Clayton (The Wildflower Series Book 1)

by Rachelle Mills

  “I’ll take her to talk with him. Cash, you stay out here. Rya, come with us.” Cash sits on the step in defeat. “Aurora, open the door.” A click of locks tells us we’re free to walk in.

  He has Kennedy stand in front of him while I follow behind. My wolf wants to meet her wolf.

  “Rya, stop it!” Dallas turns his face toward me, eyes blazing. My wolf whimpers and crawls down on her belly with her tail wrapped around her body.

  When we enter his healing room, it’s dark. The window shades are drawn closed, only allowing just the faintest stream of grey light in.

  “You shouldn’t be here.” His voice is tight with emotion.

  “Kennedy wants to talk with you.” Dallas betrays no emotion while speaking to Clayton.

  “What is it that you need, Kennedy?” Clayton’s voice doesn’t hold any softness in it, more annoyance than anything else. His white bandages are still seeping red from blood that doesn’t want to stop oozing out his skin.

  Kennedy looks taken aback by his tone.

  “I just—”

  “Kennedy, you have a mate. You need to be with him. My wolf will tear you apart if it gets a chance. I can’t risk that. I need for you to be with him, give him a chance. He’s a good wolf, Kennedy. I’m not for you. I was never yours to begin with. I love you with my soul, but I’m not yours. I don’t want you coming back here. I don’t want to see your face again, do you understand?” His voice holds nothing, just indifference toward her.

  “You don’t mean that.” Her voice quivers low and soft. Can she feel the knife entering her skin the way I did? Can she feel it slice her open, choking her breath on the pain? I hope she feels it. I hope her whole body doubles over. I want to put my own knife into her back.

  “I do. Now go.” He turns away from us. His hands are still tied above his head this time; they must rotate positions.

  “You could just kill him, Clay. He’s no match for you,” she pleads.

  “He’s not the wolf I want to kill, Kennedy.” Clayton’s eyes find Dallas’s. Kennedy’s hand comes up over her mouth, a muffled cry pouring from the cracks between her fingers. I see Clayton’s muscles tensing up, and a groan escapes his mouth that’s full of pain. She’s feeling those knives now. Hopefully, they are serrated slightly, not a smooth blade.

  The look of hurt and shock on her face makes my laughter want to bubble up out of my throat.

  “Do you like this, Rya? You find this funny?” Clayton’s voice is muffled into his pillow. “You like it when other wolves hurt?”

  “No,” I breathe out.

  “Rya, let’s be perfectly clear. I don’t want you. My wolf does. He’s going to fight for you, but me, I want nothing to do with you. I could just do you, but it seems that someone else already is. So you really have nothing to offer me that’s worth anything.” His tight tone makes my skin crawl. This is who I was having doubts over.

  “You’re just a weak little wolf who revels in the misery of others.” Clayton lets his voice stab me from the outside. He thinks that I’m that type of wolf.

  Dallas sits on the chair next to the bed, pulling it close so his knees touch the mattress. He leans down so his elbows are touching his knees. His mouth is very close to Clayton’s face. I can see Clayton smelling the air, his mouth pulling back in a snarl.

  “You should kill me now while you have a chance before I come for you.” Clayton’s voice is smooth as silk with a touch of violence.

  Dallas smiles at him like he’s a small pup with big dreams.

  Chapter 22

  Eat

  Posturing without speaking, these two males regard each other, neither looking away. Eyes convey messages of war that no words could ever do justice for.

  A smile shows teeth from Dallas he won’t use yet, and Clayton’s sneer reveals teeth he can’t use yet.

  “Kenny!” Kimberly’s juvenile voice is at the entrance of the clinic.

  “Cover me up.” Clayton shifts from menace to concern, almost a pleading quality in that voice of his. Kennedy goes to him, bringing the sheet over his back up to his neck. He gives a small hiss of pain from the contact of the covers. She touches his hair, feeling the side of his jaw in careless movements, and I wonder if the stubble is prickly on her flesh.

