Chapter Thirteen
Dame set a small crumb of crust in front of the ant that was zigzagging its way down a crack in the barn floor.
The ant stopped in front of it, tried to go around, stopped, and seemed to be talking to the crumb, deciding if he wanted to take him back to the ant pile or not.
Exhaustion was absolutely consuming Dame, but he huffed a little laugh.
He leaned back in his chair and stretched his leg out, balancing the uneaten sandwich on his thigh. Misty had made it for him, but he didn’t have an appetite.
She was inside showering, and decompressing if the little sniffles he’d heard coming from the bathroom were anything to go by.
She’d done it. Little badass had done it. She’d brought Stellan back.
Dame just didn’t know how to feel about it yet.
Dame had killed his brother with purpose. He reasoned with his animal that if Stellan killed Misty, there would be a bounty on his head anyway. The option for him was spare one life, or two. That was his logical side talking, but truthfully, that fight with Stellan had been about more.
He’d heard the terror in her voice when she’d screamed for Dame to help her, and it had broken something inside of him wide open. This cage was good at containing one Cat, but now he knew two could demolish the locks if they charged the door together. He and Mars had taken that door straight off.
He’d just finished welding the hinges back in place and installing new locks for Stellan.
He’d Changed back to his human form on the table after Misty had finished and gone to the bathroom to wash up.
It had looked painful, and the tiger fought it.
Dragged it out. He’d messed up some of Misty’s work and Stellan had laid there on the table trembling and staring vacantly at Dame while he re-started the healing process on what he’d damaged with that Change.
Mars and Dame hadn’t said a word. They’d loaded him up in the back of Mars’s truck and taken him back to the cage, which was where he was lying now, recovering.
He’d been asleep for hours. From here, Dame could see his stomach, and the criss cross of scars that looked healed already. He was doing this with no food. Stellan’s tiger was something else.
Dame wished he was normal. Or at least, normal for a Cat.
Fuck, he didn’t know what normal was anymore.
“I tried not to,” Stellan’s hoarse voice sounded.
Dame looked up from where he’d been watching the little ant carry the crumb toward the door. He sighed and cracked his knuckles. “Sure you did.”
“I understand what she did for me you know. I can feel it. She shouldn’t have done that. She shouldn’t have brought me back.”
“Yeah, me and Mars agree.” He glared at Stellan, who was tenderly sitting up on the cot, his arm thrown around his stomach. Dame knew that feeling. That was him a month ago. “She’s a good person. She couldn’t let you die.”
“She’s better than us,” Stellan murmured.
“By a lot.”
“Why is she with you?”
Dame shrugged. “That I haven’t had the chance to figure it out because you keep fucking it up.”
“I can tell you’re tired.”
Dame nodded and picked at the crust of his sandwich. “I’ve been tired for a while.”
“I tried to get her to shoot me,” Stellan said, running his hand through his messy, dark hair.
“She did shoot you. I watched her pull the bullet from your back. It went through your chest. You’re lucky it didn’t hit your heart.”
“No, I mean before.” Stellan scratched his short beard and stood. He walked over to the cage door and leaned on the bars.
“No more tricks,” Dame said, checking the locks again.
“I feel fine right now.”
“Your tiger is tricky.”
“Yeah, well it feels like my tiger is tired.” Stellan was staring off into space with a slight frown on his face. “Did she really pull a bullet from me?”
“Yep.”
“Well, that’s kind of cool. Can you ask her if I can keep it?”
The chair creaked as Dame leaned back in it. “You want me to ask Misty a favor? For you?”
Stellan pursed his lips and shook his head. “Never mind.”
Something felt strange in here.
The air wasn’t heavy. Stellan didn’t smell sick like he usually did. Inside of him, Dame’s tiger wasn’t riled up at all in response to the dominant monster Stellan housed inside of him.
“What’s your game?”
Stellan shrugged up one shoulder. “I think I’m just tired. I probably need some food too.”
Suspicious, Dame checked the floor around the cage to make sure there wasn’t a cattle prod or any other kind of weapon in reach. The floor was clean. Dame took his plate and got within arm’s reach of the cage and offered it to him.
“What kind of sandwich is it?”
“Turkey.”
“You know I need more protein than that. I don’t feel right.”
“You can start with that while I make you food,” Dame gritted out, irritated. He should let his rotten carcass starve.
“Thanks,” Stellan muttered, reaching through the bars to take the plate.
Dame grabbed his forearm hard and watched his eyes. There wasn’t even a speck of gold there as Stellan gritted out, “What are you doing?”
Dame released him and backed away, watching his eyes for the color change.
Something was off.
Unannounced touch was a big trigger for Stellan’s animal, but he hadn’t even reacted. Maybe he was just hurt and recovering from the fight.
“I wanted to thank you,” Stellan said softly around a bite of sandwich.
“For what?” Dame asked with his back to him as he looked in the fridge at the leftovers.
“Not you. I meant I wanted to thank her.”
