by Anya Nowlan
Battle fell quiet after that, the spark dimming in his eyes. Keesha was shaking like a leaf, partly out of anger towards the wolves and partly because she could imagine so clearly what Battle had been going through since that night. He’d been just a kid, betrayed by the girl he thought he loved, watching his Alpha be put in mortal danger.
“Adriana and Argo crashed through a window and got out of there before we could catch them. Fucking wolves. They’re always faster than we are. Usually, clan and pack issues are settled amongst shifters, but Adriana pushed until she got charges pressed against me. It looked like just another brawl gone bad. They took me away three days later and threw me in jail. I pleaded out and got a fifteen-year sentence. I got out in nine. Good behavior.”
He smiled wryly at that, shrugging his shoulders. All the things she knew and didn’t know about him were slowly coming together. Why he rarely talked about the past and preferred the future instead. Why he’d been moving around the whole time they’d been talking over SassyDate. It wasn’t because he was looking for a job. It was because he didn’t feel at home anywhere.
“Why haven’t you gone back home?” Keesha asked after a long silence, turning her body towards him.
Battle shook his head, smirking dryly. He looked so much older like that. She wondered what kind of a man she’d be dealing with if he hadn’t gone through everything he had. If prison hadn’t shaped his body and his mind, and if he hadn’t got betrayed by the woman he loved. Would she still be there now? Would Keesha have ever met him?
“Ryder keeps reaching out. He thinks it was his fault. I think we’re both just glad my mother didn’t live to see the day when her only son got thrown in the slammer. I can’t go back there. Not yet. It would feel like crossing into a bad dream, a nightmare I’d rather forget, but that doesn’t want to forget about me. I’ve been inching closer ever since I got out. Bitterroot isn’t far from here. But I don’t think the Longbrooks – at least some of them – have forgotten about me. I think they want me dead. For a while, I thought it was all in my head, but…”
A thought came to Keesha and she frowned.
“Is that why you acted so weirdly in the store? You… recognized someone?”
“Not so much as I recognized someone, but that he recognized me. I don’t know. There was a guy there and he was looking at you like…”
Battle’s face twisted in fury and if she hadn’t known him, she would have been scraping at the door, trying to break out and escape his teeming presence. Finally, for the first time after parking the car on the clearing, Battle looked at Keesha. His gray eyes were so wrought with emotion that Keesha thought she could easily drown in them. This big, scary beast of a man had been carrying this huge burden with him for so many years, trying to escape it, and now it was here to haunt him again.
Keesha leant forward and pecked him gently on the lips, lingering there for a moment longer. Her body remembered his hands on her, caressing her curves and pumping into her. Even though this was probably the worst possible time, she could have easily just straddled him out of relief and lust.
So he wasn’t like all the others after all…
“I can’t let anything happen to you, Keesha,” he murmured, slipping his hand behind her neck and pulling her to him so that their foreheads rested against one another. “I just can’t. I won’t. I might have overreacted. Hell, I don’t know. It might just have been some guy checking you out, but there was something familiar about him, something that tugged at me, telling me to fucking run. Or smash his face in, like my bear so helpfully suggested. I know it’s insane and I know it’s too early, but I have to protect you. If something happens to you, I’m going to die inside. I know it.”
The last words came out so confident and sure that they knocked Keesha back. Her hands wrapped around his neck in the cramped confines of the front seat of the truck and he pulled her on his lap, letting the seat slide back on the rails.
Yes, it was insane. Yes, it was too early. But a very vocal, very real part of her was telling her that if something happened to him, she couldn’t go on either. He might have been a fool for feeling so strongly about her, but what did that make her?
“What are we going to do now?” Keesha asked, burying her head in the crook of his neck.
With a sigh, Battle curled his arms around her tighter, making her feel warm and safe – like no wolf could get her, like nothing could destroy their little moment, the little world they’d created for themselves in the truck parked in the middle of nowhere.
“We’re going to figure this out. And we’re going to stay safe,” Battle said.
She could hear what he wasn’t saying, though… If staying safe meant killing another wolf, he’d do it – for her, at the very least.
What have you got yourself into, Keesha…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Battle
Battle had been on high alert since the trip to town. He hated that he had to be so on edge, but the alternative would have been worse. What if he let his guard down and something happened to Keesha because of it? What if someone was already lurking around his house, just waiting for the right moment?
I should never have stayed in one place for so long. And why the fuck did I have to come so close to Bitterroot anyway? Like I’m asking to get mauled.
Naturally, he hadn’t been very cheery since the run-in with the gangly-looking man. He kept trying to place him, but he couldn’t. Battle was sure the man was younger than him, but Argo had been an uncharacteristically tall and strong wolf shifter, so it couldn’t be him. Who then? Had Adriana hired someone to come after him? Did she even remember he existed as something other than her brother’s murderer?
Battle’s face twisted in anger and the ax came down hard and heavy on the trunk of the wide pine, making the tree shudder. When at first he’d taken Keesha with him to keep her company while he worked, now it was all about her safety. He wouldn’t take his eyes off of her.
