Shifted Scars: A Wolves of Forest Grove Novel

by Lawson, Elena

  “I just brought you a bottle last week, Grams,” Clay chastised her. “Don’t tell me you’ve finished it already?”

  “Would you deprive an old lady of her vices, grandson? Have I not earned the right to—?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Clay interrupted, giving his head a shake. “Fine, I’ll bring your whiskey. Stubborn old bat.”

  “I don’t have to wonder where you get it from,” I joked, earning myself glares from the both of them.

  That was my cue.

  I tucked my cell into my pocket and jerked my head toward town. “I have to pick up some things. Our meat order’s been delayed. Need anything?”

  His brows lowered. “Why’s it delayed?”

  I shrugged. “Not sure. Seth didn’t say.”

  Clay licked his lips in a way that made something low in my belly tighten as he considered something. He’d been either sleeping with me—on the nights Jared stayed at the quarry—or outside the cabin barely a stone’s throw from the window. He’d even given up some of his night patrol shifts this week, further cementing my suspicion that all this time he’d been wary of Sam returning.

  It was odd to see him up so early in the day when he usually slept well past noon. I wasn’t sure how much sleep he was actually getting at night though; his eyes had dark circles to rival my own.

  “I’ll come with you,” he decided. “I’ve been meaning to check on the old cabin and my shop. We can make a pit stop on the way back. Maybe take the bikes for a rip if there’s time.”

  I grinned at that. We hadn’t taken out the dirt bikes in a while. Not since last fall, actually. Though Clay regularly checked on things at the old cabin where I’d lived with him and Clay before shit hit the fan here—tuning up the bikes and making sure the pipes didn’t freeze in the winter.

  Jared slept out there sometimes, still, needing the solitude every now and then.

  It was where I lost my virginity after I’d finally had enough of their testosterone and forced them to rock paper scissors for it. Looking back now, it was ridiculous how we handled it, but we were just a bunch of horny teenagers, and I was tired of waiting.

  Jared won, and Clay didn’t speak to either of us for weeks after. Until one very heated argument led to us tearing each other’s clothes off and…

  I swallowed hard. Not the time. Definitely not the place. I eyed Hazel warily from the corner of my eye and found her smirking at me. Likely scenting my pheromones and daydreaming about all the grandbabies.

  “Such a good idea,” she said, jostling to her feet to pat Clay on his thick shoulder, leaving a smear of dirt over the tanned muscle. “You two go on then. Take your time.”

  Clay raised a brow at me, and I tucked some loose strands of hair back from my face, hustling past him. “I’ll grab a couple duffels to carry the groceries back. We’ll buy some bags of ice to keep it cool if you want to take the bikes out, but—”

  “We won’t be long, Allie,” he interrupted, fixing me with a knowing stare. I never left pack camp for more than a few hours at a time. Being away for too long made me restless. Made my wolf itch to check on the others. To make sure they were safe.

  “Such a worrier, that one,” I heard Hazel murmur to Clay as I swerved through the cabins and back into the heart of camp. “She’ll worry herself to death one day. Mark my words.”

  I lifted another stack of overpriced beef into the cart, grimacing as some of the juices leaked onto my palm. The quality was shit and it was twice the price of buying in bulk from Sal’s, but it would have to do for now.

  “Want to go grab the whiskey for Hazel?” I asked Clay, starting to pick through the whole chickens for the largest of them. We had a lot of mouths to feed, but I couldn’t take all of them. There were only two small grocery stores in this town, and if we depleted them of all their meat, people would ask questions.

  As it was, the cart just looked like we were going to have a real big barbeque. Which was exactly what I would say if asked. I even added a couple bags of corn on the cob for good measure.

  Clay stalked off down the aisle in search of the whiskey Grams liked, and I smirked at his backside, feeling a lick of heat roll across the back of my neck.

  I so rarely saw him fully clothed anymore. In shoes and a shirt. The way the black tee clung to his muscled frame made me bite my lip. He looked so out of place among the packaged meats and pyramids of packaged foods. Like a giant in a dollhouse.

