Chapter 23 #2
Linc says, “Or… we get answers that could result in help. And you don’t have to go alone.
I’d go. Same as Cat Savage. She’s invested in your care, even though she hasn’t laid her healing hands on you yet, she knows you’re part of the pack now, and she’s insisting on being part of everything as our pack healer. ”
Everything inside me is now eerily still and I feel beyond strange.
Part of the pack now.
“So, you’re not going blindly into a trap, bro,” Linc goes on. “Blakely has had a tumultuous relationship with us lately because of issues around Riley’s mating, but that’s new. He’s close to the pack, tight with the retired council, like Cicely’s old man.”
“Cicely’s old man is a retired council alpha?”
“Yes,” she answers at the same time as Linc says, “Yup. Blakely’s also close to Cat, to Mase’s and Riley’s fathers, too. We aren’t gonna let you get fucked over and I honestly don’t think Mitch wants to do that.”
“You don’t know that they won’t have an SCC SWAT team there to collect me, Linc. Could be your pack has no sway over how it’s handled.”
“We don’t know that they will, either, bud.”
Cicely pipes up. “Whatever you told Mitch–”
Linc says, “Sorry to cut you off, but it’s not on me. Never told him Jared’s wolf has violent tendencies but yet he knew. He didn’t say who called him.”
Now she cuts him off. “Dad is friends with Mitch, and I was gonna say I would bet money my father called him and told him whatever you left out. Because he wants me safe.” She looks at me.
“But it’s clear now my dad called him to try to either get him to help or because he wants Jared arrested.
He saw the footage of what happened outside, and he’s parked beside Cade and Clinton just up the road with a live stream on his phone. ”
I’ve got my work cut out for me with Cicely’s father.
That much is obvious. He took the keys to my restraints.
She came back from retrieving them more emotional than when she left so they had words.
And even if I didn’t have the footprint on my ribs I’d still be able to tell by her reaction that he’s amped.
I don’t blame him. If she were my daughter, I’m sure I’d have dragged her away from here kicking and screaming. And I might’ve done more than kick me in the ribs while I was down.
“Message me the footage,” I say. “I want to see it.”
“No good’ll come of that, Jared,” Linc tries.
“He’s right,” my woman agrees, putting her hand on my arm.
“Send it anyway.”
“I’m gonna go find out what Dad said. Be right back.” She storms out.
“Sending it?” I ask Linc.
“I’ll send it when we finish the call. Chew on the Scotland idea for a couple hours. Call me back before you turn in tonight?”
“Yeah. Bye.”
I hang up.
And two minutes later, a video comes in. It’s taking a minute to load.
I’ve set up my camera twice in the past to capture what happens when I shift.
When I reviewed footage after the first time, all I saw was the transformation, what my wolf looks like, and it ran off.
The next time, I set up four different trail cams in a forest and got multiple looks at it, including watching it take down a regular alpha wolf after killing three other wolves from that pack, one being the alpha’s female who was trying to protect her mate by putting herself in the line of fire while my wolf tried to get his throat.
And the image of what that looked like was burned into my brain, so much that I had nightmares where instead of my monster ripping into wolves it ripped into my family members.
My dreams became my playback of the night my mother and sister died, and I’ve never known if it’s a real memory or a manufactured imagining.
The video Linc sent finally loads and turns my stomach watching myself become that beast, that beast that hurts my female.
The look of fear in her eyes when she faced the camera briefly.
It was clear she was trying to talk to it, reason with it.
The rage in the monster’s body language as it raked claws across her hand.
The blood on her hand. The way those claws shredded the back of the shirt she had on as the two other males moved in.
She comes in while I’m on my third watch of the video.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, then her expression hardens. “I told you not to watch it.”
I throw the phone aside and open my arms wide.
Fuck, I need her. Need to touch her, smell her. Need her to know how much I fuckin’ hate that it hurt her.
She climbs onto my lap and wraps her arms around me.
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Cicely.”
“Stop it. It’s not your fault. Anyway, Dad called for help,” she says, looking relieved. “Not because he wants you locked up and the key thrown away.”
“You look surprised.”
“Yeah.”
I’m surprised, too.
“Dad says there’s no way Mitch is calling you to come there as a trap to put you in prison. Dad asked if he could help.”
“Sure he’s not just saying that because it’s for your own good?”
“My father would never lie to me. Never. If that’s what he was trying to do, he’d admit it. What you see with Lorenzo Oakes is what you get.”
“Good to know. Wish I could say the same about myself.”
Her expression saddens and she wraps her arms tighter around me.
“Your weapon is jabbing me, woman,” I grumble, trying to reposition her on my lap so the taser doesn’t dig into my side.
“Well…” she says, “Your weapon is not jabbing me. And why not?’
She’s good at breaking tension. I laugh. She smiles, watching me laugh.
“Fuck, how’d I end up with you?” I ask, running my nose along her hairline from behind her ear to her temple, taking in her scent, her softness.
She grabs my face with both hands. “It’s about time you got to have a family again. A pack. Someone to love you. You have all that now.”
