Redeeming Rue AP4

by R. E. Butler

  He shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Hanai said that Race made it a decree to the clans that were gathered for Jilly’s bonding ceremony that we were free now. It’s a law for the clans. Besides, we’re going to be living with the pride. Even if a clan saw us, we’re not alone anymore. It’s not just you and me against the world, Mom. We can stop running. I want to stop running.”

  “We’ll stop when we get to Canada.”

  Judging by the grim determination on her face as she stared out the windshield and the white-knuckle grip she had on the steering wheel, his mom had made her decision. He glanced at the clock. It was just after four a.m. James and John would wake up soon and realize they were gone, and they’d figure out a way to find them. He wished he’d been smart enough to tell them their address in Michigan.

  Oh, wait.

  He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. John had given Dom a new cell Monday morning with everyone’s numbers programmed into it, since Dom’s old phone had been destroyed. John and Dom had spent the morning taking silly pictures of all the pride members to go with their numbers. He’d gotten some pretty hilarious photos. Aaron brushing his teeth. Ray sleeping on the couch with his mouth open. John making a face after he found spoiled milk in the fridge.

  He pushed his hand down between the seat and the door and pressed the mute button on the side of the phone. Tilting his head so he appeared to be looking out the passenger window, he found James’ contact information and texted him. “Mom made me leave. We’re heading back to —”

  His mom jerked the wheel and stomped on the brake. The car lurched to a stop, and Dom had to catch himself with both hands. The cell dropped to the floor, and he tried to grab it but she reached it first.

  She made an angry sound as she read the text. “I made you leave?” She nearly shrieked. “Do you like them more than me? What is going on with you, Domino?”

  “What are you talking about, Mom?”

  She tossed the phone onto the dashboard with an angry growl and gripped the wheel with both hands, pressing her foot to the gas and making the car jerk into motion. “I’m trying to keep us safe, and you’re not helping.”

  Dom didn’t understand what her problem was. James and John were great. The pride was cool as hell, and he finally had family that he could spend time with. Not only Henry, but also all the kids who were his cousins. Or would be, once his mom married James and John. Then he’d have two stepdads, four stepbrothers, three stepsisters, and a whole bunch of uncles and cousins. They’d gone from just the two of them to a big family who wanted nothing more than for them to be happy.

  His phone buzzed, dancing on the dashboard. She pushed his hand away when he reached for it. “Come on!”

  “No, you come on, Dom. I said we’re leaving and I mean it. You’ll forget all about the pride when we’re settled in Canada. You’ll find new friends and start a new life.”

  “I don’t want a new life,” he growled. “I like my life as it is.”

  His phone buzzed again. And again. When it started to buzz for the fourth time, he blocked his mom’s hand and snatched the phone from the dashboard. It was Henry. “Hey, Henry,” he said loudly for his mom’s benefit. She cursed under her breath and snarled a couple of times.

  “Dom?” Henry’s voice trembled.

  Dom straightened. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m lost. I saw you leave with your mom, and I put my cell in a bag with some clothes then I shifted and followed you guys. I stayed in the trees along the road, but I lost sight of the car and now I don’t know where I am.”

  “Damn it, Henry! Call your dad, okay? I’m coming to find you.”

  “Don’t hang up on me, Dom, please?”

  “All right. Hold on.” He lowered the phone and said, “I know you overheard him. We have to go back.”

  “No.”

  Dom clenched his teeth together. “Mom. He’s scared and lost. Put aside your pride and whatever other baggage you’re holding onto and stop the fucking car! I’ll jump out, I swear.”

  She made a strangled sound, her hands clenching the wheel so tightly he thought her knuckles would pop out of joint. After what felt like an eternity, she turned on the emergency lights and pulled over to the side of the road.

  Even in the dim light from the dashboard, he could see that her eyes were glossy with tears. “You’re choosing them over me?”

  “Damn it, Mom. Henry needs us.”

  She stared at him. He felt her fear and her anguish. He didn’t know why she was so against being happy. He thought she had found some peace with James and John, but she seemed so intent on walking away and dragging him along.

  She reached into the back and unzipped the suitcase, pulling out her cell. She pressed the power button and turned it on, watching the screen. She sighed in resignation and called John.

  “Mom’s calling your dad, Henry. Now, tell me what you see so I can find you.”

  Henry’s voice sounded calmer. “Okay, Dom. Thanks.”

  “That’s what brothers are for.”

  “Why did you leave?”

  “We’ll talk when I find you.”

  As Henry described his surroundings, Dom half listened to his mom getting an earful from John about running away and Henry following them. It wasn’t his mom’s fault Henry tried to come with them, but she could sure as hell help Dom find Henry.

  * * * * *

  John rolled over when his phone buzzed on the nightstand, dancing across the wood with an irritating noise. He grabbed for it quickly, rubbing at his eyes with his other hand and trying to answer the phone before the noise woke Rue and James.

  “Yeah?”

  There was a long pause, and John pulled the phone from his ear and looked at the screen. Rue was calling.

