Claimed by Caden Read online

  His mother wouldn’t stoop so low as to drug him. She loved him and wanted the best for him. There was no doubting that. Even to attain what she wanted for him, what she insisted was the best for him, she would never go to the extremes of drugging him.

  “I can’t remember much at all, Lia. What I do remember is the lunch was a goddamn sting.”

  “What do you mean?”

  At times like these, being honest sucked. But he wasn’t going to lie to her, not about this. He was already withholding so much from her, this was small fry in comparison. “Mother decided to try to sway me to her cause.”

  “In what sense?” she asked, hesitancy in her tone.

  “When I was a kid, a local girl took a liking to me. I didn’t like her though. I wanted nothing to do with her, but she’s the daughter of the...Mayor,”—there was no way he could tell her Chloë’s mother was the Leona—“She’s important around here, and she didn’t appreciate my not jumping through hoops to be with her. When I left for college, I thought it was the end of it. From today’s lunch, I’d gather I was wrong.”

  “Why does your mother hate me so badly, Caden?”

  There was an emptiness to her tone that hurt him. It twisted his insides. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed. “I wish I could tell you, baby. She’ll come round.” Her silence wasn’t reassuring. “Hey, you know, no matter what they pull, I’m not interested.”

  “I’ve heard about mother-in-laws from hell, but Eloise is starting to take the biscuit. Why would she encourage you to cheat on me? Or if not that, to try to get you to divorce me?”

  “I love you,” he told her, giving her the few words he could to try and make this all better.

  “I love you, too. But I swear to God, before we go back to New York, I’m going to have this out with her. I can’t stand this anymore. She’s like a marriage terrorist! Everything’s okay, then all of a sudden, she wants you to meet her for lunch and something like this happens….” Her words drifted away into a heavy silence, which she broke with, “Did you tell her I was pregnant?”

  Shit, how to answer that? “Yes.”

  “I take it she didn’t react well.”

  “No.”

  She sighed. Long and low. “Get better soon, baby.”

  With that sound of anguish, she cut the call, and Caden couldn’t blame her.

  What kind of man would let his mother keep on like this? Would allow her to continually demean his mate?

  His only saving grace was the fact he wasn’t a man.

  He was a cornered male in a matriarchal society. Not much of an excuse, but it was the only one he had to defend himself. Not that he could even explain any of that to Lia, not if she wasn’t a part of his world as he believed.

  Until he knew more, he had to continue in this role of hen-pecked son, watching as his poor mate suffered for it, hurting with her, and wishing he could stop his mother from being the cat she was.

  At times, life really sucked ass.

  Chapter Five

  As rage ripped through Lia, she had to use every ounce of her hard-won control to not throw the telephone against the wall. Such behavior would only cement Eloise’s distrust of her rough beginnings. It was incredibly difficult not to break something. She had to hold herself still, to put herself in a kind of deep freeze for a few minutes.

  With her head bowed over the console table holding the phone, she gripped the edges so hard her fingers ached. But the pain was good. Not as good as breaking the mirror in front of her, but still, it gave her some satisfaction.

  When she’d regained a small measure of control, she looked up and saw her reflection. Her eyes were sad, her face drawn with tiredness, but that wasn’t what made her jump. A woman was standing uncomfortably close to her. A few feet away. And she hadn’t even heard her come in.

  Disconcerted, she turned around and asked, “May I help you?”

  The woman seemed to hear her question, but she ignored it, because she didn’t reply. Instead, her gaze seemed to encompass Lia’s every inch, from the top of her head to the patent leather covering her toes.

  Like the rest of the town, in its Stepford disorder, this woman was blonde. Perfectly turned out, impeccable to look at.

  It was very hard not to lift a hand to pat at her own hair in the face of such perfection. Not a lock dared to stray out of place in the neatly tied chignon. The other woman’s makeup was flawless, not a smear in sight, not a hint of a shine on her forehead. Dressed in a two-piece suit that screamed Chanel, the woman looked good. More than good, if truth be told.

  “So you’re who he chose.”

  The first words to escape the woman were a rasp. They were also an identifier. “Let me guess. You’re Chloë, right?”

  The woman’s head tilted slightly in a nod. The gesture was faintly regal, and that, combined with the outfit, told Lia one thing. Chloë thought a lot of herself.

  Probably a major understatement.

  “The difference, Chloë,” she told the other woman sweetly, “is Caden did choose me. I didn’t have to drag my mother-in-law into guerilla warfare to hook him.” She smiled. “What does that tell you? It tells me you can’t take something that is freely given. And Caden loves me. I don’t need to strong-arm Eloise into making him say it either. He’s mine.” She felt a great welter of satisfaction in saying that, felt more than satisfaction at being able to attack. Even if it was only verbally.

  Eloise might be treating her like shit with her insulting choice of rooms, but there was one certainty in all of this—Caden loved her. And he put up with his family’s bull to have her.

  That said a lot. It put her in a position of power, one she hadn’t used in their years of marriage. Now, however, the die was cast. Eloise had done it, she’d started this, but she wouldn’t be the one to finish it. A Bronx background wasn’t the hottest thing to have on your resume, but it meant one thing and one thing only—she was a survivor. And in a way pampered bitches like Eloise or this Chloë with her perfect everything could never comprehend.

