Light Beyond the Darkness

by Tami Lund

  Reid rolled over onto his side. “I don’t think so. We’re perfect together. I know you can see it.” He touched her face, offered a small, encouraging smile.

  If she weren’t so damn frightened of him discovering her secret, Carley would have found his admission sweet, charming…wonderful.

  “We both still have a lot of issues, Reid.”

  He shrugged. “So? Doesn’t everybody?”

  She’d always believed she was the only one with issues.

  “Let’s just…let’s go slow, okay? Okay?” she repeated when he didn’t immediately answer.

  He rolled onto his back. “Okay,” he finally agreed. He didn’t sound happy about her request. She needed to remedy that, so she rolled onto her stomach and climbed on top of him.

  “Speaking of going slow,” she said, and then she kissed him, while reaching down to grasp his erection.

  She was far more tempted than she should be by his attempt to mate with her. But they couldn’t. So she settled for slow and seductive, sweet and gentle, with her on top, and him lying on his back, his hands cupping her breasts, while she controlled the pace, and brought pleasure to them both.

  When it was over, Reid lay sprawled on his back, breathing heavily, with a sated and boneless Carley draped across his midsection. “We should definitely go back to my place tonight,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the entire damn household heard that.”

  “Oh lights.” Carley groaned. She’d become so wanton with Reid that she forgot all else when they were in the troughs of passion.

  Maybe he was right.

  What about Miguel? Her inner voice whispered the reminder.

  But we’re in Chicago now. He won’t find us here.

  A knock on the bedroom door interrupted her inner argument.

  “Carley? You awake?”

  “Yes,” she called out as she smirked at Reid.

  “There’s someone here to see you.”

  Carley’s gaze flew to Reid. Someone to see her? The only people she knew in Chicago were the ones who lived with her. Who could it be?

  “Someone from the coterie,” Reid said, answering her unspoken question. He slipped out from underneath her and quickly dressed. “Although I would think they would just call.”

  “I don’t have a phone,” Carley replied as she too quickly dressed.

  * * * *

  “Mica?”

  Carley stood in the arched doorway leading to the living room and stared at the lightbearer who stood on the other side of the room, near the large bay window overlooking the street. She had nothing on her person except a coat, boots, and the clothing on her back. Her hands twisted round and round as she turned at the sound of her name.

  “Hi,” she said with a small, awkward wave. Roman and one other person were the only ones awake and downstairs at the moment. Roman regarded her curiously, while the other human nursed a cup of coffee and read the newspaper on his laptop.

  “What are you doing here?” Carley asked without moving into the room.

  Mica’s gaze darted around the room again. “Is there somewhere we can…talk?”

  “Coffee’s on in the kitchen,” Roman supplied helpfully. “Mornin’, Reid.”

  Reid nodded at the stocky Hispanic man as he followed Carley and Mica through the house and into the kitchen. When he pushed the swinging door closed behind him, Mica gave him a wide-eyed look.

  “He—he lives here, too?” she asked.

  Carley felt her face heat. “Not exactly. Um…”

  “So it’s true? What Miguel said? You’re…” She waved her pointer finger back and forth between them.

  “Who’s Miguel?” Reid wanted to know.

  Carley overrode his question with a far more panicked one of her own. “You talked to Miguel?”

  Mica flushed and cleared her throat. “I…uh…” She burst into tears, sobbing into her hands, her shoulders shaking with the impact. Both Reid and Carley stared at her until Roman and a sleepy-eyed Sean came bustling into the room.

  “What did you do to her?” Sean asked, throwing Reid an accusatory glare as he walked over and folded the sobbing lightbearer into his arms. She went willingly, wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head in the crook of his shoulder as she continued to cry.

  Reid gave the younger human a strange look, but Carley knew him well enough to know Sean would have reacted that way to anyone who was crying. Clumsy, dorky he might be, but the young man had a heart of gold.

  “We have no idea why she’s crying,” Carley explained to Roman, who busied himself with pouring the last of the coffee into a cup and then making a fresh pot.

