Maverik's Ashes Read online

  “Good for you, son. I’m happy for you. I can’t wait til you send me pictures of little Wolf pups with full manes! Or little Lion cubs with little pointed wolf ears!” Grady slapped his own leg as he guffawed at his good natured ribbing.

  Maverik chuckled, “I hope I can do exactly that one day,” he told Grady.

  “She’ll accept you, if you let her see this male, this male that sits before me now. Not the broken, bitter, terrified male that has pushed everybody away all these years,” Grady told him.

  “I hope you're right, Grady,” Maverik answered, “How ‘bout we get some sleep now? Morning’s gonna come early; I want to be up and ready before Maia gets here.”

  Maverik helped Grady get up and watched as he shuffled off to his bedroom. He took the blanket and pillow that Grady had put out for him earlier, spread it out on the couch, and he laid back to rest. He knew he wouldn't sleep, but at least he could try to rest a little before the sun came up, and he came face-to-face with the little girl he had once believed was his and still loved as though she were.

  Morning brought the smell of bacon and coffee to his nostrils. He snapped awake, surprised that he’d slept at all. He smiled, maybe he was already putting his past to bed.

  He got up and walked the few steps into the kitchen, “Mornin’, Grady.”

  “Mornin’, Maverik! How’d you sleep, son? Sorry all I have to offer is the couch,” Grady greeted him.

  “Not a problem, I actually slept a little. Man, that smells good! Can I help?”

  “Naw, I got it,” Grady answered as he scraped scrambled eggs out of a skillet and onto their plates. Then he placed the bacon and toast beside the eggs and placed the plates on the round, wooden table. “Go ahead, son, dig in,” he told Maverik.

  They sat and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, smiling and talking about the good memories of the past. Maverik had completely forgotten there were good memories of the past, but there were, and the thought of them made him smile. After a while Maverik got up to clean the dishes and the skillet that Grady had used to cook breakfast for him, and Grady went into the little living room to turn on the TV to get the mornings news. Wasn't much later there was a knock at the door. Maverik was drying the last dish and just about dropped it at the sudden nerves that took up residence in his gut.

  Grady made his way to the door and opened it. Maia stood there, a huge grin on her pretty little mouth. “Grady! You look great this morning,” she told him, stepping over the threshold and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

  “Mornin’, Maia! How you feeling this fine day, sweetheart?”

  “I’m good, Grady. Came by to visit for a while and to see what supplies you need from town. I’m heading there a little later today.”

  Maverik stood just inside the kitchen, paralyzed with fear, listening to the sound of his daughter’s voice. Face it, he thought, she may not be from his loins, but she was his daughter. Daughter of his heart, and nothing would ever change that. Even if she rejected him fully, he would always think of her as his. Suddenly he heard Grady trying to give him a cue to enter the room.

  “Got a little surprise for ya, Maia. A little curious to see what you’ll think, but I hope I already know,” Grady was saying a little louder than usual.

  Maverik silently took the few steps to place himself within her field of vision if she would only turn toward the kitchen and stood there waiting, hoping.

  Maia seemed to sense that someone was behind her; she turned partially so that she was facing between the two males. When she got a good look at Maverik, she turned fully to him, her face completely unreadable. The only tell in her emotions was a slight trembling of her lower lip.

  Maverik had a few moments to really take her in. She was stunning; she had deep brown hair run through with natural auburn and dark golden highlights, lightly tanned skin with a light sprinkling of freckles across her little turned up nose, and bright golden eyes that stared at him as he took her in, praying she’d not lash out at him.

  “Hello, Maia,” he said quietly.

  Maia sucked in a breath, paused only a second longer, then launched herself at Maverik as she wailed one word at him, “Daddy!!!!!”

  He caught her in his arms, wrapping her up tight, burying his nose in her hair and sniffing the innocent smell that was her, just like he used to when she was little.

