Cohen

by Emilia Hartley

  Seeing her this afraid made Cohen’s hands clench. He tried to put them on his knees, forcing his fingers to lay flat, but they kept curling. “I doubt it. Most of them wanted him dead. While my father was a decent leader and kept outside threats away, he was not a good man. Besides, everyone else thinks his death was of natural causes.”

  Ashe sucked in a breath, holding it before nodding. Cohen left the ottoman to sit beside her on the couch. His side pressed against hers as he placed his arm along the back of the couch. He was surprised when she leaned into him, resting her head on his chest.

  Inside him, the bear grew quiet. It settled down, seemingly calm and content for the first time in Cohen’s life. He looked down at the woman with awe. His chest tightened, and he couldn’t help wrapping his arm around her shoulders and holding her tight.

  “What if it does get out that it was murder?”

  “Then we will prove it wasn’t you.” He made it sound easy, but he knew it was going to be a challenge. If someone had slipped into the house, beneath his nose and poisoned Sampson, it was going to be hard to find them.

  He looked down at the woman in his arms and wondered if this was all part of her plan. She could have easily slipped something poisonous into the medicines she’d been feeding Sampson. Then, once he died, she could be smart and blame someone else. She could very well be using Cohen and he was falling for it.

  Beware of the witch, their father had always told them. He’d forbidden them from even talking to her, as if she could use their own voices to bewitch them. Perhaps she could, now that Cohen found himself drawn to her every moment of the day. Sampson’s command was long gone, and their voices freed, but now he found himself tangled with her.

  He pulled away from her and stood up. Outside the window, Stonefall bustled with the life of the early morning. A plush papasan chair faced the window, a forgotten novel laying splayed on the floor beside it. He bent to pick it up, turning it over to study the kilt wearing man on the cover, and snorted.

  Cohen needed to get away from this place. He needed to get away from Stonefall, from the damned Pack he’d been forced to lead, and from the enchantress behind him. She was clever, weaving her words so that Cohen could not tell lie from truth. He didn’t know what to believe, and the need to protect her was strange and overwhelming.

  “How about this,” Cohen bartered. “You break the bond my brother forced me into and I’ll make sure there is no witch hunt out to get you.”

  “This feels wrong.”

  He spun on her and closed the distance in two long strides. He leaned toward her and gripped the back of the couch, caging her where she sat. This close, his heart lodged itself in his throat. Her lips parted and caught his attention. From there, his gaze fell down the front of her, captivated. She could be lying, could be using him to mask her revenge on the Pack, but his body didn’t care.

  It wanted nothing more than to capture her mouth and revel in the taste of her. The bear rumbled in agreement, greedy for the sweet tang of her pomegranate lips. The dress would rip away easily and there was enough room on the couch to take her. His cock agreed, jumping to the ready.

  What kind of spell had she woven over him? He jerked upright, nearly stumbling away from her.

  She said nothing about his strange behavior as he spun away from her. Probably because she knew what she’d done. It was intentional. The normally loud and vicious bear said nothing. It only tried to turn him back in Ashe’s direction, as if it could not get enough of her.

  ***

  Ashe watched Cohen pace the length of her apartment. It wasn’t much, considering she couldn’t afford a bigger place. He’d reeled back from her as if burnt by silver, but she knew she wore none.

  Once more, the force inside her rose and propelled itself toward Cohen. It tugged and begged for her to close the distance. Ashe stifled a nervous laugh, unable to believe the force would ask her to comfort a clearly distressed bear shifter. It seemed like asking for trouble.

  For pain.

  “Fine,” she snapped, unable to listen to the wearying pace of his footsteps or the pleading of the voice in her head. “I’ll do what I can to break the bond you’re so damn afraid of, but I’m going to warn you that I don’t even know where to begin.”

  Cohen stopped. His head spun toward her. “Don’t tell me that. Tell me you can break it. Now.”

  She scoffed. “You’re awfully demanding for someone who doesn’t want to be an Alpha.”

  “And you’re awfully useless for someone who claims to be a witch.”

  She shot up and flung her hand toward the door. “Get out.”

  Cohen opened his mouth to argue. She wanted to pull the breath from his mouth and silence his whining. She wanted to kick his ass down the stairs that brought him to her door. He shouldn’t have even been able to knock on her door. The warding sigil she’d drawn should have made him turn around and forget why he was even there.

  “I don’t have to listen to you berate and threaten me,” Ashe began. Where did this stubborn strength come from? Where did she get the courage to make demands of Cohen? She had no clue, but she was grateful for it as he looked at her, completely lost for words.

  His surprise dropped into a smoldering glower. She didn’t care. He could hate himself all he wanted, but Ashe was trying. She worked to be someone that she could love, even if no one else in this world would love her.

  Cohen closed the space between them with two quick strides. Her breath caught in her throat, but she didn’t back away, holding her ground in the face of his menacing presence. His eyes searched hers, the shadows pulled back to reveal the animal glowing behind them. The bear was so close to the surface. It spilled out in every direction, a being larger than Cohen’s body could contain.

