by Rae Foxx
They all laughed at that like it was a big joke. “Impossible. She’s already had a mate. I wouldn’t doubt that Lucy killed him and blamed it on some drunk driver. We all know the story. He probably wouldn’t bow to her orders, so she got rid of him. We won’t succumb to the same fate.”
Blow by blow, Rich held me back while the others beat the shit out of me. Soon my vision became blurred by the blood and the swelling of my eyes. Everything hurt. I’d heard the cracking of ribs while the breath left my lungs, leaving pain and burning in its place.
“You are fucking pussy-whipped and you don’t belong with us. If you tell anyone about what happened here tonight, the females won’t be the only ones dying.”
I watched them out of one eye while my body slumped to the ground next to the fire. The heat burned my back while I lay there, but I didn’t have the strength to move an inch. The edges of my vision began to blur while my heart slowed. I passed out with Lucy the last thought in my mind.
Fourteen
Lucy
“Oh, you don’t have to cry. It’s not that horrible. I’ll be fine.” My patient waved off my emotion, even though her own eyes were welling with tears. Alisha was only about fifteen and had been fighting depression on her own the last few years. She was not winning.
Alisha’s mother was single, had lost her mate, and was now working all the time both on and off pack lands to make things work. It was taking a toll on Alisha, not seeing the only parent she had left.
Her story was heartbreaking in ways that I could relate to all too easily. Mix my loss, my worry, and my continual lack of sleep in a cocktail and I had turned into a blubbering mess.
“I know you will be,” I agreed with her, nodding my head as I wiped away my tears. “But even if you aren’t, that’s okay too. It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to ask for help.”
“I know.” She shrugged and sat back on the rickety couch. “I mean, I’m here aren’t I.”
She was clearly deflecting, so I gave her my best smile and leaned in closer.
“It’s a good first step.” I was a hundred percent genuine, even if my mind was wandering all over the place.
It wasn’t that I was tired, or that Alisha’s story had hit a cord.
Emmet wasn’t here yet. He was late. Again. Something that shouldn’t matter, I reminded myself, but it did.
Which was making me even more distracted.
I checked my watch, fifteen more minutes. I needed to give Alisha all my focus and then I was going to go track him down.
I’d chalked his absence up to going to the hardware store again. Or maybe he had some personal business to attend to. Ugh, I was being silly and obsessive.
“Why don’t you tell me about something that makes you happy. Something that helps you to chase away the shadows before we end today. Let’s see if we can find something that will bring a little calm into your life.”
Alisha fixed me with a look, arms folded over her chest as she guarded herself.
“I like drawing,” she admitted after a minute.
“Wonderful,” I beamed, my chair creaking as I shifted my weight. “What I want you to do is draw something every day, something that makes you smile. I don’t care what. If it makes you smile it qualifies. Can you do that?”
She nodded, making a non-committal grunt as a noise echoed outside the old clinic. My eyes immediately darted to the window as my heart kicked up in my chest. Maybe Emmet had finally got his butt over here. It was just some random owl landing on the branch outside the window, I breathed out a sigh of disappointment.
Bastard was driving me crazy.
The intensity of our kiss yesterday afternoon had lingered with me more than I had expected. It took me forever to fall asleep. I kept reliving his touch, the taste of him. When I finally did fall asleep, I was haunted by dreams of pain and blood and splotchy visions of forest and trees. It felt so real and yet, I had to be dreaming. There was no other explanation of it.
“Thinking of anything interesting?” Alisha asked suddenly and I jumped. She giggled a bit. I had been caught.
“No. No.” I waved her off, smiling as I tried to recover. “I’m excited to see your drawings though.”
“MmmHmm.” She gave me a grin and stood, wiping off the lingering dust from the couch before she made her way to the door.
I walked Alisha out, watching as she took off toward her cabin. Her shoulders were still hunched, but her focus was ahead instead of down at her feet like when she arrived.
That’s what I called progress.
Now if only I could solve whatever confusion was rattling around in me.
Emmet was still not here and I was starting to feel like I was being pulled through a vice because of it.
I hadn’t felt this way since first meeting Clint. We’d been instantly attracted and wasted no time sealing our mating. Those first few months had been a whirlwind where we left the bedroom only for food and to let our wolves run once in a while.
Clint and I were like a hurricane. And were over just as fast.
Emmet was different. I didn’t feel the need to jump his bones immediately or tackle him to every flat surface. My feelings for him were steady and constantly building.
I’d never really thought about things like family or children with Clint, but with Emmet, those things were popping in and out of my mind all the time.
Maybe Fate did have something in mind for me.
Emmet might be the one I grew old with. That slow-burning, slow-building love that is quiet in the mornings and showed itself through everyday things instead of explosions of passion.
Not that there wouldn’t be passion. I mean, my body flared to life when he kissed me.
If it weren’t for my brain’s hang-ups, I had no doubt we would’ve mated right there on the floor the day before.
Emmet was patient and kind where Clint had been a go-getter, always working toward a goal, always had tunnel vision about his career and pursuing it.
