“What happened?” I ask, looking between them all.
“Asher was placed under my command,” Matias starts speaking for the first time since we arrived. “And I failed at the one thing Lucas asked me to do.”
Chapter Eight
Zaire
“I was supposed to keep Asher away from Rae and the pups,” Matias tells us. I know part of this, but want to hear it all before I say anything. “That was what my alpha wanted, and I failed. Just after Mateo turned six, Asher disappeared. I had no idea where he’d gone, but I increased security around the family. It wasn’t enough though. Zaire and Mateo were both very cunning as pups, and Mateo slipped past my guards. As soon as we realized he was gone, we sent out search parties, but we were too late. I found his body in the same clearing Zaire discovered Rebecca, and I knew in an instant what had happened. Asher had killed him. He left a message for Rae, a note pinned to Mateo’s shirt.”
“What did it say?” I ask, and tighten my hold on Rebecca.
A son for a son. You took mine from me, and now I took yours from you. I will return for the other, and you will not see me coming. Be warned, Raelynn, because I will strip everything you love from you, and you will be left with no choice but to return to me.
“He never returned while you were still young, but we were always on alert for him,” dad says, and I nod. I know this part of the story.
“I need some air,” I say and rise with Rebecca still in my arms. I carry her out of the cabin and down the steps without letting her go.
“Zaire,” she says then presses her lips to my neck.
“I need to process this,” I tell her, and hold her a little tighter.
“I will be right here when you do,” she says and tries pulling from my embrace.
“You will be right here while I do,” I correct her as I carry her to my truck. “Come home with me.”
“Yes,” she agrees, and my wolf nearly howls.
“Thank you,” I say and press my lips to her forehead.
“I trust you, Zaire,” she tells me, and my heart skips a beat. Her trust means more to me than anything else at the moment. I can’t explain it, but I know her trusting me is a huge step toward us completing the mating ritual.
“I will do everything in my power to keep that trust,” I tell her, and she smiles.
“I need to get my bag,” she tells me, and I sit her on her feet.
“Hop in and I’ll run up and get it,” I tell her as I open the passenger side door of my nearly new pickup. “I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time,” she says then looks at my truck before looking over her shoulder at me. “I may need to shift to hop in this thing.”
“Here,” I say and turn her to face me. I lift her easily, and place her on the truck seat before acting on impulse and pressing my lips to hers. The kiss is brief, but it causes my wolf to growl with need. I pull back and run my thumb across her lips before kissing her again and stepping back. “I will be right back.”
“Mmhmm,” she responds, and I force myself to not chuckle. She’s as worked up as I am.
Leaving her sitting there, I dash into my parents’ home and straight up the stairs to my old bedroom. I retrieve her bag and am back downstairs in under a minute, but I am gone long enough for one of the younger pack members to spot Rebecca sitting in my truck.
My wolf surges forward, and I immediately push him down to keep him from throttling the younger man.
“Max,” I greet him with a nod, then step around him to hand Rebecca her bag.
“Hey, Zaire,” he says with a grin. “I was just introducing myself to the new female.”
“Her name is Rebecca,” I tell him. “And she’s my mate.”
“Got it, sir,” Max responds and takes a step back. “And welcome to the Manchester pack, Rebecca.”
“Thank you, Max,” she responds and looks at me. I haven’t taken my eyes off Max, but I can feel her gaze boring into me. “Zaire, are you ready?”
“Yes,” I answer. Her voice pulls me out of the haze beginning to surround me, and I look at her. Her silver eyes have turned more of an ash color, and I tilt my head to the side.
“It was nice meeting you, Max,” she says brightly without taking her eyes off me. I know she wants to say something about my reaction, but I need to let all the males in the pack know she’s mine. Until we complete the mating ritual, and she bears my mark and carries my scent, telling them is the only way they’ll know.
“Have a good night, Max,” I tell the younger wolf, then shut Rebecca’s door and walk around the front of my truck. Once I’m inside, and we’re headed to my cabin, I reach over and lay my hand on her leg. “I’m sorry. I know my reaction was unwarranted, and I will try to keep my wolf in control.”
“He was just talking,” she says and looks out the window.
“I know, and I’ve apologized for my reaction,” I say and squeeze her knee a little. “I don’t apologize often, but I will to you when I fuck up, and I’ll most likely fuck up a lot. I’ve never been what most would call an easy-going person, and now that I’ve met you, I am fighting my wolf for control. I will do whatever is necessary to make sure you’re safe.”
She nods, and I sigh. I have a feeling she’s letting her thoughts drift to her father, and that scares the fuck out of me.
“Rebecca, I will never try to control you,” I tell her, and she finally looks at me. “I will make sure you’re safe, but I will not go about it the way your father did.”
“Okay,” she responds nearly silently. She’s trying to hide behind an invisible wall, and I am going to do everything in my power to break through it.
Sighing again, I move my hand from her leg as I pull into the circular driveway of my cabin and stop the truck. “If you don’t want to stay here, I can take you back to my parents’ house.”
“No,” she responds as she picks up her bag and slides from the truck. “We have a lot more to talk about, and I don’t want to do it in front of half the pack.”
