by May Dawson
And I remembered my father, too, my real father, and my mother chasing me around the house. We’d run in loops through the kitchen to the dining room and through the living room and then back to the kitchen. They’d been pretending to be monsters trying to catch me, but I always outsmarted them. I’d laughed so hard that my stomach hurt, and when they fell on the floor dramatically and closed their eyes, I’d begged them to keep playing. “Mo monsta!” I hadn’t wanted that game to ever end.
That was when I was young and stupid and thought kids could defeat the monsters.
“You remember me?” Joan asked, her lips parting in a smile. Her eyes were full of wonder.
“I remember you,” I said. And I remembered her driving the knife into Finn’s side and wrestling me to the ground. This woman in front of me wasn’t the same mother who had loved me so well when I was little. “And I remember Finn dying because of you.”
As Joan’s face fell, I said flatly, “I just want my sister.”
“Soon,” Dad promised, standing.
Her face twisted as if she was fighting back tears.
“I’m going to find my other daughter,” Dad said.
“Did you want me to bring Maddie here to trap Piper?” Joan asked, her voice full of desperation.
Dad smiled, instead of answering her question. He nodded goodbye to me, and I froze when he ruffled my hair. His touch made my spine prickle.
Then he was gone, heading out the door, and it closed behind him.
Even before Joan went to it and tried the doorknob, I knew it would be locked.
“Good job, Mom,” I said.
She raked her hands through her hair. “If you remember me, why…”
“You’re not my mom anymore,” I said. “People change. You look like her, but my mom wouldn’t have killed Finn. He was trying to protect me.”
“Maddie,” she said, her voice threaded with desperation. “I was trying to protect you too.”
“I don’t want you,” I told her. “I want my sister. She always comes back for me.”
Piper left me, too. I’d been so mad about that. But every time she left me, she always came back. I was sure she would this time, too.
Out in the hallway, I heard the murmur of a girl’s voice and then my father’s exclamation of delight.
It made my blood turn cold.
Chapter 40
Piper
I followed Logan’s broad shoulders as we headed away from my sister, which was unnatural, and away from Rippedthroat, which felt unnatural too. I couldn’t run from my ‘father’ anymore. And I didn’t want to, either.
“I don’t want you to get your hopes up,” Logan said over his shoulder. “We’ll make a plan before we meet Caro later.”
“In his trap,” I said.
“It’s a trap for him, not his trap,” Logan said. “He just doesn’t realize it yet.” An evil glint came into his eye. “I hope I get to see his face when he does.”
Maybe I was a bad person, but I liked Evil Logan.
We reached a dilapidated house. Half of it had burnt down, and ivy and vines clawed up the gray, weathered boards that remained. The door seemed to hang loosely off its hinges. Logan lifted it up and held it open for me. He half-bowed, gesturing me inside.
“Logan,” I said.
“Just trust me,” he said.
I gave him a long look and, with Josh close by me, stepped inside.
The room was dark, since the windows were boarded over, and I blinked once I was inside, trying to get my eyes to adjust.
Suddenly, warm arms wrapped around me and I was enveloped by a pleasantly boyish scent. “I’ve missed you,” Nick said, his voice a warm, honeyed rumble.
“I’ve missed you.” I hugged him back in a daze. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Doing a lot better now.” He squeezed me gently. “But look who I’ve been with.”
Logan shoved past me, quick and impatient, and I leaned out from Nick’s arms to see what his problem was.
Logan knelt next to Finn, catching his hand. “Hey, little brother.”
Finn. Finn was alive.
Finn smiled weakly back at Logan. “What do you want? You always want something when you call me little brother.”
Logan’s lips curled up in a faint smile. “Guess I do.”
I fell to my knees beside Finn too. “I thought—”
“Nah.” Finn managed a wink, but with effort. “I’m too stubborn to die. Especially when I’ve got a girl like you to come back to.”
“She’s mine,” Logan dead-panned.
“Fight you for her,” Finn said.
“Seems like a pretty easy fight right now,” Logan said. “What happened?”
“Couple of the Shenandoah pack wolves and I fought in the caverns. Went off our ‘balcony’.” Finn shifted, and the faint movement made his face pale. “I made it to shore, but not by much. I broke my ankle and something went very wrong with the vertebrae in my back, I think.”
“I’m sorry, Finn,” Logan said him, his voice subdued. It didn’t sound like the same Logan who had been bantering with his brother seconds before.
“Didn’t see you up there pushing me,” Finn said.
“I should’ve had your back.” Logan rested his hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Should’ve been a better brother long before now, anyway.”
“Christ, Logan, shut up,” Finn said, although his eyes crinkled at the edges. “Stop talking like I’m going to die.”
“You’ve got to ruin it, don’t you?” Logan asked.
“Yep,” Finn’s eyes met Logan’s steadily, and he said flatly, “I don’t need you to be sorry, Logan.”
The words sounded like a punch, but Logan stared back at him, his face coolly neutral as ever.
