Chapter 6
Guiding Peter into the house, I can’t help from noticing how Spencer keeps side-eyeing me. At first, I thought it was because she doesn’t trust me with her brother, but as she stares, I realize it’s not me specifically that she’s focused on. It’s just my chest.
Maybe she’s intrigued by my tattoo that we didn’t get to talk about earlier, but as she bites the inside of her cheek, I don’t think so.
Spencer won’t be able to fight the bond forever. Not if she’s having any doubts about her previous rejection.
If there’s any attraction at all on her end, the bond will undoubtedly amplify those feelings. Based on her constant glances at my muscles, I can at least be thankful the curses Kel placed on me had me frozen in time and not left withering away all these years.
My body is still that of a strong twenty-eight-year-old shifter, who spent my days strengthening my physique in hopes of one day joining Caius’s guard so that I would stand a greater chance of escaping Tartarus.
“Oh, Petey,” Spencer’s mom calls out when we get in the house. “What did you do?”
“He was only trying to help,” I answer for him. I wouldn’t think after the day they’ve already had that the boy would get in trouble, but I’d rather be sure.
She rubs a hand over his mess of hair and takes him from Spencer. “Of course my boy was.”
“I’ll grab a healing tincture from the box I brought,” Spencer announces, then runs off quickly.
Yeah, she doesn’t seem all that thrilled with her attraction to me. Too damn bad. I’m not going anywhere.
“I’m Cara, by the way,” Spencer’s mother adds with a smile. “My life isn’t always like this. Well, yes it was, but not any longer.”
“Nice to meet you, Cara.” I give her a nod and return her grin. “I’m Drake Cage.”
“Yes, I’ve gathered.” Her accompanying chuckle confuses me, but I don’t get to ask what’s so funny.
Spencer cuts in front of me and tends to her brother, while keeping her back to me. “You’ve got to be more careful, bub.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Pence.” His voice is quiet, but he’s at least not crying any longer.
Cara steps closer to me and appraises my naked chest, but not in the way Spencer was. No, she frowns and shakes her head. “You need a new shirt. I’ll be right back.”
The woman goes through the kitchen and to a door past that, but quickly shuts it behind her as she slips through.
While Spencer pokes at Peter, I consider going back to cleaning up the bloody mess from the body, but I don’t want to draw the boy’s attention to it. Instead, I stand there with my hands in my pockets and look around at the home.
The ceilings are tall and white, helping to make it not feel as small. The furniture is all worn and stained, but everything around me is clean outside of some broken glass that also needs to be picked up.
Well, maybe not if they’re all leaving.
The walls are a dull tan and free of pictures or art. Part of me wonders if that was to make sure the abusive asshole had less things to throw around.
“This is getting weird,” Peter comments, breaking the silence.
“What?” Spencer responds as I watch her force his head back again.
He points at me, then his sister. “The two of you. You’re making things weird. Can’t you two talk to each other?”
I smirk. “That would make things better, wouldn’t it?”
“I think so.” Then, he winces. “Ow. Don’t be mean, Pence, or I’ll tell Momma.”
She holds a dropper up to his chin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The hell she doesn’t.
Cara exits out of the room and once again closes the door behind her. In her hands is a black cotton shirt that she tosses to me. “This should fit, and I’m pretty sure it was never worn. Just washed.”
“Thanks.” I slip the clothing over my head, then wink at Peter. “Maybe she’ll talk to me now.”
“Probably not,” he whispers back even though Spencer is still between us. “I think you really made her mad.”
“One day, you’ll learn?—”
Spencer stands and slaps a hand over my mouth, cutting off my words. “That’s enough.” Then she glares back at her brother. “From both of you. Peter, go pack two bags. Whatever you can carry on your own.”
The boy tiptoes between us and grins at me before he scampers off toward what I assume is his room back down the hallway.
Spencer pulls her hand away from me and turns toward her mother. “Mom, you should do the same. Is there anything out here that you want me to go through? The sooner we’re gone, the better.”
“Actually, I could use your help in my room,” Cara says, and I take that as my cue to leave.
“I’ll be outside,” I add, then head for the back door.
When nobody stops me, I return to the gravesite and pick up the shovel, intent to finish the job so we can do as Spencer wants and leave this place behind.
