by Bella Jacobs
Water, where someone floats…
Face down.
My heart stops.
Just…stops.
Pressure builds in my chest, shoving up into my throat, blurring my vision, making me wonder if I’m having a heart attack. But after a moment, my heart jerks into motion again, throwing off the first rush of shock as it races faster, faster, until I feel like I’ve run a marathon to get here.
To this place.
To what was once my home, but never will be again.
Because the woman who made it home is dead.
As I stumble outside, I drag my phone from my pocket with trembling hands and dial 911, but I already know it’s too late. Bea is too still, too pale, her arms limp in the water and her soaked dress dragging at her lower body, threatening to pull her down to the bottom, even farther away from me.
She’s already too far. Gone. My Bea, my beautiful brave Bea.
My heart is destroyed. Ripped away. Torn out through my throat. I taste blood with every breath.
“911, what’s your emergency?” The voice sounds like it’s coming from a million miles away, and I suddenly can’t imagine how to communicate with it. How to tell a stranger that my world is gone, my love is dead, my sweet Bea has been murdered and I am nothing without her?
And then I see the words spelled out in a mass of twitching ants on the concrete near the water—Make it right. Kill the mates or Wendy is next.
I hit the end button, hanging up on the voice pricking at my ear.
Make it right… It will never be right, but I’ll kill Wren Frame’s lovers if that’s what it takes. Anything the monster wants to convince him to cough up the last bit of goodness left in the world.
My granddaughter. She’s still alive.
“I’ll get her back, Bea.” I fall to my knees by the pool, fingers dipping into the too-warm water a foot from her hand. She always liked the water bathtub hot, my Bea. She got cold.
Now she’ll never be cold again.
“I’ll get her back,” I swear, tears filling my eyes. “I promise, sweetheart. On my life. On her life.”
Something tickles the back of my hand, and I flinch, looking down to see the ants have formed a new message—Now.
“Absolutely,” I say, my voice hollow. “Right away.”
And then I open my hand and bring it down in the center of the word, smashing dozens of ants beneath my palm and spread fingers, hoping it hurts him, at least a little bit, to have this tiny piece of him destroyed.
Though I know he will never hurt the way I hurt.
And that the chances of getting Wendy back alive are slim to none.
But I’m going to try. Because that’s what people do—we keep fighting, even when the predators roaming the darkness beyond our campfire outmatch us in every way.
Still, we take up our spear and go to face the darkness.
The monsters.
The monster.
I dial the phone again. Gareth picks up on the first ring, “Mobilize all forces. We move tonight, as soon as we can get everyone on board the plane.”
Chapter 28
Creedence
Luke shows up just as the sky lets loose, trotting up the steps to the cabin where Kite is making chili for lunch. For once, Wren isn’t trailing beside him.
I’m about to head over to ask where she is—nicely, because I’m trying to give the cranky bastard the benefit of the doubt—when I spot two soggy heads in the distance, and my heart leaps into my throat.
There she is.
My woman.
She isn’t mine officially, yet, but maybe in a few hours…
All we have is today. Right now. Last night highlighted that for me. Highlighted, underlined, and set up flashing yellow arrows that said to quit sitting on my hands, worrying about things that might never happen, when I could be using those hands for better things.
Like making Wren come for me. Showing her what she means to me, how she’s changed me, how she makes me want to come home to someone for the first time in so long.
Maybe in my entire damned life.
My parents loved both their kids. They loved us in a fucked-up, unpredictable, major-strings-attached kind of way, but it was still love. I grew up knowing I was worthy of affection and respect, if not always where I was going to sleep at night or what alias I’d be using in the next town. But there was never anything that felt like home. We were a band of drifters held together by greed, necessity, and codependence, and the place we laid our head was just a box to hide our crazy from the world for a little while.
It was easy to breeze out of there as a teenager. It didn’t even feel like running away from home. You can’t run away from something you never had.
My van became my crash pad, followed by a string of studio apartments and the occasional remote mountain cabin rental. But those weren’t homes, either. They were shelter and privacy. It takes more than a messy bachelor holed up in a room with his camera collection and a fridge full of beer and mustard to make a home.
Home is something you create with someone else.
Just like family.
These psychos are my family. All of them—Wren, Dust, Kite, even Luke and Sierra, to a certain extent—but Wren is where home comes from. She’s the one who took a hammer to my cynicism, smashing every window in that tired old shack and sending fresh, sweet air rushing in. She’s the one who makes me want to be a better person, a kinder, braver man. The kind of who can be trusted with fierce and delicate things like my woman’s heart.
I’ve never loved anything or anyone the way I love the girl lifting her hand to wave at me through the pouring rain, her lips curving into a sad smile.
She’s sad again, but that doesn’t stop me. I flip up the hood of my raincoat and descend the camper’s creaky steps, my mind and heart made up and my mission clear.
First, I’m going to put a happy smile on that pretty face.
Then I’m going to show her why, once you go lynx, you never go back.
