Fighting the Lies

by Anna Edwards

  “How did you suspect?” He spat the words out.

  “There was never a funeral. I kept a close eye on the situation because of who the departed was. I would have given Emma the choice to pay her respects if she wished. It never happened, though.” Kas looked down at the papers in front of him. He was tapping his fingers on the table; an impatient gesture that was dismissing Brayden.

  “That would mean no burial, not that he would still be in that room.” He stopped the moving fingers. Kas’ nails turned into claws, at the intrusion into his personal space.

  “It did the second I found out that my brother was involved with Emma’s. He’s been involved in this since the start, and by the start, I mean Emma’s father’s death.”

  “You think he killed him?” This was all starting to make sense now. Brayden removed his hand and the claws disappeared.

  “No.” Ok, that theory just went out of the window. Brayden could feel a tension headache starting.

  “Then excuse me, but what the fuck is going on, and who killed him?” Brayden’s fists were balled up again. He was so bloody confused.

  “There’s only one person who can give us the answer to that?” Kas flicked over a piece of paper in front of him. He was not looking at anyone in the room.

  “Who?”

  “Emma’s mother.” Another piece of paper was turned over and revealed a picture of an older looking version of the imprisoned lioness.

  “But she’s dead.” He held his hands out in confusion.

  “I don’t think so.” Kas finally looked up at him again. His brows still crossed in thoughtfulness.

  “Ok, I’m not getting any of this.”

  “I have to agree with Brayden on that.” Tyler spoke for the first time since they’d returned to the mansion.

  “Is it because she’s the person who gave Emma to your pack?” Brayden span his head around. He hadn’t noticed Scott skulking in the corner.

  “Full points to Scott.” Kas clapped. “We find Emma’s mother we find the answers we need.”

  “How do we find her?” Scott was on his feet and beside him now.

  “I don’t know. I was hoping something in these papers would tell me, but I’ve found nothing. She’s been missing for the best part of almost twenty years. Vanished into thin air.” Kas stood up and ran his hand through his hair.

  “Why don’t we all take a break. It’s been a long day. I think we all need something to eat and then some sleep. We can go over this again, when our brains are fresher.” His mother pushed her way in between them all. She was right. They’d been up early for the ceremony, and baring Scott none of them had eaten since breakfast. He was flagging. Despite the situation, he just wanted some alone time with his mate. He looked over to Selene. She looked tired and was worrying her lip.

  “I think that’s a good idea.” He agreed with his mother.

  “I’m going to grab some food and watch over Emma. Jessica said she has a way to do it remotely, so we don’t get her into trouble with Ciaran.” Scott patted him on the back and left the room. Brayden knew that the lion was suffering being away from the women he finally admitted he loved. It’d been obvious to him since the day Scott had arrived that he and Emma were fated to be together. Scott knew it, but Emma was reluctant. He wasn’t sure why, but hopefully, this would bring them together. The others followed Scott out; he went over to Selene and helped her to her feet.

  “What do you want to do?” He inquired, while bending down to give her a kiss on the tip of her perfect nose.

  “Do you think we could get some food and take it to the bedroom to eat. I’m so tired. I just want a shower and then sleep.” Her big brown eyes were pleading with him.

  “You go up, and I’ll bring some food.” He purred into her cheek; kissing her delicate skin.

  “Brayden.” She pushed against his chest lightly, moving him away from her. He rested his hands on her curvy hips instead.

  “What’s wrong?” He frowned. She was worried; he could sense it.

  “Do I smell different?”

  He sniffed.

  “Sexy as always.” He smirked and raised a playful eyebrow.

  “I’m serious.” She pursed her lips at him.

  “What’s going on?”

  She swallowed deeply.

  “You know how you said we don’t need to use protection because you can smell when I’m fertile.” She worried her lip again.

  “Yes.” Where was she going with this?

  “But you could make a mistake and not smell the change in me, right? I’m asking because I’m late.” His mouth dropped open, and he gasped for air.

  “Late.”

