by Jadyn Chase
I never questioned the rule about interacting with Others—until now. A lot of humans around Norton knew about us—well, maybe not a lot, but enough—the owner of the local bar, Morris, and few others. No one found out that we didn’t know for absolute certain we could trust.
Caroline would never find out. She would breeze out of town the same way she breezed into it. She would vanish out of my life none the wiser and I would go back to living my life the way I always had.
Pop was right about one thing. I couldn’t begin to consider throwing my life away on a stranger. Caroline was nothing to me. She was a flash in the pan, a nice idea that would burn out in a few days. I couldn’t start to question. I wasn’t compatible with her, and I never would be. The end.
I shuddered and got busy unloading guns from the safe. It took out a few shotguns and rifles. Then I picked out several handguns of various calibers. I loaded a duffel bag with ammo and trucked everything out to the Jeep.
I got a few extra jerry cans of gas and slotted them behind the driver’s seat when my cousin Archer sauntered over. He reclined against the fender and picked his teeth with a sliver of wood. “Who pissed you off this time?”
I didn’t bother to look up. “No one pissed me off. The Lynches are down the Ridge. I’m going to take a look.”
His eyebrows flew up. “If the Lynches are down the Ridge, you should be calling up the boys to go with you. You look like you’re storming the castle, and that’s not a job for any man to do alone.”
“Well, I’m doing it.” I gave the duffel bag another shove to make sure it didn’t move around in transit. “If I was you, I’d keep out of the way so as you don’t get hurt.”
His lips twisted in a wry grin before he stifled it behind his toothpick. “Suit yourself, but you know how I am. If there’s a head that needs to be punched, you can rely on me to punch it. If you need help, you just let me know and I’ll be Johnny on the spot, brass knuckles and all.”
I had to smile up at him. “Thanks, man. If I need help, you’ll be the first to know—right after Pop, that is.”
He bobbed his head and pushed himself off the fender. “As you were.”
He sauntered across the yard and disappeared into another house. I paused in my preparations to watch him go. It wasn’t every day a Kelly went out alone to tangle with the Lynches, but it gave me comfort to know my Clan would be there in the clutch if the hammer came down. All I had to do was ask, and they would tumble out and fight to the death for me.
I scanned the compound. I could pack up every piece of survival equipment within a hundred miles and I still wouldn’t be fully prepared to meet this threat. For now, I had enough to keep body and soul together.
I slid into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition. I gave one last glance around and spotted my Pop watching me from the upstairs window of the house—the house where I was born, the house where my brother lived, the house I could always call home.
These people would do anything, sacrifice anything for me, but they would all turn their backs on me if I so much as raised a finger to touch Caroline. I knew that to the very bottom of my being. I would be shunned, outcast, pariah, if I crossed that line. None of them would ever speak to me again. They would never give me shelter. They would never look at me again.
What was more, the other Clans wouldn’t, either. My own family would cast me out and all the other Clans would take up the call. I would wander, homeless and alone, for the rest of my natural life. I would have to live among the Others who could never fully accept me, either. I would become nobody.
I swung the Jeep around and drove out of the compound. I only hoped and prayed it wouldn’t be for the last time. I headed down to the circuit road leading to Whistler’s Gulch. I could make the little cabin there my base of operations while I kept an eye on Caroline.
I parked the Jeep out of sight and hoisted my duffel bag. Now that I faced the prospect of carrying it through the woods, it weighed a lot more than I realized. My shoulder ached after only a few strides.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I spotted that Forest Service truck in front of the cabin. I set the bag down and squatted for cover when Caroline came out. What was she doing here? She shouldn’t be anywhere near this place.
Technically, the land around Whistler’s Gulch belonged to the Department of Fish and Game, but the Kellys claimed it as part of their territory. So far, no one challenged that.
So what was she doing here? In front of my eyes, she took a backpack and a suitcase out of her truck and dragged them inside. That was it, then. She must have rented this place, so where the devil was I going to stay? I couldn’t track her if I stayed on the Ridge. It was too far away.
I leaned against my duffel bag to consider the situation when she came back out. She looked different now. She wore one handgun in a thigh holster strapped to her leg. A lumbar holster on her leather belt held another. She looked mean and unstoppable. She reminded me of Lara Croft with her curvy form and her shoulders braced for anything.
She stalked around the truck and plunged into the woods going somewhere. I hustled after her, but I had to be careful that she didn’t detect me. I wouldn’t put it past her to hear the slightest sound in these woods, and I didn’t want her putting a bullet in my head.
She hiked a long way without a rest. She retraced her steps to the last trap on the line. I didn’t see her check it, but she said she checked them all before she took Barret to the office, so she must have been here before.
She crouched over the trap and slipped a pair of latex gloves over her hands. She took a small white pad out of her pocket and wiped it over the trap. Then she stashed the pad in a plastic bag.
I gaped at her in blank astonishment. Oh, no, she didn’t! She couldn’t! By golly, she was checking for traces of ginseng! I couldn’t believe my eyes.
That girl never ceased to amaze me. How she came up with the idea to do this, I would never know, but she did it. She was using these pads to detect traces of ginseng so she could connect all these traps back to the Lynches.