  Or a bull in a china shop.

  It was at that instant he accidentally knocked the edge of a display, unable to squeeze between it and the endcap on the next aisle. Several boxes scattered to the floor and an employee rushed to scoop them up, apologizing to Clay as if they were the one who’d done something wrong.

  He had that effect on people.

  “One of your two mates, I presume?”

  His strange scent tickled my nose before I locked eyes on him, my hackles raising and an anvil dropping in my gut.

  “Thought I told you to stay out of my territory, witch?”

  Gregory cocked his head at me from where he leaned near the door leading to the stock area of the grocery. “You did. But my superior doesn’t like taking no for an answer, so here I am, back in the wolves’ den for round two.”

  Clay came crashing back through the store with a bottle of whiskey in his fist, eyes burning a fiery blue as they locked on to Gregory. Customers scattered like roaches from his warpath, and I had to hand it to Gregory, he hardly flinched as Clay reached my side, his upper lip curling in distaste at the sight of the witch.

  “Clayton, I presume?” Gregory inquired with a raised brow as he sized up my mate.

  “Who the fuck is this clown?” Clay demanded, glancing between us. My unease likely wreaking havoc on his own nerves as well.

  “An emissary of sorts,” Gregory responded before I could. “Alison here was just about to turn me down for the second time.”

  “What is he talking about?”

  “I—”

  “She didn’t tell you?” Gregory asked, seeming to be thrilled at this new discovery. His eyes gleamed as he launched into an explanation even though my wolf was looking at him like she might rip his throat out right here in the meat section of the Forest Grove grocery.

  “I work for a delegate of the Arcane Council, and they would like an audience with your darling mate. Just a few questions, you know. Perhaps they’ll want to take some blood to run tests. Perform an origin spell on her. That sort of thing. Standard stuff, really. But your mate here didn’t even allow me to explain the last time. Told me to leave and not to return.”

  Clay slammed the bottle of whiskey into the cart and stepped toward Gregory, his massive frame hulking over the shorter witch. “And you should’ve listened,” he growled, his eyes flaring to a vivid blue glow.

  A little girl down the way gasped, tugging on her mother’s sundress to get her attention. Her little finger pointing at Clay. Shit.

  “Clay,” I hissed between gritted teeth. “Not here.”

  He trembled with the urges of his wolf, and my own wolf responded, battering against the cage of my human form.

  “Get out of here,” I spat at Gregory. “Tell your superior that I have no interest in meeting with them and if you come back here again, you won’t ever leave. Got it?”

  Clay’s gaze never left the witch as he tipped his head in a sarcastic farewell, a smirk playing over his lips before he turned and lazily wandered back toward the exit of the store. Like he didn’t have a worry in the world. Like the largest shifter in my pack wasn’t staring after him like he might be lunch.

  Clay’s balled fists ached for a release as he whirled on me, his face a red mask of fury. A vein jumped in his temple, and I took a cursory glance around, checking to make sure no one could hear.

  “I was going to tell you—”

  “When? When were you going to tell me, Allie? When did this happen?”

  I swallowed hard, cold dread frosting over my chest. “About a week ago
. He confronted me at Jackie’s shop.”

  Clay’s eyes widened. “He knew you’d be there, then?” He edged the words in a question, but I could tell he was already formulating the answer himself. His rigid hand dove through his dark hair as he fumed, his eyes still flickering with the light of his wolf.

  “Fuck, Allie,” he roared, and from the corner of my eye, I could see a tall, slender man with a manager badge on his button-down approaching cautiously, trying to look more in control than I could sense he felt.

  “Everything all right here, miss?” he asked me, his kind eyes slipping to Clay before returning back to me. “Is this man bothering you?”

  “Mind your fucking business,” Clay growled, and when the store manager’s eyes locked on his again, getting a glimpse of what lay dormant within, the man buckled in the knees, stumbling back three steps with horror in his eyes.

  Fuck this.