  “But you do know her?”

  “Somewhat,” Carley hedged. “I actually just met her when Reid and I went back to visit…”

  “Carley’s family,” Reid finished smoothly.

  Roman nodded sagely. Mica’s sobs finally subsided. Sean offered her a paper towel, and she mopped her face and blew her nose. She did not step away from the circle of his arms.

  Reid stared at the two of them. “Do you know Sean?”

  Mica shyly looked up at the concerned human and then took a step away, out of his arms. He did not look pleased with the movement.

  “N-no,” she stuttered as she shook her head. “I just—I just—” She looked as if she was about to cry again.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Sean asked, looking directly at the younger lightbearer. Her curling blonde hair was a tangled mess, her eyes were swollen and red from crying, her face was splotchy, and Sean stared at her like an adoring puppy.

  Mica shook her head and said, “I’m so sorry, Carley. I didn’t know. I mean, I didn’t realize. I had no idea.” She waved her hand between Carley and Reid again.

  *

  Reid folded his arms over his chest and said, “I don’t think we quite understand.”

  He would have liked to kick the humans out of the room, but he doubted the overprotective Sean would allow it at this point. He’d already glommed onto the watering-pot lightbearer. The only positive to the situation, Reid determined, was that he suspected Sean would no longer look at Carley with those puppy-dog eyes.

  “Miguel. I believed him, Carley. I believed him. But then when you showed up at the coterie, and you had this—this—”

  “Reid,” Carley supplied. Reid knew she blurted the word to keep Mica from using the word shifter, as she probably might have otherwise. He doubted the frightened lightbearer had much experience with humans, and therefore was not used to having to watch her words.

  “Reid,” Mica repeated, wide eyes taking in his overly tall and wide stature. He dwarfed both Roman and Sean, besides the two females in the room. His brief experience in the coterie had shown him that, with little exception, even male lightbearers did not tend to breach the six-foot mark, let alone have the shoulder width of most shifters he knew.

  “He seems so nice,” Mica whispered. “They all do. And so attentive and loving. The way Tanner treats Olivia and the babe. And Cecilia and Finn. I mean, they snip at each other all the time, but I think it’s some kind of game for them, you know?”

  “Yes,” Reid said drily. “We know.”

  “The queen adores the one that had white hair. Tanner’s mother. Even that younger female one. Well, she’s certainly an exception,” Mica said with a wrinkle of her nose.

  “Lisa,” Reid supplied. “She’s always been something of a bitch.”

  Mica nodded, still wide-eyed. “But her children, they are so adorable, and the queen just loves them so. The little girl, she’s so polite and quiet. It’s nothing like what Miguel said.” She shook her head as if she could not quite understand.

  “Who’s Miguel?” Reid asked again, although he suspected he might know the answer.

  At the same time, Carley asked, “How do you know Miguel?”

  Mica averted her gaze, looking at the tile floor instead of at Carley.

  “I—I went to a couple of meetings. I—I thought—I mean—it
sounded believable, at first. I wasn’t working at the beach house at the time, so I didn’t have firsthand experience with the—the—” She stopped abruptly and glanced at first Sean and then Roman.

  “You didn’t have firsthand experience with those who now live at the beach house?” Reid guessed.

  Mica nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly. I had no idea they were so—so nice. I thought…I mean, the Chosen One, he was so…convincing.”

  Reid looked at Carley. Finn had told him about the Chosen One and how a group of lightbearers had formed a sort of cult after Tanner, Finn, Lisa, and Tanner’s mother joined the coterie. The Chosen One believed lightbearers and shifters should not mate, that shifters were still the enemy, and that lightbearers should only mate with their own kind. First, Finn’s own pack master tried to kill the woman he loved, then one of her own kind did. Reid figured it was no wonder his brother rarely let the woman out of his sight.

  “So you met Miguel at the meetings?” Carley asked.

  Mica nodded and once again averted her gaze.

