by Cecilia Lane
The primal, needed-to-get-laid side of her lolled out her tongue at the display. Strong, fierce man wanted to keep her safe.
The logical, who-the-fuck-was-he-kidding side cut through the bullshit. He’d apologized for acting like a dick. He’d showed off pictures of the cow he let her think was his girlfriend. But those tiny acts were nothing compared to the crater of hurt he’d blasted the day he left.
She couldn’t trust him. That was the painful reality. He’d given up every ounce of trust and goodwill when he couldn’t be honest about why he left.
And she was an idiot to get anywhere near him again. She didn’t want to get burned. She couldn’t go through another round with him.
“Yeah, you said so before.” Liv rolled her eyes. “Or was that just because you were trying to drive me away? I’m curious, do you still want to get lunch or are you just looking for someone you can order around?”
She plucked the letter from his hands and quickly scanned its contents before crumbling it at tossing it in the trash. “This is nothing but more of the same. Getting warned away from the enclave is pretty common for everyone in the building.”
She was saved from more growly objections by the team returning from their lunch break. Their laughter and good mood died as they passed through the door. Too many eyes passed from her to Alex and back again on a continuous loop.
“Everything okay?” Matt asked.
“Alex was just leaving. We have a kit to process this afternoon,” Liv said smoothly.
“Liv—” he tried once more, a hint of concern in his green eyes.
Screw his concern. He didn’t have any for her years ago. She didn’t need it now.
“Thanks for stopping by. Please call next time to make sure someone else is here to help you.” Liv sank back into her seat and spun away from him. The others quickly made way for him as he growled out the door in a huff.
Chapter 12
He was being stalked.
Deathday cards were one thing. The asshole knew where to send them.
Showing up in his enclave, his town, was something else. An escalation. One Alex couldn’t abide. The fragile control he maintained shredded into nothing while the bastard remained at large.
Find him. Kill him.
He wanted the nightmare to end.
And Liv... Liv was a complication. A distraction. One he couldn’t afford. Someone he couldn’t put in the line of danger.
But she already was.
He replayed all their interactions since she showed up on the ranch and uncorked all the bullshit he’d bottled up. Each one ended in rejection. But the frequency and the high emotions, plus that damn kiss... Somewhere, he’d put a target on her back.
And he couldn’t keep away. He tried telling himself he just needed to check for his monster’s scent, but a deep voice in his head called him a fucking liar.
Liv wasn’t safe. Not from him, and not from his monster.
The thoughts didn’t curb his instinct to protect. She was his. Had been for years. He’d just been wise enough to stay away. Now that she was so near, there was only one direction for him to move.
Closer.
But she wasn’t at the cabin. She was all the way back at the ranch, safely stashed away with the other mates.
Her place was safe. Quiet. No sign of his monster.
Yet.
Alex put his nose to the ground and ran. Through trees. Along the river. Out of the mountains and back toward the ranch.
Track him. Find him. Kill him.
The triple desires morphed from the litany he’d recited since he’d been changed. Another objective added to the list.
Keep Liv safe.
The ground churned under his paws. He ran and stopped. Sniffed. Ran again.
The perimeter of the ranch was coated in familiar smells and small tufts of fur. Black Claw, all of them. His clan. His people.
Frustration built inside him as the night wore on. Nothing out of the ordinary reached his nose.
His muscles burned by the time he doubled back and ran toward the living quarters. Two big structures sat on a hill overlooking the land. A short distance away were the huts for the rest of them. Unease crept up his spine as he slowed his pace.
He wanted more than the empty home he’d walk into, the cold bed that waited for him, and the dull throb of his temples.
But he had more to do before going back to his dark home. Bright lights spilled out of the main house in a cheery sort of way. If he listened hard enough, he could hear the faint murmurs of feminine voices. The mates were gathered inside. While they talked and drank and did whatever secret girl shit that required signs on the doors declaring NO BOYS ALLOWED, he ran the perimeter and made sure they were safe.
