by T. S. Joyce
“I don’t know why I said that.” She shrugged and dragged her gaze to the toes of his scuffed work boots.
“No games. Why are you glad?”
Her breath trembled as she was caught by his eyes, demanding she be honest.
His chest heaved under the T-shirt that clung to the sharp angles of his defined chest. He squeezed her hand again and whispered, “Why?”
“Because…” She wasn’t good with words and couldn’t think of any way to explain how strongly she felt for someone she’d just met. Instead of speaking, she pulled his hand over her racing heartbeat, just under her collar bone. “Because this.”
A slow smile stretched his lips as he canted his head and felt her pounding pulse against his hand. Slowly, he drew her hand over his breastbone and pressed it against the hard muscle there. His heart was racing hers. “Me too,” he murmured.
“Kellen?” the man from the truck, Tagan, asked. “Who is she?”
Kellen swallowed hard, breaking the spell and pulling his hand away from her. “Tagan, this is Skyler.”
His alpha gave him a long, hard look and blinked slow, then brought his icy blue eyes to hers. “I know what you are, and I’m pretty sure I know who your mate is too. Roger Crestfall?”
Skyler nodded but was compelled to explain. “He isn’t my mate. Not yet. There’s been no ceremony.”
“And your face. Did he do that to you?”
Brooke stood right behind her mate, looking at her with ghosts in her eyes.
Skyler’s breath hitched at having to explain something so painful to people she wanted to like her. “He pushed me. The counter helped with the coloring.”
“Your people could bring trouble to mine,” Tagan said low.
“Tagan,” Brooke said, her delicate eyebrows drawn down. “She’s been hurt.”
“Which is why I need to know what you are doing here, seeking sanctuary with my Second.”
“Second? Kellen, you are Second to your alpha?” Skyler hadn’t realized he was so high in the crew.
Kellen’s nostrils flared as he inhaled slowly. “I took her,” he said, turning to Tagan. “She was hurt, and I couldn’t stand taking her back to him—to Roger.”
“You took her?” Tagan asked, his eyes narrowing to dangerous looking slits.
“Wait. He kidnapped you?” Brooke asked, turning her attention to Skyler. “Against your will?”
Lying was out of the question because shifters could hear a false note of a half-truth. Dammit. “Kind of?”
“Kind of?” Tagan roared. “Kellen, you can’t take someone’s mate!”
“Not Roger’s mate yet,” Skyler squeaked out.
“You know what Skyler’s last name is?” Tagan asked, his voice too loud for comfort. “Drake. She’s a fucking Drake, man. She’s a legacy, and her father is on the council.”
Kellen was shaking his head like he’d never heard of her last name before, thank God.
“I don’t understand,” Brooke said, gripping Tagan’s arm. “What does her last name have to do with anything?”
“It means,” Tagan gritted out, “Kellen has kidnapped a fucking princess.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Skyler said, holding her hands out to calm the crazy names being thrown around. “I’m not royalty. I’m just from a long bloodline.”
The muscles in Kellen’s throat tightened as he swallowed. He angled his chin and looked at her like he’d never seen her before, like he was regretting what he’d done. It gutted her.
Tagan scrubbed his hands down his face and glared at Kellen. “She’s trouble for us. You brought her here, you fix it. Take her back.”
“To Roger?” Kellen asked.
“Yeah, to fucking Roger Crestfall. You don’t understand the dynamics of her people, Kellen. Hell, I only know because they are in our territory, and an alpha is supposed to keep track of that stuff. Any threat to my people, I need to know about. She can’t stay.”
“I think we should hear what Skyler has to say about it,” Brooke said in an even, unintimidated tone.
The woman was Skyler’s new hero. She was having a hard time not going to her knees with the heaviness of the dominance in the air, and Brooke was standing up to her alpha. Between Tagan and Kellen staring each other down and drawing their animals to the surface, Skyler could barely breathe.
