by Kathy Love
“Hi,” he greeted them with a stiff smile. “I just wanted to settle my bill.”
“Are you leaving?” asked the brother Jensen hadn’t seen before.
“Yes,” Jensen said.
“That’s good,” the pale-eyed brother said. “Because you are upsetting our sister.”
Jensen nodded. “That isn’t my intent.”
Both brothers looked as if they didn’t believe him.
“So what do I owe?”
“Nothing,” said the pale-eyed brother. “Just leave Elizabeth alone.”
Jensen nodded again. “I plan to.”
Again, neither man looked convinced.
“Thanks,” Jensen said and returned to the table where Melanie sat perched on the edge of the seat, her coat on, her purse in hand. She rose as he approached and didn’t say anything as she headed to the exit.
Jensen didn’t speak, either. He didn’t know what to say. He could think of nothing that she would want to hear.
Once out in the parking lot, he resisted the urge to look for Elizabeth or her bike. He focused on getting Melanie home, hopefully without too much more upset. He felt terrible-he’d never done anything like this to a woman. Although since meeting Elizabeth, he’d done a lot of things he’d never done.
The ride back to Melanie’s house was also a silent affair. Not until he pulled up to her small house, did she speak.
“Jill said that you had been very much in love with your fiancée.”
Jensen stared out the windshield. He didn’t know what to say-he didn’t know where this was going.
“Yes. I was.”
“Jill also said that you never noticed another woman from the moment you met Katie. That she was the only one for you.”
He nodded again. Yes. Katie had been his whole world.
“She also said that you hadn’t seemed to notice anyone since she passed away.”
Jensen swallowed. Was she implying that what Jill had told her couldn’t be true? Given how he’d watched Elizabeth tonight, he was sure Melanie was finding Jill’s assertions hard to believe.
“Yes. I’ve had a hard time moving on.”
Melanie nodded, too. “But I could see how much you wanted to go after that woman. Is she the only one you want?”
He pulled in another deep breath. “I–I don’t know.” But he did know. He wanted Elizabeth so desperately it had totally overshadowed what he’d felt for Katie, although that fact only made him feel worse. Made him feel like more of an ass.
“Well, I can tell you,” Melanie said. “It was written all over your face when she left the bar. You should go to her. Tell her how you feel.”
He’d done that. Or tried. Elizabeth didn’t want him. Except that wasn’t what he’d seen on her face, either. She’d looked hurt by him being there with Melanie. She’d looked more than hurt. She’d looked devastated.
Melanie reached over and touched his arm. “You need to go to her.” She gave him an encouraging smile. “You do.”
He stared at her for a moment, then gave her a regretful smile. “I’m very sorry you got dragged into this. It wasn’t my intention when I asked you out.”
She smiled back, although the curve of her lips appeared more saddened than happy. “I know. Jill also said that you are a really kind person.”
“All behaviors to the contrary.”
Melanie shrugged. “We don’t get to pick out who we love. It just happens.”
Jensen wouldn’t have believed that once. But now, he wondered.
Elizabeth forced herself to go back into the bar. When she stepped inside, she knew Jensen was gone. The air felt totally different. Instead of making her feel better, as she thought it would, she felt worse. Had he taken the blonde back to his house? Had he gone to spend the night at her place?
“Lizzie?” Mina said, coming toward her. “Are you okay?”
She paused for a second at the use of her nickname. She hadn’t heard it for a while. It was amazing how quickly she’d let it go. But somehow it seemed appropriate tonight. She needed to remember who she really was, and why she couldn’t be with a mortal. She was Lizzie Devlin. Werewolf, mate of Brody Devlin, and no longer Elizabeth, the gentlewoman who would have married well, had children, and lived a normal life.
She had to remember that. And she had to remember that Jensen would have all those things she lost. If she left him alone.
“I’m a little tired.” She didn’t know why she bothered to lie. Mina could feel every emotion radiating from her as if it were her own. But she still couldn’t voice the truth.
But Mina wasn’t going to accept her avoidance. “Who is he?”
Elizabeth didn’t pretend that she didn’t know what Mina was asking. She shrugged.
“He’s just some man.”
Mina shook her head. “He’s much more than that.”
Elizabeth felt tears welling in her eyes again. Mina gently took her elbow and led her to a table in the corner away from her brothers, who watched from the bar like worried mothers.
“He’s more than that. We can all feel it.”
Damn vampires and their ability to read emotions.
Still, Elizabeth considered denying it. Then she couldn’t. Her emotions were simply too high to keep them bottled in.
“Yes. He is. I don’t know what, exactly. I just know that I… ” She couldn’t find the right words. Her feelings made no sense to her, so how could she explain them to Mina?
“You are in love.”
Elizabeth’s gaze snapped to Mina, who just shrugged and offered her an almost sympathetic smile.
Opening her mouth, Elizabeth thought to argue the claim. But she couldn’t.
“You love him,” Mina stated. “And he loves you, too. It’s clear in the air.”
“No. No!” Elizabeth shook her head.
“Okay, but I know what I’m sensing.”
