by May Dawson
Every time he shoved deep inside me, his cock lit sparks across my g-spot. His fingers kept working mercilessly against my clit, until I was hot and aching.
Then I came apart in his arms, screaming his name, and a bird nearby screamed back as if I’d just scared the shit out of it.
He started laughing, his chest heaving against my back as he shattered inside me. My knees were weak with the power of that orgasm as he slid out of me and spun me around, but I couldn’t help the waves of laughter that came over me too. The bird was still screaming at us, apparently exasperated by our sexcapades interrupting its nap in its nest.
Rafe and I collapsed into the leaves, my body on top of his, the two of us dissolving into laughter. When we finally began to calm a little, I kissed the corner of his mouth. It made me happy to see Rafe grin, to hear the man laugh. There’d been little enough laughter in his life, it seemed.
He kissed me back, and then suddenly, neither of us were laughing anymore. I straddled him again, his hands stroking across my ass, my thighs.
Let the bird scream.
Chapter Twelve
Blake
“Hey.” Chase knocked on the door to my room, leaning his shoulder in the doorway. “Did you pick up anything for Skyla’s birthday?”
“No. I will.”
“Do you know what you’re getting here?”
“Jesus, Chase, I’ve got it under control. It’s a week away.”
Chase frowned. “You don’t need to act like—”
“Are you even going to be back for Skyla’s birthday?” I demanded.
His lips knit together tightly, and his arms followed suit over his chest. After a second, his voice came out cool when he said, “I plan to be.”
“You plan to be,” I repeated. “What about Aunt Jennifer? What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re almost a grown man,” Chase told me. “There’s nothing wrong with you looking after Skyla.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you think you could tell her that? Do you think you could fix this before you gallivant off with your friends and your girl and just leave me to raise a fucking kid and deal with our bitch of an aunt—”
“Enough,” Chase said, his tone laced with steel.
“No, Chase,” I said. “This is enough.”
I grabbed my cell phone and headed for the door. My shoulder slammed into his because he didn’t move, shoving him back into the hall.
In one smooth move, he grabbed me and slammed me against the wall. Then he stopped, staring at me. He seemed more surprised than I had been.
“You’re a fucking monster,” I growled at him. “You think you can do whatever you want, then throw money at the problem. And how the hell did you get that money, anyway?”
Chase’s lips parted, as if he were going to answer me. Then he closed his mouth again, his hands falling.
Of course he just let me go rather than talk to me. I ran down the stairs, past a blur of surprised faces—who didn’t even belong in our house—and threw open the door.
As I stormed out of the house, Skyla chased after me, her bare feet pounding across the wooden floorboards of the front porch.
“Blake, wait!” she shouted.
I wanted to keep going. I took a few more long strides toward freedom, then stopped in the yard and turned around. Too many people had walked out on her over the years. I’d never be one of them.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice coming out harsh, despite my best efforts.
“Don’t leave like this,” she said. “You know Chase is leaving tomorrow for that school trip…”
I could barely contain the laugh that bubbled up in my throat. “Yeah, I know. He’s always leaving, isn’t he?”
She licked her lips, as if she were debating what to say next. Her eyes were wide, and once again it struck me how young ten really was, no matter how grown she thought she was.
“I’ll be back,” I promised. “Before he’s gone. You won’t be alone in the house.”
“I’m not afraid of being alone,” she scoffed, as if she was offended by the idea.
“Then what’s wrong?” I demanded.
“I’m afraid you two are going to keep fighting and not make up,” she said, her voice small.
I heaved a sigh. “Chase and I will always be family. All three of us—we’ll always look out for each other. I just need a break from him. From all this.”
I waved my hand at the big house. Chase thought because he bought us this house, with a pool and a hot tub and a huge yard, he’d really done something for us. I’d felt awed by the house at first, too, but then I saw the real cost.
I didn’t want to tell Skyla, but I had a feeling Chase was keeping secrets from us—big dangerous secrets, the kind that could put us all in danger. He won the lottery, my ass. Chase and I haven’t had a lucky break in our whole damn lives, I doubted one started now.
Not unless he made a deal with the devil.
But Skyla was still staring at me, her hazel eyes wide, and I couldn’t hurt her anymore. She needed someone she could count on, and that wasn’t Chase, not these days.
“I’ll be back tonight, all right?” I said gently. “And I’ll make up with Chase, okay? You don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll be back.”
She nodded at all my promises, her face still sad, then walked back into the house. I watched her slumped shoulders go—she looked even smaller in the oversized t-shirt she was wearing--and I heaved a sigh. I was letting her down too, but I couldn’t be enough to fill the holes in her life. I was never going to be enough.
I headed across the front yard to the sidewalk. I felt tense, waiting for Chase to come after me and yell at me more, and it wasn’t until I made it to the end of the block that I pulled my phone out of my pocket and texted Kit.
Meet me—usual spot?
Sometimes it took her ages to text me back, but this time, the reply was almost instant: you got it, boss.
