Abbey's Protectors [Beckett's Wolf Pack, Triad Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)

by Lynnette Bernard

  The sound of a gunshot split the air, making Abbey slide to a stop for the first time. The shot was deafening. An instant of pain laced through her as she felt the blaze of heat that grazed her right temple. Panic froze her in place. He was close. Did he actually see her or was he shooting blind? She turned her head toward the shot and saw him coming toward her. The anger and intense hatred she saw on his face made all the blood drain from her face. She felt herself trembling and fought to pull her last ounce of strength from deep within herself to remain standing. She had to grip the smooth rock beside her to keep herself from falling.

  “Please, God,” she whimpered, barely above a whisper. She had known Peter would do whatever he needed to do to ensure his acquisition of her money, but she hadn’t thought he would actually use violence against her—until today.

  She looked up and saw that he was stalking determinedly toward her, but his gaze was not directed at her. She was relieved when she realized that he didn’t see her. He lifted the handgun he was carrying and shot randomly two more times. Thankfully, his aim was nowhere near where she was standing. Turning quickly, she finally got her feet to move. She would make it. He would not get her. She refused to allow him to get her, and she sure as hell wasn’t about to let him take her back and continue his slow destruction of her.

  She scrambled through the small opening of the cave, tugging the backpack and small duffle bag she was carrying through the opening just as she heard his footsteps above her. She held her breath and waited. A shower of dirt fell across the space carved out of the rock face. Slowly, carefully, she backed her way into the small area that she knew so well. The opening was barely wide enough for her to get through. She had to close her eyes and imagine open spaces and bright sunshine as the claustrophobic feeling threatened to incapacitate her. All her hard work and planning would be ruined if she was unable to control herself long enough to get through the narrow space that would lead her to safety.

  Her breathing became short and erratic, and she could feel the scream crawling up her throat. She fought to push it down. She couldn’t make a sound. One sound would cause her capture. The rock walls of the small opening scraped against her arms, and she felt as if she were being pinned down and unable to move. She knew it would just be a moment more before the constrictive space would open up to the vast cave she had found just weeks before. If only she could make it before she lost control.

  Her face was dripping—from blood or sweat she didn’t know, and she didn’t care. Her arms ached and her legs were starting to cramp from the crouched position she was forced to remain in as she journeyed through the only path to freedom.

  Finally, she felt the walls give way to open space as she backed into the area. She felt for the curve in the rock wall to her left and followed it to a spot she knew very well. She dropped her bundles to the floor as all energy left her. She sat down on the duffle bag, appreciating the softness of the supplies within it, and listened quietly. Her breath was slowly returning to normal now, and she forced herself to remain calm so she could listen for any movement.

  Except for the occasional, slow dripping of water that was gently cascading against the far wall in the pitch blackness, there was no sound. She couldn’t hear him.

  Very quietly, she settled herself against the cave wall, the softness of her pack cradling her somewhat as she leaned back. She reached up and pulled her thermal hood up over her head and tied the ties snugly under her chin. Lifting her arms before her, she quickly pressed the button on her watch to light up the dial. Seeing the time, she released the button quickly. No need for any unnecessary light, even if there was no way anyone could see the soft blue glow from outside the rock ledge. She wasn’t about to take any chances.

  She didn’t need the light. She knew exactly where she was. She knew exactly what was around her. Slowly, she reached into her pockets and pulled out her heavy thermal gloves and put them on. She was going to stay warm, remain calm, and wait. She could wait for as long as she needed to. Once she was sure he was gone, she would make her way out of the cave and begin the journey that she had planned down to the very last detail.

  Her father had raised a smart daughter. Peter would never get away with what he was planning. She was disgusted with herself for not realizing her mistake with him sooner, but it was a realization she had made in plenty of time to protect herself, her friends, and her company. Better late than never. She had a lifetime of freedom ahead of her. Finally.

  As she sat there quietly, content to allow time to pass without concern, she realized that she was completely calm. There was no terror and no panic now. The quiet and darkness of the cave soothed her despite her claustrophobia. Thank goodness she had found the cave on one of her recent journeys along the outskirts of her land. She had never expected to have to hide here, but it must have been predestined for her to find it.

  She felt the warming presence of her father as she thought about him and knew he had to have guided her to find the cave in order to keep her safe in her escape. She would never tell anyone, not even Synthia and Shelly, that she truly believed that her father still was a part of her life. She had no doubt in her mind that he watched over her every day.

  It was a nice feeling to be sitting alone on the soft duffle bag. She had everything she would need to aid in her escape. She had planned everything with Synthia and Shelly down to the very last detail. She had made sure that her soon to be ex-husband would not be able to control her money, her business, or her life ever again.

  Once she was far enough away, she would contact Synthia and Shelly by e-mail. When she found a place where they would be safe, she would have them join her.

  Abbey smiled. It was the first genuine smile she had experienced in such a long time. She leaned back against the cave wall and allowed the sounds to soothe her. The cave was chilly, but it was peaceful and hid her well. The soft sounds of the water dripping off the cave wall gave her something to focus on and keep her calm.

