by T. S. Joyce
All he wanted to do was let her go with a joke. He wanted to give her a slice of sarcasm and drive away and not look back. Play it cool and all. But he had to know. “What are you really doing back in Covington, and why were you asking about the lions?”
She offered him a sly smile, but stayed silent as she leaned on the door.
Anson sighed out his frustration. “You aren’t going to say anything else about it, are you?” he asked, using her words from earlier.
“Nope.” Her smile grew bigger as she played along. Annoying.
“Because you don’t trust me.” Same words.
“Nope.” She popped the P at the end, slammed the door, which barely clicked into place, and then sauntered off into the doctor’s office without looking back, like she knew how good her ass looked in those skin-tight jeans.
He didn’t know how long he sat there, but he couldn’t force his foot onto the gas to leave. Obnoxious female. No…obnoxious human female. They were the worst. Panthers stuck with panthers for a reason, and he’d had no interest in a human female since Kaylee ruined him.
But he’d hurt her. Maybe he should go in there and make sure she was okay.
Gritting his teeth against the instinct to protect a woman who didn’t deserve the attention, he jammed his boot onto the gas and peeled out of the parking lot.
Kaylee was a piece of work and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She didn’t need him to sit around and fuss over her. She wouldn’t ever do the same for him. History had proven it. Once a betrayer always a betrayer. Kaylee might look different, and feel different to him now, but hearts didn’t change. Down to her core, she was the same spoiled princess who outed him as a panther shifter to their whole damn school.
He’d been falling in love, and she’d ripped his heart out. The repercussions from her decision still echoed in his life.
Kaylee Cummings was nothing but a traitor in a pretty package.
Chapter Four
Stupid Anson. The shock was wearing off as Kaylee sat on the table, getting checked out by Dr. Browne, who smelled like mothballs and meatloaf. Anson had really pulled out in front of her, and now she was having flashbacks of slamming into his Bronco. Why had she lost her damn mind and not called the police? He should be in jail! But no, she’d let him kiss her instead. Yes, it had been a fantastic kiss. Like…really fantastic. Focus.
Her mom’s car should be at some high-end body shop getting fixed right now, not some chop shop in tiny-town Covington. Barret was probably stripping it for parts while she tried not to make faces at Dr. Browne’s cold, clammy hands prodding the back of her neck. What if this was a distraction and Anson was now a criminal and he’d brought her here so he could give his friend time to steal the car?
In a daze, she listened to Dr. Browne drone on about how to take the medicine he was prescribing and where the pharmacy was. She didn’t hear half of what he was saying, then walked out of that doctor’s office like a zombie. Her neck really hurt, and she’d missed her meeting with Arden and the Cold Mountain Pride. Mom was going to kill her for getting her car wrecked and then probably stripped for parts, and as she looked around the parking lot, she realized she wasn’t just scanning it for where to go next. She was looking for Anson. The pang of disappointment in her chest when he wasn’t anywhere to be seen just made everything worse. She couldn’t afford to grow feelings for that man again, and there was no room for more disappointment in her life. She was on her freaking knees right now, about to beg a place in a lion pride because she had no choice. She had someone to protect. Someone who was much more important than she was. Whose comfort mattered more than hers. Who she would do literally anything for, including an arranged marriage with a man she barely knew.
There was no room in her life for Anson and all the turmoil he brought.
Still, he’d shown her some kindness after the car wreck. If she ignored the fact that the wreck was all his fault in the first place.
The air was chilly, and she’d left her cardigan in the back seat of her car. It was the very beginning of autumn, and the leaves on the trees that lined the quaint street were changing to rusty reds, vibrant oranges, and even yellows. She’d almost forgotten how pretty Covington was when the seasons changed.
