Paul seemed to have the same thought if his grim, dark sneer was anything to go by. Tommy was the only person that could make him lose it.
“Right, yeah. He’s my brother, and I love him, but there’s no way I’m fucking enabling him. If he wants to do this, he can do it himself because I can guarantee you that bitch will skip town rather than deal with a baby.” Lifting my beer to my lips, I only grunted at that.
If there was one thing I was thankful for, it was that Lucy had never been introduced to drugs of any kind. Her far right parents probably wouldn’t have even let her eat a chocolate chip cookie, let alone do something that was made outside of nature.
But sure, marijuana isn’t that kind of drug, but it’s still disgusting if it’s abused. Tommy sure as hell doesn’t have any medical problems, and you’d think he had advanced cancer based on how much he smokes.
“Yeah, well, we can’t do anything about the weed. It is California, after all. But I agree, if he wants this baby he’s going to have to change by himself.”
“You’re so lucky your siblings got a slap to the legs when they did something wrong. Mom had rules, yeah, but she didn’t realize how sneaky Tommy got until it was too late.”
Chapter Eighteen: Lucy
Digging into the salmon that decorated my plate, I licked my lips before lifting my loaded fork to my lips. It was raw, the fish cut into strips so thin I could see through it to the salad underneath.
The only other patron in the bar was Jon, and Todd leaned on the bar top to fiddle with his cell phone. Everything was quiet, peaceful, and I took the opportunity to bask in it.
Our togetherness still lingered in the forefront of my mind, but I couldn’t bear to ask Jon about it. Casting him a sidelong glance, my eyes followed him as he speared a tomato with his fork. He looked nice, his hair slicked back and his face cleanly shaven to reveal a placid expression. Filling my mouth, my gaze dropped to his lips as he chewed noiselessly. My blood started to pump harder in my veins, and heat suffused my cheeks before I forced myself to look away.
“Do you two want a beer or something?” I’d almost forgotten Todd was here, and my eyes flew to his form as he bent under the bar. He didn’t wait for an answer, emerging with three dark bottles to twist off the caps. “Cheers.”
Settling down two of them, Todd lifted his bottle bottom up to guzzle before turning to the kitchen door. My brows furrowed, a slight frown dragging down my mouth, but I didn’t worry about him. He wasn’t a guy that talked much or even associated with anyone outside of taking food orders.
Taking a swig of my beer, I let out a sigh as memories of the last time I drank floated into my mind’s eye. It’d been the day I met Jon, and my eyes once again slipped to him. The way he moved was so comfortable, and my ears twitched when he grunted absently at his beer.
“Drinking is the only thing the locals do here, huh? Work, drink, sleep, repeat. That sounds so boring.” Blinking slowly, it took my brain a few seconds to understand what Jon had said. It was the first time he complained about being here. His grumble was tinged in disgust, and I set my beer down with trembling fingers. Tightening my grip on my fork, I gulped down the lump in my throat before spearing another piece of salmon.
“I guess… but Todd’s not a bad guy, he’s just quiet. He prefers being in a kitchen over people, even if he doesn’t make anything elaborate.” My defense was weak, and Jon’s cheek rounded in a half smirk that told me he very much believed me.
“I can understand why you don’t like it here, Lucy. It’s so sleepy.”
I didn’t have a reply for that, and we lapsed into a heavy silence. I had never been anywhere outside of this town since we moved here. Ryan had everything air lifted that we needed, so there was no reason to go to Anchorage. California wasn’t even a place I could imagine; I never saw a single picture or video of it.
“Hey, Jon?” Twisting in my seat to face him, I bit on the inside of my cheek as Jon turned his head to me. “Is California a nice place to live?”
Chewing slowly, Jon’s gaze became far away as he thought, but I didn’t push him even as anxiety bubbled in my gut.