  Abandoning the cart, I took off, rushing out of the store with my heart in my throat and my wolf snapping at my heels.

  “Miss!” the manager called.

  “Allie,” Clay hissed, chasing me out like I knew he would.

  I didn’t stop when I hit the pavement outside, though. I broke into a run, making for the trees at the edge of the lot, flip flops flying off before I could even make it past the tree line.

  “Allie, stop.”

  My wolf took hold, crashing into my mind and taking over my body in the span of a single breath. Flaying my clothes to ribbons.

  Allie, stop or so help me...Clay’s seething voice slunk into my thoughts as he shifted, too.

  Or what? I taunted, unable to help myself before taking off at a sprint that I knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun. I hardly knew where I was headed until the old cabin came into view through the trees and my wolf began to slow.

  A whine sounded in my throat, making my heaving chest tighten as I bounded up the steps and onto the front porch. Clay burst through the brush not more than a few heartbeats later, his dark wolf lumbering over to me with quick, sure steps.

  Allie, what—

  I let my wolf fall away and shifted back before he could finish the thought in my mind, furless skin bristling in the chill breeze sweeping over the clearing.

  Clay shifted back, too, and I pushed my way into the cabin, going straight for the kitchen to get a glass of water.

  “How could you not tell me there was a witch tailing you?” he demanded in his I’m-trying-to-be-calm voice. It only ever managed to make him sound menacing instead of angry, but I appreciated the effort.

  I guzzled the water, taking a long breath before replying, setting my glass into the sink. “Because it wasn’t a big deal,” I replied. “I told him to get fucked. Not to come back.”

  “Oh yeah?” he asked, his shoulders going rigid. “How’d that work out for you?”

  “Don’t be a dick. I didn’t want to worry anyone, and I thought I’d dealt with it myself.”

  “Clearly, you didn’t. And if you think that fuckwad won’t be back, you’re an idiot.”

  I cleared the gap between us in two strides, our combined frustration and fury getting the better of me. Where Jared was a balm to my nerves, Clay was the match that often set me ablaze. Jared and I flowed. Clay and I burned.

  He staggered back as I shoved at his sweat-slicked chest. “You’re the idiot who almost got us caught in the fucking grocery store!”

  His cheekbones and nostrils flared as he clenched his jaw.

  “You might as well have held up a big ass sign that said hey, look at me, look how not human I am.”

  “Don’t try to spin this on me. If you’d just told us about the witch then—”

  I threw my hands up, growling. “Fine. I’m sorry, okay? I should’ve told you. Happy now?”

  Clay jerked forward, wrapping a hand firmly around my biceps to pull me close. “No,” he hissed, breath fanning over my cheek. “My mate kept something from me. Something that could put her and all of us in danger. No, Allie, I’m not fucking happy.”

  His eyes darkened, and my breath caught at the pain showing through those cut-glass eyes. It made a ball form in my throat. I didn’t want to feel guilty, though. I shouldn’t have to. I was just doing what I thought was right.

  But was it…?

  I shook my head and pulled my arm from his, stomping out of the kitchen to go upstairs. I still kept some of my old clothes here, and I was going to need to get changed and go back to the grocery store and get all the meat we left behind. And apologize to the goddamned store manager for my brute of a mate.

  “Where the hell are you going?” Clay bellowed, his rough voice practically reverberating the floorboards as I made my way to my old bedroom.

  Normally silent as a cat, he didn’t bother trying to conceal his steps as he stormed after me, the stairs creaking and groaning beneath his weight.

  I entered my room and whirled to slam the door, but he was there, catching it before it could click into the doorframe. Venom in his stare.

  “I wasn’t finished,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Well, I was.”

  I turned on my heel and went to tug open the drawers of my old dresser, searching for something that would still fit my new filled out frame.

  Clay batted the drawer closed, nearly catching my fingers.

  “What the fuck, Clay?”

  “Look at me, Allie.”

  Heat washed up my back, pooling in my cheeks as I spun to face him again, resisting the very persistent urge to shift again.

