Bitterroot, Part 2

by Heather Hildenbrand

  I thought about stopping in and saying hello—I hadn’t really had time to talk to her since the party—but I decided against it. First I needed a shower and a clean shirt. No way did I want to explain myself to her and with this much blood, she was sure to ask. Besides, I still had no idea what to say. It was clear she was nothing like me. She wore primer for goodness’ sake. I didn’t even know what that was. I had less than no clue what to say to her. What did we even have in common? Besides the fact that we were both wolves. And about to fight each other.

  Maybe it was best if I left the bonding time for later. When the competition was over. When I was alpha and she was beta.

  Chapter Four

  Charlie

  I slept restlessly and woke up feeling like my head had been stuffed with cotton. It was what I thought having a hangover would be like, except without all the fun parts that came beforehand. It wasn’t even like I’d earned feeling so terrible. Judging by my tangled sheets and shredded pillow, I had just been sleeping rough—really rough. Nightmarish images faded along with the last remnants of sleep. I couldn’t remember the dreams that had haunted me—only that they were filled with monsters, all of them out for my blood.

  Somehow, I knew that training to fight with a vampire wasn’t going to make it any better.

  I checked the time. I had promised to meet Owen in less than an hour, but if I made it quick, that should leave me just enough time. And I’d put this off long enough.

  It felt like forever before my phone powered on. I waited until everything had lit up and counted the missed calls from my mom. Seventeen. Crap. It was past time for this. I dialed slowly, swallowing back the anxious feeling in my gut. It rang only once before the machine picked up. Mom’s familiar cheer was like a dart lodging straight in my guilty heart. It had been over a week since I’d been taken and brought here to Paradise, and I still hadn’t called…

  The beep sounded and I started talking, secretly glad for the machine. Maybe it would break the ice. “Hi, Mom. It’s me, Charlie,” I added, feeling like an idiot for even saying that part. “I know I haven’t checked in but Regan says Dad contacted you … Anyway, I’m okay—”

  “Charlie? Hello?” The click of the receiver being snatched and my mom’s shrill voice made me wince.

  “I’m here, Mom,” I said.

  She sighed so loud it created static over the line. “Thank God. Did they hurt you? William said you were unharmed but I had no way of knowing—”

  “I’m fine, I promise. They haven’t hurt me,” I told her. Yet.

  “Do you have a place to stay? Are you eating?”

  “Yes and yes. Mom, why didn’t you tell me?” I asked before she could throw out her next barrage of questions.

  The line went abruptly silent and then her voice came back, notably smaller. “I’m sorry, baby. I really am. I should have told you. I just didn’t think there would ever be a reason to. I didn’t think you’d ever have to go there.”

  “Did you ever stop to consider maybe I’d want to come here?” I ask, my voice a little harsher than I’d intended. “They are my family,” I added.

  Mom was silent and I hated to think I’d hurt her feelings—but it had to be said. She’d lied. For my whole life. And that lie was partly the reason I was here now, thrown into this unaware.

  “Did you know about the competition?” I ask.

  “I hoped…”

  “Don’t lie to me, Mom. Not anymore. There’s no point.” My voice sounded dull even to me, but tears pricked my eyes. This is why I’d put off the call. I’d been afraid she’d known everything—including that I’d be forced to fight my own sister.

  “Yes,” she said in a strangled voice. “I’d hoped if I kept you hidden, they’d overlook it or give up and just give it to Regan,” she said.

  I pressed my mouth together until my teeth hurt and blew a hot breath through my nose. “Did you ever think I might want to be alpha?” I asked quietly. “Or did you assume, like all of the others, that I wasn’t capable of winning?”

  “Charlie, no,” she insisted quickly—too quickly. “You are very capable but, well, I’m sure you’ve seen by now how different things are in pack life. It’s not like your life here. You have so much weight on your shoulders. As alpha, your life would never be your own again.”