Elizabeth stared at her friend. That couldn’t be the case. She couldn’t be in love with Jensen. And worse than that, he couldn’t love her in return. No.
Her eyes brimmed with tears. “No.”
Mina reached across the table and caught her hand. “This is a good thing.”
Elizabeth shook her head. No. It was a terrible thing.
“I can’t be with him.”
“Why not?”
Elizabeth gaped at her friend. “Because I’m a werewolf!”
Mina glanced around to be sure no one heard her. Then she said calmly, “So? He can learn to accept that. Look at Jane and Jolee. They learned to accept your brothers.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “It isn’t the same.”
“Vampires are probably harder to deal with than werewolves. After all, you can go out in the day. The sun isn’t a threat. You can eat. You are normal except on the full moon.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “You don’t understand. I can’t be with Jensen.”
“I know it’s scary, but-”
“I can’t be with Jensen because even if he could accept me, I’m mated.”
Mina stared at her. “Oh.”
Elizabeth still didn’t want to tell Mina all of it, of why and how she was mated. Or what her pack was like. But now that she’d admitted this much, she couldn’t seem to stop.
“My mate’s name is Brody Devlin. And frankly, he isn’t a good or kind man or wolf. He found me, because he was a resurrectionist.”
Mina frowned.
“He dug up dead bodies. Fresh bodies. He’d robbed the graves and then sold the cadavers to medical schools or doctors for experimentation. When he dug up my grave, he just happened to find me alive. He took me back to his pack, and there they nursed me back to health, but by the time I was well enough to go back to my home, everything was gone. My brothers had disappeared. I believed them dead. So I agreed to stay with the pack. I agreed to become one of them. And to mate with Brody.”
Mina stared at her. “Do your brothers know any of this?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Not much
.”
“But why? They would understand. Surely if anyone could understand, it would be them.”
Elizabeth glanced over to Christian and Sebastian who still watched, concern clear on their faces. “Maybe. But I can’t forgive myself. The pack I was with, they were the scum of the London underworld. Thieves, drunks, prostitutes. And when I was left on my own, I went with them rather than flee. I was too scared to walk away. I stopped being Elizabeth, the gentle-born lady, and became what they were. I stole. I lied. I helped with the grave-robbing.”
“You did what you had to do to survive,” Mina stated.
“I can’t even bear to think of the things I saw, the things I just let go on around me.”
Mina squeezed her hand and repeated, “But you did it to survive. And you did leave. You left when you were strong enough.”
Yes, she had. But it was after years of turning a blind eye. Years of falling farther and farther away from the person she’d been raised to be.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Mina stated, her voice stern rather than sympathetic. “You know I can testify to the fact that you do whatever it takes to keep going.”
Elizabeth’s gaze roamed her friend’s face. That was true. Mina had suffered a lot-she’d seen a lot, too, and never had Elizabeth considered her weak or a failure.
“But I am still mated. So how can I be with Jensen?”
Mina considered that. “I don’t know. But the truth is, from what I feel in the air between you two, I just don’t see how you can stay apart.”
Elizabeth sighed. Mina was right. She’d been naïve to think she could just send him away. Hell, it hadn’t worked thus far.
Jensen stopped at the end of Boyd Road. What was he doing? Hadn’t he told himself that there was no point going to Elizabeth? Only several dozen times as he drove around West Pines and Shady Fork for over two hours. But Melanie’s words kept replaying in his head. You need to go to her.
Except Elizabeth had told him distinctly that she didn’t want to see him again. But then the look on her face as she’d passed him tonight also repeated in his head. She’d looked like a woman who was truly hurt and upset. And that expression, that kind of devastated emotion-especially from her-was killing him. He had to know she was okay.
He stared down the dark dirt road. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t going to leave now. He pulled onto the rutted lane. Although he hesitated for a moment before he put the truck into Park. What could he say? Because all of her blow-offs weren’t enough for him? He needed yet another one?
The house was dark except for the outside light, glowing on the porch. Then he noticed the halo of light around her barn door. Maybe she was working. As he got out of the car, he noticed her motorcycle parked near the house. She had to be here. And the best bet was the barn.
He headed in that direction. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to say, but he had to talk to her.
He just reached the door, his hand on the wooden handle, when he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Then he was hit with the force of a battering ram to his side. The impact was so hard it knocked the breath from him as he flew through the air and landed hard against the cold ground.
He rolled over, trying to pull in a breath and get his bearings, but before he could do either, something grabbed him, fingers knotting into the front of his shirt. Then he was bodily lifted from the ground and slammed into the side of the barn. Weathered clapboards dug into his back and shoulder blades.
Still completely unsure what the hell had just happened and who was attacking him, he tried to remain calm. He had to figure out what was going on.
He squinted, trying to see the features of the dark, very strong form that held him. Literally held him off the ground. He dangled in the air like an insect held by a long, steel pin.
Jensen wasn’t a small guy. Six feet tall, a good 180 pounds. Yet, whoever held him didn’t even seem to be straining. Again, he told himself not to panic.
“You said you were going to stay away.”
