by Lauren Dane
“That’s not going to happen. You’re going to tell me what the hell is wrong and we’re going to fix it.”
Her phone rang again.
“For fuck’s sake,” she mumbled, pulling the phone out. “What?”
Galen demanded to know what was happening on the other end. Jack didn’t even need shifter hearing for that.
“I’ve lost my appetite. I want to go to bed early. No, not like that. That’s not going to be happening. No. I. Said. No. I’m not interested in a romantic dinner tonight. What? Why?”
Galen demanded to speak to Jack and he put his hand out, expecting her to put the phone into it. Instead she snorted and turned her back on him. “I’m going home. I’m not having this conversation with you. I don’t need to explain myself.” She punched the screen to disconnect and then turned the ringer off.
He began to growl at her, but his own phone interrupted and he picked it up, grateful for Galen’s backup in this, whatever it was going on between them.
“What the hell did you do?” Galen demanded without preamble.
“It’s a long story. I’d be trying to fix it, but she won’t talk to me about it. She’s shut down now. Walled me out.”
“What the fuck did you say, Jack? I’m going to kick your ass for this. I shouldn’t have trusted you with her. She’s not just any woman you’re fucking, you know. She’s got wounds and buttons like anyone else.”
“Why would you assume I would ever think of her like that?”
She took the phone from him. “Stop it! Oh my God, stop it! I’m not a bone to be argued over, nor am I to be talked about like I don’t exist. I won’t have you fighting like this.”
Jack saw the cracks in the wall she’d built around her emotions, felt the strain she put into holding herself together. “I can’t stand to see you like this.” He took the phone back. “She’s right, it’s stupid to fight over her this way.”
He didn’t hear the door close.
Renee hit the sidewalk running, grateful she’d worn flats instead of the pretty high-heeled boots she’d nearly chosen instead. She was stupid to think she could ever make it work. She was a freak. Wrong. Weird. Men like Galen and Jack didn’t need that. They had each other now. It assaulted her head, how wrong she was, how unnatural.
Her house was quiet when she burst inside. Even the way the banister gleamed from the lemon oil she’d used a few days before didn’t please her.
Despite his clear belief that she was some kind of mental deficient, Renee locked the doors behind her. She wasn’t unaware that there was someone out there focused on her in ways she couldn’t understand.
She grabbed a bottle of scotch and headed for her workspace, locking the door behind her. She poured a shot while choosing some music.
Jack’s voice changed every time he said Grace’s name. It wasn’t that he’d anchored her. It wasn’t that he had loved people before her. The way he pretended to be so casual about something that clearly was anything but casual galled her most.
He hadn’t told her before because Grace was something to him she couldn’t be. Maybe he found Renee wanting. Maybe he regretted being mated to her. He’d been so lovely one moment and then things had gone to shit.
The little girl within shivered and a ragged sob escaped Renee’s mouth, despite the fist clenched to hold it all in. Driven by the need to tuck away somewhere small, Renee gave in and took her blanket into the closet, settling in, letting the dark quiet calm her. Soothe the memories enough to keep them at bay.
The door downstairs opened. She heard two male voices, knew it was Galen and Jack.
“Renee!” Galen’s bellow was sure to alert the entire street he was pissed. Great.
“Damn it, Renee, where are you?”
Steps coming closer. The wall fell apart and what was within consumed her, pulled her into the maelstrom of what had been once.
“I’m coming in there, now. You’re worrying us, Renee.” Galen blinked back the tears as a wave of terror and then pain swept through him. The hand on the knob of the door to her office space tightened, the metal groaning.
“Get in there. Something is wrong. Damn it.” Jack kicked the door in, leaving the knob in Galen’s hand.
Nothing. He looked around, dropping the doorknob on a nearby desk.
“She’s not in the darkroom.” Jack stormed back in.
Galen saw the closet door, knew she was in there. He indicated it with a tip of his chin and both of them moved to it.
“I’m opening the door. It’s just me and Jack.”
She was there, huddled in the far back, a blanket around her body. Ribbons of pain sliced at him the closer he got.
“Baby, what is it?” He spoke softly, but the tears thickened the sound. “Would you like to come out? Let us help you and then we’ll leave you alone if that’s what you really want. You can’t be in this closet in the dark. That’s not who you are.”
“How do you know who I am?”
Her voice edged, honed and sharp with whatever drove her to this place.
“Is this why you run when we fight? Is this why you need to get away?” Galen coaxed the blanket back from her face. Her eyes weren’t focused as she looked at something long past. It was like a scene from one of those horror movies she loved so much. A shiver of fear slid through his gut.
“I know you enough to know you’re one of the strongest people alive. I know you enough to love you.” Jack held a hand to her, but her eyes still focused on that faraway thing.
Galen shoved the shoes out of his way and sat. “Okay then, we’ll join you. No one needs to be alone in the dark when they’re so beloved. By the way, there are seriously forty pairs of shoes in here. Is this your secret shoe stash?”
Jack shook his head when she didn’t laugh or even roll her eyes.
