Serpentine

by J. Kearston

  As they walk away, I glance at Stryker and mouth, one sec, before jogging after them. We’re still well within eavesdropping distance by the time that I catch up with the two wolves, but it offers the illusion of privacy, at least. Otherwise there’s no way Bane and Stryker would have stayed put, but as much as they want to protect me, they’re also trying to be more careful about straddling the line bordering suffocation after the Zane incident, realizing what a slippery slope it is.

  Everything’s just so damn hard, and we’re devolving into a state of mental exhaustion trying to keep up with it all.

  They pause to let me catch up. “What’s up?” Xander asks.

  “Why didn't you guys ever mention Kara?” As Devin narrows his eyes, I lift my hands in surrender. “Sara told me. It’s just that, well-” I shift between my feet uncomfortably. “How you convinced my mom to bring you along to break me out, I mean.”

  Devin replies easily, like the answer should be obvious and I’m dumb for not seeing it. “You've made it plenty clear that you're not sold on this place. Her safety hinges on her existence being kept a secret. So while we may want to help people like her-“ he flicks his gaze over me, assessing and annoyed “-we don't know or trust you any more than you trust us. We’re not going to go out of our way to talk about our pregnant mate to strangers and potentially put her in danger. I don't need to scream to anyone that will listen that I love her. Our relationship is exactly that; ours.”

  By the time he’s done with his tangent, I’m grimacing. “Yeah, I really misinterpreted your looks when I first saw you guys. But after hearing about your mate, it wasn’t sitting well and I couldn’t help bringing it up. Especially since we’re still tiptoeing around each other, here.”

  Xander mimics my bitter look. “Not something we enjoy by any means, but being undercover to do recon means we've gotten pretty good at faking it when necessary, and adapting to situations on the fly. Ultimately, it all comes down to communication. Kara knows we'd never do anything, and the goal is always rescuing people, not abducting them. Sometimes that's from really shitty situations, and we can't just grab them and run, or risk people following us back home. Same way you made it look like you ran off with your new boyfriend to square things away human side.”

  Devin adds, “And worse, a lot of times people don't even know what they are, so they're inclined to think we're crazy and not want to come with us, preferring to stay in their crappy lives.”

  "Better the devil you know than the one you don't,” I agree with a sigh.

  Xander rolls his shoulders, cracking his neck. “It sucks, but that's the way it goes. More often than not, I'm afraid. Sometimes we can at least get them out of an abusive relationship or point them in a new direction before we call it a wash and come home, though. Kara knows we'd never cheat on her and doesn't mind if we have to pretend to be interested in some chick if it means we can help get her away from an abusive boyfriend or out of a toxic situation. It may not have been what we set out to do, but that doesn't mean the trip was a failure."

  I dry my sweaty palms on my shorts. "I'm sorry for what happened in the woods. I wish I would've known all this, then."

  Devin huffs, but for just a moment, he drops his standoffish attitude. "I'll admit, I was scared for a second back there, when Aiden lost it. Thought I was going to have to come back to tell Kara that he was dead, find a way to keep the details from her."

  He meets my eye, a hard glint to his. "Because Aiden never would have been able to live with himself if he killed you. He would have been terrified afterward that there might be even the slightest possibility that our baby's blood would trigger him too. If he walked away from your corpse and regained rational thought before your men put him down, he'd have done the deed himself."

  Feeling like my insides have gone through a blender, I quietly rasp, "I'm sorry."

  Looking away from me, Devin gazes off into the forest, rebuilding his defensive shell a little more with every word. "Don't be, it was a smart move. If Kara was in your shoes, I'd hope she'd do the same thing. She's tiny, too, and I doubt that woman could throw a punch at her worst enemy; she's too sweet for her own good.”

  He starts striding away without a backward glance, Xander giving me a wry smile before he rushes off to follow. “There's no shame in running if you know you don't stand a chance in a direct fight. Not when your death would as good as kill the people that desperately need you to stay alive."

  Chapter 29

  Risa

  Kara chuckles as Addie comes up sputtering, wiping water from her face before slipping a hand under her stomach to help her stay steady. She and a few other kids have spent the last couple of hours teaching Hunter and Addie to swim, though they’re going to have to call it a day soon as the sun starts setting. Devin and Aiden hover a few steps away from their mate like they’re afraid she’ll be swept away, though the benefit of staying in chest deep water means the risk of her falling and getting hurt is minimal.