Alex pulled up short.
There. Faint. No less rage inducing as the tiny thread he’d inhaled on the trail.
His monster.
He backed up and tried to catch a trace of it again, but the stench vanished like a wisp.
Old. Too old to track properly, but that didn’t stop him from trying.
Frustration and fury roared a challenge into the night. Monsters hid in the darkness and under beds. He wanted to shine a bright light on the bastard and finish him off. No more waiting for mysterious cards to arrive. No more dreading sleepless nights or the nightmares when he finally gave in. He wanted to close the entire, painful chapter and write a new book with red ink.
He’d gone after Liv. The line was crossed. His fate written in stone. His bear shoved sendings through his mind of blood and death.
Alex pushed his nose to the ground again. Five feet, maybe less, was all he could track. Another snarl sawed in and out of him with every breath.
How? How had he gotten onto the ranch without anyone knowing? Where the fuck was the rest of his trail?
He paced the spot. He pawed at the dirt. Marked the area with his own presence because he’d be damned if he let the bastard take even a square foot of land from him.
There was a soft chuff to his left and he rounded on the noise. Alex raised his lips in a vicious snarl before he recognized the small party of four big bears.
His clan. His people.
Ethan stepped out in front of the others and dropped his head to the ground. Hunter, blond fur a stark contrast against the dark night, shoved his way past Jesse. Jesse gave a warning growl, then took a sniff before stepping away for Lorne to pick up the scent.
Ethan growled and the bears split. Jesse and Lorne ran in one direction. Ethan and Hunter took another. His own bear still snarling away with visions of red death, Alex took off after his alpha.
Didn’t matter how big of an asshole he was to them, they still had his back.
Fuckers didn’t deserve his trouble, same as Liv. They had lives. Most of them had mates. He brought danger to their doorstep.
Only one way to repay that debt.
Track him. Find him. Kill him.
Protect the clan.
Keep Liv safe.
Chapter 13
Liv carefully sipped her beer while Tansey applied the last coat of black polish to one hand. The other was already done and one nail smudged, but the pile of chips next to her was well worth the trouble.
In the background, a Brat Pack movie played out a teenage drama and coming of age story. Joss claimed she knew every line of the script and Liv secretly fist-bumped her in solidarity.
Across from her, Sloan pressed a button on the blender. The room was big and opened to a spacious kitchen. Necessary, from what she understood. The rooms upstairs regularly filled with guests for the bed-and-breakfast side of the business Tansey and Joss ran. They needed all the stove burners they could get.
Bear heads were carved into the railing posts and stood guard over the stairs. Exposed beams and wood walls kept with the cabin theme and made the open space feel cozy. The giant fireplace helped, too. Though it was empty, Tansey promised she was welcome to sit by it when the weather turned cold again.
Liv didn’t doubt for a
moment that the offer was real and not just an empty idea. The women of Black Claw were refreshingly honest and open.
“I’m going to die if you don’t hurry up,” Joss wailed dramatically. “I’m going to die if those cookies aren’t done soon, too.”
“None of us are attending your funeral,” Tansey teased. Joss stuck her tongue out in answer.
Sloan poured the blended drink into a red plastic cup. She stuffed a straw into the slush and garnished it with a tiny umbrella before presenting it with a flourish. “For our mother-to-be,” she announced.
“And done.” Tansey’s lips twitched with the grin she tried to hide. “Guess you’re an honorary Black Claw now.”
“Good. Maybe Alex will stop being such an a-hole.” Joss gazed longingly at the contents of her drink before slurping on the straw. She groaned with pleasure and rolled thankful eyes toward Sloan. “I can’t even tell the difference.”
“That’s because your taste buds are faulty,” Tansey snickered.
“We lose our heightened senses when we’re knocked up,” Joss lamented to Liv. “Can’t shift, can’t smell, can’t taste.”
