Well, if Cam wanted her that badly, he could have her.
His tiger growled in rage and showed his displeasure by pouncing on the nearest tree and ripping up the bark with its claws.
It made him feel better, especially when he imagined the bark was that snooty bastard’s face.
Finally, the tiger seemed appeased and backed off from the shredded tree. By now, it really was getting too late, and he would miss his shift if he didn’t head back now. He directed his tiger back to his trailer and started the change. Once fully back in human form, he hopped into the damp clothes he’d discarded and rounded to the front porch.
The sight of an unfamiliar red Mercedes in his driveway made him stop. Who the fuck owned this douche mobile?
“Took you long enough.”
Ice froze in his veins at the sound of the feminine voice. His tiger growled, making his chest rattle. “What are you doing here, Felicia?” he asked as he hopped up to his porch.
Felicia stood there, umbrella in one hand, hair perfectly coiffed, dressed in an expensive-looking skirt suit, and her other perfectly manicured hand holding a slim cigarette. Golden eyes narrowed at him. “What did you tell him?”
“Tell who?”
“I don’t have time for your games.” She took a drag of her cigarette, flicked it at her feet, and crushed it under her red-bottomed stiletto heel. “Christopher. He came to see you a couple of days ago.” Placing her hands on her hips, she blocked him from his door. “What did you say to him?”
“Nothing,” he spat. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Then why is he asking all these questions about you? Why does he want to know who you are?”
“I don’t know, okay? Leave me alone, I’m going to be late for work.” He attempted to sidestep her, but she blocked him.
“You will not talk to my son,” she hissed. “Or any of my children.”
He pretended the stabbing ache in his chest didn’t exist. “Whatever. Now—”
“You will not ruin my family,” she added. “I won’t let you.”
“That’s what you said the last time, Felicia,” he shot back. “It’s been over twenty years, try something different.”
“I’m warning you. Don’t come near us or—”
“Or what?” he roared, gripping her arms. Blood drained from her face. “What are you gonna do, huh? Abandon me again on my birthday? Not show up to the hospital when Dad was asking for you when his liver was failing? Or at his funeral? Cuz you already did all those things, so you don’t have much left to threaten me with.” His fingers dug into her flesh, and his tiger urged him to make her bleed.
Tears sprang in her eyes. “Anders—”
He shoved her away. “Leave. And never come back,” he warned before yanking the door open and stomped inside his trailer. He slammed the door so hard, the walls shook.
When he heard the Mercedes’s engine roar as it pulled away, he let out a growl. “Fuck!” He kicked at the couch. “Fuck. Fuck.” Plopping down on an armchair, he buried his face in his hands. I have to get out of here. Fuck this shift. Fuck Damon. Fuck Felicia. And fuck this shit. He was going to forget about his problems, just for one night.
Grabbing his jacket, he stormed out to his truck. The tires screeched as he backed out, and he drove like a madman. When he reached The Den, he parked and marched inside, heading straight for the bar.
“Whiskey, double-shot,” he barked at Tim.
The bartender raised a bushy brow at him. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Grimes.”
Tim said nothing, but took out a glass and poured some amber liquid into a glass. Anders reached for the whiskey, but the bartender’s hand remained around the glass. “It’s been a long time, son. Are you sure you want this?” Tim had known full well what Kevin Stevens had been like when he was still alive. Probably cut him off more times than he did his own hair.
He lifted his head and glared at him. “I’m sure.” Slamming a couple of bills on the table, he grabbed the whiskey and moved to the far end.
Hunching over the glass, he stared into the depths of the amber liquid. Just one sip. It wouldn’t even affect him. God knows he’d stayed away from alcohol long enough. One sip wouldn’t turn him into his father. Or Felicia. He’d made damn well sure of that.
The sound of laughter made him whip his head around. There was a group of girls at the pool table, laughing and giggling as they played. One of them, a pretty blonde in a low-cut shirt caught his gaze. She winked at him and gave him that look he recognized so well.
Maybe he could finally put all those pickup lines and smooth moves he practiced all these years to good use. God knows, if Darcey could do it, so could he. He was about to get up from his stool when a hand landed on his shoulder and sat him back down.
“Fancy meeting you here,” came the gruff, familiar voice.
Fucking Christ. He stared daggers at the taller man. “Krieger,” he acknowledged. “Yeah, what a coincidence. Are you stalking me?” He tsked. “People are gonna start to talk.” He brushed off Krieger’s meaty hand. “If you excuse me—”
“That”—he nodded toward the girls at the pool table—“is not going to help.”
“Mind your own business, Sarge.” His tone was calm, but he was reaching his breaking point. Though Krieger was larger, Anders knew he could lay him on his back in two seconds flat and hit him in all his sensitive places.
“Damon’s concerned about you. You know, he thinks you’re one of the best rangers we have.”
He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“But he noticed you’ve been getting sloppy this last week. I said I’d watch out for you.”
“Well, thank you very fucking much, guardian angel. But I don’t need your help.” He reached for the glass of whiskey.
“That’s not going to solve anything either. You know that.”
