by Mia Taylor
He held his hand up, sensing her mounting anxiety.
“We need to take this one step at a time.”
She inhaled and nodded.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I assure you, this is just as overwhelming for me as it is for you.”
The sound of his cell chiming reached Brynn’s ears and she nodded at him.
“You can take that,” she encouraged. “It might be important.”
“It’s probably my sister,” he replied, his eyes widening as he pulled the phone from the breast pocket of his button-down. Brynn found her eyes traveling along the broad chest and over the curve of his hips, a hot flush reaching her cheeks.
Why are you embarrassed? You’ve probably seen him naked more times than you can count.
But that was another Brynn. This Brynn was a virgin, never been touched.
And never really thought about it until these last few days.
She pushed the idea from her mind, shaking her head at her own shamelessness.
“Shit,” Mal groaned and stared at the screen.
“Not your sister?”
“No. My boss.”
His eyes darted about again, looking for telltale shadows, but whatever he saw or didn’t see seemed to placate him.
“Hey, Sarge,” he said into the mouthpiece. “What’s up?”
She couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but Mal’s body language spoke volumes to how he was feeling.
“No, no, everything’s good. I went to see my sister as you suggested… Cory? No, I haven’t seen him…”
He’s lying, Brynn thought automatically although she had no idea how she knew that.
He’s lying like when he didn’t tell you he was a bear, a little voice whispered in her ear. He’s good at lying.
Brynn was stunned by the nasty words but a prickle of alarm touched her and she wondered if that was true.
Did he tell me he was a bear when we were together?
She’d never thought to ask.
“…yep, I’ll be there Monday morning, first thing,” Mal said. “Of course… nope, everything is great. It was a smart suggestion you made, having me get away… sounds good. Talk to you later.”
He disconnected the call and exhaled in a whoosh of breath as if he’d been holding it for the entire call.
“You don’t like your boss?”
“I feel guilty lying to him,” Mal replied.
“You shouldn’t,” Stella chirped, stalking through the kitchen and breezing past them. “He’s not who you think.”
“So you keep saying!” Mal barked back. “But you haven’t offered any proof.”
Stella only smiled.
“Everything will come out in due time, my friend,” she purred. “Just be patient.”
Brynn and Mal exchanged a look and she sighed.
The undercurrents in the house were not growing any calmer.
What does that mean for me? Am I in trouble if I stay here? Or will I be worse off if I go with Malcolm?
It was a strange thought, leaving behind the only home she’d ever known to take off with a near-stranger, but Mal wasn’t a stranger. He had once been closer to her than anyone else in the world.
“Come on, Brynn,” Mal said, rising from the counter where he was leaning on his forearms. “Let’s go for a walk in the gardens.”
“As romantic as that sounds,” Stella interjected, “she has work to do.”
Mal scowled at her.
“Seriously?” he demanded. “You can’t go without her scrubbing the floors for one night?”
“But it’s not one night, is it? It’s three more.”
“I’ve got it, Mal,” Brynn said quickly. “We’ll go for a walk when I’m done.”
“That work ethic will serve you well out there,” Stella jeered at her. “If you live long enough.”
“Shut your mouth, Stella!” Mal growled. “Brynn’s use to you has been expended. Leave her alone.”
A look of hurt crossed over her face.
“You act like I don’t care about the girl,” she pouted. “I am the one who saved her.”
“Only because it benefited you. If you really cared about her, you would have come looking for me years ago.”
“Semantics,” Stella muttered, reaching into the fridge for a bottle of wine. “It worked out for everyone.”
Brynn got busy as Mal cast her a final look from the entranceway, shaking his head.
She felt like she could read his mind.
We need to get out of here, regardless of the consequences.
~ ~ ~
Brynn was exhausted when she finally finished her cleaning for the day, but when she found Mal in his suite, she got a second wind.
“You must be tired,” he told her, ushering her inside the room and closing the door. “I’ll run you a bath.”
She looked at him with amazement.
“Really?” she asked, blinking in surprise. “You’d do that for me?”
He looked at her sadly but managed a small smile.
“I used to run you a bath every night we were together if I wasn’t working night shift.”
She didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry I don’t remember how much you loved me,” she breathed. “But I am starting to understand it a lot better, the more time I spend with you.”
“I won’t stop until you remember,” he told her softly, moving closer to brush a stray strand of hair out of her face. “I have to believe that the woman who loved me is in there somewhere.”
She didn’t move away and tipped her head back to stare at him fully with wide, pleading eyes.
“You’re being so patient with me and I’m not sure I deserve it,” she whispered. “How can you be so sure that I’m the same woman you lost?”
“You’re my mate, Brynn. No one, not Stella or Paul or a pack of wolves, is going to change that. I can see you in there and I know you can see me, too.”
She nodded, tears flooding her eyes.
“I’m going to kiss you,” he murmured, leaning his face down to taste her lips. “Stop me if you don’t want it.”
