by R. E. Butler
He left her in the room and she stood in stupefied wonder for a moment before snapping to action. It didn’t take her long to fill a backpack and a small suitcase from her closet with clothes and toiletries and get dressed. She left her cell, iPad, and wallet on the dresser, taking only her driver’s license and some cash and slipping them into the zipper pocket of her backpack.
She walked out of the bedroom and found Wes pacing in the front room. He smiled in relief and took the suitcase from her hand. “Your brother is awesome.”
“I know.”
“They’re waiting for us. Are you ready?”
“Definitely.”
After she had donned her coat, they walked out of her apartment and she shut the door, looking down the hallway at her brothers’ apartment doors. She whispered “goodbye,” and followed Wes to the service entrance near the central gathering area by the foyer. A truck was idling at the side of the building.
Christian hugged her tightly. Her eyes blurred with tears. “I’ll miss you, Chris.”
“I’ll miss you, too, Scarlett. Be happy.”
He let her go slowly and she followed Wes around to the passenger side of the truck and climbed in to sit on the bench seat next to Ray. Christian leaned over and looked at them through the open window. “Take care of my sister, guys. I mean it.”
“We will,” Ray promised.
“Good. Then get the hell gone and be safe.” Christian smiled, his eyes bright with unshed tears.
Ray put the window up as he pulled away from the curb. He didn’t turn on the headlights until he pulled out onto the main street.
Nerves skated through her until they were outside Bent Creek’s city limits, and then, slowly, as the distance from Bent Creek grew wider, she relaxed. Their future stretched before them, and for the first time in weeks, she was excited to see what lay ahead.
Chapter 4
Wes felt like he was going to twitch out of his skin. He wanted to hold Scarlett, but aside from a few fiery kisses in her apartment, he wasn’t sure if he should touch her or not. She had admitted they were mates, but that didn’t mean that he had an all-access pass to her.
As if sensing his feelings, she reached for his arm and lifted it over her head and around her shoulders as she leaned into his side. She took Ray’s right hand and clasped it between both of hers. With a soft sigh, she said, “Do you hate me?”
Ray grunted in surprise. “Why would we hate you, sweetheart?”
“Because I disappeared and then wouldn’t let Melody tell you where I was. I feel like a total bitch, and I understand if you’re angry with me.”
Wes hugged her a little closer and kissed the top of her head. “We were frustrated and sad, but we never hated you. Melody, Tristan, and Micah wouldn’t tell us anything for weeks. Then Tristan finally told one of the pride males what the deal was and he told us.”
“We were scared for you,” Tristan said. “We didn’t want to just come to town without knowing where you were, but aside from telling us about your father’s plans for your future, we had no clue how to find you.”
“How did you find me?”
“The mate of two of our pride members saw your address when she was helping Melody with her thank you cards. If she hadn’t been nice enough to save your address, we’d still be sitting around with our thumbs up our asses wondering what was going on with you.” Ray’s voice got tight as he spoke and Scarlett stiffened.
Wes cupped her chin and tilted her face toward him. “Don’t be upset. We’re not mad at you. We were just so freaking worried.”
She blinked tear-filled eyes at him. “I missed you so much. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t cry,” Wes whispered, but she did just that, turning in to him completely and burying her face in his neck. He hated the sound of the sobs that made her whole body shake, and wished like hell that he and Ray had kept their mouths shut and just been thankful she was with them.
Ray glanced at him with a frown, but said nothing. Wes held Scarlett while she cried. His cat paced in worry and he wished they were anywhere but in the truck at the beginning of an eleven-hour drive to King.
Wes stroked his hand through her hair and gripped it lightly, pulling her head away from his shoulder to stare into her eyes. “Baby, we’re here now. We can put the past behind us and move forward from today. You’re ours, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered thickly.
“We’re yours. No one is forcing you to do anything you don’t want to do. You’re not going to wake up tomorrow morning and go through a mating ceremony with a stranger.”
“I’m still scared,” she confessed.
“No one knows we’re going to King except our dad and our uncle, who are putting us up. We’ll figure things out as we go, but the most important thing is that you’ll be safe and free to make your own choices,” Ray said.
“I wanted to choose you before,” she said. “I don’t want you to ever doubt that I cared about you.”
Wes glanced at Ray and then kissed her forehead. “We know you walked out because you cared. It sucks because we missed you, but we know why you did it. I love that you tried to protect us, but that’s our job now.”
“You’re sure we’ll be safe?”
“We wouldn’t take you to King if we didn’t believe it was the best place for you,” Ray answered.
She leaned back against the seat and took both of their hands. “Okay. I don’t want to talk about wolves or my family for a while. Tell me about your family.”
Wes loosened his seatbelt and turned a little more to face her and kissed the top of her hand. “What do you know about mountain lions?”
“Not much except what Melody has shared. I know that mountain lion females are bitches and that’s why her dad left King with her when she was a baby.”
Ray exhaled. “Mountain lion females aren’t just bitches, sweetheart, they’re cursed.”