  Wait. What?

  “Rue?” He turned on the small table lamp and glanced at the empty space on the bed where she’d been when he’d closed his eyes.

  “Henry’s lost, John.” Her voice was tight and unhappy.

  John let the words roll around his mind for a millisecond and then he smacked James on the chest before leaping from the bed and rushing to his clothes on the chair. “What? What do you mean Henry’s lost?”

  James got out of bed and snatched his clothes off the floor. John pushed the speaker button.

  “He followed us in his shifted form. He had his phone with him, and he called Dom.”

  James said, “What the hell, Rue?”

  “James, I…”

  “Wait, forget that you left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye, we need to focus on Henry. Where is he?”

  “I don’t know. He’s describing where he is to Dom.”

  She told them where she was, almost forty-five minutes away from Ashland. John was scared out of his mind for Henry. He struggled into his clothes, shoving his feet into his shoes while James dressed hurriedly next to him.

  “Let me talk to Dom,” John demanded.

  “What? Why?”

  “For fuck’s sake, Rue, put him on the damn phone!”

  He heard her gasp of surprise at his harsh tone, but he could give a damn about hurting her feelings. There was a short pause and Dom said, “I know where he is. I’m sending you a text of a screen shot of his location.”

  Relief flooded through John. “How?”

  “I got off the phone with Henry long enough to download the app that lets you find your phone if you lose it, and I signed into the program with his information. It opened a map of where he is. He’s not far from us. We’ll meet you there.”

  “Dom,” John said, his throat tightening with relief, “tell Henry we’ll be there as soon as possible. Thank you, son.”

  “We’ll be there.”

  John ended the call and looked at James, who shook his head. “I’m relieved and pissed at the same time.”

  “Me, too,” John admitted. “Let’s go get Henry.”

  * * * * *

  Rue paced in front of her car, che
wing on her thumbnail while Henry and Dom stood a little ways off, glaring at her. She’d already apologized to them, but they weren’t interested in her apologies, which made her ache to the very center of her being.

  Twenty minutes after they’d found Henry, standing just inside the tree line at the side of the road, James and John arrived in John’s SUV. They both got out, ignored her completely, and walked over to the kids and hugged them. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

  It felt like an eternity before James and John walked over to her. “Dom is going to drive Henry back to the boarding house in the rental car. I trust you aren’t going to protest?”

  She shook her head.

  “Good. Drive safe, Dom,” James said. She watched Dom and Henry hurry past her and get into the car. The car pulled away quickly, and she stared everywhere but at their faces. She knew they were angry, and they had every right to be. She’d messed up. Again. She’d always dreamed of one day finding a man who would be strong enough to protect her and she’d had two of them, and she still ran away.

  James wrapped his hand around her elbow and led her to the SUV. John opened the passenger door and she sat down, cringing when the door was slammed. They both got into the front seats; John drove with James in the passenger seat.

  The utter silence in the vehicle made her heart feel empty. She didn’t think she’d ever felt worse. When her family betrayed her, she spent many years missing them. She missed the long talks she’d had with her mother over breakfast, missed watching old movies with her dad. Eventually, she’d realized how easy it had been for them to turn their backs on her, and that real love didn’t just suddenly stop. She’d wondered if they’d ever really loved her at all, since they’d been able to stop loving her so quickly.

  But in all her years since her banishment, she’d never felt as badly as she did now. She’d betrayed James and John, who were willing to go through anything to help her when she was just a strange woman they felt connected to. How much worse was it that she’d waited until the first night they’d made love to disappear?

  She and Dom had been an island, keeping to themselves and never letting anyone know anything about their situation for such a long time that she hadn’t even seen the reality of the situation. She didn’t have to be an island anymore because James and John could be part of her life. The pride was filled with honorable men who went striding into the woods with her to help save a child they’d never met.

  She hadn’t just betrayed James and John; she’d betrayed everyone in the pride, and she’d tried to cut off contact between Dom and Henry, when Henry was the one who had helped Dom come back from the edge.

  Fuck, she was an idiot.

  She’d basically spit in the pride’s face.

  The problem was that she didn’t know how to trust anyone but herself. She didn’t know how to let go of that crippling fear that if someone knew everything about her, she’d be vulnerable. But if she didn’t let go of those fears and tear down those walls, she’d lose the only people who had ever cared about her without reservation, and that was a fate worse than death.

  * * * * *

  John pulled the SUV into the empty space next to Rue’s rental car. The boys were already inside. John had told them to go straight up to Henry’s room and wait for them to come talk to them.

  John was livid that Henry had taken off. James had thought that the worst thing he’d ever endured was the rejection of the female who bore his kids. He’d tried so hard to get her to love him, never really understanding that it was impossible outside of a mating connection and sharing blood. After meeting Rue and feeling the connection as a mate to her, he knew that he’d never had feelings that intense with anyone else.

  Which made her disappearance burn all the more.

  He was pissed, but he was sad, too.

