“Well, I was going for better, but that works too.” He scooted closer, much closer than he had been, to clean my temple, and while he did, he let me trace his scars.
Chapter Five
A few days later, when my head no longer felt like it would topple off with one wrong move, a bell tolled throughout Margin.
I jolted upright, my mind swimming only slightly, and patted the side of the bed. "Come here, Sasha."
She was busy pawing at the closed door one minute and chasing her tail the next. I couldn't decide if she was just bored or needed to pee, but she bounded toward me and sprang onto the bed, the rest of the room blurring past us both. I picked her up and angled her toward the windows, but they were too frosted to see through.
"What do you suppose that bell means?" I listened hard, feeling the vibrations shake up the legs of the bed, my bones, and my heart. It sounded low and sinister.
Sasha licked my hand, unconcerned.
The door burst open on quiet hinges then, shifting the air flow in the tiny room. There was no mistaking Thomas's silent entry or the tense energy surrounding him.
"Can you stand."
"I—” Maybe? “Yes. Why? What's going on?"
He settled his large hand on my shoulder and pulled gently. "That bell means a slave auction is today. You mentioned your friends Jade and Lee were taken. They might not have been sold yet."
A cold shiver seized my backbone and rattled it hard. "Right now? Where?"
"Margin’s town hall. Slaves often die in winter, and more are auctioned off to fill their places. Do you think you’re up to it."
Absolutely not, but absolutely yes. The thought of a slave auction both sickened me and brought my bare feet to the cold, hard floor for the first time in days. With Thomas's help, I stood—and stayed standing. I desperately wanted to know if Jade and Lee were there, but what if they were? What if they weren’t? I couldn’t decide which would be worse.
My eyes filled with tears as I picked up Sasha and pulled her closer to my chest. "I thought Jade was dead once, remember?"
"Yes."
"This feels exactly like checking to see if she froze to death in the snow all over again. I—" I choked as the tears began to fall. "I need…something."
"What," he said with a note of apprehension.
What was I saying? I shook my head and tried to unravel my thoughts from the knot of worry inside me. "Arrows. Weapons. I need to tell my baba."
"Okay. Jenk, the alpha of the Slipjoint pack, has a spare bow and probably some arrows. I'll get them. You get dressed and do what you need to do to get ready."
The hard, yet somehow still gentle command in his voice evaporated some of my turmoil and focused me on one step at a time. Clothes. I wasn't wearing any since the fireplace burned too hot in here. It was pointless to be aware of this, right now, but as he turned to head out of the room, his scarred fingers hooked around mine, a comforting touch between two battered souls. And even though he headed away from me, his gaze aimed behind and lingered, not on my naked body but on my face. I felt it rather than saw it through Sasha, felt his concern envelop me long after he left.
I dressed quickly and threw both of my coats on, then collected Sasha.
“Sweet girl, I’m going to put you in your harness underneath my coat. You have to be quiet and still, just a weird lump underneath my coat hopefully no one notices, and if something goes wrong, I’ll release the harness. Then you run and hide, okay?”
She touched her nose to mine and then sighed, the poor thing. She knew what to do, probably better than I did though. Once she was secured and peering out the buttons in my topmost coat, red just like her eyes, we went to go see Baba.
"How many times do I have to tell you he's dangerous, Aika?" he asked as soon as he saw I was alone.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. "A hundred. At least." I set my lips into a firm line as I crossed toward him and straightened the blankets around his frail body. "My head's fine. Thanks for asking."
He took my hand and squeezed it hard. "Listen to me. You can get away from him. Make a run for Margin's sheriff. Go."
"The only place I'm going," I said through gritted teeth, "is to the slave auction to see if Jade and Lee are there."
He shrank back into the bed, his grip weakening. "H-here?"
"That bell you heard you earlier? That was to signal a new one so slave owners can…replenish the dead ones." Just saying it nearly withered my tongue.
"Is Thomas going with you?"
"Yes."
"Damn it, Aika. Don't you see? If you go with him, he will sell you."
