by J. C RIMELL
“Got it.” Kit smiled wearily. So this was where the soldiers she'd seen from time to time in Shadow Creek lived.
Which meant Cade must live here too? She thought, wondering if he was here now. Her heart fluttered with hope.
“Are these wounds from earlier tonight?” Madeleine's voice tugged Kit back from her trail of thoughts.
“That's strange,” Kit said, inspecting her wrists. “The wolf, it licked them. They were so bloody and sore.” She couldn't help but notice how they appeared older. The broken, bloody flesh had all but healed, leaving just naked pink marks and some bruising against the bronze of her skin.
Taking some cotton wool and antiseptic, Madeleine dabbed the graze on Kit's chin, then turned her attention to the swelling at her temple. “Wolves have healing properties in their saliva.” At least these wolves did. Having studied the pack and running tests, each member seemed to be able to heal minor wounds. Their own bodies healed naturally most of the time, including her own. “Any other injuries?” Madeleine asked, purposely moving away from the subject when she saw the questioning look in Kit's eyes.
A shake of her head. “No.” Kit flinched at the sting of the antiseptic, a shadow clouding her iridescent blue eyes. “None that are visible on the outside.”
“You know,” Madeleine’s voice dipped lower in concern, “It's not your fault, and if you were hurt in any other way, I'm here to help, okay?” Madeleine wished she could heal emotional wounds too, but it was Lakota who possessed that rare gift. Perhaps she could persuade Fleet to allow Lakota to see Kit and ease her emotional suffering.
Kit gave a gentle nod. “You mean sexually, don't you?”
Madeleine checked the bruising on her neck. “Were you attacked… Sexually?”
A moment of silence hung in the air and Madeleine feared the worst, but continued the examination and waited until Kit was ready.
A shake of her head. “No. No. But I thought… Oh God. I thought I would be. I thought he'd kill me.” Kit's electric blue eyes shot back up to look at Madeleine, filled with tears threatening to tumble.
“Shh, it's okay, you're safe now.” Madeleine rubbed a comforting hand down Kit's arm. Once she seemed calm again, Madeleine continued. “Open,” she said, instructing Kit to open her mouth so she could take a look at her throat. “Say… Ahh.”
“Ahh,” Kit struggled.
Seeing the inflammation of her throat, Madeleine went to a medicine cabinet and returned, handing Kit some meds. “Take these for two or three days, six to eight-hourly intervals. They’ll ease the swelling, but take them with some food if you can or they might cause some nausea.”
Kit took the Ibuprofen bottle and tucked it into the pocket of her jeans. “What day is it?” Kit asked, suddenly realizing she had no idea just how long she'd been held against her will.
Madeleine's gaze softened. “It's Sunday.”
It had only been a night. The longest, scariest night of her life that felt as though it had been eternally long. Kit was worn out, her body battered, and she felt dirty. The need to get clean became overwhelming. “Is there somewhere I could get cleaned up and?”
“Of course. I'll get you a pair of scrubs to put on, they're not pretty, but they're clean.”
Leaving Kit, Madeleine headed over to a door in the far corner of the room. She disappeared inside and came back with a fluffy white towel and a sky blue set of scrubs before going over to where the stainless steel sinks were, ducking down and grabbing a new bar of antibacterial soap.
“I've never seen you in town,” Kit said, taking the small pile of linen from the doctor.
Madeleine smiled. “No, I only go into town now and then,” she replied but refused to dwell on her own problems. Removing the latex gloves and throwing them into the Haz bin in the corner of the room next to the gurney, she continued. “What about you, you're definitely not from around this neck of the woods?”
Kit shook her head. “London, England.”
“You're not from around here either, are you?” Kit asked, realizing the doctor's accent didn't hold the Carolina twang.
“No, I'm from Seattle,” she sighed. “I came for a vacation and never returned.” Being attacked by a rogue wolf had changed her entire life. Fleet had found her and helped her through the transition. She shuddered at she thought of all the possible outcomes if he hadn't.
“Me too.” Kit smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. “I was studying to be a nurse and came for a holiday, it's over two years and I'm still here.”
Cade peered into the medical room and watched the two women through the small glass section of the door. He was just about to go in when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
“Shouldn't be looking at things you can't have, Cade.” Gunner's tone was a mocking whip. Being the Alpha's second, entitled him to an opinion on most things, but it seemed that when it came to Cade, he couldn't help himself. Plus, being sexually frustrated sure didn't help his pissy attitude.
