff with emotion and his eyes were moist with unshed tears. She couldn't speak. She was afraid if she tried to say anything she'd burst into tears.

Chrissten nodded and tugged open the flaps of the box. The scent of vanilla, her favorite lotion, wafted up at her. She bit on her bottom lip to keep from crying as she folded back the cardboard to reveal the clothing neatly folded inside. Her clothes. They'd brought her belongings to her.

She reached in and pulled out a cotton sweater. It was the same color blue as her eyes. It was soft and long, hitting the tops of her thighs. She loved this sweater. She buried her face against the material and sobbed in spite of her resolve not to break down.

The mattress sank on her right side. Quinn wrapped his arm around her. On her left, Craig did the same. She was surrounded by their love, their caring.

"Everything is going to be all right." Quinn whispered his promise in her ear. She shook her head, not truly believing him. How could it be? She was mated to a monster. One that wouldn't stop until one of them was dead.

"We didn't mean to make you sad." She could hear the worry, the sorrow in Craig's voice and forced herself to raise her head. She dropped the sweater back on top of the box and scrubbed her hands over her cheeks.

She felt like an ungrateful wretch. "No. No. I appreciate you bringing me my clothes. I was just saying to Meredith earlier how I was sick of wearing nightgowns and I wanted to wear real clothing. I just never expected it to be my own."

"We've both moved around a lot this past year and a half." Craig glanced at Quinn, who looked away. "I packed up our old apartment and put everything I didn't sell into storage."

Her hands shook. Indeed, her entire body was trembling. They'd kept her things-her books, her clothes, her small treasures.

Craig got up and went over to the door. He lifted the other box and brought it back to the bed. He opened the flaps and dug inside. A second later he withdrew a slightly bedraggled panda bear. A child's toy. Hers.

"Manda," she cried. "I can't believe you kept her." She took the small bear that had been her favorite toy as a child and held it to her heart.

"You were missing. Not dead." Quinn's voice had a hard edge. "Why wouldn't we have kept your things?"

She'd hurt him again without meaning to. "I'm sorry." She put her hand on his arm and felt the hard, bunched muscles beneath. "I wouldn't have blamed you for giving up, for assuming I was dead, for losing hope." She sat the small stuffed toy in her lap. It was a reminder of much happier, more innocent times. "I lost hope."

The sound that was pulled from deep within Quinn was one of pain. She hadn't meant to hurt him like that. She started to pull her hand away, but he clamped his own over it.

"Don't you dare apologize. Not ever." His blue eyes were blazing with anger, with determination. "You stayed alive. That's more than many would have done."

He stood abruptly and she felt the loss. "I let you down. I should have protected you better." He looked so alone standing there with his shoulders squared and his arms crossed over his chest.

"No." She stood, and the small bear fell to the floor, forgotten in the face of her brother's pain. "No, you did everything you could. There was nothing you could have done to prevent this. Nothing any of us could have done." As she said the words she actually started to believe them. "If anyone is to blame for what happened it's me. I'm the one who didn't pay enough attention to my surroundings. I knew better than to let my guard down in our neighborhood."

Quinn took too much on himself. Always had. No way was she letting her brother feel guilty. "You did everything you could to keep me safe, to keep us safe." She glanced at Craig who was silently watching them both. "You gave up your life to find me. Both of you did."

"You're our sister." Craig's simple words almost broke her heart. For them it was as simple as that. They thought nothing of their sacrifice. To her it was everything.

"I know." She gave them the truth, what they all needed to hear. "I knew you'd look for me. It was the only thing that gave me any kind of hope, a reason to keep on living."

Quinn rubbed his hand over his head and let it fall to the back of his neck. He released a tired sigh. "We'll get past this."

She wished she shared his optimism, but couldn't manage to scrape any together. Not now. She forced a smile. "We will." One way or the other they would get past this. Chrissten only hoped she'd still be alive when the dust finally settled. Only when Brian was dead would she truly be free.

"Now-" she kept her tone brisk, "-I've got some clothing to unpack."

Craig picked up Manda from the floor and put the stuffed bear on the bed before he came to Chrissten and kissed her cheek. "Do you need any help? I've got a few things I need to check on." What went unsaid was that those things were related to the search for her remaining abductors.

She shook her head. "No, you go on. I can handle this." She hugged him hard. "Thank you."

He kissed her temple. "It's good to have you back." He left without a backward glance leaving her alone with her twin.

"It's not your fault," she told him again.

"Maybe."

He could be infuriating at times, but she understood where he was coming from. She'd have felt the same way if their positions were reversed.

"Listen, I've got some more news to share. I was hoping to wait until you'd had more time to recover, but it can't wait any longer."

Sweat beaded on her forehead and she slowly sat down on the bed. From the grim expression on Quinn's face this wasn't going to be good. "What? What is it?"

"I found our father."

Of all the things he could have said, this would have been the last thing she would have expected. She knew her mouth was hanging open but couldn't seem to close it.

He shoved aside one of the boxes and crouched in front of her, taking her cold hands in his much warmer ones.

"How?" One word was as much as she could manage.

"It was when I was with one of the bounty hunter groups. They went to attack a pack, Isaiah's original pack. I shot the leader of the bounty hunters in order to save one of the wolves. Frankly, I was surprised as hell they didn't just kill me on the spot. But the alpha let me speak. That's when I saw him. Jesus, Chris, he looks just like me except for the hair color."

Chrissten was shocked to her core. Quinn's talk about killing was a sharp reminder of everything he'd done in order to find her. He'd lived with paranormal bounty hunters, men who wouldn't have hesitated to kill him if they'd discovered his secret.