“What led you here to this closet? Who did this to you?” Jack linked hands with her and she didn’t pull away. She shook still, her skin clammy. His wolf wasn’t pleased by the stink of her fear on the air, of the claustrophobic oppression of the small, cramped space.
Galen took her other hand and she whimpered. The sound ripped through him, the pain of it, the fear made him nauseous.
And then Jack stood somewhere else. The woman he recognized from The Willow Broom stood over a younger version of Renee. Those sweet curls were ruthlessly pulled back into a braid, her face was buried in her hands.
“I thought I told you to stop this. How are we supposed to have a normal life when you go acting weird again?”
“I’m sorry, Susan. I didn’t mean to. It just happens sometimes.”
“You’ve driven away everything kind enough to love you despite your freaky behavior. Your mother left you. Where’s your father? He’s not here. Left you with me. I’m all you’ve got, don’t you forget it. The devil is in you; your mother poisoned you with what she was. You don’t have to be that way.”
Renee gasped for air. “No. Get out of my head.”
Galen blinked, not trying to stop the tears.
She tried to pull her hands free from theirs, both men held fast.
“No. Renee, she’s wrong.” Jack’s voice was choked with emotion. “You don’t have to run from us. We’re not going to leave you.”
She groaned again and a wave hit, sucking them back into her memories.
A closet, roughly this size. She sat in the very back, her hands over her mouth. Her leg hurt, throbbed from a bruise on her thigh. Fiery welts peppered her calves. Blood ran from her palm where her nails had dug through the skin.
Somewhere outside, the sound of furniture being overturned. Yelling.
“How dare you embarrass me in front of my friends! Get out here and take your punishment.”
The door slamming open, a hand in her hair, pulling her out into the light. S
he blinked up in time to see the fist headed toward her face and she opened up the rage, the rage she buried all the time. It boiled from her and Susan fell back, shock etched into her features.
“No. Don’t touch me.”
Susan snarled, her mouth twisted with dark emotion. “You broke a glass. They saw you. You weren’t near it.”
“You told them my mother abandoned me. She didn’t. She wouldn’t do that.”
“She had to die to escape you. Your father works all the time. Anything to get away from you.” She raised her hand and Renee stood on shaky legs.
“Never. You will never touch me again or I will break you too.” She poked a tooth, now loose from how hard she’d been hit earlier once they’d gotten into the car and had driven away.
Susan knew she meant it.
“You’ll kill everything you touch, Renee. Don’t forget that. This is my house. Your father is with me. Don’t push me or you’ll end up in a home. All alone.”
Something roared and Galen realized it was her. It was Renee shoving them both back, jumping over them to get out of the closet. Her eyes were no longer unfocused, though his were still blurry through tears.
Her chest heaved. She held her hands out to ward them off.
“Leave me alone, please. Please. I didn’t mean to...that was my head, those are my memories. Mine.” Bitterness, like ashes, bloomed through the link between the three.
“Your memories must have thought differently.” Jack closed his eyes a moment and Galen knew how he felt. He wanted to storm out, to hunt Susan down and beat her until she wept like Renee had.
“I understand. I understand now why you need to leave when we fight.” Galen didn’t get up, not wanting to spook her. “I would never, ever reject you for being who you are. I love you. I love your magic. I love the way you are a total bitch until you’ve had coffee in the morning. I love the way you think I don’t know you put protein powder in my smoothies.”
“I know that.” She exhaled hard. “I know that!”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want to see pity in your eyes. Like what I see now. I’m fine. She didn’t know how to deal with my being different. She did the best she could. I wasn’t easy to raise, you know.”
Jack growled. “She’s a bully, Renee. That’s not about you, that’s about her.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I feel sick.”
Galen didn’t know what to do other than to keep pushing, so he did. She had to understand they were with her for the long run; he had to get past the shit her stepmother poisoned her with. “Because you haven’t eaten in hours. Because you’ve been upset for most of the day. Babe, come with us. Let us get you settled on the couch. Snuggle with Jack while I make some dinner.”
“Please, please leave me alone.”
She looked so lost, so terribly small standing there, her arms wrapped around herself, shaking. He felt as if something had been ripped from him. His cat paced, agitated, angry, needing to comfort and defend.
Jack fell to his knees before her, hanging his head. “I started this mess with my stupidity and selfishness. I didn’t tell you and you got caught off guard and then when you asked for more info, I didn’t really answer what you asked. I’m sorry. If I could take it back I would. But I can’t. I can’t and the damage has been done. You don’t know how much I regret that.”
She rubbed her face before sliding her fingers through Jack’s hair. “You two are so much better off without me. You have each other now.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
Galen stood. “Enough. This is total bullshit. Better off without you? So the last four years mean nothing to you? You think I’ve just been hanging out with you until a nice piece of ass came along to replace you? Is that how little you think of me?”
“No.” She shook her head, taking her hand back from Jack’s head. Jack spun, baring his teeth at Galen. Galen bared his right back.
“There’s something wrong with me. Can’t you see that? Your family can see it, Galen, why can’t you?”