“Fine.” Tagan nodded, his eyes sparking with fury. “Speak.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Did Kellen bring you here against your will?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to go home to Roger?”
“No.”
Tagan’s lip lifted in a snarl as Kellen stepped in front of her. “Fuck!” the alpha yelled, the curse echoing off the mountain.
A low, dangerous-sounding rumble came from Kellen. “She’s not going back.”
“You kidnapped her!” Tagan bellowed. “That’s not how things work. You don’t just pick a woman and take her like some caveman.”
“That’s how it works for me!” Kellen yelled back. “I don’t do things like you or like Denison or Haydan, or like Jed did. This is how I do things. This is how my mind works. She was hurt, and all of me wanted to rip Roger’s entrails out and hang them from the trees. That’s what I wanted to do. You wouldn’t approve, so I didn’t do that. I stole her away from him instead. It was the best I could do for my bear. Look at her face, Tagan. Look at it! If Brooke looked like she did, would you send her back to her abuser knowing it’ll get worse for her? Knowing she would get hurt again? Would you? Don’t talk to me like I’m abnormal. Like I don’t know how to interact with people. I didn’t kill him. Ten fucking points for me because I wanted to, and I stopped the urge. I don’t know a lot about talking to people, but I know what I can and can’t handle. If I left her there, my bear would’ve returned tonight and killed Roger in his sleep to free her.” His voice dipped low and helpless-sounding. “I couldn’t leave her then, and I can’t send her back now.”
“Do you care about her?” Tagan asked, hooking his hands on his waist.
“Yes,” Kellen said without hesitation.
Tagan narrowed his eyes and tilted his chin. “As more than a friend?”
Kellen nodded slightly.
“Change,” Tagan demanded.
“I don’t want to challenge you.”
“You did when you took a Drake without consulting with me first. Change.”
Kellen’s shoulders lifted in a sigh, and he spun slowly toward her. He pressed his lips gently on Skyler’s forehead. “Go on inside.”
“What’s happening? Are you going to fight him?” She covered her mouth with her hands and sucked in air. “I don’t want you to fight.” She ducked around Kellen’s wide shoulders and pleaded with Tagan. “Please, I didn’t want to come at first, but I think I’m supposed to be here now. I want to be here. I feel…fuck.” Tears stung her eyes as she searched for a way to keep Tagan from hurting Kellen. “I feel better than I have in months. I’m not worth fighting over. I’ll go if you’ll just let him be.”
“No,” Kellen snarled. “You aren’t going. You’re safe here. I want you here with me where I can make sure no one hurts you.”
Brooke looked at Kellen with the saddest eyes. “Come on, Skyler.” She pulled gently on her hand.
Burning tears streaked down Skyler’s cheeks. “But I don’t want him to be hurt.”
Tagan lifted his chin, and something slashed across his eyes for just a moment before it was replaced by fury again. Approval perhaps.
“They won’t kill each other,” Brooke promised as she pulled her onto the porch and through the front door of 1010.
Kellen watched her somberly, and just before the door closed behind her, she called out, “I’m sorry!”
Her sobbing was eclipsed by the roaring of the bears.
Chapter Five
Brooke stood on her tiptoes and stared out the peephole in the front door. “Yep, you definitely don’t want to watch this.”
“Skyler? You look ill. Oh, shit. You can’t Change in here. Trailers are the worst kind of place for that. Here, let me get you a drink of water. Why don’t you sit down on the couch and take some deep breaths.”
Skyler did as Brooke suggested and curled up in a little ball, determined to stay in her human skin. She didn’t change if she didn’t have to. Not anymore. Not after the last time she’d done it with Roger.
“Here,” Brooke said, handing her a glass.
Skyler sat up and drank thirstily. The sounds of the raging bear fight were softer now. Perhaps Tagan and Kellen had dragged the battle off into the woods that surrounded the trailer park. Or maybe one of them was dying.
A wave of pain doubled her over.
