She walked away to the shed across the yard. Before she got anywhere near it, she heard banging and swearing. A broad, muscled back bent over a restored hot rod beyond the door. She called out in her best bedroom voice, “Hey, Damian.”
He stood up so fast he cracked his head on the open hood. He turned around rubbing his head with a wrench dangling between his fingers. He frowned until he spotted her in the door. “Oh, it’s you.”
She sidled up to him. “Are you busy?”
He dropped the wrench into his tool chest. “I’m never too busy for you, baby. What brings you around the wrong side of the tracks?”
“I just wanted to see you.” She passed her arm around his waist and leaned into him. She bent her head back to kiss him. “Where ya been?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been here. I thought you were too busy with Hunter to come around.”
She looked away. “I’m not busy with Hunter anymore.”
He cocked his head. “Oh? Why not?”
She did her best to smile. “I’m just not. I was hoping we could…you know… sneak off somewhere.”
He hugged her closer. “Okay, but only if you’re telling me it’s over between you and Hunter. If it isn’t, I’m not interested.”
Onyx stiffened. “Since when do you care what I do with Hunter? You never minded before.”
“That was before. Things are different now.”
“How are they different?”
He squared his shoulders and faced her. He shook his black hair out of his eyes. “I want to mate for life. If that’s you, so much the better. If it isn’t, you better move on. You can go be fluid with somebody else. I won’t be fluid with anybody again—not ever. Understand?”
Onyx’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
He picked up his wrench. “Sorry, Charlie. It wasn’t my idea. It just sort of happened. I can’t play around like that with you anymore. If you want to go all the way, we can see if we’re matched to each other. Otherwise, I’ll have to kiss you good-bye.”
Onyx threw up her hands. “Say it isn’t so, Damian. Say you’re not falling for this stuff, too.”
He nodded and went back to his hot rod. “I’m afraid so. Now, it’s just a matter of finding the right girl.”
Onyx raced out of the shed. She didn’t bother to tell him she wasn’t that girl. She could never be that girl to anyone…except…She pushed that thought away. She wouldn’t be that girl to anybody. Period. She would never mate for life.
She ran through the compound. Where could she go now? She scanned one house after another. Not one of them offered her refuge. She couldn’t go back and she couldn’t go forward. She wasn’t fluid and she wasn’t mated. She was nowhere.
Only one place opened its arms to her. She tore around the corner and burst into her parents’ house. She thundered up the stairs into her own room. She slammed the door behind her and flung herself down on the bed.
She hid her face in the pillow, but not even that gave her any peace. She couldn’t open her eyes to look around her own room. Ebony’s bed and the trinkets on her bookshelf stared out at Onyx with their accusing eyes. They blamed her for this.
Ebony mated for life. Ebony found happiness with Jordan, so why couldn’t Onyx?
24. Chapter 4
Amelia Black called up the wooden staircase. “Supper’s on the table. Come and get it! Abel! Eden! Luna! Come to supper.”
Abel slid down the stairs to land in front of her. “You don’t have to yell, Mommy. I can hear you very well.”
She went back to the kitchen. “Are you sisters up there, too?”
“I haven’t seen them all day.” Abel sat down at the table next to his father Noah.
Amelia set an iron pot in the center of the table. “I don’t know where they are. Maybe they went back to the Starks to see June again.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “Can we not talk about that? I don’t want to hear any more about June Stark.”
At that moment, the cabin door swung open. Abel’s two willowy younger sisters breezed in. Their cheeks glowed, and they showed all their teeth when they smiled.
“Where have you two been?” Amelia asked. “I’ve been calling you to supper.”
Eden laughed. “Your call would pierce bone and marrow, Mommy. We were just behind the house. We heard every word you said.”
Amelia set a pitcher of cream on the table and sat down next to Abel. “I don’t even want to know what you were doing behind the house.”
“We all know what they were doing,” Abel replied. “They were giggling about June Stark again.”
