He had a feeling, though, that Thomas was entertaining the same thoughts and just wouldn’t admit it. Thomas was a strong wolf and Alpha, but his time in the Marines made him more human than the rest of them. Sure, he was willing to fight, as his body proved. He was willing to use his body on other battlefields, those tangles of limbs during a wolf party, as Tony knew from experience, but he was calmer, humanized in comparison to Tony and James.
Well, everyone was calmer in comparison to Tony, and he damn well knew it. He just really loved the sex part of being a wolf.
“Let’s head in,” Thomas finally decided for them. “New day.”
Tony looked over to the graves and nodded his head to them.
“Goodbye, my brothers,” he whispered. “I’ll live and love for you.”
“Amen,” Thomas and James added in unison.
“Thomas, aren’t you supposed to go visit Riley eventually?” James asked as they threw the chairs in the back of the truck.
“Yeah, but fucking…her father is the guy who tried to recruit me to the SSTF and I want no part in seeing that guy,” Thomas groaned.
“Let’s invite them over here then,” Tony answered. “And Abigail.”
“Let’s get the plaques done first, then tell them we’re ready for company,” Thomas answered.
9
Abigail
Abigail avoided the wolves successfully for two weeks. She hiked and explored for most of it, enjoying the beautiful countryside she found herself in, the mountains constantly calling to her.
She also went and saw her patients, the Pride felines at the mansion. Troy and Abigail had decided not to put him on any medication. He hadn’t liked the idea and she was willing to continue therapy without pressing the issue further.
She was learning the felines had much bigger problems now than they did in the hunters’ compound. They were really trying to keep Abigail out of it as well. She kept up with texting Riley instead, who was coming a long way in terms of her PTSD symptoms. The nightmares had faded, and she was dedicating a lot of time to her art, which Abigail figured was probably very therapeutic to her. The young cheetah also had such a big heart that loved so much that Abigail felt nothing could keep the speed demon down for too long.
Today, she wanted to tear that heart from the cheetah’s chest.
Riley was dragging her to see the wolves for a barbecue.
A barbecue.
It brought back memories Abigail didn’t want about an ex-fiancé she wanted to forget. It reminded her that she really had too much baggage that she had forgotten that day talking to Thomas and getting stalked by Antonio.
Wolves loved their barbecues and Abigail was a country girl at heart, raised on them. But her last barbecue with a pack of wolves had ended in disaster - a broken engagement and the laughing stock of the North Dakota Pack. She’d bolted from the entire Dakota area and went to LA, promising herself no more wolves and no more barbecues.
She was becoming good at breaking promises to herself. She now had both in her life again. She’d been ignoring Thomas’ texts.
And Antonio’s.
And James’.
How those two got her number, she didn’t want to ask, but she knew already. Thomas gave it to them. She wasn’t going to respond though. They were all flirtatious or asking if she wanted to hang out and have dinner. They weren’t asking to see her as a doctor, so she wasn’t obligated to see them.
Until Riley dragged her to this damn barbecue.
“I do not know why I am coming with you both,” She said with a sigh, as they turned down the dirt road to the farm house the wolves had claimed.
“You need to get out!” Riley laughed, sitting in the back with her. “You can’t just keep dragging me to the girly things and not seeing anyone else.”
“But the wolves?” Abigail said with disdain. She was here out of friendly support and obligation to Riley. And because she realized telling Riley no was impossible.
“What’s wrong with Thomas and the boys?” Zachary asked curiously, glancing back at them in the rearview mirror.
“They’re wolves,” Abigail sighed.
“We’re all predators,” Zachary reminded her as they pulled into the driveaway. Riley made an agreeable noise.
“They’re wolves,” she pressed. The felines just didn’t get it, so she elaborated. “And I’m a doe.”
“I’m missing something,” Riley said, sounding confused.
“So am I.” Zachary chuckled.
“It’s nothing. Thomas and his little Pack aren’t a problem,” Abigail said, trying to dismiss the topic. They didn’t understand at all. Thomas and the wolves looked at her sometimes like she was dinner, while the Pride didn’t.