I rubbed my fist against my chest, trying to soothe that ache that had been there since we had parted ways the night before. I stood outside for a few minutes, waiting for him, holding my breath for that moment he would appear and be the ice to my burn.
But that moment never came. My worry peaked inside me. I had to do something.
I would call him but we’d never gotten around to exchanging numbers.
“I’ll go to his cabin,” I said to myself but realized I had no idea where he lived. I knew where his parents lived, but I wasn’t going to knock on their door and ask where he was.
That wouldn’t be suspicious at all.
I realized there was only one person who would be able to help me and not spill my secret to the entire pack.
She had told me to come whenever I needed help, after all.
Alpha’s office, here I come.
Fifteen
Lucy
A red-haired woman who was cooking in the communal kitchens, in the basement of the Alpha’s house, directed me to Cami’s office with a smile and sent me on my way with a cookie in hand. I found her office with no issue and knocked on the door, nervous about making such a silly request from her but seeing no other option.
I had to know if he was okay. Worried didn’t even cover what was going on in my mind.
“Come in.” Her voice was lined with a laugh, but it did little to calm my nerves. I turned the knob and opened the door. Other Alphas weren’t like this from my experience. They had no kind of open-door policy and certainly didn’t answer if someone knocked.
“Alpha, it’s me, Lucy. I’m sorry to interrupt.” I bared my neck as was custom, but she was already waving me off.
“No neck, real names.” Add that to the list of weird things this Alpha did. I didn’t get to hear anything else she said though because my vision was blocked by a squeal and a mess of hair.
“Crap on a blackberry! Lucy! It’s been so long. You look fantastic!” The hair pulled away to reveal Emma who was as bubb
ly and glowing as I remembered from when we were kids. She may be ‘mousy’ but the girl was full of energy.
“Emma! Hi! I mean… Beta…” I corrected, remembering too late the role she played in all of this, but she was already waving me off. “I’m sorry, were you two in the middle of a meeting?”
Cami snorted and leaned back in an oversized desk chair. “More like trapped in a gossip session. How can we help you?”
Emma sat down after waving me into the seat next to her. I sat down but I felt ridiculous being here, even more so with Emma around. It couldn’t be helped, the ever-growing sense of doom in my chest was becoming all-consuming. Might as well rip the band aid off.
“I was wondering if you could tell me where Emmet lives?” I didn’t look at either of them as I said it, even though I was keenly aware that they both shifted their weight.
“Emmet?” Cami asked and I looked up in time to see them exchange a look. “Is there something that needs fixing today? Or did he do something wrong? I’ll beat his ass up and down this place if he’s done something wrong.”
“No… I mean… yes…” I was off to a great start. “He didn’t come in today, that’s all. No, he’s doing a great job. I just…” Oh, fuck it. I might as well tell her. “I was worried about him since he didn’t show up for work today. And I have this sick feeling in my stomach. I had nightmares all night. That’s not normal for me and I want to check on him because as it turns out,” cue the deep exhale, “he’s my mate.”
Cami gasped and Emma bounced in her seat.
They were both excited, but it was Cami who punctured the balloon. “Wait, you already had a mate, right?”
I nodded and wrung my hands in my lap. “I know. It’s crazy and I never in a million years expected this but here we are. I’m pretty damned sure he’s my mate.”
“And he knows too?” Emma squealed but then schooled her face when Cami cleared her throat.
“He knows. But that’s why I’m here. I haven’t seen him since yesterday, and well, you know how it is.”
They did. We all did, and thankfully they didn’t say anything more. Cami got on her phone and in two seconds frowned at it. “Went straight to voicemail. Let’s go find out where your mate is and then kick him in the balls for making us all worry. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Just a little throat punch should do it.”
Emma laughed loudly. I looked between them in confusion.
Weirdest. Pack. Ever.
We all got up and Cami led the way through her house and out the back door.
“Emmet’s cabin is over here.” She and Emma walked in one direction, but my senses and my wolf were pulling me in the opposite direction. I froze in place, suddenly torn. I hadn’t felt that before, I was so worried that I had bee-lined to Cami. But now there was no mistaking that pull.
“Lucy?”
I stopped in my tracks. “I don’t… I think he’s over there. I… can sense him.”
Cami didn’t bat an eye at my crazy talk. “Lead the way. Your wolf should know where your mate is if the bond has already started, and I think it has.”
I swallowed against the boulder in my throat. I was certain Emmet was in the woods and not because he was camping. My wolf whined inside me. She was frightened and wanted more than anything for me to shift and run after him.
I denied her, but only barely.
“This way.” I led them through the pot fields, weaving through the aisles with Cami and Emma on my heels. They greeted anyone we passed like this was all normal business. I was getting more and more panicked with each step.
I stopped in my tracks right at the tree line, peering between the dark trunks, sure I was hearing something out there. Cami and Emma had been so close that they both ran into my back. “What is it, Lucy? Is he here?”
