A Broken Bond

by Stacey Kennedy

  The woman smiled. Cash focused in on her lips. They were plush and spread perfectly along her face to create a wonderful view of her mouth. For the first time in longer than he could even comprehend, he enjoyed the sight. His cock grew harder as images of her mouth on his body filled his mind. Then, he met her gaze again. She may have been frightened, but her remarkable eyes held spirit. He was curious to discover the woman that lay in those depths and the one that caused his body to react so intensely. He quickly shook his head, focusing away from his demanding groin. “Let’s start with, what is your name?”

  “Rylie,” she answered as she gave a deep sniff.

  “I’m Cash.”

  She nodded, but still said nothing.

  “Are you from around these parts?” Cash asked, digging for a little information.

  “No.”

  Fuck, he was going to spend a lifetime in this car if he didn’t push her a little. Her sadness made him hesitant, but patience had never been his strong point. “Do you have a habit of running into stranger’s cars?”

  “No.” She laughed. The sound of it sent waves of pleasure running down Cash’s spine. “Never.”

  He was glad to hear that. “So then, Rylie. Do tell, why are you in my car?”

  She glanced away from him to look at her hands. “I’m running away.”

  Wonderful, just what Cash needed¯a fucked up runaway to deal with. No matter how much she might be pleasing to look at, he didn’t need the trouble. “Running away from what?”

  “Not what,” she whispered. “Who.”

  That surprised him. “And why are you doing that?”

  “Because I’m in danger.”

  He snorted at the obviousness of that statement. “That is apparent, isn’t it now?”

  Her gaze snapped up and connected with his. “A few days ago, I was mated to a horrible, cruel wolf.”

  Fire burned in her eyes. It was a look that nearly had him laughing. She was such a little thing, but her look now said she would bury him if he got smart with her again. It was a trait he found amusing and one that appealed to his wolf. “And this is who you are running from¯your mate?”

  The burn in her eyes deepened and the air filled with the stench of hate. “I will not¯always refuse to¯ let him have me.”

  “And you believe you have a choice here?” Cash asked, disappointed that she had been claimed. As much as he wanted to wrap this luscious woman around his body, she was indeed mated and couldn’t be touched. His cock softened in defeat.

  She lifted her chin in defiance. “Damn right I do.”

  Cash snorted a laugh and shifted in his seat to face Rylie. To deny a mate bond was to speak of something impossible. Maybe she was just inexperienced and scared of being with a man. He suspected that was the case here. “What has he done that is so horrible?”

  “Killed my entire family.”

  Cash’s brow rose. He waited for her to retract her statement. She never did. There went his theory. He cleared his throat. “Run that by me again.”

  “When it was discovered that Layne was my mate, my parents were about as pleased as I was. He is a horrible man. My father tried to refuse the ceremony and Layne killed him.” She wiped a tear from her face. “Then, he killed my mother.”

  “And your Alpha allowed this?” For one thing, this ran against Alpha rules, and another, he couldn’t imagine an Alpha being so cruel as to allow such a thing to take place.

  She nodded. “He couldn’t stop it.”

  Cash gave his head a shake in an attempt to clear his thoughts and understand all this. An Alpha was lead by rules, rules that ran higher than that Alpha. Allowing anyone to come in and break those rules made no sense. Deaths were only¯and always¯decided by the Alpha. If Rylie’s parents had refused to allow the mate bond to take place, her mate had the right to challenge the father to claim her. That made sense. What didn’t make sense was that her mother had been killed. Women were never brought into a challenge, nor were they ever killed. There had to be more here, more that Rylie wasn’t telling him. “This Layne did indeed claim you as mate then?”

  “He did. After their deaths, I was forced.”

  Cash tensed. A primal instinct to hunt and kill whoever forced Rylie into submission overtook him. “Forced,” he repeated through gritted teeth.

  “I wasn’t given a choice¯the ceremony was completed...and...” Her voice shook. “It was horrible.”