“Do you not feel safe?” Riley asked, and she could hear the concern and worry from Riley.
“Oh, I feel safe,” Abigail muttered, and the younger woman began to laugh harder than before. Safety wasn’t the issue. The heated ‘I’m going to eat you’ stare they seemed to give her was.
"Safe, she says." Zachary chuckled perversely.
Abigail narrowed her eyes on the back of the white tiger’s head. She would slap the big fool if she thought Riley wouldn’t kill her for it. "Very funny," Abigail groaned.
"Okay," Riley snickered.
"We're here," Zachary snorted, "Let's go bother some wolves. Riley, I've got some shit to talk to Thomas about, so he and I are going to disappear for a moment."
"Yup," Riley said and hopped out of his Range Rover before he turned it off.
Abigail sighed at Riley’s excitement.
"So, what's really going on, Abigail?" Zachary asked, looking into the backseat.
"Nothing," she mumbled, getting out and leaving him alone in the vehicle. She didn’t think another attempt to explain would change anything, and if they kept asking, she was going to need to tell them her embarrassing broken heart story. It was like a perfect storm. Wolves? Check. Barbecue? Check. Attracted to them? Check.
Did they know her ex-fiancé?
They had been at the barbecue where the ass had broken Abigail’s heart. None of it had been their fault and they didn’t recognize her, but they had been there, representing South Dakota for some reason or another. They knew her ex well enough, since he was Alpha for the North Dakota Wolf Pack. Maybe over eight years later, North Dakota didn’t laugh every time they heard her name.
"You haven't visited the Estate like you promised!" Riley growled at the wolves as she got closer.
"I've been really busy," Thomas laughed, that delicious sound that had Abigail giving a shiver. In two weeks, she wondered if it had gotten better. "I'm sorry, little cheetah. Next time, I'll be sure to come annoy you at your order."
"Good," she huffed and then turned to give the others a smile. "Where are my hugs, guys?"
"Ah, yes, our little savior wants hugs," James chuckled, wrapping his arms around her. His chuckling made Abigail smile a little. He seemed lighter today than two weeks ago. And he was thankfully wearing clothing. Antonio went next, getting his hug from the cheetah as well.
"Got enough beer?" Zachary asked.
Thomas was looking toward Abigail where she was hanging out behind Riley. Abigail met his gaze for a second before looking away, trying to ignore the piercing gaze of those light blue eyes.
"I should," he mumbled absentmindedly.
"Let's get inside," Antonio said with a rumbled laugh. He flashed a grin at Abigail and she tried to give one back. "Come on, we've got the barbecue going."
"Yes!" Riley laughed, following Antonio and James inside.
Abigail threw one last glance at Thomas and ran inside without saying anything to him. It was rude of her, since he was an Alpha, but she wasn’t going to intrude on the obvious conversation he was starting with Zachary. Or willing to tempt what he might say to her while staring the way he was.
Once inside, she moved quietly to sit down on a couch and make herself smaller. This was completely out of her comfort zone. She r
eminded herself that she was there for Riley, to have fun with a friend.
“These are done, ladies,” James told them as he began unwrapping aluminum foil from the top of trays. “It’s my own recipe. Come get them before Thomas gets in and eats them all.”
Abigail didn’t want to get up. She’d found her spot, but Riley gave her a look and Abigail found herself following her new friend to the kitchen. She crossed her arms and turned to the dining room, seeing Antonio place out bowls of vegetables, mashed potatoes, and some sort of dessert. He looked over to her and winked. She took a deep breath and turned back away from him.
Now she was getting winks. Abigail had winking wolves.
“Here, doll,” James said to her, holding something out. She reached out and took the plate, smiling at him.
“Thank you,” she whispered and quickly found her way to sit down at the dining room table. Looking at her plate, she realized James gave her much more food than she needed.
“James,” she called out, hoping he would let her put some of it back. She really didn’t need nearly half a rack of ribs.
Antonio made a noise and snapped his fingers softly to get her attention. She turned and frowned at him. “Eat the food,” he commanded, pointing at her plate.
“Do you even know what I was going to say?” She asked him, full of exasperation.
