by T. S. Ryder
It didn’t matter how many articles Charity pulled up debunking everything Honor said, she wouldn’t believe it. It ended up that every day there was a fight, and in the end, Charity just couldn’t handle it anymore. Her sister was too full of hatred and anger to be reasoned with.
The proposal she had sent in for researching the geological features of the islands had been approved, though, so Charity found herself still sticking around the island. Give the giant rift that had grown between herself and her sister, she didn’t want to stay on the island. Instead, she got an apartment on the mainland and ferried over every morning.
Her relationship with Devin remained . . . interesting. Even though they had both agreed that there was too much in their own lives for them to make a go of it as a real couple, they kept being drawn to each other. For the next two months, they met every few days and went out to what Charity had started thinking of as ‘their’ island. She wouldn’t call it dating. She wasn’t sure what exactly it was between them.
Whatever it was, she didn’t want it to end.
Which was how she ended up with a positive pregnancy test in her trash basket.
Charity wasn’t certain how she felt about being pregnant. She didn’t know what she was going to do now. She knew that she needed to tell Devin, but a week and then two passed after she found out without seeing him. At night her fingers hovered over her cellphone, wanting to call him, but she always held herself back.
How would he react to this? Yes, they had a lot of fun together, but he was the one who kept pulling away. If he didn’t want her, how would he want their baby, too? One way or another, their relationship was going to change, and she didn’t know if she could handle that.
Charity shoved the thoughts of her pregnancy out of her mind as she rushed around the apartment early one morning. Her team would be waiting for her. If she missed this ferry, the next one wasn’t for an hour. They would be heading out to the shifters’ land today to ask permission to start taking samples from their beaches. She’d see Devin for certain.
She couldn’t be late.
A sudden banging on the door made her jump. She paused, her heart pounding. “Who is it?”
“Hope!” her sister’s voice called through the door. “Let me in. You have to let me in.”
There was such panic in her voice that Charity rushed for the door at once. She threw it open and Hope dashed in. She slammed the door behind her and turned to Charity with wide eyes. Her chest heaved and her face was red, like she had run up the stairs to get to her.
“What’s wrong?” Charity grabbed her sister’s shoulders. She searched Hope’s face, looking for some sign of a bruise. If her husband had hit her—
“You have to leave,” Hope blurted. “You have to get out of here. Right now. I’ve never seen her so angry. I don’t know what she’s going to do.”
Charity blinked, then blinked again. “Okay, I need you to calm down and start from the beginning. Who and what are you talking about?”
Hope made a strangled noise in her throat. She pushed past Charity and raced into the bedroom behind her. She threw open the closet and grabbed a suitcase. Charity followed after her, still utterly bewildered. Hope started to throw clothes into the suitcase, and Charity followed suit. Something had to be very wrong for her to be in his much of a frenzy!
“What is happening?”
Hope shook her head. “No time. You just have to leave.”
“I need more than that.”
Hope stopped. She closed her eyes and pulled in a deep, shuddering breath. Her whole frame trembled and Charity put an arm around her. Even though Hope’s panic threatened to make her panic as well, she forced herself to stay calm. She couldn’t just leave in a flurry of fear, not knowing what was happening. After several moments, Hope opened her eyes again.
“Honor found out. I don’t know how, but she knows.”
“Knows what?” Charity’s fears started to rising, creeping, up her throat again. There was only one thing there was for Honor to find out . . .
“You’re pregnant. You’re pregnant with the baby of one of those shifters. Honor knows and she told Mom and Dad. They’re all furious.”
Well, it was bound to happen eventually. It wasn’t as though she and Devin had been sneaking around. They met in plain view of everybody. While their more intimate activities didn’t occur until it was just the two of them, everybody on the island would know that they spent time together. That would account for a lot of Honor’s comments . . .
The real question was how Honor found out she was pregnant. Had she broken into the apartment? Used the ‘I’m her sister’ ploy to get the superintendent to let her in? Charity had told nobody and hadn’t even seen Honor in over a month.
“Okay, so they know. I’m not talking with any of them anyway. It’s not like I’m going to miss out on anything with having them furious at me.”
Hope shook her head, eyes welling with tears. “If that was it, I wouldn’t be telling you to run. I saw Honor buying a gun from a man off the street. You don’t know how much she hates shifters, Charity. And she’s been ranting about how you’re a traitor to humanity. When she told Mom and Dad, she said she wanted to cut the baby out of you.”
Her body was suddenly so cold that she wouldn’t have been surprised to see her breath misting in the air. Charity was too frozen to move. She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she stared into the eyes of her twin. It seemed impossible. Honor was high-strung and bigoted, yes, but to actually commit violence against her own sister?
She and I were never close. They’d fought ever since they were kids, and once Charity left and started learning about the actual facts of the world, those fights had only gotten worse.
Hadn’t Honor been arrested multiple times for destroying property belonging to shifters? Hadn’t Devin told Charity that Honor’s editorials in the local newspaper had spurred violence against the shifters? Hadn’t she done her best to make their lives more difficult? Who’s to say that she wouldn’t harm her own sister for ‘betraying’ her by getting pregnant by a shifter?
