Chapter 19
The daylight doesn’t make racing through the woods much easier, especially with my heart thumping at a jackrabbit speed. I stumble over exposed roots and uneven terrain. “Derek!” I yell all the way, hoping to warn him, but mostly because I can’t contain his name any longer.
Darrell is here. I parked next to his car at the end of the unpaved road ending at the wall of trees.
I may already be too late but I must hold out hope.
Could Darrell really hurt his own son? Of course, he did all throughout Derek’s life, but Mom wasn’t implying that Darrell planned to whip him with a belt.
The small shack comes into view, the door open. I race up the steps and fling myself inside. Darrell stands at the center of the room, a shotgun pointed at Derek lying on the cot with his hands raised.
“Stop!” I yell.
Darrell whips his attention to me, his brown eyes darker than usual. “Isabella? What are you doing?”
“What are you doing? He’s your son, Darrell!”
“Isabella, go!” Derek yells.
Darrell shakes his head, gun still raised. “He’s right. Go. You don’t understand.”
I step forward. “Do you think it’s okay to kill your son because he’s a bear?”
Darrell’s eyes widen for just a moment and he shakes his head. “I knew you’d find out one day. Did you know that he almost killed your boyfriend?”
“I was there. I helped.” I fling the words through clenched teeth.
“Isabella.”
I smile, reveling in his shock.
“Whatever he told you, it doesn’t matter. You may be his mate, but that doesn’t mean you need to end up with him.”
“You knew?”
“Of course, I knew. His mother seemed to think I was her mate.” Something like sadness flashes in his eyes.
“Didn’t matter much because she died in childbirth, all because of this bastard.
I’m the one who told Derek what was going on when he started to go feral.
I didn’t worry about it when he was home.
You both hated each other. Besides, he was gone most of the time. ”
“And you treated him like crap whenever he was home?” I yell.
“He’s not human. I thought I could beat him like a dog to get him to behave, but you can’t turn a wild animal into a pet.”
I always thought Derek must have taken after his mother.
Besides the dark hair and eyes, he and his father look nothing alike.
Now, with only a small space between the two, but somehow worlds apart, it’s even more jarring.
Darrell is right. They’re entirely different species.
“You’re the only animal I see,” I yell. I’ve never hated someone more than I do at this moment.
“And you're the bitch stepdaughter that’s been nothing but an annoyance.”
I can’t even process the insult.
A roar. A flurry of fur and fangs.
I scream and fall to the floor, covering my head with my hands.
A shot rings through the small space. Seconds ago, I was brave, ready to fight for Derek.
Now I’m a trembling puddle on the floor.
It lasts only a moment, though, because Derek, my Derek, could be hurt.
I prepare to pop to my feet, but before I can move, a furry mass covers me, holding me in clawed hands and turning me toward a bloodied snout.
“Derek!” I say through a sob, wrapping my arms around his thick neck.
He wraps his paws around me and slowly shifts back to his human self. “Are you hurt?” He pulls back to examine me.
“No, are you?” Our eyes lace over each other, both breathing out a small breath of relief once satisfied with our inspections. Blood still coats his jaw, but I know it’s not his.
I turn back to Darrell, no longer standing. No longer breathing. He wheezes, blood spurting from the chunk ripped out of his neck. His dark eyes are glazed over, and the pool of red underneath him must surely be more than the liquid still in his body.
“Shit.” Derek pulls into himself, leaning against the wall behind him, eyes glued to his father’s corpse.
I crawl in between his legs, wrapping my arms around his neck. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out.”
His face scrunches. “Isabella, I killed my dad.”
“He was about to kill you.” I point to the gun on the floor. “What else were you going to do?”
“That’s not why I killed him.”
“What do you mean?”
“He called you a bitch. I snapped.”
I pull his face to mine. “It doesn’t matter. You saved your life. You saved mine.”
He shakes his head. “He’s right, Isabella. I’m an animal. A monster.”
“I don’t care.”
“You don’t under-”
“No, stop it! It doesn’t matter if you’re an animal. Even if you become more feral every day, I want to be with you.”
His hands slither up my neck, pushing through my hair to cradle my jaw. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do.” I crash my lips against his, ignoring the coppery taste of my stepfather's blood on his lips.
He slowly melts into me, deepening our kiss and pulling me onto his lap. I grind against his hardened length, wanting more but knowing now it is definitely not the time.
I inch back. There’s one more thing I have to say before I lose my nerve. “I love you, Derek.”
“You can’t love me.” Tears are in his eyes.
“I know you love me too. More than just being your mate.”
He bites his lip and turns his head, but I carry on. “We’ve both been dealt a shit hand when it comes to examples of love, but we have each other to rewire our brains and show what real love looks like.”
“I love you so much,” he whispers, as if still afraid to say the words. “It’s what scares me. I can’t offer you the life you want.”
“Derek, last week I didn’t even know what I wanted, but now I do. All I want is a life with you.”
He smiles. “Okay.”
I return the toothy expression. “Okay?”
