“What do you mean?” Ashley asked as she started rubbing her temples with her fingertips, hoping to ease some of the pressure tearing through her head.
“Only male Pytes survive the birth. Females never make it past the second trimester,” Jacob explained, making her fingers still as she looked at him.
“You’re either incredibly lucky or…” Jacob said, letting his words trail off as he considered her.
“Or what?” Ashley asked, not really sure that she wanted to know.
Shaking his head, Jacob said, “I honestly have no idea,” as he closed his eyes. There was a heavy sigh, and then, he said, “You’re basically a vampire without any of their weaknesses. You can go out into the sun, tolerate holy relics, you’re fast, insanely strong, and you will heal from pretty much anything. You can’t be killed. You also can’t eat food anymore. You won’t age and I think that’s pretty much it.”
“I can’t eat food?” Ashley asked hollowly as she sat there, trying to wrap her mind around everything that he’d just said, but it didn’t feel real.
None of it did.
“Not unless you want to get sick. Your body won’t digest it. It will stay in your stomach, rotting until you get it out,” Jacob said with a shrug, giving her one more thing to figure out later when she was finally able to get out of here.
“Who hired Kale to watch over me?” Ashley asked, not sure that she wanted to hear just how different she was anymore.
God, she was sick of being different.
With a sigh, Jacob reached over and gently grabbed hold of her arm and turned it over so that she could see the tattoo marking her wrist, a trinity knot. Before she could ask why they’d tattooed her, he said, “Your mate.”
“My mate?” Ashley repeated numbly as long-ago memories played through her head.
She remembered the mark on her mother’s wrist, two sticks crossing each other, and the matching one on her stepfather’s wrist. She remembered how angry he looked whenever he saw her mark, but mostly, Ashley remembered the way that his mark would turn red whenever he hurt her mother. It turned red a lot.
“At first, I thought you were mated to a demon, but now, I’m not so sure. Any ideas?” Jacob asked as she pulled her arm away and wrapped it back around her knees, not sure that she could handle reminiscing about a past better left forgotten right now.
“No,” Ashley lied even as she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d inherited some of her mother’s shifter blood, but wouldn’t he have been able to scent it on her? she thought as she considered him.
“No Pack?” he asked, sending her another curious look.
“No Pack,” Ashley said since her stepfather had made sure that his Pack had never accepted her.
“Whatever you are, you’re lucky to be alive,” Jacob said only to add, “You’re obviously an Impure,” at her questioning look.
“I have no idea what that is.”
“It means that you are mixed species. We just don’t know what they are yet,” he said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal, but something, mostly the fact that her parents had warned her never to tell anyone anything, told her that it was a very big deal.
“I wonder if your father was an Impure as well,” Jacob said, worrying his bottom lip as he stared up at the ceiling.
“I don’t know,” Ashley said because he’d never told her.
He’d simply walked down into the basement after all the screaming had stopped and picked her up, explaining to her that he was going to take her somewhere safe. He’d driven her to New York, explaining how important it was to hide her until it was time. She’d asked him a hundred questions, but he’d simply smiled at her and told her not to worry, and then…
He’d left her.
She’d grown up in foster care, terrified that the rest of her stepfather’s Pack was going to find her and finish what they’d started. Every night for a year, she’d sat on her bed with her bag by her feet, waiting for her father to come back for her, only he never came. He didn’t come for her when the other children started to notice that she wasn’t growing anymore and started making her life a living hell. He didn’t come for her when she cried herself to sleep at night, terrified that there was something wrong with her. He didn’t come for her when she turned eighteen and had nowhere else to go.
He never came for her.
He left her all alone, terrified that they were going to find her. Her appearance made it difficult for her to blend in. The only thing that she knew was that she wasn’t supposed to leave the city. It helped hide her scent. So many times over the years, she’d been tempted to leave, to start fresh somewhere else, but each time, she talked herself out of it because there really wasn’t any point in leaving, not when it meant that she would be a freak somewhere new.
And now…
Now, she couldn’t do this, Ashley realized as she shook her head even as she wondered why she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She needed to get out of here, Ashley thought as she struggled to get to her feet and-
“Are you okay?” Jacob asked, frowning as she gave up trying to drag herself up on her trembling legs and crawled over him, barely aware that she’d kneed him in the side or that he’d grunted in pain as she focused on getting to that bathroom door.
Air.
She needed air, Ashley thought numbly as she slapped her hand against the wall and forced her wobbly legs to work. She just needed air, she told herself in a daze as she tried to leave. When Jacob gently placed his hand on her arm to stop her, she reached over and shoved his arm away, and-
“Son of a bitch!”
-found herself stumbling back. Swallowing hard, Ashley staggered out of the bathroom, unable to take her eyes off the arm that was bent at an odd angle as she tried to make sense out of what just happened.
One minute, he was grabbing her arm and the next…the next…
“I’m sorry,” Ashley mumbled as she found herself looking up into a pair of silver eyes as Jacob’s face began to change.