I wrenched myself away from him, his words like a whip across the heart. "If he's so dangerous, then why did he rescue and heal your wounds? Tell me something, Baba. Have you even thanked him? Talked to him? The man lost nearly everything because of us and is hurting so badly, he won't admit to feeling it."
"We lost everything,” he hissed. “We did. You said it yourself. The cabin. The horse. My livelihood. Are you not at all concerned about us?"
"No. I'm not. Because I'm the one who's doing something about it."
I slammed out of there—or started to, but I hit a wall where there shouldn't have been one. I bounced back, feeling hard muscle and bone underneath a thick coat, heard the faint clicks of several arrows knocking together inside a quiver.
Of course he'd overheard. But how much?
Thomas's silence roared between my ears as he stared down Baba. To his credit, or to his foolishness, Baba stared right back.
"If you hurt her…" he started.
"You can leave at any time,” Thomas said. “I’ve told you this."
Baba threw up his hands. "It’s winter. I have nowhere to go."
"Then stay, but know this—you aren't captive here. Stop acting like you are." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him. "And stop acting as though Aika is breakable. She's made of more grit than every man I know combined."
He spun me out of there before I had a chance to protest, not that I would've. Regardless, what he'd just said… Well, I couldn't find my voice again until we stepped off the stairwell to the ground floor.
"You meant it?" I asked, whirling to face him.
"I’ve never said anything I don’t believe." He shrugged off the bow and quiver full of arrows and handed them to me. My arms jerked with the weight. The bow felt strange and bulky, not at all what I was used to.
"Even you saying you don’t feel anything?" I swallowed at how closely he was watching me, how his dark eyes narrowed to two fine points. Now wasn’t the time for this discussion, but here we were, about to have it. "I know you feel something, Thomas. Otherwise, why get up in the morning? Why do anything at all except exist as an empty shell?"
"Go to the kitchen," he said with the slightest edge to his voice. “There’s dried jasmine in there to mask yours and the pup’s smell.”
"Existing won't kill Faust or give you back the Crimson Forest. This"—juggling the quiver, I placed my hand over his heart—"still beats strong and true. It's okay if it's broken because it will heal. With Archer and Grady and Sasha, it will."
He stepped away. “The auction’s already started, or do you not want to go?"
"Fine," I ground out, "but I bet if I shot you with another arrow, you'd feel something."
He plucked the quiver from my hands. "Hard to do without any arrows. Go to the kitchen, Aika.”
Fuming, I went. He knew I was right, but he’d never admit, would he? That was why he became so defensive when I challenged him. He was stubborn, this one, and he seemed to hate it when I pointed out he was wrong. If Grady were here now instead of Thomas, he would’ve at least blown up with his quick temper. Archer would have bared his broken heart from the beginning, exactly like he had anyway. With Thomas, he wanted to believe he was empty inside, and the idea of him allowing himself to truly feel terrified him. I couldn't blame him. Really, I couldn’t. What he’d been through, the guilt he must’ve felt, normal people would’ve buckle
d under it. Thomas was doing the best he could, but sooner or later, he’d have to deal with what happened, and not by just burying it.
After I rubbed us both down with dried jasmine, I tied Sasha back into my coat with the harness. “It’s not fair to bring you with me to this place, but it’ll be easier, okay? I’ll give you a thousand more kisses to make up for it.”
She grumbled as I buttoned my coat over her, clearly not thrilled about our bargain.
“A bone to chew on later, then? How about one of your alpha’s?”
She seemed to consider that as I passed the rows of chairs to the church’s front door.
“Let's go." After flipping up the deep hood of his coat, Thomas grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the brutal winter.
He led me along behind him, shielding me from the worst of the wind and snow and ice. It was nice of him. So was his comment about my grit. Now if he could just face his broken heart.
Farther into the center of town, we entered a building through a heavy door, and the place smelled like twenty years of bad breath and sweat times at least a hundred people from the sound of them, all packed tightly into a room. Lively shouts rose up above crackling logs in a fireplace to the left.
