by J. L. Wilder
“What makes you say that?”
“Please. It’s so obvious. You come back to town, he disappears. Then you disappear! Don’t even bother to deny it. You’ve been about as subtle as a freight train.”
“So what?” Lauren demanded, hot with rage. “What business is it of yours? I don’t have to tell you anything about my pregnancy or my children.”
“It’s my husband who’s the den alpha,” Tina said. “You owe allegiance to your alpha, Lauren. You have to tell him everything.”
“I have to tell him everything he orders me to tell him. No one ordered me to tell them anything about this.”
“I told him he needed to pay attention to you. To keep you under his thumb. He’s been far too lenient.” Tina’s face twisted into a sneer. “That stops now.”
“What makes you think I’m coming back to the city at all?” Lauren asked. “I’m not going to place myself under Cody’s control, Tina. He didn’t come out here to deal with this—you did. And you don’t have any power or authority at all. You can’t tell me what to do.”
“You don’t think so?” The look on Tina’s face was positively malevolent.
Wes stepped forward. “Lauren,” he said.
“Back off, Wes,” Lauren said.
“This isn’t safe.”
“I’m fine. She can’t do anything to me. She’s high on her own power. She thinks she’s so important because she’s mated to the alpha. Well, you know what?” she asked, turning to Tina. “Cody is a shit alpha, and everybody thinks so.”
“I knew it!” Tina shrieked. “I knew it! That’s what this has really all been about, isn’t it! Coming back here after all your years away, pregnant with full shifter babies. You’re trying to challenge Cody for dominance!”
Lauren stared. “What?” she asked. “What the hell are you talking about, Tina? I can’t challenge for dominance.”
Jessica clapped a hand over her mouth. “Cody’s your cousin,” she said.
“So?”
“He doesn’t have any children,” Jessica said.
“Oh,” Wes said, his eyes going wide. He looked from Jessica to Tina. “Oh, man. You’re right. That’s exactly what this is.”
“Shut up,” Tina growled.
“It’s because you can’t conceive, isn’t it?” Lauren realized. “That’s why Cody doesn’t have an heir.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If Cody doesn’t have any heirs, the next alpha would be the oldest male heir of our grandfather’s,” Lauren said. “That would be Matt. But Matt doesn’t have any children either. The oldest male child of the next generation in my grandfather’s line would be my son, if I have one.”
“And if your children had been half-human, that might have disqualified them,” Jessica said. “But because they’re full shifter—”
“Your bastards will never get near the alpha position,” Tina said through her teeth. “I won’t allow it.”
She turned her hand, and Lauren saw that she was holding a lighter. She flicked it and tossed it toward the trailer.
The fire caught. In seconds, the whole thing was burning.
Wes let out a moan.
For the first time, Lauren noticed the gas canisters on the ground. Tina must have doused the trailer before they’d showed up.
“This is just the beginning,” she said. “Get out of here, Wes, And you too, Lauren. Go back to your life in the suburbs and be a happy little human. But don’t ever come near our den again, or this trailer won’t be the last thing that burns.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
LAUREN
The rage that blossomed inside Lauren was even hotter and higher than the flames in front of her.
“How dare you!” she screamed, launching herself at Tina. She felt a wild urge to scratch, claw, tear—to utterly destroy the other woman. It was like nothing she had ever felt before in her life.
It wasn’t her.
It was animal. Feral.
The bear within her gnashed its teeth, imagining the taste of blood and the satisfying feeling of Tina’s skin shredding beneath her claws—
“Wes, stop her!”
Wes’s thick arms were all the way around her. She strained against him, her body heaving, but he was so strong that it was impossible to imagine breaking free. Even the bear was somehow contained.
Jessica’s face was inches from hers. “Calm down,” she said urgently. “You can’t shift. We don’t want a fight right here.”
Lauren’s vision blurred, steadied, blurred, steadied.
“No,” Jessica barked. “You hear me, Lauren? You can’t shift. Hang onto yourself.”
Lauren inhaled, her thoughts resolving. She was still a human woman. She could stay that way. The bear had never gotten the best of her before. It wouldn’t happen now.
“You’re pathetic,” Tina jeered.
Lauren shuddered in Wes’s arms.
“We need to get her out of here, Wes,” Jessica said.
Wes nodded. In one quick motion, he had picked Lauren up and held her cradled against his body. She didn’t resist. She knew they were right. Getting her away from here was the best thing they could do.
She focused on her breathing while Wes and Jessica ran side by side. Eventually, when she thought she had recovered enough to keep herself under control, she squirmed in Wes’s arms.
“Put me down,” she said. “I’m all right now.”
Wes eased her down slowly onto the ground, keeping one hand on her shoulder. “You sure?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Sorry for losing it back there.”
“I don’t blame you,” Wes said. “I almost lost it too.”
Lauren’s eyes filled with tears. “All your things, Wes. Your home.”
“She’s a bitch,” Wes said. “But they’re only things. The important part is that nobody got hurt.”