  “How would you know?” I asked, my voice raising and taking on a nasty edge that I hated even as I used it. “You aren’t welcome here. You have no place in the pack so how could you possibly know what it’s like?”

  “That’s not fair—”

  “Neither was lying to me. Or keeping me from my father and sister. You had no right then and you have no right now to decide what’s best for me,” I said.

  She started to say something but I cut her off. “I have to go train for the competition now.”

  “So, you’re staying?” she asked quietly and I could almost hear the tears running down her cheeks. I bit my cheek against the guilt that throbbed.

  “Yes,” I said. “I’ll let you know how it turns out.”

  I hung up before she could respond and powered the phone off again. I slipped it into the nightstand drawer where it’d been before just as a lone tear tracked down my cheek and dripped off my chin. I sniffled once and steeled myself against feeling anything else or shedding any more tears.

  My mom and I had never spoken to each other like that before—but she’d never lied either. Or maybe she had and I still didn’t know all of the lies she’d told me. Either way, I couldn’t get caught up in her betrayal. I had a competition to train for.

  I could figure all that out after.

  Taking the time to make myself presentable—because I needed to look good for the pack, not because I was meeting a hot vampire—I snuck downstairs using the back hallway and slipped out the back door. I breathed a sigh of relief when no one stopped me. Only a little over a week had passed since I’d come to Paradise and already I used the back door far more than I did the front entrance.

  I stopped short at the bottom of the steps, barely missing the front end of a two-by-four as it bobbed along on the shoulder of a pack member I didn’t know. He grunted a hello and kept walking, headed for the back acre. A second later, another man appeared behind him, also hefting two-by-fours on his shoulder. A younger boy followed behind with a work belt and hammer in his hands.

  I stopped to watch them and my gaze caught on the open acre of grass beyond them. It was the same space where my engagement party had been held two nights ago. It had been fully cleared of any leftover décor and already, they were erecting something new. So far, it was nothing more than an oddly shaped foundation of plywood. The crack of a hammer rang out and I jerked before steeling myself as it rang out again—and again.

  I sped along the lines of people with wooden two-by-fours over their shoulders with my chin raised, trying to look as much like a potential alpha as Regan did.

  When I got closer, I slowed my pace in order to inspect the construction.

  The foundation resembled a stage, except if I understood it right, the audience was higher than the main platform, which was constructed out of bricks. There was a high fence built halfway around the circle, and beyond that, elevated bleachers. They were already half done with the bleachers but from the looks of it, there would be more than enough seating to accommodate the entire pack.

  “For the first test.”

  I was so fixated on the new construction that I hadn’t seen Regan approach. To my credit, I kept the shock off my face as I looked over at her. “You mean for our … competition?” I asked. She nodded and I turned back to the construction site and swallowed hard. “What is it?”

  “An arena,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. I glanced over at her and found her mouth drawn into a deep frown.

  An arena. Like the gladiators.

  My stomach flipped. I looked at the clearing with new eyes. They were building the platform out of brick so it would stand up to whatever they planned on t
hrowing at us. The bleachers were for an audience and, if Owen was right, it would be comprised of the pack and him and his family. The big fence was presumably to contain something—but there was no way to tell if it would be us, or something out to get us.

  For some reason, it was the bleachers that made me feel the worst. They weren’t just going to test us. They were going to watch one of us fail.

  A mental image of Regan standing over me dressed in Roman armor and a sword at my throat came to mind. I could already see Dad with his thumb turned up.

  I banished the thought. They wouldn’t be that melodramatic.

  Probably.

  “When is the test?” I asked.

  Regan shrugged. “They haven’t set a date yet. Just want to be prepared, I guess,” she answered and I suppressed my relief. “School starts day after tomorrow,” she added. “I’m supposed to tell you.”

  I laughed. “Seriously? They’re building Thunderdome here and we still have to go to school?”