Swallowing hard, Ashley stumbled back again until her legs hit the bed and she found herself watching as his face extended, becoming more wolf-like as he grew taller, his limbs longer and thicker, destroying his clothes in the process. A menacing growl tore through the room followed by the sounds of bones snapping into place as she watched his muscles grow larger seconds before dark hair began covering every inch of his body. His teeth shifted in his mouth, becoming longer and sharper as his broken arm snapped back into place with an audible crack.
And then, just as quickly as it started, it was all over. With a groan, Ashley watched the large werewolf shake his head as muscle quickly disappeared along with his fur, his fangs became smaller along with his face. Ashley numbly dropped down on the bed as the realization that she’d just broken a werewolf’s arm hit her and found herself looking at the man who’d glared at her in the mirror earlier as he stepped into the room.
Swallowing hard, Ashley found herself asking, “What am I?” in a daze, only to get the answer that destroyed her.
“A monster.”
Chapter 11
“I-I didn’t mean to do it,” Ashley mumbled in a daze as she hugged her arms around herself as she looked from Jacob, who still hadn’t put any fucking clothes on, back at him, looking absolutely fucking lost.
“Go get dressed,” Kale said with a pointed look that had Jacob shooting Ashley a wince as he murmured, “Sorry,” before quickly making his way out of the room.
“Listen up, because I’m only going to say this once,” Kale said as soon as they were alone, forcing himself to ignore the effect that look had on him and focused on getting the hell out of there. “You’re not to leave this property without permission,” he said, pulling the tracker that he had created out of titanium for her out of his backpack before dropping the bag on the floor.
“Why can’t I leave?” Ashley asked as she watched him grab her left wrist before he thought better of it and switched his attention to her right arm and that
mark that turned his stomach every time he saw it.
“What are you doing?” she asked, frowning as she watched him place the tracker that would let him know exactly where she was at all times on her wrist.
“Making sure that you don’t leave,” Kale said as he tried to force himself to ignore just how soft her skin was.
“I can’t stay here,” Ashley said, trying to pull her arm back before he could lock the tracker in place.
“You don’t have a choice,” Kale said, tightening his hold on her arm as he pressed his thumb against the small piece of black glass located on the side of the cuff until the lock slid into place with a series of small beeps, letting him know that the tracker was now active.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked hollowly when he finally released her arm.
Kale ignored her question as he grabbed his bag and pulled out the bagged blood that he stole from the Williams mansion. “Make sure that you’re eating every few hours. I have a blood delivery scheduled for tonight, but this should last you until then,” Kale said, tossing the bags on the bed next to her and watched as she noticeably flinched as they landed.
“I can’t do it,” Ashley said, swallowing hard as she shook her head while Kale pulled his phone out and double-checked that the reward for the little bastard that had somehow evaded capture over the past two months was still good.
“You can and you will,” Kale absently said, noting that the offer was now fifteen million as he typed in his access code and with a swipe of his thumb, accepted the job.
“I really can’t,” she whispered, but he wasn’t in the mood to play this fucking game with her.
For the past two months, he’d been stuck playing nursemaid for a mate that he didn’t want and now that she’d made it through her transition, he was getting the hell out of here and getting back to his life. He had too much shit to do to sit around here on his ass for another day.
“You can’t leave,” Kale said, grabbing his bag and threw it over his shoulder as he debated his next move.
For a moment, Kale considered finding that cabin that Vane mentioned, but he couldn’t be that fucking stupid to send his son there after he’d told Kale about it. That left…
Too many fucking possibilities.
“I just want to go home,” came the softly whispered words that had him absently nodding.
“Do you want the truth or some sugarcoated bullshit that will help you sleep at night?” Kale asked as he slipped his phone into his back pocket.
There was a slight hesitation and then…
“The truth,” Ashley said, swallowing hard as she reached down and grabbed hold of the comforter with trembling hands as she prepared herself for what he was about to tell her.
“The truth is that you could leave anytime that you want and there’s not a hell of a lot that I could do to stop you. Thanks to your transition, you’re stronger and faster, which will make it easier for you to tear apart every man, woman, and child that makes the mistake of crossing your path,” Kale said, shrugging it off while he watched all the color leave her face.
When she didn’t try to bullshit him by telling him that she would never do something like that, he continued. “Right now, you have no control over your abilities. It won’t take much to set you off and make you lose control, which is why your mate, who doesn’t want you, is willing to meet my asking price to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“What happens if I lose control?” Ashley whispered as she began to tremble.
“It will be the last fucking thing you’ll ever do.”
Chapter 12
One Week Later…
What the hell was he doing here? Kale wondered as he closed the door behind him and took in the small studio apartment and…
Found himself once again trying to get the image of Ashley’s face when his words hit home out of his head. He’d never seen anyone that fucking broken before. While anyone else would have screamed, cried, or demanded that he take it back, she’d simply nodded to herself as she looked right at him while he’d told her exactly what would happen to her if she tried to leave.