  “Yeah. I think that I might be pregnant.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Kas' heavy paws crunched invitingly into the freshly laid snow. There hadn't been a massive covering overnight but enough to turn the picturesque Montana park into a scene from Winter Wonderland. He kicked up a bit of snow with one paw and flopped onto his back to pat it around with his hind legs. He threw it from foot to foot for a few seconds before it disintegrated around him and covered his nose. He shook his head and squirmed further down into the snow. Peace. Comfort. Home. This was where he was at his happiest, surrounded by white joy. A twig cracked. He was on his feet and ready to pounce in an instant. He sniffed, human. A second sniff had him letting his guard down when a warmly bundled Jane appeared. He shifted back into a human, knowing that she wouldn't be able to hear him otherwise.

  "You didn't have to change." She smiled at him and pulled off her sunglasses and placed them on her head. The reflective properties of the white snow caused an unnatural brightness to the day. "Brayden and Selene went for a run as soon as they saw the snow, so I thought I'd walk for a bit before starting breakfast."

  "You know you don't have to cook every day?"

  "I like too." She was avoiding looking at him. Probably because he was naked as the day he was born. It wasn't as easy for humans to overcome the shame of a naked body as a shifter did. He hadn't any clothes nearby, as he was planning on heading further up the mountain, so he placed his hands over his lap to hide his manhood and wiggled his bottom so it sank further down into the snow.

  "Are you missing Death Valley?" He asked. Jane perched herself upon a rock.

  "I thought I would. My life was there, and Selene can take me back if I need to go, secretly of course. I miss the regulars in the diner, but so much is happening here since I arrived I don't have a chance to think about it much. That’s probably why I still like to cook, though. It gives me the sense of providing." Brayden's mother still wasn't looking at him; instead, she was kicking at a bit of snow on the ground.

  "Just as long as it doesn't get too much feeding a pack of shifters." He offered.

  "I fed Heath and Brayden for years. I'm used to the volumes." Heath had been Jane's husband. He had died when Brayden was only a cub, and Jane had moved to Death Valley to escape her grief.

  "Is it hard being here? I never really asked before. Just told you it was what you must do and come here." He'd brought Jane back into the pack’s fold for her protection after Nuka attacked Selene.

  "There are a lot of memories. Out here in the plains especially. Many a time I would sit like this and watch him frolic in the snow. It was majestic.” Jane’s face turned dreamy, as if she were seeing the visions before her of a life when she was in love.

  “I’m sorry I had to bring you back here.” He felt awful. This was the place where she thought that she’d live with her husband until death at an old age. Instead, it was the place that held her greatest nightmares. The place where she suffered the greatest heartache.

  “Kas, please. I’ve spent more of my life without Heath now than with him. Before his death, he gave me the greatest gift ever in Brayden. I’m a lot stronger than I look.”

  Kas shut his eyes and inhaled deeply. She was, indeed, the bravest women he knew.

  “I sometimes forget you’re not the naïve sixteen-year old who
came to live here all those years ago. Wide-eyed at everything you saw around you.”

  “My first day was so scary. I kept expecting to be eaten.” She chuckled.

  “Too skinny; you still are.”

  “Done on purpose, so I don’t look tasty.” She stuck her tongue out at him. Despite being the wrong side of thirty-five Jane was more alive and vibrant than she had ever been.

  “Cheeky.”

  “I know why Selene and Brayden are really out here in the snow. They need to get away from the stress. Is that the same with you?” She changed the tone of the conversation. The joviality replaced with concern.

  “I wanted a moment to clear my head. I didn’t stop looking at the papers when you all went to bed.” At around one a.m., Jane, Jessica and Katia were so tired that he sent them to bed for a few hours. They’d be no good in the state they were in.

  “You promised you were going to sleep.” Jane tutted at him.

  “I knew that I wouldn’t be able to, so I just kept looking.”

  “Did you find anything?” She was on her feet, now, and coming over to him.

  “Nothing of any use. I just keep coming back to her mother. She has to be alive. It’s the only thing that makes sense.” He pushed forward on his feet and got up. Jane looked away again. “I’ve got some clothes just up here.” He pointed further up the mountain.

  “I’ll walk with you.”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t see how she can still be alive. You said that it was reported she died after Phillip was born?” Jane’s boots crunched into the snow when she walked. He was bare foot so was lighter. He was glad for his ability to not feel the snow. He just had to hope that he didn’t get frost bite when he wasn’t feeling.