Relief flooded my chest. I could spend some time with someone who seemed to get it… what I could tell her about it, at least. She seemed to get me.
I reached the old park first on the edge of town before she did, and ducked under the canopy of the trees. Yellow caution tape hung loose from the chain link fence and swayed from the breeze.
When the fancy new development went up that Chase moved us into, there had been several fancy new playgrounds installed, and this one—already run-down and in need of renovation—had been abandoned years ago. For Kit and I, this was a sanctuary, and it always struck me as strange more teenagers didn’t hang out here.
I hopped the fence, then climbed up the steps into the high tower that led to several different slides. I sprawled on the floor, cocking one arm under my head, and stared up at the graffiti. There were old layers of graffiti, but it was faded; the only new tags were Kit’s. She was an amazing artist. There was a new one on the wall; a big black-and-silver wolf, his teeth curled back malevolently.
My heart started to race, and I sat up so fast, my head bumped against the wall. I stared at the painting, wondering why it had struck me that way.
Kit’s cotton-candy pink hair entered my vision first, then the rest of her head followed. She boosted herself up into the treehouse on her skinny arms, then collapsed beside me. She was smiling as she looked toward me, then her eyes widened.
“You all right, Blake? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Nah, I’m fine.” I jerked my chin toward the artwork that was uniquely hers; I would’ve known it even without her initials curled at the end of the wolf’s tail. “Nice piece.”
“Thanks.” For a few long minutes, the two of us just lay there in comfortable silence. She lit a joint, then passed it to me, and we smoked in silence. Then she said, “So did you just have a sudden burning desire to see me? Which I totally understand…”
“Just couldn’t deal with my self-righteous brother and that house one minute longer,” I said.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “
I can see where you’re really oppressed by the pool and the air hockey table and the home theater. It’s hard being a rich white boy.”
I huffed a laugh at that. “Okay, yeah, I get that the whining isn’t cute. But it’s not like I really own anything. It all belongs to Chase.”
“The mysterious teenage millionaire,” she said.
“It’s not that mysterious,” I said, trying to push away my own fears about how he got that money.
“Oh?” She turned over onto her elbow. Her big eyes studied mine curiously. “Then why are you mad about it?”
“I’m not.”
“Do you ever feel like maybe you’ve forgotten something?” she asked, propping her stubborn chin on one hand. “I feel like that all the time. That I’m forgetting something I needed to remember, something important.”
I frowned. That was exactly how I felt, this constant nagging sense like I’d left my phone at home, but I’d thought I was alone. I had awful nightmares too—nightmares where I was sure I saw my brother as a monster—but they always faded before I could remember them in the daylight. It was a relief to have someone else name it, but also strange. “I’m a little young for dementia, thanks for asking.”
She rolled onto her back again and rested the heels of her hot pink Converse sneakers against the wall. She was cotton candy at the top and the bottom.
“What do you think of my art, Chase?” she said, her voice teasing as she tapped the toe of one shoe underneath the wolf’s front paws. “Normally you tell me nice things. I like hearing nice things.”
I grinned. “You’re such a girl.”
She smiled back at me. “You would know.”
I looked over her wolf. “What made you want to draw this?”
She shrugged. “I’ve never seen one, but you know people say there are wolves in the woods around here. Lots of them. You ever seen one?”
“No,” I said, studying the wolf’s glittering eyes.
But that no didn’t sit quite right. It felt like a lie, even though it wasn’t, and I frowned.
As I stared at the wolves’ eyes, they turned blue. I gasped and scrambled up onto my elbows, trying to get away. My head slammed into the wooden side of the tree house.
“Go on, Blake,” Kit said, her voice eager. “What do you remember?”
And then suddenly, lost memories played in my mind.
I remembered the night that Chase came to rescue me from my new friends back when I lived with Aunt Jennifer.
I remembered Chase turning into a wolf, right there in the front yard. He’d dropped to his hands and knees in the grass, then thrown back his head as fangs ripped out of his mouth. The sound of flesh and muscle tearing replayed, and my stomach lurched in response. I’d been so scared, and I could feel that fear all over again now.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice alarmed, reaching to touch my arm.
“No,” I said. “I… I don’t think I am.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she said, but she sounded almost pleased. I frowned, trying to figure out what was going on, as she ran her hand gently over my back. “We’ll figure it out together, Blake.”
Chapter Thirteen
Maddie
“Why did you walk into the woods barefoot?” Rafe demanded as he held his shirt out for me to slip on.
“Because I couldn’t run away from you fast enough wearing high heels?” I said, as if it were obvious.
“You can’t run away from me fast enough no matter what you’re wearing,” he said, before catching me around the waist and bending so he could slip an arm behind my knees. He straightened, scooping me up against his chest.
I looped my arms around his neck as he carried me toward the road beyond the trees.
When we emerged into the sunshine on the side of the road, Jensen’s black Suburban was parked in front of Rafe’s old sedan.
Jensen had already hooked up the sedan to the Suburban’s tow hitch, and he was sitting on the hood, lying back against the windshield to make himself comfortable with his book held over his face.