Covington had been so unfamiliar when she’d shown up at her mom’s house a few days ago. It wasn’t until today, and seeing Anson, that the place felt full of memories again. She was suddenly overwhelmed with them. The pizza place across the street was where she’d had her first kiss. Some jock named Billy. And the old-fashioned ice cream parlor was still in business, even though the sign was crooked and all the Pepto-Bismol pink paint on the lettering was chipped and peeling. She’d spent Friday nights with her friends there after the football games. She’d seen Anson there sometimes. That was back when her curiosity was peeked about the funny guy with the bright eyes. That was back when she’d watched him every time she could without him catching her.
There were a few people walking from store to store on the sidewalk, but not many, and her heels clacked across the pavement, echoing through town. Down the street, she could see the Appalachian Mountains. That’s where she would live, out in the middle of the woods with a bachelor pride of lions. God, this blew big hairy balls.
The shoes were her mom’s, and they were rubbing blisters on the backs of her heels. She’d dressed up to meet Arden, but now severely regretted the fact because the pharmacy was a few blocks away. She wobbled on some uneven concrete and nearly rolled an ankle. She cried out, and as she pitched forward, she caught a tree next to the sidewalk for balance. Gah, that was close. She’d nearly gone face first into the concrete. At least no one had seen her flailing around.
“I got you food,” Anson said from right behind her.
Kaylee screeched and spun, clutching her blouse like it would keep her heart from leaping out of her rib cage. “Anson, don’t sneak up on people like that!”
“Oh yeah, I forgot you were human with pathetic senses. I wasn’t sneaking. You’re just prey.” He held out a brown paper sack. There were spots of grease at the bottom, and despite her anger with him at scaring her, she grew hopeful.
“What is it?”
“You know what it is.” He shook the bag impatiently, so she took it and peeked inside.
She wanted to stay angry with him, she really did, but he’d gotten her a double cheeseburger and crinkle-cut fries from the Big Bad-A Burger House on the other side of town. “I used to love this place,” she murmured.
“I remember.”
She frowned. “You do?”
Anson gave her a tight-lipped smile and gestured to her shoes. “Take those things off, Snob. It’s Covington, not the goddamn runway, and I’m not going to watch you trip all the way to the pharmacy.”
“But there could be glass on the ground.”
Anson stood with his hands on his hips, looking at her as if she’d sprouted a nipple on her forehead. “It’s a paved sidewalk, not a junk yard.”
“Don’t boss me around!”
“Don’t make bad decisions.”
“Fine!” She pulled Mom’s black stilettoes off her feet and gave a prim, “But I’m not taking them off because you told me to. I’m getting blisters.”
“Great.”
“Fantastic.”
Anson gestured down the sidewalk. “After you, Snob.”
“Quit calling me that.”
“It’s your name, ain’t it? I wasn’t the only one who called you that in school.”
“W-what?” she asked, stopping suddenly. “Who else called me that?”
Anson’s blond brows arched up in surprise. “Uuuh, forget it,” he rumbled as he meandered past her.
Kaylee grabbed his stony bicep. “No, I really want to know.”
Anson sighed and rounded on her. “Everyone, Kaylee. Everyone called you Snob.”
“But why?”
“Because of your family, I guess, I don’t know.”
“But I didn�
�t act like a snob. I was just quiet. I was trying to make good grades so I could leave this town.”
“And yet here you are.”
This hurt. She didn’t know that people had called her Snob behind her back. Oh sure, she’d always known Anson had called her that. He did it to her face, but knowing she was shackled with that awful nickname really bothered her. She’d made mistakes, but she wasn’t a mean-spirited person. She never had been. “That name doesn’t suit me.”
“Says the girl holding the expensive looking heels and driving the Lexus,” Anson said over his shoulder as he made his way toward the pharmacy.
She felt this sudden urge to defend herself. She was completely misunderstood. Had no one really looked past her family money? She wasn’t stuck up!
“The Lexus is my mom’s car, and the shoes are hers, too. I borrowed them for a meeting today.”
Anson shot her a troubled look over his shoulder. “What kind of meeting?”
“Pass.” She wasn’t going to talk about Arden or the pride with him. She didn’t know a ton about pride life, but talking about it would probably break some major rule for the reclusive lions.
“Where’s your car?” he asked.
