Run (Caged Trilogy Book 1)

by H G Lynch

  “I think,” Spencer said slowly and clearly in that quiet, dark way of his, “that you should let me go.”

  Frank stared at him for a moment, snarled, and threw him viciously to the ground. I gasped and rushed forward, but Frank whirled on me and his eyes flashed gold. Whimpering, I flinched back. Dominic grabbed my arm and pulled me back against him protectively.

  “Dad!” he snapped, “What the hell!? What’s going on?”

  I’d never heard Dominic take that tone with his father before, and judging by Frank’s expression, he hadn’t either. He looked momentarily taken aback by Dominic’s obvious anger and disrespect. The gold in the man’s eyes dimmed, and he took a step back, straightening up. He ran a hand through his red hair and cleared his throat. He looked at me and I sank further into Dominic’s safe embrace.

  “I apologise, Tilly,” he said formally.

  I just nodded carefully. Frank’s eyes went to Dominic, whose jaw was set and his eyes were narrowed to gleaming slits, glaring at his father.

  “It’s okay, Dom. I’m not going to hurt her. I just…I don’t want her near Spencer.”

  The alpha’s gaze travelled back to his eldest son, who was pushing himself up from the ground, looking at his father with such hatred that it sent a shiver down my spine. He was shuddering, trembling with the Change in his fury, but he hardly seemed to notice, even as his knuckles and the vertebrae in his spine started to crack and shift. He leaned forward, inhuman fangs bared, eyes furious pools of molten gold. I’d never seen Spencer so angry. It was frightening. He looked…savage…feral…bloodthirsty.

  “What?” I squeaked. “Why? Why can’t I be near him? He’s not going to hurt me any more than you will.” I winced. I’d said will when I’d meant to say would, because he was going to hurt me when he forced Spencer to marry another girl. He was already hurting me, I supposed, because just knowing our time together was limited made something inside me crumple.

  Frank eyed me for a second, as if he’d noticed the difference and knew what it meant. Carefully and soothingly, he said, “It’s not your fault, Tilly. You didn’t know our rules. But Spencer did, and once again he has disobeyed them. I’m sorry for that.”

  My heart clenched tighter than my stomach, anxiety rushing up to capture my lungs, and I suddenly understood what was going on. I turned panicked eyes to Spencer, and Frank followed my gaze. He sighed very softly, almost regretfully. Spencer was on his feet, but he was twitching with the Change, breathing past it to calm himself before he did something stupid. I almost wished he would, wished he’d do something that would stop Frank’s next words.

  Glaring at his eldest son, Frank said, “I hear you and Tilly have gotten rather close, Spencer. Too close. You know the rules! Relationships with outsiders are forbidden. Completely and utterly, in the strictest sense! And you, Spencer, you are formally promised to another girl! This is unacceptable! I don’t want you near this girl again, you hear me? End it, Spencer, or you know what I’ll have to do. I won’t have you ruining this pack for a girl. A witch!”

  His face turned red with anger, and I felt Dominic’s arms squeeze me tighter, as if he could block Frank’s words if he just held me close enough. Spencer’s face was entirely blank—scarily blank. The kind of emptiness that reminded me of a sheet of ice over a raging river; Spencer looked calm, but underneath, in the current of his eyes, there was a thrashing torrent of fury waiting to be let out. It wouldn’t take much more to make him crack.

  All he said, in an eerily soft voice, was, “Somebody told you. Who?”

  Frank barked. “It doesn’t matter who told me! It’s forbidden all the same! I’m warning you, Spencer.” The alpha strode to his son and grabbed at the front of Spencer’s t-shirt, dragging him closer, until they were nose-to-nose and eye-to-eye.

  I whined. I could practically feel the waves of menace rolling off Spencer, could see the wolf snarling behind his eyes. Either Frank didn’t see it, or he just didn’t care. He should have cared. “I’m warning you, boy, do as you are goddamn told for once in your miserable life. I won’t order you this time, but I’m only giving you one chance. Leave the girl alone, or I will make you. You got me?” Frank snarled, shaking Spencer by the shirt.