“No, no, no, listen,” Brooke crooned. “Kellen is fine. He’ll come back a little bruised up, but he’ll start healing immediately. You’ll see. Tagan and Kellen grew up together. Tagan’s mom found Kellen when he was a cub, took him in before a foster family could figure out what he was. My mate wouldn’t ever really hurt yours, Skyler. He’s a new alpha and needs to be swift with punishment if one of his bears puts his crew in danger. That’s all.”
“Tagan’s new?” Skyler asked, set on carrying on a conversation that would distract her from the horrible imaginings of the battle going through her head right now.
“Yeah, he challenged the last alpha, Jed, a couple of months back. He…well, Jed ordered whoever turned me into a bear would win me. A shifter named Connor tried, and when Tagan moved to protect me, Jed tried to kill me.”
“You’re newly Turned?” The ache in her middle was easing as her curiosity took hold.
“Yeah. I didn’t take it well,” Brooke said, huffing a laugh. “I went back to my home in the city. I was angry at Tagan for putting a bear in me. I was angry with Connor and Jed and already dealing with my own issues from before, so it was all too much. I wanted to learn how to control my animal by myself without them coddling me. Are you a bear, too?”
Skyler clammed up because she was definitely not ready to talk about that part of her life with Brooke. Now that she knew she wasn’t competition for Kellen’s affection, Skyler wanted the woman to like her. She didn’t know why her approval meant so much, but Kellen said Brooke was the only female around here, and it had been a long time since she’d had a girlfriend. Roger had cut off any chance she had at making friends in Saratoga, leaving her lonely. But Roger wasn’t here, and what he didn’t know wouldn’t get her punished.
Brooke opened her mouth, as if she were about to ask what kind of animal hid inside of Skyler, but then clamped her mouth shut. Instead, she asked, “Do your people have alphas?”
“No, we have councils for each side of the war. They keep the peace between the people on each side and make wartime decisions. Then come the warriors. Then come the men who do nothing for our kind. Then the children, and below everyone come the females. The breeders. I’m no princess like Tagan said. I’m nothing at all.”
“Bullshit. Your people sound like assholes.”
“You said Kellen was my mate.” Skyler gripped the cool glass in her hands and dropped her gaze in shame. “It felt nice to let you think that, but it’s not true. He’s not mine. I belong to Roger.”
“You belong to yourself. No man owns you, Skyler. Take it from me, who spent a hell of a lot of time as a human. This,” she said, pushing Skyler’s hair away from her bruises, “is abuse.”
“Not to my people. The men call it ‘breaking a willful mate.’” She snorted at how dumb that seemed now. She’d been raised to accept it, but here, away from it all, it just sounded like more manipulation. “I probably seem pathetic to you.”
Brooke knelt in front of her and looked her square in the eye. “No. Any man who did this to your face is pathetic. Was this the only time he was rough?”
Ashamed, Skyler shook her head. “It was the worst, though. Please don’t tell Kellen. His bear already seems hard to manage.”
Brooke frowned at the door. “He isn’t, usually. You affect him. Usually Kellen is the level-headed one of the crew. Come on. I want to show you something.”
Brooke pulled her upward until she was steady on her feet, then tugged her by the hand until they reached a second bedroom Skyler hadn’t had the time to explore yet. In it was an easel with a large, messy painting of a man’s face. A pile of similar pictures, built up with black and gray acrylics, sat in the corner. Brooke spread them out until they lined the floor.
Skyler didn’t know much about art, but she could almost feel the pain coming off the pages. In one picture, the man was smiling, but his grin was soulless and didn’t reach his hard, cold eyes. In another, the corners of his lips were turned down as he stared out with disdain. He looked terrifying.
“You said I probably thought you were pathetic,” Brooke said, as soft as a breath. “This man hurt me. He broke me.”
Skyler jerked her head up and stared at Brooke. “How?” She seemed so strong and sure of herself. How could anyone have hurt her?