  “It was. She had a funeral, and I went. It was a time when Nuka and I still got along, and we went together in solidarity with the Bryants. We may have had issues over Emma, but they were a pack that we supported.” He held out his hand and helped Jane over an icy pass. Her little feet slipping on the rock formations and performing a dance.

  “But all that changed?”

  “Emma’s father wanted her back. I did some digging and found out why.”

  “Why?”

  “He was going to marry her to a rival pack in order to bind them to him. She would’ve had no choice in the matter.”

  “A marriage of convenience?” Jane pursed her lips together in anger. They both knew that it was still common amongst shifters. Whole families wanting to protect the purity of their blood or to start new breeds to form packs. Genetic selection was still minimal in its use amongst humans, but in the shifter world, it was encountered daily.

  “Very much so.” They arrived at the spot where he had his clothes hidden. It didn’t take him long to dress. Jane sat down on a rock and swung her legs, while she waited.

  “Do you think that this is what her being arrested is about?” Kas helped Jane back to her feet, and they began the slippery walk back down the mountain towards the mansion.

  “I’m beginning to wonder. If Emma’s brother has partnered with Nuka, something is going on.”

  “We should get back. I want to go over those papers again. There has to be something in them.” Kas could see that Brayden’s mother was determined. Brayden and Emma often played together as children, and he knew that the maternal woman had a soft spot for the lioness.

  “I’m going to head out and talk to some people. I need to know more about Emma’s mother. She’s the key to this. I just know it.”

  They stopped, and he faced her.

  “Be careful.”

  “I will. I’ve learnt to trust nothing my brother does. In fact, if you aren’t in this pack, you have to earn my trust from now on.” He shook his head. “Damn it. That reminds me. We’ve got a new park ranger starting at the end of the week. I need her checked out fully. I’ve not had time to do it.”

  “Human?”

  “No, wild dog. Can you get Tyler to look into her for me, please? I’ve left the paper work on my desk. I don’t want her even on the premises until we know every person she has ever spoken to in her life. It’s not the Glacial Blood way, but she’s going to have to be guilty until proven innocent.”

  “Kas.” Jane placed her hand on his arm. “You’re doing everything you can. Don’t doubt yourself. This pack is you. You’re the heart of it; you give it breath, life…trust yourself and your mind. Emma will be brought back to us. Don’t lose faith. We’ll fight these lies and come out the other side stronger. We have each other, and we know the truth. Nuka is supercilious to the extreme, and that will be his downfall. He will wrap himself in a web bound of untruths so tightly he will drown in it. He will not win.”

  Kas settled his own hand over Jane’s and squeezed. “I hope you’re right, because if we lose her, I don’t know if the pack will survive.” He pressed a light kiss to the top of her forehead. “I’ll be back later. Watch them.”

  “Always.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Brayden, he went this way.” Emma crouched down low to the ground and breathed in. The stranger’s scent was strong. “It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes ago.”

  “I bet he’s heading up to Jackson Peak.” Brayden surveyed their surroundings.

  “Miss Molly?” Emma panicked. Their three legged lynx friend would be in trouble. There was no way she could fight against a male shifter with this strength.

  “Let’s go.” They both shifted into their natural state and raced up the mountain at full speed. Four legs were always quicker than two. Her nose wiggled taking in the smells around.

  “He’s heading towards Molly’s cave.” She projected into Brayden’s head.

  “Fuck.” Was the answer she got back, and the massive snow leopard at her side lengthened his stride, so he appeared to almost be flying over the ice. She wasn’t as adept on the ice, given she was a Masai lion and her natural habitat was the Africa plains. However, she had grown up in this park, and despite her physical attributes being lacking, the knowledge she had gave her the ability to match pace with Brayden. They skidded to a halt outside Molly’s cave.

  “He went in?” Brayden growled.

  “Keep low. He could harm Molly before we get to him.” Emma sniffed again. He’s most definitely a male lion. I know that smell anywhere.” She let the grumbling roar form at the back of her throat. The intruder may be a male lion, but he’d not be a match for her and Brayden, if they played this right. They crouched down and together prowled into the cave. The stupid lion would regret stepping foot onto the Glacial Blood lands without permission. She and Brayden had hunted together since they were six. They were the best. With silent stealth, she placed one blond covered paw in front of the other. Her back legs shuffled to keep up. That’s when they heard Molly scream. They were off. At rapid speed, they pounded into the kitchen area of the cave.

