“And to answer your question as to why, it’s time he was stopped. For good. No matter what the cost, I will help you save your daughter. And then, I’ll make sure Jacob Gideon doesn’t hurt any other Shifters. Ever again.”
Oddly enough, this fierce resolve decided her. “All right. Thank you. I accept your offer of help.”
“Good.” Something in his grim tone told her he hadn’t actually given her a choice. “They won’t be expecting two of us. You need to get ready.”
“Get ready?” Incredulous, she could only stare. “I’m chomping at the bit. The sooner I can get Hailey away from that monster, the better.”
“Good. Because we’re going to go in and get her out. No matter what.”
She nodded. “When?”
He glanced at her, his jaw set. “Tonight.”
* * *
As a slow, fierce smile broke out over Blythe’s expressive face, something intense flared inside Lucas. What the hell? Pushing it away, he dragged his gaze away from the hope shining in her emerald-green eyes and forced himself to focus. He wondered if she understood the risks she’d be taking. If caught, and especially if Jacob learned she was also a Shape-shifter, she’d be subjecting not only her daughter, but herself to unspeakable acts of torture.
By the end, she’d be longing for death.
He considered telling her more than the bare bones, but in the end, decided not to. The knowledge would change nothing. Like him, she had no choice.
“What time?” she asked, raising her chin in a way that told him she was a woman of courage, a mother willing to fight tooth and nail for her child.
“We’ll use the darkness to provide cover. Until then, you’re going to have to stay hidden. If I know Jacob, he will have told the locals some preposterous story about you, and they’ll be on the lookout to have you arrested and brought in.”
Her eyes widened in fresh shock, making him inwardly wince. Every truth he had to throw out to her was like feeding a wolf a poisoned bone. But she needed to understand just how much of a monster they were dealing with.
“Arrest me for what?”
Grimly, he ticked the possibilities off on his fingers. “Child abuse, child molestation, attempting to sell your daughter, trying to prostitute her to pedophiles—he’ll come up with the worst possible story and make them believe it.”
She swallowed hard. “But none of that is true. He’d have no proof.”
“It doesn’t make any difference. What does matter is that he will have convinced everyone that he took your daughter away for her own good. That you are a danger to her. I promise you, they will believe him.”
Crossing her arms, her expression radiating darkness, she dropped into the dingy motel chair. “I’ll kill him.”
“No, you won’t.” Though if the truth were to be told, he’d been aching to take the man out himself ever since the news story had aired. But the repercussions would be tremendous. “Making him pay will have to wait. First, we’re going to rescue your kid and get away. After that, I’ll figure out a way to expose him, so he can’t do this to anyone else.”
“Hailey,” she said. “Her name is Hailey.” There was both strength and delicacy in her face. “Inside there, in Sanctuary, they kept trying to depersonalize her and I instinctively kept insisting on giving them her name. At the time, I didn’t understand why. Unfortunately, I do now.”
Eyeing her, he felt it again: the rush of attraction that was not only inappropriate, but dangerous. He wondered if Blythe even realized how beautiful she was. On the heels of that thought came another, one he’d considered earlier and had forgotten.
For as long as Lucas had known him, Jacob had always had a weakness for the ladies. If worst came to worst, there was the possibility that they could use that against him. Lucas decided not to mention it to Blythe yet. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.
Her stomach growled, making him smile, even as she gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry,” she said. “I should have gone hunting earlier.”
“When was the last time you ate?”
She thought for a moment. “On the drive down here yesterday.”
“Yesterday? I saw the story on the news a few days ago. I would have thought you’d have been here longer.”
“Nope. Jacob had a few more appearances scheduled, so Hailey and I spent the day shopping, eating out, and we saw a movie,” she said. “I had a few misgivings, and apparently for good reason. I so badly wanted to have hope. Instead, I should have trusted my instincts.” Sighing, she glanced away. “Look what happened. I haven’t even been here twenty-four hours and already my baby is in danger.”
“Don’t worry,” he spoke with more confidence than he felt. “We’ll get her out. In the meantime, I’ll go fetch us something to eat.”
She nodded listlessly, so he left her there.
Later, he returned with a couple of breakfast burritos and coffees, as well as a change of clothes for her that he grabbed at the local big box store. She ate with a mechanical precision that told him she was already working on a rudimentary plan.
“Maybe you should tell me,” she said, blotting her mouth with a napkin. She’d missed a crumb, and he found himself aching to lick it off her lips, which shocked him.
What the hell was wrong with him? With difficulty, he tried to focus on her words. “Tell you what?”
“What I should expect to find when we get into Sanctuary.” Mouth a thin line, she leaned forward. “I need to be prepared.”
“No,” he said, as gently as he could. “You don’t. Let’s leave it at that.”
Her gaze locked with his, the determination in her expression twisting his gut. But finally she nodded. “You’re right. I need to concentrate on getting Hailey out.”
“Yes.”
“But after...”
“One day at a time,” he told her. “That’s how we’re going to get through this. One day at a time.”
Though she nodded, she got up and began to pace the confines of the small hotel room, her lithe grace reminding him more of a trapped panther than a wolf. Even in the artificial light, her hair gleamed like strands of luxurious silk.
