Chapter 6 – Carla
CARLA
“Roads are getting too bad,” Beau announces after what feels like hours, with an apologetic look in the mirror at me. “I thought we might be okay, but we’ll definitely have to stop. Sorry.”
I blink, disoriented, realizing I must have dozed off despite everything.
The landscape has changed. We’re on a smaller road now, winding through dense forest. Night is beginning to fall, and rain continues in jagged lines against the headlights. Wind buffers the side of the vehicle, and Beau white knuckles the steering wheel to keep us on course.
“Where are we?” I ask, my voice rough from sleep.
“About halfway to Grey Ridge,” Beau answers. “The Pine Haven Motel should be just ahead.”
Sure enough, a flickering neon sign appears through the snowfall. PINE HAVEN MOTEL, it proclaims in faded blue letters. VACANCY.
Not exactly the Ritz, but hopefully between the weather and the lacklustre accommodations, this place will be empty. The fewer people around, the better.
Beau pulls into the nearly empty parking lot, steering into a dark corner out of sight from the road, and cuts the engine. “I’ll check for rooms,” he says, already opening his door to the howling wind.
Billy turns to me, his expression unreadable in the dim light. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”
Like my skin is two sizes too small. Like I might die if you don’t touch me. Like fate has a particularly sick sense of humor, making you my mate.
Beau returns before I have to answer.
“There’s a room for you,” Beau holds up a key card. “Under the name Miller.”
“Miller?” Billy questions.
“Precaution,” Beau explains. “It’s paid for in cash. No trail back to us or Grey Ridge.”
Smart. Leon will be hunting for us by now, and we can’t be too careful. He’s got a lot of friends.
“I need to get back,” Beau continues, expression grave. “I’ll fill you in once you get some sleep. That okay, Carla?”
I nod. The conference. It has to be about the conference and whatever stunt Leon was planning.
If he has to go, he has to go.
And it’s one less man near me anyway when my heat goes into overdrive.
“You’re leaving us here?” Billy sounds surprised, and I don’t blame him. I’m not thrilled about being stranded at a seedy motel in the middle of nowhere, either, but I’m too exhausted to object. Plus, there are more important things going on than my heat. Lives could be at stake.
“You’ve got this covered,” Beau says, with a pointed look at Billy that I don’t understand. “Besides, you two need... space.”
Beau knows exactly what’s happening to me. My stomach drops at the obvious hint he throws out there, but it seems to sail straight over Billy’s head.
“I’ll check out the room,” Billy says, taking the key card from Beau. “Make sure it’s safe.”
As he disappears into the driving rain, Beau turns to me with knowing eyes, unbothered by the soaking he’s getting, or the wind lashing his face.
“Your heat,” he says quietly. It’s not a question. “It’s not far off.”
I freeze, panic clawing up my throat. He seems like a good guy, but I don’t know him well enough to trust him completely. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Beau sighs, shaking his head. “I have sisters, Carla. I used to help my mother hide the women in our clan who wanted to leave when theirs was coming. I know the signs. And your scent...” He taps his nose. “It’s pretty unmistakable.”
Mortification burns through me, hotter than the fever. I stare at my hands clenched in my lap.
“Does he know?” Beau asks gently.
There’s no point in asking what. Beau already knows what it means, what Billy is to me.
“No,” I whisper. “And he can’t. Not yet. This is all just… a lot.”
If I tell him, and he sticks around for my heat, there’s no going back. We’ll be bound for life.
“He’s going to figure it out. He’s too worried about your safety right now to think about anything else, but soon… it’s going to hit him.”
I look up, meeting Beau’s sympathetic gaze. “Please,” I beg. “Don’t tell him. I need time to... to process this.”
Beau studies me for a long moment, then nods. “Not my secret to tell. But Carla? He deserves to know. Eventually. And he’s a good guy. He’ll look after you.”
Look after me. Not necessarily mate with me, though.
“I know. I just...” I trail off, unsure how to explain the tangle of fear and hope and confusion that’s twisting inside me. How do you tell someone they’re your mate when you barely know them? When they don’t feel it the same way you do?
For all Billy knows, it could be the heat drawing him to me, and my mate could be any of the men in his clan I’ve encountered.
“All clear,” Billy calls, appearing beside the car and yanking open my door. “Room 7.”
I step out, immediately assaulted by the bitter cold and swirling gales. It should be a relief after the heat consuming me, but somehow, it only makes it worse, the contrast between external chill and internal fire, disorienting.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Beau says, already climbing back into the driver’s seat.
Billy nods, taking my elbow to steady me as we make our way through the wild weather to the room. Even through my sleeve, his touch sends electricity skittering across my skin. I try not to lean into it, not to give away how desperately I crave more contact.
Room 7 is exactly what I’d expect from a place called Pine Haven Motel. Cheap wood paneling, worn carpet, and a single queen-sized bed covered in a faded floral bedspread. The heater rattles to life when Billy adjusts the ancient thermostat, but it does little to dispel the chill.
One bed. Of course. Because the universe really is determined to torture me.