“Yeah, well it sure won’t fucking hurt.” He lifted the glass to his mouth. One sip. But his lips had barely touched the glass when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Or rather, someone who had entered The Den, head swinging around as if looking for someone.
His tiger immediately stood at attention, its ears perking up as it mewled longingly. Darcey looked like an angel wearing a white sweater, matching leggings, and brown boots.
What the hell is she doing here?
He watched as she continued to glance around the room, craning her neck, stopping only when her eyes landed on him. Her mouth parted, and she straightened her shoulders and marched up to him.
“I’m gonna head to the john,” Krieger said.
Before he could protest, the bear shifter was gone, and Darcey was fast approaching. Fuck. He placed the glass back on the bar and wrapped his fingers around it, his body going rigid as she drew nearer.
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” she said softly, letting out a shiver. “I called the community center. They said you haven’t showed up to teach this week.” Her blonde hair was damp and matted to her head, and he stifled the urge to brush her locks from her face and take her into his arms to warm her.
“Been busy.” He swirled the liquid in the glass, staring down at it.
“I was going to head up to your HQ, but I called first. Daniel said you weren’t there either. And that you didn’t even bother to tell them you weren’t showing up today.”
He whipped his head toward her. “What do you want, Darcey?”
To her credit, she didn’t flinch. Though she looked awfully pale and nervous. “I-I wanted to talk.”
“About what?”
“Us.”
He snorted. “Us? What about you and Cam?”
“Oh, for God’s sake! He’s just a friend. Friends can eat lunch together.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?” he snarled. “All this time … have you been seeing him for lunch and then having me for dessert?”
Her face twisted in outrage. “How dare you!”
“I don’t know what y
ou want from me, Darcey.” He lifted the glass once again and sniffed at the whiskey.
“Tell me it wasn’t just sex.”
Her words hit their mark, straight at his heart. He clenched his jaw.
“Tell me there was more to it.” Her voice dropped a decibel. “That I meant something. As your mate.”
That last word pushed him over the edge. “I told you, I’m not what you think I am. You think I’m some kind of Prince Charming? A good guy? A bad boy that can be redeemed?” He sneered. “Get this through your head, Darcey: I’m the asshole piece of shit everyone says I am. There are no layers here, no soft underbelly. I told you I don’t do the mate thing. Why don’t you go home? There’s no place for you in my life.”
If it were possible, her face turned even whiter. “Bastard.” Her nostrils flared.
“Yeah, you called it.” He raised the glass to her. “Congratu-fucking-lations.”
Her lips pressed tightly as she huffed through her nose. “She really messed you up this bad? She walked out on you years ago, but you’re still letting her live rent-free in your head?” Tears pooled at her eyes, and he fought the urge to brush them away. “This is what you want? Fine. I’ll leave, then. You’ll never have to see me again.” Turning on her heel, she marched away from him.
All he could do was stare at her retreating figure. He tried to move, but he was paralyzed. His gut wrenched so bad, he thought he would throw up. His hand shook, and the glass slipped from his fingers, crashing on the floor loudly as it shattered into a million pieces, the whiskey splattering all over his work boots. One thought rang in his head.
She was right.
All these years, he’d been pushing people away because he didn’t want anyone too close. Not because he didn’t want to ruin them, but because he didn’t want to have his heart stomped on all over again. And he fought the mating bond so hard because the last thing he wanted was to be like Felicia. It was his last fuck you to his egg donor, to reject her and everything in his DNA that came from her. Only, he ended up hurting himself and his mate.
Darcey!
“Shit!” Shaking off the broken glass and whiskey from his boots, he made his way to the door.
“Anders!”
He stopped at the sound of the Krieger’s voice. “I have to go,” he said. “Er, sorry, man. Tell Damon he can punish me tomorrow. I’ll even do trash duty for a month. But I have to go now.” Not bothering to wait for the other man to respond, he dashed out the door. Where was—there! He spotted her, white-blonde hair and all white outfit, walking toward her car, only a couple of feet away.
“Darcey!” he shouted, but she didn’t seem to hear him. “Darcey! I—”
The screeching of tires drowned out his voice. A dark blue Bentley limo pulled up beside Darcey, and a burly man came out.
Anders watched in horror as he seized Darcey by the arm. She screamed and tried to escape from his grip, but it was no use, and he pushed her into the vehicle.
Rage burned through him and his tiger. He let out a savage roar and bounded forward, running into the car head-on. He held his ground, growling and raising his hands as the vehicle approached. He would not let them leave, not with his mate. As the car drew nearer, he prepared himself, his tiger ready to pounce. But the impact never came as he was tackled to the ground.
“No!” He clawed at his attacker. “Let me go!”
“Anders. Anders!” Krieger’s voice cut through his rage. “It’s me.”
“What the fuck, man!” He disentangled himself from the bear shifter. “They took her, Goddammit! Took my mate!”
“And how would getting flattened by that car have helped?” Krieger snorted. “Use your fucking head.”
“I need to go after them.” He shot up to his feet and marched toward his pickup.
Krieger let out a grunt. “I’m going with you.”
“Whatever. Just don’t get in my way.” He was seeing red, and his tiger seethed with rage, its tail whipping back and forth. I’m going to fucking murder those sons of bitches for taking what’s mine.