“It’s a great place. I live right between where it snows in the winter and where it just drops to 65 degrees. It’s not on the beach or anything, but the city I live in is nice. Really clean and neat and stately. I don’t think I could ever live anywhere else.” My eyes narrowed and lips pursed together at the smile that curved Jon’s mouth. It must be nice to like the place you live…
“Lucy…” My eyelids shuttered at the call, and I blinked hard as the faded jealousy slithered back into the abyss. “I want you to come back with me. To California.”
Shock overtook me, and my eyes widened into the size of saucers as my jaw unhinged. Jon only continued to stare, his face a mask of concentration and his eyes shining with hope. For a long moment I couldn’t do anything, even thinking seemed to be beyond my ability. My heart stuttered in my chest, and my lungs began to burn as they sat still behind my ribs.
“What?” Weak and stuttering, my voice cracked and caused my eyelid to twitch. Leaning forward, closer to me, Jon took my hands in his to rub the backs of my fingers with his thumbs. All the while he never took his gaze from mine, his eyes alive with determined fire.
“I want you to come with me. I was going to ask you after you shifted a few times, but you haven’t. It’s been two weeks. I don’t think Ryan and I are enough to get you to the place that shifting is safe. You need to be around other bear shifters.”
My bear perked up at that, but I beat back against her. Her excitement radiated out of her with an intensity that made it hard to think, and I shook my head hard.
“Lucy—” Squeezing my palms lightly, Jon forced my attention back to him as a smile picked up his lips. “I’m not going to force you. If you want to stay, or think it over, you can. No pressure, okay?”
Opening my mouth only to close it when nothing came out, my lips turned down in a frown as my brows furrowed. I gulped down the lump in my throat, and the frenzy in my mind started to calm. No pressure. No pressure. No pressure.
“I want to go.” Flying from my lips, my affirmation made me tense as Jon’s eyes widened. He left at the end of the week, I knew, but we hadn’t talked about it. Holding my breath in the still silence, my face twitched as my lips threatened to split my cheeks. Well, Jon and I hadn’t, but Paul was bad at secrets.
“You do? You don’t want to think about it?” My frown disappeared, and a giggle escaped my lips at how astounded Jon sounded.
“Paul told me you were going to ask when you went to the bathroom last night. But, Jon, I don’t need to think about it. You know I hate living here and now I don’t even have a job anymore. Ryan even said it was fine, that my ‘shitty attitude’ would go away. So yes, I want to go.”
My long-winded speech came to an end, and I finally let go of trying to control the long, broad grin that curved my cheeks. It was so wide it made my eyes water, and beyond that I watched Jon copy me. I’d seen him smile so many times, but this one was the biggest, the brightest, the happiest.
My chest tightened, and a giggle managed to slip past the strangling lump in my throat.
“Yes!” Jumping from his seat, Jon wrapped me in a bear hug and twirled around in tight circles. He only stopped to kiss me, and a groan bubbled up as dizziness and hot air mixed inside my skull.
It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was hard and intense and I knew I would never tire of it.
***
END
Preivew: A Rizer Wolfpack Series Book 1
Love Beyond the Wall
A Rizer Wolfpack Series Book 1
By:
Amelia Wilson
CHAPTER ONE
Cara couldn’t sleep.
How could she? In the morning, she would be forced into a marriage with Aldrich. It didn’t matter that she didn’t want to marry him. Cara had no other alternative. Not anymore.
She could still remember what it was like
before the town had walls built over ten feet high surrounding it. There were mountains in the distance, beautiful sunsets. Back then Cara thought she’d climb those mountains. She thought she would escape her father and leave all the ugliness behind.
People would talk about the big cities beyond the mountains. Cities that welcomed all walks of people, even the new race of people who changed their shape. These big cities still had the kind of things that Cara’s mother used to talk about. Taxi cabs, television, and phones that made communication possible across great distances.
The cities who did not fight against the shifters were allowed to carry on as they were. People like Cara’s family, who rejected the new race were pushed out of the established communities and forced to build new towns, and ways of surviving without any contact with the Shifter accepting cities.
