“Here, try these on.” She thrusted a wad of material towards me and I hoped she didn’t have an aversion to nakedness because that bathroom smelled seriously rank. I stripped right then and there, refusing to go another foot closer to what smelled suspiciously like a clogged toilet and rotten eggs.
I slipped on the itty-bitty shorts she handed me. They were a near exact match to the spandex ones I wore for years, only a tad tighter. The plain black sports bra wasn’t quite as good a fit. She wasn’t nearly as chesty as me, but her rib cage was similar. I ended up with a good amount of cleavage, but my boobs pressed smack against my chest. It wasn’t perfect, but it’d do.
“I think I should look for a t-shirt for you. My brother—”
“Isn’t my keeper,” I said sharply. Normally I wouldn’t care all that much, but by no means was I letting him and his Alpha shit run my life. He’d seen me dress much the same and spar with many men over the last year. This wouldn’t be any different.
“If you say so,” Keyla grinned. She changed into a matching set of workout clothes and passed me some fancy shoes. My sneakers before had been so old and used they nearly contoured to my feet, but these were almost new and light as a feather. I appreciated the snugness of how they fit, as perfect as you could get without breaking in. At least our shoe size was the same.
“Alrighty, so we got a couple of options for running. We can either hit the gym and jump on some treadmills”—she paused at the purse of my lips—“Or we go outside and I’ll show you some gnarly trails around the residence.”
“Trails,” I said.
“A girl after my own heart,” she agreed. We exited through the elevator and went down to the first floor. While I had no qualms about jumping off buildings, it seemed the young half Shifter, half Supernatural had other ideas of a good time. Although, it did give me the chance to confirm that it was, indeed, the magic elevator. Which means we were either on a ley line, or a black market was around here somewhere. Possibly both.
I followed beside her silently until I saw the double doors ahead that led out into a wide green space. Stopping dead in my tracks, I grabbed the younger girl’s wrist. I meant just to give her pause, but she snapped back to my chest like a rubber band, her head only missing mine because I thought to dodge it.
“Whoa,” she said and blinked her eyes five times. “You got some serious strength, but why don’t you save the manhandling for my bro—unless you want to train in other ways. I’m damn good with a mace—”
“Can we not go this way?” I asked, skipping straight over whatever other ideas she seemed to have about what her brother and I did.
“Cutting through the training area is the fastest way to the trails,” she said, almost whining.
“I’m not in the mood to meet anyone else new. Find another route,” I replied.
She gave me an appraising sweep of her eyes before grumbling, “Fine.” She wrapped her hand around my elbow and started pulling me down a hallway. There were still Shifters and they paused to look, but there were less of them, so I took it as a win. The fewer people I had to see and answer to, the better for now.
“There’s no way to avoid everyone entirely, but this way we should be going around the training yard instead of through it. Happy?” she asked, kicking open a door with an emergency exit sign over it.
“Peachy.” She chuckled under her breath, the feminine version of Aaron if I ever heard it.
In front of us, miles of woods covered the landscape, rising up to form mountains as far as the eye could see.
“This way,” she grunted. I turned to follow her down the narrow strip of grass. The echoes and shouts were putting me on edge, but the clang of weapons had my palms sweating as we rounded the edge of the house. As she said, we wouldn’t be going through the yard, but around it. Not that it stopped people from staring as I went. I kept my head down and eyes averted, opting to stare at the young girl’s shoes instead.
“What are you doing?” Keyla asked. We were only halfway across and the group of tigers next to us looked over almost…cautiously? Reserved?
“Walking. What am I supposed to be doing?” I replied. She came to stand beside me instead of in front of me.
“I’m not talking about your feet. I’m talking about your eyes. You’re staring at the ground like a weak Shifter,” she said, obviously upset.
“I don’t care what they think and neither should you,” I replied. Clearly the girl still had more to learn.
“But you should care,” she butted in, not willing to let it drop. “How do you expect to—”
“Keyla. I don’t give a damn. I just want to go on a run. You can either drop it and come with me, or I’ll go by myself,” I said. She narrowed her eyes at me.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she challenged.
“Next time you see him, ask your brother what happens when people tell me that,” I replied, smirking at the memories. We’d passed through the majority of the yard and while I could feel eyes on my back as we walked, I paid them no mind.
“You’re kind of spiteful, you know that?” she said.
“You have no idea.”
We didn’t even make it all the way across the training area before she broke into a run and I took off after her. My feet barely touched the ground as I quickly gained on her and had to slow myself just to not pass her.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” I asked, heaving in crisp mountain air. My lungs tasted of blood and ice, but I relished in the pain. That sadistic part of me still fed on it.
“Not even close,” she called back over the wind. She picked up her speed, but it wasn’t enough to outrun me. Not even close. We neared the edge of the training yard and I floored it. We hooked right, following a jagged trail that led off into the woods.
Out here, I was one with the world. One with nature. This is what I was good at. Every part of me was blissfully at ease once we were away from the others. It was my demon’s first run, and the first thing that I found myself cherishing just as much as she.