  I lean back against Bane’s chest while he uses the base of the tree for his own support, the two of us content to watch everyone having fun from a distance, where it’s easier to breathe. Mason and Stryker snagged enough bottles of beer for the four of us, giving as wide of a berth as they can to all of the people scattered across the beach. About three dozen of them turned out tonight, currently busy drinking, tending the bonfires, or simply celebrating finally not having to wear a mask anymore now that my blood’s been deemed safe.

  “We should head out soon. The longer we stay, the harder it’s going to be on them when we leave.”

  Stryker pops the cap off of mine, crouching down to pass it over with confusion. “What are you talking about, angel?”

  Taking a drink, I gesture with my free hand to the way Mason’s scratching at his arm again, developing the nervous tick over the past two weeks whenever we’re too close to a crowd. The lack of decent sleep isn’t doing us any favors to curb the social anxiety, either, but he’s taking it the hardest.

  “Depending on how much effort you guys are willing to put in, because full disclosure, the closest I’ve come to building a house is with Legos, I was thinking maybe we settle somewhere between here and the nearest town? We could reap the benefits of being known as the creepy people in a cottage in the woods that parents use to scare their kids into behaving, a first line of defense to ward off people from the area. We can utilize the shifters’ efforts to keep this place a secret, while still being close enough that Hunter and Addie can visit their friends.”

  Mason and Stryker share a glance while Bane gently urges me forward so he can get up. “Caleb!” he hollers, the wolf excusing himself from his conversation by the bonfire.

  Taking a drink of his beer as he approaches, he lifts an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  Bane grabs my hand, already starting to walk away. “Keep an eye on the kids? If it gets too late, we’ll grab them from your house.”

  Rolling his eyes, he snorts. “So plan on feeding them breakfast tomorrow, got it. Sure, why the hell not? Worst-case scenario they drown a little, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Probably,” he teases, joining his family at the water to fill them in.

  “Where are we going?”

  Stryker flicks one of the chains on the back of my hand. “Somewhere that allows us to actually have an honest conversation without eavesdroppers.”

  ***

  Over an hour passes before the small boat bumps into the dock, Bane hopping out to tie it off to the faded, wooden post. Stryker helps me out, Mason following behind us as we walk across the short pier on the farthest island from the mainland, at the tip of the crescent islands. Stretching out my senses, I don’t pick up anyone nearby, not that I expected to, or the guys wouldn’t have brought us out here.

  “Where’d everybody go?”

  While this tiny island isn’t popular for much more than harvesting the plants at the base of the mountain forest, it still has a small village, about thirty people living out here. And by the lack of
activity in the houses ahead of us, just inside the tree line, it seems nobody’s home.

  “Bribed them to start relocating a few days ago,” Bane announces, and my head whips in his direction.

  “What?”

  Uncomfortable, he rubs the back of his neck. “We’ve been giving things a lot of thought, gorgeous, trying to figure things out. We didn’t want to bring it up until we saw if it was even a possibility. But, well-” he groans, looking over at the other two. “I suck at explaining shit. Tap out.”

  Stryker swallows, looking suddenly nervous. “Packs, prides, nests; they’re strong for many reasons, but mainly because there's safety in numbers. You can lean on each other, one person’s strengths counteracting another’s weaknesses, but still, it’s the heart that makes them a force to be reckoned with. If they didn’t have something to fight for, to keep them together for a common goal, they’d fall apart. You’re that for us, Risa... our center. You give us a purpose, make us continue to put one foot in front of the other when before, we were always one hard blow away from falling apart.”

  Meeting my eye, he takes a deep breath. “I have spent my entire life thinking that something was wrong with me, that I was broken. But-” he rakes a hand through his hair, glaring up at the night sky and clenching a fist as he rushes out “-I was wrong. I wasn’t broken, I was so fucking lonely that I shut down, trapped in a pit of my own making, and told myself it was because I was tainted with darkness after everything. Sure, I went through the motions day to day, but I didn’t understand until I met you that I was waiting for something to wake me up, to make me feel anything other than numb.”

  I have to clear my suddenly dry throat before I can get any words out. “Why the dramatic declarations? Not like you’re about to propose; we’re already mated.”

