by Kim Faulks
X’s pleas came back with a roar. What the Hell could someone want from a kid like her? Thin, gaunt, eyes used to watching the floor. She moved like a prisoner, lived like an animal. Her hair…her fucking hair.
I’d kill a hundred men before I let one make me a slave.
Not a prisoner…a slave. Something to do with her hair. The kid had nice hair—long, flowing hair…
A frigid chill swept through me… My hands felt like lead as I rubbed my face.
Part of me didn't want to know…and the other part was ready to smash through that door and grab her by the fucking shoulders—and demand names.
That part of me wanted retribution, not to watch her dance in the fucking yard.
I could almost feel the steel in my hand, flesh melting into the patterned grip. The trigger under my finger, my focus down that sight. Shifter, or no shifter. I could still do some damage, enough to maim…enough to kill.
I dragged myself from the chair and felt the sway. Pain flared along my neck and cleaved my head. I expected to see track marks all over my body when I woke—a calling card from the damn truck that ran over me.
Work hard. Play hard.
That was Gunny’s damn motto. A week ago, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but now the damn woman was a machine—and I just couldn’t keep up.
Greasy eggs and bacon hovered on the horizon. My stomach growled in response. I clenched tight. I couldn’t leave, not yet—not with X out there. I stepped closer to the door and watched her.
Her movements were slower, still the arcs were the same cutting high to skimming lows. It had to be hours now. Her arms shook, legs trembled with the strain. Heavy drops of rain stuck her clothes to her body. She was thinner now than when I pulled her from that damn building.
Guilt flared. She needed to eat…she needed to trust. I thought she’d succumb when I started cooking the steak two nights ago, but all I seemed to do was drive her further away.
I’d try again, and again, and again until I knew she was taken care of. Heat flooded me, burning away the hangover from Hell. My pulse picked up speed, hammering through my veins. My cock twitched. I dragged my gaze to the ground and swallowed hard.
She was just a kid—just a damn fucking kid. It wasn’t right to think about her like that…not right to…I raised my gaze to watch her. Lightning tore across the sky like a silver, jagged scar.
I felt the boom in the center of my chest a second before the sound filled the air.
The echo resounded, filling my ears. It wasn’t right to look at her, not the way she moved, not the way she forced herself to stand—not the way she kept on dancing.
Sick fuck.
I leaned right and snatched my keys from the board on the wall. A distraction was what I needed, and the panic of five new recruits would take care of that.
Four…four new recruits…remember?
My mood darkened to match the overhead sky. I climbed into the Jeep and started the engine. Drops slid down my arms as I wrenched the car into gear and backed out. X didn’t need me staring at her all damn day.
The tires skidded as I punched the brake and shot forward. This place was big, and getting bigger by the week. I drove past the construction crew workshops and into stage three of the development. One hundred houses would fill this side, with another one hundred more planned farther along. Fifty sat empty, some just waiting for the road to be cut through, others sat ass nestled into the forest that surrounded this place.
Artemas was a man true to his word. He wanted to build the biggest community of humans and shifters this world had ever seen.
He once told me that he wanted to do his bit to stop the war.
And if he couldn’t stop it, then he wanted to be fighting for the right side…the good side. The only side that mattered.
Streets of houses sat unoccupied. I slowed at the end where asphalt met dirt and stared at the growing expanse. This place was more than a sanctuary, it was a community, a place that drew you in and never let you go.
My phone vibrated. I plucked it from my pocket and wiped the screen on my shirt. Just in time, as always. I hit the button and then the speaker.
The rich bass voice of Senator Artemas Roth filled the interior. “So how did you pull up this morning?”
“Me, I’m fine, no thanks to Gunny.”
His voice deepened. “And the service, everything go to plan?”
“Yes, thank you. Ann-Marie was very grateful for everything you’ve done for her. We took care of her, brought her back to my place where Gunny plied her with alcohol and stories of the shit we got up to.”
A low chuckle echoed through. “When her head clears and the world stops spinning she’ll be grateful. That was the only thing that kept me going at the beginning, listening to stories of Margaret. Sharing her with as many people as I could—just to keep her alive that little bit longer…even if it was in my mind.”
I shoved the car into reverse and backed out to the intersection. “Yeah, well maybe she didn’t need to hear everything…maybe he’s a little too alive, if you know what I mean.”
“What happens in Afghanistan stays in Afghanistan.”
I shook my head as the smile took hold. “Something like that. I’m heading to meet the boys now, get a run down. But everything seems to have settled down.”
“I spoke to Regan, she’s taken a few of the men to where they lost the Vampire. I want one of the boys to drop in on their partners and offer any assistance they can,” he asked in his diplomatic way. I was getting used to the guy stepping on my toes.
But he was a highway of information, everything we knew went through him. The shifters were more than a project, they were his late wife’s legacy.
The only one that was important.
She was a gutsy lady—standing up for those shunned, those rejected, those ignored by this broken reality. She saw shifters as not just wolves, but as another expansion of humankind. And when a live presentation went wrong and humans brought guns to protest, she was murdered by those she was trying to save.
I spun the wheel and headed for the compound as the rain eased to a drizzle. “Already on it.”
