The Society Series Box Set 2

by Mason Sabre

  Gemma must have felt the lightness in herself when he was close. She must have been able to sense him. It wouldn’t be fair if this was a one-way pass.

  He slid out of sight for a moment, letting his mind rest as he leaned against the side wall to her parents’ home. Putting his head back against the stones, he let out a calming sigh and sank into the moment where it felt like he could break free of the dark cage that was wrapped all around him.

  Soon, he thought. Soon, this would all be over.

  Chapter 20

  Gemma

  Stepping outside, Gemma fought the overwhelming urge to run. A fury mixed with something else, something more primal, raged through her at her father’s words. How dare he? She shook her head and clenched her muscles, fixing her eyes ahead of her as she walked on uneasy legs. He was wrong. It was him who didn’t understand. Him who didn’t want to see what he was doing, what he was creating.

  Fisting her hands at her sides, she made herself stop and stand still. Even the great outdoors of her parents’ land couldn’t settle the burning in Gemma’s chest as pain and anguish buried themselves inside her. They threatened to bring her to her knees in the most unyielding way. Making it so she could hardly think, hardly bring to mind a logical thought.

  He had no right. The thought echoed in her mind, stuck on repeat. This was her life. Hers. She didn’t sign up to be a Society whore so her father could just sign her away for business.

  Rubbing her hands down her arms, Gemma tried to offer herself some comfort, some soothing gesture to chase away the words her head screamed at her. Angry tears of betrayal and frustration burned at the back of her eyes, but she didn’t let them out. She couldn’t let them out.

  As big as the land was and as far as it spanned, it was so hard to shake the caged feeling from her belly. Even her tiger paced with unrest inside her. It pressed against her skin and held her down, making her want to run for it, but she fought against that. If she were to run now, she wouldn’t stop. If she were to run, it wouldn't be a mere running to exercise what she was feeling inside, no, it would be to him … to Cade. The one thing in her world that was always right, even though it was wrong. But it wasn’t wrong. Not to them.

  He was hers. He was so deeply ingrained in her being that the very thought of never being allowed near him, never being allowed to touch him was like staring death in the face. She wrapped her arms around her waist and bent over. A feral roar escaped her, tearing with it the wounded piece of her soul. Her life made little sense without Cade.

  Letting out a shuddering breath, she closed her eyes for a moment, and let the day’s breeze brush along her face, along her skin, cooling her longing down to something that wasn't about to rip her in two. Cade was out there … out there somewhere and she could feel him … almost touch him. Trying to clear her mind was like trying to brush away the sea with her hands, only to have the pools fill again when another wave came and made it all brim over at the edges.

  Karl and Cade….

  She bit both back names and took another breath … another hopeful moment to bring clarity to her head. It was an effort to remain logical when her tiger demanded so much of her. She wanted Cade and his wolf … she wanted to run now and go to him, seeing no reason why they couldn’t. Why would she keep herself confined to the borders of her parents’ place? Just because her father said so, didn't mean it had to be.

  Staring out across the vastness of it all, looking out to where the land ran up a hill and then vanished as if the world itself ended there, she gave her tiger the idea she could run and be wild and free and go to her wolf. But to grab onto that idea might kill them both.

  Pressing her hands to her cheeks and breathing out in a long and hard breath, Gemma wiped at her face. So long ago, this place was where she would feel safe, where she felt at home. Long ago this place would have been busy, and Stephen would be there, and Cade, and everything in the world had made sense. No one could touch them.

  Pushing forward, she moved through the long grass. Long grass because her father hadn’t had it cut on purpose. This way it was good for a hunt, good for a place for small animals to burrow and hide, not knowing the dangers that lurked in the house close by. They scampered as she disturbed them, hearing her presence and darting to safety. She wished with everything she had that she could run to safety.

  The field at the back of her parents’ home ended when it met with the field that was Human owned. There was a goat tied at the bottom, an old goat that had been there for years. Stephen said the Humans did that on purpose, like dangling a carrot in front of the shifters and testing to see if they would bite. It would be a reason to have the shifters moved on or executed. Probably the latter. So they never touched it and never went near it.

  It bleated from the other side when Gemma got closer, and she angled her head and stepped toward it. It was tied to a pole … a long piece of rope keeping it just on its own land, with a patch of grass for it to chew at. “What are you looking at?” she said to it as she got to the fence that separated the two pieces of land. There were no other animals in this back field of the farmer’s. The grass was long, wild, rife with small animals. They should have moved the goat up just, so it could get more food.

  It bleated its reply to her, stamping one of its hooves.

  “Yeah. You and me both,” she said.

  Ignoring the goat, Gemma climbed onto the fence and perched there. She had never noticed the trees nearby. Never needed to pay them much attention. Reaching up, she pulled at the closest branch.

  Cherries.

  These trees had always been there. Blossoming in the summer with tiny flowers and an abundance of fruit. She plucked a few from the branch and then let it spring back, causing some fruits to free themselves and fall to the ground. The goat bleated at her again and then strained at the rope to reach what she had dropped.