“Ain’t motherhood grand?” Sloan teased as she added alcohol to the blender and remixed the drink to her preference. “I guess that means the normies outnumber the freaks.”
“This freak will still bite your face off before you can even think about pulling your gun,” Tansey said in a sing-song voice. She punctuated it with a raised middle finger, which Sloan answered with one of her own.
“I guess I’ll just drink this all on my own,” Sloan countered.
“Can I trick you into bringing me another bottle, then?”
“Ooh, me too, please and thanks,” Liv added.
Sloan nodded along, then brought nothing but her own drink back with her when she settled on a couch next to Joss.
Tansey sighed heavily and pushed to her feet. She crossed into the kitchen, tucked two bottles under her arm, and grabbed another bag of chips to add to the spread. Liv reached for the offered beer, but Tansey jerked it just out of reach.
“Now that you’ve taken guest right and been initiated properly into our cabal of troublemakers,” she said, “you have to dish. Alex. What the hell? What did you do to turn him into a raging assbutt?”
Liv squirmed under the attention that swung her way. “He’s always been like that. Never could keep his mouth shut when needed.”
“Well, dammit, Liv. There go my dreams of peace and quiet,” Tansey scolded.
Joss giggled. “As if either of those things exist when you’re around.”
Sloan gave her a high five.
Liv took the bottle when Tansey held it out a second time and mulled what she wanted to say. The past was in the past and, despite her bumps and bruises, there was no changing it.
The present was simply confusing.
Avoiding her and telling her to leave turned into a kiss turned into walking away like she didn’t matter. A meltdown at the bar resulted in more running away and hurt. Cold shoulders were just as painful.
And then there was the visit to the lab. Night and day, hot and cold. She didn’t know what to make of it.
Of anyone in the enclave, the women she sat and drank with felt the safest to speak her mind. She didn’t need to worry about coloring their opinion of Alex; they already had a vibrant understanding.
“He got weird the other day when he came by to relay Sloan’s invitation.”
Sloan’s eyebrows arched in confusion. “Relay what now?”
“The invite,” Liv repeated. “He said you made him promise to ask me over.”
Sloan shook her head, eyebrows shooting together. “I never asked him that. I was going to shoot you a message, but he told me he ran into you.”
“Outright lies. Bet you wish you weren’t so human now, huh?” Tansey said into her bottle.
“You’re missing the bigger point.” Joss hugged a pillow to her stomach and wiggled in place. Her voice fell to what Liv could only describe as a yelled whisper. “He made sure Liv came over!”
Tansey pointed to the redhead. “Put a pin in that.” She switched focus to Liv. “Explain ‘got weird.’”
“He freaked out over a letter I got at work. Inhaled it hard enough I thought he’d suck it right up his nose, then demanded that I come back here with him.”
“Did he?” Tansey asked softly.
“What do you know?”
“I shouldn’t say—”
“Well, that’s some double standard garbage right there.”
Tansey made a face. “I don’t know everything. Hell, I don’t think even Ethan does. Alex gets worse this time of the year because it’s when he was turned. And the rogue who did it taunts him by sending shit in the mail.”
Silence hung heavy in the room until Sloan muttered, “Shit.”
“But you were bitten and you’re not…” Liv trailed off.
Liv’s heart tightened with pity. He’d hurt her so much, but she wasn’t made of ice. Clearly, he struggled. Tansey gave her even more insight into that horrible time. Alex didn’t seek out a shifter. The change had been forced on him. There was no quick healing, either, when the bastard kept reopening the wound.
“Crazy? Struggling? Pushing everyone out of my way every single damn second of the day?” When Liv nodded, she shrugged. “I still struggle. But I also had my mate from the very beginning. Alex was on his own. That he survived was a damn miracle.”
Mate. Hearing the word with such reverence was becoming commonplace, as was the longing it triggered. The word and talk of Alex made her head spin even more than the drinks she’d had over the course of the night.
