Dio
, Byron, does Toni know what you are?”
“Of course.” His tone lowered an octave. “You cannot betray us for any reason, Franco. If you did, I would know, and I would have no choice but to protect my people.”
Franco glanced at him, noted the hard lines etched into Byron’s face. “You mean it, don’t you? I understand loyalty, Byron.” A small grin spread across his face. “Once you marry Toni, we’ll be family. I don’t think it’ll be so easy to harm me.”
“It wouldn’t be so easy now, Franco. Make your choice.”
“I like knowing you have certain abilities. They may come in handy sometime. I know Toni doesn’t really want to run the family business. Sooner or later,
Nonno
is going to have to turn it over to me. I think having you at a board meeting would be very helpful.”
“Helena had an affair with Tasha and Paul’s father. Esteben was her son, not her nephew. Helena thought she deserved the Scarletti fortune. I believe she was responsible for the deaths of Antonietta’s parents and even Tasha and Paul’s parents. Esteben probably killed Enrico. Helena and Esteben arranged accidents for Don Giovanni and fed poison to members of your family. They were both able to shift into the form of a jaguar. They were the ones killing the locals. They probably could not control the urges of the beast when they were in the form of the cat.”
“You are telling me something.”
“Do not shift into the form of a jaguar and expect to stay in control. It is dangerous.”
“How did you know?”
“You accepted my differences far too easily.”
“I would never have suspected Helena. She seemed so much a part of our household. What a waste Had she just gone to Don Giovanni and told him about Esteben, they would have been welcomed into the family.” He parked the car in the large garage. “Marita doesn’t believe Margurite is my child.”
“What do you believe?”
“She is a Scarletti through and through. And I love her. She’s my daughter, and she’ll always be my daughter, no matter what a paternity test says.”
“She is a Scarletti.” Byron smiled. “There is no mistaking the scent and thought patterns of your family.”
Franco leaned back in his seat and smiled. “
Grazie
, Byron. Do whatever you think necessary to protect your people. Your family is tied to my family now. It is what any of us would do.”
And hurry please. I am lonely for you.
Antonietta startled him. She learned fast, staying a shadow in his mind even when he was no longer aiding her.
I am coming. He sent his assurance to his lifemate.
Chapter 20
“I do not believe this. Byron, you are nervous.” Jacques Dubrinsky clapped Byron on the shoulder as he circled around his friend to check that the tails on the suit jacket were straight.
Byron glanced quickly at the other occupants of the room. Eleanor and Vlad grinned openly at him while Shea, Jacques’s lifemate, tried to hide her smile.
“I am not nervous. Why should I be nervous? Antonietta is my lifemate. We are already tied together. This is just a ceremony to please her family.” Byron straightened his tie and ran a finger under the collar of his immaculate white shirt. “Why are these things always so tight, like a noose around one’s neck?”
Jacques laughed at him. “The noose has been there for some time. You just now are feeling it?”
Shea delivered a solid punch into Jacques’s arm. “Ha-ha. You think you’re so funny. His sense of humor is warped, Byron, don’t pay him any attention. Your bride looks beautiful. I took a peek at her as her cousin helped her dress.”
“She is nervous. Antonietta is so peculiar. She chose to convert without batting an eyelash. She was willing to fight off a dangerous jaguar. She walks blind onto a stage to perform in front of forty thousand people, but she’s so nervous marrying me, she is making me nervous.” Byron glared at Jacques as he said the last.
“Or perhaps it is the other way around,” Jacques pointed out. “I think you are sweating.”
“Don’t listen to him, Byron. Jacques is the one nervous. You know how he just loves crowds.” Shea gazed at her lifemate with love. “How’s Antonietta’s vision, Byron? Is she coping any better?”
“She has learned to understand what she sees but often the thermal images superimpose themselves over her normal vision, and she still has difficulty with depth perception. She also remains highly sensitive to the emotions and electrical currents around her.” There was a note of worry in Byron’s voice.
“Bring her back to the mountains as part of your honeymoon,” Shea suggested. “The soil may speed the process up a bit. I’ve suspected for a while that many of the human lifemates who display psychic abilities may be descendents of the Jaguar race, not all of them, but at least a substantial majority. Antonietta’s the first with such a strong Jaguar genetic code. I’m very interested in seeing how the conversion enhances her natural abilities.”
Byron’s eyes darkened. “She is not an experiment.”
“Of course not,” Shea laughed lightly, even as she put a restraining hand on Jacques’s arm. “I do tend to talk in medical and researcher terms, don’t I? Antonietta is a delightful, courageous woman, and she brings with her a rich history. I suppose you noticed this region has several humans with strong barriers to mind scanning.”
“That has to be the Jaguar influence. Franco actually is capable of shape-shifting, which would lead one to believe his genetic code is mainly Jaguar, yet he has a tremendous sense of family and is a good father and husband,” Byron said.
“I’ve talked to him,” Shea admitted. “He’s promised to allow us to witness his shape-shifting. It will be interesting to see the differences.”
Byron looked up quickly. “He did not say a word to me.
I have serious reservations about that. I’ll take you to the history room. Antonietta has agreed it is very important to us all. But I do not want Franco shifting.”
Vlad nodded his head in agreement. “I have to go with Byron on this. The natural inclinations of the Jaguar seem difficult to control.”
“It’s important,” Shea reiterated. “Franco, especially with his strong sense of family and yet the ability to shift, is important. He’s been wonderfully cooperative. Antonietta, too. Both understand the importance to our people of unraveling the mysteries.”
“What if he makes a kill while in the jaguar form?” Byron asked, turning to face her. “Franco also has other Scarletti traits. He is capable of violence; do not think he isn’t. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he harmed an innocent person while in that form.”
“The Scarlettis are your family, Byron,” Jacques said, his voice, as always, low but impressive. “Mikhail has accepted them under our protection for that reason, and all of us here have done so because of the strength of your feelings for them. I have found them to be just as loyal to you in return. Franco wants to help us with this. He cannot possibly escape the control of three fully mature male and three female Carpathians.”
“If I can witness the differences during a shifting,” Shea said, “I should be able to figure out how to better help Antonietta with her vision problems. The Jaguar genes are very strong in this family. This might be our only chance to really find out the information we need to help our people with so many things, Byron.”
“I’ll have to speak with Franco again about this. I would want him to understand the risks before he does it,” Byron said.
“Of course,” Jacques agreed. “And do not forget, he has shifted more than once, and he did not make a kill.”
“He does not remember,” Byron pointed out, “that is not the same thing as knowledge. He obviously did not have control of the beast; it controlled him.”
Shea paced across the room, halted beside the stained glass window to touch the intricate artwork. “I know you’re worried about Franco, Byron, but I’m really not as clinical as I sound. I appreciate that these people not only are loved by your lifemate but are family to you. I also appreciate that they accept us and our differences. I would never put one of your family members in jeopardy for research, no matter how important it is to our race. I just wouldn’t do that.”