Of course, he’d tried to send her back to Boston – Slate would have been willing to fly her out the same evening – but Keesha had refused point-blank.
“What kind of woman would I be if I ran away from a fight, huh? You’re not going to get rid of me that easy, Battle.”
He still grinned when he thought of it. She was brave. As stubborn as he was, but brave. And when she’d thrown her arms around him and kissed him, he couldn’t find the strength to argue anymore. If that was how she wanted it, he’d keep her away from anything that could harm her, even if it cost him his life. It seemed like a cheap price to pay for one’s mate.
His grip faltered for a moment at the thought and the ax almost flew out of his hands. Sighing, he straightened up and looked over to Keesha. She was wiggling her plump butt a little, getting a better stance to break down one of the trees that would just be used for firewood. Damn, she was cute in her hardhat and goggles, swinging that ax around like she knew what she was doing. It had been her idea through and through, demanding to help out if she was to sit around at the site all day anyway.
Battle didn’t mind. In fact, he preferred it if she got handy with something that could be used to bash in a wolf’s head if need be. And seeing her sweat and huff over the work all day and then collapse into his arms at night, well, that was well worth her occasional cursing at the uncooperative timber. Stealing glances at her all the time was distracting, but he loved seeing that booty swing and the way she caught her lower lip when she was concentrating… Made a man just about lose his mind.
He was shaken out of his distracted thoughts by the sound of a car trundling down the narrow forest path somewhere in the distance. Immediately, he straightened up and felt the grip on his ax get tighter.
“Keesha, come here, baby,” he called, trying to keep his voice calm, but the growl still crept in there.
She did as he asked, though he noticed the little frown she wore as she walked over to him. He stood in front of her, instinctively covering her body with his. Whatever wanted to g
et at her would have to go through him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Smart girl, she’d hung on to her weapon as well.
“Probably nothing,” Battle said.
Just one person knew where they were in the forest. When the truck appeared at the end of the path that led to Battle and Keesha, Battle’s shoulders relaxed and he stuck the ax down into a tree stump.
“It’s nothing, just Warren. We’re good.”
Warren drove his big truck up to them and parked. He hopped out and smiled widely, that friendly cowboy hospitality oozing out of every pore. Battle liked him. Warren was laid back and calm and didn’t get rattled by much. He was the right guy to keep Shifter Grove on the path that the original founders had envisioned for it and, so far, he was doing a bang-up job.
Warren took his hat off and offered his hand to Keesha, who took it and shook it firmly.
“Miss. I’m Warren,” he said, smiling.
“Keesha. A pleasure to meet you!”
“Likewise! I’m sorry to bust in like this. I just have a few things I need to talk to Warren about today. Swear I won’t keep him long.”
Battle nodded to Keesha, telling her it was fine, and grabbed his ax as he and Warren stalked a bit further so she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Keesha shrugged good-naturedly and went back to her work, marked by a string of cussing every few minutes. She had a mouth on her and Battle loved it. His happy, fuzzy feeling fizzled fast when he glanced at Warren again, who was looking deathly serious as they continued their stroll towards the still uncut woods.
“I heard there was some trouble in town,” Warren started, glancing over at Battle.
“I’m not sure. I think it might just have been in my head,” Battle said, scuffing his hand along his neck.
“I don’t think it was,” Warren replied, making Battle look at him intently, eyes narrowing.
“How come?”
“That guy? He was asking about you. Asked Dalton if he knew who the girl with you was. He certainly knew who you were. Used ‘Battle’ instead of Branson, though. Maybe that was just him being smart. I don’t know. But you weren’t being paranoid. I talked to Diesel already and he’s keeping an eye out for the guy, but we haven’t seen him around since yesterday. Pearl said she thought she’d seen him here once before, but couldn’t be sure. I brought you some groceries because I heard your shopping got cut short.”
Battle nodded, mentally filing away the plethora of things he had to be thankful to Warren for. When the other werebear offered Battle the job, he had felt the need to tell him what had happened. Warren had been nothing but kind about it. It didn’t hurt that the Bitterroot bears were well-known in these parts, along with the Arders, and bits and pieces of Battle’s story had reached Warren beforehand. And now, he was looking out for Battle and Keesha both. That was the mark of a good man, as far as Battle was concerned.
“Thanks. I’m not sure what to make of it. Maybe I should have just gone up to him and asked him who he was, but I wanted to get Keesha out of there as fast as I could. Hindsight being 20-20 and all that,” Battle said, sighing.
“I can’t blame you. I think I would have done the same. Is your girl going to be staying around? We could get her out of Idaho fast if you’re worried about this,” Warren offered as they stopped, leaning on one of the trees.
“I tried to convince her but she’s a tough cookie. Won’t go unless I go, and I can’t keep running. I can’t make her run with me, either. So she wants to stay here. If that’s what she wants, I’m going to stand my ground with her. It might just have been one of the Longbrooks who recognized me. Maybe they don’t mean any harm. Hell, I don’t know. We’ll just lay low for a few days and see what comes of it,” Battle said, pushing his head back and staring up at the blue sky.