  She had done it. She couldn’t believe it. She was away from him. He couldn’t get to her, and she wasn’t going to have to live with him anymore. He could never hurt her again. She would never have to submit to his touch, his demands, or his tirades. He wouldn’t be able to find her. Let him think that she had died. That would make the victory of bringing him to justice that much greater.

  Closing her eyes, she took calming breaths and thought through her plans once again. She briefly lit her watch dial once again and sighed with relief that an hour had already passed. They were sixty of the best minutes of her life. She was a little cold and a little cramped, but she was safe, and she was free. Nothing could be better than that.

  * * * *

  “Clay, grab your gear! We should have been on patrol fifteen minutes ago,” Hunter Stewart shouted to him from the front seat of the police cruiser as he waited outside the home that they shared.

  Clayton Forest rushed from their home, slamming the front door behind him and buckling his holster around his trim hips. Despite his six foot three inch height and muscular stature, he carried himself with ease. He had always been a powerful figure, something needed in his job as a local police officer.

  “Geez, Hunter, you’re lacking in the patience department today, buddy,” he mumbled as he climbed into the front passenger seat of the police cruiser and quickly buckled his seat belt. “Didn’t you sleep well last night?”

  His blue eyes took in the tired circles under his triad partner’s eyes. The usual spark of life that lit Hunter’s brown eyes was absent today. If Clay were to be honest, Hunter’s eyes held little more than sadness, bored frustration, and loneliness lately. He completely understood his feelings. He had been feeling much the same things.

  Hunter looked at Clay briefly and started the patrol car, putting it in gear and pulling away from their home. He remained silent as they traveled the road toward town.

  “Haven’t been able to sleep much,” he finally admitted, ignoring his partner as he saw him look at him
with concern.

  “Having dreams again?” Clay asked him.

  Hunter shrugged. “It is what it is,” he mumbled.

  Clay nodded. Sometimes the things that they saw while on patrol affected both of them deeply. The accident they had been called to the day before had been especially hard on both of them. The hit-and-run car accident had left a young husband and wife dead. Their two children had been miraculously unhurt, but the sight of the children crying and calling out for their parents had taken its toll on both men. They had cradled the children against their chests, wrapping them in their police jackets to soothe them and keep them warm until the ambulances and Children’s Services had arrived. Turning over those kids had been one of the hardest things they had ever had to do.

  “They were cute kids,” Clay spoke up, looking straight ahead.

  “Yeah,” Hunter agreed, rubbing at the back of his neck tiredly. “Makes you realize what’s really important in this life.”

  Clay smiled slowly. He knew exactly what Hunter meant. “Do you want to go out tonight? Sandy invited us to go with her to have dinner and go to a movie.”

  Hunter shook his head immediately. “Not interested.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Okay. Want to tell me why not?”

  “Because she’s not our mate.”

  Clay’s attention snapped toward his best friend. He took in the way Hunter’s body was filled with tension. He was gripping the steering wheel tightly. Every muscle in his arms bulged as his entire frame vibrated with power.

  “Since when has that stopped us from going out and sharing company with a woman before, Hunter?” He watched him warily, waiting for him to finally voice what he was feeling.

  “Clay, we’ve been complete shits,” Hunter told him softly.

  “We have?”

  Hunter nodded. “We’ve lived our adult lives with little regard to women’s feelings.”

  “That’s not true, Hunter,” Clay told him with conviction. “We’ve never made any promises or lead any woman on. Every woman we’ve dated knew from the beginning that we were not committing ourselves to them. Every one of them was willing to be with us knowing that there could never be anything more. We’ve always treated our women with respect and caring. We’ve never hurt any of them.”

  Hunter was quiet for so long, Clay thought he wasn’t going to continue the conversation. He looked at his triad partner and tried to understand what he was thinking. Hunter was an intimidating bastard. Being six feet four inches tall and built like a linebacker, he was never expected to be anything but powerful and in control, but Clay knew better. There was an innate, gentle side to his friend. He was a deep thinker, and he felt things more than anyone would ever imagine. When he helped people in their line of work, he was gentle and caring. Holding the little girl in his arms yesterday, Clay saw the way Hunter’s heart broke for the child. There was no hiding his nature when it came to kids.

  “When we were injured last year, it gave me a lot of time to think about things, Clay,” Hunter told him tiredly. “You were really bad off. The silver bullet that was lodged in the bone of your right shoulder had poisoned you, and Doc was worried you weren’t going to live.”

  Clay nodded and growled low in his throat. He remembered how the two of them had been ambushed on a routine traffic stop. Hunter had been shot as well, but the bullet was a through and through. It had made a clean entrance and exit in his right thigh muscle when the gun had discharged again as he tore it from the perpetrator’s hand. It wasn’t until later that they had found out that the man driving the vehicle had been under orders from a rival wolf pack to eliminate both of them.