Jensen looked toward us and shook his head mock-disapprovingly as he set his book down on his chest. “Finally. And Maddie—what are you wearing?”
I guessed we did make a picture, Rafe carrying me while I was dressed only in his shirt and my panties.
“Rafe went to war with my clothing,” I told Jensen. “Apparently he thinks we’re living in a 1970’s era romance novel, and bodice ripping was required.”
Rafe grunted, throwing me over his shoulder so he had a free hand to open the backdoor to the Suburban. He deposited me carefully into the backseat. He’d slung the shreds of my dress over his shoulder too, and now he handed me the surviving pieces of my sundress.
Jensen jumped down off the hood of his car.
Rafe told him, “You’re going to dent the hood.”
Jensen shrugged. “Dad still hasn’t noticed it’s missing.”
“One day you’re going to get pulled over by the cops and be arrested for car theft, and I’m just going to laugh,” Rafe said.
“You’re welcome,” Jensen told him. “I don’t mind driving four hours roundtrip to rescue you one bit.”
Jensen braced his hands on either side of the door and leaned in to give me a peck on the lips. It was nice to have Jensen McCaueley kiss me hello.
Then that peck turned into a deeper, more lingering kiss, and it took a few long seconds for us to break apart.
“I got you something,” Jensen told me. “Lex and Will and I wandered through town for a while after graduation.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“You’ll have to wait to find out.” As he ruffled my hair, the boyish smile that lingered on his lips was sly. Then he closed my door for me, and as he got into the driver’s seat, he added, “Although maybe I should return my gift and save the money for Rafe’s Desperately Needed New Car Fund.”
Rafe scoffed, shutting the passenger door. “I think I can buy my own car.”
“We should’ve taken the motorcycle,” I said.
Rafe glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Not in those heels. I’m not taking you on the bike without jeans and a leather jacket, at a bare minimum.”
I would’ve rolled my eyes at his protective bossiness, but his gaze sharpened in the mirror, and I stuck my tongue out at him instead. He quirked an eyebrow. I was pretty sure that sticking out my tongue wasn’t better, in his book.
“Dragging your car, I feel I’m driving like Tyson,” Jensen complained, as we towed Rafe’s sedan back home, which forced us to drive the speed limit.
“I wish you all drove like Tyson,” Rafe said. “Especially you two. You two keep me up at night.”
“I’m a great driver,” I protested.
“How many cars have you wrecked in the past year?” Rafe asked.
“Under extraordinary circumstances,” I pointed out.
The three of us bickered all the way home, but then, that was part of home for us.
Jensen parked in front of Chase’s sprawling house. Even by my standards, this was quite the walk of shame for me, wearing nothing but Rafe’s shirt in bright daylight, and I glanced around before I got out of the backseat and raced for the door to the house.
I was relieved to make it into the entryway without anyone seeing me.
Chase was just coming down the stairs, and he stopped, his eyes going wide. “There’s a leaf in your hair,” he said, picking it out of my hair, then added, “Actually, there’s a lot more than… did you roll around on the forest floor?”
“Am I really expected to answer that question? I’m going to take a shower.”
He nodded. There was something bothering him, I could see it on his face.
“Do you want to come in with me?” I asked. “Keep me company?”
“Okay,” he agreed.
In the master bathroom, I ran a bath in the giant tub instead of starting a shower. The tub was just too inviting. Chase boosted himself onto the marbl
e counter.
“This is a lot nicer than being at the academy,” I said, stepping into the warm water with a happy sigh.
“Yeah.” Chase seemed lost in his own thoughts.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He sighed. “I just worry about Blake and Skyla. And now I’m leaving…it’s almost her birthday, I don’t know if I’ll be back in time.”
A birthday seemed small to me in comparison to protecting the packs, but then, the packs didn’t mean much to him. And I thought about my own birthday parties, surrounded by Piper and all her men, loved and cherished.
“We should take Skyla to Disney World,” I said, sinking down into the water. “I bet even Blake would have fun.”
He scoffed at that. “Blake’s accused me of throwing money at any problem we have. I’m not sure he’d go for that.”
“Everyone likes Disney World,” I assured him. “Even you’d have fun.”
“Even me?” He demanded. “What does that mean?”
“You’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders even more than the rest of us,” I said. “We’ve just got to save the world. You’ve got to save the world then make the PTA meeting.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Don’t remind me.”
“Okay,” I said, and when he looked at me with surprise in his brown eyes, I said, “If you want me to distract you, I will. If you want to talk, we can. Whatever you need, Chase.”
His lips pursed to one side. “You’re so good to me.”
“You deserve it.”
“When you’re not getting me into trouble.”
“That just keeps it fun. Lively.”
He studied my face before he gave in and smiled. “You definitely do keep things lively.”
He came over to the edge of the tub and leaned over to kiss me. The two of us were sharing ever deepening kisses when someone knocked on the door. Chase sighed as he pulled away. “What?”
Rafe opened the door and came in, followed by Lex.
“Oh, this is getting good,” I said, my eyes widening.