“Shut the fuck up, Gunner.” Cade wasn't in the mood to be the butt of his jokes right now, especially where Kit was concerned.
The red-headed Beta snorted as he took a peek through the window. “She's a fine looking piece of tail, might just have to get me some of that.” He turned to face Cade, clutching at his groin in sexual innuendo, the jeering smile a purposeful knife in the gut.
Both Cade and his wolf wanted to rip out the arrogant bastard's throat. “She's way out of your league you son of a bitch, go and find your own woman.” He knew there was no getting away from it now. He'd all but admitted his interest in Kit was more than just a casual, sexual thing. There would be questions and he'd be frogmarched in front of Fleet having to answer them.
The two men squared up to one another, snarling, razor sharp fangs punched out.
“If she's out of my league, asshole, she's even further out of yours.” Gunner was nothing if not convincing, he had to sound like he meant it, at least a little.
Cade's skin stretched tight across his knuckles.
This won't be pretty.
“Jesus, Gun, what's the matter? Having trouble getting laid so you're going around stealing girls off brothers now?”
The Beta grabbed a fist full of black cotton. “You are not my brother!” No, he never wanted him as a brother, and now he realized that Cade had something which ran a little deeper than just a fleeting fancy for the woman sitting in the exam room, sending his head totally fucking skew-whiff.
“Well, fuck that's a relief!” Cade scoffed.
Gunner's claws shot out and ripped through Cade's T-shirt. As soon as he saw the guy's bare flesh oozing with blood, he hated himself, but the truth, if it ever came out would hurt a shitload more.
Cade's T-shirt was sliced into shreds as the hot sting of claws cut through his skin and exposed flesh. He threw the first punch, splitting his comrades lip wide open as blood sprayed the window of the door. Gunner should have resented that hit, but as warped and twisted as it would seem to any sane person, he relished the contact. He'd take it from Cade any way he was willing to give it; and if that meant it had to be physically knocking the shit out of one another, then so be it.
Kit and Madeleine both turned and gasped to see Cade and Gunner barge through the doors. The force of their entrance ripped one off the hinges and broke the other clean in two.
“Cade?”
“Oh, crap!” Madeleine sent out a mental alarm. She knew better than to get in the middle of these two particular shifters.
Gunner had Cade pinned against the wall, showing off his strength. As second in the pack, he had to prove he was worthy of his place. But being complacent, and what the fuck, all love struck with the guy was about to become his undoing.
Cade hooked his leg around the inside of Gunner's in a quick swipe that sent him falling backward and hitting his head on the tiled floor. Cade rushed in, kneeling on the other shifter's arms before he had a chance to move, he clamped his hand like a vise around his throat and applied press
ure. If he was breaking one rule, hell, he may as well break them all.
Leaning closely toward Gunner's ear, he felt the pulse beneath his thumb slow through lack of oxygen and growled low and deep. “Keep your fuckin', sticky paws away from her, or next time I'll finish the job.” A threat spat out between clenched teeth and deadly sharp fangs carefully kept concealed from the onlookers.
Gunner felt the warmth of Cade's breath at his ear. So this is what it was like to get up close and personal with the guy? Even amidst the chaos he noted the smell of Cade's skin. The scent of his hair. Fuck, the closeness was unbearable. The injuries he could handle, a piece of cake, but the closeness...
“That's enough!” Fleet's voice was a sharp lashing. The intense mind burn that disarmed every pack member when they heard it, whether they liked it or not, and Cade and Gunner were no different.
Releasing Gunner, Cade stood up and after sucking in a huge breath the other man followed. Gunner was the first to buckle under the force of their Alpha's voice. Falling back down onto one knee, he all but whimpered. Cade lowered his head in compliance, but never surrendered fully. He knew it antagonized his leader and even caused him some pain in the process. Kind of like an electric shock to the brain, but he refused to give in totally or lose himself completely.
Even Madeleine had felt the jolt of her Alpha's power. While Fleet's lashing wasn't directly aimed at her, she still endured the mental aftershocks of his dominant force. Tilting her head onto her chest, she waited for it to pass with her eyes squeezed shut.
“In my office. Now!” A command that wasn't to be ignored, not if you wanted your balls left intact.
Cade felt the heat of Kit's electric blue eyes stroke his skin like the warm caress of a lover's touch. The same way she'd slipped her hands into his pelt earlier, and Lord, he couldn't resist going to her. He needed her to know just how her disappearance had affected him, wanted her to know that he cared.
