Words she’d longed to hear for the past week. Finally. “So will I. Be better. I see so clearly that I was expecting too much too soon. Deep down, I wanted you to act like it never happened because that’s what I could live with. I wanted to pay no price with you.” The tears fell when she closed her eyes. “I saw everything last night. Your regret, your frustration, your misery when you read those notes. I couldn’t understand the words, but just hearing your voice, I felt it all, and I knew. I knew because I read through some of them the night Gail showed up—”
“She won’t be back,” he interjected softly. “Please believe me when I say she was just a friend. We were never together like that.”
“I know. And if you had been, how could I hold it against you? You thought I was living a new life with my mate. You would’ve had every right to find comfort with someone else.”
He exhaled. “Trust me, it would’ve been an empty endeavor.”
“And…believe it or not, I’m grateful you had someone,” she confessed. “She kept you from having to go out for blood. It was kind of her to bring the clothes, and she was nothing but nice to me. But I have a tiny problem with being territorial, and with all the up and down emotions I was going through, I let my jealousy burn right through my rationale.”
A corner of his mouth lifted. “Sorry, but I don’t know what that’s like.”
She smiled. Some of the old Shain was coming through. “Your first joke since I got here.”
“That was sarcasm.”
“I’ll take it.” She grasped his jaw, smoothing her thumbs on his cheeks. “You shaved, too.”
His gaze roamed her face, before his mouth stretched into a full grin. “The beard had to go. I was trying everything I could think of to draw you out, and I know how crazy you are about these stupid dimples of mine.”
She softly laughed, then sighed in awe. God, that smile. The love in his eyes. To have him look at her any other way—like he had been up until today—was murder to her soul.
“How long will we stay here?” she asked, ready to close the door on the past and talk about the future.
His brows slightly met. “Why? Don’t you like the cabin?”
“Honestly, I love it, but I sense another woman’s touch so…” Her nose scrunched.
And his responding smile made it worse. “It was another woman’s touch. The professional, talented sixty-year-old human I hired did it.”
Her blush turned violently hot. “Oh.”
“I had it furnished and decorated before I even moved in. It was supposed to be done after we left Chicago, but there were delays, so we went to Maine.”
Stunned, she closed her eyes, her deception roaring in her heart at what could have been had she made a different choice. “Oh Shain, I had no idea.”
“I know you didn’t. I was trying like hell to keep it from you.” Seeing the dawning sorrow on her face, he rolled on top of her and kissed the tip of her nose. “Don’t. No more tears for the worst day ever. Let’s make another best. Let’s make a thousand bests.”
“A thousand won’t make up for that one. You know they won’t.”
He smoothed the hair sticking to her cheek. “Tonight has been worth a thousand in my mind, Kimber. We’re together again. It can’t haunt us if we don’t let it.”
A tender kiss was pressed on her lips, and she melted.
It turned deep and passionate, and before she knew it, he was hungrily scoring his lips on her body, awakening her lust despite her fatigue.
With her hand clutching the back of his head, she whispered. “Nothing and no one will take me from you again.”
He licked her navel, voice hoarse with desire, eyes aglow like azure fire. “Nothing. No one.”
Eleven
By day, they slept. By night, they played.
Amazing how misery and pain manipulated time to drag on, and bliss and happiness rushed it like no other.
It was as Shain had always pictured it would be.
Even though he told her he wasn’t nervous for her to go for a run, Kimber didn’t shift for a week, which must’ve really pissed her wolf off. And he would never tell her how his heart pounded the entire hour she was gone.
She was his life, then, now, forever.
Despite their frozen utopia, Kimber continued to toss and turn in her sleep, calling for Shain, never at rest. Each time, he soothed her with his body and quiet words of love, but the next day was the same. It was killing him she couldn’t find peace in slumber when she seemed so happy awake.
“What do you dream about?” he asked one night as they walked the woods.
She frowned, arms crossed. “Nothing specific. I don’t know. Losing you. Going back to the pack. Hudson showing up. Panic. But they don’t mean anything, Shain,” she tried to assure him. “They’re just dreams.”
They were more than that. They were her instincts. He’d assumed the nightmares would stop now that they were truly together again, or at least not occur on the regular. Whether or not she would say so, she worried her pack would come for her, for him, and their world would shatter again.
Frankly, he worried, too.
By this time, he’d spoken to Zander on several occasions, who’d been surprisingly overjoyed to hear the news of Kimber’s return to her human form, and to Shain’s heart.
Every call started the same.
Shain asking if the Glaciers were on the move, and every response mimicked the one before from the pack leader: he didn’t know. But Shain knew. They may not be announcing it to the shifter world, but he couldn’t see Kimber’s former “fiancé” giving her up.
At his request, Kimber told him more about Hudson, and the more he heard, the more definite the conclusion: he’d want her back. He’d been thisclose to claiming her, why would he give up? Whether or not the pack supported it was another thing.
Every day, Kimber panted in her sleep, chased and haunted, and every day Shain dreaded they were yet again on borrowed time. He’d call Zander for assurance, who would tell him not to worry, that he would’ve heard something by now, that it’d a few weeks since she left…
A few weeks was a speck of time to an immortal.