“Parked at my mom’s house, where I’m currently sleeping in my old room. I’ve been having trouble getting it started though, and I wanted something more reliable today, so I asked to borrow one of my mom’s cars, and then you wrecked it.”
“Technically you slammed into me. And I told you, Barret is good at fixing things. He’ll have it looking like new in a week, tops. Sooner if he can track down the parts today.”
Okay, so her idea that the boys belonged to some small-town chop shop criminal ring was completely off. Apparently, Barret really was going to fix it.
“Why did you come back?” she asked suddenly.
Anson ignored her. He was walking ahead with graceful strides that said he wasn’t hiding he was a shifter anymore. His broad back blocked out half the dang street, and his shoulder still looked torn up, but at least the blood had dried on his tattered T-shirt. His blue jeans hung low on his hips, and his shoulder muscles made an attractive V-shape. Nice butt for a guy, too. Long, powerful legs, and the short hair on the sides of his head she wanted to rub for good luck. When he looked into a shop window, she got a sexy profile of him. Straight nose, gold whiskers dusting his chiseled jaw, and longer, blond-streaked, sun-bleached hair on top that said he spent a lot of time outdoors. Maybe he had to because of the animal inside of him. Mmm, mmm, mmm, panther or no, that man is fine.
“What?” he asked, casting her a frown over his shoulder.
“Hmm?”
He stopped and waited for her to catch up. “Did you say something?”
“No.” At least she hoped she hadn’t said “that man is fine” out loud. “Maybe it’s just the voices inside your head, ya lunatic,” she said lightly.
“I didn’t come back because I give a shit either way what happens to you, Kaylee. I came back because my animal won’t let me rest until I see you home safe. It’s an instinct to protect, just like in high school.”
“I was an instinct for you?” she asked, the sting of that revelation akin to a slap.
Anson ran his hand down his facial scruff and nodded once. “Nothing more, nothing less. Come on. I’ve got shit to do.”
“Then just leave, Anson. I don’t need you to walk me down the street. I’ve survived this long without your misplaced chivalry.”
“It’s not chivalry,” he snarled, his voice going gravelly.
“Whatever.” Chill bumps all over her arms, Kaylee stomped down the street, heels in hand, cursing the man she left standing in the middle of the sidewalk. But when she dared a look back, he was trailing her, looking all dark and broody with his hands shoved in his pockets and his eyes downcast. When he flashed her a quick glance, she could see why. They were gold like the sun. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She didn’t like him behind her when he looked like an animal.
He’s an animal. Her younger voice bounced around her head, and Kaylee winced at the memory. God, she hated herself sometimes. Her mistakes had drowned out the woman she could’ve been. Weak, weak, weak. She wished she could tell him why she’d done what she did, but did the reasons really matter? She’d sunk to his level…lower perhaps. It didn’t matter what she’d reacted to. It only mattered that she had.
Tears burned her eyes, and she blinked rapidly to keep them inside. She would be damned if she fell apart in front of him.
The pharmacy was five-hundred-thirty-eight miles away. At least that’s what it felt like, and when at last she pulled the glass door open and offered Anson a dirty you-can-fuck-off-now look, she ran smack dab into someone who was coming out the door.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…” The rest of her apology died in her throat as she laid eyes upon Jenny Carter, Anson’s sister. Oooh, today just got ten times worse.
The look of utter shock in Jenny’s blue eyes, the exact same color as her brother’s normal color, froze Kaylee in her tracks.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jenny demanded.
“Uncle Anson! Mom said ‘h-e-l-l’ again!” a little boy of about six crowed to Anson, who was now sitting on a bench a couple stores down with his arm draped over it, leg stretched out with a feral smile for Kaylee, as if enjoying the show. Anson was a poop wrinkle.
“Y-you have a son?” Kaylee said dumbly, giving her attention back to Jenny.
Jenny eased the boy behind her back, but he peeked past her legs and smiled up at Kaylee. “I’m Raif. I like your hair. It’s two colors.”