  John turned off the engine as James got out and opened Rue’s door. John joined them. She climbed out and stood silently, shoulders hunched, arms wrapped around her middle, eyes on the ground. There were only a few feet that separated them from her, but it felt like a million miles.

  James stepped close and cupped her face, tilting her head until he could look into her eyes. Tears pooled in the green depths, and the look of utter dejection was enough to smash through the anger and disappointment.

  He could have yelled at her. He could have tried to make her feel guilty. But all he really wanted to do was make sure she understood that nothing had really changed.

  “I’m freaked out, baby. You took off in the middle of the night without a word. If Henry hadn’t followed you, we might never have found you. That scares the hell out of me.

  “I’m s-sorry Henry g-got lost,” she said, sniffling, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

  “It’s not about Henry. It’s about you. Us. Did you really think that John and I would let you go? That we’d just tuck our tails and not fight for you?”

  She closed her eyes and gripped his wrists tightly, holding his hands against her face. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

  John stepped behind her and laid his hands on her waist. “We’re here, Rue, but you have to let us in.”

  “I don’t know how.” She opened her eyes and stared at James, and his heart cracked.

  “We’ll help you,” James promised.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry.”

  “We forgive you,” John promised.

  James pressed a kiss to her forehead and said, “Do I need to bust out the handcuffs to make sure you’re still there when we wake up?”

  She made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. “I’ll stay. I know my word isn’t worth much to you, but I promise I’ll be there when you wake up.”

  He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs and dropped his hands, taking hers and linking their fingers. “I believe you.” He really did. He couldn’t quite explain it, but something seemed to have changed between them. She wasn’t just sorry she’d gotten caught running away; she also was sorry that she’d run away in the first place.

  She seemed surprised. “Thank you. For coming after me when I didn’t know I needed you to and for not being mad at me.”

  “Oh, I’m mad at you, baby,” he said, “but we all make mistakes and I’m not going to hold it against you.” He smiled wryly and she let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around his middle.

  He smiled at John as she hugged him. She turned from James’ arms to John’s and hugged him.

  John said, “It’ll be okay, Rue, if you just let us in.”

  She promised to try, and James believed her.

  * * * * *

  John was relieved that Rue wasn’t trying to run away again. She seemed genuinely sorry for walking out. John had wondered if James would read her the Riot Act for what she’d done, but he seemed to be willing to let it go. She was sorry, they were sorry, and as long as they were together, they could get past it.

  They walked into the house together, and John left them at the second floor. “I’m going to talk to the boys. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  Rue squeezed his hand. “I don’t want them to think I’m mad.”

  “I’ll be sure they know that.”

  John watched James lead Rue to his bedroom, and then he walked up to the third floor. He knocked lightly once and opened the door to find Henry sitting on the edge of the bed and Dom pacing.

  “Is she okay?” Dom asked.

  John shut the door. “Yes, but I’m not.”

  “What?” Dom asked.

  “Your mom was really upset. You sided with us against her.”

  “She was wrong,” he protested.

  “I don’t care. That’s your mom, kiddo. No one in this house has a biological mother who loves them except for you, and you chose Henry, who you’ve known for only a few days, over her.” John leaned against the door and folded his arms. “Your mom was going to sacrifice herself for you. The night you were taken, she knew that you could be killed for being born, b
ut she was going to go to Gerarli willingly and offer to not fight her death if they’d let you live.”

  Dom swallowed hard. “I didn’t know that.”

  “I know you were nearly whipped to death, and I know that you and Henry have some kind of supernatural connection, but your mom was walking straight into hell to save you without even giving it a second thought. That’s the kind of love that every male in this house would kill for, and you’re treating her as if she has no value.”

  “I am not.”

  “Yeah, you are. I get that you’re young and you want to stay with us, but you never ever turn your back on your family.”

  “Henry is my family, you and James are my dads because you’re mom’s mates. I didn’t turn my back on anyone.” Dom’s face turned red with anger.

  “Your mom is your true family. She’s been hiding your whole life to keep you safe. She’s never dated, never let anyone see her without a wig, never showed anyone her brands or shared her story. Don’t spit on her sacrifice by choosing us. You could have been pissed all you liked with her, but you should have been standing by her side when we came to the woods tonight, not leaving her standing all alone.”

  Dom looked stricken. “I didn’t say I forgave her. She apologized and I ignored it.”

  “Me, too,” Henry said quietly.

  “Your mom is dealing with a shitload of emotional stuff right now. She’s never trusted anyone besides you, and you basically turned your back on her. I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I just want you to understand that you weren’t helping her come to terms with anything by acting like assholes and giving her the silent treatment.”

  Both boys said, “I’m sorry” at the same time.

  “You don’t need to apologize to me. You need to apologize to her.”

  “Can we do that now? I don’t want her think I hate her,” Dom said, standing quickly.

  “Sure, but first I want to tell you your punishment.”

  He turned to Henry, whose eyes went very wide. “Punishment?”

  “You took off in the middle of the night without telling anyone. You could have been hurt.”