Shain wondered if the alpha provided such platitudes to give them as much time as possible to enjoy the time they had, when Zander must’ve instinctively surmised they weren’t actually free…
While Kimber soaked in a hot bath one afternoon, the landline rang.
On the fact alone Zander called him, he immediately sensed something was wrong.
“They’re looking for her,” the shifter said without preamble, his tone grave.
Shain’s gut twisted like flaming barbwire. “How do you know?”
“A pack in Idaho told me. Glaciers were there showing her picture.”
Idaho? They were close…
“I won’t let them find us,” Shain uttered under his breath.
“I have a safehouse you’re more than welcome to use.”
Staring at the wall, Shain didn’t respond. “Thanks for the info.”
The alpha’s tone turned a little frustrated. “Come to Louisiana, Trevyn.”
His mind racing, he shook his head. “I can’t. It’ll put your pack in danger.”
“Jesus, you vampires. We’re not afraid of them.”
“Neither am I.”
Drawing a deep breath, he froze.
It suddenly came to him.
The solution. The only way out.
He scowled. Kimber would hate it.
She’d kick his ass if she knew what he was thinking at that moment. Not only was it insane, but suicidal.
Unthinkable.
And they would never see it coming.
Twelve
For the next week he prepared himself mentally and physically, but didn’t tell Kimber his plans. Was it deceitful to keep it from her? Not to him, because it would only taint their time together. She’d argue and fight and cry and beg him not to do it.
And he had to.
/> So he pushed it from his mind.
They read philosophy to each other. Watched old movies. Danced in the kitchen. Played in the snow and counted the stars.
Made love often.
She’d look up at him as he rocked inside her, loving him, sighing with ecstasy, before drifting to sleep…
Then woke him with her screams. Reminding him what had to be done.
Talking her into leaving the cabin for an overnight stay at a hotel was easy; keeping the reason from her was not. It killed him with every mile to their destination.
Gods, don’t let her hate me if I don’t survive.
“You’re quiet,” she observed, taking his hand in hers, noticing his mood had slowly darkened since they left.
Eyes forward, he swallowed, not responding, manifesting more tension.
They crossed the border and he eased off the interstate, looking for the right mile marker, finding the designated sign he’d been instructed to find. Gut boiling with dread but determination, Shain pulled in and parked, then got out. Without seeing anyone, he knew they were out there.
Kimber exited the car, looking around nervously as she came to his side. “What are we doing here?”
He didn’t reply, partly ashamed, and partly tongue-tied.
Just then, men started to come out from between the trees on each side of the clearing, carrying torches, murmuring among themselves.
Kimber gasped. “No. No! Shain!”
“It’s okay.”
She pulled at his jacket. “It’s my pack. Oh god, they found us!”
His tone solemn, he confessed, “I know. Because I invited them.”
Kimber froze in terror. “You did what?”
Shain, expressionless, met her wild, confused gaze. “I called them—”
“Why would you do that? Shain!” Furious, she pushed him, then slapped him, but he didn’t react. It was as though he was numb. “What did you do? Oh god, please tell me this isn’t happening!”
He grasped her upper arms to hold her still. “Listen to me! They were going to find us eventually. I couldn’t allow that. I couldn’t sit by and wait for us to be slaughtered, or for you to be taken by a man who thinks you’re his. I’m sick and tired of cowering in a bubble. Aren’t you?”
Eyes burning, she pushed him away again. “How could you do this?”
“Because it has to be done!” he roared back in uncharacteristic harshness. “If you and I are ever going to have a chance at making a life, a real life without fear, we have to face obstacles and obliterate them on our terms, Kimber. I’m done asking you to go on the run, wondering if the next morning is the one they rip you from my arms. I’m finished keeping you from the outside world for my selfishness. That’s not the kind of man who deserves you. I see that now. I have to respect what your pack needs in order to leave us alone. And they need me to fight.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but, to her frustrated despair, realized he was right. In her kind’s eyes, he couldn’t just take what he wanted, he had to earn it. “But you arranged all this and kept it from me.”
“I had to. You know you would’ve tried to stop me.”
“Of course I would have! It’s insanity!”
“It’s happening.”
Her world had tilted so drastically. She thought they were going away for a weekend getaway only to be told she might have to watch the love of her life die at her pack’s hands. “Who do you have to fight? Hudson?”
He dropped his gaze, looking over at the group. “Of course.”
Then there were very high odds he wouldn’t walk away alive. Hudson would kill him just to soothe his bloated, injured pride. “Shain, please, don’t. I’ve lost you too many times. There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t,” he clipped, as if to disengage himself emotionally from her.
Headlights caught her attention and when she saw Diana and another shiya named Kit climb out of the truck, she was partially at ease, though she wasn’t sure whose side her friend would be on.
Shain glanced behind him. “Is that Diana?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good. I asked them to let her come. Stay with her. No matter what happens, don’t come near the fight—”
“Shain, look at me. I’m begging you. You don’t have to go through with this.”