Watching her, he tried to throttle the dizzying current of desire racing through him. This both infuriated and intrigued him, because despite his instinctive reaction to her when he’d seen her on the television, he hadn’t expected to want her. More than that, actually. He hadn’t thought he’d crave her the way he did.
He needed to get a grip. For someone who always prided himself on being in control, he felt perilously close to completely losing it.
“I wonder, have you always known?” he asked her, more to distract them both than anything else.
She stopped pacing, swiveling her head around to look at him, sending her long hair whipping around her shoulders. “Have I always known what?”
Feeling foolish, now he regretted asking. Almost. “What you were. A Shape-shifter. When was the first time you changed into a wolf? How old were you?”
As distractions went, it worked. Head cocked, she stared at him, the expression in her vivid green eyes making it clear she was trying to decide if he was messing with her or telling the truth.
“I really want to know,” he added, his voice a bit huskier than he’d have preferred, but sincere all the same.
“I was ten,” she said. “Most of us are ten or eleven when we shift for the first time. Once in a while it happens to someone much younger, but that’s the general age.”
“I see.” Truthfully, he hadn’t known.
“You had no one to guide you at all, did you?” she finally asked. “Because your mother died and you were all alone, except for that crazy man who raised you.”
He doubted his careless shrug fooled her. “I had no idea. The first few times I had the urge to shift, I panicked. I was eleven and I didn’t know what was wrong with me.” He and Lilly had shared that sense of fear. But of course, he didn’t mention that to Blythe.
“Did you
go to your father?’
He winced, this time unable to hide it. “No. I couldn’t. Even though I was still relatively normal, I couldn’t fail to notice how rigid the lines were for him. I think I instinctively knew he would recoil from me in disgust and horror.”
The sympathy on her beautiful face completely pissed him off. He didn’t want her pity, or anyone else’s, for that matter. That was part of the reason he’d avoided his own kind all these years. He was what he was and damned if he’d make apologies for it.
With difficulty, he managed to rein in his emotions. None of this was her fault. In truth, he didn’t understand the way she made him feel, the things she made him want. Desire was both the least and the greatest of these.
What he was about to tell her was private—he’d never shared it with another human being, with the exception of the one person he’d let Jacob destroy.
But Jacob had her daughter. If anyone deserved to know, it was Blythe. He’d have to be careful in how he told it, because Lilly had been with him then. Lilly had always been with him. He and his twin had been exceptionally close.
“I was out in the desert near Sanctuary,” he began, hoping like hell he didn’t slip up. He had to tell the story as if he’d been alone. “I liked to go on long hikes in those days. It was a way for me to think. The urge to change had been coming more and more frequently, which terrified me. But so far I’d been successful in fighting it off. Not this time.”
He took a long pull on his coffee, considering his next words.
To her credit, she simply waited, her eyes vivid-green as she watched him through her long lashes. She was quiet, rather than peppering him with questions. This, he appreciated.
After a moment, he continued. “This time, when the urge to change hit me, the need was like never before. Fierce and compelling. I fell to my knees and tried to fight, but something else took over my body and I couldn’t. Before I knew what happened, my clothes were torn and tattered and I shape-shifted into a wolf.”
“You should have had someone there to help guide you,” she said softly. “It’s always like that, the first time.”
He shrugged, careful to keep his face expressionless. His memories of that day were still vivid, though they mostly consisted of watching what had happened to his sister as she went through her first change. They’d been frightened and exhilarated, amazed and shocked.
When they’d changed back, they’d each managed to do so far enough away from the other that they were able to hide their nakedness until they got dressed.
It was all new and strange and a continuous learning process. But they’d had each other and so they’d learned to cope.
“It was a long time ago. But I was in an animal frenzy after that. As wolf, I ran and hunted, when I was human again, I got dressed in my shredded and tattered clothes and returned home. I vowed that one time would be it and I’d never let it happen again.”
“And of course it did,” she said, her expression soft and understanding.
He nearly told her then, nearly revealed the truth of the horror that had happened to his twin so many years ago. But at the last moment, he reined himself in. They were strangers, after all. He would do his best to help her and her daughter, after which he doubted he’d ever see her again. He wasn’t the kind of guy women depended on.
Still, he had to tell her part of the truth, just so she really understood what kind of monster she was up against.
“I went as long as I could before changing again. Each time, I came away convinced something was wrong with me.” He shrugged, to show her it no longer mattered. “I started being more diligent about attending Jacob’s services. I tried to be kinder, more studious. In short, I thought if I somehow atoned for whatever sin made me this way, I could be normal again.”
He didn’t tell her this had been Lilly’s idea. She’d been convinced that their shape-shifting abilities were some form of punishment, doled out from an angry God. Jacob’s God. Lucas had gone along with her, because when she was happy, he was, too.
Lost in his memories, he became aware Blythe was speaking. “You only wanted to be normal. When in fact, all along, you were perfectly ordinary, at least for our kind.”
He said the first thing that came to mind. “You sound sad.”