  “What the….” Molly let out another cry and sent the heavy duty casserole pot she held flying into the air.

  Emma was in mid pounce when she noticed the intruder, dressed in a pair of casual jeans and an ‘I’m a rock god t-shirt’, casually reclined on a chair at the kitchen table. Er… he wasn’t attacking Molly. She couldn’t stop herself in time. She landed on top of the stranger. The chair flipped back, and they both fell to the floor. She had her paws on his shoulders. Her head directly opposite him.

  “Hey kitty.” The stranger spoke.

  “Emma, get off my guest.” She turned her head to see a shifted Brayden wrestling with Miss Molly. “Brayden let me go. Scott is my guest. What is wrong with you two?”

  “Guest.” She projected into everyone’s head.

  “Molly invited me for dinner. She didn’t think I looked well fed.” The male underneath her gave her a flashy grin. She looked him over. He looked pretty well fed to her.

  “This is private land. How did you meet Molly?” She dug her claws into his flesh just a little bit to demand an answer.

  “I was passing through. Look
babe, I don’t want any trouble. I’m not here to hurt anyone unless you ask me to.” He winked at her. Yuck! She stepped off him and shifted back to human.

  “Don’t you understand rules of packs? You should’ve made your presence known to Kas, our alpha.” She folded her arms across her chest to emphasise her point, though her arms were not quite large enough to hide all of her human attributes. When the lion’s eyes travelled to the neatly clipped ‘v’ between her legs, she stepped behind a chair to hide that part of herself from him.

  “I was at the top of the mountain. That would have involved walking all the way down and then all the way back up again. That would have taken forever, and I was hungry. I met Molly instead, and voila, I’m eating, or I was going to eat.” Emma growled, Brayden had gotten down on his knees and was clearing up the mess on the floor. Boy, did the casserole smell good; venison if she had her meats right. She hoped that some was left in the bowl.

  “You should have passed through.” She was not going to budge.

  “Mate.” The lion looked to Brayden who was licking his fingers. “Are you upset that I’m here?”

  “You should have reported to Kas or had Molly let us know, but I can see that you don’t mean any harm. Eat and then move on.” Brayden licked his lips. “You don’t happen to have any spare do you?”

  “You know I always make two pots. Hopefully, it is enough for both you men. I know how much you eat, Brayden, and I’m pretty sure Scott eats as much, just by looking at the size of him.” Emma regarded the male lion again. He was pretty muscular. She bet he hid a fantastic six pack under that shirt. His arms were like logs with their strength. The men took a seat at the table.

  “You not eating, babe?” She ground her teeth together when the lion looked her up and down again.

  “I’m not your babe. My name is Emma.” She grunted.

  “Well then, Emma. Sit down, eat, and tell me all about yourself.”

  Emma moved on the makeshift bed. She opened her eyes; it must have been a dream. It was so vivid she remembered the feelings of that first meeting. Disbelief that anyone could be that cocky but also admiration for the handsome lion who conversed with her so freely at lunch. If what Scott said was true, he’d fallen in love with her that day, and if she was honest, she knew from the moment her paws touched his shoulders that he was her mate. The urge inside her screamed for her to be taken by him, but she had suppressed it and continued to do so, even to this day. ‘Men were trouble.’ That is what her mother had said. ‘They only want you for one thing, breeding. Make sure to keep them at arm’s length. It’s the most important thing that you will ever do.’ That is what Emma had done with Scott. Even though she wanted him buried deeply inside her, showing her body all the ways it could feel so good. It would kill her when he would bring some skanky whore home for the night. None of them were good enough for him; they only wanted him for sex. He needed someone who would look after him. Feed him, cloth him, worship him. She would do all of that for him, if she could, but it would never happen. She couldn’t be weak. She’d promised her mother, as the proud lioness had left her at the door to Kas’ mansion. Her mother had been so terrified after the girl was killed all she would say…it was the only way to save Emma’s life. She’d never been so scared as that day. Well, not until this very moment.