She nearly left me behind in a flurry of emotions when she barged off into the woods heading for the next trap. She went through the same procedure at every trap until she collected a plethora of bags all containing those white pads.
At the third stop, she crammed the bags into her back pocket. Right before she set off again, she glanced over her shoulder. I ducked for cover. I was certain she didn’t see me, but I had to be careful. She was a lot more preceptive than I reckoned.
She looked back once more, but after a few more checks, she didn’t glance behind her anymore. I was safe. She went through the rest of her procedure without incident until she came to the trap within sight of our fence line. This was where I spotted her the first time.
She ran her pad over that trap, too. When she finished and removed her gloves, she straightened up. She pushed the plastic bag into her back pocket and turned around.
She fixed her eyes on the shrubs where I hide from her. She took a deep breath and called, “You can come out now. I know you’re there, so show yourself.”
My heart sank. So much for being cagey. I mustered all my courage and got to my feet.
Her eyes popped. “You! What are you doing here?”
I sauntered around her to the fence. “I was just getting my rifle. I left it here when I was patrolling the fence.”
I slung my leg over the barbed wire and strode to where I left my gun. I picked it up and held it in the air for her to see—as if that could convince her.
She blinked at me. Then she compressed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “If you came here to get your gun, what are you doing on the Forest Service side of the line?”
I fidgeted and shrugged. “Nothing.”
“You were following me. Why?”
I let the rifle fall at my side and sighed. “I told you, Caroline. I was worried the Lynches might come after you. I was following you to keep you safe.”
“I don
’t need the likes of you protecting me. I can take care of myself.”
I muttered under my breath, “I know you can.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped. “I took down Barret Lynch with no help from you. If someone comes after me, I’ll be ready for them.”
I sensed the situation through my fingers, so I changed tack. “Listen, Caroline. You don’t know the Lynches like I do. They won’t come after you one at a time. When they do come, they’ll make sure they get you. A few handguns won’t stop them.”
“What do you suggest?” she returned. “It’s not like I can call up the Army to fight them. You already said they have the Feds on their side.”
I suppressed a smile. I couldn’t give myself away now. “That’s true.”
She broke her gaze away from me and scanned the woods, but there was nothing there to see. “I…. The truth is I don’t know what else to do. I can’t run away, but I’m only one person. If you’re right about them being dangerous, there’s not a lot I can do but wait for it.”
I nodded. Now she was talking sense. “You don’t have to run away, but you shouldn’t be alone right now. If I’m with you, the Lynches will think twice about coming after you.”
She made a face. “Great. Just what I need—a knight in shining armor.”
“That’s not what I meant. They won’t think twice because of me. They’ll think twice because of my Clan. If they laid a finger on me—or on you when we were together—they would bring down the wrath of my whole Clan on their heads. The Lynches know that. That’s why they’re reluctant to attack the Kellys head on. That’s why they keep coming up with these chicken-livered strategies to get us in trouble like poaching bears on our land.”
She inclined her head to one side. “Together?”
“What?”
“You said when we were together,” she repeated. “You said they wouldn’t lay a finger on me if we were together.”
My mind swam in confusion. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. What do you mean by that? How together would we have to be?”
Hot blood rushed to my cheeks. I wasn’t thinking that when I said it. Then again, yes, I was. I didn’t stop thinking it ever since I first saw her park her truck near these woods. I thought it when I watched her hiking through the hills. I thought it when I talked to her in town. I thought it when I watched her walk out of her cabin, and I was thinking it now.
I wanted to be together with her. Even Pop could tell when I asked how he met Ma. That was why I asked. I wanted to know if he sensed from the very first minute that she was the one.
Christ, what was happening to me? I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t get obsessed over a human woman. It was against the rules. It was against Nature itself. It violated every rule in the book—every rule except the one in my heart.
In the forgotten corners of my being, it could never be more right than this. If I was ever going to give myself to someone, why couldn’t it be her?
It couldn’t be her. It could never be her. She was Other. I didn’t need to know any more. I could choose her, or I could choose my Clan, my Ridge, my people, my destiny. I couldn’t choose both.
“Caden?” her voice snapped me out of my trance and I discovered her studying me.
I spun away on my heel. “Yeah. Anyway, that’s how it is. If you…”
I stormed toward the fence, toward my salvation. I had to get away from her before I did something I would always regret.
The fence loomed before my eyes. Kelly territory was right over there, just a few feet away. All I had to do was climb over the fence. The minute my foot touched the ground over there, I would be home free. Her spell on me would break. I would cease to care about her as a prospect of future possibility. She would become a stranger with no more hold on me than any Other walking around the world.
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t ask me to stay. She didn’t beg me to give her a chance. She was too strong and smart and noble for that. She just stood there. Her dark eyes bored into me from behind. I couldn’t look at her.
I couldn’t approach that fence, though. I summoned all my willpower, but I couldn’t tear my feet off the ground to walk away. A force stronger than Nature tugged me toward the fence, but an equally strong power held me back. I couldn’t move.
