Prey (Blackwater Pack Book 2)

by Hannah McBride

  With a deep sigh, Gabe rubbed his temples. “Okay. I’m guessing you two aren’t hungry?”

  “No,” I mumbled as Remy shook his head.

  Gabe stood up. “I’m going back to the lodge to meet Nero and Luke for dinner.” He looked down at us, a frown creasing his handsome face. “Do I need to remind you what an epically bad idea it would be to go after anyone from Long Mesa?”

  Remy’s jaw clenched. “I know.”

  Gabe crossed the room, but hesitated by the door. He turned back, his eyes kind. “I love you, son.”

  “I know,” Remy repeated, his tone softer. “I love you, too, Dad.”

  “That goes for you, too,” Gabe told me. “You’re one of us. I know whatever Remy saw was awful, kiddo, but that’s over. You’re one of us now. We protect our own.”

  That thawed some of the ice that had settled in my veins earlier. I managed what I hoped was a grateful smile as he left.

  After several beats, I tried pulling away from Remy. I was almost surprised when he let my fingers slip through his.

  I scrambled to my feet. “It’s late.”

  It was barely after seven.

  I started towards the stairs. “I’m exhausted.”

  My mind wouldn’t stop working, my blood fizzing and popping with nervous energy. Sleep wasn’t happening any time soon.

  My hand touched the bannister. “I’m going to get ready for bed.”

  I was going to lock myself in the bathroom, take an ungodly long shower, and pray that, by some miracle, Remy was asleep when I came out.

  Would it be obvious I was avoiding him if I slept in the second bedroom tonight?

  “Good plan,” Remy agreed, getting up. He arched his eyebrows at me. “Let’s go.”

  So much for that idea.

  I leaned against the railing. “Remy—”

  “Tell you what,” he said, cutting me off, “I’ll give you a choice. We can talk about this down here or upstairs. Either way? We’re talking about what happened.”

  I nudged my toe against the first step. “Any chance we could not talk about this and forget it happened?”

  I was stalling. It was stupid and pointless, but it was all I could focus on because talking about this was the last thing I wanted. What I wanted was to hide under the covers until the next morning.

  Or next year.

  The odds of Remy letting that happen were nonexistent. I loved my mate in every way, but sometimes I wished he wasn’t such an alpha.

  “Fine,” I muttered, turning and heading up the stairs like it was a slow death march.

  And for my pride, it kind of was.

  I headed into our room when I got upstairs, Remy right behind me. I turned when he closed the door, not sure if I wanted to talk first or if I wanted him to start.

  He brushed past me, sitting on the bed before swinging his long legs up onto the mattress and leaning against the headboard.

  “Come here,” he said softly, holding out a hand.

  I shuffled forward a step, letting my fingers glide over his as I paused by the side of the bed.

  “Remy—” I broke off with a squeak when he grabbed my hips and lifted me up, settling me on his lap so I was straddling him.

  “That’s better,” he murmured, a small smile tugging at his lips as his eyes met mine. He brushed the hair out of my eyes. “No more running, remember?”

  Closing my eyes, I nodded. That was the deal, wasn’t it?

  I guess that included emotional running.

  His hand slid up my thigh. “Can you tell me what you’re thinking? What you’re feeling?”

  I met his gaze for a second before looking away. “Okay, I feel … embarrassed.”

  He frowned, his eyes narrowing at me. “Why would you feel embarrassed?”

  “Because,” I said stubbornly, “that was one of the more humiliating moments in my life. Having you see that, or experience that? It sucked.”

  “Baby, you didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” He framed my face with his hands. “You have nothing to be ashamed about.”

  “I was weak,” I argued, lowering my lashes.

  “You were young and vulnerable,” he countered bitterly, his hands falling back to my legs, “and they preyed on that.”

  “It wasn’t the only time something like that happened,” I confessed, the truth whispering out of me. “Pack runs were the worst because I could never shift. That memory was just one time when Preston was being extra douchey. I was always the last one. People always stared at me. It made me feel so gross.”

