Autumn Sacrifice by Bronwyn Green Page B

but he refused to release her.
    Having no choice but to stand her ground, she forced a smile in her father’s direction, hoping he’d surprise her. Maybe enough time had passed that he was ready to move on, too. It wasn’t as though she didn’t want to have a relationship with him. “Hey, dad. How are you?”
    Her father eyed her up and down. “I’m surprised you bothered to come,” he finally said.
    Hope deflated like a balloon in her chest. So much for thinking that maybe things could be different. He turned and walked toward the parking lot.
    “Good to see you, too,” she said, finally finding her voice. She had no idea if he heard her or not.
    She made the mistake of glancing at Caleb. He looked confused and more than a little horrified.
    “What the hell?” he demanded.
    She shook her head, blinking back the stupid burn of tears.
    “What was that all about?” he demanded again.
    She scowled at him. “Don’t act like you don’t know.”
    “Know what?”
    Brenna studied him. He really did look genuinely confused.
    He stepped closer to her and brushed her hair from her face. “I know things weren’t great with you two before you left—”
    “It’s not up for discussion.”
    “Brenna, I—”
    “Please, just…don’t.”
    Glaring after her father, Caleb started to follow him, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him back toward her.
    He stopped and frowned but put an arm around her, pulling her against his side. “We’re talking about this, later,” he murmured into her ear.
    Ignoring his pronouncement, she watched her father get in his car. “So…do you think the reception has an open bar?”
    * * * *
    The music from the reception drifted out to where Brenna wandered along the beach that lined the wave-tossed shore of Lake Superior. She picked her way along the stone-strewn path toward the woods that separated the water from the narrow strip of road. If she were smart, she’d get back in her rental car and hightail it for the airport. And not the ridiculously tiny Houghton County Memorial Airport airstrip. The likelihood of running into Caleb there was huge. He was one of the few pilots who flew out of Houghton Memorial. And that would lead to a conversation she had no intention of having.
    She’d been avoiding uncomfortable conversations all night. The guys, of course, wanted to know what was up with her father. Frankly, she was stunned that they didn’t seem to have a clue. After all, their abilities and her lack thereof were one of the main reasons she’d left in the first place. Was it possible they hadn’t figured it out?
    It seemed unlikely that they hadn’t, but she’d never told them about the problems between her and her father. She didn’t want them to feel guilty for his interest in them. Especially, since their mother had had no clue what to do with a house full of shifters, and their dad had taken off when they were little. Maybe her father hadn’t mentioned the difficulties he had with her either. If that was the case, she certainly wasn’t going to tell them now.
    As she continued walking, the sand and rocks beneath her feet gave way to sand and dying plant life as she moved closer to the tree line. Taking a deep breath, she let the damp lake air tinged with pine fill her. The scent almost brought tears to her eyes. Nothing in Southern California smelled like this. It was all saltwater, sunscreen and money.
    When she’d left Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she’d chosen the west coast because it had seemed like the farthest place she could go to get away from her father without actually leaving the country. It also ended up being a great place to launch her art career. Thanks to contacts she’d made, she’d broken into the children’s book market much quicker than she would have if she’d stayed here. Of course, if she’d stayed here, she might have ended up married to Caleb or one of his brothers and giving birth to the next generation of shifters. It was certainly