My soul screamed for mercy, but I couldn’t tell if it screamed to run away from her or toward her. The two compulsions tore me apart until I wanted to cry.
I spun around. I stared at her haunting features. Did she understand? She must. How could she when she knew nothing about me? How could she understand what she asked me to do?
She didn’t ask. She didn’t know. Her presence asked it. Her very existence demanded that I act, and I couldn’t walk away. That would take more strength than any mortal man possessed.
If I couldn’t walk away, then only one avenue remained open to me. The instant I made that connection, the unearthly bonds drawing me toward Smokey Ridge vaporized. They released their hold over me and left only the pressure to move toward Caroline.
I shot forward with all my might. I strode up to her. Before I could give myself a chance to second guess, I slipped my arm behind her back and kissed her. Damn the rules! I wanted this.
I expected her to stiffen in my arms or show some sign of surprise, but she didn’t. She gazed up into my eyes out of those mystical dark orbs of hers. Her lips softened and her spine relaxed into me.
Did I really just do that? Did I really kiss a human woman? What had I done? Did I throw my whole life away on a kiss?
She didn’t pull back. She didn’t know how wrong this was. She didn’t know what that kiss cost me. On second thought, it didn’t cost me anything—not yet. In the back of my mind, I fooled myself that no one would find out. I could always go back to the Ridge.
My vision cleared. She gazed at me from beyond our locked lips. Was this really happening? My body and spirit screamed, Yes! I kissed her, and I would never stop kissing her. I wanted her and no other.
Why should I settle for a match I didn’t want? Why shouldn’t I get the one person in the world that completed me and made my life make sense? Is that what she did? I didn’t realize until now.
Her lips responded to mine out of a misty cloud of delicious pleasure. Nothing ever felt so right. I couldn’t pull away. Those bonds strapped us together, never to be parted.
As quickly as it started, the kiss ended of its own accord. Her mouth came unglued from mine, but my arms refused to release her. She hovered before my eyes. Her skin glowed and her eyes burned me with their fiery intensity. “Caden?”
Before I could say a word, that sickening chunk-chunk of a shotgun slide racking into place shattered the stillness.
5
Caroline
I spun around and my jaw dropped. Four chiseled characters stood behind me all armed to the teeth. Caden’s arms closed around me and he swiveled me out of the way to confront these men.
I took in their red hair and their porcelain-white skin in one glance, but I already knew one of them. The other three kept their features impassive, but Barret Lynch bared his teeth in a hateful snarl. His bruised face contorted in pure evil, and his eyes flickered.
The biggest guy on the far left propped his shotgun on his burly shoulder. He bobbed his head sideways and didn’t make eye contact with either me or Caden. He drawled out of the corner of his mouth when he spoke. “Step aside, Kelly. We only want the girl.”
“Are you boys out of your tree?” Caden glared at one man after another. “What’s the matter, Rolf? Did you run out of pigs to wrestle up in Midget Creek? Now you gotta come down here and invade our territory and demand I turn over someone who’s under my Clan’s protection?”
I should have demanded the right to stand up for myself, and under any other circumstances I would.
Rolf shot a sidelong glance at me and shrugged again. “Well now, we didn’t know she was under your Clan’s protection.”
> Neither did I, but that didn’t matter now. As long as these Lynch boys believed it, I was happy to go along with the charade.
“What did you think?” Caden snapped. “Did you really think you could waltz onto our land and start trapping bears and gunning for the ranger we called in to stop you? I knew the Lynches were stupid, but I never dreamed you could be that stupid. I expected better from you, Rolf. And you, Emile, what’s your excuse, and don’t give me any horseshit about following orders or anything, ‘cuz I know the Lynches are slack-ass about holding to the chain of command.”
Caden rounded on the next intruder in line. This one stood a foot taller than his brothers with a wiry frame and long, taut muscles. His pale blue eyes looked almost albino in the forest light.
Emile stole a peek at Rolf. He shifted his weight to his other foot and said nothing. Caden straightened up. “That’s what I thought. What do you have to say for yourself, Rupert? What genius at Midget Creek came up with this brilliant idea?”
“Ease up, Kelly,” Rolf interjected. “I told you we only want the girl. Hand her over and we can all avoid bloodshed.”
“So now you want to avoid bloodshed!” Caden swelled out his shoulders and balled his hands into fists. His voice rose to a clap of thunder. It slapped the guys in the face and almost made them stagger back. “Didn’t you or any of your other dimwitted kin realize that taking her would be an act of war?”
“None of us wants that,” Rolf replied. “Don’t start a fight and we can all go our separate ways.”
“Oh, I get it.” Caden nodded fast. He scanned the three of them and completely ignored Barret. “You know good and well you couldn’t tangle with me. Go on. Shoot. Why the hell did you come onto our land carrying enough guns to rob Fort Knox if you didn’t plan to shoot somebody? Did you really think I would just hand her over without a fight?”
Barret fumed and simmered throughout this confrontation. He barely managed to suppress his rage, but now it burst its banks. “What are we standing around jawing for? Just take her. There’s four of us with four guns. Just fucking take her!”
