“Hang on.” Ryder jogged across the street and disappeared into the trees. A moment later he appeared again, but this time in his wolf form.
The wolf looked around and then ran across the street to the bar. Tor watched as the wolf hunted around. He could tell when Ryder found the scent, he started trotting down the side of Hwy 3.
Ryder trotted faster and faster.
Tor and Ava followed at an almost all out run to keep up with him.
Ryder kept along the shoulder of the main road.
Why had Dawn come out this way? Why was she walking along the edge of the road? Didn’t she know those men were still in town? This was why they’d had people staying in the apartment with her.
He snarled and clenched his fists, breathing through the pain of his claws trying to break through. Terror and anger warred to be top priority in his brain. He wanted to throttle her for scaring him and being so foolish and yet, he just wanted to hold her in his arms again.
“Just let her be alive. Please,” he whispered a quiet prayer into the wind.
“She’s going to be fine,” Ava said. “We’re going to find her.”
“You don’t know that,” Tor said, his voice snapping harshly at the she-bear. “I’m sorry. I just. I need to find her.”
“I know you do,” Ava said. “Believe me. I know.”
Ryder barked loudly ahead of them. A black SUV was parked on the side of the road. An empty black SUV.
No. No. No. They’d caught her. He was too late.
“Don’t change, Tor!” Ava yelled.
“Mine!” He roared. “Dawn!” he shouted. If he found those men, they’d never breathe again.
“Dawn!” Ava shouted.
Ryder dashed into the brush with a snarl. Tor and Ava were right behind him. They crashed through long grass. Thick shrubs. Tor felt his clothes snag and rip. He was covered in cuts within minutes, but the only thing he was paying attention to was the smell of blood.
Dawn’s blood.
She’d been injured.
“Dawn!” he bellowed out her name again.
“Tor!”
His heart stopped in his chest at the faint sound of her voice. She was deep in the woods. High on the hill straight ahead. She was alive. That was what mattered. She was alive.
“Tor!”
They were all running toward the sound. “I’m here! I’m coming, Dawn.” He clambered up some rocky outcroppings and yanked himself up the rest of the way using sapling trees to pull himself the rest of the way.
Ryder jumped up beside him and Ava only a little behind them both.
Dawn was running toward him. Her shirt was torn. Her pants were torn. There were bloody scratches on her face and arms. But not from people, just from running through the undergrowth.
She hurled herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Huge sobs shook her body and she was crying and speaking at the same time.
“Where are they? Did they hurt you?”
“They were… right behind… me,” she said, between sucking in huge breaths. She peered over her shoulder as if she expected them to come crashing out of the brush after her at any moment.
They didn’t.
Tor nodded to Ryder and he took off into the brush. Ava followed behind the black wolf carefully.
“Why did you leave?” Tor said, squeezing Dawn tight against his body. “You can’t do that. You can’t wander off. I thought they’d taken you. I thought I was coming out here to find your body,” he said, the pain of that realization making his voice raw and broken.
“I’m sorry. I just. I’m sorry.” She tried to slither down out of his arms, but he wasn’t having it this time.
“Stop. I’m carrying you and you’re going to let me.” He slipped an arm beneath her legs and scooped her completely off the ground.
They came out of the trees a good bit north of where he’d seen the black SUV parked. Those assholes were still out here somewhere, and he needed to get away from town and into Tribe territory.
Dawn might not be a claimed mate. But her skin glowed for him. She was his fated match even if he couldn’t have her. Col would recognize that. She would be protected, and those idiots wouldn’t dare come onto private property.
And if they did, it’d be the last thing they ever did.
Dawn was quiet in his arms. She rested her head against his chest and just breathed. In and out. In and out. Her sobs became less. Her heart-rate slowed to normal.
She looked around a bit when he walked over the north bridge out of town. “Where are we going?”
“We’re not going back to the bar right now. Liam can handle it. Ryder will go back and help him. You need to get cleaned up and you need to be as far away from the place where those assholes are going to be looking for you as possible.”
“I was really scared, Tor. I’m pretty sure they were going to kill me if they’d caught me.”
“You’re a brave girl. You ran well. Tore yourself up, but you got away. I’m proud of you and pissed at you at the same time though. So just give me some time. I need to get you to the cabin and then you need to shower and get cleaned up so I can hold you and stop envisioning you dead on the ground in a pool of your blood.” He shuddered through a heavy breath and kept trudging across the river at a clip most men would have a hard time maintaining, much less while carrying someone else along too. He was almost running with her in his arms by the time he’d gotten across the river.
She was silent after his admission. She kept her arms locked around his neck and her head tucked against his chest.
Dawn
He’d come for her. He’d found her in the middle of the woods. How had he done that? She’d been sure she would die out there from getting lost or from those other guys catching up and shooting her. Either way, it’d been looking like a lose lose situation from the second that damned SUV had pulled up.
