Ford shakes his head. For a second, I think he's going to teleport away and leave me. I wouldn't blame him if he did.
“I can't leave,” he whispers in the quiet SUV, having read my thoughts. “I know where you stand, but I keep pushing you in hopes of us becoming more. And this is what I get for doing that—the raw truth. If only I were enough for you.”
I lean forward, bringing my face inches from his. “You're more than enough for me. You're just not my forever, Ford.”
20
The words break something inside of me. Or is it Ford I'm feeling via his thoughts? His face doesn't change. Not a frown or a movement of his eyebrows. No twitch of his lips. He remains steadfast in front of me while he’s hurting inside. I had to say it, though. What if he can now move on? Not leave me as my friend but understand we won't be more than we are.
I still don't understand my feelings for him. They're confusing at best. I love him, but I'm not in love with him like I am with Rion. If Ford weren't around, there'd be a hole in my heart where he was. But I can't hold him to me. He doesn't deserve to be glued to my side. He deserves someone amazing who will love him unconditionally. One day I hope to understand the connection we have.
He turns in his seat, and without saying another word, pulls back onto the highway, bringing us closer to the clearing I want to put Rion and Wake in. I'm not the only one who has to face things today, but the last thing I need is two wolves shredding the leather in this SUV. The clearing is a better spot.
Settling back in the seat, I'm unsure where Rion's head is. Finally dropping the block I put up, I let him in. He doesn't pry, though his presence is a welcome comfort.
He squeezes my hand. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You did the right thing.”
“I know.”
It doesn't stop me from feeling awful. Rion is content beside me. He loves that I told Ford there is no future for him and me in the romantic sense. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if saying it all in the car, in front of Rion and Wake, was the right move.
“I wouldn't have listened otherwise,” Ford states solemnly from the driver's seat.
Resting my head on Rion's shoulder, I close my eyes, trying to calm my mind. I can block their thoughts, but there is no chance of not feeling Rion's emotions. No matter how far apart we are, I'll always sense him and what he's going through.
Something shifted inside him after Ford and I talked. Rion doesn't want to hit him or kill him anymore. There's a part of him that feels sorry for what Ford’s going through.
I maintain my stance that Ford will find someone who is worthy of him. Not the women he has over to screw around with. Someone of substance who will be there for him. Who will love him with everything they have, and in return, he’ll finally have the same connection I do with Rion.
The SUV slows to turn up the dirt drive to the clearing. I open my eyes and sit up as we get closer to the spot where I wanted to take them. We could have done this in the woods behind my house, but what if they shifted and got into it? What if someone happened to stumble upon us as two wolves duke it out? No, it's better this way. The Avynwood Pack protects the land. They own miles and miles of property.
From what I've been told, Lealla and Aries put their money together to buy a large piece of land. When Dante came along, he added to it, and so did Rion. I think every wolf in the pack owns some property, whether it's small or large. The more land they hold, the more power that comes with it. Hence, why Travis is so interested in overtaking what they have. He would dominate North Carolina. I can only hope Aries and the pack are getting ready. The last thing any of them want, including me, is to see Travis come out ahead.
Ford slows the SUV to a stop. We all get out and walk down a narrow path with dense trees on either side. It’s been cleared some so the branches aren’t smacking me in the face every time I step forward. Thankfully, sun filters lightly through the trees, allowing me to see in front of myself.
“Will any of the pack come up here and intervene?” I ask.
“No,” Rion replies. “Cash and Carter are on patrol, keeping a wide berth. I asked them not to interfere.”
“I'm glad you're taking this seriously.”
“It's what you want.”
“And what Wake wants.”
It’s not the answer I wanted. I want Rion to do this because he misses Wake. Because he wants him to come back to the pack and amend things. At least they both came today. Baby steps.
We reach the clearing. Ford hangs back to lean against one of the trees. The old me would have stopped to check on him, make sure he’s okay after our fight in his SUV. The new me needs to learn to let him be. He'll talk to me if he wants to. I have to let things fall as they may.