“Damn, you’re fast!” Keyla squawked from several yards behind me. I was impressed she even kept up this far.
“Try to keep up!” I called over my shoulder and then I let loose. All inhibitions left me as I raced up and down hills, across a valley, and even jumping over a small river. I ran until I couldn’t, and not because I was tired, but because the trail disappeared.
In front of me, a massive lake glistened in the early afternoon sun.
I would think it was beautiful, if not for the flashing images of the hydra. It was doubtful that something that deadly lived out here, but that didn’t make the squirming in my chest any better.
Endure it. Embrace it. Then you can control it.
Another command of Violet’s. Another ultimatum, lest I bring about my own end.
Enduring the slithering sensation across my chest was not the easiest. Not by a long shot. I inhaled slowly and focused on making my exhales twice as long. It helped to a certain extent, but after five minutes, the shadows started to creep into my vision and I knew it was my cue to go.
“One day,” I whispered over the water.
It was becoming my mantra to myself. My reminder of what I was fighting for.
I retreated into the woods with one last look over my shoulder.
I started my run back at a leisurely pace, wondering how long it would take Keyla to catch up. She wasn’t slow by anyone’s standards, but she wasn’t part demon either. To expect her to keep pace the whole way would have been unrealistic.
My feet carried me swift and near silent through the woods. If not for my breathing and heartbeat, I would be a ghost. As it was, I moved fast enough that animals didn’t even notice something was in their midst until I was gone.
It was freeing, in a way. To exist but not be seen.
A shout, far in the distance, pulled me back. At the same moment, a stray wind carried a scent to me. Keyla. She wasn’t far.
I picked up my speed down the tra
il, coming to a stop right in front of her.
She didn’t seem to have noticed me at all until I appeared right before her. Her long legs skidded in the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris. Her large golden eyes flew wide as she put up both hands to try to stop herself from running into me.
I smirked, sidestepping her but wrapping my fingers around her bicep to pull her to a complete stop.
“How far did you go?” she demanded.
“To the lake.” Her mouth popped open and closed three times before she found her voice.
“The lake is ten miles from here. How is that even—”
“Do you hear that?” I held up my hand for silence.
There it was again. A shout. A cry. Was that…a roar?
What the hell was going on back at the mansion?
“I don’t hear anything,” Keyla said quickly and shrugged.
“Just stay close to me.”
We left the conversation at that as we took off back towards the residence. While I could tell that the younger girl was brimming with questions, she seemed to have the good sense to keep her mouth shut when apprehension edged at me. Inside, my demon paced. She didn’t like this. Not one bit.
The shouts grew more pronounced as we neared the training yard. Roughly a mile out, I began to make out some words.
“WHERE is she?”
Oh shit. That was Aaron. And he was in Hulk mode from the sound of it.
“She took off with Keyla. We don’t know—”
“I’m sure they’re fine, baby. Your sister’s probably running circles around her as we speak.”
Baby? Something dark and ugly unfurled in my chest.
I flexed my fingers but controlled my urges. Better. I’m supposed to focus on getting better. Not bashing someone’s face in. That was the opposite of Zen.
“Check yourself, Jessa. He’s not your anything,” a brisk voice retorted, cold as ice. Blair.
As much as me and my demon appreciated her saying something, why wasn’t Aaron?
You know what? It doesn’t matter.
Better. Focus on better.
I repeated it three times in my mind before the trees drew near. Beside me, Keyla started to slow to a crawl, but I reached out and curled my fingers around her wrist. She looked up at me as I dragged her several feet before she got the hint and started to pick up the speed again. A wicked smirk crossed her lips.
“Don’t look at them. Just keep running,” I murmured, pulling my hand away. As soon as I spoke, we burst from the trees and saw the party gathered around the edge waiting for us.
Keyla didn’t spare them a second glance, falling in line next to me as I cranked up the speed and started to hightail it down the spray-painted line of grass that marked the edge of the training yard.
“Selena! Keyla!” The voices began shouting.
“Goddamn. Bunch of nosy pricks that can’t—” I stopped swearing the moment Keyla threw her head back and burst out laughing. Not paying attention to her own two feet, she accidentally knocked into me. Her right foot twisted around mine, throwing us both off balance.
Reacting without thinking, I braced her fall as we went tumbling into the grass and she laughed the entire way down. Something about the sound eased my aggressive nature and I found myself laughing too.
It started as low chuckles of amusement, but with her laughing beside me, my heart relaxed just enough for me to feel the first inkling of true happiness in this new body and life.
I threw my head back against the grass and clutched my stomach, laughing so hard tears brimmed my eyes. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so at ease.
So free.
Maybe there was something to what Violet had been telling me all along. Maybe I did need to accept every part of me to understand any semblance of peace and happiness.
Or maybe the kid beside me had something to do with it.
I didn’t really care. I just never wanted it to stop.