“What did I just say about that?” Noah boomed.
Amelia started serving the meal. She dished hot stew onto every plate, along with steaming biscuits with loads of butter. “Eat your supper, kids.”
Eden paid no attention to her food. She clasped her hands over her heart. “Isn’t it romantic, the way she fell in love with Ash and he decided to stay on the Ridge to be with her? What could be more romantic than that?”
Noah groaned. “Here we go again.”
Luna patted his hand. “Just wait until we get married, Daddy. Maybe something like that could happen to one of us.”
“It won’t happen to either of you,” Abel put in. “You’ll mate with solid NightShade guys and stay right here on the Ridge where you belong. It’s not likely any other Bruin guys would come along to marry you two.”
Eden smacked her lips. “At least let us dream about it. Nothing like this has ever happened to one of our people before. It’s the event of the century.”
Noah tossed his fork onto the table. “Well, wake me up when the century’s over so I don’t have to listen to this anymore.”
Amelia sucked her spoon. “Abel’s right, though. You girls should be looking for mates for yourselves instead of mooning over June Stark.”
“They are looking for mates,” Abel returned. “That’s the whole problem.”
“Well, they can’t find mates up here,” Amelia replied. “You girls will have to go downstairs. All the eligible men are down there.”
“Do we have to?” Luna moaned. “Hooking up with the same old NightShade guys is so boring. Why can’t we stay on the surface?”
Abel pretended to look around. “Do you see any NightShade guys on the surface for you to mate with? You do what Mommy says and go downstairs. I’m sure you’ll be married off in a matter of days.”
“What about you, Abel?” Amelia asked. “When are you going to get yourself married?”
Abel bent over his plate. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Eden cheered. “Hoo! Listen to the great matchmaker. You’ll have to go downstairs, too, Abel. You certainly won’t find your one true love up here.”
Abel glared at her. “What I do is none of your business.”
Luna leaned across the table. “Let me guess. You’ve got a sweetheart on the surface. You don’t want to go downstairs so you don’t have to leave her behind. Go on. Admit it. Who is she?”
“Who could it be?” Eden asked. “There’s only so many young, single women on the Ridge. There’s Daisy Graves from the south side. How about her, Abel?”
“Don’t forget the Underwood twins,” Luna added. “Which one do you like better, Abel—Summer or Autumn?”
He pushed his food around his plate with his fork. “Don’t either one of you talk to me anymore. I’m cutting you off.”
Both girls burst out laughing, and even Amelia bit back a smile. “All three of you should have moved downstairs a long time ago.”
“I’m not going downstairs,” Abel muttered.
“He’s got a sweetheart,” Eden whispered to Luna, and Luna nodded.
“I do not have a sweetheart,” Abel shot back.
The girls winked at each other. Noah raised his head. “Can we PLEASE change the subject?”
“Of course, dear,” Amelia replied. “What would you like to talk about?”
Amelia and Noah launched into a len
gthy discussion about the livestock situation on the Ridge’s south side, but Abel didn’t listen. He glared down at his plate. He refused to look at either of his sisters again.
Why did he let them needle him? They teased him about finding a sweetheart before, but he never let them get under his skin, not like this. Nothing made sense anymore. How did they happen to know, just at the moment when it would cause him the most discomfort, that he didn’t want to move downstairs because of a woman?
Why shouldn’t he move downstairs? He would never have to think or worry about any confounded Onyx Archer down there. He would never see her again. It was the perfect solution to an insoluble problem.
He wouldn’t leave, though. Much as he would like to, he couldn’t make himself leave. As long as he remained on the surface, he still held out the slim hope that he would see her one more time. Maybe then he would know if his life was over from falling for a Midnight he could never have.
The more he brooded, the more Eden and Luna giggled and winked at each other. Abel held fast and pretended they didn’t exist. They would love to get their hands on a juicy tidbit like this. Abel would never even tell them he went to Midnight Moraine with Ash.