When he was done, she’d nodded one last time before she crawled back into bed, curled up on her side and stared at the wall while he’d finished making sure that the tracker was online. Once he was done, he hadn’t been able to get out of there fast enough. He’d made sure that he’d left plenty of blood in the refrigerator and told Jacob to make sure that she ate and to shoot her if there were any problems.
Jacob had glared at him the entire time, but he didn’t argue, which is why Kale hired him in the first place. He was young by shifter standards, barely a hundred and fifty years old, but he was good, really fucking good, and he had a reputation for getting the job done. Unlike Kale, he didn’t give a damn what a job was as long as it paid well. He also didn’t fuck around when it came to a contract and knew how to keep his mouth shut, which made him perfect for this job.
As long as the shifter was willing to keep an eye on Kale’s unwanted mate, Kale could focus on what needed to be done, which really didn’t explain what he was doing here in this dump. Sighing heavily, Kale took in the small studio apartment that his mate had called home for the past ten years and found himself wondering why he was wasting his time with this shit.
She was just a complication that he didn’t have time for right now, but no matter how many times he’d told himself that over the past week, he couldn’t stop wondering about her. He should be tracking the little bastard down to claim that fifteen million, but instead, he was here trying to figure out what kind of woman fate had fucked him over with.
Wondering why he was really here, Kale took in the small room, noting the large stacks of books that lined every available space, the large stack of books by the small bed that had been used as a makeshift nightstand, the stacks of books on her small bureau, the stacks of books on top of the kitchen cabinets, on top of the refrigerator, and the ones beneath the small table in the corner. Seemed that his mate liked to read romance novels by the looks of it, but there were also books on cooking, drawing, gardening, and a dozen other hobbies that he doubted that she’d actually had a chance to do.
Shifting his focus, Kale checked her refrigerator and cabinets, noting that she only had a few boxes of generic pasta in her cupboards, a half-stick of generic margarine in the fridge, one set of silverware, a single dish, and an old cup before shifting his focus to her closet and bureau. Her entire life consisted of a bunch of shit that even the Salvation Army wouldn’t touch.
A quick search left him with more questions as he dropped down on her bed and-
“Fuck!”
-quickly shifted to the side when a rusted bedspring stabbed his thigh. Glaring down at the offending spring, Kale shifted a few inches over and took in the depressing apartment and added that to what he knew about her finances and couldn’t help but wonder why she’d stayed. She would have been better off anywhere else, doing pretty much anything else, but for some reason, Ashley decided to stay in one of the most expensive cities in the world, working a shitty job that barely kept her from living on the street, which made him wonder who’d told her to stay.
The stench from humans, garbage, and the pollution surrounding the city had covered her scent and protected her, but it was other things that had caught his attention. She’d lived off the grid. She didn’t have any bank accounts, credit cards, loans, or anything that would leave a financial trail. She also didn’t have a cellphone or any social media accounts. She was like a ghost and that made him even more curious about her.
He knew that she’d worked at the library for the past year and before that, she’d worked a string of shitty jobs, each one worse than the last and all of them allowing her to hide in the background. She lived in one of the worst parts of the city, in a dump, hiding in plain sight.
The question was, what was she hiding from?
He had a lot of questions about his unwanted mate, none of them more important than
this job though, Kale reminded himself even as he glanced around the room, noting the single chair at the small table, the old black-and-white television that had been destroyed during the break-in, the books, and found himself reaching back and squeezing his hand between the bed and the wall. After a quick search, he found what he was looking for, the only things she’d cared enough about to hide, a small journal and a thick yellow envelope. He tossed the journal on the bed next to him and focused on the envelope only to sigh because this was just fucking pathetic.
It held a small stack of old birthday cards, a fake birth certificate, what he was guessing was a fake social security card, a couple of old school pictures where she stared at the camera, unsmiling, and a silver necklace with a small Celtic charm. For a moment, he debated throwing the necklace away, but…
It was the only thing that she had that seemed to be worth anything. He folded the envelope in half and slid it into his coat pocket before shifting his attention to that journal. As he opened the book, he noted the date on the front page and flipped through the book as he did the math. She’d been keeping this journal since she was twelve, which meant that it might have some of the answers that he was looking for.
Kale slid the journal in his pocket and after one last glance around her apartment, he headed for the door, deciding that he’d wasted enough time on this. He didn’t bother locking the door once he left, knowing that it was for the best if humans covered everything in their scent as they tore through her shit, looking for something to steal. Not that anyone would be able to track Ashley, but he liked to play it safe.
With that in mind, Kale headed down the hallway only to sigh when his phone rang. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket as he shoved the stairwell door open and-
“She’s not eating,” came the greeting that had him biting back a curse.
“Force her,” Kale said, wondering why the shifter was bothering him with this shit.
Unstoppable Page 7