  His face looked calm enough, but I could feel the barely contained rage thrumming in his blood as he tensed and loosened his muscles under me.

  I shuddered. “Even right now I just want to take a shower. And I hate that you saw that.”

  “I hate that you lived that,” he answered fiercely, his eyes burning hot.

  I traced the back of his hand on my thigh. “But that’s not my life now. Now I have our pack, our family. I have to focus on that.”

  “I was so angry,” he replied, his voice tight. “I’m still so fucking angry. I want to kill him, all of them.”

  “I know, and I love you for being angry for me, but if something like that happens again,” I cleared my throat, “you can’t go after Preston or Linden.”

  Jaw clenched, he looked away from me.

  “Promise me,” I begged, not wanting to see him and Gabe fight again.

  He turned, his molten gaze pinning me to the spot. “I can’t.”

  Disbelief washed over me. “Are you serious right now? Rem, you heard what your dad said. What you did earlier could have had a lot of really bad consequences.”

  “What do you want me to do, Skye? Apologize for wanting to protect you?” He glared at me. “I’m not that guy. I’ll never be that guy. Cassian hurt you, and I couldn’t stop that. Preston hurt you, and if I can do something about that, I will.”

  “I don’t blame you for what happened with Cassian,” I said softly. It killed me that he would blame himself for any of the chaos and pain Cassian caused.

  “I blame myself!” He shot back, eyes flashing. He raked a hand through his dark hair. “I was right there.”

  I settled my hands on the hard planes of his chest as it heaved beneath me. “I made the decision to go over that cliff with Cassian.” I held his eyes. “Because I didn’t want you paying the price for me.”

  “It’s not your job to protect me,” he muttered, but a corner of his mouth hooked up. “I’m the alpha, right? Pretty sure protecting you comes with the job description.”

  I arched a brow and linked my hands behind his neck. “I’m the alpha’s mate. Pretty sure that makes it my job to protect you.”

  His gaze dropped to my lips. “It does, huh?”

  “Yeah.” I tilted my head to the side, a genuine smile dusting across my lips.

  “Okay.” He was fighting a smile as he leaned forward and kissed me.

  31

  At some point I should have probably changed into actual clothes, but I was too content in my flannel pajama bottoms and one of Remy’s t-shirts to bother. Besides, I wasn’t leaving the cabin today.

  I had slept in, long after Remy got up for the day’s meetings, pressing a kiss to my shoulder as he slid out of our bed and started to get ready. My body needed rest, and I still felt cracked open and exposed after everything that had happened the day before. Hiding in the cabin seemed like a great idea.

  It wasn’t until I felt the familiar hunger pangs rumbling in my stomach in the early afternoon that I got up and headed downstairs. Remy had left a note on the table by the sofa, attached to a room service menu, telling me to order something to eat, but I felt weird knowing that Gabe would likely be footing the bill.

  I grabbed an orange and a banana from the bowl of fruit in the kitchenette area towards the back of the first floor and spent the time texting my mom before she headed into the cafe to work the closing shift.

  I tossed the phone down be
side me on the couch and reached for the tv remote, figuring I could watch an hour of mindless shows and escape into someone else’s problems for awhile.

  Which was, of course, when my phone rang.

  Snatching it up, I couldn’t be mad when I saw it was Larkin requesting a video chat. I swiped my finger across the accept button and grinned when her face filled the screen.

  “Hey!” she cried, dark eyes glimmering with warmth. “How are you? How’s Remy? How’s the Summit? Tell me everything.”

  “Let her answer one question at a time, Lark!” Katy’s face appeared beside Larkin’s.

  “I miss you guys,” I sighed, settling back against the couch cushions.

  “Where’s Tate?” Katy asked.

  “Her dad and Dante had a thing this morning. She went with them.”

  “You didn’t feel like going out today?” Larkin pressed, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

  My eyes dropped. “I was tired. Yesterday was … rough.”

  “Mom said that you saw your uncle,” Katy said, her tone bitter. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m okay,” I replied carefully.