Charity’s hand drifted to her stomach. She swallowed hard. “I’m leaving. And you’re coming with me. I’m not leaving you here.”
Hope’s eyes widened. “But my husband—”
“He’s an ass who doesn’t deserve you and you know it, Hope.” Charity took her twin’s hands. “You want to know why I chose here to do my research? It’s because I love the island, but I also wanted to rescue you. I made my escape and I’m stronger for it. You deserve so much more than the lot you’ve drawn in life. Come with me, and—”
“I’m coming.” Hope trembled but she nodded. “I’m not leaving you alone. Not at a time like this.”
“Good.” Charity hugged her tight, then threw the rest of what she needed into the suitcase. They hurried out of the apartment and jumped into Charity’s car. They left Hope’s car, an old, beat-up junker, behind. As soon as they were out, Charity gave the phone to Hope.
“Call Devin. He needs to know.”
“What’s his number?”
“It’s in my phone.”
Hope nodded. Her eyes widened when she opened the phone’s log. Charity glanced at her from the corner of her eye, but fortunately, Hope didn’t make any comments about how often she had called Devin. She pressed a couple buttons, then held the phone to her ear. After a moment, she shook her head.
“No answer.”
“Then leave a message.”
Hope hung up the phone. “I’ll call again. What do you want me to say?”
Charity let out an annoyed huff. She reached for the phone, but at that moment, it started to ring. Hope quickly pulled away and glanced at it. It was Charity’s team, and Hope answered quickly. Charity told her to put it on speakerphone, and soon her colleague’s voice came over the line.
“Hey, Gatiss. Where you at? The Ferry’s almost here.”
Charity cursed under her breath. She had forgotten all about that. “A
family emergency came up. I’m not going to be there for a few days. Just go ahead without me. You’ve got everything you need.”
“Yeah . . . Hope you get things sorted soon.”
“Me, too,” Charity mumbled. “I’ll call you when I can.”
Hope hung up. Charity inhaled deeply as she wove through the traffic. This early in the morning, things were very congested. Being forced to go through a crawl was nearly enough to make her go crazy. She opened her mouth to tell Hope to call Devin again, but at that moment, the phone began to ring again. Hope threw herself back against the seat as though the phone was about to burst into flames. Even as Charity started to ask what it was, Hope had rolled down the window and threw the phone out.
“Hope!” Charity slammed on her breaks, causing the car behind them to nearly hit them. A loud honk blasted through the air. Cars zipped by them on either side. “What the hell did you do that for?”
“It was Honor!”
“I needed that. I don’t know Devin’s number!”
Hope turned to her with a perplexed expression. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. It’s wrecked now. We’re not going to be able to get it. But that was Honor, and she wants to hurt you. I panicked. I’m sorry! But we’re not going to get anything done sitting here blocking traffic.”
She was right. Charity cursed over and over again as she pressed on the gas again. The cars behind her were still honking and the man driving the one directly behind her was giving her the middle finger. She ignored it all. Without her phone, she wasn’t going to be able to tell Devin what was happening. He wouldn’t know why she had disappeared.
And even worse, if Honor came after him, he wouldn’t have a heads up. He didn’t know. She ground her teeth as she continued to drive. Her stomach clenched and all she could do was pray that Honor wasn’t going to go after him.
Chapter Six – Devin
“No answer.”
“Then leave a message.”
Devin frowned as he played the message for the fourth time. The call had come from Charity’s number, but the two voices on the other end sounded identical. He wasn’t certain which one was Charity, or if either of them was. The two of them didn’t talk over the phone very often. Neither of the voices in the message had the same laughing quality Charity’s voice had in real life.
He shoved the phone into his pocket as he barreled up the path to his house. The geologists studying the island had come to the shifter town hall that morning. If ‘town hall’ was the correct word for the little ramshackle church that they held all their important meetings in. Devin had been excited to see Charity at work, but she hadn’t been there. Instead, it was a bunch of other people he didn’t know.
The meeting had barely begun before the Gatiss family had charged in. Charity’s dad had actually taken a swing at him. They had screamed at him about seducing and abusing their daughter. Devin hadn’t replied to their accusations, though the unspoken assumption that he had raped Charity had made him want to scream right back. How had they found out about him and Charity? She wouldn’t have told them.
He shook his head as he headed upstairs, taking them two at a time. They probably had merely heard that he and Charity were spending time together.
It was Honor that he had been most wary of. While Charity’s parents shouted and cried, she had just stood there. She had stared at the gathered geologists and a look of disappointment had come over her face. In the end, she had declared that he ‘wouldn’t get away with it’ and left. And, like she ruled the roost, her parents had followed.
Since then, he hadn’t been able to get hold of Charity. He phoned her a dozen times, but it always went immediately to voicemail.
Something was wrong. Devin might not know what that was, but he didn’t need to. Something was wrong and he wasn’t going to just stand around waiting to find out what that was.
The whole house seemed to shake when he slammed open his bedroom door, but he ignored it. He shared the room with his youngest brother, Leo, since they were all needed to help care for their mother. Devin put most of his wages into the renovations that Leo did around the house while he stayed home with their mom.