“Of course I do.” Frowning, she shook her head. “Jacob had to have known this would happen. When he married your mother, she would have told him. We’re always allowed to tell our mates. He should have taken steps to ensure you were educated in the ways of the Pack.”
“I’m not sure he knew.” Aware of the bitter twist to his mouth, he looked away, unable to bear the pity he was sure to see in her eyes. “Or if he once had known, he made himself forget. That would be the only explanation for how he reacted once he learned the truth about us.”
“Us?”
Damn. Swallowing hard, he gestured at nothing. “You know what I mean. Our kind. Us.”
After a moment, she nodded, seeming to accept this explanation. He’d slipped. He needed to be careful.
Because in addition to what had happened to his sister, there was more, much more, that he didn’t tell her. How he’d tried to run away, to stay wolf forever. He’d thought that would make his life easier. And it might have, though he never got a chance to find out. No matter how hard he’d tried to stay in his wolf form, eventually he’d always changed back to man.
She shifted restlessly. “If you don’t mind telling me, how exactly did your fath—I mean Jacob—find out what you were? I assume you didn’t tell him.”
“He became curious and I was careless. He followed me one day. He was careful to stay hidden so I didn’t see him. He watched while I changed.” He shook his head, the images as fresh as though they had occurred yesterday. He’d stick to the details whenever possible...more or less. “Full of self-righteous rage, he ran at me when I was still wolf.”
Narrowing her eyes, she continued to watch him. “He’s lucky you didn’t attack him.”
“Maybe.”
Because of Lucas’s paralyzing fear, Jacob had caught them both. After ordering his twin children to be led away in chains, he’d locked them in one of the unfinished basement rooms, eerily reminiscent to Lucas’s young mind of a dungeon. “Jacob screamed, called me a worthless dog, demon-spawn and evil.”
“What did he do after that?” she asked.
He took a deep breath, well aware that what he was about to say would barely skirt the edges of what had happened. It wasn’t even the worst of it. “He beat me to within an inch of my life.”
“While you were still wolf?”
He nodded. “While I was still a wolf.”
“And of course you changed back.” It wasn’t a question. She knew, as he had not, that all Shifters changed back to their original form when they were hurt or wounded. He was aware of that now, of course.
“I changed back. My father was convinced a demon had possessed me. He was determined to rid me of it, no matter what the cost. Even if it killed me.”
She made a sound. He could see in her face that she was tempted to offer comfort. Appalled, he made a gesture, warding her off.
“I’m fine,” he said. “That’s all in the past anyway. The only reason I’m even telling you all this is so you can understand what he wants to do to Hailey.”
Her eyes widened. Glancing at her watch, she cursed. “He’s had all day.”
Sensing her panic, he acted instinctively, reaching out and gently squeezing her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m relatively sure he’s still studying her to make sure she is what he thinks.”
“Relatively isn’t good enough,” she snarled. “If he lays one hand on her, I’ll—” Visibly collected herself, she inhaled sharply. “I’m not going to give him a chance to hurt her.”
“We’re not,” he said. “Remember, you aren’t alone in this.”
She gave him such an odd look he realized that, despite everything, she hadn’t actually considered them a team.
> Chapter 5
Blythe tried to nap in preparation for the late night ahead, but with her hyperawareness of Lucas in the bed next to her, she couldn’t sleep. Instead, she lay there wide-awake, her heart pounding as she continually replayed the events leading up to Jacob’s abduction of her daughter.
All because she’d foolishly allowed herself to hope.
She thought she’d been so careful, especially when the media got involved. She hadn’t even considered that Jacob would be able to use that same media against her, making all sorts of outrageous claims to prevent her from getting Hailey back.
Finally, she fell into a sort of restless slumber, devoid of dreams. When she woke an hour later, she found Lucas sitting in the chair by the desk watching her.
The instant her gaze connected with his, she felt a jolt of heat, low in her belly. Even as she blinked, trying to acclimate herself, he pushed to his feet and moved away, clearly ill at ease. With his back to her, he peered out the window, silent, his entire demeanor stiff. If he had felt the same thing she had, evidently it made him no happier than it did her.
Bad timing.
Still, she could not look away. Eyeing him, again she was struck by his rugged masculinity. She couldn’t help but wonder again how someone like Jacob could have fathered a son who looked like Lucas.
“We should eat something,” he told her, his voice husky with sleep. “I’ll go get us a couple of burgers and bring them back. I still don’t want to take a chance that you might be seen, just in case Jacob has started spreading any lies.”
Though she hated having to stay hidden, it only made sense. “Sounds good.” She pushed up off the bed and headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to take a quick shower while you’re gone.”
Jerking his head in a nod, he headed toward the door, moving so fast she had to blink. It wasn’t as if she was going to start stripping off her clothes on the way.
And even if she had, what did it matter? They were Shifters. Though he wasn’t Pack, Lucas had to get used to acting like one sooner or later.
Once in the shower, she turned the spray to hot and, using the shampoo and conditioner the motel provided, she got herself clean. Glad of the change of clothes, she dressed.
The Lost Wolf's Destiny (The Pack) Page 6