She shouldn’t have left the bar she knew that.
He’d told her he was proud of her for running from those thugs and that he was pissed at her in the same breath. Which meant what? He wasn’t talking now. He was literally running with her in his arms across the countryside…to where…to a cabin? His cabin? And then what?
He was mad at her. Would he yell like Adam? Or would it be worse?
She liked Tor. She didn’t want to be afraid of him.
But her mind wouldn’t stop. Scenario after scenario played out in her head. She could try to run again when they got to his cabin? Or she could just buck up and take whatever he was going to dish out. She probably deserved it.
No. That’s old Dawn.
She didn’t deserve to be abused or scared.
What was even worse was that she was horribly embarrassed that she’d disappointed him. That she’d been so foolish and stupid that he’d had to get that upset. That he’d been worried that he’d find her dead somewhere.
But he didn’t care about her that much. He’d kissed her and called it a mistake.
Why was he acting like this?
Faster than she would’ve thought humanly possible, he was shoving open a door to a large cabin with a green metal roof.
He nodded to a large blonde-haired man stretched out on the couch in the living room. “Saul.”
“Tor.”
Tor kept walking down a hallway and turned into a bedroom.
It smelled like him. Woodsy and male, but clean. It wasn’t like a typical college guy’s dorm that smelled like a gym bag full of six-month-old dirty socks.
He sat her on the edge of the bed, grabbed a towel off the back of the door, and a small net bag of toiletries, then a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
“Shower is across the hall,” he said, his tone gruff and irritated. After that run while carrying her, he wasn’t even acting out of breath. A little sweat beaded on his brow, but otherwise no one would ever have known he just finished at least five miles.
Dawn stood and followed him silently out of his bedroom and across the hall.
She swallowed back a nervous gulp.
He was pissed.
His normal happy sparkling eyes and easy-going smile had disappeared, replaced with a sharp-edged-disappointed-in-you-so-much-I-can’t-say-anything grimace that made her want to beg him to forgive her.
She held her breath and nodded, fighting to keep the tears from welling up and spilling down her cheeks.
He closed the door and she sank to the floor on the rug in the middle of the bathroom. The tears poured, burning trails down her cheeks. She’d almost died. Those men would’ve killed her. She had been lucky to get away. Lucky she’d been smaller than them and had been able to hide.
Twice they’d walked right by her as she’d hidden under brush and fallen tree limbs. They’d almost found her when she’d heard Tor’s voice the first time. They had been less than five feet from her hiding place. They’d had guns drawn.
She would’ve been dead.
She knew that now.
She hadn’t been able to think that then. She’d had to keep it together. Had to stay quiet.
But now…she knew how stupid she’d been. So what if kissing Tor had been a mistake. So what if he didn’t like her. It didn’t give her any excuse to act so foolishly.
I almost died today. And he almost had to recover my body. She would be pissed too.
Dawn wiped the tears from her cheeks and drew her legs up to her chest to rest her chin on her knees. She rocked back and forth a little, trying to breathe through the new tears and frustration.
She hadn’t come to Mystery to find a man. She’d come to Mystery to get a fresh start on life. She needed to focus on that and not on the hot guy who was done with her.
He’d kissed her and that hadn’t gone well.
He’d cooked her breakfast and she’d left him.
She’d seen her tires slashed and decided walking along the main road was still the right choice.
A soft knock on the door made Dawn look up. The door cracked open just a little and Tor stuck his head through. “Dawn. I need you to shower.”
She saw his cheek tic and the hand at his side fist and then release. He was stressed about the blood. Really stressed.
“I’m sorry. I will. I just.” She stood from the floor. “I’m sorry.” Those few words seemed to be the only ones that would come out.
He nodded and closed the door again.
She walked over to it and pressed in the button on the knob so he couldn’t come back in again. Then she stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the scalding water. Dirt and grime and blood made the water brown and red and disgusting. She worked it through her tangled hair and grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the window next to the tub. It was men’s shampoo, but she didn’t care at this point.
If her blood and scratches were making him that uncomfortable then the least she could do was get cleaned up. Maybe he would be calmer if she didn’t look like she’d just been through guerilla warfare in a jungle in South America.
Dawn finally climbed out of the shower a few minutes later, scrubbed and shampooed and conditioned. The scratches burned from the soap, but a quick glance in the mirror said everything had at least stopped bleeding.
She toweled off gently and stared at her pile of dirty clothes and then his clean ones. Going commando finally won out over putting dirty underwear back on. She slipped into the baggy sweatpants and tied the drawstring tight enough to stay above her hips. Then a white t-shirt and a light-weight sweatshirt. It was enough that she didn’t feel like she was flashing headlights at anyone, but it was really strange to be in Tor’s clothes.