  Cash shut his eyes for a moment, commanding himself to settle. It was unlike him to react on his emotions alone. Never had he felt the need to protect so intensely. His wolf growled and craved to kill within him. After a few more stabling breaths, he opened his eyes and met her gaze. “Are you telling me that he raped you?”

  “No, not rape exactly¯but it wasn’t like I had a choice. If I didn’t complete the bond, he would have killed me.” She lowered her head again. Shame wafted off her. “I didn’t want to die.”

  Cash reached out to comfort her, then realized what he was doing and quickly pulled back his hand. Fuck, what had gotten into him? He was never compelled to give comfort. Two years of pain had caused that. “No one would want that,” he said sharply to hide his reaction.

  She glanced up to him with sad eyes. “I told him I didn’t want him and that I would never be happy with him.”

  “But he didn’t care?” His voice came out soft in response to the despair held in her eyes. He wanted nothing more than to grab her and erase that pain. But that was not his right. She didn’t belong to him.

  She shook her head, wiping away another fallen tear. “No, he didn’t care.”

  Cash let out a long, deep breath. He couldn’t just leave Rylie to fend for herself. His reaction to her made him believe she was in serious danger. If his protective instincts were running wild, it meant he had a responsibility to help her. Apparently, she was being mistreated. The problem, he hadn’t the resources to protect her. “You have nowhere to go?” he asked.

  “Nowhere, and no one to go to.”

  “I see,” he said, examining her. He didn’t doubt she was being truthful, but he did believe she was holding back. The story didn’t make sense, which meant he wasn’t being told all of it. Regardless, she needed protection. “Right then,” he finally said, settling back into his seat. After he shifted the car back into first, he hit the gas pedal and the car roared beneath him.

  “Where are we going?” Rylie asked, wiping her remaining tears.

  There was only one place Cash could think of to bring her. Only one person he knew and trusted would know how to handle this situation. He met her gaze, smiled reassuringly and said, “Somewhere safe.”

  * * * *

  To be safe sounded good to Rylie, but she doubted that was even possible. For some reason, she trusted Cash. Hell, could be because the man was built to defend. He filled his leather seat completely and nearly reached the back seat with the needed space for his legs.

  Just because she was scared out of her wits and lingering on some serious depression didn’t mean she couldn’t acknowledge his attributes. Ashy blond fauxhawk hair, eyes that were either green or blue¯she hadn’t quite decided. Blessed with chiseled features, a lower lip a little more plump then the top¯it was impossible not to notice him.

  Abruptly, she realized how inappropriate it was for her to ogle him. Focusing her thoughts away from the sexy wolf, she asked, “Have you always been rogue?”

  He quickly glanced to her and smirked. “Enough about you¯onto me, is that it?”

  She nodded without hesitation. Sexy and smart. Her mind might wish to ignore his wolfish charms. Her body had other ideas.

  His smile grew as he looked back to the road. “No, I wasn’t always rogue¯used to belong to the Montana pack.”

  The way his lips curved so invitingly caused a little stirring within her, warming her in all the right places. He held a mysterious air about him, as if he knew answers to secrets, and the effect on her made her cheeks burn. “So, this is your home then?�
�

  “At one time it was,” he answered.

  To belong to a pack and choose a rogue life, she couldn’t comprehend why he would want that. “Why did you leave?” She voiced her bewilderment. He gave her a look that she suspected was his way of telling her he didn’t want to talk about it. Well, she’d been known to put her foot into her mouth many times. “I’m waiting for you to answer me,” she demanded.

  The side of his mouth quirked up. His gaze remained on the road ahead. “Are you always this pushy?” Then, he met her gaze, and amusement lit his eyes.

  “Yes,” she snapped. For the oddest reason, which she had yet to figure out, not answering the question annoyed her. She wanted to know more about him and wouldn’t let him deflect her questions.

  He glanced back out to the road and shifted as if uncomfortable in his seat. “Two years ago, my mate died¯after that, I left.”