Quinn's eyes narrowed. "He admitted he knew our mother but insisted he didn't know she was pregnant."

"Wow." Chrissten was finding it hard to string a complete sentence together. She'd never expected they'd ever meet their biological father. "What's his name? What's he like?"

Her brother released her hands and sat on the floor at her feet. "His name is Donovan Brody, and I honestly don't know what he's like. I didn't spend much time with him. All I wanted to do was get to Chicago and start looking for you. When they found out you were missing they offered to help."

"Because I'm an unmated female?" Chrissten had learned a lot these past months. And one of those lessons was that there were a lot of unmated males who wouldn't care if she was a half-breed or not. All they wanted was a mate.

"No. Maybe. I'm not sure." He rubbed a hand over his face. "Mostly because you were a female who was abducted from her family. Isaiah's former alpha is a good guy. His daughter is a half-breed. Maybe that's why they were all so keen to help."

It was a lot for her to take in on top of everything else.

"He's coming here, to Chicago."

"When?" Chrissten wasn't sure she was ready to meet her long-lost father.

"A day, maybe two. I'm not exactly sure. When Isaiah called them to let them know we'd found you, he said he was coming as soon as he could."

"How do you feel about this?"

"Fuck, Chrissten, I don't need a daddy at this point in my life." Bitterness coated his words. Their childhood had been rough in many ways. They'd always known they were different. It had isolated them from others, made them feel alone. They'd had to keep on the move to stay safe. Their mother had worked hard to help them. She'd been mother and father to all her children.

Chrissten didn't know how she felt about meeting him.

He took her hands in his again. "Don't worry. You're not alone. You're not expected to feel anything for him. He's a sperm donor, nothing more at this point."

Quinn was right. "Is he coming alone?"

"I'm not sure. One of Isaiah's brothers might come with him."

It boggled Chrissten's brain to even imagine such a thing. "How many brothers does he have?" Isaiah was intimidating enough on his own. She'd been too busy recovering from her ordeal to wonder about more than the pack here at Haven.

Quinn laughed. "There are four of them. Joshua, Micah and Levi, who are twins, and Simon. All pureblood and all pretty impressive."

Chrissten tilted her head to one side. "You like them." She could hear it in his voice.

He nodded. "Yeah, I do. They're blunt as hell, but you know where you stand with them." Quinn pushed up off the floor. "You sort through your clothes and get dressed. I'll send Bethany up to help you and stay with you. When you're ready, come on downstairs to the club. I think you'll like it."

"I will." Right now all she wanted was a few minutes alone to assimilate everything she'd just learned. She had a father, a pureblooded werewolf, a man she'd never expected to meet, and he was coming to see her. And that was on top of her crazed mate who was still searching for her.

Quinn dropped a kiss on the top of her head and left her sitting alone on the bed.

She sat there for a minute, her thoughts spinning. "Shake it off," she ordered herself. "There's nothing you can do about any of it right this minute."

She had her own clothing and belongings. She was going to get dressed and go downstairs for the first time since she'd arrived. Chrissten was suddenly excited about the prospect.

She heard someone enter the apartment and glanced toward the bedroom door expecting Bethany. The footsteps were too heavy, too male. She dropped the handful of clothing she'd gathered back in the box.

Chrissten knew who it was before he made it to the door. Her heart pounding, she waited for Hank to enter.

Chapter Six.

Hank had stayed away from Chrissten as long as he could. He wanted to give her some space, some time to recover. She needed rest and a peaceful environment above all else after her ordeal. And he couldn't be in the same room with her without wanting to kiss her.

Hell, he wanted to do a lot more than simply kiss her. He wanted her long, lithe body under his, over his, alongside his, naked and writhing in pleasure. Not going to happen anytime soon. Chrissten was obviously wary of males, and then there was the pesky little detail that she was mated.

So he'd stayed away, coming to her only when she was asleep. He'd guarded her during the long dark hours of the night. No one would hurt her again. He'd make sure of it.

But he was going to go out of his mind if he didn't at least talk to her. Sure, he watched over her each night as she slept in his bed. His dick stirred and started to stand at attention. Oh yeah, just seeing her in his bed was enough to keep him perpetually hard. But he wanted to talk to her, to hear her voice.

The only reason he'd stayed away as long as he had was he hadn't wanted to pressure her. He'd come on strong the first day, promising he'd kill Brian for her and following that up by kissing her. She'd just been freed from one prison. He didn't want her to feel like he was trying to lock her into another one.

Part of him was afraid she wouldn't want to see him. Another part didn't care. He had to see her no matter what the consequences.

She was sitting on the end of the bed with two open boxes at her feet. He knew they contained her clothing and her belongings. Craig had mentioned they were bringing them up for her today.

Damn, but she was gorgeous. She was still too thin and much too pale, but she was recovering. He knew she'd been eating well. Teague had mentioned she'd eaten almost everything he'd sent up for her.

Hank had been starved for every crumb of information he could get about Chrissten from the others who spent time around her when she wasn't sleeping.

He stood in the doorway and leaned against the jamb, not wanting to appear threatening in any way. She tucked a lock of hair behind one ear. Her hand trembled slightly and his eyes narrowed as he studied her.

A light blush covered her cheeks, whether it was from the exertion of being up and around or if it was due to his presence, he didn't know. She glanced at him and then away. Her lips parted and her breathing increased.

"Hey." Not exactly the wittiest thing to say, but it was all he could manage.

"Hey," she responded. She picked up a sweater from on top of one of the boxes and held it to her chest. It was the same color as her eyes.