  “That’s how it works. It’s kind of a year-round thing. We go every day for a few weeks, then get a couple weeks off.” At seeing my expression she added, “It’s good, though. You’ll want to attend a few lessons before we start with the tests. They’ll help you learn more about your animal strengths and skills and also about the pack, and … this isn’t making you feel any better, is it?”

  “I feel great,” I lied.

  Beside me, Regan shifted. “I wanted to apologize,” she began. I looked up, surprised. It took me a second to remember what for. “My mom’s … cause of death,” she went on. “I shouldn’t have lied about that. It’s just … we told that version to the local authorities to avoid questions, and when we met, you were still so…”

  “Human?” I finished for her.

  She blew out a breath. “I’m sorry,” she said again.

  I shrugged, not nearly as upset now as I had been the night I’d heard Sheridan mention it. “I think I get it,” I said. “I wouldn’t want to talk about it either and back then, I had no idea vampires existed much less went to war with werewolf packs.”

  “Right.” Regan blew out a breath. “Well, thanks.”

  Carter passed by pushing a wheelbarrow full of concrete mix, his broad shoulders flexing under the weight of the load. Regan’s eyes tracked him as he passed. Did she look unusually pale? She swayed a little on her feet and her fingers reached up to brush her neck.

  “Something wrong?” I asked.

  Regan shook herself a little. “No. Everything is fine. Do you want to go to town today?”

  The change in subject almost gave me whiplash. “What for?”

  She folded her arms behind her back, all military again, although she had lost a lot of her confidence. “We could do some ... shopping.”

  My nose wrinkled. “Shopping?” I repeated.

  “For shoes,” she said.

  I floundered for an answer. I hated shoe shopping, and I was already late to meet Owen, but I didn’t want to be mean or raise her suspicions. “Or we could get coffee later, after my run,” I added, gesturing to my workout clothes and sneakers.

  Regan tried one more time. “Or we could ... see a stylist?”

  I stared at her, trying to think of a polite response. She was clearly uncomfortable and I got the distinct impression she wanted me to turn her down—so why was she bothering to ask? “Is that the kind of stuff you like to do? Shoe shopping? The salon?” I asked.

  “No,” she admitted, her shoulders dropping as she unclasped her hands. “But I thought you might.”

  I looked at my wrist even though I wasn’t wearing a watch. “Maybe later. I was planning on going for a run today. Get to see a little more of the forest and surrounding areas.”

  Her eyes lit up. “I could come.”

  “No!” I said, and the light disappeared instantly. Her expression shuttered. “I mean, I just want to be alone,” I amended. “Not that I don’t want you to come. I’m just used to being on my own so … we can go to town later, maybe?”

  “Sure,” Regan said, her tone chillier than before.

  She started to walk away to join the line of people bringing supplies to the arena. The urge to fix whatever I’d just damaged was overwhelming. I bit my lip and after a second’s hesitation, I called after her, “I like antiques.”

  She stopped and looked at me, brows raised. “Antiques?”

  “Yeah. Are there any antique shops in Paradise?”

  The corner of her mouth lifted. “There are a couple.”

  I forced a cheerful expression. “I’d love it if you showed me.”

  “Tomorrow then.” Regan gave me a small smile, and then disappeared around front.

  Relief rushed through me. For a moment there, I had been afraid she would insist on following me.

  I hurried in the opposite direction and ducked into the forest. True to my word, I ran for the first few miles. The sounds of construction died away. Soon it was just me and the crunch of my feet against the ground. Branches crackled around me. I heard the occasional patter of tiny feet as a rabbit darted past.

  The quieter things became, the more I relaxed. Tension I hadn’t realized I was carrying eased. My pace picked up. This was where I belonged. Not with all those people—those strangers—who expected me to lead them. I wanted to be with the trees, and the musk of small furred animals, and the towering craggy rock faces that watched me pass.