  For a second, I was certain Spencer was about to wolf out and tear his father to shreds. I could see the longing to do it in his eyes, the fearless, wild rage. Then Frank shoved him, sending him stumbling, and marched away into the trees. Spencer got his footing before he fell, and stood for a moment, glaring into the trees where his father had stormed away.

  I started toward him, but Dominic grabbed my arm to keep me back. He turned me and tucked my face into his chest, just as I heard the sound of clothes shredding, bones snapping, organs bulging. A terrible howl ripped apart the quiet woods, scaring shrieking birds from their nests and sending small animals scurrying into their dens. It was a long, ululating sound of rage that sent shivers tumbling, icy-cold, down my spine. Dominic kept me locked against him until the howling ended.

  When he let me go, Spencer was gone. I didn’t want to know where he’d gone or what he planned on doing. I stared at the ground, at the scattered shreds of what had been Spencer’s clothes, and tears sprang to my eyes, leaking down my face. Why was it all so difficult? Why couldn’t Spencer and I just be together without all the drama and complications? Why did Frank have to forbid us from loving each other, as if our feelings for each other were somehow wrong, just because I wasn’t a werewolf?

  “Shh, shh, Tilly. God, don’t cry. Don’t cry,” Dominic hushed me gently, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. He pulled the cuffs of his jumper down over his fingers and mopped away my tears as if I was a child.

  I sniffled. Distantly, I had to wonder who had told Frank. Dominic and Desmond were the only other people who knew about me and Spencer, and it was obvious Dom hadn’t told. Considering Des had his own secret, I doubted he’d tell. Nobody else could possibly have known, unless they were spying on us awful closely.

  “There we go. That’s better,” he murmured, and I smacked his hand away sulkily. “Come on. We’ll give Spence time to chill out, and in the meantime, you can hang with me and Des. He said something yesterday about needing to talk to me, but I figure anything he’s got to say, he can say it in front of you.”

  I frowned, and shook my head. I knew what Des wanted to tell his brother, and I didn’t think I should be there when he did. “No, it’s okay. I think I’m just going to go back to my cabin and take a nap. I’m exhausted, and I feel a headache coming on.” That much was actually true. So much had already happened, even my nap under the oak tree that morning felt as if it had been days ago, not hours.

  Dominic frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. I’ll be fine. I just need to lie down for a while and…think about things.” I shrugged, hoping he’d understand.

  He nodded slowly, his green eyes showing a little concern. I gave him a small, reassuring smile, and he gave in with a reluctant sigh.

  “Okay,” he sighed. “Go lie down. And Tilly?” he added as I started to turn away.

  I glanced at him over my shoulder. He looked sad.

  “I’m sorry about my dad. Really. As much as I hate to admit it, if Spencer makes you happy, you should have a right to be with him.” Putting his hands into his pockets, he looked at the ground for a moment, and then slouched away with his curly head bowed.

  I watched him go, feeling a stab of guilt. But I was far more worried about Spencer, and what he might be doing, and what was going to happen between us. It seemed like there was no choice, really. We couldn’t be together.

  Feeling my lips tremble, I shook my head, pushing away the thoughts before I started crying again. It hurt my heart to think that Spencer and I had barely had a chance to be together, and we were already being torn apart. It hurt worse to think of him being ordered away from me, physically unable to be near me because of the will of the alpha. Worst of all was knowing that in less than two months, Spencer wou
ld be partnered to another girl—a suitable girl. A werewolf. He’d promised to fight it, to fight Frank’s orders, but just how much good would it do? If he couldn’t break the orders…

  I wiped at my watery eyes and started back toward my cabin, desperate to lie down and lose myself in sleep for a while. Maybe when I woke up, my heart wouldn’t hurt so much. Halfway back to my cabin, I bumped into Sarah, almost literally.

  I’d been walking with my gaze downcast and my shoulders hunched as I tried miserably not to worry where Spencer was, and Sarah leapt into my path out of nowhere, startling me. I jumped, gasping, my hands flying to my chest to hold my thudding heart behind my ribs.

  “Jeez, Sarah, you scared me!”

