The Heir

by Ariana Rodriguez

  She had not seen him in weeks and her treacherous heart skipped a beat at the sight of him.

  With a not too steady hand she rolled down the window. "Today seems to be filled with surprises," she said, avoiding his eyes from fear that she would give her feelings away. "Like I told your master, I have things to do."

  She released the brakes and started to back out again without giving him a chance to reply but Christian had other ideas. He reached down through the opened window, unlocked the door, opened it and jumped in. Dani immediately slammed on the brakes and looked at him.

  "What do you think you're doing?"

  "I'm tagging along." Christian smiled at her as he reached for the seat belt and buckled up. "Where are we going?"

  "You weren't invited, get out."

  Christian shook his head and chided her. "Is that the way you talk to your-"

  "Don’t say it," she told him fiercely. "Don’t you dare say it."

  "It's not going to go away," Christian murmured. "I'm not going to go away."

  Her hands tightened on the steering wheel until the blood went out of them. "Get out," she gritted.

  "Tell me where she is."

  "Go to hell."

  "I'm already there." He told her softly.

  Dani threw her head back and laughed jaggedly. "You were always the comedian." She looked bitterly at him and spat out, "You know nothing about hell."

  Christian shook his head. It was always the same argument and it never got them anywhere. Nothing he said could get through to her and he couldn't blame her.

  He couldn't blame her.

  He deserved her scorn, he'd left her when she needed him the most and he would never forgive himself. She might not believe him but every day without her was hell. He would have to live with his mistakes for the rest of his life but he couldn't give her what she most wanted; her freedom. He refused to live without her, he'd give her time but not her freedom, never that.

  He told her that and Dani shook her head.

  "You and Nick are the same; you only care about your wants. You don't care about who you hurt. You guys are like fire, uncontrolled, destroying everything in your path."

  Christian shook his head. "That's not true."

  Dani continued over his denial. "You do whatever you need to do to get what you want. You used me to get the information you needed and left as soon as you got it," she accused him, every word leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. "You took advantage-"

  "Don’t," He interrupted. “Don’t cheapen what we had-have."

  Danielle, turned off the ignition, unbuckled her seatbelt and turned in her seat to face him, her blood boiling and ready to explode. "No, you did that! I’m only putting a name to what you did! You used me and left me to deal with the aftermath. You used me!"

  She snapped. After all this time of keeping it all bottled inside, she snapped. Every word she spoke, she punctuated with a punch to his chest. It was wrong.

  She knew it was wrong but all the pain she'd kept bottled inside came surfing up and she wanted him to feel a fraction of the anguish she lived with every day. The sorrow that bore down on her soul which she carried like a dirty little secret, for what she'd lost all those years ago.

  With every hit, the vault where she hid her grief opened a little more until she felt like exploding from within.

  Christian closed his eyes, clenched his jaw and accepted every hit. He didn't raise his hands and try to stop her. He didn't try to protect himself; he took every blow as his due.

  In reality her soft punches didn't hurt him.

  It was the sight of her tormented face before she collapsed against him and the heart wracking sobs that hurt him like no blow ever could. Christian took a tentative breath and slowly, trying not to startle her, wrapped his arms around her. Dani grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and he froze thinking she meant to push him away.

  She only held on tighter and her tears undid him. Thinking of only halting her cries, he pulled back, cupped her face gently, closed his eyes and lowered his lips to hers.

  Blindly, his mouth searched for hers.

  He groaned when he found it and groaned again when she didn't push him away.

  She released her hold on his shirt and raised her hands to bury them in his hair. She kissed him with desperation, trembling with violent emotion, and held on to him as if he was the only thing anchoring her to sanity.

  Christian’s hands lowered to her rib cage and they tightened around her for a second; he was rocked by her reaction to his kiss. His desperation mirroring hers, he kissed her, nipping at her lips; tasting her tears.

  When they finally broke apart, they were both gasping for air.

  Dani hid her face in the crook of his neck; he buried his face in her hair, reveling in her scent, and whispered, "I would have stayed if I'd known, I never would have left. God, Dani, I would have stayed."

  Dani stiffened, upon his declaration. "It doesn't matter anymore," she told him.

  His arms tightened around her. "It does matter. I should have been there."

  Dani pushed herself away from him and Christian reluctantly let her go. She straightened in her seat, pulled the visor down and repaired, as best she could, the damage her tears and their kiss had caused. She didn't really care about her appearance; she only needed those moments to get her emotions back under control.

  "It doesn’t matter," she reinstated. She looked at him without emotion, as if their kissed had meant no more than a hello from a passerby, as if he was a total stranger.

  A stranger, not her mate.

  "I'm moving on with my life," she continued. "And like I told Nick, so is Jessica. This was all a mistake we all need to move on. Forget about each other, forget we ever meant anything to each other and find someone else."

  "We mate for life," Christian reminded her. "You’ll be the only one I will ever want."

  His declaration made her heart skip a beat but she refused to be moved. Once burned twice shy.

  "I am not one of your kind." Dani took a deep breath and, knowing he could sense a lie, added with all the conviction she could muster, "and I don't want you."