As I start to dig the hole, I can’t help thinking about what comes next. Getting my vengeance on Kel is still a priority, but I don’t want to leave Spencer so soon after finding her.
Though, if I stay in Crossroads and Kel finds me…
My mate might be strong, but this witch is twisted. I don’t want her somehow showing up, ruining everything.
I’ll have to leave to finish the hunt I started, and if Spencer doesn’t wait for me, I’ll find her, too.
My teeth grind together as I continue to shovel, hating that Kel is still interfering with my life. Meeting her was the worst day of my life, and if I could go back, I would kill her at first sight.
I’d spent the first twenty-eight years of my life in Tartarus before running into Kel. Before her, I’d already been shunned by my own mother who made it very clear from the moment I was able to comprehend her words that I was unwanted. My father hadn’t wanted me and, according to my mom, left her because of me. She never could let that go before disappearing around the time I turned ten.
Being alone after that had seemed safer, and it didn’t take long to accept my fate. I did what I had to in order to survive, made myself a home, all while keeping to myself until she appeared, playing all the right cards to get my attention.
Kel claimed to have lost her memory, waking up alone and beaten one night. She’d run for days and couldn’t run any longer. Or so she’d said. I’d felt sorry for her, but she’d taken my kindness for something else. For love.
She’d been relentless in her pursuits—worse than me not wanting to walk away from Spencer—showing up at my home several times a day, trying to force herself on me.
None of it worked, and after months of trying to be the nice guy, I lost my shit on her. I screamed into her face, to go away and never come back, that I didn’t, and wouldn’t ever, want her. Words that haunted me for years afterward given how my own mother had treated me.
Still, that hadn’t given her the right to take my freedom from me. She accused me of cheating on her with another, even though we’d never been together. Hell, we hadn’t even kissed.
“If I can’t have you, then nobody else can either.”
I remember those poisonous words like they were spoken yesterday and not over nine hundred years ago.
Right there in my yard, she’d trapped me in my own body and shielded me from sight. The few people I had made connections with would still come by, but they couldn’t see me and I couldn’t call out. I couldn’t even move.
The only person who knew where I sat frozen was the one I had no desire to ever see again.
Kel made sure to visit with me every day. She’d put her hands on me, whisper in my ear, and at the end of every conversation, she’d ask me if I was ready to be hers.
Considering I couldn’t move, I assume she felt my rage and took that as my no.
It wasn’t until Caius broke through into Earth that one of the spells finally shattered. I don’t know how, but I haven’t questioned it a moment since.
Before I know it, I’ve rage-dug the hole for Spencer’s father and I’m covered in dirt, but the job is done and that’s all that matters.
I jump out of the six-foot-deep hole, intent to grab the body and toss him in, but Spencer is standing there, seeming as if she’s been watching me for longer than I’d probably like given the unwanted trip to my past that I just took.
“Have some aggressions to take out, huh?” she muses. “I wondered if that nice guy act you’ve been displaying was just that. An act. I know you’re the one that roared when you came through the portal. That kind of fury doesn’t just go away.”
She grins as if she’s just caught me doing something I shouldn’t be. While I’d rather her not see me angry, that’s only because I believe she deserves better, not because I feel as if I need to hide who I really am.
I step toe-to-toe with her, our noses nearly touching. “Are you asking because you really want to know or because you feel as if you’re better than me and are trying to make me feel less than for my actions? If it’s the former, I’ll gladly tell you why you might sense a layer of wrath simmering just beneath the surface.”
She blinks and manages to keep her face devoid of any emotions, not even the amusement she’d just been portraying. “I only came out here to tell you…”
“What, Spencer?” I goad. “What is it that you want to say, because I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.”
Her mouth opens and closes, but no words come out. With her lips so close, I’m tempted to lean forward and taste her. Something tells me it would be worth whatever punishment she served me, but before I can make my move, she steps back.
“I’m going to go grab the cloaking spell for the body.” Spencer turns on a heel and storms back inside the house, leaving me standing there watching her.
Her steps are rigid and heavy, and when she enters inside, the door slams behind her.
I’m not sure what it’s going to take to win her over, but I still have time and I’m intent on making the best of it. Right after I make sure there aren’t any obstacles left in our way. At least not the ones I can do something about.
Spencer’s stubbornness might be a whole other story.