  A flash of white, sharp teeth almost bites her fingers off. His wolf might not be able to ascend yet, but a very small part has just shown Kennedy what it wants to do to her. He wants to eat the hand that was just touching his face.

  “Stay away from me!” His jaw muscles twitch with the effort of trying to stay clenched.

  Her face shows her struggle. She looks down at her finger. A very small cut is noticeable on her hand.

  Love bites. She needs to be careful or else her body will be scarred with that kind of love.

  Will she put in the effort it will take to convince his wolf that she’s the one for him? Will she quit on their love?

  “Kenny!” Kimberly runs into her brother’s healing room and into Kennedy’s arms, pressing her nose into her neck. “I’ve missed you so much.” They are holding each other so close. Kennedy is stroking her hair now, soothing this small pregnant female’s emotions.

  Cash leans against the door frame, eyes only for Clayton.

  “Stop now!” Dallas’s voice is even with no inflection in tone, meant to be listened to. Cash straightens slightly, looking at Kennedy.

  “You promised me, Kenny. You promised to help me if this happened. I need you.” All of our heads tilt slightly at this young female’s words.

  “What did she promise to help you with?” Clayton’s eyes are on Kennedy, yet he asked Kimberly the question.

  A peculiar feeling starts to crawl underneath my skin, prickling down my spine.

  “She told me she would treat my pup like her own. That you and she would raise it like your own. I didn’t have to worry about anything.” Hidden truths are revealed.

  Disgust rolls through me. Kennedy was willing to risk the death of Kimberly, her lover’s sister. She was willing to possibly sacrifice a life so she could raise a life as her own.

  Truth can be disgusting sometimes, all in the name of love.

  “What did you do?” Clayton’s eyes now really look at Kennedy, seeing her without the glamour that blurred her lines to him. He’s seeing the naked truth in all its repulsive glory. You can tell he’s thinking this by the way his mouth is turned down, his sourness filling the room now, making me start to breathe through my mouth.

  “I never did anything.” She can’t meet his eyes, a lie from those vocal cords that shake slightly.

  “What did you do?” he repeats

  Her guilty eyes dart around the room, while she still holds Kimberly to her chest. Cash straightens up, looking at her with disgust. A growl escapes his throat, fist clenched at this side.

  “Tell him!” Cash is red-faced, steaming mad. I eye him up and down, still wondering when he will quit, what his breaking point is, what it will take for him to throw away what the moon so graciously gave him? He’s leaning up against the wall, as if he needs it to keep himself standing. Does this new light in her character make his knees weak, just not in a good way?

  Her sharp eyes flash to Cash. She can’t hide her disgust for this male who’s supposed to be her biggest treasure.

  “You unlocked the door, didn’t you? It was you!” The light switch must be turning on in his brain, putting everything together. His eyes travel up and down his everything, looking at her in disbelief.

  What’s more hurtful…the lie that she’s been hiding, or the fact that she put his sister’s life at risk for their love?

  “Let me explain.” Now she turns to plead with a lover who doesn’t want to hear anything her tarnished mouth has to say. Tears leak down her reddened cheeks, and a sob escapes her lips as she tries to get the words out. She shakes her head to him. He looks like he’s lost that loving feeling for her.

  His hands turning to fists, he pulls on the chains that are attached to the bed
holding him in his place.

  Her words are thick like molasses trying to go down a metal drain, slow and copious, as if she’s trying to find the right lies to spew. Except we all can see the lie that’s standing stagnant and rotten in the air.

  Dallas looks at her in such disgust it’s hard not to flinch away. Great rolling waves of rage for that female is lighting a fire inside him. I can see a tremor in his hand as he pushes himself away from Clayton’s bed. He takes a step toward the two females who are still holding each other. A growl roars out of the base of his chest that has us all shaking except Clayton; he’s trying his best to get out of those leather cuffs that hold him to the bed.

  The situation is quickly declining, spiraling downward as the new Alpha snaps teeth toward a female who’s without honor in his mind. Such gripping feelings of emotion are threatening to overtake him.

  I can actually feel my insides darken with his need to end a wolf who is tainted with an incurable sickness.