  She licked her lips. Should she be staring back? It didn’t matter if she should, because she was. She held his gaze and waited for him to back down. Her brazen attitude around him was going to get her hurt. There would come a day when he wouldn’t be able to control himself when she angered him.

  What had changed? Was it their ability to speak to one another? When he’d sat with her on those long nights, there hadn’t been a word exchanged between them. Now, it seemed all they could do was spit fire at one another. They jabbed and nipped at each other’s patience until one of them lost control.

  And it wouldn’t be her.

  Ashe knew herself and her power. She brought her chin up in defiance. The Pack doubted she was half of what her mother had been because she lived carefully and shoved her power down.

  “Let’s not destroy my apartment,” Ashe warned, feeling stronger than she ever felt in her life.

  A smirk slipped over Cohen’s lips. He was close enough that she could reach forward and kiss his angry mouth. She wondered if his rage would melt away at the touch. She wondered if he would shiver if she ran her nails down the length of his exposed throat.

  She licked her lips and his eyes fell to them. For a long moment, he seemed entranced, then his spine straightened, and he pulled back. He eyed her warily. It was a look she was used to. He wondered what she might have done, what kind of spell she could have wove over him.

  Frustration gripped her. She wasn’t sure if it was the suspicion or if it was sexual. Her hand fisted in the fabric of her dress.

  “Get out of my apartment,” she told him. “I’ll start working on your request. In the meantime, you should sniff out the murderer in your Pack.”

  “They aren’t my pack.”

  “Whatever. Just find the killer so there isn’t another witch hunt.”

  Her words took him by surprise, as if he just now realized the gravity of her situation. Slowly, he nodded. When he left, she let out a cry of frustration and retreated to her shower. She had a lot of work ahead of her and she couldn’t do any of it if she was thinking about Cohen Vancourt’s body.

  Chapter Five

  Cohen snapped awake, gasping for air. His hands curled in the sheets beneath him, fingers t
hreatening to lengthen into claws. The dream, or rather the nightmare, still clung to his mind as if he’d never left. The night had been alight with fire, glowing even as a reek filled the air. Smoke filled his nose and throat.

  There was only one sure fire way to kill a witch.

  His bear had panicked. The beast had ripped its way out of him, tearing apart what little of Cohen there was left. They ran toward the firelight. Anger burned through them, unable to push back the cold fear that sat deep inside of them.

  He heard her screams first. The bear roared, as if to tell her they were on their way. He roared, hoping the sound would reach her. Hoping it would reach those trying to hurt her. But her screams turned into agony and he felt no closer. He ran for her life, ran as fast as he could. Yet, it wasn’t enough. A new smell filled the air. Burning hair and flesh.

  Her screams grew choked. He couldn’t help her. He couldn’t save her.

  Only then had the trees around him cleared. The figure in the fire was undistinguishable. It was a husk that vaguely resembled a human. Around it stood familiar faces. Grover smiled gravely. Mr. Jenkins looked relieved, as if the horror of having Ashe for a daughter was finally over.

  Cohen tried to push the dream away, tried to push the bear back. It had only been a dream, one like a knife twisting in his mind. Part of him wanted to find his phone and call her, just to make sure she was alright. Maybe hearing her voice again would settle the ire of the beast inside him.

  But, the beast rebelled. It was pissed. It wanted to find those that’d hurt her and rip them to pieces. It was going to make them hurt the way they hurt her.

  Cohen was moments away from losing control when he felt her. The essence of her being prickled across his skin and warmed his core. The monster inside him settled and became a bear once more, perking its head up to search for Ashe.

  “What are you doing here?” Cohen whispered into the darkness of his room.

  There was a long moment of silence when Cohen wondered if he’d imagined her presence before he heard her soft voice. “I thought you could use help on the look-out tonight.”

  “On the lookout?” Even though his voice held a hint of annoyance, he was grateful for her presence. Even if it was only her astral presence. It meant she was alright. “What lookout?”

  “You know, when the killer comes back to the scene of the crime.”

  “Like you are right now?”

  He felt something incorporeal smack into his shoulder. It left behind a prickling, static sensation. “You aren’t funny. I didn’t kill anyone.”

  “I don’t know that,” Cohen confessed. He wasn’t sure what made him so forthright. Was it the darkness that enveloped them? Or, was it the lingering nightmare and the fear of losing her? “You could have poisoned my father yourself for never helping you. You could be enchanting me so that you have one of his sons on your side when the Pack comes after you.”

  Silence filled the room. It dragged on so long he thought she might have gone back to her own body, but then she spoke. Her voice was soft and so straightforward that it shot him through the heart like an arrow.

  “Sampson did help me. He let you protect me when I was the most hurt. He knew I was hiding in the shed with you and he didn’t do anything about it.”

  With him. She didn’t mention the things his other brothers did for her. She thought of him and his presence. In that moment, Cohen ached to hold her. He wanted to pull her into his body and hug her tight.

  Never before had anyone ever been happier because of his presence. Her words struck him and left him dizzy with emotion. He searched the room for her presence, hungry for more. As if she could read his mind, she continued.