As Ray explained the goddess’s curse on the mountain lions from eons ago that compelled the females to use the poison in their claws to infect young females, slowly poisoning them and dampening their emotions until they became cold and cruel adults, Wes thought back to their own mom. They’d only met her once, when they were eight, and their dad had taken them to see her. It seemed to be a rite of passage for young males. Their dads would take them to their birth mothers and then, when the mothers turned them away, they would know that there was no hope of ever connecting emotionally with the females.
“Oh, that’s so sad,” Scarlett said, squeezing Wes’s hand. “Your mom just ignored you when you were so young?”
Wes felt a familiar lump in his throat when he remembered that morning. He and Ray had dressed in their best clothes and their dad had taken them to an apartment building where many of the females lived. “It took her about ten minutes to come down to the lounge area on the first floor where males were allowed to visit. She was so pretty, with long, blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She strode into the room and met our dad and the first thing she said was, ‘Why do you insist on harassing me, Max? I gave you twins and let you keep both of them.’”
Scarlett gasped. “What did she mean, she let your dad keep you both?”
Wes swallowed hard, hating how the memory still affected him and made him feel worthless. “She apparently threatened our dad with giving one of us up for adoption unless he gave her more money.”
Ray said, “When our dad approached her to bear a cub for him, she said she wouldn’t unless he gave her a certain amount of money once one was born. He agreed, because he wanted a cub. Once she found out it was twins, she basically held us hostage before we were even born. He had to borrow money from his dad and our Uncle Miles in order to make the payment.”
Scarlett said, “We’re not so different, are we? Your mom saw you as a way to gain something, the way that my dad sees me as a way to expand his territory.”
“I guess not.” Wes hadn’t really thought about it like that, but she was right.
“You�
��re lucky to have a dad who loves you so much.”
“We’re lucky because of you, too,” Ray said. “We were just ambling through life until we met you.”
She cleared her throat after a long moment. “So what did your mom say after that devastating comment?”
“Nothing. She wouldn’t even look at us, she just turned on her heel and left. Dad hustled us out of the building and took us for ice cream. Ever since that day, I don’t eat it. It just makes me sad,” Wes confessed.
“Aw, damn it,” Scarlett said. “I thought this would be a happy conversation, but now all I want to do is find your mom and beat her senseless.”
Ray chuckled. “Our fierce mate.”
“Okay, so the females don’t even realize they’re harming the little girls, right? They don’t see the connection between using their claws on them and the end result?”
“Apparently not. You met Jilly at Melody’s wedding, right? She was poisoned by the females, but when she found her mates, they shared blood with her during a kiss and it erased the hold the poison had over her. The only way a female can be released from the curse is to find her mate or mates and share blood with them. We believe they have to be truemates, though, so the males can’t just go around biting females and sharing their blood with them.”
Scarlett wrinkled her nose. “I have a feeling that wouldn’t go over well with the females.”
“That’s an understatement,” Ray said.
“Did your dad believe that your mom was his truemate?”
Wes shook his head. “No. They were in school together and he thought she was pretty. Cats in my dad’s generation seem resigned to not mess with the status quo. They always hoped for something different, but they never attempted it. The females are vicious when it comes to competition for the males. If a human woman ever dated a male, the females would band together and attack her.”
Scarlett shivered. “Melody said there aren’t any females in King anymore, and that the males attacked her thinking she was trying to cause trouble.”
“They realized their error, but the King Pride is seriously anti-female-mountain lion.”
“I’m glad I’m not a mountain lion,” she said.
“We are, too,” Wes said, meaning it from the very bottom of his heart.
* * * * *
Ray stretched as he waited for Scarlett to finish up in the bathroom of the rest stop. They’d been traveling for three hours. He didn’t want to make too many stops because he just wanted to get to King and get settled, the sooner the better. But Scarlett’s stomach had been growling for the last hour and they’d decided that they could all use a little break.
Wes was standing in front of a row of vending machines and he looked at Ray. “Coffee?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“There’s not much selection here for breakfast. We could look for a restaurant.”
“I don’t want to waste that much time stopping. We can eat when we get to Dad’s.”
Wes nodded and fed money into the vending machine. A moment later, Scarlett strode out of the restroom and right into Ray’s arms. He hugged her close and when she tilted her face up, he kissed her. She made a soft sound in her throat, and he fought the urge to push her roughly against the wall and find out what other interesting sounds she could make.
“Hungry, love?” he said against her lips, kissing the corner before lifting away.
“Absolutely.” Her eyes danced.
He frowned, staring into her pretty eyes.
“What?”
“I swear your eyes were brown, Scarlett, but now they’re blue.”
She blinked slowly. “Blue? No, they’re brown.”
He shook his head. She left his arms and walked back into the restroom. He heard her exclamation of surprise even through the closed door. She walked back out with a puzzled look. “Maybe because I’m stressed out? I’ve always had brown eyes, just like my mom.”
“You never noticed before now?” Wes asked as he joined them.
“No.” She exhaled loudly.