Because she hadn’t dyed her roots in damn-near two years. Money was too tight for dye jobs nowadays.
“It’s not weird to have children, Kaylee,” Jenny said in a tone as cold as ice.
“No! That’s not what I meant. I mean…” Stop. They don’t need to know about Bentley. Kaylee took a step back to give Jenny some room because the tiny woman wasn’t budging an inch, and the look on her face said Kaylee was in serious danger of getting clawed. “Congratulations. He’s really cute.”
“And smart, which is more important than cute,” Jenny said, narrowing her eyes.
“Right.” The silence got thick and awkward as she stood outside the doorway under the awning of the pharmacy, looking anywhere but at Jenny. This was her chance for an apology, but Jenny was really intimidating, staring directly at her, not saying anything. Kaylee gulped down the yellow-bellied coward in her middle and wrung her hands in front of her lap. “Jenny, listen. About what happened in high school—”
“You mean the part when you outed my brother as a shifter for no reason? You mean the part where the town turned lynch mob on my entire family while you flitted off to college in the big city? You mean the part where we were forced to move back to Texas just to escape the hate here? You mean the part where we, a family of rare panther shifters, were forced to register with the government with no crew, all on our own, and always in danger of being scooped up for some underground government testing facility?”
“Jenny,” Anson warned from the bench he sat on.
“You mean the part where you tore my brother to shreds when all he ever wanted to do was protect you?”
“Jenny,” Anson said louder, and now he was headed this way.
Jenny lowered her voice. “You mean the part where you sent him into a ten-year spiral and he trusted no one, could never move on, and now he’ll be alone for always because he hates women? You better not be about to give me a one word apology for all the wrong you did, Kaylee. I get that people make mistakes, especially when they’re young. But your mistakes hurt my family for always. Leave here. Cut him loose. I can’t watch another ten years after you go. Make it quick.” Jenny held her gaze a moment more, then blasted past her, holding her son’s hand.
The glass door swung closed, and staring back at Kaylee was her stunned reflection. Her mouth hung open with the words she desperately wished s
he could say to make things better. She hadn’t known they’d had to go back to Texas. She’d assumed Anson just stayed here and made his life in Covington. She’d been so angry with him lying to her about what he was. Angry for what he’d done the first time they slept together. Angry with him for scaring her. Angry with him for hiding this pivotal part of himself from her when she’d bared her entire fucking soul for him to see. But she’d been wrong. He hadn’t just recovered from them ripping each other apart. His whole life had been affected. By her. The tears fell now, trickling down her cheeks. She turned to Anson, who had stopped ten feet away. His eyes were full of regret, and he shook his head slightly as he ran one hand through his longer hair on top.
“What did she mean a ten-year spiral?”
Anson gave a soft, forced laugh and offered her a too-bright smile. “She didn’t mean anything, Snob. She’s just messin’ with me like sisters do.” But he looked sick, like those words made him want to retch. “I’ll bring the Lexus to your mom’s house as soon as it’s fixed. Have a nice life, Kaylee.”
He hesitated as though he wanted to say more, but suddenly, he spun on his heel and followed Jenny and her son instead. Kaylee watched him walk away. A few shops down, he shook his head hard, and the word, “Fuck,” echoed down the street. And then he took a sharp turn down an alley and disappeared from sight.
Kaylee wanted to curl up against the building and cry. She’d been a stupid kid, who had made a stupid mistake, and she’d ruined lives. The effects of that decision ran so much deeper and darker than she’d realized. She hated being back here, but she deserved to face this. She deserved for Jenny to blast her, for Anson to walk away angry, to call her “Snob,” and to keep her at a distance.
Her anger at him evaporated, just like that. All these years of holding onto it and letting it weigh her down, it was a shock to have it suddenly lift from her shoulders. His hurt clearly outweighed hers, by a lot. She’d held onto her anger for so long, but she had no right to it. Not when he’d been spiraling even worse than her. The bag of fast food crinkled in her hand. Sure, he’d been a defensive jerk today, but he’d also given moments of kindness she didn’t deserve.