  Clayton is pulling with more strength, the steel bed shaking and rattling with the force of him trying to get free of his jailer’s cuffs.

  His body trembles as his legs try to bend into a kneeling position. He just can’t do it as he falls against the mattress over and over again, not giving up until dark crimson blood saturates the last spot of white on those bandages.

  He’s grunting through clenched teeth, trying to get out of his confinement. He screams as soon as he accidentally flips over onto his back. The cover falls on the floor. I see my mate for the first time naked. I can’t look away from the sight before me. Dallas growls low in his chest as my eyes try to divert themselves from something I have imagined for such a long time.

  Another scream echoes in the small room. He’s having a hard time breathing, trying to catch his breath, trying to flip himself back over. Dallas calmly stands to place a hand carefully underneath his hip to flip him back on his stomach. He pulls his covers back over his naked backside.

  Kimberly’s screams match Clayton’s as he tries to muffle them with the pillow.

  Kennedy’s legs give out, tumbling her to the ground hard. She’s crawling toward him, begging him for understanding, a chance to explain her actions. Crying on hands and knees. Pleading with her unbearable heart pain. He doesn’t answer her back. He shakes his head, yelling for everyone to get out.

  He’s no longer pulling on the restraints. He looks immobilized with pain. I wonder if it’s physical or heartfelt that he’s feeling?

  Dallas now goes to a drawer and pulls out a syringe and a glass vial. He cracks the lid open, putting the needle in and sucking out the clear liquid. Walking toward Clayton, he injects him in the shoulder, plunging its contents in his muscle.

  Kimberly’s looking at Kennedy now, who’s on the floor. Her emotions are vomiting out for all to see.

  “You left the door open.” Disbelief is so concentrated in a soft whisper that I can hardly hear it. I watch as this small juvenile pulls her arm up and punches her in the face, busting her nose wide open. Cash is on Kimberly instantly, picking her up. Clayton is trying to combat whatever Dallas has put into his system, but he’s no match for those drugs.

  I take a step toward Cash, who has this little one in his arms, and my own darkness takes me over. A protection I have never felt before surges into my system. Dallas is on Cash faster than I can get to him. Picking him up by the scruff of his neck, he walks him out of the healing room.

  “Get up!” I command Kennedy, whose hand is trying to stop the flow of blood.

  “Make me.” Her words are flung right back in my face.

  Dallas comes back, picks Kennedy up by the scruff of her neck. His claws are out, puncturing her flesh very slightly. He’s holding his great anger back, trying to contain what his nature wants him to do: end her quickly without regret.

  Going over to Kimberly, I walk her out of the room as Clayton closes his eyes, not able to open them back up again.

  He’s going to have so much time thinking about all the truths he learned today.

  Walking out into the parking lot with Kimberly, I watch the grey sky shed the first flurries of fall, shimmying down from the sky in their winter waltz. Two flakes of snow land on each hand. They say no two snowflakes are alike. I feel both tingle my skin, only to melt and disappear at the same time like they were never really there in the first place.

  Luna Grace is standing next to Cash, whispering something in his ear. He just shakes his head no. Dallas has his arms crossed over his chest as if he’s restraining himself from Kennedy.

  Her posture is straight back defiance, meeting the eyes of all the wolves who are circling around her.

  “Do it!” she spits out to Cash. “You can’t. You know why you can’t?” She tilts her head toward her mate with a sick smile on her face.

  “Because you’re a weak little wolf.” Luna Grace is on her instantly. It looks so easy the way her hand wraps around Kennedy’s throat, lifting her whole body up in the air before slamming her hard against the ground, where the wind is knocked out of her lungs.

  Teeth bared in a feral grin, Luna Grace allows Kennedy to see what she possesses.

  “I have raised Cash since he was a small thought in my belly. I will not tolerate any more of your words against him. I don’t care when you are alone and fling those words in the privacy of your own home, but when I am around, I will not stand for it.” I watch the way her hand wraps around her ruined throat, squeezing tightly.