  Bane kisses the side of my head, more composed now that Stryker kicked things into motion. “Because we did everything wrong. Most people fall in love and then implement the bond, so there’s no room for doubt. But with us doing things backward, it’s easy for the bond to make things confusing. We want to make sure that there’s no doubt in your mind that if we had met you under normal circumstances, we absolutely would have still tricked you into letting us court you, would have tried to turn you.”

  Mason gives me a sad smile. “Whether it was the pull from your blood or fated mates are really a thing, we’d have found you eventually. And even though things have been less than ideal for all of us, I’m selfish enough to be glad they happened, because it brought us here.”

  Stryker cuts in, “So we came up with a solution that might finally make all of our lives a little easier. Since interacting with people makes Mason want to stab something, we needed some distance, but didn’t want the kids to pay the price for our discomfort. This seemed like the best compromise for all six of our various issues; together, but apart.”

  Bane takes my hand, guiding us away from the shore, towards the vacant houses. “What’s the saying? It takes a village to raise a child? Well good news, there's about forty nearby. We’ll just slip Hunter and Addie in with someone else's litter and be the wise old mentors that people hike mountains to train with, or some shit.”

  A laugh bursts from my lips before I can stop it. “Free range parenting; where we make sure they have food and are there when they need advice, but mostly just let them run wild and keep the bar at ‘not dead’.”

  Stryker turns to walk backwards in front of us. “I think it would take a hurricane to get either of those kids back inside a house for more than a night. The jungle has them now; it’s too late.”

  Mason smacks his chest on his way past him, rolling his eyes. “They need to live, and we’re just... content with being left alone. We’re perfectly happy staying holed up in a house at the top of a mountain until we get stir crazy, coming down long enough to wreak some havoc, have a feast of roast beast with the happy villagers, and then retreat to our lair for a quiet life with our mate. What do you think?"

  While they appear confident enough, nerves flow through the bond as they wait for an answer, like they actually think I’d be upset by any part of this. Whether that’s the declarations making them squirmy and awkward, admitting that they’d rather set the kids loose to be the communities’ problem instead of moving somewhere isolated and making raising them our full-time job, or that they’re worried I’ll ask how the heck they managed to bribe an entire village into relocating, I know one thing for sure.

  Like I told Stryker what seems like a lifetime ago, I don’t have a damn clue how to respond to grand gestures and declarations. Everything that pops into my head falls flat, and every additional second that passes without me saying anything only serves to make them more anxious.

  Releasing a long, slow breath to center myself, I slip my hand out of Bane’s, taking a few steps back so that I can see all three of their faces. They pull to an abrupt stop, nervous gazes flitting between each other. Mason stuffs his hands in his pockets, thinking he’s concealing the way he’s clenching his fists, letting his nails bite into his palms so that he doesn’t spiral. Bane becomes unnaturally still, like he’s bracing for a blow, not even breathing. And Stryker simply looks at me with a small smile, recalling our conversation and trusting in me as much as I believe in them.

  “Do you remember the night you first walked me through how to shift?”

  Bane growls, “Marcus made it hard to forget.”

  Clucking my tongue, I take a small step backward. “When you warned me against being in the woods alone, because people would want to hunt me down and sink their teeth into me, prove they were big enough monsters to keep the rest at bay.”

  Wariness morphs into hunger as they catch on, and the next step I take is tracked with a predatory glint in their eyes. “You say that if things had been different for us, you’d still have found me,” I continue. “That you’d have hunted me down and convinced me that every other option beyond the three of you was a stupid one, right?”

  Mason’s gaze languidly roves over my body. “Are you trying to tell us that fact is still in question?”

  Winking, I take another step towards the trees, a thrill running through me as they match the distance this time. “I’m saying that if we’re doing everything backwards, then what better time to prove it? You also claimed that you were taking ‘incorruptible’ as a personal challenge, so I’m simply being kind enough to offer an opportunity for you to put your money where your mouth is.”

  Bane purrs in approval, taking another step that I mirror. “And when we do? After we catch you and fuck you hard enough that you won’t be able to even think of running from us again? When our blood is sliding down your throat to muffle your screams while you come?”

  Taking one final step, dirt and sand shifting beneath my feet as I prepare to sprint into the woods, I grin. “Then you get to finally make good on your threats and drag my ass back where it belongs; home.”

  ***

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