“Okay,” I respond, and my mind wanders to what she may want to talk about. As I exit the truck, I watch her look around the area my cabin sits. This is my home, and hopefully she will view it as hers as well. I unlock the front door and step back so she can proceed me into the small front room. “Welcome to my home.”
“It’s beautiful,” she tells me as she looks around the small space. I know it’s nowhere near big enough for us to start a family, but that can be remedied.
“Thank you,” I respond and reach out to touch her hair. “I built it myself.”
“That’s amazing,” she responds as she starts walking around my home. She walks from the living room to the kitchen then back again before covering the short distance to my bedroom.
“There’s a second bedroom in the loft,” I tell her and point to the stairs leading up. “I can sleep there, and you can have my bedroom.”
“Why would you do that?” She asks, and I frown. “This is your home.”
“It’s yours now, too, if you want,” I tell her, and she stops walking to look at me.
“I think I would like that,” she responds after a minute, and I visibly relax. “But I’ll sleep in the loft.”
“As you wish,” I respond and smile at her.
“What I wish for right now is a shower,” she says and opens the bag she has slung over she shoulder. When she mutters a curse, I walk to her and peer into the bag. Her clothes are in tatters, and her eyes fill with tears as she looks at them.
“You can borrow something of mine for tonight,” I tell her and wipe a tear from her cheek. “We can wash what you’re wearing and see what we can salvage from your bag after you shower. Then, in the morning I can take you into town and get you a few things.”
“My clothes were fine this morning,” she tells me, and I frown. “I stayed at a hotel night before last, and used their laundry room to wash all my clothes except my pajamas. Everything was clean and neatly folded in my bag when I left yesterday m
orning.”
“Your bag was tossed to the edge of the clearing when we found you this morning,” I tell her. “Nate picked it up, and it was closed. It was closed still when I got it from my old room before we came here.”
“My money is still here,” she says as she reaches into a hidden pocket inside the bag, then she reaches up and grasps the necklace she’s wearing. “Thank God I had it on.”
I reach out and touch her hand gently. She releases the necklace and I lift it with my finger to look at it. “It’s very pretty,” I tell her as I let it fall back into place.
“It was my mom’s,” she tells me and touches it softly. “It’s the Grant family crest.”
“Your mother was a Grant?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Yes, and I am too,” she tells me and takes a step back. “I told you about my father and where I’m from.”
“Yes,” I say and step closer to her. “But you left out the part where you started using your mother’s surname instead of the one you were born with.”
“That’s because that girl died when I left my father’s pack,” she tells me, and I can hear in her voice she means it. “The Grants were a strong pack, far stronger than I ever was when I was with my father, so I became Rebecca Grant the night I left.”
“What else aren’t you telling me?” I ask, and she snaps her head up at me.
“Maybe I should go back to your parents’ house,” she says and grabs her bag of tattered clothing off the floor where she’d dropped it.
“Please don’t,” I say and run my hand though my hair. “Go shower, and I’ll fix us something to eat. After we eat, if you want, we can talk. I will tell you about the pack, and anything else you want to know.”
“There are things I need to tell you,” she admits in a quiet voice. “But they aren’t things I even want to think about, much less talk about.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything you aren’t comfortable telling me about,” I tell her and lay my hands on her shoulders. “I’ll go get you something to wear so you can shower.”
“Zaire,” she says as I turn to walk into my bedroom. “Thank you.”
“For?” I ask, looking over my shoulder at her.
“Everything,” she answers, and I nod then disappear into my bedroom.
I rummage through my dresser and come out with one of my many black t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants from high school that I had no idea were even in there. They will be super huge on her, but it’s the best I can do.
When I walk out, she’s already in the bathroom with the shower going. The door is open, and she’s standing there looking at her reflection in the mirror. Something in her face tells me she’s lost in thought, and I clear my throat to get her attention before stepping into the room.
“Here. These are going to swallow you, but they’re all I have.”
“They’ll be fine,” she tells me and brings them to her nose. When she inhales deeply, the scent of her arousal hits me harder than I’ve ever been kicked by one of our mares.
“You like the smell of them?” I ask and take a step closer.
“Dark chocolate and sandalwood,” she mutters, and I frown slightly. “Your scent. It’s dark chocolate and sandalwood.”
“Interesting,” I say and take a step back before I can’t. “Get your shower, Rebecca. I’ll be in the kitchen.”
Without another word, I turn and leave before my wolf claims her against her will, and shut the door behind me.
I walk into the kitchen and straight out the back door. I need to shift and run off some of this tension, but I refuse to leave her, so I pace my back deck like a caged animal.
Her being here is going to drive me insane with need, but I can’t let her stay anywhere else. I’ll just have to control my brassier instincts until I know she’s ready.
Sighing, I run my hands through my hair and tug it hard before I head back inside and start fixing us some dinner. I am sure my dad or Maggie had made sure she’d eaten, but I feel the need to feed her again.
Chapter Nine
Rebecca
I stand under the hot stream, and let my mind drift to the way Zaire left the bathroom a few minutes ago. It was like he couldn’t wait to get away from me, and that hurt worse than any physical hit my father had ever given me.
