Forever Broken

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  “Do you know what happened?” Kameron asked, his gaze roaming over the area.

  “No, but I’ll find out. And when I do? Blade’s dead. That’s his scent.”

  Kameron gave him a tight nod. “He deserves to be dead five times over. At least. And I can scent you on her, you know. What the fuck happened?”

  Max pulled Cheyenne closer, aware that he was still naked, but he didn’t care, not when there were more important things going on. “Let’s get her safe and cleaned up. Then, we’ll talk.”

  Kameron looked like he wanted to ask more but just shook his head. “Let me hold her for a minute while you pull on the pants Ryder is about to give you. You can’t run through this land to the closest road with your dick hanging out, holding a blood-covered woman.”

  Max flipped him off, then handed Cheyenne to his cousin. It was only because Kameron was mated that Max’s wolf even allowed that to happen. It didn’t make any sense, and it wouldn’t to a human, but his wolf knew who his mate was, and he and Cheyenne had a fully blooded bond between them now.

  They hadn’t completed the two steps needed, but someone had circumvented the rituals. It required a bite on the shoulder to connect the wolf, a mating mark. It took sex between the two or three mates, spilling seed or an orgasm to join the human halves. That was how it had always worked, yet he knew the mating rules had changed over the past few years as humans, demons, witches, and the moon goddess herself interfered in their matings.

  Max shoved his legs into the pants Ryder handed over, thankful that they were sweats so he didn’t have to deal with buttoning them. He could do it one-handed, but the stress and anger rolling through his system currently would likely make him clumsy.

  Kameron handed Cheyenne back over, and then Max was on the run, his mate in his hold, and his wolf at the front of his consciousness.

  Everything had changed, and he didn’t know what was going to happen next. But, then again, it didn’t matter. He’d do what was needed, he always did. He just hoped to hell that Cheyenne wouldn’t once again be caught in the crossfire.

  Chapter Three

  Max sat by Cheyenne’s bed, waiting for her to wake up. Maybe if he scowled at her more, she’d finally open those eyes and stop giving his wolf reason to growl. Walker and Leah had been in and out of the room and hadn’t shoved Max out, so he figured he must look ready to murder someone.

  Considering that he’d shown up at the nearest Pack SUV covered in sweat and blood with a woman in his arms and then hadn’t let go of her until he met up with his cousin and Healer, Walker…he didn’t blame them for thinking that.

  He was ready to murder someone.

  The woman in the bed near him didn’t scent of wolf, only the one who’d hurt her. The shift hadn’t taken, then again, something had come in and changed it all.

  Leah, Ryder’s mate and a healer in her own right since she was a strong water witch, had taken one look at him and handed over a wet towel so he could wipe his face and chest. He’d thought it would be enough to make it so he didn’t look that dangerous.

  He might be wrong about that.

  Leah had given him a once-over, probably ensuring that none of the blood was his, and then left the room. He figured that she or Walker would be back in soon to check on him and Cheyenne. They were worried about him just as much as they were about Cheyenne because nothing was right about this picture.

  Somehow, Max had a mate, and that mate, who had been drowning in her own blood earlier that morning, was now almost completely healed and resting.

  None of it made sense, and they still had no idea what it had to do with Blade.

  Because it always had to do with Blade these days.

  Cheyenne mumbled something in her sleep, her hands fisting in the sheets beside her. Max stood up, ignoring the ache in his hips from his run. He was faster than he’d ever been, stronger than he’d ever been because he had to become that man. But, sometimes, he strained himself from pushing too hard. He’d get over it.

  When Cheyenne moaned again, he reached out and put his hand over hers, knowing that when his wolf got out of hand, he needed touch—even if the man wanted nothing to do with it.

  Cheyenne might not be a wolf, but she’d been pumped full of magic to the point where he could still taste it on his tongue, feel the weight of it in his soul—and not just through the fragile bond pulsating between the two of them in rhythm with their heartbeats.

  As soon as he touched her, Cheyenne calmed down, but when he moved away again to give her space, she thrashed. They hadn’t been able to wake her up, and Walker said it was because she needed to finish healing what was inside and that it would take time.

  The fact that Walker could feel that along the tentative bond told them all that Cheyenne was now Pack, even if not fully because Gideon hadn’t blooded her into the Pack itself yet. Not that all of the current Pack members had needed Gideon since extenuating circumstances had led to new additions over the past few years. But when Max had tried to turn Cheyenne wolf to save her—something that clearly hadn’t taken since he could only smell his wolf on her—everything had changed.

  He didn’t know what would happen next, but things were well on their way to becoming complicated.

  “You should hold her,” Walker said softly as he came into the room. Max had known his cousin was behind him since his wolf had heard him long before Walker showed up, but Max still hadn’t turned toward the door. Instead, he’d focused on Cheyenne and the pain he couldn’t take away.

  “Why?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

  “Because she’s your mate. I don’t know how it happened, and I know you don’t either. That’s something we’ll figure out, Max. We’ve figured out weirder things when it comes to this Pack and family.”