  There had been nights when she and Tomas had gone hungry, when her mother had only just managed to pay rent never mind put food on the table. The only food she’d been able to scrape together had been scraps from the diner she waited tables in.

  There had been nights, deep in the winter, when they’d felt close to freezing. Heating had been a luxury they’d been unable to afford sometimes. Her mother had done her best, and she’d done a bang-up job.

  Lia was a legal secretary, a success on her own. She’d become the personal assistant to one of Manhattan’s top lawyers, and all on the strength of her own achievements. Tomas, even though he’d gone to jail, had made a success of his life. She knew he was going through something he couldn’t handle at the moment, and early on, after settling into her digs, she’d sent him a text telling him there had been an emergency, and that she wouldn’t be able to make it that evening. But he’d cope without her, because that’s what their mother had done. Created survivors. She’d loved them, had raised them with love. Even though there had been times she’d been exhausted, she’d always had time for them. Would always sit down and listen to their problems.

  Sometimes, to be loved for yourself was the biggest gift, the biggest luxury anyone could give you. She’d had that. She might not have had a private pool or more bathrooms than cutlery, but she’d been part of a family where each member counted.

  Eloise had made a tactical mistake in insulting Lia by putting her in a room set aside for the servants. It wasn’t that she was a snob, that her room wasn’t good enough for her, it was the lack of respect inherent in that decision that galled Lia. In her mother-in-law’s world, where image was everything, she’d shown Lia how much she disliked her. But Eloise would pay for it.

  Lia would see to that.

  “You have claws,” Chloë eventually commented, sounding more amused than anything. Not a reaction Lia had hoped to incite.

  “You’d be surprised.”

 
; “I doubt it. Little surprises me, you know.”

  “I don’t know. But you’re a fool if nothing can shock you. Life is filled with surprises, some good, some bad. And if you mess with me, if you try to do anything to undermine my relationship with my husband, then you’ll pay.”

  “You make threats like you were making comments about the weather,” Chloë murmured. “How easy it is for you to turn aggressive.”

  “I’m not being aggressive,” Lia denied. “If anything, I’m laying the cards down on the table. I have ears, Chloë. I listen. And on my short journey through town, I heard things about you. Mostly, how large a fool you’ve made of yourself by pining after a man who doesn’t want you. I’d have thought, looking at you, you had more self-respect than that.”

  “He’s mine,” she hissed, her control finally rupturing at Lia’s words. “I don’t give up what’s mine. It goes against everything that I am. I will do everything in my power to undermine your ‘marriage,’ as you phrase it. I’ll do what I must to make him finally see sense, to make him see what I realized a long time ago...we belong together.”

  “I think obsession is a more appropriate term than belonging. If you can’t take rejection, then you should concentrate on staying single. Caden knows what he wants. He isn’t a man to be led, you should know that if you know anything about him at all. He does what he wants, listens to his own counsel. The worst thing you could have done was involve Eloise,” she told her, a satisfied smirk on her lips. She wouldn’t have classed herself as a bitch, but apparently, that was a lie. “And if you actually harmed my husband by getting him here, you will pay. Do you hear me?”

  When the other woman stiffened, Lia had an answer of sorts. Then, Chloë hissed. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? You don’t realize what you’re dealing with. And you won’t. Soon, everything you see around you, all the wealth and the privilege, will be taken from you. It will be mine, as will Caden. You were a fool getting pregnant. You were a fool to think Caden would believe the brat was his. But then, you...” She sneered, and settled for the oddest word, “women are idiots.”

  Lia’s rage soared at the knowledge Eloise had told this woman she was pregnant. Lia hadn’t even told her brother, and yet this fucking woman, a stranger, knew before her own kin.

  The idea that Eloise believed the baby she was carrying to have been fathered by another man, and not Caden was the most curious notion of all the bullshit Chloë had just spouted. That Lia could possibly be interested in any man but her husband was a joke. Caden was not only gorgeous, he was intelligent and a beautiful person. He listened. He heard her. When she spoke, he cared. That alone was priceless.

  He loved her, and showed that love in many different ways. Why would she cheat on a man like that? Why would she want to?

  He was everything she’d never known she wanted.

  She didn’t say that though. She refused to defend herself over such a ridiculous accusation. “Considering you’re as female as I am, you’ve just insulted yourself. I think you should leave before this discussion derails even further.”

  The other woman smirked. “You’re not the owner of the house. And as I’ve been invited here by Eloise, I think you’re the one that should run along. To a room that befits your station.”

  Rage burned a hole in her chest, made it hard to breathe for countless minutes. She struggled to suck in air, struggled to keep her calm, to not let this woman see any weakness on her part.

  Curling her fingers into her palms, she burrowed down, needing the pain to offset this break in her control. It was a disturbing need, far too akin to self-harm for Lia’s liking, but she had little choice.

  The unnerving thing was, Chloë who had been staring at her with a smirk, suddenly frowned. Lia’s tension and rigid form had the other woman’s head tilting to the side in confusion.