His scent does things to me that nothing ever has, but it seems it’s one-sided. When I sniffed the clothes he gave me to wear, I was aroused like I have never been before, and I know he smelled it, but he just walked out like it was no big deal.
“Fine,” I say to the warm spray. “If he doesn’t want me, that’s just fine.”
Sighing, I finish my shower and turn off the water. It is nice being clean again, even if I smell like Zaire’s soap. I will have to pick up some bodywash tomorrow when he takes me into town for a couple of new outfits.
Wrapping a huge towel around my tiny frame, I wipe the steam from the mirror to look at myself. My silver eyes, which have always made me unique even among my kind, sit in a narrow face. I have a small, straight nose, and my lips are pale pink in color. I am nearly as white as my wolf, but I’ve always seen myself as pretty. Not strikingly beautiful as some of the females in my old pack, but pretty.
Kael always said I looked like a spirit roaming the earth, but his opinion didn’t matter to me then, and it sure as hell doesn’t matter to me now. The only man who matters walked out the door and shut it behind him.
Sighing, I grab the clothes Zaire gave me and slip them on without underwear, thankful the pants have drawstrings. I roll the legs of the pants up until my feet are visible, then pick up my dirty clothes and toss them in the corner as I look around for a brush, but don’t find one. I open the door and slip out as silently as possible. My brush is in my bag, and I know if I don’t brush my hair while it’s wet, I won’t get a brush through it once it’s dry. It may be pale and seem wispy, but it was a pain to brush when dry.
I grab my brush from my bag, and turn to head back into the bathroom when the smell something cooking hits me.
I dart into the bathroom and look in the mirror again as I brush my hair then quickly braid it. I retrieve a rubber band from the pocket of my discarded jeans, and secure it before I walk barefoot into the kitchen.
“Something smells amazing,” I say to Zaire’s back, and he mutters something inaudible. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” he responds and turns from the stove. He’s about to say something else when his gaze lands on me and he freezes.
“What?” I ask, after a moment passes.
“Nothing,” he mutters again and turns back to the stove.
I frown and walk toward him. Something is going on, and I want to know what.
“Zaire, what’s wrong?” I ask and lay my hand on his back. When he inhales sharply and flinches, I pull my hand away and take a step back.
“Fuck,” he mutters nearly silently, and turns to face me.
He closes the space between us in one second, and in the next he has me sitting on the counter and his lips are on mine.
This kiss isn’t like the one’s we’ve shared since meeting. This one is full of heat. His lips are like a branding iron against mine, and I am consumed by it.
His hands leave my waist and trail up my sides to my small breasts. When his hands cup them, I feel the callouses through the t-shirt, and I gasp into his mouth. This man should terrify me, but instead he ignites something inside me, and I want to give him everything.
When he breaks the kiss and jerks away from me, pain like none I’ve ever felt shoots through me, and tears fill my eyes.
“Did I do something wrong?” I ask, nearly silently and look at the floor.
“Gods, no,” he answers, but doesn’t reach for me. “I want you more than I have ever wanted anyone in my life, Rebecca.”
“Then, why?”
“I have zero control where you’re concerned, and I don’t want to hurt you,” he answers, and I look up at him. His eyes are the color of t
he cedar trees back home, and his sandalwood scent is nearly overpowering.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I mutter and his wolf growls deep in his chest. “I’m not afraid of him either.”
“I’m afraid,” he admits, and I reach out to touch his chest.
“You won’t hurt me,” I tell him softly. “But you are burning dinner.”
“Fuck,” he says again, and turns to the stove. Once everything is off, he turns back to me and closes the short distance between us.
When his hands reach out and cup my cheeks, I can see the turbulence in his eyes. “But I understand.”
“What do you understand, Rebecca?”
“I understand if you don’t want to be with me. I’m inexperienced, and I know you’re not.”
“Is that what you’re thinking?” He asks, and I shrug. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”
I shrug again, and his eyes shift color as he grabs one of my hands and moves it to cover the front of his jeans.
“Feel that?” He asks from between clenched teeth. I gently cup his arousal and a snarl rips from him. “I want you more than oxygen, Rebecca, but if I take you right now, I will hurt you because I know I can’t be gentle.”
“Zaire,” I breath out as I rub my hand up and down the bulge in his jeans.
When he hisses and tries to step back, I reach out and touch his cheek.
“You’re playing with fire,” he tells me, and I smile shyly at him.
“Maybe I’m not afraid of getting burned,” I say, more confident in what I want than I ever have been in my life.
“Fuck,” he says for a third time, and lifts me from the counter. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
When his lips meet mine, I open myself to his all-consuming kiss, and my wolf nearly howls.
Carrying me to the bedroom, he sits on the bed with me straddling him. His hands cup my ass as he presses me against him, and I feel him throb with need.
Growling again, he breaks the kiss and rips his shirt from my body. My nipples instantly harden when his eyes latch on them, and I squirm in his lap.
Rebecca and Zaire (Manchester Pack Book 1) Page 5