“Well, they’re beautiful no matter what,” Wes said, kissing her cheek. “Do you want coffee?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Soda. I’m not a coffee girl.”
They walked to the machines and after she’d perused all six, she settled on a package of crunchy granola bars, a bag of corn chips, and a soda. He and Wes chose coffee and packages of mini chocolate donuts.
When they were on their way, Wes and Ray talked about their dad and uncle, the town of King, and being mountain lions. Ray thought it was interesting that Scarlett was the daughter of a wolf but would never shift, but he didn’t want to talk about her family since she’d declared it was an off-limits subject for now. In all the weeks they’d been missing her, he’d felt emotionally connected to her, but by the time they passed through the city limits of King, he felt like they’d known each other their entire lives. She was surprisingly candid about her romantic history, which amounted to little more than occasional dates and one-night stands because she wasn’t allowed to date seriously or have a boyfriend. She had gone to college to study art, because she loved to paint and sketch, and had wanted to be a teacher but her father had only allowed her to go for her bachelor of arts and wouldn’t allow her to get her teaching certificate.
Ray pulled his truck down the long driveway to his father’s home and parked behind the carport so the vehicle was hidden from the street. Not that he thought anyone had followed them, but they were planning to remain completely hidden until they knew that Scarlett would be safe.
“You can get your teaching certificate,” he told her as he turned off the engine.
Her eyes brightened. “Really?”
“Sure, sweetheart,” Wes said. “We want you to be happy, and if teaching art to kids will make you happy, then we’re all for it. There’s a community college outside of Ashland, and as a matter of fact, Rue’s son, Domino, is going to take art classes there, too.”
“He carved a horse statue for me. I wish I hadn’t had to leave it behind,” she said.
“When we’re ready and you’re safe, we can go back to Bent Creek and you can get your things,” Ray said.
“Or we could ask Christian to pack for you and make sure he gets the statue,” Wes suggested.
She looked at Ray seriously. “I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to go back to Bent Creek. Even if my father understands that you’re my mates, if he accepts it, there’s a good chance I won’t be allowed in his territory again. I might never see my brothers or my mom again.”
“I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” he said.
“Me, too. I’m sorry my life is so screwy.”
He smiled. “It’s a little better now, though, right?”
“Definitely. Did I say thank you for coming for me?”
Wes squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll always come for you, Scarlett.”
Ray opened the door and held out his hand and Scarlett took it and slid out, her feet crunching in the snow. He turned when he heard a screen door creak and found his dad standing in the open doorway.
“Welcome to King, Scarlett,” his dad said. “Come in out of the cold.”
Ray pushed the seat forward and grabbed their duffels while Wes gathered Scarlett’s bags. Then they led Scarlett into their childhood home. Ray set the duffel on top of the washing machine, hugged his dad and then pulled Scarlett into the kitchen where he hugged his uncle.
“Dad, Uncle Miles, this is our mate, Scarlett. Sweetheart, this is our dad, Max, and our Uncle Miles.”
He could tell his dad and uncle were surprised when Scarlett hugged them and thanked them for their help.
Max, cheeks pink with blush, said, “You’re their mate and that makes you part of our family, and I’d do anything for my family.”
Uncle Miles said, “Why don’t you kids get settled and freshen up and we’ll make lunch. Unless you stopped somewhere?”
Ray shook his head. “We only stopped for snacks. I want
ed to get here as soon as possible.”
“Okay. Grab your things and follow me to the basement.”
“Basement?” Wes asked.
“We want you to have privacy,” Max said.
Scarlett blushed brightly and Ray grinned. “Thanks, Dad.”
When they had their bags in hand, they followed Miles through the family room to an open door that led down to the basement. “We’ve made a lot of changes since you guys lived here,” Miles said as he walked out into the main room.
Ray whistled in surprise as he put his duffel down on top of a dresser. The large, open space had been divided up into bedroom and living areas. A large bed sat in one corner on top of a square of dark carpeting, along with a tall dresser and a nightstand. Long curtains had been hung from the ceiling, mimicking a wall and giving them the illusion of a separate room. On another square of carpeting sat a couch and coffee table, with a flat-screen television hanging from the wall. Under the TV was a mini fridge. In the corner by the couch was a small wood-burning stove. The small black stove was sitting on top of a decorative brick platform, with the stovepipe curving into the wall. Wood was burning inside, filling the room with heat and the rich scent of a wood fire. When he and Wes had lived at home, the basement hadn’t been finished; it had been more a forgotten level of the house where the Christmas decorations were kept than a place to put up family members when they visited.
Miles opened a door near the bedroom area. “The bathroom is small, but it’ll keep you from having to traipse upstairs every time you want to take a shower.”
Ray looked into the room and whistled in appreciation. The small room contained a stall shower, toilet, and a sink on top of a small cabinet. Three towels and three washcloths hung from a rack on the wall, and on the narrow counter were three toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a hairbrush.
“If you need any supplies, just put them on the grocery list on the fridge upstairs. The mini fridge is stocked with snacks and drinks, and there are napkins and cups in the basket under the sink here.”