The sun shines down on the soft grass of the clearing. It’s a large area, enough for these two to hopefully work things out, even in wolf form. Wake and Rion each stand on opposite ends like they’re waiting to battle.
“This isn't a fight,” I remind them. “This is about you two hashing things out. This can't continue. Wake is a powerful ally to have on our side. He'll fight with us against Travis, whether you want him to or not. If you and the rest of the pack let him come back, you'll have another dream watcher—one who knows what they're doing. I haven't had a premonition in... Okay, I don't remember when. That's my point, though. He knows what he's doing and isn't floundering around like I am.” I turn to Wake. “Have you had any more premonitions?”
“No. They stopped when I was thrown out of the pack.”
“Will they start back up if you become one of the Avynwood Pack again?” He shrugs. That's helpful. I roll my eyes. “So here's what's going to happen. The two of you are going to close the distance so you're only four feet apart. Then you're going to talk like adults. I’d prefer it if you didn’t shift since all talking will stop then. Got it?” Wake and Rion both nod. “I'm not here to referee you two. I'm going to stand on the outside and let you work this out. But if one of you attacks the other, it's on. You both know I'm stronger than you, wolf or not. Don't make me hurt you.”
Rion laughs. “You've got it, little mouse.” I'm about to say something smart back to him, but then I decide against it.
Walking to the tree line, I stand beside Ford while Rion and Wake walk toward each other. Neither says anything at first, but then Wake speaks.
“She's not going to let us leave until we talk.”
“You're right. Listen, I think you should know I voted against you coming back to the pack, but that doesn’t mean it was easy for me to do.”
“I know.”
Rion cocks his head. “Did Ari tell you?”
“Technically, but not in the way you think. She shared her memory with me. Well, your memory through her. Everything you thought and felt, I now know.”
Rion turns his gaze to me, and he isn't happy. That’s about right.
I hold my hands up in surrender. “Hey! I had no idea I had this other power until I gave Wake that memory.”
“No more secrets, Ariane. Starting right now.”
“It wasn't a secret! I forgot to tell you.”
Rion turns, dismissing me, not believing what I said. If he’d only look into my mind, he’d see it. Stubborn wolf.
“I'm not mad,” Wake continues. “I understand why you did it, and had the roles been reversed, I would have done the same thing. You were protecting the bond you have with your mate.”
He pauses to shuffle his feet over the grass. If someone ran into him on the street, they’d never know he's this strong wolf shifter. Or that he's got muscles on top of muscles under his shirt.
“She's my friend, Orion. The only one I have.”
“That's not true,” he interjects before I have the chance. “Paige likes you. Brayden may, too. I'm still not sure about Ford.”
Wake laughs lightly. “Ford only cares about Ari.”
“That's not true,” Ford speaks up. “I'm rather attached
to the Benz.”
I smack him on the arm, causing him to grab his bicep, feigning pain.
“I'm sorry,” Wake blurts out, drawing my attention back to them. “I-I never meant for everything to happen. No one let me explain. I wasn't myself. It was like there was something wrong with me every time I saw Dalia. Like this invisible drive powering me.”
Ford pushes off the tree and walks toward them. “What happened before you saw Dalia for the first time?”
“I was on patrol. Carter had gotten called back to the house, and I took his place.”
“What happened to you on patrol? Anything out of the ordinary? Did you come across someone you'd never met before?”
“Not that I can remember.”
Ford steps closer. “Princess, come over here.” I walk into the clearing where the three of them are standing, no idea what’s going on. “Give me your hand.”
I do as he asks, unsure where this is going. Rion takes a step forward, but I shake my head to keep him back.
“Can you sift through his memories to find his patrol that day?” Ford asks me. “Before he met Dalia for the first time.”
I concentrate hard but can't reach before Dalia. “Something is stopping me. I can't see it.”
“Same for me,” Ford murmurs. “I'm going to draw on your power and pull it into me to see if I can unblock it.”