  This time, Max snorted, looking over his shoulder at the Healer. “Truer words have never been spoken.”

  “Hold her, Max. She needs you. We’ll figure out the rest when she wakes up. The den is already on alert in case something else comes, and the media isn’t aware of what happened to her as far as we can tell. We’re keeping an eye on her clinic, and moved her car here so that no one gets suspicious. We’re working on the small things so you can help her wake up. But hold her, Max. Hold your mate.”

  It felt weird to hear those words. Max hadn’t thought he’d get a mate, not after watching each of his family members find theirs one by one and him being left behind…again.

  He gave his cousin a tight nod, then slowly slipped into the large hospital bed that could fit wolf and human easily. He wrapped his arm around Cheyenne, careful not to jostle her, and she immediately leaned into him, putting her hand over his heart, over the scars which had healed but that he could still feel with each intake of breath.

  Walker left them alone, and Max pulled up the blanket so she was covered. Her breathing eased, and it looked as if she were sleeping after a long night of work, not after a magical and violent set of events Max couldn’t quite comprehend.

  He’d thought he died once before and had woken up a broken shell of who he once was. It hadn’t mattered that he’d lost part of himself physically. Contrary to what the others thought, he knew that didn’t make him any less than who he was before. He’d learned to work around the missing part of his arm, and while it might take him longer to perform certain tasks, he could do almost anything now with a few modifications.

  The scars on his chest had healed from where the human who had wanted to control all wolves and wipe them from the face of the Earth had stabbed him over and over and over again. Max had been blown to his back from a bomb during the battle, and when he came to, the human man had stood over him, his sanity long gone as he ravaged Max’s chest.

  He’d pierced Max’s heart, his lungs, most of his organs.

  And because Max had been bleeding out already from losing his arm in the explosion, and had a concussion on top of it, he hadn’t been able to fight back.

  He remembered every stab of the knife, every twist,
every ache, but he didn’t remember how it had started. Only that he’d woken up to hell.

  He’d thought he would die. Thought that the last face he saw would be the man who killed him.

  Walker had saved him. The others had helped.

  And Max had been brought back from the brink of death. But not the same. How could he be the same when he and his wolf were broken, not just physically but spiritually…mentally?

  He’d never thought to have a mate. There was something wrong inside him. What could he offer a mate? But it seemed the moon goddess had other plans for him. Schemes that included the woman in his arms, no matter the choices the two of them might have made.

  Cheyenne mumbled, and he looked down at her, forcing those thoughts from his mind. He’d figure out what to do with them later. First, he needed to focus on Cheyenne.

  Who, thankfully, had woken up, and now sat staring at him with those grey eyes of hers that always captivated him—even if he hadn’t wanted to think too hard about it before.

  “Max?”

  Her voice was even more hoarse than his, and he leaned down, doing the only thing he could think of. He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Don’t speak. Let me get you some water for your throat.”

  Her hands tightened on his shirt, and he froze.

  “Or I can call my cousin in to help.”

  She just blinked at him, and the bond between them flared. He couldn’t feel what she was feeling, their connection was far too new for that, and he didn’t know what kind of bond they would share anyway. But the fact that her eyes widened told him that she felt the difference, as well.

  That was something they would have to work on. Somehow.

  Walker walked in, his pleasant Healer face on, even though Max knew that his cousin was worried about them both. Hell, the whole Pack was worried with war on the mind, and Blade’s announcement about being Supreme Alpha—whatever that meant—far too new for comfort.

  “You’re awake. That’s good. Let me get you some water to help your throat.” He tapped his ear as Cheyenne gave Max and then Walker a weird look. “Wolf hearing. I was already on my way in when Max offered to call for me. Why don’t you stay in bed, Max? You’re keeping her heart rate down.” He paused, looking at Cheyenne. “Unless you’d rather him leave the room. It’s all up to you, Cheyenne.”

  She shook her head, and Max frowned, a sense of disappointment washing over him even though he tried to ignore the cause of it. Sure, they might be mated, but neither of them had made the choice to do so. So the idea that he was sad that his mate was rejecting him shouldn’t hurt. They weren’t really mates. Or, maybe they were, but they didn’t know each other enough for the pain to make sense.

  And maybe Max needed time to breathe because he was thinking himself into circles.

  “I…I’m fine.” Max let out a low growl at the sound of the pain in her voice, and she froze in his hold, her hand still resting on his chest.

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  She shook her head, then took a sip of the water Walker handed Max. She licked her lips, and Max did his best not to look at those lips. It was his wolf and the mating bond making him act this way, it couldn’t be anything else. Not when they were in this position because of something out of their control. She hadn’t had a choice in the matter and that meant there would be no acting on any urge.

  Ever.

  “It was the first time I felt a growl.”

  He nodded, understanding. “Different for you then?”

  She nodded. “You could say that.” She coughed, and he gave her more water, careful that she didn’t spill. “I need to tell you what happened…though I don’t know everything.”