  “Mica, why are you here now?” Reid asked, deciding to cut to the chase.

  “He saw you,” Mica whispered, looking at Carley. “When you were at the coterie last week. He saw you. He was inside the beach house. He—he knows, Carley. He knows.”

  She glanced at Reid, but whatever the hell she saw on his face caused her to quickly shift her gaze away. He could only imagine. He hoped to hell his eyes weren’t glowing, considering there were two human witnesses standing nearby.

  “I think it’s time I had a little more detail about this Miguel character,” he said, his voice surprisingly even, given the way his insides were churning with suppressed rage. The rage was mixed with guilt. He never should have pushed her to go back to the coterie. Had she not, her abuser never would have seen her, never would have—if he was guessing accurately—renewed his interest in her.

  Roman grabbed the coffeepot, poured dark liquid into two cups, then handed one to Sean. “Why don’t we give them some privacy?” he suggested. Sean grumbled, but Reid gave him a cold stare, and he grabbed the cup and followed Roman out the door.

  “Wait,” Reid said, once they were gone. “He was inside the beach house? While we were there?”

  Mica nodded.

  “Did you let him in?” Carley asked.

  Mica began sniveling again.

  “Are you the one who drugged me, Mica?” Reid demanded. He knew damn well his eyes were glowing now. Good thing the humans left when they did.

  Mica nodded miserably as tears began leaking from her eyes again. “I didn’t realize…”

  Carley sucked in a breath. “You set it up,” she said in a breathy voice. “The market. You meant for me to run into Miguel!”

  Mica shook her head. “I didn’t know what he planned, I swear. He just—he just gave me the potion and told me to slip it to the sh—”

  “Reid,” he cut her off, just in case someone out there in the living area had exceptionally good hearing.

  Mica nodded. “And then to get Carley out of the house. He said he would take it from there. I thought—I thought—” She dissolved into tears again, covering her face with her hands and sobbing loudly. Someone pushed against the swinging kitchen door, and Reid slapped his hand against it, to keep him from entering.

  “Not now, Sean,” he called, knowing damn well it was the younger human on the other side. “You thought what?” he demanded, glaring at the nearly hysterical lightbearer.

  It took a few tense moments, but Mica finally answered him. “I thought that he only meant to try to work things out with Carley. He never said he wanted to kill her. They’re mates, after all. I thought he wanted to try to win her back.”

  Chapter 16

  Reid’s entire world tilted precariously, to the point where he felt as if he were balancing on the edge of a chasm and one misstep would send him tumbling over the edge.

  “They’re mates, after all.”

  It was as if Carley herself was a jigsaw puzzle, and he’d been missing a few key pieces.

  “They’re mates, after all.”

  The pieces fell into place. The abuse, Carley’s inability to leave, the pregnancy. The fear of returning to the coterie. The strange looks that passed between her and Cecilia, Cecilia and Finn. It wasn’t just a former lover who had abused her.

  “They’re mates, after all.”

  Flashbacks of the time Quentin’s concubine seduced him sifted through his mind, unbidden but unstoppable. Fucking her on Quentin’s prized pool table. His stomach dropping to his knees when Quentin walked into the room and discovered them. The pain—hell of hells, the pain. He could actually taste it again. His stomach roiled.

  He’d let his dick lead the way back then, and he’d sworn to never do it again.

  And look what he’d done—again. She had a goddamned mate. A mate. She let him seduce her; she played the game; she came willingly to his bed. And she stayed there. Pretended it meant something. Pretended she didn’t have a mate.

  Twice now he’d tried to bring up the subject of mating, and both times Carley waylaid him. He now understood why.

  “They’re mates, after all.”

  When he stalked out of the room, he was peripherally aware of the fact that Carley chased after him, might have even been sobbing, but as she passed him, Roman grabbed her by the arm and held her back, whispering to her that Reid no doubt needed some time to cool off. If she went after him now, Reid would probably say some things he didn’t really mean. Best to wait.