  “He’s my male. He has the biggest heart out of all my males. He’s my beautiful savage, he’s hurting, but you just can’t see this, can you? I have never met a female like you before, and I hope to the moon I never meet one again. I have raised him well. He is far from weak. If he were as weak as you say, your throat would already be opened up a long time ago. He’s giving you a chance. You’re just too stupid to see it.” Serpentine black eyes regard Kennedy. Her focus is vicious and cunning. I feel as if the Luna has taken off her mask, unveiling her true dislike for this female for everyone to see.

  “I will show Cash how much a mother can love her young and end you. Is that what you want? A mother’s hard love?” Both of them are frozen in their spots. Kennedy, unable to hold her eyes any longer, looks away in defeat. Her whole body wilts on itself.

  Cash just looks away as Kennedy gets up by herself, no one offering a hand to help her.

  Kimberly whimpers quietly to herself.

  I walk toward her with my arms extended, as if going to bring her into my chest, but she steps back, looking at me as if I’m crazy.

  “This is all your fault. If you didn’t come back, none of this would have happened. My parents would still be here, and everything would be just how it was!” Her full rage is directed at me.

  “They wanted me back, Kimberly. They called me back. Do you think I wanted to come back? It’s easy to point a finger at me, but in truth, I’m not the cause of all this.” I try to be as gentle with her as I can. She’s young, pregnant, with emotions on a roller coaster ride that’s probably hard to control.

  “Maybe if you weren’t such a quitter.” His voice scrapes against my skin. I feel sorry for him and hate him at the same time as my eyes meet Cash head on in a collision of violence.

  He runs hard at me, only to be knocked down by Dallas.

  “Enough, Cash! You’re relieved of your duties. You need to go back home until you can control yourself more. Even then, I don’t know if you’re the right wolf for the Beta position. Caleb, you’re here until things settle down.” Dallas looks at his father for the okay.

  “Caleb is needed back at home. He has to get ready for the trials, unless you’ve had a change of heart?” Luna Grace angles her hopeful eyes toward her oldest son. His father waits for a reply.

  Dallas turns to me, looking in contemplation. Big breath in and he releases it out.

  He’s at my side, hands on my shoulders.

  “Do you trust me?” Our eyes are connected, and I swear his are getting lighter,
like my own. It’s unnerving.

  Do I trust this wolf? He has never lied to me so far. He has always told me the truth.

  “Yes.”

  “I want you to go with my father. I want you to visit my home pack, see where I come from, have my father train you. It won’t be easy. You’re going to learn about me, about yourself, things you might not like. I’m going to take a chance, Rya, on us, and let you go for a while so you can learn how to be a wolf and lead by my side, if that’s what you want.” He’s holding onto my shoulders hard, as if he doesn’t really want to let them go.

  All his brothers are looking at him now with smiles on their faces.

  “I’ll take care of everything here. Your females will be taken care of. I promise you this, they will not be neglected, even though I hate it. I will do it for you, for us.” His mother has her hand on her mouth, a tear sliding down her face of what only can be described as happiness slips out.

  “Little Moon, it’s very simple. All you need to do is eat.” The Silverback Alpha’s deep voice bellows out as Dallas’s face pales slightly with a look of fear.

  Chapter 23

  Name

  Silence can fill a space, its tension wrapping around everyone like a humid summer day, oppressive and smothering as you breathe in the air. It’s how I feel sitting in the back of the vehicle with Dallas’s family. I don’t think they like the company they are bringing back to their home.

  Kennedy had fought to her last breath not wanting to come, kicking and screaming, until that Silverback male uttered just one word into her ear…stop.

  She hasn’t said one word since. Maybe she’s resigned to her fate.

  I get an unobstructed view of the side of her face when she watches the land pass by in a blur from the window. I’m directly behind her. Watching her shell just breathe.

  Her fading highlighted hair looks somewhat dry and limp, her curls not as bouncy. Her face is blemish-free, and even without the illusion of makeup she still is beautiful. High cheekbones, thick full mouth, long black lashes that curl naturally. Her clothes are all rumpled up; they don’t smell too fresh. I’m not even sure if they are her own clothes by the way they fit her.