  And once again, Rylie wished she’d stuffed her foot in deeper and kept her mouth shut. “I’m...I’m...sorry to hear that.”

  He acknowledged her condolences with a quick nod.

  She sighed softly, looking out the windshield. The rain was beginning to settle. “Well, that’s something we have in common then. You’ve lost your mate. I’ve lost my family.” When silence met her, she glanced over to Cash who had his brow arched. She laughed, realizing just how sick she really was. “Guess that’s kind of morbid, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe to some” —He grinned— “it would be considered so.”

  The conversation between them was actually settling her. His strong presence, or the lack of attention on her, was easing her wound up emotions. In response, she sank back into her seat, released her arms from around her waist and crossed her legs. “You don’t live here then?”

  He shook his head. “Haven’t since the day my mate, Jaclyn, died.”

  Rylie really looked at him. Along his face there were hard lines of despair, sadness in his eyes, deep loneliness. All of which created a not so great feeling in the pit of her stomach. His pain cut through her¯in a way that surprised her, since he was a stranger. Ignoring the ache, she moved on. “Do you have family here then?”

  He nodded. “A twin sister, Taya. Royce, her mate, has roots in Cooke City. They returned there to raise their two cubs.”

  Maybe she’d been expecting to hear he had no one, considering he hadn’t kept to his pack, but learning of a family only deepened that ache inside her. “They must miss you terribly.”

  His eyes fell shamefully. “I suspect they do.”

  The disgrace set hard in his features said that he understood what it cost his family to have him away. Wolves were pack creatures, bound together tightly. To have¯especially a family member¯willingly gone from the pack would be nearly unbearable. It was lost to her why he would choose this¯not only for his family, but for himself. “Do you not long for your pack?”

  “At first, it was a challenge.” He slowed the car and took a hard right onto a gravel road. “It was a bit of an adjustment to be a lone wolf.”

  “I bet it was,” she replied, unable to even fathom what that would be like. A pack was a security blanket. Without that, it’d be like standing naked in the middle of Times Square. One thing it did show was his character. Only a strong-willed wolf would survive the rogue lifestyle. From what she heard, most wolves either killed themselves¯which, as an immortal, was not an easy task¯or they merely took to wolf form and never returned to their humanity. Which, in the end, would get them killed anyway. A werewolf who got stuck in wolf form was a dangerous wolf indeed. “What was your life like before...you know?”

  His hands tightened around the steering wheel. Part of her wished she said nothing. The other part was too eager to know more about him. “I was a guard for the Montana Alpha,” he replied.

  Shit! Cash wasn’t just some random wolf. He had strong connections to Alphas, one thing she didn’t want to hear. It shouldn’t have taken her by surprise to hear he was used to solving disputes, taking out threats, keeping the Alpha he protected safe. If Cash’s human form was this overwhelming, his wolf form would be equally so. To keep the causal appearance up and her unease obvious, she asked, “Who is the Montana Alpha?”

  “Blaine.”

  She thought back, pondering if she’d heard the name. Her father kept her out of Alpha business as much as he could. Get a room of Alphas together and it usually led to foul language and fist fights. No place for a young lady, her father always said. The number of Alphas she had met could be counted on one hand. Blaine was not one of them. “He’s obviously a good Alpha if he let you leave.”

  Cash nodded firmly. “He has proved to be a strong leader with a compassionate heart.”

  His soft tone, and the kind look in his eye, spoke volumes. She melted. Like a list, his good traits were being checked off. Sexy, powerful, kind natured¯and on and on. Willing herself away from her inner monologue, she asked, “You care for him?”

  “I respect him,” he responded with a firm nod.

  Men¯never show outright affection or admit it aloud. “Isn’t that one in the same?”

  He shrugged. “To some.”

  Apparently, his blasé answers were built into his personality. She hadn’t quite decided if it annoyed or intrigued her. One thing she did know, it made her more persistent. “How long did you guard for Blaine?”

  “Ten years.”