“He attacked me in a stairwell in the city where I used to live. He hit me, bruised up my face like yours is now. Then he marked me here.” She ran a fingertip down a long, healed pink gash across her neck. “He wanted me to always remember how helpless I’d been. And for a while, every time I looked in the mirror, I did feel helpless. But I wasn’t, and neither are you.”
“When Kellen took me, I was scared,” she admitted low. “But deep down, I was glad someone was trying to save me. I’ve hated that I couldn’t save myself.”
Brooke’s light brown eyebrows winged up. “This is where the winds of change turn to a fucking hurricane if you let them, Skyler. You don’t belong with a man who would hurt you. And if that is how your people operate, by breaking women, sounds to me like you need to find yourself new people.”
“They’ll banish me if I leave Roger.”
“Banishment is bad?”
“The worst. I’ll be disgraced all my remaining life, which won’t be long, because my enemies will kill me the second they find out I’m no longer protected by my council.”
Brooke canted her head and gave her a significant look. “Not if you learn to fight back, and not if you find someone strong enough to protect you.”
Skyler shook her head in ready denial. “I couldn’t ask Kellen to do that. He’s…he’s better than all of this. He’s special. I don’t want to put him in danger, and if he took me in, I’d put him right in the crosshairs of my people. And he said it himself. He doesn’t want a mate. He only took me because he’s good, down to his bones good, and can’t stand the thought of someone being hurt like that.”
“Mm.” Brooke grunted noncommittally. “Maybe. Have you met all the boys yet?”
“Yeah, they all showed up in my room while I was crying my eyeballs out.”
Brooke laughed and nodded. “Yep, they’ll do that. They get all touchy feely, too, if you’re upset, so be prepared for that. They aren’t trying to be inappropriate. It just settles their animals if they know for sure that you’re all right.”
“Well, that explains it then. My people aren’t like that,” Skyler explained. “Touch isn’t important to them.”
“Is it important to you?”
“I watch people kissing and holding hands in public, and it makes me feel funny.”
“Funny how?”
“Like, I think I’d enjoy that. Growing up, I was always taught not to feel anything, so touch was a no-no.”
“Are parents allowed to hug their children?”
“My mom did when I was little. She was what my father called a willful mate, though, so she changed as I got older. She stopped smiling and singing when she cooked. I think she wanted to feel, and I never saw my dad actually hurt her, but something was h
appening to make her shut down. And when I was ten, I was sent off to be raised with the other breeders. There was definitely no hugging there.” She cringed at the memories of the cold room she’d shared with the other seven girls her age and the harsh way they had been raised to respect male authority.
Now that she saw everything in such a different light, perhaps banishment wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to her. Perhaps living a long, empty life void of affection was worse.
That realization still didn’t justify putting Kellen’s life in danger.
The front door banged open so hard it slammed against the wall. She rushed into the other room in time to see Kellen catch the door on the rebound. He’d rustled up some jeans somewhere, but a dark spot was spreading across his thigh, and he limped heavily into the living room. Cuts crisscrossed his chest, but none of them were deep, and most of them were already half-healed.
“Tagan?” Brooke asked.
Kellen’s voice was hoarse when he said, “He’s at your place. Still riled up, though, so be easy with him.”
Brooke jogged out of the trailer, leaving Skyler alone with Kellen, who was currently bleeding onto the laminate flooring.
“I don’t know why I’m here,” he said, frowning. “I meant to go to my trailer.”
“Come on,” she rasped out, fighting the thick dominance that laced the air. “I’ll clean you up.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I want to.”
Time crept away from them as he stared at her long and hard. “Okay.”
She led him to the bathroom, careful not to hold his hand like she wanted to do. He was still riled up, too. The silver in his eyes told her the human part of Kellen wasn’t completely in control yet. And he smelled like animal. Fur, pine, and earth mixed to make a heady scent in the air. Part of her wanted to open a window to relieve some of the pressure from her chest, but a bigger piece of her wanted to revel in the smell of him. It was alluring and unfurled something deep within her. His scent, masculine and feral, called to her.