  “And yet you look like you’re anything but,” Katy countered, reading me almost as easily as her brother could.

  I exhaled and pressed my lips into a grim line before speaking. “Something happened yesterday.”

  “Something good?” Larkin’s voice was hopeful.

  “Something … I don’t know,” I admitted.

  Katy’s eyes narrowed. “Do you need us to come down there? Is it Remy? He’s my brother and I love him, but I can also kick his ass. Or I can make Dad do it.”

  “No,” I said quickly. “It’s not Remy. Well, it is kind of Remy. But don’t call your dad. He was already mad enough after it happened.”

  “Quit with the vague and spell it out,” Katy demanded.

  “We all went for a run yesterday,” I started, “and you know how Remy and I can read each others’ thoughts?”

  Larkin nodded. “Because you’re bonded.”

  “Right,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “Except it was more than that. Preston was in the woods—”

  “And Remy killed him?” Katy jumped in.

  “What? No.” I huffed out a laugh.

  “That’s unfortunate,” she sighed, eyes rolling to the ceiling.

  “Let her finish,” Larkin chided, slapping Katy’s arm.

  “I had this … flashback of a memory,” I went on, ignoring the dark pull of the memory. I didn’t want, or need, to unpack that all over again. “Anyway, Remy saw it.”

  Larkin frowned at me. “What do you mean he saw it?”

  “Like he could see my memory,” I explained. “He saw what I saw, felt what I felt …”

  “Oh, shit,” Katy murmured. “And you’re sure Preston’s not dead?”

  I rolled my eyes. “He’s not dead.” I hesitated. “But Remy went after him. It took your dad, Dante, Luke, and Nero to stop him.”

  “I’m surprised it didn’t take an entire shifter army to stop him,” Katy replied, her dimples flashing as she grimaced.

  “He kind of … almost challenged your dad,” I said softly.

  Larkin and Katy exchanged glances.

  “He did what?” Katy asked quietly, her mouth hanging open.

  “Gabe tried to get him to stop, and I thought Remy was going to bite him at one point,” I added, a shiver of fear skittering up my spine.

  “Holy shit,” Larkin breathed.

  “But everything’s okay now?” Katy asked, eyes wide.

  “Yeah. They talked it out last night, but …”

  “But?” Larkin prompted.

  I pulled my knees up, resting my chin on them and balancing my phone in one hand. “It was close. I don’t want to be the reason Remy and Gabe fight. Ever.”

  The corner of Katy’s mouth kicked up. “Dad and Remy butt heads sometimes. They’re both Alphas, so it’ll happen. I promise this won’t be the last time they fight about something.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my words as I shook my head. “I don’t know, guys. This just seemed like something else. Remy wasn’t backing down.”

  They exchanged another glance.

  Larkin had stayed fairly quiet, waiting until a moment to ask a very Larkin-question. “How do you feel about Remy seeing your memory?”

  The humiliation burned through me again, not quite as fresh and potent as yesterday, but still stinging. “I hate it.”

  “Why?” Larkin’s tone was soft, coaxing the words out of me. A non-voluntary therapy session with my two best friends wasn’t what I had planned today, but it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.

  “It was embarrassing,” I finally replied, my voice barely above a whisper. “It was humiliating and … God, I wanted to forget that it ever happened. I hated that he saw how weak I was.”

  “You heard what you just said, right?” Katy jumped in.

  “Huh?” My brows knit together.

  “You said, ‘how weak I was’, Skye,” she clarified. “Not how weak I am. You used past tense.”

  “Because you aren’t weak anymore,” Larkin added. “And that wasn’t weakness; it was survival.”

  Tears pricked the back of my eyes, hot and insistent. God, I missed these two. Everyone needed a best friend, or two, to remind them of how much they didn’t suck. Maybe I never had friends growing up, but the ones I had now made up for it in spades.

  “And it wasn’t weak to go a thousand miles away to confront the people who literally held you down your whole life.” Katy’s eyes flashed with heat as she spoke. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Skye.”

  “Did Remy make you feel like you should be ashamed?” Larkin asked pointedly.

