by KB Winters
“Old times?” Nicholas echoed disbelief clear from his tone. “It didn’t seem like she wanted to catch up on old times when she was politely asking for you to move out of her way.”
“And how is any of this business of yours?”
I looked back to Zack. The growling lilt of his voice wasn’t one that I’d ever heard before even when he was at his most angry state. I gasped. His snarled expression was so unfamiliar on the face I’d gazed into for years and his burning golden topaz eyes were so at odds with what I’d seen before. “Oh my God.”
My softly uttered words had him shifting his focus back to me and I saw Zack’s eye color flash as if he wanted to hide it. “River, I…” His voice trailed off, but when Nicholas moved to my side, Zack’s gaze shifted back to him. “What River and I discuss is none of your concern, enforcer.” He tilted his head as a sharp smile spread across his lips. “Unless, of course, you want to explain to her just who was the one investigating her for the council—then by all means, proceed.”
“You son of a bitch.”
I didn’t have time to process Zack’s words before Nicholas was leaping at him in a flurry of fists and loud snarls.
I sagged in on myself as my eyes took in the scene before me. Nicholas was straddled on top on Zack even as two sets of arms and fists were pounding between them. Attendants and guests were shouting as they scrambled to pull the two men apart, but even then, I couldn’t help. All I could do was hear Zack’s final words on an endless loop inside my head.
‘Unless, of course, you want to explain to her just who was the one investigating her for the council…’
That accusation was what made me pause with pulling them apart. That accusation was what made me back away from the scene in front of me. As the crowd of onlookers fell into place around me, I pushed away, needing desperately to be anywhere that wasn’t here.
“River, wait!”
I heard Nicholas call out to me, but I turned away, ignoring the part of me that wanted to listen. That was the part of me I couldn’t trust. I’d let Zack hurt me because I refused to think that anyone would treat me the way he did, but obviously, I was a horrible judge of character. Choosing Nicholas no longer seemed to be a break in that regard.
“River!”
I fell into outstretched arms as a sob bubbled up from my throat. A familiar scent enveloped me as I buried my face among golden waves. I clutched furiously at silk fabric as if some force would try to pull me away if I didn’t hold tight enough. The sea of self-doubt that had been quieted by what I thought was a new chance at love rushed back to torment me and I internally chastised myself for once again being so naïve. Life wasn’t a fairy tale despite my best efforts to wish it so. Not everyone got the happy ending they wanted, and it was time for me to realize that.
“It is time for you to realize no such thing.”
Hands cupped my cheek angling my head up until I could peer into Kayla’s furious eyes. Her gaze was stormy, but she didn’t look away from me. In the background, I could hear Benjamin’s loud voice, but I didn’t pay attention enough to parse his words. Another presence stepped up to my side, and I glanced over to see Aleksis looking at me with equal parts sadness and concern. I took my bottom lip between my teeth biting down just enough to feel the pain.
“Don’t do that,” Aleksis breathed out. She leaned into my space and pulled down on my lip until I let it go. “Don’t hurt yourself any more than you already have.” She glanced behind me then and despite the fact that I didn’t want to, I couldn’t stop myself. I could feel Nicholas’ presence as if there were a rope tying us together.
Benjamin stood between the two men, his arms outstretched as if he’d flung them apart. Zack was slowly moving to stand and I could see his jacket covered in dirt and grass from where he’d been lying on the ground. His eye was swollen and his lips and nose were bloody. His normally styled hair was in disarray and a portion of it looked as if it had been pulled out completely. I felt a shameful little thrill at him looking worse for wear. I’d always entertained thoughts of yelling at him or making him somehow feel worse than I did when he left me, and now I was getting that—in a sick way. Unfortunately, it had to come at the hands of someone I thought I could trust—someone who might have been the worst thing for me after all. Maybe this was the universe getting back at me for having such cruel thoughts.
Kayla snorted. “More like two idiot men getting into a pissing match.”
“I agree,” Aleksis said. She looked over where Zack and Nicholas still stood. “Both of you are fucking idiots, you know that, right?” Nicholas said nothing. Zack did not follow his lead.
“I disagree. This all started when he couldn’t do his job.”
“What?” I asked quietly. I wanted to understand what was going on. I was tired of not knowing. “What job was he supposed to be doing?”
“River,” Kayla interjected. I ignored her and continued on.
“What was supposed to happen, Zack?” My voice rose higher as the frustration I felt built up once again until it was out of my control. “Was I supposed to just disappear from Kayla’s life after you decided I was no longer worth your time? Was I supposed to disappear completely?”
He brushed his hands over his suit pants. “Of course not, River. I swear, your ability to go bat shit crazy is one of the main reasons why I couldn’t continue our farce of a relationship.”
“Farce?” I choked out as my frustration gave way to shock. Where were these words coming from? Who was this man who now stood in front of me? I didn’t know him. I could see from Benjamin’s similar look of shock that he didn’t quite know what to make of things either.
“Man, what the hell are you talking about?” he asked as he put his hands down. Nicholas’ eyes were trained on Zack, and they burned bright red as if he were barely holding on to his control. God knew, I’d already lost mine.