They smelled nice. His scent was reassuring, almost like he was holding her. She wished he would do that again. Just lie next to her and hold her while she slept. It’d been one of the best nights of sleep she’d gotten in a long time.
She knew she was a fitful sleeper. She could see the torn apart bed every morning. Sometimes she woke up in the middle of nightmares and remembered them, but mostly she knew she was exhausted when she woke up in the morning.
Dawn walked to the door and hesitated. What would he do? What would he say? Was he going to yell at her for being stupid? A tear rolled down one cheek and then another and another and another.
“Please come out, Dawn,” Tor said, his voice soft from the other side of the door.
She sucked in a quick breath and opened the door. He stood there huge and tall and beautiful and his face still looked angry.
She looked down at the floor and waited for the barrage.
13
Tor
He’d been ready to tell her all over again how she scared him. How she couldn’t just leave like that. How she wasn’t safe. How much he loved her.
But he didn’t. Didn’t say any of that.
He stepped closer, wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight, tucking her head beneath his chin. He kissed the top of her head and breathed in her clean scent.
She came apart in his arms.
Tears wet through his t-shirt in a few seconds.
He ran his palms up and down her back, stroking her spine, but she continued to cry. Hard.
Tor picked her up and carried her across the hall back into his bedroom. He put her gently down on his bed and then slid the covers down, lifting her a little at a time to slip them out from under her. She didn’t move. Didn’t object. Just lay there defeated and crying.
At least she was alive.
At least he hadn’t found her out there alone and dead.
It would’ve been like a spear through the heart. Even though he wasn’t bonded to her completely, the process had started. Losing her would’ve likely driven him somewhat crazy. Mates on Reylea who were separated by a death often self-exiled due to extreme grief.
As much as he wanted to separate from her and put distance between them, it was too late. She was stuck with him for life. Husband or not, he would never be far from her and he would never love another.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice a whisper.
His heart clenched in his chest. He stood firm for a moment and then crawled into the bed next to her. “I know. And I’m sorry for being so angry earlier. You just don’t understand how close I came to losing my mind when I realized I might have lost you for good.”
“You can yell if it will help.” Her voice was tiny and broken and his jaw shook, knowing someone had yelled at her in the past. Someone had treated her as much less than she was worth.
The knowledge that he had come close to doing the same made his stomach knot. He’d let his emotions and his frustration over her being ‘unavailable’ drive his choices while he was around her. He taken it out on her and that hadn’t been fair.
“I’m the one who should be apologizing, Dawn. I’m the one who lost my shit on you instead of being kind and supportive. I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry I kissed you. I’m sorry I made you so uncomfortable that you felt your only choice was to leave the bar alone on foot. I’m sorry. Please please please don’t ever do that again. Please just tell me to go somewhere else. To give you space. Tell me anything, but don’t put yourself in danger. I can’t handle that choice.”
Dawn turned in his arms, tears were still pouring down her cheeks. She buried her face in his chest and he wrapped his arms around her again, drawing her as close as possible.
“Why am I a mistake?”
He almost missed her question whispered between her sobs. He knew he’d been the reason she’d left the bar. He’d known if she died that morning out there in the trees it would’ve been his fault.
“Because I can’t have you.” He wanted to say all the things. He wanted to tell her how much he already loved her. How h
e would protect and cherish her for the rest of his life, but she was married and that was cruel, especially since he could tell she returned at least some of his feelings.
He wouldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t take her from her marriage to another. In Reylea, there would’ve been a formal challenge. Many arranged marriages created situations where fated mates were found later in life. A duel was necessary to break the bond and free the woman to bond with another.
Death was the only way to break a mate bond.
“You kissed me.”
He scoffed through a painful laugh. “I’m not perfect and I never said I didn’t want you, Dawn. I said I couldn’t have you.” He reached between them and caught her left hand in his, pulling it up and out from between their bodies. He touched the ring.
Her body tensed immediately. Her heart-rate increased. Panic flowed over her skin like and electric current.
“Take it off,” she said, her words almost inaudible.
His heart skipped a beat in his chest. Air wouldn’t come into his lungs. Take it off? He couldn’t just take her ring off. That’s not how marriage worked on earth. He’d been on this planet long enough to know that.
“I haven’t been able to take it off. My divorce went through officially yesterday, I got the email from my lawyer, but every time I look at the ring…I hear Adam telling me how worthless I am without him. How this ring is the only thing that matters. How he’s the only thing that should ever matter in my life. And every time I reach for the ring, I stop, and I feel sick. And then I just leave it. Pretty pathetic, right? I left him, but he came with me and still wouldn’t let me go.”
Not married. She wasn’t married.
Tor slipped the ring from her hand and launched himself out of the bed with it. He opened his bedroom window and chucked it straight out into the trees. If the ring was causing her that much trouble, he never wanted her to see it again.
All's Were That Ends Were: Soulmate Shifters World (Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 6) Page 10