  The smile she turned on me was less than pleasant; there was sharp edge to it. I blinked, surprised. Had I said something wrong? She flipped her red hair over her shoulder, her smile growing, only making me more uneasy. Her green eyes flashed.

  “Oh, hi there, Tilly,” she said sweetly, as if she hadn’t noticed me, until I’d spoken.

  Unnerved, I frowned. “Is something wrong, Sarah?” I asked.

  Her strange smile expanded into a full on grin, and she laughed. It was a sound like tinkling glass, jagged and cold. “No, nothing’s wrong. Not now anyway.” She looked at me through narrowed eyes, and flicked her fingers on her hip. Then she abruptly turned and sashayed away, hips swaying.

  I stared after her in confusion, my stomach a writhing knot of discomfort. I couldn’t think what I’d possibly done to upset her like that. And what did she mean, not now anyway?

  A dull thumping in my head reminded me I needed to sleep. Shaking off the discomfiting encounter with Sarah, I put a hand to my head and groaned. Somewhere nearby, a bird twittered, its song piercing my eardrums. I started walking again, determined to escape the noise. I’d figure out what I’d done to piss off Sarah later. Then, maybe a miracle would happen, and Frank would stop being an ass and free Spencer from his obligation to put the pack before his own happiness.

  I woke up groggily on my bed, and stretched as I rolled over. The light coming through the closed curtains was dim, and I twitched the fabric aside to see that it was getting dark outside. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand, and its little ticking arms informed me that I’d been asleep for a couple of hours—it was just after eight in the evening.

  My stomach growled as I swung my feet out of bed, putting a hand to my head. I’d missed dinner, no doubt, but at least my headache was gone. I still felt miserable, and my mouth tasted like dry paper. I ran my rough tongue over my teeth and tried combing my fingers through my hair. With a sigh, I decided it was time for a shower.

  Figuring I wasn’t going anywhere else, I gathered some clean pyjama shorts and a t-shirt and made my way to the bathroom. I flipped on the light and took a hesitant look in the mirror. The redness of my eyes startled me, as did the paleness of my skin under the harsh lighting. I looked positively corpselike. I felt almost as bad. My sleep-sluggish thoughts kept dragging me back to Frank’s angry, gravelly voice and the barely contained seething fury in Spencer’s glinting eyes.

  I’m only giving you one chance. Leave the girl alone, or I will make you. You’d have thought that a man who knew the pain of heartbreak as well as Frank did, who had felt it so intensely that he lashed out at his eldest son because of it, would have more compassion toward our situation.

  I suspected that his injured pride and feeling that his first wife had betrayed him by leaving was exactly why Frank was doing this to us—to Spencer, really. He was punishing Spencer with heartbreak, the way his mother had done to him, by keeping his son away from love. Even before he knew about our relationship, Frank had already pushing Spencer toward a relationship he didn’t want by forcing him toward a girl he couldn’t possibly love—precisely because he was forced to her.

  In the mirror, my reflection’s eyes grew bright and shimmery with unshed tears, and I took a deep breath. Shaking the thoughts away, I stripped and stepped into the shower. I stayed there for a long time, sitting with my knees tucked up to my chest while hot water cascaded down on me. My wet hair dripped into my face, streams running over my closed eyes. I sat until the water started to turn cold on my skin and the mirror was completely fogged with steam.

  It was with great reluctance that I eventually exited the spray of not-so-hot water, and only did so because I was developing goose bumps and my teeth were starting to chatter. Turning the water off, the silence of the misty bathroom made the sounds of my damp footsteps seem loud. I dried off and slipped into my shorts and t-shirt, scrubbing my wet hair with a towel so it fell in an unruly mess around my face and shoulders.

  I swiped my hand over the mirror, clearing the fog, and took another look at myself. I didn’t look quite so corpselike. My cheeks were flushed from the heat of the water, my eyes were still a little pink, and my fair hair was a shade darker with being damp. The knot in my stomach had eased too, and the kinks in my muscles had relaxed. I still looked about as happy as if a judge had just sentenced me to death row.