“You’re a prick,” Finn said, “but you’re my brother. You’ve never let me down. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
Logan snorted at that, and then stood, shaking his head. “Okay, well… I’ll be outside. We can talk through the plan for tonight.”
Finn’s lips arched slightly. “The plan better be that you leave me behind, because I’m no use to you.”
“Finn,” I said, and then stopped. “I still don’t know your middle name. That’s ridiculous.”
“Why are you trying to scold me?” he demanded, raising his head from the floor—a fraction of an inch. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Ridiculously so,” I said. “But you know I can help you…”
“I don’t want you to feel obligated…”
“See, now you really do deserve to be scolded.” I brushed my lips over the familiar plane of his cheekbones. “I care about you, Finn. I love you. And I definitely want you.”
“I imagined this moment with fewer crushed vertebrae,” he murmured, but he still caught my face with his hands and held me still as his lips brushed mine, even if he couldn’t move very far.
I kissed him back, savoring his warmth and life. I’d thought he was gone, and I was so grateful to have him back.
His hand pressed against his side, and he groaned into my mouth.
I pulled back. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I was stabbed.” His eyes crinkled at the corners, despite the pain on his face. “But it doesn’t seem like that big a deal right now. I’m highly motivated…”
I ran my fingertips over his knuckles. His hand hovered above the wound protectively. “Let me see if I can help with that.”
He struggled up onto his elbows gamely, no matter how much it hurt, and I raised my hand to stop him.
“Just lay back and let me help you,” I said, and his eyebrows arched. I couldn’t help but smile, suddenly self-conscious, as I drew him out.
“Piper,” he managed. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know.” I brushed my lips across his tip, and felt his body shiver under my touch. I looked up at him, at the red wound in his side, and his bright blue eyes so intent on me, and his lips that parted in desire no m
atter what he said. “I want to.”
I took him into my mouth. I wrapped my hand around his shaft and moved my hand and mouth in tandem, racing my tongue over the underside of his shaft. His protests fell away, and he fell back into the ground, letting go.
My jaw began to ache, but I didn’t mind as I watched his lashes flutter closed, his jaw tightening. He was on the edge, and then he shattered. As I swallowed, I saw the wound between the bloody, ragged edges of his clothing knit closed, forming an amber scab.
I could heal him.
I wasn’t done yet.
“Thank you,” he murmured, his voice soft, and his hands caught my shoulders and pulled me up toward him. I straddled him, leaning forward carefully to kiss his lips.
His hands roamed down my curves, and we traded sweet, gentle kisses back and forth.
I broke away to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “You don’t seem surprised,” I murmured.
“I knew you were magic,” he said, “from that very first day.”
“You made me feel safe here,” I said softly, remembering that first day, when he’d broken the rules so I could find out Kai was safe, when he’d crawled across the roof to my window so I wouldn’t be alone. “You still do.”
His lips quirked up against mine. “Even…now?”
“Even now.” My lips caressed his.
His cock bobbed between my thighs. Every stroke sent a throb of lust through my body. I stood and struggled out of my jeans, and he gazed up at me, his eyes fond.
“We’re not leaving you,” I told him. “I don’t want to be away from you ever again. But that means you need to heal the rest of the way…”
“I guess I’ll take one for the team,” he said, and one of those signature Finn grins came over his face. It made me want to kiss him again, so I dropped to my knees beside him and I did. His arm wrapped around my waist, drawing me on top of him.
His tip teased against me now. I took him in my hand and pressed him against me, and he gasped at the feel of our bodies against each other’s. When he threw back his head, I drank in every movement. He was so beautiful, and he was so happy to be with me—no matter where we were. It didn’t matter. I loved Finn so much that the rest of the world dropped away, at least for a moment, no matter where we were.
I eased down on top of him, and his hands went to my hips. I could feel each individual finger pressing against my ass, warm and firm. I slid all the way down until my inner thighs were against his hard lower abs. He filled me up completely, and I gasped.
He tugged me down, and I leaned forward, pressing my breasts against his chest. His arms wrapped tightly around me. He kissed my throat, the side of my neck, my ear. His lips were devouring. He seemed to be coming back to life.
I kissed the coppery-blond stubble across his jaw, then sat up and began to ride him. He watched me with half-lidded eyes and a faint smile on his handsome face.
His hands on my hips helped guide me as I rose up and down his shaft. Every time I came down, I rocked forward, sparking satisfaction through my clit.
“Does it hurt?” I asked, my voice a whisper because I was afraid to ask. I glanced at the knife wound in his side again, and there was new pink flesh knitting across the wound.
He shook his head. “Swear to God, Piper, I’ve never been better in my life than right now.”
I rose on my knees and let myself sink down his shaft. The sensation kept growing more intense, and I bit down on my lip. The pleasure I felt was mirrored on his face. His smile dropped away, replaced by intensity, and he bit down on his lower lip as if he was holding himself back.
Then I shattered around him. The pleasure turned to pain and then into pleasure, into a filled, sated feeling as I sank forward into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, still buried deep inside me, and I twitched around him in the aftershocks of my pleasure. I turned my face to his, and he kissed me tenderly, stroking my hair back from my sweaty face.