“It’s already done.” He still wouldn’t look her in the eye. “They’re waiting for me.” He yanked her in for a hard kiss, apparently not capable of showing any tenderness. “I love you.”
He shrugged out of his jacket, set it on the hood of the car, then strode toward the field.
Just like that? It was all happening too fast. Shock held Kimber in place.
I can’t watch him fight. I won’t.
As if she’d be able to do anything else. She swung around, staring helplessly at his back as he valiantly headed toward the circle of men.
Déjà vu. Watching him willingly face death because of her.
They could easily double-cross him, and kill him right then and there. Then again, they wouldn’t murder him outright now. There was little more a male shifter relished than an old-fashioned fistfight, to prove their virility and power, and despite their hatred for vampires, to kill him after he respected them enough to ask for a fight would be considered cowardly.
Every man turned his head toward Shain, then parted to allow him in the circle.
“Wait,” she cried out, and then ran for him.
Shain turned just in time as she crashed into his arms and kissed him.
More than one growl circulated the group. It only made her kiss him harder. After a moment, he melted into her mouth, kissing her deep and breathlessly long.
That was more like it. Clutching the back of his head with both hands, she held back the tears that threatened to flow. “There will never be another.”
He nodded, briefly closing his eyes. “I know.”
She steeled herself, unwilling to think of any outcome except him winning. Forcing herself to detach from him, she warned, “Don’t you dare lose, Shain Trevyn.”
His eyes briefly glowed that magnificent blue as he gave a single nod. “Watch me earn you.”
A few from the pack glanced and snarled at her, but she didn’t meet their gazes, unable to tear it from the man she so fiercely loved.
Hudson stared her down, his lip curling in disgust.
Torches were set in the wedges of tree branches, and the circle widened to give Shain and his opponent ample room.
Her not watching the fight was no longer a consideration. If he had to be brave, so did she.
Kimber had never witnessed a one-on-one battle between a vampire and shifter before. If the two ever encountered—which was rare these days, since shifters didn’t venture beyond their territories lately—then any confrontation took place in the shadows, in secret, and almost always ended with only one of them walking away. Or so she’d been told.
Hudson came toward her, his gaze lethal. Fear coursed through her veins with undeniable power. One of the men slapped a palm to his chest to stop him from getting too close.
His growl reverberated over her. “Just remember, he’s the one who asked for this.”
Her wolf snarled back. “No matter what happens, I’ll never come back to the Glaciers.”
“We’ll see.” He turned back to the group.
Never.
A hand on her shoulder. It was Diana. She hugged her tight. “I’m surprised Eli let you come,” she said, referring to Diana’s husband. “Is he here, too?”
“Had to stay at home. The fight for alpha is coming to a head.”
Kimber pulled back. “Does he know?”
“About the letter? No. They definitely suspected I had something to do with you running away, even though they didn’t have proof. It’s a good thing you didn’t tell me you were leaving that night, so when I told them I didn’t know, they couldn’t smell a lie on me.” She offered a kind, sympathetic smile. “It was hard to hide my relief
when I went to the bungalow and saw you’d left. It gave me so much joy to tell Hudson you were gone. I’d hoped it was because of Alpha Kane. Now I see Shain had been involved, too.”
“Trust me, I thought I was seeing a ghost when he showed himself.”
“Well, it goes without saying Hudson was livid. He chased your footprints to the road. Lost the scent after the highway. A few of them told him to forget you and let it go, but the rest were on his side of course, to bring you back. With no leader, the group was divided over what to do. After a few weeks, Hudson convinced the majority to search for you, on the theory you could’ve been taken by another pack. Once that ludicrousness got in their heads, it was an all-out search. God, I wish we’d found another pack like Amos had. Not that I would follow that lunatic anywhere.”
In that case, Shain’s instinct was on point: they would’ve located them eventually, no matter how secluded they were. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he doesn’t…”
“If he can fight them as much as he can love you, then he has a chance.”
Only a very small one. She knew little of Shain’s skills as a fighter.
Diana looked past her shoulder. “He’s not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know, someone...less of a challenge. No offense. I’ve only seen a handful of vampires in my life, you know. Your Shain is good stock. Too bad you can’t breed with him. He’s obviously more handsome than what ought to be allowed, too. Damn, sweetheart, you’re lucky. I can sort of see the attraction. The human part of me can, at least,” she joked.
Well, Kimber’s human side and her wolf spirit were madly attracted. She turned around to see Shain and a shief named Jimmy circling each other.
Wasn’t Shain supposed to fight Hudson?
She stepped forward for a closer look, but Diana held her arm. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t distract him,” her friend cautioned.
Jimmy’s savage grin made Kimber’s heart thud like deep bass in her ears. It was as if he couldn’t wait to get his hands on Shain. The shiefs surrounding them were egging him on to make the first move. Shain, on the other hand, assessed Jimmy, his size, his possible weaknesses, the best way to cripple him.
Shain: Immortal Forsaken Series #6 (Paranormal Romance Novella) Page 13