by Cecilia Lane
She preferred the edges, too. Staying out of sight and mind was safer.
But she wasn’t supposed to bond with the man who hustled her into his truck and claimed she was his mate.
Crap! He was walking her way!
With a gasp, Everly twitched the curtains closed and thunked down to the floor. A moment later, steps sounded up the porch and to the door. She listened to him outside the cabin, unable to hear the words he muttered over his knock.
She pressed her hands to her heart and tried to still the racing beat. Her panther hissed at her to go to him, let him in, feel his arms around her again.
Everly stuck her middle finger at the beast and refused to move.
She wasn’t there for him. She was using the time he provided to let herself breathe. She owed him nothing she hadn’t already given him.
Sawyer cursed on the other side of the door, then spoke louder. “There’s a plate for you here, if you want it.”
Her growling stomach betrayed her. She hadn’t eaten all day, choosing to skip out on breakfast to beat her father’s inquisition. Between her appointments and Wade’s sentence, she had planned to find a quick bite after getting back to camp.
Sawyer waited a moment longer. The boards of the porch groaned with his movement and she heard a shuffle at the bottom of the door. Then the sound of footsteps clunked away.
She took the time to still her racing heart before creeping toward the door. She opened it the tiniest crack and drew the plate of food inside before shutting the clan outside again. No one noticed. Or, if they did, no one said a thing.
Everly took her spot back on the couch and continued to eavesdrop. Sawyer had piled the plate with a ton of food. Ribs stacked and crossed over veggies. Fluffy buns barely contained loaded burgers. And all of it smelled too delicious to pass up.
They weren’t going to poison her, she reasoned. She saw the food go from table to plates. There wasn’t enough time to make a duplicate meal designed to kill. And the women seemed so genuine with wanting to give her space to get herself together.
She nearly groaned at the first bite. Whatever else came of her stay at Casa del Captor, at least the meal was delightful.
When her jaw cracked with a yawn, she reluctantly made her way from the window and explored the rest of the cabin. It was small, only a single bedroom attached to the open living room and kitchen. Compared to the camper she shared with her parents, it was a palace and just as crisply neat.
She thought of bunking down on the couch to avoid the familiarity of sleeping in someone else’s bed but shoved the thought aside. Sawyer probably had keys with him. Even if she locked the front door, he could get in before she had a chance to get out. The bedroom door gave her some extra warning if her new acquaintances tried anything in the middle of the night.
Yawning again, she pushed the door closed and prepared for her first night away from the pride in all her twenty-four years.
Chapter 6
Everly woke the next morning in a too-large bed, behind a closed and locked bedroom door. Sawyer’s promise to find different arrangements didn’t mean squat when she was certain she heard a giant beast nosing around under the window several times during the night.
The entire room felt too big. The extra space made her feel almost claustrophobic. She wasn’t used to waking up with a roof so far above her head or room to stretch out like a starfish. Her parents shared a bed behind flimsy paneling, but her space in the camper was a bunk above the truck cab and open to the rest of the living quarters. And that only became hers alone once her sister mated Wade and moved into his RV.
Curled in a tiny ball on one edge of the big bed, Everly reconsidered her decision to stay. The night before had distracted her enough to keep her regret at bay, but the cold light of dawn made her choice look like a mistake.
Even if she wanted to sneak out, there was no avoiding the beast that watched for her.
Even though she made the choice to stay, she couldn’t shake the feeling she wouldn’t be allowed to leave.
She had abandoned the women and babies in the pride. Her sister and family were probably worried sick about her. Emery wouldn’t find any comfort from Wade.
Wade. Everly buried her head under a pillow. What had she been thinking? He wouldn’t cool down if she disappeared for a few days. He’d be furious the moment she showed back up. Delaying would only make the punishment worse.
She had no job, no money, and no way to get around town. She’d have an even greater distance to walk if she wanted to make it back to the pride’s camp at a reasonable hour, and that was if she could slip the bear that probably still waited outside for her.
Her spite-driven, kidnapped-cation was a terrible idea.
Her cat clawed at her insides at the thought of leaving. She was stuck in bed, fighting off the panic of what awaited her when she finally arrived home and an uncooperative beast that asserted herself harder than ever before.
Threats of violence only brought internal hisses. Promises of mating her alpha were dull roars. But leaving the cabin that belonged to her kidnapper? The cat snatched at her control and kept her locked away in her own skin.
Everly groaned. It was all too much. And she hated that she wanted to see Sawyer. She felt almost feverish with the need.
She read in a library once about people accepting and sympathizing with their captors. She’d turned on everything she knew with the first whiff of Sawyer’s earthy scent. No extended abduction necessary.
The front door creaked open and two sets of steps sounded on the wood.
Everly froze, the groan dying in her throat. This was it. They were coming for her. The pretense of kindness would disappear, and they’d maul her, or worse.
Why, why, why didn’t she fight harder to get away? Why did she accept the plates of food probably laced with poison to keep her from slipping out in the middle of the night?
A timid knock rapped against the bedroom door. “Everly?”