  Christian hid his pain behind a smile, it was an automatic reaction; he couldn't let her see just how much her words gutted him. "I know how to change your mind if you want to give it a try." He wagged his eyebrows. "Just say the words."

  "You will never change." Dani shook her head. "It's all a joke to you. But I'm no longer your toy; maybe you should stop playing games and grow up."

  "You were never a game."

  Dani let out a sound of frustration. "We are going in circles again." She buckled up, turned on the ignition but, and faced forward, her hands on the steering wheel. "Get out. I have nothing else to say to you."

  "Fine, let's not talk about us. Let's talk about Jessica, we need to find her, she's in danger-"

  "Ha!"

  Christian bit back a growl and continued through gritted teeth. "-Nick is out of his mind; please tell me where to find her."

  "Nick deserves everything he is getting. Get out or I'm calling the cops."

  Christian noticed the stubborn tilt of her chin, the ramrod straightness of her back, and knew it was a lost cause. Sighing in defeat; he unbuckled himself, opened the door and got out. He closed the door and leaned down to look at her through the rolled down window, willing her to look at him but she never turned.

  "I'm leaving tomorrow for a couple of weeks. I'll come see you when I get back."

  Her heart felt as if she was running a marathon but she didn't answer him. She rolled up the window, put the car in reverse and backed out on to the street, aware of the pair of brown eyes that followed her car until she was out of sight.

  Feeling like she'd just been through the ringer she released a deep breath but didn't relax.

  She still had a lot to do before she could relax. First on the list was losing the wolves tracking her, per Jessica’s instructions, she'd spent the last couple of weeks practicing and was s
ure she'd perfected the art in anticipation of this day.

  Today she would be seeing Jessica for the first time in months.

  Christian watched her go. When she turned off the street he walked back to the car where Axel sat waiting for him. He got in the passenger seat without saying a word and told him to drive. Axel looked at him for a second, his somber outlook so out of character, then shrugged and started the car.

  After a couple of minutes of silence, Axel peeked at him and trying to lighten the mood commented, "I think you're losing your touch."

  Christians only reply was a glare, where usually he would have shot back with a smart reply.

  As a mood lightener it fell flat but Axel was disconcerted; Christian’s grave countenance was out of character. He could count with one hand the times he remembered Christian being this somber. In fact every time it had to do with the mystery girl...

  Axel did a double take and glanced at Christian. "Is that her?"

  Christian stiffened but didn't turn to look at him. "Drop it."

  It was answer enough.

  From previous experience, Axel knew that prying would get him nowhere and decided to change the subject. "So what are we going to tell Nick?"

  Christian turned to look out the passenger window and exhaled a deep breath filled with frustration. "The same thing we keep telling him, no dice."

  "He doesn't look good. Do you think it’s true?" Axel asked. "What they say, that you can die without your mate?"

  "It’s not true." He told him in a dead tone.

  But every breath you take makes you wish it was, he added to himself.

  Chapter 24

  Miles away, Nick's thoughts were running along the same line.

  Every breath was torture. He felt like a man treading water in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. His desperation was suffocating him; he couldn't seem to get enough air into his lungs. Nick took a deep breath and tried to rub away the ache over his heart.

  It was pointless

  Nothing took the pain away; he found solace in nothing, not even in sleep. The nights were unbearable; in his sleep, his worst fears came to life. The vivid nightmares, of a life without Jessica or finding her too late, kept him from seeking his bed until he was overtaken with fatigue.

  And every day that went by, he found it harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning.

  Suddenly, he heard a noise and snapped around, his hackles raised and lips curled up, to face the intruder.

  "I knew I'd find you here."

  Matt spoke in a calm voice, with his eyes lowered to the ground, as he stepped in to view. Upon noticing the submissive stance Nick stifled back a growl. He fisted his hands, hung his head back and took a deep, calming, breath of the forest air.

  Of the woods that surrounded his home, this was his favorite spot; the boulder where he had shared his first meal with Jessica. Most days, he spent his free time here. Reminiscing of that long ago day and the many other ones he had spent with her. Those were the memories that kept him going; reminiscing always brought a smile to his face.

  "Just talked to Christian," Matt told him.

  Matt's tone of voice clued him in on what was coming and Nick began to pace back and forth feeling like a caged animal. Most days he acted like one too. His despair was causing him to lose the tight grip he had on his wolf. Little by little his wolf was taking over.

  Matt noticed when he looked into his eyes and told him in a soft voice lazed with a hint of authority, "calm down Nick."

  Nick snapped around and growled. "Calm down? You ask me to calm down when you don’t even know what it feels like-"

  "Yes I do," Matt told him softly.

  The soft admission took the wind out of his sails and Nick slumped down on the ground.

  "I hate this," he whispered hoarsely. "I hate feeling useless. I feel like we are back at square one."

  A few years back when he learned that the phoenix pack wasn't completely extinct and that Cade had an heir, a female daughter, Nick's plan began to form in his mind but first he had to find the heir.