  Her lips almost tingled at putting one of these into her mouth. It was small, red and shiny, the skin of it firm, smooth. She bit oddly into one of them, her teeth popping the flesh. It was sweet and juicy and warm from where the sun had heated it.

  “You eat Human food?” a voice behind her asked, startling her and almost making her swallow the stone from the cherry.

  “Henry …” Sucking in a breath, she let it go, firing the small stone out of her mouth and onto the grass. She tossed the other cherries in the direction of the goat. “What do you want?” Her question was simple, but her words were harsh. It created an odd feeling inside, like she wanted to apologise to him, but, she wanted to be mad.

  “You used to love fruit,” he said, nodding at the tree. “We had an apple tree at the back, and a goat. Sometimes you would pick the apples and warm them, and then you’d pour hot goat’s milk and honey on top and we’d sit in bed and eat it. He gave her a smile, a deep, sad smile that for a moment softened the rage inside her. “You used to like to sit curled in between my legs, your head against my chest, and I would wrap a blanket around us.”

  Gemma could picture it in her head, her mind adding to it a small fire, a small home … a memory, but it was more like something she had dreamed of long ago and Henry had pulled them out. Part of her wanted to tell him … wanted to cure the pain she could see in his expression. If she closed her eyes, it would feel like Cade was standing right before her and he brought out these parts in her that made her want to do what he asked. It made her want to fall into the idea they could be together.

  “I’m sorry,” was all she could mutter to him.

  He nodded, as if taking it she didn’t remember. “You have lived another two lives since ours.”

  “Two?”

  “This is the third time I have felt my heart beating. When it stops, I know that you have left this world again.”

  The weight of Henry’s words were just as crushing as those words her father had given her in the house. They were unmoving, unrelenting and forcing her to feel things she wasn't sure she wanted to feel. She stared long and hard at him. His dark hair s
tuck up slightly, thick and inviting, making her want to run her hands through it, making her want to go to him, to touch him … For a moment she smelt the fire, smelt the honey and milk and the masculine scent of him as he held her. She felt him, felt the warmth and the safety of him wrapped around her. She could have stayed there. She could have curled herself into the memory of their time and not come up for air.

  Gasping, she pressed a hand to his chest and moved to put a little more distance between them. Her eyes were open, but it was almost like, if she closed them, she could transport herself to that place … to that place that was very real and very alive. “Stop it,” she said. He had moved closer to her without her even realising it. His presence smothered her, but what scared her mostly was, she didn't want to get away. She didn't really want to escape. His soul spoke to hers the same way Cade’s did, answering things she hadn't realised she was missing.

  But Henry was in her head, in her mind, latched on and refusing to let go.

  “Please,” she said, trying to move away from him, to feel that cold empty pit between them.

  He let go. He unhooked her mind with a loud click that made her ears pop. Being so close to him calmed her, stilled the roaming tiger inside that wanted to go to him now. Yet, she couldn’t think when he was so close. When he stopped, it left her bereft, an absence in her chest that was bigger than before, but she couldn't give in.

  “Why are you here?” she asked after a few silent minutes passed between them.

  When he had been in her head, when he had hold of her in that way, what she had seen in his face was soft, kind, loving. It was the same expression Cade would give, the one that made her feel like she was the only thing in his world. The one that was fierce, but at the same time, it was hers. Now, when she looked at Henry, that expression shifted. It was hurt and dark, and predatory still. “I came to see with my eyes you were safe.”

  “Safe? Why would you need to …” Shit. Her house. She remembered. Her father had sent tigers there to close the house down and make it secure. They had brought her things to her and joined in her father’s mission at making her a prisoner.

  “It was the MacDonalds?”

  Gemma frowned at hearing that name come from his mouth. As much as she wanted to kill Trevor for what he had done. So much as she hated the sight of Cade being hit and chained, she could not set Henry on them. And he would go. She could feel it in her gut he would wipe them all out. But there was Cade.

  “The MacDonalds did that?” he asked again when she hadn’t answered. “They wish for you to die?”

  “No.” She shook her head.

  “The Human at your house. He said they sent him.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a torn and tatty piece of paper. He handed it to her.

  She stared down at her name, not sure what it meant, or why. “What is this?”

  “The MacDonalds.”

  “No.” She wouldn’t believe it.

  “They told me to kill you,” he said, his words cold, lanced with ice.

  “Who? Trevor?”

  Henry took the paper back from her and shoved it into his pocket. “When I found you, it was the MacDonalds then. They took you from me. They took everything from me. I will not let them do that again. It is why you are here?” He pointed back toward the house. “Your father protects you from them?”

  Her brain screamed yes. Her mind resonated with it, but it wasn't how Henry would see it. “Who told you to kill me? Was it Trevor? Aaron?” The MacDonalds were a long line of family, perhaps one of the oldest in the area. Anger burned deep in their veins, especially Trevor’s. He hated that her father was above him. Hated that he had been passed over in winning the head seat of the Council. He viewed this town as his and anyone else was an impostor. “Did Trevor MacDonald send you?”

  “No,” he said. “I do not know Trevor MacDonald.”