“I guess you’re all healed up,” I murmured when our lips parted.
“You’re a miracle, Piper Sullivan,” he said. “More than our pack deserves. More than I deserve.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve grown up hearing that I didn’t deserve anything. At least not anything good. Well, I deserve you and you deserve me, and we both deserve to be loved. And we both deserve…” As I trailed off, I waggled my eyebrows at him. It was probably not a sexy waggle.
He burst into laughter. “A lifetime of amazing sex?”
“Here’s hoping,” I said.
“Because I’ll definitely tear the throat out of any witch that gets between me…” His hand slid across my inner thigh and his thumb strummed my clit, sending a fresh wave of pleasure through my already-sated body, “…and my girl. And not just because I want to do that twenty more times. This week.”
I leaned forward and kissed him again. The thoughts of what we had to do, the long day between us and a lifetime, was overwhelming.
There were so many people who wanted to get between us. To kill us.
But I felt his arms around me, and his heart beating against mine, and I knew that they’d never succeed.
Chapter 41
Sebastian
“I’m sorry to do this.” The Shenandoah shifter directly behind me said into my ear.
“You’ve got a choice,” I pointed out drily. My hands were cuffed behind me, and he steered me across the grass back toward the pack house. It was strange to walk back into my home, when it wasn’t mine anymore.
“Not really,” he said shortly. “They’ve got our cubs.”
He was still bleeding, but he didn’t seem to take it personally as I might have expected. I’d shifted and led them away from Piper, Logan and the others. It had been a long run and a long fight, but it was one I’d lost in the end. But I’d been outnumbered. All I’d ever hoped was to buy time for their escape.
“Is our land really worth it?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “But surviving is. The witches aren’t going to let us walk away…”
“You should never have come here.”
“Believe me. I wish we hadn’t.”
There was a tic in his jaw that gave away how much he meant that.
Flanked by half-a-dozen Shenandoah shifters, I climbed the stairs. They pushed me down the hall to Arthur’s office. For some reason, for a second before I entered the room, I thought he’d be there.
But it was Rippedthroat who leaned back in Arthur’s chair, his fingers steepled.
John stood beside him, and when he saw me, his face went white.
“I’ve got some questions for you.” Rippedthroat said. “Where’s the girl?”
“I don’t know.”
He nodded to one of the shifters near me, and they slammed a fist into my gut.
I doubled over, coughing.
The questions went on, and the beating.
“Get him up,” Rippedthroat said when I fell to my knees.
It was John who helped pull me up to my feet. His hands tightened on my shoulders, and the two of us traded a look. He nodded to me encouragingly.
I had the respect of my pack.
I wasn’t going to be an omega anymore.
If I survived.
Chapter 42
Piper
“Where’s Sebastian?” Nick demanded.
“He stayed behind.” Logan’s jaw set. Maybe he didn’t like Nick’s tone, or maybe he just didn’t like the situation. “The Shenandoah pack has him now.”
“Why?”
“They had his scent. It was the only way we could maintain the element of surprise.” Logan shook his head. “I don’t like it, but…he’s tougher than he looks. And they should know how valuable he is to Arthur.”
I couldn’t believe I had Finn back, but I had lost Sebastian again before I even saw him.
“Let’s go get Seb and my sister.”
The guys looked at me quickly, their expressions surprised, and it was only then that
I realized how cool and certain my voice had come out. I sounded as dangerous as I felt.
I wanted my pack together, my family together, and I’d do anything for them.
Half an hour later, Logan, Josh, Nick, Finn and I were watching the house on the hill. Since Caroline hadn’t seen Nick or Finn, they would find another entrance to the house. Meanwhile, Logan, Josh and I would meet Caroline.
“I don’t like splitting up, but at least this time I get to say goodbye for now.” I caught the collar of Nick’s t-shirt, and he leaned in to brush his lips over mine.
Finn caught my shoulder with his hand and squeezed gently, giving me a nod goodbye.
“It’s just see you later,” Finn said. “Remember, we’ve got plans.”
Logan gave him his usual sharp big-brother look, and there was something comforting about that.
Despite how crowded the house had become with the Shenandoah pack camping out too, the yard behind the house was suspiciously empty. It was strange to walk between Josh and Logan across the grass toward the loading dock where I’d hung out with Fi and Caroline, and where Logan and I had our first big fight.
We snuck across the yard and up the back steps, and Caroline was waiting for us just inside the door. She was chewing on her lower lip. The spell hadn’t stopped her from fidgeting even if she couldn’t speak her worries.
“Come on,” she whispered, catching my hand in hers. “We’ll go through the kitchen.”
Logan was still in the doorway, the sunlight streaming through into the stainless steel kitchen, when a howling began somewhere in the distance. Everyone froze, listening, as someone in the woods just outside took up the call.
“What’re they saying?” I whispered to Josh, because I hadn’t shifted enough to make sense of any howl.
“The cubs have been rescued,” he said. “They’re safe.”