Darkness Everlasting (Guardians of Eternity #3)(72)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

Family.

How many years had she longed for a family?

To be surrounded by her loved ones in a place she could truly call home?

She gave a sharp tug on the shackles. "Funny, I don’t feel much like the prodigal daughter. Maybe it’s the whole being chained to the bed thing."

"You’ll have your fatted calf soon enough, my dear, but first you must prove you are willing to accept your position among the Weres," Sophia drawled.

"I can hardly accept a position that I know nothing about."

"Yes, it is unfortunate that you were not raised among your people." Sophia heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Your ignorance of our ways is making this all far more difficult than it should be."

Okay, that was it.

She was tired, her jaw ached, and the once burning desire to discover the truth of her past had turned into a sour ball of disappointment in the pit of her stomach.

"Unfortunate?" Her voice lowered to a furious growl. "It’s unfortunate that I was kidnapped as a baby and then tossed from one home to another before landing on the street? It’s unfortunate that I’ve spent thirty years feeling like a freak, always avoiding other people and wondering what the hell is wrong with me? It’s unfortunate that I learn I’m a … werewolf by a stranger? I’d say it’s a little more than unfortunate."

Sophia rolled her eyes as she stepped toward the bed. "Oh, God, stop your sulking. Life is a bitch for all of us. The only thing that matters is that you’re back where you belong." She stiffened in annoyance as Darcy abruptly laughed. "What is so amusing?"

Darcy gave a shake of her head as she struggled to contain her dark humor.

"I was just thinking of the old saying."

"What old saving?"

"Be careful what you wish for."

It took a moment before Sophia realized that Darcy was referring to her.

"Ah." A sneering smile touched her lips. "Salvatore warned me that you would be hoping for June Cleaver."

Well, what the heck was wrong with that?

Home-cooked dinners, being tucked into bed, a soft kiss on the cheek …

Darcy grimaced. "And instead I got Mommie Dearest"

Sophia shrugged her indifference. "I suppose that is true enough. You know, I am not really such a horrible person, but I will admit I have little interest in being a mother. It’s always seemed a very tedious job with few rewards."

"What about the love of your children? Surely that’s worth something?"

"Not nearly enough. Perhaps when you have been a breeder for a few centuries you will understand."

Darcy gave a choked sound. She didn’t know what a breeder was, but it didn’t sound like a position she wanted to take on.

"A breeder?" she demanded warily.

"That’s what we are, you know," Sophia drawled. "Female purebloods have one purpose among the pack, and that is to produce as many litters as physically possible."

Darcy widened her eyes. "Sheesh, do you actually have .. . litters?"

"Puppies?" She gave a sharp laugh. "No, our children are born as humans. We call them litters because we usually carry more than one child at a time, and of course, they do possess the blood of wolves."

Well, that was a quasi-relief. And it reminded Darcy of the one good thing left in this entire mess.

"Salvatore said that I have three sisters?"

"Yes."

"Will I be allowed to meet them?"

"If we can manage to capture them." The green eyes flashed with annoyance. "They are proving to be just as great a pain in the ass as you, my dear."

Darcy was torn between relief that her poor sisters had managed to avoid her own fate, and a regret that she might never meet them.

Sisters seemed like a wonderful thing to possess.

"Are there any others?" she demanded. "I mean, did you have more than one … litter?"

There was a pause before Sophia shrugged. "I’ve been pregnant over a hundred times."

"Good lord."

"The pregnancies rarely last beyond the first few months. None survived to birth beyond you and your sisters."

Something that might have been sorrow briefly flashed over the beautiful face before Sophia was slipping back behind her mask of sardonic indifference.

Darcy’s breath caught in unwelcome sympathy. Dang it. She didn’t want to consider how painful it might be for a woman to become pregnant over and over while always knowing that death waited just a breath away.

Or to ponder the thought that any woman would learn to protect her emotions from such disappointments. And perhaps even to become cynical over the passing centuries.

She didn’t want to sympathize with this woman who treated her as if she were an irritating piece of stray property that was necessary to her plans.

"I’m sorry," she muttered before she could halt the words.

"It is a fact of life for Weres."

"Why?" Darcy demanded, recalling Levet’s earlier reference to the Weres’ lack of children. "I mean . . . why so many miscarriages?"

Sophia made an impatient sound. "Really, darling, use that brain of yours. Can you imagine what happens to a woman’s body when she shifts?"

Darcy grimaced. She wasn’t entirely sure what was involved with shifting, but it didn’t sound good.

"No, actually I can’t imagine."

"Well let me assure you that as exhilarating as it might be, it is also extremely violent."

"Oh."

"Yes, oh." With a restless motion, her mother paced across the narrow floor. "There are legends that in the Dark Ages a pureblood female could control her shifts, even during a full moon, so that she could carry her children without fear of miscarriage. If that is true, then the talent was lost long ago."

"So you have to shift whether you want to or not?"

"During the full moon, yes." Sophia halted to regard Darcy with a meaningful gaze. "And, on occasion, when someone is stupid enough to press my temper."

Darcy ignored the less than subtle threat. "So how can I possibly be your daughter? I’ve never… changed shape."

"And that is what makes you so very special, darling." The green gaze flicked dismissively over Darcy’s slender body. "A female pureblood who doesn’t shift. The perfect breeding machine."

Breeding machine? Ew. Not in this lifetime.

Now, however, didn’t seem the time to argue the point.

"Why don’t I shift?" she demanded instead.

"Good God, don’t ask me." Sophia gave a faint shiver. "Salvatore can give you all the boring scientific details. Something to do with altering cells or DNA, I think."