Zack looked around at the crowd that had gathered to witness the scuffle before fixing his gaze back on Benjamin. “Come on man, we talked about this before.”
“No, we talked about how you felt bad about breaking up with River and how you thought she was nice, but weren’t in love.” Benjamin flicked his eyes over at me with his words and I could see the apology in his eyes. “I agreed with you that leading her on would be a bad idea. If I’d known you weren’t taking the relationship seriously in the first place, I never would have gone along with encouraging you two to date.”
“Same for me,” Kayla spoke up. She slipped her arm around my waist and stepped to my side. “I never would have entertained the thought of helping you woo River over if I’d known you were such an asshole.”
“She had some good fun with me while it lasted,” Zack remarked callously. When no one else spoke he looked back and forth from Benjamin to where Kayla, Aleksis and I stood. “What? Things were not that serious.”
“Stop talking,” Nicholas hissed. His voice was low and furious. His stance had changed and when I looked at his closed fists, I was startled to see red dripping from his hands. Without thinking, I took an aborted step towards him.
“Don’t move,” Kayla whispered. One of her hands wrapped around my wrist halting my movement. She looked straight ahead at Nicholas. “If you get any closer, Nicholas is going to see that dick as even more of a threat.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked back at Nicholas. He hadn’t moved from his stance, but his hands were now open, and I could see that his fingernails looked a lot longer and sharper than normal. My eyes widened with that revelation and I looked back over at Aleksis. Her face was still turned towards Nicholas, but she flicked her gaze at me quickly and gave me a barely noticed nod.
“I wasn’t lying when I said you’d had an effect on my brother, River,” she whispered. She raised her voice and addressed Zack and Nicholas. “Both of you are very close to violation of code number one of the council treaty. I suggest you get a hold of yourself, brother.” Zack snorted. She turned her gaze on him. “And I suggest you
shut your fucking mouth before none of us care about holding my brother back from beating your ass.”
“I agree,” Benjamin said with a note of finality. “In fact, I think you and I need to have a conversation that is far overdue.”
“Absolutely,” Kayla agreed. She gave my waist a small squeeze before her arm slid away. I looked over at her and she gave me a reassuring smile before walking over to Benjamin. “This wedding isn’t going to start until I get some things off my chest.” She looked around. “Everyone, please see yourselves to the formal dining room for hors d'oeuvres and an open bar.” She waved her hand effectively dismissing the crowd.
I jerked in place when Aleksis gently squeezed my wrist. “That means us too. Plus, I think there are some things we should talk about.” I let Aleksis guide me away from the chaos and towards the building. I glanced back over my shoulder and shivered when Nicholas’ gaze connected with mine. His eyes were brightly burning, the red clear and distinguishable from any distance, until we turned the corner and he was completely hidden. I was still reeling from the abruptness of the entire encounter.
“What just happened? What are you doing here?” I asked Aleksis. My mind in a tizzy as I looked over at her. She gave me a lopsided smile.
“Last minute catering decision.”
“I didn’t know your restaurant catered.”
“Normally, we don’t,” she replied as we walked down the nearly empty hallway. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have wondered where the rest of the guests and attendants were since Kayla had directed them all to go inside the building. I was too busy thinking about everything I’d learned since Nicholas had clawed his way into my life. Aleksis directed where to go and I followed along when she steered me towards a side door. “But your friend’s previous caterer was already booked for today so here I am. Good timing too.”
I gave a forced laugh, but winced at just how strained and hollow it sounded. I could see Aleksis wince as well and I wondered if her hearing made my weak laugh sound even worse. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
She shook her head and wrapped a thin arm around my waist. “No, you have no reason to apologize. If anything, I should be apologizing to you.” She opened the door in front of us. The room was empty and quiet with a large couch on one wall with a coffee table in front of it.
I frowned as I walked over to the couch. “Why should you be apologizing?” I ran my fingers over one arm of the couch enjoying the softness of the fabric.
“Well, maybe not me specifically, but more like my community. We shifters tend to forget that not everyone has the senses that we do. It’s really hard to hide things when you grow up in a pack, and there are very few secrets thanks to things like enhanced hearing, smell and sight.”
Despite my general feeling of dismay, I perked up at the information she volunteered. I looked back at where she was standing in front of the now closed door. “What do you mean?”
Aleksis smiled before walking over towards me. She slid between the couch and the table and fell down onto the couch with a small bounce. I followed her down, perching stiffly on the edge of the cushions.
“Growing up in a shifter household means no one has any privacy,” Aleksis revealed. “My siblings and I learned pretty quickly that there was no way to hide anything from our parents or even from one another really.”
“Didn’t you have your own rooms?”
She nodded. “Sure we did. Our family was—well still is—very well off financially so my siblings and I all had our own bedrooms, but even so our parents could hear pretty much everything we did in the house. They could smell it too.” She shook her head and giggled. “I remember the time I came home after having sex for the first time and how terrified I was when my dad appeared almost out of thin air. He took one sniff and I almost died with how red his eyes went.”