He sighs. “Yeah. I’m tired.”
“Tired?”
“There’s no point fighting you anymore. If you want to run away with your animal stepbrother, I won’t stop you.”
I laugh. “It’s about fucking time.”
He charges at my lips, kissing me with so much force that he pushes me down to the ground without breaking the kiss.
It’s like a piece of myself snaps into place.
I’ve admitted my truth. Derek loves me. Really loves me.
I’d know it’s true even if he didn’t utter the words.
I hold him tighter, our kiss deepening. It’s probably not the best idea to fuck my stepbrother next to my stepfather’s corpse, but who am I to deny my ovaries?
Derek sits up. “No.”
“Yes,” I whisper, reaching for him.
He slaps my hand away and groans. “No, seriously. We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
I sit up on my elbows and turn toward Darrell.
His body has stopped twitching, and his skin is pale, his eyes wide and unmoving.
The sight doesn’t rattle me like I thought it would.
I’ve never seen a dead body before. He’s my stepdad, someone I’ve known for a large chunk of my life.
But I think if I’m being honest with myself, I never really cared if he lived or died.
Maybe it was his disinterest in me, but more likely it has to do with the constant mistreatment of the man I love.
Even when we were younger, I felt the pull.
I’m not a bear, but if I’m Derek’s mate, it only makes sense that I would feel some of the effects of the attachment between us.
Besides all of that, he was about to kill Derek.
It was either him or the man I love, and I’m too ecstatic that the latter is alive, that I can’t even muster a single tear.
I turn back to Derek, staring emotionless at his lifeless father. “Are you okay?” I ask, sitting up.
“I think the worst part is that I’m not even a little bit sad.”
“Don’t feel bad.”
“I don’t.”
“Well, don’t feel bad about not feeling bad. He was a prick.”
“Understatement of the year.” He sighs. “Your mom is going to be pretty upset.”
“Fuck her.”
His eyes widen, and he looks at me with a smile. “There is one good thing about his death.”
“Besides the end of his abuse?”
“Besides that.”
“What?’
“You’re not my stepsister anymore.”
I scrunch my lips. “I don’t know if it works like that.”
He shrugs. “Your mom isn’t married to my dad. Until death do us part and all that shit.”
I tap my lip and stare upwards. “I guess you're right. It kind of makes this all less hot.”
“Fuck off.” He pushes my knee.
“No, seriously. The taboo was what did it for me.”
His expression sobers. “Are you being serious?”
I jump him, wrapping my arms around his neck and falling into his lap. “You’re so gullible.” I kiss his lips with a smile. It’s odd for us to be giddy surrounded by carnage, but if our relationship is anything—it’s odd.
He pulls back, his words tickling my mouth. “You’ll pay for that later.”
“Later?”
“Yes, now we need to get out of here.” He walks over to his duffle bag and pulls out his phone, scrolling through as he jumps into a pair of sweatpants he retrieved from the ground.
“Where are we going to go?”
“I have a friend who can get us out of the country.”
“Out of the country?”
He pauses scrolling and looks back at me. “Yes, it’s too risky to stay here. At least for me. You still have the choice to stay and let me take the blame.”
I slap his chest. “Will you shut up already? I’m not leaving you.”
“Okay, okay! I can’t promise we’re going somewhere nice, though.”
“Who is your friend?”
“He was a packmate, works for the Department of State. He can get us passports and on a flight. I’m not the first shifter to get into a mess.”
“I thought your pack disowned you.”
“It was an ultimatum, really.”
“Ultimatum?”
“Either I claim my mate, so I retain my humanity, or leave the pack and become feral in isolation.”
“And you chose isolation?”
“I didn’t think you wanted me. You were living in New York and had a boyfriend. I would choose you over and over again, but I didn’t think it was possible for you to choose me back.”
My heart swells. I kiss him again. Before it gets too deep, he pulls back.
“Let me call him.” He stands with his phone to his ear as he exits the cabin, leaving me alone with the dead guy.
I may have an uncanny ability to retain the contents of my stomach in the presence of the deceased, but I’m not a psychopath.
I don’t like being alone with the corpse.
I look around the shack for something to keep me busy.
My poorly-packed duffel bag is still here, along with Derek’s scattered belongings.
I stand to collect everything and restuff my bag.
We won’t be able to return home. The items in this shack will be our only earthly possessions.
I wish I could have foreseen this ending and packed better, a fucking bra at least. It doesn’t matter, though.
I don’t need anything. For the first time in my life, I’m at peace.
No more anxiety. No more uncertainty. No matter where we go in the world, I’ll be where I belong—with my mate, my stepbrother bear.
Derek reenters the cabin. “You ready?”
I shrug, both of our bags on my shoulder. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
He stomps toward me, lifting me to his arms and kissing my lips. “I hope you like the cold.”
“The cold?”
He nods with a smile, stepping over a puddle of blood and carrying me off into the sunset. It’s almost like the end of a fairy tale—a fucked up fairy tale—except it’s so much better, because it’s really only the beginning.