  It had not been easy.`

  He'd still been under his father’s rule and as the apparent heir of the pacific pack he'd been unable to go anywhere without raising suspicion. He'd had to rely on his best friends to find the Robertson’s and when he found out that they'd switched their baby daughter with another baby girl, he'd sent Christian to keep an eye on them knowing that the true Heir would have to show up at some point.

  He'd sent Christian because he was the youngest of them. He could pose as a high school student and get close to Danielle. He could come and go without raising suspicion, something Nick could not do, then or now.

  Nick punched the boulder with all his might in frustration. It left his hand red and pulsing with pain but Nick welcomed the pain, it let him know that he was still alive. Curling and uncurling his hand, he cursed the boulder and his stupidity.

  He cursed Jessica for leaving without letting him explain. He cursed himself for his inability to speak about what was in his heart. And he cursed the council most of all; cursed them for not trusting him.

  He couldn't actively search for Jessica because he was too busy leading those who wished her harm on a wild goose chase. Instead he had to send his most trusted people out to look for her and each time they returned it was with the same result.

  "Now what do I do?" Nick asked Matt. "It looks like they bought a plane ticket for every plane leaving every airport in the country and it looks like they are all dead ends." Nick shook his head imagining the amount of money they must have spent to get her away from him. "It's been so long, the trails are getting cold, and where do I look now?" He whispered, sounding lost, looking at the ground.

  Matt sat down next to him without a word and gave Nick a couple of seconds to compose himself because Matt was sure that what he was about to say was going to rattle him even more. "We need to start checking hospitals," he told him softly.

  "Hospitals?" Nick looked at him and shook his head. "She is a shifter she has no need for doctors. Unless she is dyi-" The afterthought had him going pale.

  "Or pregnant," Matt added quickly and softly.

  Nick looked at Matt dazedly and parroted, "Pregnant?"

  Matt nodded, "thought so."

  "Thought what?"

  "That you were oblivious to the change in her scent."

  "What?" Nick felt like a broken record, saying the same thing over and over again, but he'd lost the ability to string together a coherent sentence when Matt dropped the bomb.

  "I noticed that her scent had changed but-"

  "Damn you!" Nick pushed Matt to the ground, he landed on top of him grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up until they were nose to nose and growled. “Damn you! Why didn't you tell me this four months ago?!"

  "At first I thought you knew," Matt explained as calmly as he could, "then as time passed and you didn't say anything I realized that you didn't know-"

  "And that's when you should have clued me in!" He emphasized his frustration by shaking Matt like a rag doll. "I did notice the change in her scent but I thought it was due to the serum weakening and the unleashing of her power." Nick explained, “You should have told me!" He growled again and gave Matt a shake to emphasize his frustration.

  Using his elbows to support himself, Matt took a deep breath and told him softly, "I didn't think it would take as this long to find her. I didn't tell you because I wanted to save you from yourself-I've noticed," Matt confided. "I've noticed that it’s getting harder and harder for you to control your wolf I didn't want to give you something more to worry about but it’s been five months."

  Five months.

  The reminder of the time that had passed was like another kick in the solar plexus. In a daze, Nick slacked his hold on Matt’s shirt and allowed him to scoot out from underneath him. He sat back down on the ground unceremoniously and ran both of his hands through his hair. Deep in his subconscious mind, Nick
had known that Jessica could be pregnant but just like Matt he'd locked away the possibility from himself in an attempt to protect his sanity.

  "Oh god Matt, she doesn't know that-"

  Suddenly Nick was interrupted by his sister, "Nick! I have to talk to you!"

  Nick and Matt shot up off the ground and turned towards the sound of Sarah’s cries.

  "Nick!"

  "What the hell is she doing here?" Matt growled as he took a step forward, "I made it clear to her that she was no longer allowed here. I'll handle this."

  Nick shot his hand out and stopped him, "Don't, let the guards handle it."

  Matt took a deep breath and nodded. Standing next to each other, they stood in silence and listened to the sound of the ensuing struggle between Sarah and Nicks bodyguards. In an attempt to erase the picture of them touching his mate, Matt closed his eyes, took a deep breath. Immediately he realized it was a mistake.

  Sarah's scent invaded his senses and it took all of his control to stay put. He gritted his teeth, fisted his hands at his sides and hardened his heart against the sound of her struggles all while reminding himself that he was better off without her.

  That he no longer wanted her.

  "Let me go!" They heard her shriek, "I need to speak with my brother, its important. Get your hands off of me!"

  "Sorry, we have our orders."

  "Let me go! Nick, please!" They could clearly hear her struggling against the guards but neither Nick nor Matt made a move to go to her rescue, "I know you can hear me! I have to talk to you, it’s about Jessica!"

  Nick took off towards his sister like a horse who'd been given free rein. He flew off so fast that Matt had no chance of stopping him. She wanted an audience with him and she'd gotten it. For her sake Nick hoped that using Jessica’s name wasn't just a ploy to get his attention.

  "Let her go."

  The words were spoken softly; he didn't need to scream to be heard. A gust of wind carried his power lazed words straight to his guards. He caught up to them just in time to watch the guards step away from his sister while Sarah straightened herself.

  "Be warned Sarah, if this is just another one of your ploys...you are dead to me."