She parted her lips and inhaled. Sawyer’s scent still hung heavy in the air. It was his room, his den, after all. The delicious scent of a rainstorm rolling in flooded her senses and simmered in her veins.
Desperate, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on the other scent. It was softer, like wildflowers. The human.
The only one who couldn’t hurt her. Unless she packed silver.
“Everly? Will you open up?” Rylee asked in a tiny voice.
Everly slipped off the bed. No need to pull her clothes on; she’d slept in them because it felt too weird getting naked in someone else’s bed, and she didn’t have clothes of her own, and she certainly didn’t want to borrow anything.
When she cracked opened the door, Sawyer stood behind Rylee. Towered over her, basically. A tight gray shirt left nothing to the imagination of how much muscle he packed. His hair stuck up at all angles, and he showed exactly why when he ran his hands through the strands. She wanted to smooth them down.
Ah, crap. Her thoughts were all out of whack. Stupid cat licked her claws like a smug little beast in the back of her head.
“We weren’t sure if you wanted to be…” Rylee trailed off and adjusted her glasses.
“Around me. Alone with me,” Sawyer finished for her.
“Probably right,” she said to her toes. The stinking scent of hurt and rejection entered the air and her cat slammed into her chest to fix it. Well, too bad, panther. She was in the driver’s seat and she was going to find a way home.
Sawyer cleared his throat. “Ah, well, Becca is insisting you go see her. She says she’s having contractions and you’re the nearest one who knows babies.”
Her head snapped up. “Why didn’t you just say that?”
She looked around for her bag, but of course, it was nowhere to be found. She’d left it at the camp when she went for groceries.
No matter what crimes Sawyer committed or her desire to leave, she couldn’t let a mother hurt. That was Aileen’s strongest teaching.
Help, always. No matter what was done to her or the words that were said before, after, or during, it was her job to help.
Everly pushed between them and strode right for the front door. She was down the porch steps before she paused. She had no idea where to go.
“Straight across,” Sawyer answered the unspoken question.
Sweet skies above, he was near enough to feel the heat of his chest against her back.
She didn’t let him distract her. Someone needed her help. She marched across the clearing and up the steps of the porch he pointed out.
The door swung open as soon as her feet reached the final step. Nolan poked his head outside, then gestured her in. “She’s this way.”
Everly followed him inside and through a living room not much bigger than Sawyer’s. The kitchen was much larger, and more doors exited than the one into Sawyer’s bedroom. That was as much detail as she gleaned before she was presented at the foot of a bed holding Becca.
She was propped against pillows, and her hair was piled high in a messy bun. Her cheeks were flushed, but she had no other visible signs of pain.
“I don’t know how much I can help,” Everly said immediately. “I don’t have anything here with me. But I can do a quick check-up and maybe make a recommendation to get to the doctor.”
“No doctors,” Becca growled. “If this is happening, it’s happening here. At home.”
“She had a bad experience at the clinic,” Nolan murmured behind her.
Everly nodded and softened her voice. “So it sounds like you have a plan, and that’s wonderful. First thing to realize about kids is nothing goes according to plan. That’s the best part of being a parent, though, isn’t it? You get to adapt to whatever they need.”
It was something she told all the women she’d eased through labor. Some took it better than others, but she could see Becca dig in her heels.
She folded her hands over her stomach and glared at her belly. “You two will do as I say, you hear?”
Everly chuckled and walked around the side of the bed. “All right, momma, let’s get started. I just need a bit of history from you and then we’ll dive right in. Have you had a pregnancy before?”
“Once. Ended in miscarriage around six months.” A brief flash of pain crossed her features. “But that was eleven years ago.”
The need to pull in the nearest person with maternity experience and reluctance to go to the doctor made sense to Everly. She didn’t think Becca would have been more than eighteen at that age. That left scars on a woman no matter how old, but a young girl would feel it all the more.
She nodded again and fluttered her hands above Becca’s belly. “Going to lift your shirt now and see what I can feel, is that okay?”
“Without even buying me dinner?” Becca winked. “Just this once.”
Everly flashed her a smile, then flipped up the hem of her shirt and adjusted down the stretchy band of her leggings. She felt the same sort of kinship sparking that she’d felt the day before. Even her cat curled up in her head without any objection or alertness.
It was just because she was doing her job, she told herself. She couldn’t form any bonds with people she planned to leave.
“How far apart are the contractions?” They were probably due for one soon.
Still, she felt Becca’s stomach to check the positioning of the twins. A lot could be determined by palpating a baby belly, and as big as Becca was, there would be something to feel. Everly grinned when a tiny fist poked back at her almost exactly where she expected.
“Erratic. Some are ten, others are five.”
“How long are they lasting?” Depending on her answer, Everly was reasonably sure she wasn’t in active labor. False, probably.
“Thirty seconds to a minute.” Becca winced and balled her hands in the blankets at her side as another hit.
“That’s all over the place, too,” Nolan answered.
Everly threw a glance his way, surprised to see him still in the room. It was her experience that men fled the moment she arrived.
“How far along?” she asked while Becca squeezed her eyes shut. Everly ticked the seconds on her fingers.
