51. Aspyn
Chapter fifty-one
Aspyn
A spyn Aged 23
Keagan puts a hand on my chest and pushes me up against the wall of my house.
I blink at him several times. “You want what?”
“I want a key.”
“No!”
“So, you want me to keep breaking in?”
“No! I want you to stop breaking in.”
I’m trying really hard not to be aware of the way he flattens his hand and spreads out his fingers across my chest. Who am I kidding? That's all I can think about.
“Mmm, that’s not going to happen. You and I are destiny. You should give in and just accept it. Plus, how can I get you what you need if you keep me out?”
I stare up at him. He’s the most beautiful alpha. I reach up and pause, alarmed at my actions, but Keagan’s eyes flare. He ducks his head and leans it into my hand, turning his face into my hand and kissing my palm.
“A key?”
“Yes. I want a key. I want you to welcome us.”
I blink. “You’re my best friends. You know you’re welcome. I told you I was done trying to push you away. I apologised.”
Keagan ducks his head again, but, this time, he kisses me, a soft, chaste, non-threatening kiss. It leaves me wanting and hot.
“Give me a key, baby.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Mm, okay.” I know a futile effort when I see one.
Keagan leans in and ghosts his lips down my face. “Are you working today?”
“I am.”
“Mmm, you gonna wear the pretty gold shawl that makes you look extra special?”
I think I blush to my toes.
“I can’t wait to see it. I’ll be thumping and breaking the bones of any surfer that even looks your way.”
I chuckle, and he smiles like he’s achieved his goal, and I guess, in a way, he did.
The light in my life is back, and I don’t know how to live without them.
But, no matter what, we’re just friends.
P resent Day
Ezy peels off my clothes and helps me into the shower. He starts it warm and then slowly increases the heat. I don’t want to be near water, but I can’t stop shaking. I can’t even find any words, but, as soon as he comes close, I grab hold of him and cling to him.
“I’m sorry we were late,” Ezy murmurs. “It’s done now. We’re finished. We’re here. I promise we won’t leave you again.”
I don’t know when I start crying, just that I am, and when Ezy towels me dry and carries me to bed, I cling to him, refusing to let him go.
“Where is Nat?” I ask with dread.
“Mitch got her out as soon as the boat flipped. He took her back into town in his car.”
The relief I feel is enormous.
“He, Sonny, and Nat should be at the hospital on the mainland now,” Gael says from the doorway. He gives me a soft smile and heads into the shower.
Unlike ours, his shower is super short, and when he comes out, he’s dressed in clothes that aren’t his.
“Where are we?”
“Mitch’s house,” Ezy murmurs and kisses my forehead. He gets on his knees and starts kneading my aching flesh. I whimper but sit through it, knowing it will feel better.
Gael brings two painkillers, a glass of water, and a pillowcase filled with warmed, uncooked rice that he puts on my leg.
I take the painkillers gratefully and let Ezy arrange the heat bag on my leg. I’m so exhausted I can barely lift my head.
“Sorry, I can’t find anything else.”
“It's fine, Gael. You did brilliant. With all of it.”
“You busted me out of prison. I’ll do anything for you, Aspyn,” Gael says in a soft voice. “I was scared everyone had left me.”
I try to sit up, but Ezy pins me with an arm across my chest.
“No way. Nat and I fought with Sonny every day. I could never leave you, Gael.”
My words hit him hard.
I sense Gael’s happiness before he slips out of the bedroom. His restless pacing around the house becomes the normalcy that keeps me sane and allows me to drift into an exhausted sleep, all the while, the arms of my alpha surround me.
I wake up to my Daane crawling into bed with me.
I throw an arm over Shale and bury my face in his shoulder. I don’t know why I’m crying, but I can’t stop.
“Don’t you leave me again!”
“Never again,” Shale whispers and claims my mouth in a kiss that tastes like home.
Keagan wraps himself around my back, pressing as much of himself around me as he can.
“Missed you so much, beautiful.”
“Missed you, too.”