Chapter Fourteen
What in the world was going on?
One minute, she was walking out of The Den, her body numb from her confrontation with Anders and then the next, a thug grabbed her and tossed her into the back of a luxurious limousine.
“Oomph!” Her butt hit the leather seats with a soft thud. “What the—” When she attempted to get up, two hands held her down. “What’s going on?” The man who picked her up sat beside her, holding down her wrists. She tried to pull her hands away, but they were too strong. Her own swan flapped its wings and let out a hiss. Shifters. A familiar feeling washed over her. Not just any kind of shifter.
“Hello, Ms. Wednesday.”
The voice made her freeze. Shaking her hair from her face, she lifted her head. A man sat across from her, looking calm and collected.
Her nose wrinkled. “Who—” she gasped. It was the man in the pinstripe suit she ran into at Rosie’s.
His mouth spread into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I see you remember me.”
“Who are you?” She already knew what he was. A swan, like her. “What do you want with me?”
“Uncanny. You look even more like her, the more I look at you.” His light blue eyes turned vacant, as if lost. “So lovely.”
What the heck was he talking about? “W-who?”
“Your mother.”
It was as if a cannonball hit her in the chest. “My m-mother? You knew her?”
“Yes, I knew that bitch whore, well.” The dullness in his eyes disappeared, only to be replaced with a raging blue fire. “You’re practically a carbon copy of her. Elizabeth was a one of a kind beauty. I swore I would have her the moment I saw her, so I did. And with her as my mate, I was able to take control of my bevy from my old Alpha.”
Elizabeth. Her mother. She recalled Marsh’s words from the last time they spoke. This must be his Alpha. Cassius. She gasped. “Are you my—”
“Father?” Cassius finished. “No, my dear. I’m not. That honor belongs to that bastard Jack Kelly. I welcomed him and his brother into my home, and what does he do? Screw my wife and get her pregnant!”
A cold chill passed over her. “I don’t understand … I thought … she’s your mate! Why would she betray you?”
His nostrils flared, and his lips pursed together.
“Wait …” Realization struck her. “She’s not … you weren’t really mates were you?”
“Smart girl,” he sneered. “Too bad your mother wasn’t as wise. She was ambitious, though. She and I had an understanding—pretend to be mates so I can be Alpha, and in turn, elevate her status in the bevy. We ruled peacefully for five years. But all that changed when Jack Kelly walked in the door. He and his brother came to America to connect and make alliances with other swan bevies. He was handsome and charming, but I didn’t pay any mind to him. Little did I know, he and Elizabeth were screwing each other behind my back. Kelly and his brother didn’t stay long, leaving after a week.
“A few months later, she leaves me a note to tell me she’s running away to be with the father of her child. I couldn’t just let her go. It would expose my lie to the bevy. So, I tracked her down. She had me running around for months—I even thought she’d made it to Australia. But, no, she’d been hiding out in Nevada. Eventually I caught up with her. By that time, she was ready to pop you out.” He gritted his teeth. “I let her give birth in a tiny town outside Lund. But she escaped again with the baby. Days passed, and we found her in a hospital in Summerlin by herself. She said the baby had died, and she buried it in the desert. She came home with me after that and promised she’d never reveal the true nature of our mating if I spared her life.”
“But she died anyway,” Darcey finished. “Of a broken heart, being separated from her real mate.” Cassius didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. A single tear ran down her cheek. “H-how can you be sure you didn’t get her pregnant? That this—th
is Jack Kelly is my biological father and not you?”
“I couldn’t, not at first,” he said. “When I saw your billboard, I had to make sure you were one of us and that you weren’t just a doppelganger. Marcellus”—he nodded to the man on her right—“came to your store to confirm that you were a shifter.”
She glared up at the goon. “Asshole!” But the man didn’t even flinch.
Cassius laughed. “No need to be so crass, my dear. Marcellus is very loyal to me, and very, very quiet. A literal mute swan. Speaking of which, you wanted to know how I’m sure you’re not mine? Well, it was your dear friend, Dr. Marsh.”
“Alfie?”
“He came to me, of course, to ask about our visitors from Down Under. And to tell me that he had found a lone black swan living in Blackstone. I ordered him never to speak about you to anyone or even go near you or I would exile him. But I just had to see you for myself.”
That’s why Marsh was so scared of her. And why Cassius bumped into her at Rosie’s. He was probably the one who followed her to her car that evening, too, when she was spooked. “What are you … what are you going to do with me?”
His gaze turned frosty. “Your existence is a threat to my rule.”
Her heart leapt to her throat. “No!” Her swan, too, cried out in protest, wings flapping furiously. Instinctively, her hand went to her belly. My baby. She couldn’t let them harm her or her unborn child. Anders may not want the baby, but she did. This child was wanted and loved. She would do anything to protect it.
“It’ll be quick,” Cassius promised her. “At least I can guarantee you that. No slow degradation over the years.”
No! She couldn’t let him kill her. She would fight with all her might.
Blackstone Ranger Rogue: Blackstone Rangers Book 4 Page 15