But of course she couldn’t. She was powerless under his hypnotic stare, his yearning lips, and when their mouths connected, a frisson of energy pulsated through her in a flash.
And there she was, standing in the rain on the quad, lips locked to Malcolm’s as the drops pelted down around them. People squealed and ran for cover but they were wrapped up in each other, oblivious to everything else going on around them.
When he dragged his mouth along the curve of her cheek, she reached up to twine her fingers into his hair, pulling him close.
“I remember,” she whispered and the words caused Mal’s heart to beat faster against her chest.
“I knew you would,” he breathed, his kisses growing hotter, more insistent.
She was in his arms, fumbling for the buttons of his shirt, and then on her back on the bed, her legs locked around his naked back.
The smell of his skin, the feel of his stubble against her delicate flesh, the intense sound of his elevated breathing—it was all there to wake the memories she had buried so deeply.
“I knew you’d come back to me,” he rasped, head dropping lower over her breasts, and Brynn wriggled out of her shirt, longing to feel his tongue over every inch of her body.
She moaned softly as he began his deliberate exploration, not one pore left unsought.
And when he made his way back up her body again to once more press his mouth to hers, she was ready for him.
She knew exactly how he would feel when he entered her and her cries escalated through the room, echoing throughout the suite, but Brynn didn’t care.
The pleasure had been too long in the making, the release building to a volcanic explosion.
“There’s never been anyone other than you,” Mal told her, his eyes boring into her, and Brynn knew he was speaking the truth.
I can trust him, she thought with relief, her pelvic bone thrusting upward to meet his urgent thrusts, his gasps becoming low moans of desire.
He will give anything to protect me now.
In unison, they released, their bodies meshing to the place where it was impossible to know who was who.
We belong together, she thought happily. Mal and I forever.
But as they lay there, spent in one another’s arms, she wondered if that was true.
They were both immortals now, but the laws of destiny forbade them from being one.
“We’ll find a way,” Mal whispered as if he could read her thoughts. “I promise.”
She nodded and snuggled her face into his chest, relishing the scent of his pheromones.
Brynn knew that whatever came at them, at least they would be together.
Right to the end.
Chapter Seven
New Hiding Spot
Lena’s face was nearly opaque when she opened the door.
“Brynn!” she gasped. “Oh gods, it really is you!”
“We need to come inside, Lena,” Mal said urgently, shoving Brynn into the house before Lena could protest, but his sister didn’t stand in the way.
“How?” she gasped. “How can this be? Where have you been? What happened to you?”
“We’ll explain everything to you in a minute, Lena, but first we need to make sure the house is secure.”
Lena stared at him with alarm.
“Secure from what? What do you mean?”
Mal ignored her and started to do a search of the house.
“Brynn, what is going on?” he heard his sister ask his mate but Brynn didn’t know how to answer.
He did a sweep of the house, relieved that his nephews and brother-in-law weren’t home. He wasn’t sure how the rest of the family was going to react to the news of a houseguest.
Particularly not one with this secret.
He and Brynn had discussed what to do at length.
“You need to be honest with your family,” Brynn pleaded with him. “There are kids and your sister should know what she’s agreeing to.”
Shame flooded him but he shook his head.
“Nothing will happen,” he reassured Brynn. “No one has come looking for you in five years, right? They certainly aren’t going to start now.”
“What if Paul or Stella says something to someone?” Brynn persisted. “I’m still not sure if they can be trusted.”
“If they say anything, they’ll only be outing themselves,” Mal reminded her. “We have to have faith that they’re not that stupid.”
And they’re consumed with whatever revenge they’re getting on Rhett Lewis.
Another wave of guilt washed over him.
He still had no idea what the feud was between the couple and his superior. A loyal part of him wanted to warn his boss about what was happening but he couldn’t bring himself to do that, not when Stella’s taunts were still heavy in his ears.
We’ve always had our suspicions about Lewis. Whatever they’re planning has nothing to do with me. All I have to do is hold up my end of the bargain and side with them if and when it comes to that.
He shuddered to think about what that might mean.
“Mal!”
“Coming,” he said, retreating to the foyer. “All secure.”
“Of course it’s secure, Mal. This is a family home, not a safehouse. What is going on?”
“Brynn needs to stay here for a while,” Mal explained. “Just until the trial’s over. Then I’ll come back for her.”
Lena blinked.
“Why can’t she go with you?” she demanded, her nose wrinkling like she smelled something fishy.
“She might be hunted right now,” Mal said vaguely, casting Brynn a wary look. “We’re not sure.”
Lena’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“You’re a cop, Mal. You brought her here? To my house where my kids live?”
“It’s the safest place for her,” Mal insisted. He nodded at Lena, gesturing for her to follow him out of Brynn’s earshot.
“We’ll be right back,” he promised her.
“Go sit down, honey,” Lena sighed, grinding her teeth as she glared at her brother. “I’ll bring you a glass of wine. You look like you could use one.”
They moved into the kitchen and Lena spun, fire sparking from her eyes.