  When I began to notice the difference in terrain, I slowed to a walk and caught my breath. I had a feeling I was in Owen’s territory now and I wanted to be on guard. It seemed a little warmer and less hostile than it had two days ago, but maybe it was just that I was getting more used to it. The breeze made the trees sway and cast sparkling patterns of light on the ground, illuminating my path into the deeper, darker parts of the forest.

  After another few steps, every sound vanished—even the natural ones. The trees grew closer and closer until the sun disappeared. There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky, but suddenly, no light reached the earth. A chilled breeze still managed to slip through, but it only made me shiver. It didn’t seem to touch the bushes.

  Owen’s smell was easy to pick up. It was a blend of sweet and stale and definitely inhuman. I followed it to a long but narrow clearing between a wall of trees and the slope of boulders so steep that only a few weeds grew on their surface. I was farther in than I had been before, and still, I hadn’t spotted him.

  I paused where the ferns stopped growing. From here, empty ground stretched in front of me like a natural road in the forest. It was so dark it could have been early morning.

  I hesitated, glancing back the way I had come. Any sign of my passage vanished, like the forest closed up in my wake to keep me from turning back. Low-hanging branches dangled toward me, like skeletal fingers reaching for my hair.

  Something tickled the nape of my neck. I slapped at it and turned around. Nothing there.

  “Hello? Owen?” I whispered. I meant to call it out, but it felt too vulnerable to be loud.

  I just about jumped out of my skin when someone responded.

  “What took you so long?” he asked from behind me. I turned again, and there he was, right where I had been looking a moment before. He must have dropped out of the trees. How had I missed him when I came through?

  My pulse thrilled in my veins at the sight of him. Hair waving over his ears, perfect skin, sculpted jawline. And those eyes. Their piercing intensity always affected me more than their unsettling crimson center. Even my wolf was distracted by his combination of ferocious sexiness.

  Swallowing hard, I made myself smile to hide the trembling. “I have responsibilities, you know. Mostly a responsibility to not get caught sneaking out to meet a vampire.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  The way he said “bad” sounded like an invitation. When I shivered again, it wasn’t from the chill. My gaze wandered from his face. Owen was dressed casually this morning—or at least, what I thought mu
st be casual for him. He wore a black V-neck shirt that hugged his chest and shoulders in all the right places and black jeans to match. He was even wearing high-top sneakers. Like, actual Converse. The idea of vampire royalty in Converse would have been unbelievable if I hadn’t seen it myself. He managed to pull it off, though.

  Even in casual clothes, he made me feel frumpy, out of place in my running shorts and razorback tank. But I did my best not to show it. “Are you going to pick on me or teach me?” I asked.

  He scanned me up and down with eyes that seemed to leave a heat signature behind. A smile played on his lips. I probably shouldn’t stare at his lips … shapely and blood-red as they were. Even if he might be my future husband.

  “Can’t I do both?” he asked.

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” I said, tapping my toe.

  Was that disappointment I saw flash across his face? “Okay. All business, then. Come on, darling.”

  He took my hand in his cool fingers and tugged me through the trees. He had no problems navigating the darkness. He took me down into a valley where the trees weren’t so low and we had plenty of room to maneuver. When we stood in the center, he let go of my hand and turned to face me.

  “Are you ready to begin?” he asked.

  “Hang on,” I said.

  Owen watched with amusement as I limbered up, stretching my arms over my head and touching my toes.

  “What?” I asked, straightening as my cheeks heated.

  “Nothing. I can’t say what I’m thinking if teasing is off the menu.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Right,” I said, and then added in a more serious tone, “I appreciate this, by the way. Helping me train.”

  “It’s my pleasure.” He kept his lips shut as I finished up, but he didn’t look away from me for even a second. Whatever. He could pick on me in his head if he wanted to, as long as he was quiet about it.

  When I faced him all stretched and warm, he gave a little cough to clear his throat. “There are some things you need to know before you could ever hope to beat me.”