The sun was shining and the weather was gorgeous. Nothing was hinting at the possibility that Battle’s life might be going to hell in just a few hours – not yet anyway.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Keesha
Keesha was exhausted. She could barely keep her eyes open on the long drive from the forest back to Battle’s cabin. In fact, she was pretty sure she dozed off a few times, but the sudden jumps in the road shook her up just as quickly. Not once did she take her hand off of Battle’s thigh, though.
If she’d stopped to think about it, she would have been struck by how silly it would have all seemed to her girlfriends back in Chicago. Keesha had always been the one hollering about not settling down too early and making sure you knew who you were dealing with before you let him into your heart. And now here she was, sitting next to a broke convicted murderer in the Idaho outback, happy as a clam and making long-term plans in her head.
She loved working with him. Though being a lumberjack was definitely not something she was planning on doing for life, the physical exercise gave her mind plenty of time to work through things she would have otherwise ignored – like how she felt about everything Battle had told her and whether or not they could still have a future together. In her mind’s eye, she could see herself setting up a family and a little law practice in Shifter Grove. Taking the bar in Idaho couldn’t be any harder than it had been in Chicago, and she was completely prepared for it already. And judging by Battle, there were plenty of shifters and people in Shifter Grove who could use some legal advice.
They could get a bigger house, raise some kids – or cubs, whatever – and put their troubled pasts behind them. Keesha knew there could never be another man who got her as well as Battle did and who made her feel so good about herself. There was no faking, no fronting with Battle. She could be herself and he himself, and they were just happy together. It felt like heaven and she hoped it would never stop.
When the truck pulled up in front of the cabin, it was already late. As Battle always did, he jumped out and came around to Keesha’s side to open the door for her and help her out. This time, though, he stopped and hesitated for a moment, seeming to listen to something with a frown on his face. She could see it just faintly, the light hanging over the front door illuminating the edges of his face. For the slightest moment, she saw the bear bubble to the surface before Battle suppressed it again.
He yanked open the door and reached his hand out to Keesha. She took it and slid off the canvas seat, barely able to keep her eyes open.
“Is everything okay?” she asked with a small voice, her words pierced by a big yawn.
“Sure. Let’s just get inside. I think I’m being a bit paranoid,” he said, smiling hollowly.
She didn’t pick on him to tell her what was bothering him. She was too tired and Battle would definitely tell her if he thought it was important. They walked from the truck to the cabin, the porch steps creaking a bit under their feet, and disappeared into the house.
Keesha let out a long, happy sigh as she got the boots off her feet and could finally wiggle her toes freely. She’d been wearing one of Battle’s old pairs and they were much too big for her, but the steel tips seemed like a better choice than ballerinas for a day of swinging around a sharp ax. Battle came in behind her with the bags of groceries and took them to their little kitchenette. He started putting away the items before Keesha could go to his aid. She was struck by how natural it all felt. For a moment, she just stood in the middle of the living room, watching her man put away groceries after a long day of work, and her heart swelled with joy.
Just as she was about to say something, Battle whipped around as if he had been struck by lightning. She never heard what he was about to yell as his gray eyes flashed brown. The deafening noise of both of the living room windows shattering muffled everything but the ringing in her head. Keesha noticed faintly that she was screaming, caught between the two windows, covered in shards of glass.
Two giant bodies jumped in through the windows, scruffy brown, gray and black fur surrounding what seemed to be an endless array of teeth. One of the wolves growled so menacingly that Keesha backed away by instinct, the wolves c
utting her path to Battle. One of them snapped threateningly at Battle, who was teeming with rage. The other was turned towards Keesha, slowly stalking towards her, every step calculated and so soft that it seemed like he was walking on cotton.
“Keesha!” Battle yelled, his hands balled into fists.
Keesha was expecting to feel the cool wood of the front door against her body as she backed towards it, her eyes on the wolf who seemed intent on ripping her throat out, but two hands grabbed her instead.
“Get your fucking mitts off of her!” Battle roared, taking two steps forward before the big brown-coated wolf that was facing him stopped him with a snarl.
Keesha struggled against the grip, but stopped immediately as she felt the very real sensation of cold, sharp steel on her neck. It was a knife and the man behind her was pressing it right into her delicate skin, so hard that she was sure he was going to draw blood any moment.
“I don’t think so,” a deathly calm voice spoke from behind Keesha.
She glanced up and saw the grinning face of the man they’d seen at the store, his features sunken and his cold blue eyes staring ruthlessly at Battle. The fact that he was keeping a knife on her and his iron strong grip was pushing her against him seemed like an afterthought to him, a means to an end. She could have been anyone, it didn’t matter to him. The only thing that really made a difference was how badly Battle reacted to him capturing her, and by the looks of it, he’d achieved exactly what he’d been after.
Battle looked like he was teetering on the edge of madness. His eyes burned dark brown – so dark she couldn’t see his irises. His chest was rising and falling rapidly and Keesha could see veins popping up on his forearms and neck, throbbing with the rapid beating of his heart. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d just barged through the duo of snarling wolves, both of whom had now turned their attention to Battle. Their fangs were bared and low growls scratched at Keesha’s ears. Her body was shuddering on its own volition.