  She was sobbing and held him just as tightly as he held her, and he loved it. “Missed you so much, Maia, so much,” he whispered as he basked in her hugs and the sweet kisses she placed on his cheek.

  She pulled back to look at him, “You’re here! I can’t believe you’re here, Daddy!”

  His smile dropped, and he was afraid that maybe she didn't fully grasp that he wasn’t her father. He opened his mouth to speak, and she cut him off, “I know… but to me, you will always be Daddy, not Renegade. He may have created me, but you are my Daddy.”

  Then the trembling of Maverik’s lip and the wetness of his tears were lost as he held her tightly to him and pressed his face into the top of her head as they held one another tightly.

  It took a while for them to finally release the grip they had on each other. When they did, they were both smiling and wiping away happy tears. They sat at the table and spent the morning trying to reestablish who they were, what they were to each other.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long, Maia. I just…”

  She cut him off again, “NO, no apologies. You owe none of us anything. You sent money home to take care of us, to make sure that we had what we needed; you checked on us, you made sure that Grady watched over us, you did enough. More than most males would have in your shoes. Please don’t apologize.”

  “I should have come back sooner, taken you with me, I don’t know, something more than I did,” he offered, at a loss for what exactly, but still feeling that he should have done more.

  She was quiet for a moment, then, “You know what? You allowed him to live. You allowed them both to live; you could have killed them, you could have ripped them both apart and walked away. You didn’t, you allowed them life. You allowed my mother and father to live. That was enough.” She turned her eyes to Maverik, “Thank you for allowing them to live. I was only a little kid; I needed her. And she needed him.” She smiled, but it was forced, her smile one of disdain, “You allowed them to have what they wanted and punished them at the same time. Maybe you didn’t realize it then, but the worst thing you could have done for them was to allow them to have each other, to have the pack. They’ve torn each other apart, at the same time they tore the pack apart,” she smiled a true smile at him then, “They have received their just desserts. They’ve punished each other more than you could ever have done yourself. Don’t be sorry for leaving. You did what you had to do to survive.”

  “You’re a very smart young lady,” Maverik smiled at her.

  “I like to think that I grew up just like my Daddy,” she grinned at him.

  He changed the subject then, needing to know about the good people in the pack, the elders, “Are there none of the elders left?”

  “No, only Grady. And he’s refused to leave no matter how many times I’ve tried to make arrangements for him to join a neighboring pack,” she turned hard eyes on Grady.

  Grady laughed at her good natured kidding, knowing there was truth behind it, “Had a job to do, little girl. I told you that before! Had a responsibility to see to!” Grady looked at Maia lovingly, “But it’s done now. I’ll be looking to move on now, take that place you found for me.”

  “You will??!!!” she asked excitedly, “That is so great! Then I can go with Daddy!” she exclaimed, sitting up straight and looking at Maverik expectantly.

  “Wait, what?” Maverik said, knowing full well he was surely misunderstanding her.

  “With you!” she shouted, “I can come with you now. If Grady is taken care of and moves to the Highland Pack with all the rest of our pack that was worth a damn, I can come with you! Where are we going? Where do you liv
e now? Are you mated? Is she going to like me???”

  “Baby, settle down, calm, that’s a lot to think about,” he told her.

  “Don’t you want me to come with you?” she asked him.

  “You are always welcome with me, but you’d be leaving your mother and your father. Neither will ever be welcome where I live. They’d be driven out, or likely destroyed if they try to come after you. You will never be welcome here again. It’s a huge decision. You need to think on it, not just impulsively act,” he tried to explain to her. He didn't want her to make an emotional decision and come to regret it later.

  Maia tried to hide her disappointment and reached across the table for her glass to take a few sips. They sat there in the quiet for a bit, each trying to gather their thoughts.

  “Maia, I didn’t say no, baby. I just want you to be absolutely sure. This is a decision there is no coming back from. You understand?” he said this as he ducked his head lower, trying to meet her eyes where they rested on her glass.

  “Yes, I understand,” she quietly answered.