Chapter 29
Wren
“You want me to crawl inside that? In there?” I prop one hand on my hip and swipe rain from my forehead with the other, dubiously surveying the two-foot by two-foot crevice at the base of the hillside.
“No, I want us to crawl in there,” Creedence corrects. “I’ll go first, you pop in behind me. It gets tight about fifteen feet in, but after that, it’s all doable on hands and knees.”
My brows shoot up. “How tight is tight?”
“A little belly crawl never hurt anybody.” He laughs and tugs the bottom of my T-shirt. “Relax, Slim. If I can make it through, you won’t have any trouble. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
I wrinkle my nose, my feet squirming in my soggy shoes. “Couldn’t we go sit by the fireplace instead? Fires are adventurous, and you don’t have to squeeze through any dark, tight places to get to them.”
“I’m going to warm you up, I promise.” He takes my hand, threading his fingers through mine, sending a current of electricity prickling across my damp skin. “Have I ever taken you on a bad date?”
My mouth twitches. “You’ve never taken me on a date. Period.”
“Well, then, it’s high time I start.” He motions toward the crevice. “Your first date awaits, gorgeous.”
I hedge, but this time it’s guilt, not fear of enclosed spaces, that makes me hesitate. “I really shouldn’t, Cree. Luke might have found a good place to start our crossing.” I briefly explain the absence of wolves on the mountain and the humming sound. “I would love to go on a date with you, but it would probably be a better use of my time to grab Dust and have him fly over with me to check things out. We’ll be heading north soon, and I know we’ll all feel less anxious once we’ve got our course charted.”
“The mountain will be there tonight, after the rain has stopped, and you deserve a break.” Creedence puts a finger to my lips when I start to protest. “And this isn’t going to be a waste of your time, Slim. I spent the
morning in lockdown meditation. Boxing up my kin gift nice and tight. It won’t be coming out to play any time soon.”
I blink, too distracted by the feel of his finger, rough and sexy on my mouth, to put the pieces together right away. When I do, my body heats up, going from damp and chilly to blazing hot in seconds flat.
“So, we’ll be safe?” I ask, lips moving against his finger. “Safe to…”
Holding my gaze, he shifts his hand, curling it around the back of my neck in a way that makes my blood rush. “Yeah. We’ll be safe. And we’re going to do everything that just danced behind your eyes, baby. Then I’m going to teach you some new things your other mates haven’t gotten around to yet.”
I arch a brow. “Oh yeah? How can you be so sure? I’m wild these days, pretty kitty. Might even have a few tricks up my sleeve for you.”
“Oh, I hope so.” He growls as he pulls me close, kissing me with a smile on his full lips before he says, “But I don’t think you’ve quite caught up to me yet, sweetheart. Now get your fine ass on your hands and knees and follow me into that cave where we can get out of the damned rain.”
“I know all about hands and knees, for example,” I tease, nipping at the sides of his waist with my fingers. “I know I like to be on them with someone I love behind me with his fist in my hair, for example.”
Creedence growls again. “Which of those crazy kids worked up the balls to put a fist in your hair?”
“I don’t kiss and tell,” I say, the ache low in my body spreading as Creedence grips my ass tight in both hands. And then he swats my bottom—hard enough to sting—making me gasp-laugh as I pinch him again, under the tee this time.
“What about that?” He slaps my ass again, the second time even more sizzling than the first. “Either of the boys in your bed given you the spanking you’re practically begging for?”
“I don’t. Kiss. And tell.” I bite his bottom lip hard enough to summon a soft groan from deep in his chest.
“Fine,” he says, his voice husky. “Keep your secrets, baby. But someday soon, I’m going to know all about the way those boys fuck you. Because I’m going to be there, helping get you off while we take turns inside you.”
His words send a nuclear rush across my skin, making my nipples pull tight and wetness soak my panties.
“Yeah, I saw that last night,” he murmurs, his hands drifting under my shirt to tease up and down the valley of my spine. “There was a lot of bad shit, but there was also you and me… Naked… And not so alone…”
I shiver. “Not in all versions of the future.”
“We’re not living those versions, Slim. We’re going to live the best version, the one where you get fucked well and often by all four of your mates. And when you want us all in your bed, you only have to crook your finger, and we’ll come running.”
My cheeks blaze at the thought. I’ve come so far, but that level of sexual confidence still seems ridiculously out of reach.
But Cree’s words do make me wonder…
“So, you would be okay with that?” My pulse throbs faster as he finds the elastic band at the bottom of my sports bra and nudges it higher. “With…sharing. Like that. At the same time?”
“Well, I’m not going to blow another guy or even jerk him off… Especially none of these idiots,” Creedence says good-naturedly. “But if his balls and my balls happen to make each other’s intimate acquaintance while I’m taking your pussy and he’s fucking your ass, then I’m all right with that.” He pushes my bra even higher, making my breath catch. “I’m okay with just about anything that gets me in your pussy. Or pussy adjacent. Or even in your mouth while someone else is fucking you. Or sucking your tits while—”
I cut him off with a nervous laugh and fingers pressed to his lips. “Okay, I get it.”