Eventually war broke out among the shifter cities. At least that was what Cara heard. People left the cities, and so did the shifters. The order of the world forever changed.
Cara thought that perhaps the shifters were misunderstood by the people of her town. She wanted to believe that the world would eventually return to the kind of order it once held. She wanted to believe that the shifters were good.
Then they came.
The creatures who walked like men but were not men at all. They were monsters, wild beasts. Every man attacked by them died. Their bodies were brought back in pieces.
It wasn’t long after the hunting party was slaughtered that the wall was built. At first it was only five feet high. When more hunters were killed outside the wall, the townspeople added to the wall. It grew higher every year, cutting out more and more light from the people inside.
For seven years Cara, and most of the people of Aldrich Town, were trapped behind the walls. It was a cage, and it was only going to get smaller for Cara when she married Aldrich.
The man was in his forties, while Cara was not even twenty years old yet. Cara knew him to be a cruel man, just like her father.
If it wasn’t for Cara’s uncle, Mortimer, she might not know that there were men who were kind.
The men of the town angered easily. Many of them took out their frustration on anyone weaker than they were. When this happened, it was up to Aldrich if the person causing trouble got to stay, or was pushed outside the wall to be killed by the shifters.
All matters were taken to Aldrich. When Cara once asked her uncle why Aldrich was in charge he said, “He owns the food. Aldrich owns the weapons. He owns the wall. Aldrich owns the people of his town because without him they starve, are defenseless, and die.”
When Cara’s father took to beating her, the neighbors called in Aldrich. Cara was thirteen years old when he came to her house that night to answer the complaint. He arrived with a rope, ready to tie up her father because he was not interested in justice so much as he was interested in not being bothered.
When he saw Cara, he entered the home and sat down at the dinner table with Cara’s father. He promised to spare him if he kept her untouched by other men.
A virgin.
Aldrich said he would return for her when she was ripe.
Cara didn’t understand most of what he’d said, but she knew she didn’t like how he looked at her. She didn’t like the way Aldrich would follow her home from the schoolhouse after that.
She was relieved when Aldrich married Paulina. Cara thought that since he’d married, Aldrich had forgotten her. Cara believed she was free of him.
Up until two days prior, Cara believed that she would be like every other young woman in town and choose who to date and who to marry. When Aldrich came knocking, Cara knew she’d been mistaken. Aldrich hadn’t forgotten her. Not at all.
Her father opened the door for Aldrich. When Cara saw him her body froze with fear. There was a rumor that Paulina died. Cara chose to believe it wasn’t true. After all, Paulina was only twenty-three. How could she die so young?
Aldrich married Paulina when she was nineteen. Cara heard people say that Aldrich never let Paulina leave his house. Since Cara’s father rarely allowed Cara to leave without an escort, she thought it must be the same kind of restrictions for Paulina.
Once though, when she passed by Aldrich’s house on her way to work, Cara saw her. Paulina was standing in the window glaring out at the light as though she’d been in darkness for so long she couldn’t adjust. She was bruised, too skinny, and she was crying.
Since Aldrich was the only kind of law in Aldrich Town, Cara felt helpless to do anything for Paulina. Cara remembered that look of desperation on Paulina’s face, it wasn’t a sight she would ever forget.
Aldrich entered Cara’s home. Cara could only think of the terror on Paulina’s face. She stood, backing away from the table. Aldrich’s brown eyes were so dark they were nearly black as they followed every move Cara made.
Cara’s hands were shaking. She fisted them. Cara didn’t like the pleased look on Aldrich’s face when he saw the clear sign of fear. Narrowing her eyes, she dared to meet his gaze.
Aldrich’s cutting eyes widened, the bloodshot vessels in his eyes darkened. His pale face and pointed chin lowered as his heated gaze ran over her. His gray teeth looked sharp as his thin lips curled back.