“He gave you a ton of food, and the look you gave it told me everything.” Antonio chuckled. “Winter is approaching, eat the food, pretty doe.”
“Are you saying I need to put on weight?” She kept her voice calm and just raised her eyebrows at him, wondering if he was really so stupid.
“No,” Antonio laughed. “I’m saying that winter is coming. It’s December in Colorado. You’ll need the calories to burn. Like everyone else here.”
She opened her mouth and then shut it. He was right. As the brisk cold came in, the body burned through calories faster to generate heat and keep the body at the proper temperature.
“Plus,” Antonio continued, grinning at her. “It’s good food.”
She narrowed her eyes on him and picked up a rib. She wasn’t a vegetarian, though it would be easy for her. A lot of herbivore shifters were, but she had developed a taste for meat in her adulthood and never went back to the vegetarian habit she’d grown up with.
It was delicious - smoky, tangy, and rich. Abigail gave a soft moan at how easily the meat fell from the bone. Which brought a small growl from the wolf across the table. A satisfied growl that gave her goosebumps. She looked across the table to see Antonio watching her still.
“I don’t need supervision,” she told him, and he gave her that grin, that toothy, dangerously sexy smile.
“Of course,” he chuckled, sitting down across from her. She sighed and continued eating, trying to pretend he wasn’t there.
Minutes stretched out into what felt like an eternity. She tried not to make a mess of herself while eating the ribs, which meant she probably looked like a fool. Even the idea of looking like an idiot made her cheeks heat. Antonio didn’t growl again, so that was something.
“Where do I recognize you from?” he asked quietly, almost to himself.
Abigail stopped eating and nearly dropped the rib she was nibbling on. She didn’t answer, just looked up to him. If she answered and told him she didn’t know, he would smell the lie. If she just straight up told him exactly where he’d seen her before, she…
She just didn’t want to see the cruelty of it. She didn’t want to relive it. She didn’t want this wolf to laugh her out of his house and tease her. She could enjoy a moment of food with them, but only if they didn’t know, didn’t remember her face. It was eight years ago, and she’d begun to hope that they would never place her face as the doe who was broken and humiliated in front of two Packs.
“You recognize me from something?” she finally inquired.
“I think I do?” Antonio answered, shrugging. “You have a pretty face, but I could just be mistaking you for a number of other people. I’ve been all over the world, seen a lot of faces. I was the Pack’s…politics guy. I went and made nice a lot with other Packs.”
“That happens quite frequently,” she mumbled. “Thinking you recognize someone you’ve never met.” Not a lie, just a fact. She needed to stick to things carefully. She glanced over to the living room and saw that Zachary was walking in and getting his own food. Thomas was with him. Riley was on the couch, so Abigail decided she would sit over there.
“I mean,” Antonio chuckled, “I wouldn’t mind recognizing you a bit more…”
“Antonio, you seem to have the wrong impression of me,” she told him quickly. “I’m going over there now.”
“We offered you a place to run and you never came back,” Antonio quickly mentioned as she got up. He followed. “Why? You said you would think about it.”
“I’m still thinking about it,” she answered honestly. She was. She really wanted to get back out in the woods as a doe. Nothing had made her feel that wonderful in years. She could ask the Pride, though, when whatever they had going on settled down. She didn’t need the wolves, she decided.
She walked away before he could say any more and sat down next to Riley as she and Zachary joked about something cute. Abigail had seen the tiger lick sauce off his lover, and it was disgusting and precious all at the same time.
“So, have you texted Phoebe yet?”
“Not yet,” Riley sighed. “I’m going to wait for things to settle down. And I’m not sure I want to be in the position to keep secrets from her…”
“About being a shifter,” she finished for her friend. “You’ll find a balance. We all do.” That was the best advice for that. Shifters had to make decisions about whether the humans in their lives could know what they were. The Herd had humans they were comfortable with. Abigail didn’t. She had never really introduced a human to their world, which would be what Riley needed to do if she wanted Phoebe completely in her life again.
“Yeah,” Riley mumbled, continuing to eat her food.