“But she did that because of me,” Lauren said. “She burned your home because of me. Because of who I am and who my grandfather is. It’s awful.”
“It’s stupid,” Jessica said furiously. “Anybody with a brain would know that you two were never planning to try to take over the den.”
“Of course we weren’t,” Wes said. “We weren’t planning any of this, for God’s sake.”
“But why is it so terrible?” Lauren asked. “Cody isn’t going to be alpha forever. Eventually, he’s going to have to hand it off to somebody else.”
Jessica shrugged. “If you want my opinion, the den has been living like there’s no tomorrow for a while now,” she said. “I don’t think Cody’s planning on the den living to be stable and functional beyond his reign. If he had to think about the idea of a long-term future, he wouldn’t be free to party and spend up all our money like he has been.”
“That’s what this is about?” Wes said. “They’re mad that there’s an heir because they want to run the den into the ground?”
“It’s just a guess,” Jessica said. “But doesn’t that sound like the way Cody’s been living? If people start thinking about the future, they’re going to realize he hasn’t provided for one.”
“I think it’s more than that,” Lauren said. “Did you see the way Tina reacted when we mentioned that she hadn’t been able to conceive? She’s sensitive about it. She wanted to give him an heir.”
Wes nodded. “That makes sense,” he said. “You’ve always told me how intense she is about the fact that she’s mated to the alpha. It’s a big deal to her. Of course she would want to be the mother to the next alpha. She’d want to keep it in her family as much as possible.”
“And people have challenged Cody’s claim,” Jessica said. “And they’ve disappeared.
Lauren sucked in a breath. “That’s what happened to Emmett.”
“You know about that?” Jessica asked.
“Emmett’s alive,” Lauren said. “He’s here in the woods. He has allies, and they’re talking about going back to the city and overthrowing the den
. Taking power away from Cody.
Jessica gaped. “You’re serious?”
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of rustling in the woods. All three of them spun around to look. Lauren’s heart hammered. Had Tina followed them?
She wouldn’t. After how close it came to violence back there, she wouldn’t dare. If it actually did come to a fight, she wouldn’t stand a chance. There are three of us and only one of her!
“We shouldn’t stay here,” Wes said, his voice low. “Come on. Let’s move.”
He set off at a jog. Lauren was hard-pressed to keep up, but she didn’t want to complain or ask him to stop.
Fortunately, Jessica spoke up. “Where are we going, Wes?” she said.
“The trailer’s trashed. Emmett’s in the woods, and maybe Tina’s still out here too. We need to find a safe place to live.”
Lauren jerked to a stop. Beside her, Jessica did the same thing.
“What do you mean, a place to live?” Lauren demanded.
“I’m not living out here,” Jessica said. “I have my own place already!”
Wes looked at them, exasperation etched across his face.
“Can we get somewhere quiet before we start arguing about this, please?” he asked. “I just want to make sure you two are safe.”
“I can take care of myself, Wes,” Jessica snapped.
“Jessica,” Lauren said. “Please. Let’s just all go somewhere and talk.” Wes was making sense. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if Tina found them here. She didn’t want to risk the bear rising up in her again.
“Fine,” Jessica said reluctantly.
Wes set off again—slower this time, thankfully—and Lauren and Jessica followed behind.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
LAUREN
“The thing is,” Wes said, “we can’t fight Tina.”
They had run for about three miles, and now they were sitting on flat rocks on the far side of a stream. The trailer—and the city—seemed very far away right now. Lauren felt as if she’d entered another world.
“There are three of us,” Lauren said. “She can’t beat all three of us in a fight, no matter how good she is.”
“She doesn’t have to beat all three of us,” Wes said. “All she would need to do is take one good swipe at you.”
Jessica sighed and nodded. “He’s right, Lauren,” she said. “The babies could get hurt.”
Lauren rested a hand on her growing belly. Of course they were right. God, what had she almost done? If Wes and Jessica hadn’t gotten her away from there, she would have shifted. And if she had, Tina surely would have shifted too.
She could have lost these babies. She’d let her anger get the best of her, and she had put them in terrible danger.
She shuddered. “You’re right, Wes. I should have stayed away. I should never have confronted her.”
“You were kind of a badass, though,” Jessica said. “Standing up to her like that.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Wes said. “Badassery isn’t what she needs.”
Jessica pulled off her shoes and dangled her feet in the stream. “But you want her to live out in the woods,” she pointed out. “Is that what she needs?”
“I think it might be,” Wes said.
“Lauren’s not like you, Wes. She’s not wild the way you are.”
“I was going to live in his trailer with him,” Lauren said quietly.
Jessica’s eyes widened. “You were? Seriously?”
“I wanted to.” She bit her lip. “I really wanted it. I knew it was going to be hard, but I was ready to try.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry, Wes. She burned your home because of me. I’ve ruined everything.”
“Wait, hey, no, you haven’t.” Wes reached out and took her hand. “It isn’t like that.”