  She examined him further, searching the side of his face for signs of age. At thirty, aging stopped and immortality set in. The knowledge in the eyes was the only way to tell the true age of an immortal. Rylie had a knack for it, which used to amuse her mother daily. If she was off, it was usually only by a year or two. But as she swept her gaze across Cash, all she found was a young, hunky man. “You don’t look old enough to have guarded him so long.”

  He glanced to her with an arched brow. “How old do I look?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “Twenty-eight,” he corrected.

  First, she was pleased her assumption wasn’t far off. Then, she did the math in her head. “That means you joined him when you were sixteen?”

  “Two days after my sixteenth birthday, to be exact.”

  She’d never heard of a guard joining an Alpha so young. The job came with danger, serious lose-your-life danger. “Your parents allowed that?” she asked.

  Cash glanced back out to focus on the road. “I joined Blaine after my parents’ deaths. He didn’t seek me out, I went to him.”

  Her heart sank for him. His life was driven by death. Every moment, every life altering event, had been found not through want or ambition. It was through the act of loss that compelled his ways. He may wish to not talk of his personal life or their deaths, and judging by his tense body position, he didn’t, but she did. “How did they die?”

  “My father guarded Blaine at the time¯vengeance from a neighbouring pack cost my father not only his life, but the life of my mother. If my sister and I had been home at the time, I imagine we would have gone with them.”

  How horrible. “Did you find out who did it?”

  His gaze met hers again in a hard, cold answer. “Yes. Years later, I found the man responsible.”

  Nothing more needed to be said. Rylie knew enough of werewolf nature. The man was dead. “Blaine took you and your sister in then?”

  “He set us up close to his home, gave Taya a job and started to train me.”

  This was a question she wondered often enough. She’d never had the chance to ask it of her father’s guards. She wasn’t about to waste this opportunity. “Did you like being a guard for an Alpha?”

  He grinned, keeping his eyes on the road. “Loved it.”

  Sounded too gung ho and crazy for her liking, but of course, a man would find that fun. “What did you enjoy so much about it?”

  “The thrill to hunt, to defend the pack¯it was all something I enjoyed.”

  She hadn’t been blind to the fact that he said the pack, not my pack. “Do you think you’l
l ever go back to your pack again?”

  His gaze met hers again, hard set and firm. “I have no pack.” He tore his eyes from hers and focused back to the windshield.

  “So you say,” she whispered to herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him tense slightly. Obviously, she was louder than she thought. “Well, this Alpha, Blaine, seems like a great wolf. To allow you such freedom is practically unheard of.”

  He stared a moment longer. Immediately, she wished for a stick to beat herself with. Most wolves didn’t talk of Alphas in such casual conversation. Just as one wouldn’t a queen unless there was breaking news. If she didn’t put a clamp on it, she was going to give herself away. This was the perfect time to turn the conversation onto herself, but she wasn’t about to tell him the truth, and she couldn’t lie to him either. It just didn’t sit right. Maybe due to the trauma that surrounded his life, it’d be like telling a starving kitty there was no food while holding onto a can of tuna. Just wrong.

  “To answer your question,” Cash finally said, breaking the silence. “I’ve yet to meet another Alpha who compares in character to Blaine.” He smirked. “And trust me, I have met many.”

  Obviously, not one, she thought. Blaine sounded all too much like her father. Playing stupid, she said, “It’d be great, you know, to spend more time with one than just a passing glance.”

  He looked to her curiously. “That is something you would like?”

  She nodded, hoping her fake excitement showed through. “Sure, why not?”

  “Well it’s your lucky day then.” He turned off the road, onto the brick driveway which led up to a ranch style mansion. “'Cause you’re about to get your wish.”

  Chapter Three

  The moment the words left Cash’s mouth, Rylie’s expression tightened and the scent of fear reeked through the car. Her reaction made him unhappy. The need to ease her worries compelled him. “Blaine will not hurt you,” he told her.

  She inhaled sharply, then she glanced to him and smiled¯it looked forced. “Just really excited,” she answered in over exaggerated glee.