Caught in Forbidden

by Keira Blackwood

  “Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”

  “I’m going after her.”

  I wanted to go after her. I wanted to be the one to bring her back, but Declan had his mind made up. “I should tell you—”

  “We’ll talk later,” Declan said. “When this is done. I’ll swing by your place again. I gotta run.”

  He hurried toward the back of the store, and I stood there. He wouldn’t hurt her. We’d all sit down after this and talk everything out. I’d tell him what I knew, and we’d figure out a way to undo everything that had gone wrong.

  “Ready to go?” I asked Caleb as I approached.

  “Take me to get some food,” he said. “I’m hungry.”

  “Are you really—”

  “Am I what?”

  I’d been about to ask if he was really my cousin. But he looked at me, and I could see it. It was weird as hell, but there was no doubt, this was Caleb.

  “Never mind.”

  “You know that time you got in trouble for eating Gram’s pie?” He smiled up at me. “And you thought Anna told on you?”

  I knew exactly what he was talking about. When we were kids, Gram had baked one of her famous apple pies. We were all waiting to have a piece. The smell alone had us drooling by the table. She said we had to wait until after dinner, so we all went out to play. Dinner came and went, but the pie was missing.

  I got blamed for it, and still did years later, every time the pie was served.

  “I didn’t take it,” I said.

  Caleb laughed so hard tears streamed down his cheeks. “I know. It was me. I ate it. And it was me who told Gram that you did, not Anna.”

  “That’s not funny,” I said.

  “I know,” he said, wiping back tears. “It’s fucking hilarious.”

  “Get in the car,” I said, helping him into the back of my cruiser. Then I buckled in and started to drive.

  He was still laughing.

  “When all of this is over, I’m telling Anna and Gram,” I said.

  “And you know that time your clothes…” He was laughing so hard he could hardly talk. “Your pants disappeared when we went swimming in the lake? And everyone saw your dick?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “It was all shriveled in the water by the time Finn brought you some new clothes,” Caleb cackled. “It was me. I hid your pants.”

  This was going to be a long drive.

  Chapter 9

  Cordelia

  I spent the afternoon hiding in the woods close to town. Too chicken to return to Eden Groceries and gather more supplies, and too chicken to take off completely.

  Then there was the matter of my tattoo. I didn’t understand why it was burning and throbbing like this. I’d thought it unrelated to anything else when it happened before, but now I was convinced that it meant something.

  If only I could figure out what.

  The key to figuring anything out was Victoria. Unfortunately, if she still lived in Forbidden, she was keeping herself out of sight. The best way to find her would be to go out there and ask around. Maybe see if I could sneak into the library and find a phone book. But every time I showed my face in town, I risked being caught by the Redemption shifters. And now, the Forbidden shifters would be after me, too.

  Once it got dark, I’d venture forth again.

  Absently, I rubbed at the tattoo above my breasts. What had Mom said when she gave it to me? Something about heritage, and lots of woo-woo witchy stuff about calling on the strength of the elements. Things I didn’t understand, because I was a powerless witch. But there had been something else.

  A shield. She’d called it a shield.

  Maybe it was protecting me. Maybe, when the other people were getting old unnaturally fast, the tattoo was burning because it was working.

  Or maybe I was just grabbing at wild ideas, wishing I’d had a mother who loved me enough to stick around.

  The sun dipped below the hills to the west, and the temperature fell fast. I rubbed my hands together, watching the parking lot behind some of the buildings on Main Street. There weren’t many people around, and I hadn’t seen a Redemption shifter in hours.

  I’d told myself I would go back to the grocery store when it was dark. But when I tried to take a step forward, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give the Redemption shifters another chance to capture me.

  “Fine,” I told myself. “Fine. I’m not going into town. Then where?”

  Maybe I could become a wild woman of the forest and learn to survive on my own. I could build a little home in a cave or something. I’d always loved survivalist stories as a kid.

  Ha. I’d loved them because I knew that wasn’t the kind of life I could live. I liked hot showers too much.

  Speaking of hot showers...there was one person in Forbidden who had seen my face and hadn’t recoiled automatically. Unfortunately, I’d then wrecked his house and stolen his money. There was a chance, though, that he might give me a place to sleep where I wouldn’t freeze my ass off.

  When I tried to take a step in the direction of Matt’s house, my body all too eagerly followed directions. My heart gave an extra thump of excitement, and I was already looking forward to seeing him.

  I hoped he wouldn’t be too angry. Well, worst-case scenario, he’d slam the door in my face.

  No, the worst-case scenario was he’d try to turn me in, and the Redemption Pack would kill me. I’d have to be on my guard.

  There was a truck parked in the driveway next to his house. He was probably home, then. Lights were on inside, too. I wondered if he was cleaning up the mess I’d left behind. Maybe he’d let me help.

  Taking a deep breath, I marched up to the front door and knocked.

  Moments later, the door opened and he stood before me. He scowled as his gray eyes raked me up and down. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “I...I don’t have anywhere else.”

  He shook his head. “I should cuff you to something sturdier and call my alpha immediately.”