  Then she raised her eyes to his, “Tell me about you, about your life.”

  So he did. She needed to know everything so that she could make the best decision for her when the time came. They talked for hours about themselves, learning about each other and who they had become. She got up and went to the refrigerator to get another can of orange soda. He smiled, she always did love orange soda, even as a little kid. She leaned over to pick up the pop-top that she’d dropped on the floor, and her necklace popped out of her shirt, dangling there for a bit before she stood up. The sunlight through the window glinted off it briefly, and Maverik squinted, trying to get a better look. Naw, couldn’t be, he thought. Maia came back to the table and sat down beside him again, pausing to hug him from behind as she went by. She took her seat next to him, and he could see the silver of her necklace chain peeking out of her shirt against her neck. He reached over, lacing the tip of one finger under it and gently pulling it from her shirt. It was a long chain, with the pendant dangling about breast level inside her shirt. She realized what he was doing and sat there, her chin raised, waiting to see his reaction. He picked up on her nerves and was puzzled, what could she be nervous about? Then the pendant cleared her collar, and when his eyes focused on it, they filled with tears.

  Quietly she said, “I wear it to remind me that I should always be brave, that my heart is the best part of me, just like yours is the best part of you. And because it makes me feel close to you.” And with that he lost it, tears coursing down his face, a sob escaping. She was wearing his purple heart as a pendant. “I’ve worn it since the day Grady showed it to me. I never take it off. I’m so proud of you, Daddy.”

  He swept her into his arms, holding her while he sobbed, letting out all of the pain, all of the resentment, all of the wondering why he hadn't been enough for any of them. Just knowing that his Maia loved him, that she was proud of him, of her connection to him, turned to rubble all the walls he’d built to shelter himself. If there were any left, they were destroyed when a masculine voice from the edge of the kitchen said, “And I wear your Medal of Honor, to remind me to be honorable, courageous and fair in all things. To remind me to always emulate the man that you are.”

  Maverik swung his attention to the young male standing there, holding a silver chain out from his chest where it would normally lay beneath his shirt, and from that chain dangled Maverik’s Medal of Honor. “Hi, Dad,” Matty said.

  Maverik was stunned. He never even thought about the Medal of Honor. He’d been given it at a time in his life when he regarded himself as less than, and accepting a medal that said he’d had honor was a thing he’d never been able to come to terms with. But now, seeing it around Matty’s neck, he felt worthy of it for the first time. He released Maia and strode purposefully to Matty. He stopped right in front of him, smiling at Matty through tears before he wrapped him up in a bear hug. “Matty, it’s so good to see you, son.” Matty hugged him back, both openly crying. They were about the same height, but where Maverik had blonde hair, Matty’s was more of a deep brown with golden highlights. And where Maverik’s eyes were blue, Matty's were gold like his sister and like Renegade.

  They both realized they were crying and hugging at the same time and stood back, patting each other on the back and surreptitiously wiping their eyes.

  “Men,” Maia said to Grady, shaking her head.

  “Hey, they hugged. That’s more than most,” Grady told her grinning.

  Chapter 4

  “How’d you know I was here?” Maverik asked Matty.

  “I didn’t. I got tired of waiting on Maia and then got worried when she took so long, so I came to see what was holding her up,” Matty answered.

  “I forgot you were waiting for me, Matty. I saw Daddy and,” she shrugged her shoulders, looked at Maverik again, happy tears in her eyes, “just forgot. And now I’m going to go with him.”

  “Good!” Matty answered.

  “We’re talking about it,” Maverik told Matty, “but it’s a big decision.”

  Maverik put an arm around Matty’s shoulders, guiding him to the table to sit and visit with them. Matty turned into him, hugging him hugely again before he sat down.

