Chapter Eleven
The truth would hurt, but she wouldn’t lie. “I considered it.”
“I knew it.” His embrace bordered on painful, but rather than pull away she burrowed closer. “I knew you’d sacrifice yourself for me ... for us.”
“I didn’t want to go.” It was important to her that he understood that.
“And it was only for a split-second. I knew it was a lie as soon as the words were out of Ridge’s mouth.
” Ridge, who’d been a childhood friend, had become as corrupt as her uncle and the rest. It made her question her daddy, and that hurt her heart.
“And if he wasn’t intentionally lying, I knew my uncle would never honor his promise. ”
Eli pressed a kiss to the top of her head and released her. “We need to get going.”
She wouldn’t put it past Cyrus to detour back this way to move them along.
“It’s all so unreal.” The body of a man she’d known her entire life, one she’d once called a friend, was being dumped somewhere out there on the mountain.
Within days, only his clothing would remain.
Assuming Cyrus didn’t bring that back with him.
With a final glance over his shoulder, Eli motioned for her to go ahead, guarding their backs as they started toward home. Toward his home. It wasn’t hers. She was homeless and packless. But I’m alive. As long as there was life there was hope.
“Some men aren’t smart enough to know when to walk away.
” His boots made no sound on the ground.
For a huge man, he was silent, an apex predator.
She had no idea how he’d taken Ridge by surprise, but it hadn’t been a challenge.
He hadn’t even broken a sweat when he’d executed him.
And it had been an execution. One that could have been avoided if only Ridge had shown some sense.
A glimmer of hope sprang to life. If all his brothers were like him, maybe they did have a chance at defeating Uncle Duke and the others, but it would come at a huge cost for both sides.
Reaching back, she grabbed his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. The deep gouges on his opposite arm had already vanished and the dried blood was flaking away. There probably wouldn’t be any scars. Seems he healed as phenomenally as he fought.
“You did what you had to do. He would have killed you if you hadn’t.
” It was a hard pill to swallow. “I didn’t know him at all.
Not really. I remember what he was like as a boy.
Somewhere along the way he changed.” When she started to release him, Eli took her hand and twined his fingers around hers.
They skirted a giant boulder and continued their upward hike.
The pace was leisurely compared to the earlier race.
Sunlight filtered through the thick canopy, creating patches of light and shadow.
Birds began to sing. Several squirrels darted in front of them and ran up a nearby tree trunk.
A rabbit scampered into some thick undergrowth to hide.
The peace and calm surrounding them was a hug of a different sort.
“What he became was always inside him. It was nurtured by those around him and the alpha.”
“Daddy tried to temper Ridge and the others, but Uncle Duke almost always took their sides in any dispute.”
“Then he should have either challenged Duke for the alpha position or taken you and left. Any alpha who won’t support his second in command is sowing the seeds of dissent and asking for trouble.”
Anger flared at the criticism but died as swiftly. She couldn’t fault Eli for saying the very thing she’d thought many times. Much like his oldest brother, he didn’t mince words or sugarcoat things. After years of being surrounded by deceit, she found she actually liked his bluntness.
“He was my daddy and I loved him, but he was shortsighted when it came to his brother.” It was something she’d never understood. “He was several years older than Duke.”
A frown marring his face, Eli stopped. “Then why didn’t he challenge for top spot?”
“He never told me, but I heard whispers. The old alpha was alive when I was born. My mama died in childbirth.”
“Damn, I’m sorry.” He gave her a brief hug and got them moving again.
She put one foot in front of the other. “Me too. It’s rare, but it happens.
” She couldn’t say she mourned the woman who’d given her birth as she’d never known her.
It was more that she mourned what might have been, the mother she’d never had.
“When it became obvious my eyes were going to remain blue, people began to whisper about her ancestry. They speculated that at some point in her family’s past there had to have been a mating between a human and wolf that resulted in a hybrid child, and that’s where my eyes came from. ”
“So what? I don’t understand the nonsense about pure blood. It’s bigotry, plain and simple. Maybe it’s a rare recessive gene or a birth anomaly. They happen.”
She gave a half laugh. “They’d rather cling to their prejudices than listen to reason.