"I'll take two of 'em!" a man shouted.
"You couldn't handle one with the size of your pecker," another fired back.
The place erupted in laughter.
Lovely people here. I wanted to skewer every last one of them.
I imagined the potential slaves were being paraded through the room like plates of perfect cuts of meat in front of starving, desperate buyers, but I didn’t allow myself a look. I crossed my bow arm across my chest to shield Sasha, partly for protection, partly because I wasn’t ready to see just yet. Jade could be one of the slaves. Or Lee. I swallowed back a kick of bile.
Meanwhile at the front of the room, a man banged something wooden and shouted, "Order!"
It wasn't working.
Thomas stopped as the crowd bumped into us from all sides.
I squeezed his hand and muttered into his back, "Do you see anyone who looks like me? Boy or girl?"
“No,” he rumbled.
"Like me, but prettier? Younger?"
"Not—" He tensed and squeezed my hand right back. "Aika."
Oh no. My stomach churned, and my blood froze even harder. "What?"
"There's a man who looks just like Gibby. Bald. Blue eyes. A bandaged right hand."
Lager. Lager was here. I sucked in a breath and held it. My chest caved in around my heart and tumbled it down to my knees. He was here, the man who'd destroyed my life but who I'd vowed not to kill. Still, I clenched my bow until my fingers ached, my other hand trembling to pluck an arrow free from the quiver slung over Thomas’s back to end him. Right now. The rest of these people be damned. But I'd been stupid before with him. I couldn't be so blind in my rage against him again. I stayed behind Thomas so he couldn’t see me.
"He doesn’t know about Shay or his cabin yet," Thomas muttered.
I leaned against his back for support, for strength while murderous thoughts swallowed me up. "How do you know?"
"He's smiling."
He wouldn't be soon. Only a few miles from here was his burned-down cabin, a girl's dead body who looked like me, a warning message about me hinting that Faust was involved, and no family. Even I didn't know where they'd gone.
"What is he smiling at?"
"A group of girls," he said. "Wait. I think I see Jade. Long black hair? Dark eyes?”
I jerked my head in a nod. My whole being cracked open with relief and terror, all at once. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes, and I swiped them quickly away. My younger half-sister never cried much when we were kids. Maybe she didn't have a reason to, but I doubted she was crying even now, about to be sold as a slave. For her, I needed to keep it together.
"Some other man is paying Lager…and pointing at her."
"How is it that a girl's life can be reduced to nothing but money just by stealing her from home?" I demanded, my volume growing louder. I didn't care who heard. At least I wasn't slicing an arrow through the air in front of everyone.
Thomas half turned his body to put the quiver farther from my reach. "Because the human world is dominated by males. Ours isn't. Humans don't need a ruby cave to breed or a female to have as many mates as she chooses to help protect her young."
"Says the male alpha."
"A female shifter has more power than I will ever have. Without females, there is no point to anything.”
For a second, I allowed myself to let those words penetrate. I like that way of thinking. A lot. “What’s he doing now?"
Thomas reached behind him and wrapped one arm around my back, shoving me into him closer. "Coming this way."
Shit. If Lager saw me, he'd surely try to kill me. He’d never forget that I'd shot off his finger, that I'd done it in front of a group of men. Me, a blind girl, had publicly humiliated him.
"He has a wad of money. Probably on his way home to Shay with it."
"Where is Jade?" I asked as loudly as I could into the back of his coat.
"She's being dragged behind her new owner, also coming this way."
“Owner…” Oh god. I swallowed the ashy taste in my mouth that word left behind and then forced another swallow. How could I get Jade away from here, without becoming violently sick, without shooting Lager through the throat? Fuck my promise.
"Here he comes. As soon as he's out of sight," Thomas murmured, "we'll find her. But we can't have her spot you before we're ready."