“Is that safe?” Rion asks.
“I've never done it before.”
“That's reassuring,” I add.
Ford turns to me, his grey eyes holding mine as his thumb brushes over the back of my hand. “I'd die before I’d let anything happen to you.”
I can't turn away from the intensity in his gaze. Instead, I squeeze his hand. We can't keep doing this. I need to focus on Wake and not the vampire who’s watching me like I’m the most precious person in the world. “I’ll do what I can to help.”
Ford nods and focuses on Wake again. He places his other hand on Wake's temple. “Concentrate with me, Ari. Focus on getting past the block in his mind. We need to find out what happened.”
I close my eyes, sifting through Wake’s memories again until I reach the wall there. Ford is there, too. I can sense him.
“Don't break your train of thought,” Ford tells me.
Seconds tick by and nothing. But then, it's as if a crack appears where I can see part of something. A person. White hair about chin length. Male. I focus on him, trying to find out more about him. The crack widens. It's big enough that I can see all of him now. Jeans and a navy T-shirt. That white hair is blowing gently in the breeze. He's talking, but I can't make out what he's saying.
“Harder,” Ford pushes me.
Words start filtering in, but then there’s the piercing pain of a vampire bite—one in which I immediately recognize the feeling. And with it comes all the euphoria. Instead of analyzing the bite, I focus on Wake's emotions, what he's feeling in the moment. He goes blank and then a picture appears in his head. Dalia. Although, he’s never met her. He doesn't think much of her at first, but then the desire builds. The longer the picture resides in his mind, the stronger he feels about her.
His emotions overtake me. It's like my body is on fire and there is no water around to douse the flames. Everything goes dark for a moment. I'm about to pull back from his mind when it comes back into focus. Wake shifts into wolf form and runs toward the mansion as Dalia and Sevan pull up front. Wake doesn't stop running until he's at the edge of the forest. He shifts back to human form. It’s only when his eyes land on her, and he's standing before her, that he begins to cool down.
Sevan rounds the front of the car and introduces them. Their hands touch, but there's no spark. I don't feel it. This is where the disconnect is. Wake thinks the mate pull is there when it isn't. And Dalia is the target of his desire.
21
I pull back from his memories with my mouth agape. This whole time the pack thought he was after Dalia. He was, but it’s not what they think. A vampire did this to him.
“Wake, do you remember it now?” I ask
His eyes are wide. “Yeah. I had no idea.”
“You wouldn't,” Ford adds. “The vampire put a block on you so you couldn't remember what was done.”
“Who was it?” I ask.
“Benedict,” Ford replies through clenched teeth.
“Someone did this to Wake?” Rion asks.
“Yes, a powerful vampire who's been around for a very long time,” Ford states. “Seems he's the one working for Travis. Doing things normal vampires don’t have the power to do.”
Rion steps forward, closer to Wake. “You didn't intentionally go after Dalia?”
“No,” Wake responds. “Now that I can remember what happened, I had no control over what I did. The mate bond wasn't true, but I was under the illusion it was.”
Freaking Travis. It all makes sense now. He had this done to Wake so he would cause problems in the Avynwood Pack. What better way to shake things up than to have Aries, the alpha, throw his only child out of the pack? Then Travis invites him to join his pack, where he probably stole all kinds of information from him.
Ford's eyes meet mine, but he speaks to Wake, “Did you tell Travis anything while you were with his pack? About Aries, the pack, stuff like that?”
Wake hangs his head. “I was angry and hurt. I wanted to get revenge on my father for disposing of me like I meant nothing. Travis invited me in and was nice to me. He offered me a place to stay.”
I can’t blame Wake for doing what he did. He was forced out by the people who were supposed to love him the most. He wasn’t thinking clearly when he met Dalia. He wanted someone he couldn’t have and had no idea it was all part of a bigger game Travis was playing.
“We have to tell Aries,” I state.