Misty’s scent hit him in that moment, and Dame stood turned in a rush.
Misty stood at the door, leaning on it. Her hair was still wet from her shower, and her skin was clean and clear of make-up. She wore one of his t-shirts knotted up in front, and the bottom part of her blue scrubs. She was so freaking pretty in the afternoon sunlight.
She smiled at him and then returned her attention to Stellan. “Thank me for what?” she asked as she carefully sat in the chair, far away from the cage.
Stellan swallowed the bite and slid a dark-eyed gaze to her. “For putting me back together. I don’t think many people would’ve done that. Me dying would’ve solved all your problems.”
“And it would’ve been the start of an entirely new set of problems,” she said easily.
“Like?” Stellan asked, curiosity in his tone.
Dame didn’t understand. They were talking like normal. Stellan wasn’t even scenting the air or pacing the cage. The tiger was staying buried.
“Like it would’ve broken Dame’s heart to lose his brother and therefore would’ve broken mine.
Like my guilty conscience if I didn’t try.
Like the awful feeling that would sit in the pit of my stomach any time your brothers talked about you with sadness in their voices.
Like the guilt Dame would carry for killing you.
I didn’t want him to choose between us.”
“He chose you,” Stellan said. He pursed his lips and dropped his gaze back to the sandwich.
“Fair choice. I know what I’ve done to your life.
” That last part was for Dame. “Triplets aren’t supposed to have a big brother.
We’re all supposed to be the same. We’re all supposed to lean on each other, not drag each other down.
I could see the toll this whole time. I just didn't know how to be…less. The tiger was really big, and I…well, I was small.”
“Was?” Mars asked from the doorway.
Stellan’s nostrils flared with his deep inhalation. His somber gaze glided to Misty. “He’s watching you.”
“I’m sure he is,” she said tiredly.
“He doesn’t call you the Rabbit anymore though.”
Misty’s delicate eyebrows drew down, and she leaned forward in the chair. “What does he call me now?”
Stellan lifted his chin higher into the air. “He doesn’t call you anything at all.”
“Truth,” Dame murmured, hope stirring in his middle. “Stellan? What’s happening?”
“I can hear him. I can feel him. He can feel me. He doesn’t want my skin around Misty. He thinks it’s dangerous.”
“He thinks she’s dangerous?” Mars asked, coming to stand on the other side of Misty.
“For her. He doesn’t want it to be dangerous for her.
” Stellan’s eyes were full of raw vulnerability as he looked at Dame.
“He knows she saved him. I…” His voice cracked, and he had to swallow hard and try again.
“I am here. I can hear him and talk to him. Inside, you know? I know what he’s thinking. Feeling. He is quiet. He’s watching.”
Dame linked his hands behind his head and looked at Mars, who looked just as stunned as he felt. “Stellan, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“If you open the cage, I won’t hurt her.
Even if he wanted to, I could stop him. He saw her refuse to shoot me when I was begging.
I was trying to kill my tiger, and she wouldn’t do it.
That was the first time she saved him. Second time, after the fight, he saw her ask to save him.
Then he saw her fix him. She’s not the Rabbit anymore. ”
Truth, truth, truth.
Dame inhaled sharply and squatted down, his hands over his mouth as he absorbed what Stellan was saying. A hundred memories flooded him of trying to keep Misty off Stellan’s radar.
Stellan’s eyes had stayed soft even with Misty here, filling this place with her scent. He was keeping his mind. He wasn’t hunting her, and the tiger wasn’t either.
When he looked up at Mars, his brother was staring back at him. His blue eyes said so much.
Without a word, Mars strode for the cage, and Dame stood in front of Misty, blocking her from Stellan.
If this was a trick, they would know fast.
Stellan stood up gingerly and limped out of the opening door. He nodded to Mars and then made his way to Dame. He just stood there for a few seconds, and then he did something that shocked Dame into stillness.
Stellan pulled him in for a hug.
“Fuck,” Dame uttered brokenly. Stellan hadn’t hugged him since the tigers had been born.
He clapped him on the back and held him there until Dame reached up and hugged him back.
Some dam of emotion was breaking inside of Dame. He was being flooded with relief.
Stellan released him, then offered his hand to Misty. “I think we need to start over.”
She’d stood, and tension hummed through her. There was fear in her eyes as she looked at Stellan’s offered hand. “Don’t hurt me,” she whispered with such hope in her voice.
“I won’t let anything hurt you,” Stellan said. “Including me.” Truth.
Misty slid her hand in his, and gently, Stellan shook it. “I’m your mate’s brother, Stellan. It’s good to meet you.”
“I’m Misty,” she said. “I’m the mate of your brother.”
Dame blew out a steadying breath and blinked hard to relieve the burning sensation in his eyes.
He’d wanted to keep them both so badly.
So badly.
Stellan smiled and released her hand, then stepped back. He looked from Mars, to Dame, and back to Misty. “I guess welcome to our Ambush.”