Chapter 8 - Harper
Fairview Cottage was nestled in a small patch of forestry near the Swinging Boot. I didn’t have long to walk home. Adalyn insisted that she go with me and perhaps even stay over.
I loved my friend but didn’t know how to explain why I wanted to be alone after my run-in with Alex.
Yet, as soon as we collapsed into the swinging egg basket chairs on the porch, I wanted to tell Adalyn more details before we went inside.
“Something happened back there,” I said slowly.
“Yeah, I’ll say,” she scoffed. “What went on? You looked like you saw a ghost when you got back to the bar.”
“Sort of,” I answered. “You know that guy—”
“The one you always talk about?”
“I do not! But yes, that one, the one who broke my heart years ago.”
“Not to mention the father of your children,” she added.
“Yes, him ,” I sighed. “Well… He’s here.”
“On this island?”
“Yes.”
Slowly, her face lit up. But then, as soon as she saw my glare, she tampered it down, but her excitement was still palpable. “Oh, my God, Harp!” she squealed. “This is good, though, isn’t it? It could be a romantic reunion!”
“Stop right there,” I groaned, covering my face. “No, no, Addie. Not a romantic reunion! He broke my heart. He left me in the middle of the night with babies—”
“Babies that he didn’t know about,” she pointed out.
“So? He didn’t stay to find out!”
“But how was he supposed to know?” she prompted. “I’m not sticking up for him, but… Okay, okay, yes , he walked away from you. But he didn’t knowingly walk away from those precious kids in there. He didn’t know they existed.”
“But I existed,” I countered, my voice breaking. “At the very least, Addie, he left me . And how he’s back, and he saved my life and—”
“Saved your life?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
I sighed. “Outside the bar, while we were arguing, there was a demon attack. Three of them. I was—I don’t know—put under a spell. They got me with a knife wound, but it’s just a graze.”
“Holy shit, Harp. I thought you’d done that when you fell off the bar or something.” Her eyes turned wide with fear. “The demons are actually here? They’re back? My Gramma told me the stories, but I’ve never seen one myself or heard stories that happened so close to home.”
“They’re back,” I confirmed. “I don’t know why. Alex… He fought the three of them and… I don’t know. He just didn’t hesitate to do it. I noticed that much before I went under the spell.”
“And when you were under it, what was it like?”
“Like...” I thought back to that feeling, and my chest cinched in fear. “I was mindless. I was aware of my surroundings, but sounds, and sights were numbed and muted. I couldn’t move my body, and I never even thought to. They kept passing me through these portals, each containing a world of darkness. It was like a galaxy or something. It was like being on a rollercoaster.”
Adalyn’s face was pale as she listened. “You said he never hesitated even once?”
I shook my head. “Not even once.”
“And he’s offered to protect you, and you’ve turned him down?” Adalyn prompted.
“… Yes.” I gaped at her. “Addie, he broke my heart.”
“I know but… Babe, I’m on your side, but he’s offering protection and not asking for another chance to love you. He wants to keep you safe. I know your pride and your own pain are screaming at you to run and leave him, but you have three triplets to think about, too.” She patted her hand over mine, the cold steel of her rings shocking against my warm skin. “I don’t want to scare you, but Gramma always told me that once the demons marked you, then that was it. They had you in their sights.”
“Yes, but Alex killed them all.”
“Demons are…” Her lips twisted. “One and the same. Sort of. It’s like many bodies, but they all share one sort of… Ether? It’s hard to explain, but imagine it’s like passing a piece of clothing to a sniffer dog, and they know your scent. That’s what it’s like with demons.”
Fear pulsed through me. “Really?”
“Really.” She blinked. “So why not embrace this guy’s return? After all, it's protection.”
But taking him up on the offer meant letting him be close to me. He couldn’t protect me without watching me or knowing my whereabouts. And my babies… What would happen if he saw them? I couldn’t risk that. I couldn’t—
“I… I need to walk,” I told Addie. “You’re welcome to stay, or you can head out, but I think I need to work this over alone in my own head.”
Adalyn nodded. “You know where I am if you need me. Gramma’s still inside with the triplets, so take your time. I’ll head out, but I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure,” I said, mustering a smile. Adalyn left. I ducked my head inside to see the triplets, kissing their heads while they slept, before nodding at Greta, who kept vigil over them in the rocking chair in the corner of the triplets’ bedroom.