The voice sounded familiar, but it took a moment to register where he’d heard it before.
It was Elizabeth’s brother. The pale-eyed one. For the first time, he was also aware of another black silhouette a few feet away, pacing as if he was anxiously awaiting his turn.
But before Jensen could reason with the guy, he was lifted away from the wall and pounded against it again, hard.
A groan escaped him. Damn, this guy was strong.
“You-” the brother started again, but his words were halted by a light flicking on behind them, then the front door banging shut.
The brother holding him turned in the direction of the sound. Jensen remained still. His head and back throbbed from where he’d made repeated contact with the side of the barn. Yet he did manage to focus past the pain to see Elizabeth. She stood on the porch, stock-still, as if she couldn’t figure out what she was seeing; then it suddenly seemed to register, and she dashed down the steps.
“Put him down!”
His captor didn’t let go. Jensen struggled again, but he was held fast.
“Christian, what are you doing?”
“We told him to stay away from you.” Christian glared at him, then turned back to his sister. “He didn’t listen.”
“Oh my God,” Elizabeth said. “Am I still fifteen years old and need you two to watch out for me?”
“This guy upset you,” the other brother said. “We aren’t going to let him bother you again.” He stepped toward Jensen, and he tried to steel himself for whatever the other brother intended to do. Not easy when he was winded and hanging in the air.
Elizabeth made a disgusted noise. “Sebastian, don’t. Christian, let him down.”
Christian stared at Jensen, fury clear in his eyes. Then Jensen dropped, barely managing to get his balance as his feet hit the ground. But thankfully, he did manage to keep his footing. It was embarrassing enough that a guy who was about the same size as he was had managed to restrain him so easily. Not just restrain-he’d seriously manhandled him.
Trying not to show his pain, he stepped away from the brother, which put him farther away from Elizabeth. He peered at her in the shadowy light. He couldn’t see her face clearly.
“I want you two to go,” she said, her voice sounding huskier than normal.
“No way,” the brother named Sebastian said. He crossed his arms over his chest and shot Jensen a look that matched Christian’s.
“Elizabeth, just let us make him leave.”
Jensen found his voice. “If she wants me to leave, I will.” He peered at her, willing himself to see her expression. “But Elizabeth, you have to tell me to go. Not these guys.”
Christian made a noise low in his throat, and took a step toward Jensen. Jensen didn’t move, but he did brace his body to take another hard hit to the barn wall.
But before Christian could make contact, Elizabeth grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.
“No! Don ’t touch him.”
Christian looked as if he wanted to shake his sister’s hand off and attack.
“Jensen, I do want you to stay.”
“Eliza-” Sebastian started, but Elizabeth turned and glared at him.
“You two need to go. And I need to talk to Jensen by myself.”
Christian and Sebastian looked at each other, then reluctantly stepped away from Jensen. They didn’t leave, but they moved from between their sister and the man that they obviously thought was the spawn of Satan.
“Go on,” she said, like she was shooing away a bothersome pair of vermin.
“Elizabeth,” Sebastian started again, but Elizabeth’s raised hand stopped him.
“I’m a big girl. I can handle this.”
Again the brothers looked at each other, the need to argue clear even on their partially shadowed faces.
“Please,” she added. “Leave us alone.”
Jensen had the feeling that she knew what she was doing. “I can handle my
self,” she told them.
“It isn’t you that we’re worried about,” Sebastian stated, and even with the lack of lighting, Jensen could see that he was looking at him like he thought he was a degenerate.
Their reaction seemed a little over the top, given that they knew virtually nothing about him other than that he’d been interested in Elizabeth, and then he’d showed up with another woman. While that had been stupid, it hardly merited being smashed, repeatedly, against the side of a barn.
He fought the urge to rotate his aching shoulder.
“You don’t have to worry about me or him,” she said. Then she added in a flat tone, “Both of you should know, if anyone can handle a situation, it’s me.”
Jensen studied her, trying to decipher what her words and tone meant. She sounded ashamed. Was she ashamed of what had happened between them? Was she ashamed of her behavior? Because he’d be the first to remind her that he’d gone along with everything very, very willingly. In fact, he’d encouraged it.
Of course, saying anything like that in front of her irate brothers was akin to a death wish.
“Go!” she said again, the one word just a fraction of a decibel from a full-fledged yell.
“Elizabeth,” Sebastian said, his tone almost coaxing.
“ Don ’t. Don ’t do that,” she warned him. Apparently that was a tone he’d used with her before. “I can handle this.”
The brothers hesitated, but then Christian finally nodded. “You call me if you need anything.”
She nodded, not moving, still watching them as if she knew if she turned her back, they might not leave.
They both gave pointed looks at Jensen. Looks that clearly stated he was a dead man if Elizabeth ended up hurt.
He didn’t intend to hurt her.
As soon as they left, speeding away in a silver Porsche that easily cost as much as the bar Christian owned, Jensen took a step toward Elizabeth.
She held up her hand to stop him, just as she’d done with her brothers. Again, he wished that the lights from the porch weren’t behind her. He really wanted to see her face, to see her eyes.