“Do you really, Slim?” he murmurs seriously, the humor fading from his beautiful eyes. “I’m here because of you. I will work for you, sacrifice for you, fight for you, even die for you if it comes down to that.”
I nod, tears pressing against the backs of my eyes, overwhelmed by the emotion in his.
He cups my now-bare breast in his hand. “Getting naked with the other people you love is nothing compared to all that. Especially when I know how good we can make you feel together.” His thumb brushes across my tight tip, building the ache already twisting low in my body. “I can’t wait to make you feel good, baby. And make you mine. So, if you’re up for that…”
I swallow hard, knowing he means more than just sex, that he means he’s ready to be mine for keeps. For life.
And I am absolutely up for that. No doubt in my mind.
“Inside,” I whisper, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “I’ll go first.”
“Perfect. I’ll stare at your ass while you crawl.”
I smile. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
I drop to my hands and knees and start into the murky passage. As expected, Creedence waits until I’m almost all the way in before delivering a sharp swat to each butt cheek.
“I knew you were going to do that!” I laugh, even as a sharp wave of arousal courses through me, making my already damp panties even wetter.
“What about this?” A beat later I feel his breath warm on my thigh and then teeth dragging over my skin just below the cuff of my shorts, and my eyes shutter closed.
“No, I wasn’t expecting that,” I murmur, every nerve in my body pulsing electric as Creedence cups my pussy through my clothes.
“And this?” His fingers somehow find their way under my shorts and panties to press into where I ache.
“Oh, God…” I push back against him, moaning as his fingers glide inside me. In and out, in and out, until I’m trembling all over. “N-no. Not that, either.”
“Keep crawling, Slim.” He kisses the back of my other thigh as he gently pulls his fingers away. “I’ve got more surprises for you. Just head for the light at the end of the tunnel.”
He’s my light. And by the end of this afternoon, it’s going to be official.
Anticipation warm and thick in my veins, I start forward on my hands and knees, moving through the darkness toward the warm flicker of flame.
Chapter 30
Creedence
I’ve fucked up a lot of things in my life.
I’ve hung back when I should have reached out. I’ve let go when I should have held on. I’ve locked my jaw and swallowed ‘I love you’ more times than I should have, so afraid of wrecking a woman’s life the way my father and my grandfather did before me that I drove relationships onto the rocks before they could get out of the harbor.
But all that ends today.
Right now.
Maybe I just needed time to realize that sitting on the sidelines is a cowardly way to waste a life. Or maybe some part of me was waiting for her, this beautiful, headstrong, sweet as hell woman who I always sensed was out there somewhere, waiting to turn my world upside down.
“Oh my goodness.” Wren’s hands come to cover her mouth as she sees her surprise, waiting by the edge of the steaming pool I discovered last week and have been keeping in my back pocket, a secret just for her and me. She glances over her shoulder, her eyes shining. “What is this place? It’s incredible.”
“Natural hot spring.” I slide up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist as I point up at the oval of sky at the top of the cave. “With natural light and ventilation and guaranteed privacy.”
“And snacks.” She laughs as she snuggles closer, the curve of her ass brushing against where I’m already hard, where I’ve been hard on and off since we came together in the woods. “How did you manage to sneak a picnic in here without anyone noticing?”
“I have my ways,” I say, kissing her neck. “I smuggled in a bottle of champagne, too. Stole it from Dust’s secret stash in the camper. Did you know he had a secret stash?”
She brushes her nose against mine. “No, I didn’t. So he’s been holding out on us, huh?”
“Oh yeah.
He’s got liquor in there, cash, even a hard salami.”
“Hmmm,” Wren hums, rocking back against my hard-on. “A hard salami. I could go for one of those.”
I grin and kiss her. “Good. Because I stole that, too.”
“I wasn’t really talking about salami,” she says, shifting in my arms, her palms coming to rest on my chest, where my heart is already beating on the door, dying to come in out of the cold for good.
“I know, Slim.” I cup her face, dragging the pad of my thumb lightly over her bottom lip.
I hold her gaze for a long beat, until her smile softens and she asks, “Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s perfect. I was just thinking… Until I met you, I almost never saw myself in the future. I’d see visions, but I wasn’t a key player.” I cock my head. “Which is pretty normal. Most of us with sight don’t see ourselves that often. Our mind protecting us from the gift, maybe. But now…”
“But now you do,” Wren says, sadness creeping into her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I like seeing my future. Myself. Happy. With you.”
Her brow furrows. “Even though that’s the one-in-a-million long shot?”
I shake my head. “Not one in a million. A thousand, maybe. Not a million.”
“Still… It might never happen. Those things we saw, those…” She trails off, but I know exactly what she’s thinking.
“Oh, the kids are going to happen,” I say, sending a mixture of anticipation and anxiety flickering across her face. “Especially that little girl. I’m already in love with that little girl.”
Our little girl. With her mother’s blue eyes and my shaggy hair and her own one-of-a-kind gap-toothed smile.
“Me, too,” Wren whispers. “I want that life with you. And her. With all of them.”