“I won’t be long,” I whispered to her. She nodded. Changing into more comfortable clothes of gym pants and a hoodie, I slipped out of my cottage through the back, grabbing a knife, and a gun, and toying with the charms around my neck. For extra measure, I slipped on the matching ring I had with Adalyn, a ward with the opal of a ring. I had never decorated my cottage a lot. There were pictures on the walls of my triplets and me, but everything else was pretty standard. The same countertops in the small kitchen, a thrifted sofa and furniture in the living room. My only new things had gone to the triplets. It had never meant to be home when I had first arrived in Azure Cove, but as weeks turned into months, that turned into years, and I made friends here, got a job, removed myself from my parents’ way of living… Azure Cove had become my home.
It was why I was so adamant that Alex Garson would not return and ruin it for me. He had tainted Haystock with love and then heartbreak. I couldn’t bear for him to do that to me again but here.
I walked the short distance, down to the beach. The island at night had never given me a reason to be scared, but now I scanned every shadow I passed. I squinted through the tree branches, looking for a flash of that stark, blue light.
Burnt asphalt , that was one of the signs to look out for, I reminded myself. My gun, slipped into my waistband, and a knife, tucked into my pocket, brought me some peace. I didn’t know what good the wards and charms would do if I encountered danger, but I hoped they would do something. The thought of staying in my cottage made me feel cooped up, even if I wanted to be close to my babies.
I put one foot in front of the other until I hit the sand, choosing to slip off my shoes at the edge so I could walk along the shoreline. The water was ice cold but refreshing, the shock to the system I needed. I sighed, inhaling the balmy night air.
It was nearing three in the morning when I finally stopped, let myself look out at the expanse of sea, and consider how far I had made it. I had left Haystock and moved here alone. That took a lot to do. I had been one month pregnant when I moved. Greta and Adalyn had been saints, doing everything for me and supporting me through the whole process.
Soon, I came across a figure lying down on the beach. Arms tucked behind his head, his ankles crossed, the clothes he’d worn earlier now caked in sand. His chest rose and fell heavily. I knew it was Alex the moment I saw his side profile. It had always been striking. His full lips and strong nose, the pucker of his brows, and the sharp lines of his cheeks. I would know him by touch, I thought.
I walked over to him. His eyes were open, gazing at the stars above us, and I wondered what he was thinking. The cogs never stopped turning in Alex Garson’s mind.
I didn’t get my moment of sneaking up on him. Of course, I didn’t. He was the head of a special operations team, a branch off the military. Even without that, he was an alpha wolf and a natural-born leader. This man had been trained to stay still under anything inflicted upon him. He’d withstood interrogations, sat on rooftops for surveillance for hours, and exerted more patience than I’d ever known could exist. His stories had been vast and wild.
“You don’t get stars like this in Pittsburgh,” he told me. “That was something I loved about the desert. The stars. Every night, we went to sleep wondering if we’d wake up the next day, but at least I fell asleep looking at the stars.”
“You never used to be sentimental,” I said. Now that I had spent some time away from him again, and the shock of seeing him again had worn off, my anger felt calmer like a blanket of protection. “The old Alex wouldn’t have given a shit about stars. And also, the desert?”
“That’s where the boys and I were posted on our last mission. Six months. It was hell. And—I don’t know, when everything else is gone, it’s like… What else is there to notice except what’s right in front of you?”
There was another meaning in his words that I didn’t want to listen to.
“Sit with me,” he murmured.
I hovered.
“Harper.” His voice was softer. “It wasn’t a question.”
The soft demand sent a shiver through me. That was still the old Alex, who told me about shifters and their need to always be around those they chose to be with. He always danced around the word mate, but I knew it was in the space between his words.
“I don’t want to be around you,” I whispered.
“And yet you haven’t walked away.” He glanced up at me. I noticed how thick his muscles were on his biceps, how much physically bigger he’d gotten. I bit back a noise at the thought of running my hands over those muscles, feeling the strength within. I had always possessed that weakness. “You saw me, and still came closer. You had the chance to leave without me detecting you.”
I scoffed. “C’mon, Alex, we both know your radar skills are better than that.”
The grin he gave me in response drew me to him in the first place, in Joey’s Bar in Haystock. That stupidly handsome, wicked grin that promised secrets to be told. It had ensnared me, a foolish twenty-one-year-old.