He pushed up the sleeves of his red shirt. “Take off your dress,” Aldrich commanded. His eyes opened wider as he spoke. His hands opening and closing like he wanted to grab her.
Cara looked to her father. He was the only one who could protect her from Aldrich. Sure, her father was hard hearted, and short tempered but he did love her. Cara was certain he would do something.
He nodded to Cara, telling her without words to obey Aldrich.
Cara’s face burned with anger at his stab of betrayal.
How can he just stand there?
“No,” Cara said.
Aldrich towered over her. He was crowding her space trying to intimidate her to his will. Cara pressed her lips together as they too began to tremble.
Aldrich’s hand shot out taking hold of her long blond braid yanking hard and pulling her head back. Tilting her chin up so that she had to look at him. His rough hands groped her breasts as he breathed into her face.
“You need to see who is in charge, don’t you?”
Cara was terrified, but she couldn’t stand his hands on her body. Reaching up she raked her nails across his face and kicked him as hard as she could.
Only a small grunt sounded before his hand wrapped around her neck. He choked her, yelling in Cara’s face as she fought for air. “I’m going to teach you to obey, Cara Warden. You will be my wife.”
Her name on his lips was a death sentence.
Aldrich held her up in the air, her feet dangling. The whites of his eyes were bright as he bared his filed teeth at her. His sharp chin stabbed into her cheek as he pressed his face into her hair. He groaned a disgusting sound.
Cara continued fighting for air but wasn’t getting any. She kicked out wildly and caught him between the legs. It was all that saved her from Aldrich choking her until she was unconscious, or dead.
He dropped her.
Cara backed away scooting across the floor. Her breath was coming fast and ragged but she couldn’t get enough. Aldrich’s eyes were crazed with rage. Cara was certain he’d kill her for what she’d done. The scary part of it was that she hoped he would.
Instead Aldrich cradled his crotch with both hands as he glared across the space at her. When he was able to stand upright again he pointed at her.
“I’m going to break you, Cara.”
Her father came forward. He grabbed Cara by the front of her dress and hit her hard in the face. It hurt but fear of what would happen next was stronger. The room was tilting as she tried to see where Aldrich had gone.
Is he coming? Is my father really going to hand me over to him? Aldrich’s worse than any creature that could be outside the walls.
“I will come for her Thursday,” Aldrich told her father. “Make certain she is here and ready for me.”
When the door slammed, Cara relaxed. She stopped struggling against the dizziness and gave in to the darkness that filled her vision.
Her father apologized when she woke. It was strange for Cara, because he did actually appear sorry. It was the only time she’d ever seen real remorse in his brown eyes.
“Aldrich will starve us if we deny him. We would both die if I refuse him.”
“I’d rather starve to death than let Aldrich take me,” Cara told him.
“I know,” he’d answered. “But I wouldn’t.”
He didn’t lock her in her room or in the house because there was no where she could go. Nowhere to run away from Aldrich. No one would hide her. If Aldrich found her hiding with anyone, he would starve the entire family.
Her uncle Mortimer and his wife were the only good people she knew. Even though her father rarely let her see them, she loved them and their children. She loved them too much to have them starve for her.
Cara sat up on the mattress that served as her bed.
Thinking of Paulina in that house, looking out like she’d forgotten what the sun felt like, made Cara feel smothered. Even the thin worn blanket on her legs was too much. She pushed it off and onto the floor.
Cara needed to get outside. She needed to breathe in the cold air.
Pulling on her hand-me-down boots, she spotted her shawl on the hook by the door. Cara wrapped it around her shoulders. On an impulse, she grabbed the scissors from the tabletop as she passed by on her way out the front door.
As soon as she was outside she felt a little better.
The air was frosty. Her breath looked like smoke in the dark. Cara breathed hard, like she did after Aldrich choked her. She walked away from her father’s house. It was the first time in five years she’s been in the town without an escort. It was the last bit of freedom she’d ever get.
Hunting for Love Page 8