Billy seems to realize it at the same moment, his eyes flickering from the bed to me, and back again. “I’ll take the floor,” he says quickly. “You need the rest more than I do. In any other circumstance, I’d leave, but… if there are people out searching for us, for you, it’s not safe.”
Relief and disappointment war within me. I want him beside me, want his arms around me, his body against mine. But because he wants me too, and not because he’s worried about someone bursting through the door to drag me back.
“Thank you,” I say, avoiding his eyes as I cross the room quickly. “I need a shower. Badly.”
A cool shower might help with the fever. Or at least give me a few minutes away from his overwhelming presence.
The bathroom is tiny but functional, with peeling linoleum, and a shower stall barely big enough for one person. I strip quickly, desperate to get under the water, to wash away the basement, the fear, and the confusion.
The water pressure is pathetic, but it’s better than nothing, and for a moment, I just stand there, letting it cascade over my aching body. Steam fills the small space, and I close my eyes, trying to think through the fog of need clouding my mind.
I’m safe. Away from Leon. I’m on my way home, back to my normal, mundane life.
Normal, except for the slightly inconvenient mate bond forming with a bear I hardly know.
I wash quickly, using the generic motel soap, which smells like fake flowers. As I’m rinsing off, I realize a problem. I have no clean clothes. The only option is to wrap myself in the thin motel towel and face Billy again.
Taking a deep breath, I steel myself for the inevitable surge of desire and open the bathroom door.
Steam billows out around me, and I find Billy standing by the window, staring out at the dark sky, heavy with thick, grey clouds. He turns at the sound of the door, and his eyes widen slightly, gaze travelling from my wet hair to my bare shoulders, to the towel clutched tightly at my chest.
“I don’t have any clean clothes,” I say, painfully aware of how exposed I am.
For a moment, he just stares, something hungry flickering in his eyes, before he blinks and turns away. “Beau packed some things,” he says, voice rougher than usual. “On the bed.”
I grab the clothes and retreat to the bathroom, heart hammering against my ribs. That look in his eyes... Was it real or just my feverish imagination?
The clothes are too big, comfy sweats and a T-shirt that smell new, but they’re clean and warm. I dress slowly, my limbs heavy with exhaustion and the growing heat under my skin.
When I emerge, Billy has created a makeshift bed on the floor using spare blankets from the closet. He’s shed his shirt, revealing broad shoulders straining against a simple black T-shirt, and the sight makes my mouth go dry.
“Feeling better?” he asks, not quite meeting my eyes.
“A little.” It’s not entirely a lie. The fever comes in waves, and right now, it’s receded to a simmer beneath my skin. “At least I don’t stink anymore. Sorry about that.”
Billy looks up at me, puzzled. “Don’t apologise for how my father treated you. Never. None of this is your fault.”
A lump forms inside my throat as I stare into his warm, brown eyes, fierce protectiveness shining right back at me.
“You should eat something.” He shakes his head slightly, breaking the trance we’re caught in, and gestures to store-bought sandwiches and a pile of energy bars on the nightstand courtesy of Beau. “Keep your strength up.”
I sit gingerly on the edge of the bed, unwrapping a bar. It tastes like sawdust, but I force it down, along with half a bottle of water.
Billy watches from across the room, his back against the wall, a careful distance between us.
“Why did you really help me escape?” I ask suddenly. The question has been burning in me since he unlocked my cell. “You’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”
He stiffens, his dark eyes finally meeting mine. “I told you. It was the right thing. I’ve wanted to get out for a long time, you were just the push I needed.”
The push.
I hold his gaze. “You betrayed your father. Your clan. For me?”
His jaw tightens, a muscle working beneath the scruff of his beard. “My father was going to kill you. I couldn’t let that happen.”
The husky growl in his voice senses a pulse of need straight to my core. My breathing quickens, and I twist to face him.
“You barely know me. And I’m not the first person he’s kept there. Why now?”
“I know you.” His voice drops, growing rough. “I know you’re strong. Brave. Loyal to Grey Ridge, to your sister, even after what happened with your pack.”
I blink, surprised he even remembered the details I shared during our brief conversations. She might have screwed me over, but she was always a lost soul. I thought I could bring her home.
“I know you didn’t deserve what happened to you,” he continues. “And I don’t want to be a man that turns a blind eye to what he does anymore. I couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. And definitely not you.”
The sincerity in his voice makes my chest tighten.
My wolf surges forward, desperate to close the distance between us. I fight her back.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “Not just for me.”
He might be here helping me escape, but he’s also tipped off Grey Ridge that Leon has something planned for the conference. Hopefully, they’ve been able to stop him.
The silence that follows feels charged, electric. I’m acutely aware of his breathing, his scent, the slight shift of his weight as he leans against the wall, and the corded muscles in his tanned forearms as he presses his hands against the paint behind him.
The fever rises again, bringing with it a gnawing ache deep in my core. I curl my fingers into the bedspread, fighting for control.
His eyes track the movement.
“You should sleep,” Billy says, voice strained, eyes still fixed on where I cling to the covers. “Tomorrow we’ll head to Grey Ridge, get you safely to your pack.”
I nod, though sleep seems impossible with my body so restless, so aware of him. Still, I slide under the sheets, turning to face the wall, away from his intense gaze.