“So Beth doesn’t like you. She doesn’t like anyone. My parents love you. My brothers love you. I love you. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“I’m holding you back. I can’t give you purebred children. I can’t help you be the next leader of the jamboree. I’ll never make the kind of money you do.”
He grabbed her by the upper arms. This had to stop. She was spiraling out of control, this vomiting of her memories had taken her into a dark place and she couldn’t seem to get out. He worked very hard not to panic, but she was seriously scaring him. This wasn’t her. She was not the kind of person who gave in to self-pity or bad thoughts, not like this.
“I’ve never seen you this way, babe. Come on now. Come back to me.” He rubbed his face along her jawline, willing her to open back up to him.
“What’s that?” Jack stood. “Do you hear that? Someone is pounding on the door downstairs.”
Without waiting for permission, Galen gathered her into his arms and carried her out of her office and into the living room. “Sit here. Jack and I will be back. Don’t let anyone in unless it’s us.”
She’d slipped away again, her eyes focused on something he couldn’t see.
“I hope it’s that bitch Susan or the asshole scaring her. I could use a really bloody fight right about now,” Jack grumbled as they headed down to the outer door.
When they opened it, an older woman with striking features stood there, her mouth in a hard line. Beside her stood a younger woman, perhaps two years older than Renee. She looked a lot like... Holy shit.
“Where is she?” the older woman asked.
“Who?” Galen demanded.
“Where is Renee? I know she lives here. I know there’s something wrong with her. Someone is trying to harm her. Where is she?”
“Who the fuck are you and how do you know my wife?” Galen and Jack stood shoulder to shoulder.
“I’m her aunt, Rosemary. And this is Kendra, Renee’s older sister. We’re here to help. Please.”
Renee’s what? What the hell was up with the world all of a sudden?
“How do you know she lives here? Where have you been her whole life?” Jack wasn’t budging.
“Our absence from her life was not my choice. My sister brought Kendra to me when she was just a baby. We knew about Renee, but she disappeared shortly after her mother was killed. Our family has been looking for her ever since. Someone is trying to harm her right now. Are you just going to stand there and let him burn her mind out?”
“I will rip out your throat without hesitation if you make one move to hurt her.” Galen stood back to let them both enter. Jack stood aside, ready to move if or when he needed to.
Rosemary rushed up the stairs, Galen in the lead with the keys.
When he opened the door, it was to find Renee standing, her palms against the window panes in the dining room, staring out into the night.
“Get her away from that window.” Rosemary turned away and with Kendra, began to clear a space, pushing the couches back. Jack moved to help.
“Renee, honey? Visitors are here. For you. You’re going to be so surprised.” Galen edged closer, scenting the copper of her blood. Her palms bled, smearing the red against the glass.
“Get out of me,” she whispered. “You can’t have me. You can’t have them!” she screamed and fell but he was fast enough to catch her.
“Can’t have you?” Galen was very close to changing—his cat sliced him up to get out, wanting to defend her from any threat. But his cat couldn’t help whatever the fuck was wrong with her.
“She means the mage who’s wormed into her head. Put her here.”
Renee looked, her eyes glassy, to the woman who’d just spoken. “Momma? Is
that you? Have you come for me?”
Watching the scene continue to unfold filled Jack with so much bile and fear, so much adrenaline, he shook with it. He was losing her, he felt it deep inside and helpless rage rode him, turned his vision red with the need to fix his mate.
Renee was covered in blood as Galen attempted to get her back to the rest of the group. Their living room was a mess, the contents upended and shoved against the walls to make space for a ritual of some sort.
Jack wasn’t even sure what to do, where to stand, much less know what the hell was going on. He was entirely out of his element and it drove him to the depths of despair. He could rip a throat out, investigate someone, protect her from a physical threat but this? How could anyone stop this evil?
“Your guilt will not help her. Or you. Let it go.” Rosemary, the oldest woman, the powerful witch who’d started drawing symbols with colored sand on their hardwoods, spoke to him without looking up. “Use your link to her. Bring her back. Don’t let him win. He’ll ruin her, ravage her and leave her a shell.”
“Who and what is trying to hurt her?” Galen put her down where Rosemary had indicated and Jack reached out to touch her, needing the physical contact to better use their link, but also because he needed to feel her, know she was alive.
“Get her sweater and jeans off, she’ll respond better skin to skin,” Kendra said.
Jack made quick work while Galen took his own shirt off.
Continuing to work, Rosemary spoke, “She’s got so much power pouring off her, she’s made herself a target. The target of a man who steals magic instead of earning it. He’s inside her now.”
One-handed, Jack tore his shirt off and pressed to her back as Galen did her front. They embraced around her, a solid unit. She was his and Galen’s; no one else was going to take her and harm her if he could help it. “Come on, Renee, come back to us. Fight this bastard who’s hurting you. You can’t just leave, not when I’ve finally found you. If you go, I’ll eat sweet rolls every day, no more fruit. I’ll get scurvy.”
Galen kissed the top of her head. “Babe, who will make my heart beat if not you?”