Sloan dipped her chin, seriousness etched across her features. “Part of our job at the SEA is to make sure those deemed a danger to society are treated humanely. Packs and clans have a chance to step in and handle the problem first, but we’re there to act if they don’t. There’s a reason why it’s a death sentence to forcibly change someone. They don’t always make it out whole. Sometimes they’re too far gone.”
Joss reached forward and squeezed her hand. “He’s stubborn. But I think you are, too. Maybe he’ll open up about what happened with you.”
“I think that ship has long sailed.” But she made a silent wish that no one in that room or wherever the men had been banished had to deal with such a final outcome as death.
She was saved from any more probing by the oven dinging. Tansey and Sloan were the first to their feet and into the kitchen. Tansey proudly pulled out a tray of cookies and waved a hand over the obscene shapes.
Liv giggled at the penis cutouts, but it was the one in the very center with extra bits of dough arranged in a splatter at the tip that was the masterpiece.
“Now I can truly tell you all to eat a dick.”
Tansey beamed a proud grin at her. “That’s the Black Claw spirit!”
Liv tucked an arm under her head and watched the final scenes of the movie without really taking it in. Her head still felt a little fuzzy and her stomach was deliciously full. Few dick cookies remained by the time the other woman started nodding off.
The front door creaked open. Liv glanced up to see Alex raise a finger to his lips and jerk his head for her to follow.
Wanting to see what he was up to, she eased to her feet. None of the others stirred.
She ghosted after him into the kitchen. Almost as soon as she did, three others streamed through the door. Polite nods all around, but the men had eyes on their targets. Hunter scooped Joss up, and she snuggled against his chest as he walked right back out the door. Tansey and Sloan were roused enough to make it to their own feet and wave tired farewells before being ushered off to their beds.
Which left her alone with Alex.
“Were you out there all night waiting on us?” she blurted.
Something uncertain flickered in his eyes before he hid it away again. “We patrolled,” he said gruffly. “Had to make sure no one snuck up on you ladies in your delicat
e states.”
“Delicate.” Liv snorted. “Just tipsy.”
“Better work on that, then.” He opened the fridge and pulled out two beers. Once he popped the tops and handed her one, he slid to the floor and stretched his legs out with an air of casual sexiness.
Liv cautiously sank to the floor opposite of him. Silence made the air hard to breathe. Or maybe it was just being around him when he wasn’t ping-ponging between high emotions. Liv picked at the label on her bottle, unsure of what to say as the years of distance spanned the space between cabinets.
“Been a while since we’ve done this.” Alex tipped his head back and took a long pull from his bottle, eyes still locked on her.
Late nights after the party wound down, they’d find themselves nursing their last drinks on a kitchen floor. So many deep conversations happened then. So many plans for the next day. Where to get the best breakfast for a hangover, for starters. Maybe catching a movie after. Where they saw themselves in ten years.
“Mmm.” She took a sip of her own beer. “Even before... everything.”
“We got busy. Spending Saturday nights at a house party just wasn’t it anymore.”
“Part of growing up, I guess. Saturdays at home weren’t so bad.”
“No,” he said, one corner of his mouth lifting in a cocky smile. “Not bad at all.”
Cheeks warming under his scrutiny, Liv ducked her eyes. So much had changed, but some stayed exactly the same.
Wanting off the memory train, she took another sip from her bottle and quirked an eyebrow at him. “Is there really a calf?”
“You saw her.”
“I saw a picture of one on your phone. Give me five seconds, and I can get one of those, too.” She bit her lower lip. “Besides, I have reason to not believe you.”
She expected a flare of anger in his eyes or a complete shutdown. Maybe a mocking grin and some snippy comment. She didn’t expect him to spread his hands wide and tilt his head to concede the point.
“You have every right to question me.” He stood suddenly and held out his hand to help her to her feet. “Come on. I’ll prove it to you.”