  Cheyenne looked over at Walker, then back at Max. “There’s something you need to know.”

  Max had a feeling none of them were going to like what she had to say.

  BLADE

  Blade looked down at the stone in his hand, the power emanating from it so intense he’d almost dropped it a few times. Not that he’d let anyone know that. After all, he was the Supreme Alpha, the highest, strongest, greatest Alpha of all time, and that he could even hold the artifact as he was, was indeed a testament to the fact that he deserved the position and title.

  When he’d gone on the special broadcast network where all the Packs in the country and the world could get in contact with each other, he’d done it with purpose.

  The others needed to know that their salvation, their protection from those who dared tarnish the shifters’ name in the world and would allow humans to rule them all was here.

  Blade would be that for them.

  He’d been that for his Pack.

  He’d kept his Pack’s secrets about their unusual members from all the other Packs and witches and humans for years. And it was because of his traitorous Beta that the word had gotten out that cat shifters existed.

  He’d taken care of Audrey and would soon take care of the others when the time came.

  The other Packs needed a leader who could make the tough decisions for them. The weak would tremble and be separated as chaff like they needed to be.

  Keen members of his Pack would lead the way in that endeavor as they had aided in his war with the Talons thus far. Blade couldn’t deal with each and every detail, so he delegated. Much like he’d allocated things to his witch.

  He let out a growl, his hand burning as the artifact within it heated up.

  He couldn’t believe the Talon trash, and their precious former humans had killed his witch. He now knew that he’d relied on Scarlett far too much, and finding another to replace her would take time. But he’d find someone.

  After all, as soon as they saw what happened to the wolves who didn’t fall in line, the witches would flock to him, eager for his protection.

  The other Alphas would know the power he held shortly.

  The artifact was his now.

  The human, Cinnamon or Cheyenne or whatever her name was, was dead, and her blood had given life to the power in his hands. Her death would not be in vain. Her death would pave the way for his ascension and the end of any Alpha who dared go against him.

  And before they died, they would lose their power.

  He would show them who the true power was.

  And they would fall to their knees in thanks that he would grant them their lives.

  If they begged nicely.

  Chapter Four

  Cheyenne found herself sitting in a comfortable living room, blankets piled on top of her since her friends were afraid she’d catch a chill. Though how she could be cold with the furnace that was Max Brentwood sitting near her, she didn’t know. She still wasn’t exactly sure how she’d found herself on the couch to begin with.

  One moment, she’d been saying to Walker and Max that she needed to tell them something important. The next, Walker was checking her out and making sure she was physically okay. And then, she was in Max’s hold as he carried her out of the clinic and down the path to the Alpha’s house, where there would now be a family meeting that apparently centered around her and everything that had happened.

  And while she appreciated that almost everyone would be here so she didn’t have to tell the story more than once, it was all a little intimidating. She was suddenly surrounded by some of the most powerful people in the world…at least in her world.

  The people she’d thought to walk away from before the pain got to be too much when they were forced to leave her behind, now sat on various couches and cushions on the floor around her, some standing and leaning against walls.

  The Brentwoods were not only a big family, they were big in general. All of Max’s cousins and siblings had wide shoulders and thick muscles. Max was only slightly more slender, but with the way he moved—and yes, she’d watched him move, she hadn’t been able to help herself—she knew he had immense power within that body of his.

  Even though the females might be smaller in stature, they were stronger than any other grou
p of women Cheyenne knew. The fact that three of them were her best friends in the world only aided in that perception.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” Brie, Gideon’s mate, asked. She was a submissive wolf, though Cheyenne didn’t know what that really meant in the grand scheme of things. Her friends had told her it meant that Brie could soothe even the most dangerous of wolves, and that was clear given that she’d mated a very powerful Alpha wolf.

  Of course, thinking about a powerful Alpha wolf made Cheyenne think of Blade, and she shivered.

  Max immediately put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. She watched the others carefully follow the movement, but she wasn’t in the mood to deal with what any of that meant. For some reason, when Max touched her, Cheyenne wasn’t as nervous or scared. She could still feel all of that, but it wasn’t as bad when he was near. It was like something inside her knew that she could handle it because he was there—not dealing with it for her, but there nonetheless.

  She knew it was the mating bond, the thing she could feel inside her that told her Max was hers. But she was doing her best not to think about the full ramifications of that right then. Or maybe ever, since she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what Max thought about it all.

  Cheyenne licked her dry lips, and Max reached for the water glass. Although thankful, she shook her head since she was full of water, and he set it back down. It was only then that she realized that he’d slipped his so-called bad arm behind her to tug her in, something he’d been careful not to do in the past. He was so good at hiding his injury from the rest of the world, the fact that he wasn’t doing so right then was something she would have to think about later…or chalk up to the fact that they were both clearly shaken.

  “Cheyenne?”

  She mentally shook herself at Brie’s gentle nudge and let out a breath. “Sorry. Woolgathering.”

  “It’s understandable,” Dawn, her friend and wolf shifter who happened to be mated to Max’s brother, Mitchell, said.