  She took a step back, actually bowing out, in the most minute of ways. Lia continued to stare at her, continued to glare, until the woman departed with a sniff. She turned on her expensively shod heel and left Lia alone.

  The instant the small reception room was empty, a calmness came over Lia. It was strange. Like no other sense of peace she’d ever known. White noise filled her ears. Her eyes ceased to see, showing only black. But before she could panic, the black retreated, and the faint sounds of the house made themselves known to her as did the sobbing breaths she was working desperately hard to inhale and exhale.

  She clamped a hand on the console table, used it to guide her down to the floor. Scrabbling so her back was to the wall, she slumped over.

  This wasn’t the first time an episode like that had happened. But it had never been so intense, never lasted for so long. She’d always heard the world around her, always seen it.

  This was as bad as it had ever been.

  What the hell was wrong with her? And more importantly, would it affect the baby?

  Suddenly, it was imperative she spoke with her brother. She’d had no alternative but to cancel their get-together that evening—although now, knowing she couldn’t actually get into the ward to see her bloody husband, she might as well have not bothered trekking down here. Especially when it sounded like Tommy really needed her.

  Guilt assailed her, but at the same time, she’d reacted to an extreme situation like anyone would when their loved one had been taken to a hospital. She’d dropped everything and gone. She just hoped Tomas wouldn’t be mad at her.... Ordinarily she’d have said he wouldn’t be, but if whatever was affecting her had started to affect him, well, who the fuck knew?

  It was pure instinct that told her these little blackouts she’d been having were shared by her brother. She could be talking out of her ass, doing anything to cover up the fact she had a brain tumor or something, but she wouldn’t know until she asked.

  It was hard getting to her feet. Her legs were shaking worse than any Jell-O she’d ever made. In fact, they were shaking so goddamn badly, they were adding to that disturbing emptiness she was feeling.

  Using the table as a support, she managed to lift herself upright. When she was standing, she happened to look in the mirror, and what she saw scared her shitless.

  Lifting a hand, she carefully rimmed her eye socket with a finger. She moved ever closer to the glass, studying the new set of eyes she had. She blinked, trying to make her usually green eyes stop having this golden glow to them. She tried again, but the pupils were still oval. Like a cat’s.

  Swallowing, Lia shut her eyes, and wondered why she hadn’t passed out.

  What the hell was wrong with her?

  A brain tumor didn’t make eyes change color or force pupils into elongating when they should be perfectly round.

  It was a bitch when a brain tumor suddenly started to seem like the attractive option, wasn’t it?

  Was she an alien? Did aliens exist? Was that the reason her dad had left one day and never come home? Had he been recalled to the mother ship or something?

  Her breaths stopped their rhythmic pace. Instead, they became erratic. Long then slow, slow then long as she worked herself into a panic that ended all panics.

  The only thing she could do was call her lifeline, a man who shared her blood. Hell, she couldn’t even trust Julia with this information.

  Gripping the phone so hard her knuckles ached, she dialed Tomas’s number. When there was no answer, her body started to do whatever the hell it was that had made her eyes change. She fought it, fought the deadening of her senses, then turned and ran.

  Heading toward the elevator, she kept her head ducked down. Once inside the opulent carriage, she tried to remain calm until she could totally lose it in her own bedroom.

  The last thing she needed was someone to catch her with cat eyes in this house. Hell, Eloise would probably be relieved. She’d throw her to the government before Lia could say “alien experimentation.”

  She realized once she was safely in her room, that it was probably a good thing Tomas hadn’t answered. The conversation they needed s
houldn’t take place where just anyone could listen in.

  The thought triggered a memory of what Tomas himself had said when he’d told her their conversation couldn’t take place over the phone.

  Nerves settled deep in her belly at potential proof her brother was experiencing this alongside her. She called him again, and sucked in a breath of relief when he answered this time, “Lia, is Caden okay?”

  “Yeah, he’s on the mend. I made the trek down thinking I’d be able to visit him, but the hospital here has weird rules. I can’t actually go and see him.”

  He paused and eventually remarked, “That is strange.”

  “Tell me about it.” She gulped back her nervousness, and in a whisper asked, “Tomas, you know you needed to talk to me tonight?”

  “Yeah. It can wait until Caden is back on track though, sis.”

  “No. It can’t. Look, I can understand why you don’t want to speak over the phone. But let me say this...” She paused, then on a rush said, “Cat’s eyes.”

  His harsh exhalation was all the answer she needed. “You, too,” he said, voice so gravelly it grated her ear drums.

  “Yeah. Today. First time. What do we do?”

  “Nothing we can do. Just have to try to hide it as best we can.”

  “Is that why you had to leave your job?”

  “Yeah. My temper is way out of control. Any little thing is triggering these episodes, and I knew I had to get out of there. I’ve been okay here, for the most part. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn’t.”

  “Oh God, for me it’s temper, too.”

  “You need to start learning to control it if you want to keep Caden, sis. Otherwise you’ll have to give him up like I did Maria.”

  Just the thought of leaving Caden had her eyes watering. But what if she had to do it for his safety? And what about the baby?