“Everything okay with you?”
I glanced at the phone, nerves buzzed like ants crawling along my spine. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Regan mentioned you might’ve had some information, said you were headed to Headquarters to rattle some cages.”
I swallowed the urge to lie and played my version of the truth. “Yeah, well. Manduck took his orders from someone, and if it wasn’t Kava, then it was someone else.”
“So you went to your uncle to ask who gave the command?”
The way he said those words made my stomach clench. “He doesn’t know anything. Not yet, anyway.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to find those responsible, Alpha. Stitch was more than a team member, he was also a friend, and I don't want to lose another. So, please, talk to me, we need to be careful with who we can trust and we need to stick together.”
They were Gunny’s words all over again—or were they the Senator’s all along? Either way, they were right.
I wanted to tell him about the folder, and that I was being watched—any other day I would’ve. But some nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach held me back. I was torn from one person to another, from blood, to brothers, to the ones I’d lay my life on the line for—and in the midst of all this was a kid…no, not a kid, a woman—one trying to find a way out of whatever hole she’d been kept in for most of her life.
I wasn’t just a man pulled in every direction—I was a man adrift with no land in sight. “If I find out anything, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Thank you, Alpha. You know you can come to me with anything—even personal issues. I may not always have the answers, but I’ve got a damn good ear.”
“I appreciate that, Senator,” I answered and spun the wheel, turning into the packed parking lot. “You’ll be the first to know anything, on all fronts.�
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“Good man, now you take care of yourself. I’m on the road most of the day, but you can always reach me.”
“Will do,” I muttered and ended the call.
The roller door slid up. Five new recruits waited patiently, stealing glances at the car as I pulled into the parking space. I looked to the newest of the bunch, fresh of the streets. The kid was strong, fast, come from a military family just like me. These men were my first line of defense. The ones on the ground, working to integrate new packs into Soteria. They were the ones setting the ground rules and enforcing them, day after day, night after night, and I couldn’t have been more damn proud.
“Boss,” Lindsay called as I slammed the door.
All heads turned as I strode toward them. Fresh faces stared at me. Most of these men were snatched from the Marine Corps recruiting office, all eager to enlist and serve…and now they did, fighting the only battle that mattered.
“Anything new to report?”
Lindsay gave me a breakdown of the last few days. New packs brought their own set of problems and we were still feeling the fallout of the Echo pack.
Tempers flared amongst what were once rival packs. Other wolves still feared for their safety, hiding in the woods, too afraid to settle between four walls. But it was the humans who had more to lose. Most came here with nothing but a broken heart and a shattered hold on reality.
But there was something else happening—something different from the usual territorial scuffle. The packs were restless…even the older ones—the ones who helped calm the others were found marking the trees that surrounded the estate.
“It’s like…they’re scared.” Lindsay shook his head. “Something’s shaken them. Raven won’t talk to us. He refuses to even come outside.”
I shook my head. The older wolf was the quiet one, the closest we had to an Alpha male of Soteria—so when he was restless, then I knew something was wrong. “I’ll go and talk to him, see if I can’t get a handle on what’s eating them. Keep me informed of any new changes.”
Lindsay nodded, and the other men followed suit. I headed for the car with a nagging sense that everything was unraveling under my fingers. I climbed into the Jeep and started the engine. If the wolves were restless, it meant usually one of two things: they were hunters, or they were prey.
I headed for the small huddle of houses at the far end of the estate. The elders lived there, those too old to hunt, but who bound all these mismatched packs together by the stories of old. They were the backbone of this community and I needed them now more than ever.
Remnants of open fires were scattered across the open tree line. I pulled up where the bitumen ended and climbed out. The front door to the cabin was closed. The damn thing was never closed. There were always shifters here, kids searching for their purpose…adults looking for guidance.
I’d never seen Raven’s place so quiet and bereft. I scanned the trees, and then the ground. The sodden earth had flattened with the rain. Any fresh tracks were long gone, still I walked around the front and headed for the door.
The inside was dark and cold. There were no fires blazing, there was no thrum of wolf energy—nothing at all. Shadows crowded the outer edges, I peered through the window and tapped on the glass—the place was deserted.
I walked around the side of the cabin and headed for the back, mud squelched under my boots as I headed for the back door. There was no sign of a struggle, no sign of anything, or anyone at all. I tried the handle on the back door, and found it locked. My boot kicked something as I turned, it hit the wall with a ping. The brass was dulled by a smear of muck. I bent and skimmed the spent shell casing from the ground. Forty cal., and fresh. The sodden earth gave me no more clues. That foreboding feeling took flight. Missing shifters was one thing, but this was something else entirely.
Shifters fought with tooth and nail. They savaged, they bloodied, they ripped each other from limb to limb…but the one thing they didn't do was use a damn gun.
7
X
I dragged myself up from the ground. My legs trembled, my knees barely held. I half crawled, half walked to the door, trailing the stick behind me. Something inside me had cracked and the pieces were shifting, rolling around inside my head—and for the first time I didn’t know who I was.