Rion places his hand on Wake's shoulder. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have treated you as I did.”
Wake lifts his head, focusing on his cousin. “You were right to do so. I was angry and in pain when I arrived at Travis' house. I wasn't coerced into giving him information about the pack.”
“No, but you're right. You were hurt and wanted to hurt us as we did you. I can't fault you for that. Plus, you were young. We would never have thought you were bitten and made to do those things. All this time,” he murmurs.
My hand is still in Ford's. I'd forgotten about it. The gentle graze of his thumb over my skin reminds me. He gives me a soft squeeze before releasing me.
“Does this mean everything is good between you two?” I ask.
Rion smiles, causing Wake to do so as well. “Yes, we're good,” Rion says and pulls Wake in for a hug.
Studying Wake’s face, I watch as all the tension and hurt washes away. He relaxes as if it's the first time he's done so in years. Maybe it is. I've seen inside his mind enough to know that even when he was with Travis and his pack, it never felt like home. He didn't get close with any of them. It wasn't where he was meant to be.
“I'm going to go grab Aries real quick,” I tell them.
With a snap of my fingers, I appear in front of his cabin. I knock on the door, but no one answers. My next stop is the mansion. I could teleport inside; however, I don't have one of their own with me and feel awkward about just going right in, especially since it’s not an emergency. Instead, I appear outside the front door and knock. Sevan opens it.
He's wearing a pair of faded jeans with a tear at the pocket and a T-shirt with a heavy metal band's name on the front of it. His light brown hair is tousled like he’s been running his hand through it. “Hi, Ari. I don't think Orion's here.”
“Hey. No, he's not. But I'm glad I found you. Is Aries around?”
“Yeah, he's with Dante.”
“Great,” I smile. “I can tell all of you at once.”
For the next ten or so minutes, I tell them everything I've seen in Wake's mind. From when the vampire bit him to when he saw Dalia for the first time. I explain what he felt and went through. Then I tell them about Travis and things W
ake's told the rival alpha out of anger and pain. I saw a lot in Wake’s mind that I didn’t voice back in the clearing. I think it's imperative they know all of it now.
The more I talk, the angrier Dante gets. Not at Wake but at Travis and the lengths he’s gone. Sevan is floored and rendered speechless, while Aries has his head buried in his hands.
“It's all my fault,” Aries says solemnly. “I threw him out when he didn't do anything wrong.”
“That's not true,” Dante interjects. “We only had so much to work with back then. We genuinely thought Wake was after Sevan's mate. You did what needed to be done. Don't beat yourself up about it now. It’s in the past. Instead, save all that anger and hatred for Travis,” he growls his name.
“He's my son. I should have known better.”
“None of us knew,” Sevan adds. “Poor Dalia. All this time, she carried the weight of him being asked to leave on her shoulders. She blamed herself.”
I need to get back to the clearing. “Sevan, go talk to Dalia. Dante, you get the rest of the pack together and fill them in. Aries, you're coming with me.” All eyes land on me. “What?”
“You just told the alpha and beta of the pack what to do,” Sevan says with mirth.
I shrug. “They're just people to me. Well, people with wolves inside of them. But I don't see them as alpha and beta. I see them as Rion's uncle and another member of his family. I didn't mean to offend anyone. It's just that I left Wake, Rion, and Ford out there and need to get back.”
Aries smiles. “You're going to make an excellent mate for Orion. He needs the challenge.”
“And a challenge I've been giving him since day one.” The three of them laugh.
Dante and Sevan go off while I teleport back to the clearing with Aries. When we arrive, Ford is once again leaning against the tree while Wake and Rion are laughing and joking around. But all that stops when they realize I brought Aries with me.
Rion moves off to the side to give them space. Wake doesn't move, but Aries strides toward him. He doesn't stop until he reaches him, pulling Wake into a hard embrace. Wake squeezes his eyes shut as a lone tear escapes.
The Somber Call (The Ariane Trilogy Book 2) Page 15