“Now might be a bad time to bring this up,” Thomas came over and fell into a recliner. “But, no time like the present.”
Abigail looked over to him curiously.
“Here we go,” Zachary groaned softly.
“I knew your dad was in the SSTF,” Thomas said quickly. “But I never had a chance to tell you before he showed up.”
Abigail’s eyebrows shot up. Thomas Marek had some personal secrets of his own. He was referencing Riley’s father, the one who abandoned her without proper care, without a future or a family.
“Oh,” Riley gaped for a moment, and Zachary watched her blink a bit.
“I’m sorry, and I feel like a total dirtbag for not saying anything sooner-”
“It’s fine,” she cut him off, waving a hand. “He and I don’t deal with each other, and it’s been a hectic time. You have your own thing to worry about, and…yeah, it’s just a crazy time.”
Abigail stayed quiet, privately proud that Riley was cool enough to just let it go, let him off the hook that quickly. The girl was passion and fire, but she directed it at causes, and not lost ones.
“We cool?” Thomas asked, looking concerned. Abigail almost wanted to cuddle the wolf, who looked like he was about to lose a friend. Abigail could understand, since Riley wasn’t the type of friend she would want to lose either, and she barely knew Riley so far. Abigail was drawn in by the flames around her.
“We’re cool,” Riley told him with a smile. “It’s fine, Thomas, really.”
“I didn’t like him, by the way,” Thomas explained to her. “He was a prick back then, too. He had a general distaste for shifters. Honestly, I think his sense of justice is the only reason he didn’t become a hunter himself.”
“Well, fuck me sideways,” Zachary coughed.
“No, thank you,” Antonio joked from the other side of the room.
Abigail held back an eyeroll. Very few things in life had her rolling her eyes and she
wasn’t going to let him become one of them. She was not a child who needed to roll her eyes.
“He’s an ass,” Riley muttered, full of spite. “A total fucking prick.”
“Zachary said they leave tomorrow?” Thomas asked her. “You going to try and keep in contact with him?”
“No,” she snapped. “I won’t. Though I’m going to talk to him before he leaves. See if there’s any way to get some…resolution to it all.”
“That’s good,” Abigail finally jumped into the conversation. “Even if it’s not the resolution you want, knowing his mind might help you feel more secure about your relationship or lack thereof with him.”
“That’s a really solid point,” Thomas agreed, pointing towards her. She ignored the heat in her cheeks. She was a therapist. Of course she would have a solid point about handling personal relationships. “At least get that one talk in.”
“He’s an ass and doesn’t like my guys,” the cheetah groaned. “I don’t need him in my life.”
“And that one talk might help you discover that,” Abigail continued. “It could give you closure. Or it could reopen those wounds, but then you would know for sure that he doesn’t deserve a place in your life.”
“Yeah,” Riley sighed, leaning into Zachary, who casually put a massive arm over her shoulder, protective, caring. Loving.
Abigail’s heart felt like it was squeezing smaller at the sight. She missed that sort of stuff. Riley had it so good with those felines, even if the relationship wasn’t standard.
Conversation eased away from the drama of the felines, towards other more mundane topics. Winters in Colorado, tourists that passed through Wild Junction for winter sports and getaways, the normally quiet atmosphere of the area. Nearby resorts and all other manner of things. She dodged questions about what she wanted to do. Thomas tried to invite her for a day of skiing, wondering if she had been before, while Antonio just bombarded her with questions about her favorite foods, which led him to asking what kind of restaurants were in the area and how popular they were.
Abigail mentally took note of all of it, though, knowing she might be staying through winter - or until Brenton decided he didn’t need to pay her anymore. She wondered how long these new patients would even want to see her - and she hadn’t even seen all of them yet. There was still Finn, the fox who’d lost his twin. She’d gotten one phone call from Brenton saying the young man was willing to talk and he would pass her number to him. Finn had yet to call her. She would wait. Brenton said she could be here for a long time, since he wanted to be absolutely positive about the health of his Pride…and the other, new shifters that were settling in his town. He was keeping an eye on all of them.
Prey to the Heart Page 10