“Are you out of your mind? What kind of trouble is she in? Is she running from a pimp? Oh gods, Mal, how could you be so stupid?”
He bristled.
“It’s not like that,” he snapped. “And I’m telling you, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Obviously it’s something to worry about if you’re hiding her here under so much secrecy.”
He relaxed slightly.
“So you’ll let her stay?” he asked and Lena exhaled in a rush of frustration.
“Not if you don’t tell me what’s really going on.”
He chewed on his lower lip and considered his next words carefully.
“Something happened to Brynn in Belize,” he started and Lena scoffed.
“No shit, Mal. You need to do better than that.”
“She… she was saved from the men who took her and brought to relative safety but the men who took her might still be looking for her.”
“When was she saved? Recently?”
“No. Right after she was taken.”
Lena gaped at him dubiously.
“And it’s taken her five years to come back?”
“She suffered from amnesia,” Mal answered quickly.
None of this is a lie. And the truth is, if the wolves come looking for her, Lena can easily take them on. Lena, Peter and Braden will leave them in shreds.
Which only left the part about keeping his werewolf lover from other bears.
“Are you sure, Mal? Why do I feel like you’re hiding something?”
She knows me too well.
“She was turned.”
Lena’s mouth parted in shock and for a long moment, she said nothing.
Suddenly, she laughed.
“That’s amazing news!” she cried. “I’m so happy to hear that! It was your biggest concern when you were together, that—”
“Into a werewolf,” Mal cut her off and Lena’s smile faded.
“Is this a joke?” she hissed, yanking on his arm and dragging him further into the kitchen. “Please tell me you’re joking!”
“I wish I were.”
“Holy shit, Mal! She’s in terrible danger, Mal! She has to go back to her pack…”
She trailed off as she heard what she was saying.
“Okay, we need to find her another pack,” Lena continued. “She can’t run around solo, not when the bears will kill her on sight.”
“No one is killing her and she’s not going to another pack. You just need to keep her safe for a few days, a week, maybe, and I’ll be back for her. We’ll be gone and you’ll never have to worry about it again.”
Lena glared at him.
“What the hell does that mean?” she snapped. “You’re going to vanish? Move to Greenland, maybe?”
“If that’s what it takes to keep Brynn safe, yes,” he barked back. “I don’t need to tell you how long I’ve looked for her, how much hope I clung to, how much pain I endured.”
“No,” Lena said softly. “You don’t. And I don’t need to remind you how much it hurt when you lost someone you loved. What do you think that will do to me? To your nephews?”
Mal groaned slightly.
“Please don’t do this to me, Lena. I’ve been agonizing over how to make this work for days. I’ve had to regain Brynn’s trust, deal with some unsavory characters and basically sell my soul to get her back. Don’t guilt me for this. I’m doing my best.”
Lena stared at him for a long moment, shaking her head slowly.
“You can leave her here,” Lena finally relented. “But when you come back, we’re going to work this out. We’ll fig
ure out a plan that doesn’t entail you running away your whole lives. That’s no way to live.”
Mal decided to take the gift and flashed Lena a weak smile.
“Fine,” he agreed. “But Lena, you can’t push her. She’s delicate. Her memory has been coming back but it’s still not a hundred percent.”
“I’m a nurse, remember?” Lena told him dryly. “I know how to deal with trauma patients.”
“She’s not a trauma patient either,” he sighed but he waved his hand. “Never mind. Just be kind to her. She’s been through a lot, even if she doesn’t remember half of it.”
Together, they made their way back out to where Brynn was still standing in the foyer, seeming uncomfortable.
“Oh, dammit,” Lena cursed, spinning back around. “I forgot your wine. You’re still a white wine drinker, Brynn?”
“I… don’t know,” she replied softly and Mal slid his arm around her waist.
“We’ll start with that and see how you feel about it,” Lena said brightly, disappearing back into the kitchen and leaving the couple alone.
“How did she take it?” Brynn asked nervously.
“She knows the truth,” he told her honestly. “But she says you can stay. It’s temporary, Brynn. The minute this trial is over—”
“I was thinking about that, Mal,” she stated. “You love being a cop. I can’t make you just up and leave that life behind.”
“No,” he said earnestly. “I love you, Brynn. The only reason I put so much effort into being a cop was to take my mind off missing you so much.”
“Still, Mal, there’s this whole life you have. Your sister, your nephews—”
“You were listening,” Mal realized, annoyance prickling his spine.
“This house isn’t soundproof,” she replied dryly.
“Brynn, this is the best way, the only way to ensure you’re safe. I almost lost you once and I won’t let it happen again. Nothing you can do or say will make me change my mind. It’s you and me forever, babe, all right?”
She pursed her lips and nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered but he could hear the reluctance in her voice.
“Here you are, hon,” Lena called, appearing with two glasses of wine in hand. She scowled at her brother.
“I assume you need to get going,” she said deliberately. “Why don’t you let Brynn and I get reacquainted?”