Chapter 19
Aaron spared me the introductions with the Shifters and instead excused himself for the day. It was a polite dismissal, but a dismissal nonetheless. Even my friends and family remained on the training field as he and I walked away.
“Wait!” Keyla called. I looked over my shoulder at her to see her smile spread from one dimpled cheek to the other. “Go running with me tomorrow?” she asked, her voice carrying a good fifty yards.
Half the Shifters in the field turned to me, awaiting my response for the daughter of the Shifter Alpha. Something told me she did it that way intentionally. She certainly was manipulative enough to attempt it.
I took a deep breath and quirked an eyebrow. “You think you’ll be able to keep up better tomorrow?” I asked her, putting just a smidge of swagger and arrogance into it.
“I know I will,” she called back.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
Aaron didn’t say anything as we walked back inside, but he somehow knew to take the long way around and not cut through the crowd. We walked side by side through the mansion. With just him and no Keyla, friends, or family, it was a very different mood than when we were surrounded by hordes of Shifters.
“She likes you,” he said as the elevator doors opened on the third floor.
“You sound surprised by that.”
“Keyla never likes anyone,” he said as we came to the room. It occurred to me then why he might have been in a panic trying to find me on the training field—given the ebony door I had accidentally taken off its hinges and tossed aside without regard.
“Well, I guess that makes two of us. My demon finds her absolutely fascinating. I didn’t get it at first, but she kind of grows on you once you get past how loud she is…” I trailed off, when I realized what I’d said and how he froze.
I brushed a hand over my jaw and through my hair, tugging on the tangles to break them apart. Ordinarily I hated it when people fidgeted, so I couldn’t understand why I found my tangled locks so interesting right at that moment.
“I should probably go,” I surmised, averting my eyes.
Idiot. How could you possibly think that—
“Don’t do that.” He stepped in front of me to stop me from walking out on him. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’ve just never heard you talk about it…I assumed you were still processing and didn’t want to.”
My lips parted before I remembered myself and hastily closed them.
“I had a lot of time to think while I was…sleeping,” I replied. It was awkward at best, but at least it was an honest response. Aaron raked a hand through his own hair, and I got the idea that he was completely out of his element with this.
“Would you like to talk about it?” he asked. I blinked once and cocked my head.
“Would you?” I asked. He sighed deeply and moved from the doorway to the couch—leaving the offer open for me to walk out right now—or take a seat.
“I won’t lie, I’m curious. But I haven’t pushed because I respect your privacy.” He seated himself on the long black couch completely facing away from me, towards the crackling fire.
“You’ve pushed on plenty of other things.” He let out a dark chuckle.
“Take a seat or don’t, Selena. I’ve always given you the choice.”
Choice. That word rattled around in my brain, evoking memories of stolen touches and scorching kisses. Late nights staring at a golden canopy while the fire crackled at our feet. Angry words and hurtful truths brought forth by rage and desperation on both sides.
Being around him—near him, with him—was so very different than Lucas.
Lucas always pushed to know more. He always sought for a way inside my mind. He judged me for the bad but craved me for the good. He lied to try and keep me for himself, because he was too scared to give me the choice.
In the end, his actions are what brought about an end to our friendship, letting the bond push me toward Aaron.
Funny how little actions and choices lead to things in life that go beyon
d our wildest dreams.
I took a seat at the other end of the long leather couch.
“My demon is not evil like I thought she was. She’s a part of me, with urges and thoughts and feelings that are mine…but not.” His eyes watched me with a startling intensity that no one in my life knew how to exude quite like him. “I probably sound crazy, don’t I?”
“I’ve heard crazier.”
We didn’t talk anymore after that, but the quiet that sat between us was no longer awkward or uncomfortable. It was a gentle, tentative acceptance that shook me to my core, but I never spoke a word of it.
A stack of woman’s workout clothes sat on the edge of the bed the next morning.
And the next.
And the next.
Three days passed where the only two people I really saw were Aaron and Keyla. He was gone every morning before I woke and Keyla would bring me breakfast. We would run together and no one bothered us. Not a soul.
The living room door had been magically fixed, and I took great care with my strength not to break it again, but Aaron never asked what happened. The same as I never asked about the others. I never asked about the bond. I never asked about much of anything.
But slowly, excruciatingly slow, my heart was beginning to thaw.
I was not fixed or whole by any means, but after only three days of watching, I was beginning to see what Violet was talking about. So, I stayed quiet. I waited. I watched.
Every afternoon, Aaron came back alone. Every night, we would eat dinner, and for three days we didn’t speak.
Until today.
“I was thinking it might be nice to eat dinner with the team tonight. They’ve been asking about you, you know…” he trailed off.
I looked up from the fireplace, finding it difficult to drag my eyes away from the flames.
“Dinner?” I asked faintly.
“In the mess hall,” he clarified. “All of the team sits at the same table. I thought it might be nice,” he continued. My lack of an immediate reply had him taking a deep breath and turning back towards the bedroom.
Queen of Lies Page 12