  “No.” He had been his always amazing, ever supportive self.

  “Don’t let a memory trick you into forgetting who you are,” Katy said fiercely, “or how far you’ve come.”

  My eyes closed, emotion swamping me in the best way possible.

  “You guys are amazing.” My voice cracked as I looked at them through the screen.

  “We know,” Katy replied smugly.

  I swiped under my eyes, blinking back tears.

  “How are you guys?” I asked, needing to get the attention off of me. “How’s Blackwater?”

  “Quiet,” Katy said, her smile only slightly forced around the edges.

  I wished I had news to report about Maren, or any of the missing girls, but I hadn’t heard anything.

  “Any idea when you’ll have to testify?” Larkin asked, her arm wrapping around Katy’s shoulders.

  “Not yet,” I replied. “Linden made a big fuss yesterday in the afternoon about how we had been kidnapped.”

  Katy rolled her eyes. “What an asshat.”

  “Gabe actually decided to file a human rights violation against Long Mesa.”

  They both went quiet.

  “That’s pretty serious, isn’t it?” Larkin’s gaze flicked from me to Katy and back.

  “It’s very serious,” Katy answered, her usual playful snark completely vanished. “That’s basically saying Linden isn’t fit to run his pack.”

  “Yeah.” I winced. “He wasn’t too happy about it.”

  “The Alpha Council will have to investigate a claim like that. There will be a formal review,” Katy went on. “Your uncle could even lose his pack.”

  “I’ll have to testify at that, too,” I murmured.

  “You can’t just do it once?” Larkin’s nose wrinkled.

  “No,” Katy said firmly. “They’re different types of violations. Skye and her mom leaving the pack was more about protocol not being followed. At the end of the day, the worst that could happen is Blackwater is fined or the shifters in question are returned to their former pack.”

  A wave of nausea rolled over me, my mouth going dry. “Oh. Is that only the worst that could happen?”

  Katy’s unfocused gaze, lost in th
ought, cleared. She gave me a guilty shrug. “Sorry. I just meant from an objective point of view. You, your mom, your aunt, and your cousin all have a justifiable reason for leaving Long Mesa. Your stories are consistent, there’s documented evidence—”

  “There’s what?” I cut her off, surprised.

  Katy frowned. “Your mom, Zara, and Bella all had their injuries and scars documented by our pack physician when they came to Blackwater. It was included along with the videos of their testimonies for the Council. I assumed you did, too.”

  Other than the small scar on my leg, and the one on my hip, I didn’t have any visible scars from my time in Long Mesa. But I had been checked out by the pack physician before I headed to Granite Peak, and of course there were the records from my fall.

  Our bodies were maps of scars that told our stories.

  I hadn’t even thought about evidence, but clearly Gabe had covered all the bases, giving us the best case possible.

  “That’s smart,” I finally said.

  Katy nodded. “Dad and Remy didn’t want any chance of you guys going back. It’s probably why they filed the violation charge against your uncle. It’s a serious issue that could strip Linden of his Alpha rights and his pack.”

  “If the Council agrees,” I said with a sigh, rubbing my forehead with my free hand. “I’ll have to testify at that hearing, too.”

  “Tell them everything,” Katy said. “I know you hate it, Skye, but tell them every single detail. If they believe you, they’ll look into the pack. They’ll send people to interview and monitor Long Mesa. Your uncle won’t be able to hide all the skeletons in that place.”

  “You think?”

  “It happened once before,” she replied. “It was like ten years ago, but an Alpha had his pack removed from his charge. The man who testified at the Summit convinced the Council to investigate, and they found out everything he said was true and more.”

  “Your dad and Remy will be in the room,” I said slowly.

  “And they love you,” Katy countered heatedly. “They’ll have your back no matter what you say.”

  “We all will,” Larkin added, flashing me a supportive smile.

  “Skye, you can shut down Long Mesa for good,” Katy said. “And you said that they have something to do with the missing girls. If the Council takes over, they might be able to find them. We could find Maren.”