  I flinched. “Don’t. Please.”

  “Give me one good reason not to.”

  Faster than I could blink, he reached out and grabbed me by the elbow, then dragged me inside.

  The first thing I noticed was the heat. Wow, it was warm in here. Matt moved his grasp from my elbow to my wrist, and his palm made contact with my skin.

  “You’re freezing,” he said.

  “Well, yeah. I’ve been outside for awhile.”

  He gave me a puzzled look. “You’re malnourished, you’re freezing, and you’ve been hiding from the Redemption Pack, and now the Forbidden Pack. But you’re a powerful witch. Why would one of the most powerful witches I’ve ever met hide from shifters?”

  “Because you can’t outrun shifters.” I blurted my mother’s words out before I could even think about it.

  “Right,” he said. “You don’t need to. You can fight us.”

  “Not me. I don’t have any control over this.”

  He sighed and ran a hand over his short, dark hair. “I believe you.”

  “You do?” My heart gave a little leap. This was the first person I’d felt was on my side in...how long? Three weeks? A month? Longer. Probably years.

  “Yeah, I do. Even though you took my money.”

  “I’m so sorry about that,” I said. “I’m going to pay you back. I didn’t even get to use it how I wanted. I tried to get a bus ticket, but then some guys from Redemption showed up. So then I went to the grocery store—”

  “Where you caused even more trouble.” He shook his head.

  “And I spent some of your money there, too.” I held out the Snickers bars I’d shoved into my sweatshirt pocket.

  He looked incredulous. “You stole my money...and you used it to buy candy bars?”

  His pocket made a buzzing sound, and he pulled his phone out of it. “Fuck.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Declan. He said he’s on his way. I’d told him we could tal
k about the situation here tonight.”

  I was already walking to the back door.

  “Where are you going?” he called.

  “Back to the woods.”

  “Get over here. I’ll take you somewhere safe.”

  I stared at him. “What about your alpha?”

  “You’re...you’re more important.”

  My jaw dropped. That was impossible. Nobody was more important to a shifter than their alpha. And I sure as fuck wasn’t this guy’s alpha.

  But either way, he was giving me a way out of trouble, and I wasn’t about to look a gift shifter in the mouth. Not even if I was kissing that mouth. Which I also wanted to do.

  Shut up, brain.

  “Come on, quickly,” Matt said. “He was in town, so it won’t take him long to get here.”

  I hustled outside and jumped into his truck. He was there a second later, filling the space beside me. He started the engine, peeled out of the driveway, and off we went.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “My home away from home.”

  I studied him as he drove, wanting to ask questions. Not just about our destination, but about him. Who was this guy? A cop. A shifter. Did he have a girlfriend? Something about the way he looked at me told me he didn’t, but that might not mean anything.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” I asked him.

  “No.” He glanced at me quickly before turning back to the road.

  “I can sense lies, you know,” I said.

  “That’s a lie,” he said with a grin. “But I’m not lying to you. No girlfriend, no mate. I’m single.”

  My heart did a happy dance in my chest, but I told it to calm the fuck down. This was the worst possible time to start falling for a guy. And a shifter, at that.

  Matt turned off the two-lane road and drove us down a tree-shadowed lane. The old truck jostled with every lump and bump along the way. I considered asking where we were headed, but the silence felt fragile. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and then he’d realize that he was putting himself in some serious shit just to help a stranger. A huge metal building came into view. He parked around the side, where there was a giant door and a regular door. After we climbed out of the truck, he opened the regular door and ushered me inside.

  It was an airplane hangar. I’d never been in one before. It smelled like oil and metal, like a mechanic shop.

  “Are you taking me out of the country?” I asked, eyeing the planes.

  Matt laughed, a deep laugh that I felt as much as I heard. “No, it’s just a place to hang out for a little bit.”

  He opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it abruptly and cocked his head. “Someone’s coming. Quick, hide.”

  He opened a door on the nearest plane and gave me a boost so I could hop inside. Just as quickly, he closed the door after me. I kept my head down and waited, listening.

  “George, what’s up?” Matt said.

  So it wasn’t Declan—that was good. But I didn’t know who George was, so I kept quiet. My heart beat like pounding bass coming from a subwoofer, and I prayed George wasn’t able to hear it.

  “I left my Thermos somewhere,” another voice—George—said. “Have you seen it around?”

  Footsteps sounded as the two men likely looked for the missing Thermos.

  “Here it is,” George said. “Can’t live without my coffee.”

  “That’s because you drink the fancy shit,” Matt said. “Try drinking the swill Finn buys for the hangar and you’ll be cured.”

  The two men laughed, and then all was quiet. A moment later, the plane’s door opened again and Matt hopped inside.

  I exhaled and felt my heart begin to calm down.

  “What do you think?” he asked, gesturing around at the controls on the dashboard. If it was even called a dashboard. I didn’t know planes at all.

  I might not know planes, but I could hear the pride in his voice as he started explaining various gears and buttons. I understood a little bit, but mostly I watched him.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. “I forgot to text the alpha back. I’ll ask if we can reschedule, tell him something came up.”

