Page 93 of New Blood

But the helicopter was too loud for even a werewolf’s excellent hearing. Several of Jude’s men stood around, watching them take their team leader away. Mason saw her, and she screamed at him now, “Stop them, Mason! Stop them! He can’t leave!”

Mason seemed to take her seriously and ran toward the three men. He was almost upon them when Jude suddenly turned his head and stopped, exchanging a surprised look with his cousin, who now pointed over his shoulder.

Finally, Jude’s eyes landed on her, and he turned fully. The two men stopped too now, and turned, looking displeased. But she didn’t care.

“Jude!” she yelled, and a moment later, she flung herself into his arms. “You can’t leave!”

“I’m sorry, my love. I have no choice.”

She shook her head and freed herself from his arms. She pointed to the letter in her hand, and the two older men stepped closer.

“What is this?” Hendrick asked just loud enough for her to hear over the sound of the rotor blades.

She met his stern look. “This is proof that Jude didn’t act against your orders. He mated with a Gallagher daughter.”

“Nonsense!” Hendrick spat.

“Danielle, what are you saying?” Jude asked.

“This is the letter that my mother wrote to William. I’m his daughter, Jude. William knew all along who I was, even before I came to live with his pack.”

The sound of the rotor blades suddenly died down. It appeared that the pilot had realized that nobody was leaving this instant.

“Let me see this,” Hendrick said, fairly ripping the letter from her hands. He quickly flew over it with his eyes, then looked up. “And how do you expect me to verify that this is genuine? Anybody could have written this letter!”

For a moment, she didn’t know what to say. Then Lars cleared his throat.

“Uhm, Hendrick, I think we can give Jude and his mate time until a DNA test can give us that certainty. Don’t you agree?”

The two men exchanged looks.

Finally, Hendrick nodded. “Fine.”

He looked at her, and she felt as if she was standing in front of the high school principal accused of cheating.

“If you really are William Gallagher’s daughter, then Jude may remain here as the alpha of the pack.” He glanced back at Jude. “You’re lucky that we never specified that your mate had to be legitimate. I guess you can thank William for being a philandering bastard. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more sons and daughters coming out of the woodwork.”

“Thank you, Hendrick, Lars,” Jude said.

They watched the two elders climb into the helicopter before they walked back to the house so the helicopter could take off. When the noise died down, Jude’s men surrounded them.

“What was all that about?” Mason asked.

“I think I’ll let Danielle explain,” Jude said and smiled at her.

48

The news that Danielle was William’s illegitimate daughter spread like wildfire among the residents of the estate. By the time Danielle had explained what she’d found out, including that she’d found evidence that Cameron wasn’t only behind the gas explosion in her cottage, but was also the one who’d tampered with the brakes of her car, Jude’s head was spinning.

After finding out that the love letters Eve had found were between Danielle’s mother and William, a tiny bit of hope had sparked inside him, wondering if Danielle’s mother had sent her to William because she was his daughter. But before he’d had the opportunity to talk about this with Danielle, Hendrick and Lars had arrived, and he’d worried that he wouldn’t get a chance to explore that suspicion. He realized now that he didn’t have to worry at all, because Danielle was smart and had suspected the same thing and taken action to dig deeper.

Back inside the house, Danielle showed him the key for the fireplace in the cottage and the printout of a schematic of the braking system of her car that she’d found in Cameron’s belongings.

However, one thing hadn’t quite sunk in yet.

“But Cameron is dead. He would have had to cut the brake line before his death.”

Danielle nodded. “Which he did. I hadn’t used the car in the couple of weeks before his death. He couldn’t know when I would use it again, so he just sat back and waited. Even from the grave, the evil in him seems to live on.”