  They spent the next couple of hours getting acquainted, and Maverik caught Matty up on what he’d missed before he got there. When Maverik tried to apologize to him, Matty snorted, his lack of respect for his parents evident. “Don’t apologize to me, Dad. You did nothing wrong. You were a better male than I fear I’ll ever be; I’d have killed them. But you allowed my parents to have what they desired most; each other. And now? Now they have shit to show for it. Those very few with any integrity left shortly after you did. And past that? There isn't much left. It’s not your fault. You ran this pack with fairness and honor, but they chose to turn a blind eye when your Mate and brother betrayed you. So, in my opinion, they got what they deserved. You did nothing wrong. They breathe because you are a more honorable man than most.”

  Maverik shook his head, “I could have come back for you, but I was just so broken…” Maverik tried to explain.

  “No. You couldn't have come back for us. They’d have never let us go with you. It was more a matter of pride than anything; they’d never have let you have us. And right or wrong, she is our mother, and at one time we needed her. Now she needs us, well, me anyway. She needs me. And I’ll stay here and protect her, because I’m supposed to,” subconsciously he wrapped a hand around the Medal of Honor he wore around his neck, “But you need to take Maia away. She’s been promised to one of my father’s soldiers. And I don’t know how much longer I can keep him from making his claim.”

  “What?!” Maia exclaimed.

  “I been trying to keep it from you, didn’t want you to freak out and run, Maia. But he promised you to Slade. I told Slade if he tried to claim you before you turned eighteen, I’d kill him. He’s kept his distance so far, but I can see him watching you, waiting. I don’t know how much longer my threat will hold him off.”

  Maia was now shaking.

  “You okay, Maia? You know I’m not going to let him have you, don’t you?” Maverik asked her.

  She nodded, raised her head to look at him, but instead of tears and desperation, he found an extremely pissed-off female.

  “I will not accept him!” she hissed, “He will not touch me!”

  “There’s my baby girl,” Maverik said lovingly, pride filling him at her show of strength. Maverik remembered Slade well. He was his own age and had been the one to step forward that night and admit that most of them knew, but didn't say a word to him about his Mate’s betrayal or his brother’s for that matter. He was an opportunist, and where he saw the path easiest was the path he chose. No way in hell he was leaving his daughter here to deal with that shit alone.

  “Have you made your decision, Maia?” he asked her gently.

  She smiled at him, a huge brilliant smile that made her nose crinkle and her freckl
es bunch. “I made my decision the moment I saw you standing in Grady’s kitchen, Daddy. I’m coming with you.”

  “It’s settled then; the four of us will leave tonight. We’ll get Grady to Highland Pack, and the three of us will head on to my clan, to home,” Maverik said.

  “I can’t go, Dad,” Matty told him.

  Maverik said nothing; he sat quietly, regarding Matty, waiting for an explanation.

  Matty toyed with the can sitting on the table, “Mom needs me. I know that you don’t care, and honestly, I can’t believe that I still do, but she’s my Mom.”

  “She made her bed all those years ago, Matty. I just can’t find it in me to care. I’m sorry.”

  Matty put the can down, “He’d hit her if I’m not around,” and in spite of himself Maverik snarled.

  “No woman should ever be beaten, no matter who she is,” Maverik growled.

  Matty smiled a slightly evil smile, “Well, he used to, but not anymore. Once I put him on his ass, he hasn't done that again.”

  “Good, don’t let him hit your mother,” Maverik said quietly, honestly surprised that he even gave a fuck.

  “I’m not. But he’s abusive in other ways. He puts her down all the time. He flaunts his affairs with the younger women in the pack in her face. He’s forgotten that he ever loved her. Honestly, I wonder if he ever did.”

  Grady answered that one, “Nope, Renegade don’t know how to love. He covets things, people, power. But love ain't in his makeup, and, unfortunately, Miller is just like him.”

  “That’s another reason I need to stay,” Matty said. “He’s grooming Miller to be Alpha. They are planning to lure people to join the pack, force them to stay, so they can rebuild our numbers. I can’t let that happen. I’m going to challenge him. I’m taking over. It’s going to be like it was when you were here, Dad.”