I’m due for a vacation anyway, he thought, though his stomach cramped. If he lost his lifeguarding job . . .
But there was something wrong. Charity wouldn’t just disappear from a job she loved, and it couldn’t be a coincidence that her parents found out about them right before she left. But running away from shame? That wasn’t Charity, either. There was something wrong, something sinister. And he was going to find her and make sure she was okay.
Devin grabbed a backpack, then stopped. What did one take on a trip when they didn’t know how long they were going to be? He’d never been on more than an overnight trip away from the island, and then it was usually to another island. His heart pounded as he moved to the stash of cash he always kept in his closet. He’d take that. Extra pair of pants. A t-shirt and sweater. Maybe another sweater in case it rained.
“Yo, you’re running around like a herd of elephants.”
Devin turned to see Leo standing in the doorway. He frowned as he viewed his brother. “What’s up?”
“Go get the others. I’m leaving for a while and you’re all going to have to pick up things while I’m gone.” How much could he tell him?
Leo stiffened. “Leaving? Now?”
“Yeah. Don’t look at me like that. This is important. Now go get the others.”
“Is this about that human woman you’ve been hanging out with?”
Devin closed his eyes briefly. It appeared that he wasn’t going to have the choice about what to tell them. He stuffed some socks into his backpack and turned to Leo. “Yes. It is. She wasn’t at the meeting today and she’s not answering her phone. I’m worried about her.”
Leo made an incredulous noise in his throat. “You have got to be kidding me. You’re the one who has always told us to be careful about our interactions with humans. Now you’re running off after one of them? And a Gatiss, no less? Please don’t tell me you’ve slept with her.”
Devin glared at him.
“You did.” Leo’s eyes widened. “You actually slept with her? Way to leave your brains in your crotch! You know as well as any of us that Honor Gatiss has it out for us. And now you’ve given her the perfect ammunition. You’re barely making any headway to help the pack. This whole thing you’ve got going on was a trap from the start. Now they’re going to accuse you of something horrendous and—”
“Charity isn’t like that!” Devin couldn’t bite his tongue any longer. If their situations were switched, he’d be thinking the same thing. But the fact was that Leo had no idea who Charity really was. She was nothing like the rest of her family and would not be part of trying to entrap him. No. If she wasn’t here, then something had happened. “Go get the others. Now.”
Leo’s jaw tightened. His eyes narrowed. But he nodded without another word and left. Devin released a shaky breath. He closed his eyes, centered himself, and shoved the new bicycle lock he’d just bought into his backpack. He had a jeep that he could take, but gas cost a fortune. He took his bike as much as he could. Last, he grabbed his keys and headed downstairs.
His mother looked at him knowingly when he knelt beside her. He didn’t need to explain to her; she put up a hand and shook her head when he opened his mouth. “I heard what you said to your brother. I have not seen you like this with any girl before. She’d better be worth it, Devin Luthor. She’d better be worth it.”
Devin embraced his mother. Her bones seemed to protrude from her thin body and he swallowed thickly. She’d been hit by a car many years ago and was left for dead. If she wasn’t a shifter with advanced healing, she would have died. As it was, she was so badly injured that she couldn’t do much but sit in her chair anymore. Even shifting caused her so much pain that she couldn’t anymore.
“She’s worth it,” he promised her. “She wouldn’t have run away without good reason. I have to fin
d her and make sure she's okay.”
His mother nodded. “Then go. A shifter needs his mate.”
Devin made a strangled noise in his throat. He almost protested that Charity wasn’t his mate, but there was no time for this sort of argument. Besides that, when it came to his mother, she always had to have the last word. By the time they were done arguing, he’d be convinced that Charity was his mate. Even though she wasn’t.
He didn’t believe in mates – the kind in the romance novels. People weren’t destined for one person. Love came from getting to know each other, not some undeniable outside force . . .
His brothers had all gathered outside by the time he had pulled out his jeep and checked it over to make sure that it was in shape to drive through the city. The bike was loaded into the back along with a sleeping blanket and a chest of food. The oldest of the boys, save for him, folded his arms as he stared at Devin.
“Leo tells us you’re going after that Gatiss girl.”
“I am, Francis.” Devin fished the keys from his pocket and tossed them to his brother. “You’re in charge until I get back. Or you could divvy up my tasks between the four of you. Get Leo to take on more. Those are the keys to my files. We’ve got some property tax stuff that needs to be filed by the end of the week, the Smithsons need extra rations from the storehouse, and I was supposed to get some kittens to the Fosters. There is a list on my desk.”
Francis scowled, but Ivan, the next oldest, nodded. “We’ll take care of everything.”
Jeffery smirked. “She that good, huh?”
“I’ll call when I can. I’ve got my phone. I’m going to add some to the plan to cover the long-distance charges. Try to use the landline when you call me. It’ll cost less that way.” Devin shouldered his pack and jumped into the jeep. “Take care of Mom.”
He drove away. Nerves churned in his stomach as he passed the familiar sights. The jeep gurgled and rattled, but it would hold well enough. Hopefully, he’d go to the mainland to find Charity having slept in or gone on a shopping trip with her sister. But if not . . .