“If my wolf doesn’t fuck it up…” I add.
“Believe, baby.”
“Tryin’,” I tell her.
And the relief in her gaze is everything. I burn it into my brain, hoping a few brief memories won’t someday be all I’ve got left of her.
“That’s enough.”
“You got the shitty end of the stick, Cicely.”
“Um, no I didn’t. You’re hot. You have a big dick and you use it very well, I might add.”
I laugh.
She keeps going, “Plus you have a cool Airstream and like to travel. There’s also the fact that you’re sigma, meaning all the good stuff an alpha has but without having to look after anybody but me.
I kinda dig that. More than kind of. Because I don’t have to share you with a whole pack.
Though, if you do decide to help out around here as one of the pack alphas, that’s totally cool, too.
Sounds like you have quite a few skills that’ll be useful to help our pack when there’s a need but with your business and your nature, we won’t have to give up freedom, and I don’t have to be mated to a beta. Win-win-win.”
“Interesting that you’re down for a transient lifestyle,” I point out, because I hate staying in just one place.
Whether that’s down to my issues or would’ve been how I felt regardless is a mystery.
But it never takes long for me to lose interest in the same scenery day after day and I doubt that’ll change.
“Oh, and your last name sounds pretty awesome attached to mine. Cicely Stone. I like it. No, love it.”
That hits strange, too. Strange and beautiful. Giving her my name, my protection. In this form, at least.
She keeps talking. “It’s been the downside of running the store.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it, it’s a good way to keep my finger on the pulse of everything happening around here, but I take off on mini adventures every chance I get.
Now I’ll have reasons to do it more often.
Believe me, I didn’t get the shitty end of anything.
Are you completely opposed to settling down in one place when we have a family?
As long as we do a couple vacations a year? ”
“Not at all,” I say, though it comes out sounding choked. Because I’m feeling too much right now.
“Actually, that’s not a fair question from me, is it? Because you’ll have to go away for work a lot.”
I caress her face and say, “Unless I can’t stomach being away from you overnight, in which case I’d have to find something local.”
“But a couple adventures a year. At least…” she says.
“At least,” I agree.
Her smile widens.
I swallow down a strange lump in my throat and do my best to push away the intrusive thoughts that want me to know I might not get to keep all this.
I might fuck it up. My wolf might ruin everything.
Or the SCC might take me in, which will probably mean I’ll never see the light of day again, never again get to touch her.
Fuck. I pull in air for the count of four.
“Looks like you need a distraction from those unhappy thoughts,” she says, patting my head. “You want some food? Wanna go to my apartment and watch a movie? We could also go to Roxy’s and play pool.”
I exhale.
“Can’t do Roxy’s. Not a chance I’ll have you around other males. I have a better idea,” I say.
Her eyebrows wiggle.
“A campfire,” I say.
“Oh.” She looks a little disappointed.
“After I fuck you, of course.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “I think you and me are gonna get along just fine.”
***
“No. I’m not going to Scotland. My wolf hasn’t had a chance to run since before all the Silver Hills drama.
I need to make that happen soon. A new and unknown environment is not a good idea right now.
I hate flying, probably because of my wolf.
If Mitch Blakely wants to talk face-to-face, he’ll have to come to me.
If he can’t do that, he’ll just have to relay whatever he has to tell me some other way.
” I’m on the phone with Linc while we’re sitting fireside.
“I agree,” Cicely backs me up, leaning closer to the phone. “His gut is telling him not to go. Alphas need to trust their gut.”
Her saying this has an impact on me that I didn’t see coming.
“Can you tell him that and let us know what he says?” my mate asks.
“Okay, guys,” Linc agrees. “Call you back tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Linc,” she says.
“Thanks,” I manage.
I grab her and pull her onto my lap, burying my face in her throat, holding her tight.
She wraps her arms around me and we just hold one another for a while.
I doubt there will ever come a time when I take this for granted.
***
“Want some breakfast?” she asks, running her hand up my chest. It felt good to sleep beside her again.
I don’t think I’ll ever sleep alone again without wishing she was in my arms. I woke a couple times and she’d moved away.
I pulled her back each time until she grumbled, “Velcro. Sheesh. It’s hot in here, baby. ”
I opened the skylight, which led to a little chill in the air and after that, she stayed glued to me.
Before I can answer, she says, “I never made any male breakfast before. I make breakfast for me. I sometimes make it for my dad and sisters when we’re doing a family sleepover at the cabin or for holidays. But you’re the only guy I’ve ever made breakfast for.”
“I’m sorry about that. I…” I let that hang, not sure how to articulate myself.
“Am a possessive shithead? It’s okay. I’m possessive, too.”
“Shithead?” I ask, laughing.
“Yup,” she replies, bopping my head playfully with a pillow before trying to get out of bed. I catch her and pin her to the bed.
“How about if I make it up to you? I’ll make you breakfast today.”
“You ever make a woman breakfast before?” she asks.
I wince. Shit.
“Lie to me,” she demands.
“Never,” I immediately say.
She hits me with the pillow again.