“Yes, it is. She did that because she was angry with me. I was the one she wanted to punish. She should have burned my home, not yours. I don’t know why she didn’t.”
“Because you aren’t there,” Jessica said. “She wants you run out of town. She had to hit you where you live.”
“So if I’d just stayed at my own house—”
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Wes said. “She knew I was the father. She pieced it together. She would have come for me too.”
“You were never going to be able to keep it a secret forever, Lauren,” Jessica said quietly. “Eventually, someone was going to find out. You know secrets don’t stay secret for long in the den.”
“I’m so sorry,” Lauren whispered again, feeling absolutely wretched.
“You see why I can’t take you back to the city, though, right?” Wes said. “If we try to live in your mother’s house, she’ll come for us there.”
“He’s right,” Lauren said to Jessica. “We can’t go there. We can’t take our babies there.”
“You’re really going to live out in the wilderness?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t think I have another choice,” Lauren said. She felt shaky and uncertain. Living in the trailer had been difficult enough to consider, but this was something else entirely.
And yet, what else could she do? Going back to the suburbs didn’t feel like a reasonable option either.
Staying here was what was best. Best for her and Wes, and best for the babies she was carrying.
“You should stay too,” Wes said.
“Oh, God,” Jessica said. She was already shaking her head. “I should have known you’d do this.”
“I don’t want you in the city.”
“It’s my home. Tina isn’t after me.” She got to her feet, waded into the water, and set her sneakers on the rock beside Lauren. “You keep these, all right?”
“You need them.” Lauren tried to hand them back. “I can’t take them from you.”
“Yes, you can. I have twenty pairs of shoes at home. You don’t have any, and you’re going to be living in a god-forsaken cave somewhere. I want you to have shoes on your feet. And once we figure out where you two are going to be staying, I’ll come back and drop off some clothes and blankets for you.”
“Jess,” Wes began.
“Not for you,” she said. “For my nieces and nephews. I want them to be warm and safe.”
Wes nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Thank you, Jess.”
“How long do you think you’ll be away from the city this time?”
“Until something changes,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to come back while Tina’s on this rampage. We’ll have to wait until it’s safe.”
“There’s no way of knowing how long that will be,” Jessica said quietly.
“But you’ll know where we are,” Lauren pointed out. “You can come out and see us whenever you want.”
Brother and sister were shaking their heads. “She can’t,” Wes said. “We don’t want her to leave a trail from the city to us. If she’s consistently traveling the same path, it’ll be easy for Tina to figure out where we’ve gone.”
“God.” Lauren buried her head in her hands. This was such a mess. She wished there was some way out of it, some way she could just convince Tina that she didn’t want to take the alpha position away from Cody.
But I guess it doesn’t really matter what I want. If I have a son, he’ll be the blood heir. He’ll be Cody’s successor.
Wes squeezed her hand. “It’s going to be all right.”
“At least you’re letting me know first this time,” Jessica said. “At least I won’t have to just wonder why you’ve disappeared.”
Wes looked guilty, but he said nothing.
Jessica waded up onto the bank. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s look for a place for the two of you to stay. We should try to find something by nightfall.”
Chapter Forty
WES
“Is she asleep?” Jessica asked.
“Yeah.” Wes sat down and leaned back against the rock face of the cave’s exterior. “She was exhausted.”
“After the day we’ve had, I’m not surprised,” Jessica said. “I’m exhausted myself.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here for the night?” Wes asked. “You can go back in the morning.”
“No, I can’t,” Jessica said. “We need to know what’s going on in the city. For all we know, Tina might be whipping the other members of the den into a frenzy against the two of you right now. We can’t let that happen.”
Wes sighed. “What are you going to do if she is?” he asked. “I don’t see how you can hope to stop her.”
“But it’s better if I know,” Jessica said. “If it isn’t safe, I can come and let you and Lauren know. If you have to, you can take off for Canada or something.”
“Fuck, I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Wes said.
Jessica nodded. “I hope so too. I’m used to you disappearing, but I don’t want those kids vanishing from my life. I want to get to know them.”
“Jess...” Wes hesitated. “You’re pretty pissed at me, aren’t you?”
She glanced at him. “We doing this again?”
“It didn’t feel resolved before,” he said. “It’s not just about Lauren. You’re upset that I live out here on my own.”
“You’ve lived wild for half our lives, Wes,” Jessica said. “I can’t just suddenly be mad about that now.”
“You’ve always been mad about it.”
“Not mad,” she said.
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. You were my brother. When we were growing up, I thought you’d always be around. You were like my other half. And then one day, you just announced you were leaving. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for it.”
“It’s not like I left because of you,” he said guiltily.
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s that you didn’t stay because of me.”
“Oh.”
She shook her head. “I’m not saying you should have. It’s not your job to build your whole life around me. It was just...a wake-up call, I guess. It was the first time I realized people could actually leave me. And then, right after that, Lauren left.”
“You have other people in the city, don’t you?” he asked.