His mother’s voice broke in on his thoughts. “It’s your turn to do the dishes tonight, Abel.”
He never washed the dishes so willingly in his life. He jumped up from the table, gathered up all the dirty plates and cutlery, and loaded them in the wash tub. He hauled water and poured it into the cauldron on the cook stove to heat.
He kept himself busy for the rest of the evening. Anything was better than facing his winking sisters or his parents full of suggestions about his future. When did they get so interested in him finding a mate? Since Eden and Luna got June Stark on the brain. That’s when. Ever since they started batting their eyelashes and calling every other thing romantic, his parents wouldn’t quit. They wanted all three young people downstairs where they could get safely married off.
Abel rolled up his shirt sleeves and scrubbed the dishes like they’d never been scrubbed before. He rinsed them in fresh water and dried them and set them in their places on the shelf. Even his mother raised her eyebrows. “Thank you, Abel. You did a great job.”
He sighed and straightened his back. “I’ll just empty this wash tub, and then I’ll turn in. Night, Mommy.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “Good night, boy. I love you.”
Abel’s heart overflowed with love for his family, but he couldn’t face them. His ears and cheeks burned. What was he going to do with himself? He better come up with a plan before he had to face another day on this Ridge.
He lugged the tub outside and tipped it into the bushes. He even scrubbed out the tub, dried it, and hung it on the hook, but he hesitated to go inside. He didn’t want to lie awake in bed, alone with his thoughts.
He stood outside and stared up at the stars, but that was just as bad as staring at the ceiling. He had nothing left to do but face the long dark night alone. He only hoped he could get some sleep.
He went back inside, but he didn’t see anybody around. Only one oil lamp burned on the table, and he heard voices upstairs. Everybody else was already in bed. He blew out the lamp and groped his way to the stairs. He found the steps by instinct. He knew this house with his eyes closed.
He got upstairs just in time to see his father blow out a candle in his parents’ bedchamber to one side of the big loft. Abel touched the wall by his head and followed it to the little window where his and his sister’s beds spread out on the floor. He sat down and peeled off his jersey and shirt.
He kicked off his pants and slipped between the bedclothes. He tucked the patchwork quilt under his chin and settled down to a long, sleepless night. His sisters’ breathing lengthened and relaxed into sleep. Darkness and silence descended over the house.
All over Renegade Ridge, NightShade curled up in their crude houses to sleep. Underground, Arion still buzzed with life. That city never slept. People kept working and moving around, planning and negotiating and moving goods in and out of the city.
Abel stared up into the dark. He wished he could see the stars, but that wouldn’t stop his spinning mind. Maybe he should move downstairs. He never liked city life, but maybe he could learn to like it. Maybe he could learn to like it for the right girl. If Ash Dunlap could learn to like Renegade Ridge for June, anything was possible.
What was he thinking? He would never find a NightShade girl downstairs, not when he kept thinking about Onyx this way. No matter what he thought about, he always came back to scheming about her. She could never know anything about Arion. She would never sacrifice everything to be with him the way Ash did.
He kept turning the problem over and over in his mind, but he never found any solution. There was no solution. She could never be his mate. He didn’t want her, anyway. She was Midnight. She was poison.
He must have fallen asleep in spite of himself. A deafening crash startled him out a sound sleep, and he jumped inside his blankets. He heard Luna cry out, and his father called, “What in the world was that?”
Drumming footsteps pounded up the stairs. Abel shot out of bed. He heard his father scrambling across the loft. The footsteps ran every which way at once. A match struck, and a faint gleam of light flickered across his father’s face.
At that moment, something heavy draped over Abel’s head. He sucked in a mouthful of air already hot and stuffy from being enclosed under that covering. It smelled of wool and dust. He punched the blanket to free himself, but a powerful cord cinched his arms against his sides. He barked out a shout of alarm, but he couldn’t break loose.
His mother shrieked, and Eden’s voice pierced the night. “Abel! Abel!”