Damn all these tears.
Beau lays across the pillows and curls around us. I glance up, feeling the complete pack and find Kelly standing at the end of the bed.
“Please?” I whisper and hold out a hand. He crawls up, stopping to lie with his head against my belly. Gael crawls up on Keagan and collapses there, and Ezy shuts the bedroom door and curls up on Shale’s other side.
It’s a very full bed, but it works, and, for the first time in a long time, I actually feel safe.
The bonds that have been quiet and missing open slowly, unfurling like a flower. The love, relief, and happiness in each of our hearts reaches me. Now, it’s perfect.
I don’t know which alpha starts it, but he starts to purr. More rumbling sounds are added until the room is almost vibrating with low rumbles. I lay there and add my own little purr to the symphony.
And that’s how we fall asleep, barricaded in a bedroom of a house that isn’t ours on an island that hates us, exhausted, sore, but full of joy just to be together again.
T he next day, my body has stiffened, and the pain is unimaginable. When I’m not sleeping, I’m trying not to whimper as I’m being shuffled from the hot shower and bath back to the bed with heat bags and painkillers.
I don’t ask what happened to Typhor, I already know. He’s dead, and, to be honest, I am relieved.
But we don’t talk about anything else either. I know they are waiting for me to improve enough that we can leave. It takes another two days, but with their attentive doctoring, I manage to improve enough to attempt the plane ride off this island.
Kelly had held my hand as we looked at the two houses just before we’d left.
“Is there anything that you want or need?”
Beau and Shale had already removed most of everything, including my box of newspaper cuttings, but I’d gone inside and found the small, hidden velvet bag with my first oracle card set.
I held out the deck to Kelly.
“I painted this deck when I was nineteen, I think. Take one.”
He reaches out and takes one and turns it over. There are two women on either side of an image of him. One with dark hair, one with golden. And behind them are two versions of Raider. In gold is painted a single word: blood.
Kelly breaks out into goosebumps.
“Past. Take another.”
He reaches out and licks his lips. There is a circle divided by six. A golden sun, an ocean, a surfboard, and, on the other side, a skull, a set of brass knuckles, and a killer clown laughing. Family is written in a circle around a tiny golden shell in the middle of all those pieces.
Now I break out in goosebumps. I don’t even remember drawing those.
“Last one. Future.”
Kelly reaches out and turns the card over. I half expect to see the city or Alpha Labels, but instead, I see a sandy beach and a sunset. The word is written is glittery blue pen, and it simply reads: home.
“I believe you.” Kelly swallows hard and looks at me, his expression open and honest. “I don’t know how you do it. I don’t think I want to know, but I believe in you and your gift,” Kelly says and pulls me into a hug.
I wrap my arms around him and hang on. He believes in me. That means more than I can say.
“I shouldn’t have been so dismissive. There is so much that we don’t understand. I was such an ass to you.”
I swallow hard, trying to find the words. “Let’s go, then. There is nothing left for me here. Let’s start over.”
I think back to the cave I’ve had so many of my heats in. The times I struggled. Being afraid and terrified. The last time I saw my mother. The last time I hugged her and had family.
But, no, that’s wrong, I have family again. I’m not alone.
Kelly turns and helps me into the car. When he sees the guys who had tormented me and Nat, he pulls over and looks at me. He can feel through the bond my sudden apprehension.
“They the guys?”
I nod my head tightly.
“I’ll be right back. Just stay here.”
“Where are you going?”
Kelly smiles ruthlessly. “No one messes with the Daane.”
He gets out and reaches into the back, pulling out a baseball bat. I watch in amazement as he trashes the fuck out of their motorbikes. When they try to stop him, one of them gets hit so savagely with a bat that he collapses on the ground, holding his shoulder. It takes thirty minutes for Kelly to cool his rage.
He returns to the car, and we resume our journey.
We get on the plane, and Shale holds me in his lap as we say goodbye to the island that has been home to us for years. We won’t be coming back.
And I’m okay with that.