Closing my eyes, I allowed my wolf to take over. She raised her hackles and took in the environment through her senses, the way only she could do. My head turned with hers and in seconds, I was back on the trail. “He’s here. Somewhere here. I can scent him and…”
“Blood.” Emma finished for me. A flash of jealousy passed through me but my brain stopped it. Emma and Emmet had been friends for years. She would be able to scent him too. Plus, she already had a mate.
Emmet was mine.
Through the branches and trees, the scent thickened in my nose, the aroma growing stronger with each step we took into the trees until it was everywhere and he was before us.
Beaten.
Bloodied.
“Emmet!” I ran, twigs digging into my knees as I fell before him, cupping his face in my hands. One of his eyes was completely swollen shut and the rest of him showed cuts and bruises. He was already healing, but clearly this had been an attack.
He was tied to the tree, his mouth gagged with a bloodied cloth that was stopping him from speaking or even calling out for help. His voice was muffled panic beneath the cloth, his eyes wide in fear as he tried to tell me something.
“Emmet!” Cami and Emma gasped behind me as I untied the cloth from behind his head while Emma worked on untying the binds on his hands and body. “Emmet, what the hell happened? What is going on?”
At that moment, I didn’t give two shits what anyone thought. This kind of worry. This kind of instinct about him. It could only be that of a true mate.
I was convinced.
And if he died on me like Clint, I would never fucking forgive him.
“Lucy!” He gasped, the second the cloth was pulled free, panic breathing from that one word. “Get out of here, you all have to get out of here. Get help!”
“What are you talking about?” I was more concerned about his health, but the who and why bubbled in the background.
“You’re in danger, Lucy. All of you. They’re coming. I was the trap.”
Cami had come around from untying him. She and Emma stood side by side, arms crossed over their chests. “Emmet, who did this to you?”
He coughed and cleared his throat. “Sam. Rich. All of them. They’re around here and they are going to kill you. They are going to kill us all. It’s a trap. And I’m the bait.”
Sixteen
Emmet
“The bait?” Emma asked, and I turned thankful that the ropes had released me from the tree enough that I could. She had a bloodied rope in her hands and concern was written all over her face. Thankfully, none of that hatred I had felt for her before remained. Lucy had wiped all of that from me, if anything I was concerned for her. For Cami. For Lucy.
“You need to get out of here,” I said, spitting blood onto the dirt. “We need to get out of here,” I corrected as I stood, body aching from being both beaten and left in an awkward position all night.
Thankfully, they didn’t question me anymore. Lucy and Cami rushed to support me as we turned to leave.
We were already too late.
“Naw, I think we’d rather have you stay here, don’t you, Sam?” Rich, Sam, and a few of the others that always followed them around stepped out from the dense forest, all of them grinning. Their knuckles were smeared with my blood, their own dried to jaws and lips. I had managed to get a few good punches in before they had tied me to the tree.
“I would say so, we have them right where we want them.” Sam grinned, smacking his fists together as his wolf growled. The low sound sent my hackles up. I wasn’t the only one, Cami was growling in warning, the sound even louder than Sam’s.
“Right where we planned to have them,” one of the others said, his grin as slimy as Sam’s.
“This is all working out perfectly.”
“Good thinking Rich, your plan was perfect.”
“And what fucking plan is that?” The Alpha power that Cami retained pulsed through her voice, rendering all of us mute. “Answer me!” She didn’t have to yell, her tone contained that much power, but the tone of it set everyone standing taller.
With all of their talk, Sam and Rich suddenly looked deflated. They stood to attention, forc
ed to answer her, even though they hated it.
“The plan
Cami stepped away from me, thankfully I could stand on my own, but I didn’t release Lucy. I held her closer. I knew what was coming and I was going to do anything I could to keep her safe.
“All of who?” Cami asked, clearly egging them on as she and Emma took a step forward.
“Females,” Rich snarled and spat on the ground right before Cami’s feet. “All these females who are taking over our pack. Alpha. Beta. And now a damn shrink to spy on us all.” I clung Lucy to me as Rich’s hard eyes focused on her. I could feel her heart thrum against me. “This pack needs to go back to how it should be.”
Everyone who stood around Rich and Sam nodded their heads in agreement, sounds of mumbling over the tiny clearing. Cami rolled her eyes, as she and Emma took a step forward.
I tried to pull Lucy back, fully intent on shifting and guarding her. But her feet were frozen. I looked down, trying to prod her forward, but her jaw was set, her eyes bright and furious. She was in this fight.
Okay, guess I was too.
I needed to be. This fight wasn’t just protecting her now, this was protecting her always.
“I’m so sick of this shit,” Cami said, stepping toward them, posturing as an Alpha should. “Just because I have a vagina you think that I can’t lead. It doesn’t take a dick to lead, gentlemen, as much fun as I am sure you have when measuring yours. So, what exactly were you planning? Another coup? You saw how well that worked out for Grant, right? I know you were there.”
He was, and if I remembered correctly, he wasn’t fighting alongside Cami and Luke.