Daddy knew he’d spend all his time fighting off challenges if he was alpha.
If something happened to him, I’d be on my own.
I think even then he didn’t trust his brother to take care of me.
” She was done calling him Uncle Duke. He wasn’t family. Not anymore. Maybe never had been.
“That makes sense, but he should have taken you and gone.”
“Where?” She dug in her heels until he stopped. “It’s easy to judge when you’re surrounded by a loving family who’d lay down their lives for you.” They’d shown more loyalty in the time she’d been here than she’d witnessed in her pack during her lifetime.
She pointed at her eyes. “These are a liability. Some packs view them as a curse. He made inquiries. I wasn’t supposed to know about it, but I overheard a phone conversation between him and a pack out West. The answer was they’d welcome him but not me.
” And that hurt ... deeply. “He might be alive if it weren’t for me.
” She swiped angrily at the tears on her face.
She’d cried more this past week than she had in her entire life.
“Kinley.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s easy to talk about walking away, but a wolf alone in the world is easy prey. One with a child like me is a target. He stayed for me. The pack was far from perfect, but it offered me protection.”
“Until he died.”
“Yes.” Her heart ached with a hurt that might never heal. “Once he was gone, I lost everything.”
Eli huffed out a breath and drew her into his arms. “Your daddy made his choices. I’ll concede he did what he thought was right.”
“But it’s not what you would do.” The certainty went straight to her core. Eli would walk away from any pack that threatened his family. Or maybe not. He’d be as likely to battle his way to alpha and eliminate his enemies.
“No, it’s not. But you have to understand something.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re not responsible for your daddy’s death. After all he did to try to protect you, he wouldn’t want you feeling guilty. What happened to him?”
Her breath caught in her throat. “I honestly don’t know.” And that haunted her. “I was told he’d died and I was to mate with Holden. No explanations, no details. I didn’t wait around to ask questions.” She rested her cheek against Eli’s chest, soothed by the steady beat of his heart.
He’d killed a man today. Like the fight she’d witnessed at the club in Chicago, he’d done it calmly and methodically. The only reason he’d given Ridge the opportunity to walk away was because of her. If she hadn’t been here, he wouldn’t have hesitated to mete out his brand of justice.
He was far from perfect, but perfection was overrated.
Eli was a real flesh-and-blood man, a wolf with a black-and-white sense of right and wrong.
He was a man you could depend on when things got tough.
He’d never back away from the hard things but face them head-on.
He was also handsome as, well, sin. Cliché but true.
She slipped her hands up his back, marveling at the muscles beneath his shirt.
A low rumbling growl escaped him. His wolf was close to the surface.
She’d seen the ripple beneath his skin earlier, knew he’d fought to keep his wolf contained.
And what a wolf it was—massive with thick fur in every shade of brown imaginable with those distinctive black eyes. Her own wolf gave a happy growl.
She wanted to run free with him by her side and explore every square mile of Sin Mountain. That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, if ever. But they were here now, and had a moment or two to call their own. They were almost back to the house. Once they were there, there’d be no time.
Gripping the ends of his hair, she tugged his head down. There was a slight resistance before he lowered it. When he went to speak, she shook her head. “Give me this. I need it. I need you.” Going up on her toes, she kissed him with every ounce of passion inside her.
His arm tightened around her waist and lifted her off her feet. At five-ten with plenty of lean muscle, she wasn’t small, even with the weight she’d lost, but there was no fear he’d drop her. It wasn’t only because he was strong. She trusted him. It was scary but also freeing.
He angled his head, deepening the kiss, probing the depths of her mouth. Moaning, she welcomed him, her tongue tangling with his. Heat radiated from his big body. She rubbed against him, drawing a deep groan.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Will you two give it up and get to the damn house?”
Like a bucket of cold water, Cyrus’s voice washed over her.
She buried her face in the crook of Eli’s neck and tried to catch her breath.
Eli swore and slowly set her back down on her feet.
Heat crept up her cheeks. Talk about embarrassing.
Dangerous, too. Distraction could be costly.
If it had been Duke or Holden instead of Cyrus, the situation could have been dire.
****