He couldn’t get his mind to function. His father bellowed, “Get away from him!”
Something heavy struck the floor near Abel’s feet, and the whole loft shuddered under the impact. Abel struggled with all his might, but panic overcame him when he couldn’t move his arms. He couldn’t see a thing. The blanket suffocated him. He screamed out, “Daddy! Mommy!”
Eden kept screaming, “Abel! Abel!”
He burst into furious action. He strained every ounce of strength against his bonds, but he couldn’t budge. Strong hands grappled around him. They seized his ankles and lifted him writhing off the ground. They hauled him across the loft and bumped him down the stairs.
He knew the house well enough to know where he was. They dragged him kicking and screaming toward the door. He couldn’t let this happen. He couldn’t let them take him away.
Screams filled the house until no one could hear a thing. Grunts and snarls echoed in his ears, but he only heard his mother and sisters screaming his name. He couldn’t get to them. He couldn’t do anything.
The house door smashed back against the wall. He bellowed and raged, but still the night chill cut through his skin. They would have him outside in a minute. Then what would happen to him? Who were these people dragging him away?
Only one group of people came up to Renegade Ridge to kidnap NightShade. They had to be Midnight. They were taking him back to Midnight Moraine. They would throw him in their bear-baiting ring, and that would be the end of him.
He kicked and fought. His foot sank into a solid body, and that lump of flesh fell away from him. A male voice muttered a curse. Then something hit him in the head. His stomach heaved. His vision swam, and he knew no more.
25. Chapter 5
Onyx lay awake in bed for a long time the next morning, but she couldn’t rest. She could never rest again. She got out of bed, but when she went to the closet to put on her clothes, she confronted a whole new problem.
Her T-shirts and shorts didn’t fit her anymore. They fit her body, but not her self. They belonged to someone so far different from her she didn’t recognize herself. She rummaged through some of Ebony’s old things until she found something a little more appropriate.
She ignored her family’s questions and invitations to join them
for breakfast. She wasn’t hungry anyway. She had to get as far away from everyone as possible. She strode outside, only to face the same nagging questions. Where could she go? Who could she see? Who could possibly understand what was happening to her?
She knew dozens of Midnight who mated for life. She could unburden herself to any of them, but she cringed at the thought. Onyx Archer, the most notorious sex fiend on the Moraine—mated for life? No way! Forget about the fact that she obsessed about a NightShade she would never see again. The whole situation seemed too ridiculous to consider.
She started to head out to the woods when a door slammed nearby. She turned around to see Hunter coming out of his father’s house. He smiled at her like nothing ever happened between them. He shut the gate and walked toward her. “Nice day for it.”
Onyx fidgeted from one foot to the other. “Look, Hunter. I owe you an apology for the way I acted yesterday. I guess it was just a misunderstanding.”
He waved his hand. “Forget it. I’d like to stick around and make it up to you, but I have to run. Me and Cole caught a bear last night. I’m on my way to town to organize a new ring.”
Onyx gasped. “You caught a bear!”
He grinned from ear to ear. “I guess Riley’s not the only one who knows how to get the job done. This is gonna be the biggest thing you ever saw in your life. See ya later, baby.”
He delivered a resounding smack of a kiss on her cheek and walked away. She stared at his receding back. A bear—in the ring? Where could they get a bear? She could think of only one place: Renegade Ridge.
She raced after him. “Hang on there, stud. I’m coming with you.”
He didn’t say anything. He just smiled and hurried on his way. She followed him off the Moraine and all the way to Burkes Road. He held the door open at his aunt’s house, and they both climbed down the stairs into the basement.
Cole met them at the foot of the stairs. He and Hunter fell into a rapid fire conversation, but Onyx didn’t listen to that. She approached the parapet and looked down into the ring. How did she know this moment would come? How did she know when she first laid eyes on Abel in the street outside Hunter’s house, that one day she would look down on him in the bear-baiting ring?
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