  “I’m not sure if I would have kept hiding there if it hadn’t been you that stayed with me. My father knew where I was going. He’s a shifter, after all. It wasn’t hard to track me, but when he saw that it wasn’t Archer or Gage that kept me company he always turned away. You were the thing that kept me safe all those years ago.”

  His throat closed. He shoved his fists into his eyes as if he could use the force of them to chase away the tears that threatened to fall. He was ashamed of himself. He’d fought to get ousted from the Pack, so he could follow Archer and hadn’t once thought about what that meant for Ashe. It left her alone in a world that continually hurt her.

  She was years younger than him, barely more than a teenager when he left. What happened after he left? What kind of pain had she endured in his absence because he’d wanted to go where his brothers went?

  The bear perked up, grinning as best a bear could in Ashe’s direction. Cohen could feel it’s hunger, not one for sustenance, but for the pleasures of the flesh. The beast revealed images of Ashe, things it craved. She was naked and bent over the bed as they rammed deep inside her. Another image showed her knees over her head, their hands grasping her heavy breasts.

  Cohen swallowed past the rise of desire. Everything the beast showed him was rough and demanding. It wanted to show her the line between pleasure and pain, show her how good it could be. Cohen tried to tell the beast that Ashe would not enjoy pain, she’d already lived through too much, but it refused to listen.

  “I don’t blame you for leaving,” Ashe began. “But, I am mad that you left them.”

  He felt the edge of his bed sag as if she sat beside him. He reached toward the motion and felt his fingertips tingle. He kept them there.

  “You were supposed to protect them, too, and you left them. I thought so highly of you for so long and then you showed how selfish you were. I…” Her voice trailed off.

  Cohen fought through the tightness of his throat to speak. “I left to protect them.”

  There was no one else in the house to hear his confession. No one else under this roof beside the two of them. He’d never mentioned this to anyone, keeping his secrets buried deep. If he never gave them voice, they would never enter the world. But someone needed to know. He needed someone else to carry this burden with him.

  “I was afraid that I would hurt them. After Sampson kicked us out of the Pack, I thought I’d be alright as long as I had them, but I could tell after a while that my control got even worse. Before we left Stonefall, I knew my bear was different. It was wilder, more volatile than any I’d seen before. When it was just the three of us, I watched my control slip further and further each day until I could barely hold the creature back.

  “I left them to make sure the monster that I’d become didn’t hurt them. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I hurt them. They were the most important part of my life. So, I left and found a place far away from humanity.”

  “That’s where you went wrong,” Ashe’s voice said as it moved closer.

  He felt the bed bend as if her weight were atop of it, her body lowering to lie beside his. He ached to feel the true weight of her presence, to feel her skin, her warmth as he pulled her tight. But, tonight, he would settle for her voice.

  “Cohen, you need people in your life. You can’t let the bear’s voice grow too loud.”

  “You don’t understand. You don’t have an animal.”

  Her presence reared back, and he knew he’d said the wrong thing.

  “If you could hear the things my beast tells me to do,” Cohen hissed. “If you knew what it wanted me to do to you every time I’m in your presence, you’d understand. You’d see me for the monster I am.”

  He fisted his hair in his hands and tugged, as if the tight sensation on his scalp would relieve any of the frustration built inside him. Even when she wasn’t completely here, his beast begged and pleaded. It filled his mind with images of her naked and at his mercy. It wanted to hear her beg, to hear her moan while they blended pain and pleasure.

  There was a tingling sensation on his cheek. It cascaded down his face as if she were touching him.

  “What does your bear want to do to me?” she asked.

  He shook his head, refusing to hurt her more than he already had. Cohen should have told
her to go back to her body. She would never be safe in his presence. But, then again, perhaps he was not safe in hers, either. She was an enchantress, powerful and possibly manipulative.

  Cohen licked his lips as he considered this.

  ***

  Ashe waited with baited breath. She hated to admit, but her body ached with the suspense. Warmth pooled between her legs in anticipation.

  His voice rumbled, low and heady when he spoke. “My beast wants me to lie with you in this bed and force my way inside you. It wants me to hurt you until you like it.”

  Pleasure spiked through her core. It made her body gasp. She felt her hand slip over her hip. Her fingers paused at the waistband of her panties, tapping as she bit her lip.

  “Tell me the details,” she whispered.

  Cohen rolled so that he was on his side. He propped his head in his hands, his eyes burning with the light of the beast inside him. The bear was wild, and she could feel it’s hunger even from where he was. It was echoed in the smile that split his lips, revealing a sharp tooth and a dimple.

  She’d adored him when she was younger, but he’d been so much older than her. She’d been sure he’d barely looked in her direction. He stayed in the shed fort with her like a babysitter. She never once thought he’d see her as anything more than a brat that needed a sitter.

  Now, the hungry look in his eyes said otherwise. It warmed her and made her body throb with need.

  “The beast wants me to slap your ass while my cock is inside you. It wants me to make sure you feel my hands on you, rough while I make you scream into the sheets.”

  Ashe’s fingers slipped past her waistband. They searched for her folds and found just how wet she was. She found the source of the throb and made a slow circle.

  “Go on.”

  Cohen’s laugh was low and deep. “You want more?”