“Not yet thirty-four weeks,” he said.
Everly made it to thirty-two when the contraction let go of Becca. She gave her a smile and adjusted her shirt back over her stomach. “You’re not quite full term for twins, but you’re also not in labor.”
“I’m going to go back in time and murder old Braxton Hicks,” Becca grumbled. “Then I’m going to go back thirty-five weeks ago and castrate somebody.”
“Aww, then you’d never keep me around,” Nolan commiserated. “And no one puts up with more than me. Say goodbye to any sort of stress relief and all your friends and anyone who is forced near you for more than ten minutes.”
Becca fought to keep the smile off her face. “You see what I have to deal with? Even when he’s being supportive, he’s being impossible.”
“I’m impossible? Let’s talk about the twelve meals you made me cook up for you yesterday.” The bed dipped with Nolan’s weight and he took up a spot next to Becca. His hand rested over hers on her stomach, and for all the teasing between them, Everly could see how much they cared for each other.
“Food is literally the only comfort I have right now. I’ll never not be pregnant. I can’t sleep. If it’s not one misfit kicking the shit out of me, it’s the other, or you snoring too loudly, or the pillows are positioned wrong, or I have to pee for the fifth time that hour, or—”
Everly’s heart skipped a beat when he leaned closer and kissed his mate’s nose. “Everything will work out. I promise.”
The gesture was something she hadn’t seen modeled in relationships, and the looks on their faces felt too much like what she felt when Sawyer pulled her close. Affection was a private thing and far different from the touch of a pride mate.
She thought, anyways. But it looked so natural between Nolan and Becca, and they didn’t care that she saw.
She’d always been the odd one out in her pride. Mating was for babies and only permitted after Wade sanctioned a union. Pairings weren’t made for love. They were for alliances and strong ties between families.
But actually liking the person she was supposed to be with was one wish Everly couldn’t shake. She was wrong and different for wanting to be near anyone that caught her eye.
“I’ll just let you two—” she started.
Shouts from the clearing jerked all of their attention toward the front door. A moment later, it banged open, and someone shouted inside, “Sawyer! Someone is trying to break into your truck!”
Everly blinked. He’d accompanied her and waited.
And someone tried to rob him.
She tried to listen to the shouts, but there were too many voices to pick out the individual words.
Nolan jumped off the bed and gave them both a look. “Stay here,” he growled. Just a second later, they heard him yell out, “What’s going on here?”
“Caught this guy rummaging around in Sawyer’s truck,” someone close to the cabin answered.
There was more murmuring from voices blocked by the walls and other comments. The buzz grew louder as others joined in with their own demands for an explanation.
“What in the hell is happening?” Becca muttered.
“There’s the big bad bear!”
Everly’s face drained of blood and her stomach turned. She wasn’t sure if the whine of her cat was all in her head or if she let the noise into the air.
Wade had found her.
“I know she’s here somewhere. I can smell her scent all over that truck,” Wade snarled.
She didn’t know what was said in answer. Some calming words, maybe. They set Wade off even more, and Everly hunched her shoulders.
“No, I don’t owe you any explanations. You have a member of my pride here and I will have her back. If you don’t give her up, I will burn all these pretty little cabins down and piss on the ashes!”
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The morning spent wondering about her eventual punishment was for nothing. She’d be in even worse shape for making him track her down.
Everly jumped when Becca’s hand dropped over hers. “Who is that, Everly?” she asked gently. Concern wafted off her.
“My alpha.” Her throat worked to push the sour words past her lips. “My mate.”
Becca’s eyes softened. “Has he claimed you?”
“Not yet. He will, though. The Oracle told him he had to so he could have an heir. My sister hasn’t given him any yet, so it’ll be my duty.”
“I don’t know anything about any oracle or what your sister has to do with this, but in this enclave, no one is forced to mate someone they don’t want. You don’t want him, do you?”
She looked down at her hands. She felt like a traitor. It would be an honor for her family if both daughters were taken as the alpha’s mates.
But he had killed Aileen, and others, too. Her cat hated him. “No.”
“Then find your spine, girlfriend. We’re going to tell this asshole to pound sand.” She scooted to the side of the bed. “Just as soon as I get on my feet.”
Everly dreaded every step closer to the door she took. The shouting grew louder and more violent. Wade didn’t end his demands for her return or offer any further explanations than just ‘give her back.’ That alone seemed to rile up the bear clan, who lobbed more questions his way.
Then he spotted her and the threats died in his throat.
Wade held out his hand, palm aloft and fingers twitching to summon her. “Mate, come.”
“About that,” Becca interrupted. Wade’s eyes blazed with fury about being denied. No doubt that a woman did it dug at him even more. “She says you haven’t marked her. You’re not mated. And if she doesn’t want to leave, she doesn’t have to.”
Wade switched his focus to her. His fingers twitched again. “Everly. Come here.”
Everly shook. From head to toe, her body trembled. Wade’s power washed over her and demanded she obey. She put every ounce of her energy into disobeying that command. Her stomach clenched and her head felt like it split open, but she didn’t move.