  I softened when I saw the haunted look on his face. How his breaths evened out. For a second, I saw the fear hidden beneath all the anger he wore like armor.

  “I…” he started and trailed off, a vein throbbing in his temple. “I need you to be safe, Allie.”

  My throat burned at his whispered admission.

  “I can’t protect you if I don’t know what you need protecting from.”

  He scrubbed a hand over the dark stubble on his jaw. “All this shit with Sam and now...I can’t fucking handle both, babe.”

  A crack in his facade revealed what I’d suspected since Sam arrived back at camp. He still didn’t trust her. Might not ever. It was why he was staying at camp through the nights even when Jared was the one sharing our bed. Why he never moved from the spot just below the bedroom window.

  Why he couldn’t handle another separate threat from the one he was already trying so hard to make sure I was safe from.

  The fact that it was his own flesh and blood he was worried about just added another hundred pounds of pressure and stress to his already weighted down shoulders.

  “I…”

  I felt like an asshole.

  “Don’t say sorry,” he offered. “Just tell me you won’t lie to me again.”

  I nodded, eyes watering as the guilt found a toehold in my core and began to scrape my throat raw.

  My arms were iron rods at my sides when Clay bridged the gap between us and yanked me to his chest, pressing our naked bodies against one another. My head bent into the crook beneath his chin. My curves fitting perfectly into the mold of his body.

  I felt the exact moment his emotions began to twist. Felt it in the way his middle finger drew a soft line down the length of my spine to my tailbone, making me shiver against him.

  We hadn’t been intimate since Sam came to camp. Even a little while before that, actually. I felt his need pulse through me. An all-consuming thing, like he was starving. Like he might die if he didn’t take a bite.

  His fingers trailed back up my spine and curled into my hair at the back of my skull. He fisted them there, tugging my head back, tipping my chin up. I arched, pressing my breasts against him as my nipples pebbled.

  “No more lies,” he demanded, staring hard into my soul.

  A fractured breath stuttered from my lips.

  “No more lies,” I agreed, and his lips stole the words from my mouth, consuming them and every last bit of sanity I possessed.

&nbs
p; I moaned against his mouth, and he used the opportunity to slip inside, tasting me, robbing me of breath. Claiming me.

  His hands dropped to my hips, fingertips digging into flesh and bone as he lifted me with ease, prodding me to wrap my legs around his waist.

  Clay’s hardened length brushed against my folds, and I reared back from his kiss, a small cry falling from my lips that turned into a gasp as his mouth closed over my nipple.

  Heat rushed through me as he circled his tongue, biting down enough to make me shudder.

  His soft growl vibrated through my ribcage as he moved to my other breast, hands gripping my ass to hold me tight against him.

  With one arm, Clay swept the objects from the top of the dresser, sending clothing and a lamp clattering to the floor before he sat me atop it. His rock-hard cock nudged at my belly, and when his mouth moved to my neck, biting down on the sensitive skin there, I saw stars.

  “I want you,” I breathed, feeling like if I didn’t have him right here and now I would lose my goddamned mind.

  Clay angled himself, bending at his knees so the tip of his large cock flicked against my clit, making me jump. Making my legs cling around his hips tighter, pulling him to me.

  He lifted his head to stare into my eyes. His lips parted as he curled his hands around my thighs and spread me open for him. His gaze never faltered as he pushed into me, giving me a moment to adjust to his size as he thrust the full way in, expelling the air from my lungs.

  I clenched around his length inside me, fingernails biting down into his thick biceps, searching for something—anything—to hold on to.

  Clay eased out, and I felt him tremble under my touch, his ecstasy further fueling my own. When he didn’t immediately push back inside, I whimpered, trying to push him deeper. Needing him to fuck me as badly as I sensed his urge was to do just that.

  “Clay,” I gasped. “Please.”

  He came unhinged.

  Whatever thing had been holding him back broke like a dam, and he surged back to himself. To me.

  His upper lip curled as he tipped his back and drove his cock into me, shaking the dresser beneath us with the force of his thrust.