  Once he was finished, he turned to me. “Instead of talking about planes, I should be asking about you. What’s your story, Cordelia? Why is everyone after you?”

  “I can’t control what’s happening,” I said. “I don’t think I’m making those people get old, but maybe I am. A little while ago, I was convinced I had nothing to do with it. But the more that’s been happening...maybe it is me?”

  “We could ask our witch about it,” he said.

  “You know her?” I squeaked.

  “Yeah, everyone knows Pearl.”

  My shoulders fell. “Pearl. Not Victoria?”

  “Nope. Pearl.”

  But I could ask Pearl about Victoria.

  Matt tapped his phone screen and held the phone to his ear, waiting.

  My legs shook as I watched his expression. Pearl had to know Victoria. This was my best chance at getting the help I needed.

  “I need to talk to you about something, but I need your word you won’t call Declan.” Matt’s voice was strained, and he frowned.

  This had to be hard on him, going behind his alpha’s back.

  “I’m listening,” Pearl said.

  “The woman Declan’s after, that all of Redemption is after, isn’t who they think she is,” Matt said. “She has some magic ability. Objects fly around her when she gets upset. But she doesn’t control it, and she wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “You sound sure,” Pearl said.

  His eyes locked on me, kind and caring. They were the most beautiful shade of gray. They looked like roiling storm clouds.

  “I am,” he said.

  His confidence meant so much to me. I squeezed his hand.

  Pearl was quiet a moment. Finally, she said, “I can come by in the morning. And should I assume that your alpha doesn’t know you have the woman?”

  I held my breath.

  Matt said, “You would be correct in assuming that. I’d like to get to the bottom of this before he knows.”

  “I won’t say anything to him,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Matt said. “Meet us at the hangar.”

  He ended the call and turned to me. I slumped back into the airplane seat, exhausted.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he said, kneeling beside me.

  How long I’d wanted to hear those words. I hadn’t felt like anything was okay in ages. And to have a shifter be the one to reassure me? I never would’ve thought that. I’d trusted one shifter, my ex, and that hadn’t ended well at all.

  But here was Matt, going out of his way and going against his alpha, to help me.

  Impulsively, I leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth. I had been planning to make a quick getaway from the kiss, but he gripped my upper arms and held me close. His lips were soft against mine and he parted them slightly before swiping his tongue over my bottom lip.

  I opened for him on instinct. My body was carrying me along for this delicious kissing ride, and I didn’t want to stop. Matt tasted clean, like citrus, and I drank him in.

  A growl rumbled in his chest. Sexy, but it reminded me of who he was. Who I was.

  I pulled back.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  “You’re a shifter.” I couldn’t take my eyes from his beautiful gray ones.

  “Yeah.” He reached for me again, but I leaned back.

  “I hate shifters.”

  Instead of looking offended, he grinned and pointed to himself. “You don’t seem to hate this one.”

  I snorted in answer.

  He reached for me again, but this time I accepted his embrace. “Come on, I know where we can sleep tonight.”

  “Together?” I asked. I might hate shifters, but he was right, I didn’t hate him. And I couldn’t imagine spending the night without sl
eeping close to him.

  “As close or as far as you want,” he said, his voice matter-of-fact. “You’re in charge.”

  You’re in charge. Weeks had passed with me feeling like I was out of control, like I had no say in what happened to me next. I’d encountered one surprise after another, from terrifying dummies to random shifters aging rapidly before my eyes. Tonight, I was in charge. My heart cracked—not because it was breaking, but because it was expanding. For Matt.

  Maybe I couldn’t outrun shifters, but I didn’t want to outrun this one.

  Chapter 10

  Matt

  George and Finn were both working elsewhere the next morning, so there wouldn’t be any interruptions to worry about.

  I could feel Cordelia’s gaze on my back as I did my best to put together something substantial in the hangar kitchen for her to eat. After spending the night with her curled up on my chest, I didn’t want to peel my eyes off of her either. The hard-on I’d gotten from holding her close had lasted half the night.

  She said she hated shifters, but I was wearing her down. We were complicated, sure, but she was meant to be mine.

  Cordelia’s stomach growled as I handed her a plate. She seemed less stressed—the faint tension of her anxiety had diminished. The good night of sleep had helped, and I was glad. I wished I could see her like this every day—calm, happy, and feeling safe.

  “Dig in,” I said. “Sounds like you need it.”

  She grabbed the sandwich with both hands and took a big bite. Her eyes fluttered shut, and I watched the way her lips moved, and the way her jaw worked. After swallowing the first bite, she made the most delicious moan.

  “Microwaved eggs on a toasted english muffin are the hangar specialty,” I told her.

  She nodded. “I approve.” Then she took another bite.

  The sound of tires on gravel approached outside, along with the hum of a large engine.

  “Pearl’s here,” I said.

  Cordelia hopped up and leaned on the counter beside me to look out the window. I drank in her soft curves, hidden beneath too-large layers of fabric. There was no mistaking her feminine form, especially when she bent over like that and I got a decent look at her heart-shaped ass. My dick throbbed against my fly.