  With a sigh, I left my damp towels on the bathroom floor and returned to my bedroom. I pushed the door to my room open, and found Spencer sitting on my bed, shirtless. My mouth dropped open, and my stomach dipped as my heart lifted. Seeing him, I suddenly felt lighter, and my lips spread into a helpless smile. His head was bowed, and lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t seem to have noticed me standing in the doorway yet. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his feet and chest were bare and his ebony hair was tousled and falling over his face.

  Behind him, the window was open, once again. I was sure it had been closed when I went for my shower. The light was fading from the sky, turning the treetops gold and the clouds black, throwing Spencer’s shadow onto my bedroom floor. He looked like a beautiful marble statue poised on the edge of my bed, deep in thought. I admired him silently for a moment, before the breeze swirled in the window and around the room, and Spencer’s head snapped up as he caught my scent. In the dimness, his eyes shone with silvery reflective light.

  “Tilly,” he whispered in a rough tone that took me by surprise and made a slow blush crawl up my face. He blinked, and the reflective light in his eyes vanished, leaving human blue orbs.

  Shyly, I grinned at him. “Do you have some aversion to clothing?” I asked pointedly, trying not to drool as I looked at him.

  He broke into a smile and stood up, hooking his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans. My eyes strayed over him, and I bit my lip. His teeth flashed white as he chuckled. Taking a step toward me, his eyes roamed my body. I felt his gaze stroking my figure and caressing my bare legs. Slowly, he returned his gaze to mine and twitched one eyebrow.

  “You’re one to talk,” he murmured, taking another step closer.

  Cautiously, I closed the bedroom door behind me and leaned against it, watching him as he stalked closer to me without taking his gaze off mine for a second. I could feel a shiver building in the base of my spine and heat spreading through my body from low in my stomach. All he was doing was looking at me. No, not quite looking, it was more like he was undressing me with his eyes.

  He slunk up to me until he was close enough to touch, close enough that I could smell the wild stormy scent of his skin, and feel his body heat. I tipped my head back to look up at him, his eyes glimmering somewhere between the dark cobalt blue of the human and the golden shine of the wolf. His head bent to mine until we were breathing the same air, and his starlit eyes filled my vision. His lips were just an inch from mine, torturously close. He lifted his hands and placed them flat against the door on either side of my shoulders, blocking me in, so I had nowhere to run. Not that I wanted to run. I doubted I even could. My legs felt like jelly, barely holding me up as it was.

  Somehow, I managed a semi-coherent thought. In a breathless whisper, I said, “You shouldn’t be here. If Frank finds out—”

  Spencer snarled. The sound should have scared me, but it didn’t. Instead, it had
the opposite effect, and I curled my fingers into my palms, my nails scratching at the door. I willed my knees not to give out.

  Spencer pressed even closer, his nose touching mine, his eyes blazing. In a ragged voice, he growled, “Screw Frank. I’m not letting him take you away from me. Whatever it takes, Tilly. I’ll break every order he sets on me and we’ll leave. We’ll run away. I don’t care where, so long as you’re with me. I want to be with you, more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. And nobody, not even my father, is going to deny me that.”

  My heart stumbling, I whimpered, “But what—”

  He slid his hands from the door to my shoulders, slipping his fingers down my arms and lacing them through mine. He pinned my hands to the door and I forgot what I’d been about to say. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been important. Nothing was important—nothing but Spencer, and the way he was looking at me and making me melt inside.

  With a soft growl, he leaned into me and murmured roughly in my ear, “No buts. I love you. That’s all that matters.”

  He drew his mouth lightly across my cheekbone, and my eyes fluttered shut. I exhaled a shaky breath, only his weight pressing me against the door keeping me standing. With his body crushed against me, and his heat burning me through my t-shirt, I could hardly keep a thought straight. I could feel his heart pounding through his skin, rapid and fierce as a war drum. But one thought whispered through my head, and I managed to cling on to it for long enough to say it aloud.

  When his lips paused at the corner of my mouth, I finally said the words that had been sitting on my tongue for two days. I told him, very softly, in a whisper against his mouth, “I love you, Spencer.”