  Damned perceptive human.

  Reid would have almost liked it if Carley chased after him. He’d like to say some things to her right now. He might regret them later, but it would help assuage this feeling churning in his gut. He needed an outlet. He needed to scream, to shout, to yell. To hit something. He was half-tempted to shift into the form of a hawk and fly back to Wyoming.

  While he’d been in Tennessee, his father had told him there were a few stragglers who had returned to the land once owned by Quentin Lyons. They were trying to reform a pack, but were having issues. Everyone kept challenging one another for the position of pack master. No one would accept anyone else.

  The idea of heading out there, throwing his hat into the ring, was highly tempting. Not because he really wanted to be pack master, but because he wanted a fight. He wanted to take out his anger and frustration on someone who would fight back, who would show him no mercy. Someone who might just destroy him, so he wouldn’t have to live with this feeling anymore.

  He did in fact shift into the form of a hawk, after stepping around the side of the building and into a dark alley where there were no prying human eyes. But instead of heading west, he went north, to his brother and the coterie. Maybe he’d run into this lightbearer named Miguel. Despite his jangled feelings about Carley and her deceit, he would still like to kick the guy’s ass. Maybe even kill him. Not that it really mattered anymore. Even if she was free of her mate, he doubted he would take her back. Not after this.

  *

  Mica stayed after Reid left. Sean returned to the kitchen to comfort the nearly inconsolable lightbearer, while Roman waited until Reid left the house and then guided Carley upstairs to her bedroom.

  “So this is going to sound weird,” Roman said after he closed the bedroom door. “But I know what a coterie is.”

  “You do?” Carley asked, blinking owlishly.

  Roman nodded. “Well, I know what it means. It’s a small group of people with shared interests that are exclusive of all others.”

  “It is weird that you know that,” Carley admitted.

  “I do a lot of crossword puzzles.” He watched her steadily. “It’s not unlike a cult.”

  Carley took a deep breath. “Not a cult, exactly.” She hesitated, tried to determine how much to say without really saying anything at all.

  “My…people suffered. A long time ago, we were hunted by some other…people. To protect ourselves, we went into hiding, formed t
he coterie. We’ve been there ever since. It is very exclusive. It’s only in the last year that any of us ever left at all.”

  “Where does Reid fit into this?”

  She glanced at the window. “He…he isn’t like my kind. But a few in the coterie have ventured out, met other people, fell in love—what’s the word when two people decide to be a couple forever?”

  “Married.”

  “Right. Sorry. As you can see, we really did avoid the outside world,” she said with a small smile.

  “Clearly. That other woman used the term mated.”

  How could she forget?

  “Yes. Mated. Same thing, I believe. At any rate, there are some within the coterie who are very—what’s the term? Old school. They do not believe we should be mating or marrying anyone except our own kind. It became extreme a few months ago. That’s why I left.”

  “That and your husband.”

  “Husband?”

  “Miguel.”

  “Oh.”

  “I take it, it wasn’t a loving relationship?”

  “Hardly,” Carley said with a small shiver. “It was arranged. My parents—I was a mistake. They hadn’t wanted younglings—children. I didn’t exactly have a happy upbringing. At the first available opportunity, they passed me off to someone else. They actually paid Miguel to take me to mate.”

  “Jesus. That’s insane. That doesn’t happen in today’s world.”

  “Not in your world,” Carley said sadly.

  “You come from a pretty fucked-up place, Carley. No wonder you don’t want to go back.”

  Carley shook her head as tears filled her eyes. “It really isn’t, not normally. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s such a wonderful place, I swear. And the ones who were so determined to keep us exclusive, they’re gone now. Their leader is dead. Everything is back to normal. Everything except Miguel.”

  “And Reid. I think you broke his heart, Carley.”

  “What?” She gave him a startled look. “I would never!”

  “You didn’t tell him about Miguel. You weren’t honest.”

  “How could I? If I had, he never would have…”

  “You don’t know that.”