A coldness invaded. Tendrils of frost slipped in. I felt its frigid touch in the hollow of my chest and like winter, it spread. I gripped the banister and heaved myself up one slow step at a time.
A spasm raced down my back and into my leg, pinching, biting, stealing my breath.
“You want me to carry you?”
I stilled at the sound of his voice. My nails pierced the wooden banister, still I couldn’t lift my head, couldn’t look at him. One shake of my head set my mind in stone. I was leaving, going somewhere I could hide, where I could find my family, even if it was inside my head. Somewhere I had no demons…or angels.
Somewhere I could heal.
“It’s getting kinda late. You’ve been out there all day…dancing.”
I flinched at that word. When Alpha said dance it conjured images of little girls and twirling butterflies. This dance was something else, something feral and raw and…beautiful.
“You hungry?”
My stomach clenched. I shook my head and waited for him to leave.
“We doing this again, X? I cook, you leave. I’m starting to feel like you don’t want me around anymore, starting to feel like you’re taking me for granted. You don't bring me flowers, you don’t try to make us work.”
I wrenched my head up, and found the spark of laughter in his gaze.
He shrugged. “It’s a relationship joke. Not really funny I suppose.”
I shoved my foot against the step and climbed.
“Hot shower sound good? I wanted to talk to you, when you have a moment.”
He wanted me to leave. The words lingered in the air after last night. Gunny didn’t want me around and I didn’t blame her. I’d led Diamond and the others here, to these people—these good honest people.
“So a shower and then we talk, yeah?”
He backed into the kitchen and turned to the fridge. “And I’ll work on some food.”
Strong hand clenched around the handle and yanked. I followed the flex in his muscles, tendons tightened under smooth olive skin. I missed touch, missed the warmth of another, missed the act of beauty against another’s chest.
The cold frost inched though my body as I made for the bathroom and closed the door. My hands shook as I snagged the ends of my sodden shirt and yanked it over my head.
The fabric stuck to my head. Frigid drops slipped down my spine. I shoved soaked jeans over my hips and stared at my filthy feet.
Run, the voice whispered inside. Just walk out that door and never come back.
A softer voice answered, one resurrected from my past…Grandfather filled my mind.
And if you do, you’ll be running your entire life. Is that what you want?
His question waited as I stepped from my clothes and into the shower. The hot spray stung my skin. I eased my head backwards, letting the burn cut away the cold. I washed and scrubbed, touching the tender parts of my head and then hit the taps and stepped out.
The thin, haunted face that stared back at me wasn’t my own. I didn't know that person, couldn't feel that person. I didn't like that person. I grabbed a towel and rubbed, knotted muscles eased under the pressure of my fingers. My muscles trembled, tightened, and then relaxed.
Still that cold emptiness lingered…and its name hovered at the edge of my mind.
I refused to call it, not yet, not while the urge to run still thrummed in my veins.
Not yet…just stay away from me, I whispered and grabbed a pair of sweat pants from the pile Alpha left me.
He was a good man. An honest man, and deserved more.
I slipped my arms through a white T-shirt. The fit hung heavy from my body. I flattened the fabric against my skin. My nipples hardene
d, pushing against the cotton. My ribs stuck out like scarred claw marks along my side.
My fingers hovered over my breast, barely touching my nipple and then trailed down the small curve. Alpha’s hands were heavy and wide, far bigger than my own. His calloused hands would scrape my skin, they’d be heavy.
I pressed harder and closed my eyes…like this. My fingers curled, gently squeezing all the way to the tip. Heat rushed, skirting that cold emptiness inside to settle between my thighs.
“You okay in there?”
I wrenched my eyes open and yanked away my hand. A burn settled in my face. Stupid…stupid girl. Shouldn’t think like that. Not about Alpha…never about Alpha.
All the pain resurfaced, all the horrors they did to me came back in flashes of my past.
You’re not going to find that here, okay? Not with me. Alpha’s words cut through the terror, dragging me from those white walls. I stumbled for the door and jerked the handle.
Alpha stood outside, knuckles raised ready to knock. His gaze was solemn, clouded with pain as the door swung inwards. For a second I thought I saw some glimmer of hope, of wanting…the same wanting I saw reflected in the mirror.
“Ah, yeah. Just wanted to make sure those wolf like reflexes didn’t fail you, and you hurt yourself.”
He dropped his fist and stepped away, but his eyes lingered on my face, and dropped to my mouth. I took a step, drawn by something far bigger than the two of us. His eyes widened, pulse picked up pace, throbbing in my ears. And the wolf in me took notice. She wanted more, wanted to feel his mortal magic against her lips, her mouth, her fingers.
Alpha coughed, and cleared his throat. He dropped his gaze to the floor and turned. "Dinner, and this time you're eating. No more running away, no more coming home scratched and bruised. I'm making a new rule in this house, one everyone needs to abide by."
He shot me a ruthless gaze and then busied himself, yanking open drawers and pulling out a frypan to set it on the stove.
"No one leaves this house without food in their stomach and a damn weapon, and don’t start with the, I am a weapon bullshit. I’ve seen shifters far bigger than you fall to their knees and I won’t have a woman under my roof not armed to the fucking teeth. Deal?”