A cold sweat broke out over my forehead as I clenched the hem of Thomas's coat. Lager's too-sweet honey scent rose up over the body odor and suffocated my senses. He shouted things to the other men in his strange accent, and that whistly chuckle of his set my teeth on edge. My conscience, my promise, warred with the flaming rage inside me. But saving Jade was more important, and I couldn't do that if I killed a man in front of all these people. Besides, I wanted him to see what was left of his cabin and his life.
Thomas spun around, and with his hand at my waist, he guided me in front of him. "She's behind us. He's in front. Behave."
His voice was so low, I was sure only I could hear it. My heart slammed into Sasha's body. My slick palm slid along the length of the bow. If Lager turned around, I'd kill him, either with the end of my bow through his eye, or by swinging around in Thomas's tight grip for an arrow in the quiver slung over his left shoulder. Could I do it before Lager drew his gun and fired?
My ears strained. My muscles tensed, ready to spring if necessary.
But Thomas gripped my shoulder and roughly threw me to the left. I stumbled, my thoughts a wild spin. What was happening? I started to turn, but he was there, solid, hard muscle as he shoved me into a corner. My back hit the wall and flushed the air from my lungs with a "Wha—?"
His lips found mine. His hands buried into my hair. His body pressed against mine, and therefore Sasha, an unyielding column of strength and scars.
My body responded instantly, but my mind scrambled to catch up. Why this? Why now in front of everyone?
And then I no longer cared. He tasted my tongue with long, sensual strokes, his mouth an expert at claiming mine as if it had been his all along. I felt his kiss everywhere as it flamed across my frozen skin and sank deeper, kindling a need so desperate and hot that I gasped. But he wasn't done devouring me. Not even close. This was the kiss of an alpha who kissed with more than just his mouth but with every part of him he could give, and he gave it all.
And I knew he felt something, because I did too—an unmistakable charge between us that drew our kindred spirits even closer together. I felt something else as well—the unmistakable bulge in his pants against my thigh as he shoved in closer.
He drew away then, his shoulders heaving, and it was only then that our surroundings faded back in. People whistled and hollered things at us that should've pissed me off, but didn't, because I was still trapped in his ar
ms, still…not breathing. I inhaled and my lips brushed his again, sparking a new, frenzied hum through my blood.
"I had to," he said as he stroked my cheek. "He turned around and almost saw you."
As I nodded, his hair tickled my ears and temples, a protective curtain to shield my face.
"He's directly to my right, less than ten feet, and talking to another man," he muttered.
"And Jade?" I whispered.
"She went down a hallway near the front door with her owner."
"So now what?" I choked out.
"When Lager's gone and the place empties, we come back."
I was shaking my head before he'd finished. "Too much could happen between now and then. I can't leave Jade knowing that she's… She's fifteen, Thomas. Stronger than I am most days, but this could break her. Break me too. I can't leave her again. I… Baba was right. I should've never left her and Lee."
"Quiet," he growled, and then kissed me again, harder this time and effectively shutting me up. He squeezed my hair tighter in his fist and pulled roughly to angle my head away from Lager and toward him. The slight pain in my scalp sparked downward over my tightening nipples and gathered between my thighs.
The growl in his voice and his kiss made me want to obey him, but also see what would happen if I didn't. He seemed to sense the direction of my thoughts because he pulled my hair again, a sensual warning that only fanned my flames even more. He kissed me deeper, his rigid length a constant source of heat as he pressed harder against me.
This wasn't right, feeling like I might explode with need after my half-sister had been bought, but my body ruled right now. Not my mind. And right this second, it was an excellent distraction to keep me from killing Lager.
I lifted my hand to trace the beautiful patchwork of scars across his jaw, my thumb tracing his bottom lip. The sensual feel of his mouth as he kissed me deeper nearly made me moan.
"We'll go get her," he said against my lips, "but we need to be silent and fast. And you and Lager will not be having a face-to-face today."
"I know. I made a promise to Shay." Breathless, I slid my tongue across his top lip for yet another taste.
Winter's Rage (The Crimson Winter Reverse Harem Series Book 3) Page 4