“Thank you,” he said arrogantly. “Now, sit with me.”
And I did. I sat down and stretched my legs, lying beside him. I shivered in the night—not due to the cold but his closeness. His cologne hadn’t changed—there was that awful familiarity, at least.
Awful because I had buried my face in his t-shirt, searching for traces of his scent every day after he left.
“ Amorcita ,” he purred, reaching out to brush my cheek. I swatted his hand away. “What are you doing walking alone at night?”
It is half a demand, half a worry.
“I won’t let one demon attack ruin my life, Alex,” I muttered. “And I told you to stop calling me that nickname.”
“You used to love it,” he said, reminding me in a hot flush of how, exactly, he used to use the endearment.
“Yes, used to ,” I echoed. “Not anymore. You don’t have the right to call me that anymore.”
He was over me in a second, and I didn’t even have the strength to fight him off. I didn’t want to, but those muscles flexed and bunched as he held himself over me. My breath tangled in my throat.
“I always loved you dressed up,” he murmured. “But when you were dressed down, those lazy Sundays, when your hair was in that messy bedhead bun… I loved those days most. Don’t you remember?”
“I remember you posing around your apartment with no shirt on,” I muttered.
“Only because you loved the sight.”
“Alex,” I warned. “Stop.” I paused, my voice quivering. “ Please .”
Not because I couldn’t bear it, or bear him, and not because I wanted him to stop, but because I was too weak to keep being angry. Our years apart had chiselled him, made him stronger. No man had ever had the confidence to pick me up, but Alex had taken one look at me, grinned, and proved that despite my curves, I could have whatever I wanted.
“Just answer me this,” he said, “And then I’ll get off.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you so against me protecting you?”
“Because…” I struggled for the words. “Because I don’t need it. Because I can’t risk having you around me that much.”
“Because you won’t be able to keep up this pretense of resisting me?” he asked, smirking. “I can see it in your eyes, Harper. You want me. Oh, you hate me, I can see that, but that only adds fuel to this blazing inferno that we always were, doesn’t it?”
With his eyes on me, I was able to wiggle my gun—with the safety securely on—free and brandish it. I didn’t quite have the confidence to point the muzzle at him, but I showed him.
“No,” I said. “It’s because I can protect myself just fine. I was raised in Haystock, where we shoot first and ask later. I’ve known how to shoot since I was ten years old.”
“All right, all right,” he said. Finally, he shifted off me, but he sat cross-legged on the sand. “Can I at least see you back home safe?”
My anger fired up. “No, you cannot. Because you haven’t given a damn about if I was safe or alive or okay for the past four years. And you don’t get to now because of one demon attack. Stop trying to play the hero because I’m not a damsel. And even if I was, I’d never be your damsel again.”
The last part was snarled, and Alex’s expression darkened. A low, rough noise built in his throat.
“I can defend myself,” I told him. “I don’t need you. I needed you years ago to fix what you broke, but you never came back. I learned to do it alone, Alex. I’m sorry if you don’t like that, but it’s just what happened.”
He pinched the muzzle of my gun, pressing it to his own chest. My heartbeat sped up. He quirked a brow at me. “What do you think this will do to a demon?” he asked softly.
“Enough to run,” I said. “At least.”
“No gun would wound a demon long enough to keep it down. It’ll sure as hell make it angrier though. Come after you with more of a vengeance.”
“I have a knife,” I countered. “You dispatched them with a knife.”
“Their own knife,” he clarified. “A measly butcher knife isn’t going to do it.”
“I have my charms,” I said. “My wards. And before you tell me they’re a load of garbage, they’ve kept me and the island safe for years. I’ll continue believing in them.”
He looked like he desperately wanted to argue the case but thought otherwise.
“Okay,” he sighed. “If you really want to fight, then how about this. We become a team. You shoot the demons, stun them, and I’ll dispatch them. Zeph has knives that can actually kill a demon. I can get you one for protection. I want you to let me protect you, but if you refuse me, then at least, for now, let me get you a knife that’ll actually work.” He gave me a hard look. “ If you know how to use it.”
“Of course I damn well can,” I snapped. “But I’ll never work with you. Stop asking, stop demanding things of me. Enjoy the stars.” I scoffed and got up. With each step I took away from him, I felt my peace return, but the hole in my chest I had worked to fill only ached more.