“Oh wow. That must have been awkward.”
“No kidding! I thought I was going to die or that my dad was going to go sniff the guy out and go big bad on him.”
“Big bad?” I asked.
“Yeah! Like the big bad wolf.”
“Oh!” I chuckled softly without thinking. “That makes sense now. So how did you manage to hide the next time?”
Aleksis shrugged. “I was never able to hide it so I just stopped trying. Same with talking about things I wanted to hide. It was damn near impossible so I either left the house completely or I just said it and damn the consequences.”
“That sounds…kind of terrifying actually,” I admitted.
“It was normal for us. If we ever tried to hide something, it was either because it was really important or because we were absolutely terrified of Dad’s reaction to the information.”
“Oh.” I leaned back against the couch. I could hear people talking outside of the room we were in, but felt no need to figure out what was going on. I wasn’t ready to step outside of the room and deal with the train wreck that my life had turned into.
“Your life isn’t a train wreck, River.”
I looked over at Aleksis. “Please tell me I said that out loud and that you aren’t a mind reader.”
She giggled. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.” Her answer made me sigh in relief. “Seriously though, your life isn’t a train wreck. Why would you think it is?”
I looked at her incredulously. “Seriously?” I glanced at the door and then back at her. “Do you not hear the mess out there?”
“I do—trust me on that.”
“So then you know that my ex is out there fighting with your brother and that he insinuated that—”
“He insinuated that my brother knew who you were from the beginning and was investigating you.”
I swallowed hard at her words. “Well…did he?”
“Yes.”
That one word made my heart sink. “But hear him out about it before you make a stupid decision you both will regret, okay?”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I can’t believe this.”
“River, please.” Aleksis grabbed my hands and pulled me around to face her. Her eyes were wide and that same indescribable color that she shared with her brother made my heart ache. “Please just let him explain. He loves you, he would never hurt you.”
“He doesn’t love me. We barely know one another,” I argued while trying to pull my hands from her grip. She let me go, but didn’t move away from me.
“It doesn’t matter that you haven’t known each other for months or years and I know you know that.”
I jumped up from the couch and took a few steps away. My breathing was coming out faster now as I tried to deny her words in my mind. “No. It’s impossible to love someone before you even get to know them.” I looked back at where she was still perched on the couch. “True love, soulmates…none of that stuff exists. People don’t just fall in love on a whim.”
“What makes you think it’s a whim for Nicholas?”
Her words made me pause. “What?” I whispered. “How can it not be? He didn’t know me before we met.”
“Didn’t he?”
I blinked in confusion. “What are you trying to say Aleksis? Did Nicholas know who I was before we met?”
She frowned. Her mouth opened, but quickly shut as if she were unsure of what she should say. “Ask him,” she said finally.
I opened my mouth to rebut her words. When nothing came, I snapped it shut. As much as I wanted to know, I was also terrified. This was becoming bigger than anything I’d ever imagined for my life, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take that last leap or run back to my normal life. Aleksis must have taken my silence for further denial because she continued on.
“Ask him how he feels about you. Ask him anything and everything you need to feel comfortable, please.”
I gripped the edges of my dress. “Why does it matter?”
“Because he’s my brother,” she replied simply. “He’s the only one who believed in me enough to help me find my own way, and now, I want to return the favor.” She looke
d past me. “He was always so angry when we were growing up, but I knew it was because he was sad. He’s hated the lies and the secrets our community has to deal with, and he hated the pressure our parents put on him to follow their chosen path. You changed all that.”
“Me?” I asked in disbelief.
“Yeah.” Her expression changed and the softness of it made her seem so young. She smiled at me. “One day he came to my place and he was just so…excited. He smelled so happy for the first time in a long time, even happier than when he opened up his gym. When I met you, I knew why.” She jumped up from the couch then. “When I smelled the two of you together, it was like…” Aleksis trailed off as she turned her face up toward the ceiling. “I wish you weren’t human only so you’d understand. It’s difficult to explain, but you two smelled like love.”
I blinked quickly unsure of what to think about her words. “Like love?”
She looked back at me with a wide and happy smile. “Yeah. Like light, and air and all the good things in the world. Warm fuzzies. I could explain a million things, but I could never truly explain how amazing you two smell when you’re together.”
“I don’t understand,” I admitted quietly. I didn’t want to take away her smile, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this. I rubbed my hand against the back of my neck wincing at the soreness from last night. Aleksis saw my discomfort.
“Are you okay?” She asked. I gave her a reassuring, if small, smile.
“I’m fine. Things just got rough last night with Nicholas and me.” At her wide-eyed stare, I quickly reassured her more. “Not that he was too rough. It was exactly what I wanted and I enjoyed all of it. I’m just a little sore. Are all shifters so bitey?”
Aleksis blinked rapidly. “Show me.”
I was startled at her blunt words, but shrugged and turned around so my back was to her. I slid my hands into my hair and lifted the strands off the back of my neck. “What’s my damage, doc?” I asked jokingly. At the feeling of her fingers brushing against it, I felt something dark and not at all happy push up within me. I jerked forward.