  He turned as if he were to walk away and she lunged for him, grabbing his arm. A mistake. “Tell me, Henry,” she said, spinning him around. “Tell me who told you to kill me. If it wasn’t Trevor, then who?”

  “I do not know who she is. She gave me your name, and these.” He pulled out a set of teeth from his pocket. Teeth children would wear when dressing up. The kind that went over their own teeth. Gemma went to grab them. “No. They are silver.” He pushed her hand away before it was too late.

  Electricity shot through her skin where their skin connected. Need swelled in her gut and the desire to pull him closer grew with so much intensity she almost fell into it. She opened her mouth to breathe and slammed the shutters down in her mind to keep everything from going the wrong way. Her tiger mistook him for Cade, reached for him with a ferocious craving, but the moment Henry let go of her, everything stilled again, and her heart gave a resounding thump at what it all meant. “Every time you touch me …”

  “We are connected,” he said as if that was enough explanation. “We are always connected.”

  “Are you going to kill me?” she said. “Is that why you came here today?”

  Henry closed his hand over the teeth and stared at her. “I would never harm you.”

  She believed him. She knew him. Standing there, in front of her, his chin shadowed in stubble, she wanted to reach out to him, wanted to run her fingers along the contours of his jaw. “This isn’t the MacDonalds,” she said after some moments had passed. “Someone knows this is your weakness.” She was sure of it, sure they knew it was hers too. Someone close, someone inside. Trevor was a lot of things. He was vile and cruel. A wife beater and more than a bastard, but something so underhand? No. Trevor’s ego was almost too big for that. If this was his work, he would want them to know it. He would take pleasure in doing it, too. “Someone is setting them up. The only woman in the MacDonald family is Kathleen, and she wouldn’t … Can you scent animals? Was she a shifter?”

  “No,” he said. “The woman was magic. Old magic.”

  “Magic …” Her voice trailed off. Too much. Too many. Every time she dared to reach for Cade, the world put a wall between them. She let out a sigh, defeated. Maybe she would give in. Maybe Karl was the safe bet—safe for Cade, for her, for everyone. “When I came back those two times, did you always come back too?”

  “Yes.” He gave a long, slow nod. “We always come back together.” It was his turn to pause for a moment, but when he moved, he held out his hand to her. “I will protect you. The pain you feel is because of me. For that, I am sorry. I would never hurt you. I will fix this. I will fix all of this.” Henry moved too fast for Gemma to get out of the way, too fast for her heart and her mind and her tiger. His arms came around her quickly, pulling her closer. She let him, too, and pressed her face into his chest as shock rose in her body. Some part of her soul remembered, it clung. It sought him and, in his arms she felt like she was home, felt like she was with Cade. The same peace seeped into her—a bliss she couldn’t explain.

  Henry held her and pressed his face into her hair as his hand pressed against the small of her back. He murmured something, a sound … a contented sound that reached her too. “This is how it feels when you hold him. You feel it now, and you feel it with him too.”

  She did. God, she did. She moved her face and selfishly pressed herself deeper into Henry, taking from him what she wanted from Cade. She clung to him. Not feeling the difference in their builds, in their scents. It didn’t matter to her right then.

  “Tell me,” he said, breathing into her hair as he spoke. “Tell me who it is, and I can make it all right.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I can’t do it.”

  He tensed against her, but didn't let go. She was sorry he was hurting and sorry that she was making it worse now, but she couldn't sacrifice Cade. Couldn't do that no matter how much she dared to believe what Henry said was true.

  “Would Mary have let you die?” she whispered against him after a few minutes.

  He moved so he could look down at her with his big dark night eyes.

  “She wouldn't,
right? If someone came from another time and told her to let him kill you, she wouldn't do it?”

  He said nothing.

  “Would you really make me suffer like that? If I am really Mary and you know what I feel, would you really inflict that kind of pain on me?”

  “It will fix …”

  “No,” she shook her head, feeling stronger, more determined and everything clear in her head right at that second. “You said the woman is old magic. The more you try to fix this, the more you know it goes wrong.”

  Chapter 21

  Natalie

  Cade was staring out of the window again. His eyes were focused on something, but he wasn’t blinking and wasn’t seeing whatever it was outside the window. No. There was something playing out in that beautiful head of his and Natalie had no way of telling what it was.

  He had been doing it for days, ever since his father had visited. Trevor had come into the office, offered her the sweetest of smiles and then requested that he have a moment alone with his son. Natalie had heard what was said. She’d given them the peace that her alpha requested, but she was wolf and she could hear. She was regretting that decision.

  A closed book would have been easier to read than Cade. Hell, it probably would have been more compliant. He had his hands clasped across his abdomen and his fingers laced together. He turned his head to the side and stopped.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Natalie asked again for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She was getting annoyed at her own repetitiveness, but it was so hard to focus on her work when he was like this. She sensed his unease along her skin. Her wolf, felt his wolf, and all of it spun circles in her head that she didn’t want to listen to.

  He turned his head and eyed her with that same glazed expression he’d been giving her all morning whenever she spoke. He was there, physically at least, but his mind was far away, someplace else, somewhere painful.