  Pack justice had been swift and thorough. Alpha Jace Beckett had exacted retribution for the attempted murder of his pack members. The challenging pack had been disbanded, and the wolves responsible for the attack were dead. Jace and his beta and triad partner Jackson Scott had been fair with the members of the disbanded pack, offering them the chance to join their pack family. Many of them had taken them up on their offer, expanding Beckett’s pack to a little over one hundred and fifty members and growing. The men counted themselves blessed to be a part of such a welcoming pack with such a fair and strong leader.

  “It took us both a long time to heal from our injuries,” Hunter told him. “While we were home recuperating, I thought about what was missing from our lives.”

  Clay knew exactly what Hunter was going to say. He had a feeling Hunter was going to admit what he had been holding close to his heart for a very long time.

  “I thought about how great it would be to have a woman who cared about us for more than just a night of pleasure,” Hunter told him, his voice firm and in control. There was certainty in his words, and there was no hesitation in his tone. “I don’t want a different woman every time we go out. I want us to have a mate who will love us and share a future with us. I want to spoil our mate rotten. I want to love her and build a life with her.” He turned to Clay and his eyes flashed golden as his wolf fought to surface. “I want a family and a woman who will help us make that family our own.”

  Clay smiled slowly, his own eyes changing as his wolf liked the words that his triad partner spoke. He could feel his wolf clawing at his chest, demanding a mating.

  “I agree with you, Hunter,” Clay said finally. “I want our mate, too. And I want cubs. There’s just one problem.”

  “What?”

  “Just because it’s what we want, it doesn’t mean it’s what we’ll get. We’re thirty-seven years old. It hasn’t happened yet. What makes you think it will happen now just because we’re demanding it?”

  Hunter grunted his acceptance of Clay’s cautious words, but he had another fact to impart. “You’re right, Clay, but I think we’re going to meet our mate very soon.”

  “Why do you think that, buddy?” Clay asked, laughing. “Do you have a direct line to the Fates?”

  “No, but they have a direct line to me,” Hunter told him with confidence.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I had a flash of a vision while I was sitting in the living room last night.”

  Clay looked at his partner in astonishment. “You did? What was it?”

  “It wasn’t clear but I could make out a woman with long, dark hair and blue eyes.” He turned to face Clay briefly and winked. “She punched me in the arm.”

  Clay’s bark of laughter burst from him. “Way to go, Mate!”

  “Yeah, I liked that she didn’t take any crap from me,” Hunter admitted. “It was a good vision.”

  “Hunter, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I think I saw our mate last night, too,” Clay admitted quietly.

  “Why weren’t you going to say anything?”

  “Well, I wasn’t really sure, but there was a woman who was standing between us and she was upset.”

  “Why was she upset?”

  “I don’t know. She said she didn’t want to leave us.”

  “She was leaving us?” Hunter asked, nearly panicked. “By the Fates, we’ve just found her, and she’s going to leave us?”

  “Hunter, we haven’t found her yet,” Clay reminded him gently. “There’s more.”

  “What?” He looked at Clay and saw the smile that was growing on his face.

  “She kissed both of us, told us how much she loved us, and thanked us.”

  “For what?”

  “For the baby she was carrying.”

  Chapter 2

  Very quietly, Abbey pulled off one of her thermal gloves, rolled off the soft bag she had been sitting on, and reached along the ground against the cave wall. Her hand felt along the seam of the bag to find the zipper, grabbing hold of the zipper pull and slowly opening it, very aware of the sound it made in the complete silence of the cave. With precision and efficiency, she reached inside the bag and pulled out two thermal blankets, quietly unfolding them. She set them on the ground before her. Climbing between the layers, she pulled three blankets o
ver her and settled down to finally get some sleep, pulling back on the glove that she had removed in order to be sure to keep her hands warm.

  The cave was very cold, but she was soon warm enough to sleep peacefully. Her careful planning was paying off. When she awoke, she would eat and get herself ready for her journey. Then, in the darkness of the night, she would make her way out of her hiding place, carefully scale her way down the side of the ravine, and head downstream to complete her escape to freedom. She was thankful she had hiked the area from the time she had been a child and knew it well. It may not have been her original plan, but she was going to go with it. She knew she could follow the stream that ran along the back of her property until it brought her to the forest of trees that bordered the main highway. From there, it would be an easy hike to the next town. She would take some time to regroup, maybe stay in a motel for a day to rest then figure out a good mode of transportation to take her to the town she had planned would be her haven of safety.

  For the first time in months, she fell asleep without worrying that he would touch her as she slept. She was finally free of him. Never again would she allow another man to violate her and use her. She would never be fooled by the good looks and smooth talk of another man. She had learned her lesson the hard way to recognize a player, and she was better for it.

  Abbey closed her eyes and snuggled deeper under the covers. Although her head knew she was safe, her heart wouldn’t let her totally relax. She turned over in her sleep, her face tormented with pain and memories. Her night was an odd mixture of relief and anguish.

  “Daddy, please help me,” she whispered in her sleep, unaware of her soft plea.

  “I’m here, honey,” a man’s voice answered her gently.

  She turned in her dream and saw her father standing before her in a beautiful garden. He was young and healthy, like when he had been in his early thirties. His hair was black and curly, and his face was young and happy. His big brown eyes shown with love as he looked at her.