“Kit, I was so worried when you didn't show, we searched all night. Are you okay?” he asked, reaching out a hand to offer comfort only to let it fall back down to his side. The unsettled sheen in her eyes told him she didn't seem ready to be touched, and his Alpha was also stood watching with a glare that was cold as arctic frost.
She nodded, but it was Madeleine, who spoke.
“Kit's been through a great deal, Cade, she needs to rest.”
Dropping his head to the side, he smiled. “I'm glad you're safe now. I'll catch up with you soon, Kit.” Then he turned to leave, but not before flicking his head back over his shoulder and winking at her.
Kit felt her heart stutter, then sputter and struggle to regain a normal rhythm.
He'd looked for her all night? Holy shit! Cade Grayson wasn't just hotter than burning coals, he was all muscles and masculinity. The don't mess with me or I'll knock your block off type of guy, a soldier, and he was caring too?
WTF?
Sitting wide-eyed, like she'd just been watching an action movie, Kit had to wonder what would cause a guy to freak out like that. And what the hell were those marks across his chest?
“Jesus, does Cade normally fight with his colleagues like that?” she asked, watching Madeleine clear away the swabs and antiseptic, she'd used to clean and dress her wounds. The other woman chuckled and shook her head.
Coming back to her, Madeleine placed a cold compress on the swelling at Kit's temple. “The only time the guys usually act that way is when a woman's involved, but those two have a fragile relationship at the best of times.” She paused, noting the questions suddenly arising behind Kit's eyes. “How well do you know Cade?”
“Oh, not that well. We were supposed to be going out on a date last night,” she said, slightly adrift. Her voice trailed off considering how little she knew about him. How lethal he actually was. It seemed like she'd learned more in those past few moments than in the last six months of his visits to the café.
Cade Grayson was a dark horse she knew nothing about and realized you really couldn't judge a book by its cover. No matter how beautiful and tempting it was, below the surface could lie a much scarier story than you ever imagined.
Madeleine's brows rose. “A date?” she asked sounding surprised. “That doesn't sound like Cade.”
Kit felt a little bewildered by the doctor's response. “Why not?”
“To be honest with you, Kit, it doesn't sound like the kind of thing any of these men or woman would do. They're soldiers and work comes first.”
A sudden awareness dawned on Kit. “Oh. Of course,” she replied. Perhaps her initial instincts to keep her distance from a man like Cade had been right. It didn't stop her heart sinking a little in her chest though.
“Come on,” Madeleine beckoned softly, offering Kit a hand down off the gurney. “Let's get you to the shower room and then take you home.”
The hot spray of water felt good as Kit let it run over her shoulders and down her back. She scrubbed herself twice with the soap, even washed her hair with it, until all she could smell was the clean, sterile, antibacterial odor.
Kit didn't want to think about the pain or the fear of dying. She didn't want to think about the place she was taken tonight either.
The more she tried to fight it, though, the more she saw those eyes. The ones that were so cold they were glacial and imprinted into her subconscious glaring back at her.
She shivered even against the heat of the water and scoured herself again in an attempt to clear the image. To remove the stain of being a victim from her body.
If I could only scrub my memory the same way, she thought, as her skin burned red, and her tears fell in silence to join the water flowing down the drain.
Chapter Twelve
The two men stood in uncomfortable silence before their Alpha, ready to receive a verbal whooping. Fleet eyeballed two of his strongest pack members, also two of the biggest pains in his ass. One of which reminded him of his younger self.
Gunner, on the other hand, was loyal to the core when it came to pack, but man, he was a ticking time bomb. Unstable, on edge, he needed a night off PDQ to get well and truly laid. Fleet had suspicions about his tracker's sexuality. Gunner's preferences were no one's business but his own. Neither Fleet nor any other pack member would bat an eye if Gunner was gay. As Alpha, Fleet needed to maintain the health of the pack, and for now refused to pry any deeper unless Gunner's attitude got any worse.
Clearing his throat, he pinned the fiery shifter with a look so calm it was deadly. What he was about to do wouldn't be easy, but he saw no other way.
“As of now, Gun,” he hesitated as his second in command raised his head to look at him, hoping to find sympathy, but found no sway in his leader's eyes. “You're dismissed from your duties as beta until further notice.”
The red-headed male bit off a curse, pivoted on his heel and left the room slamming the door so hard the internal walls shook.
Cade kept his head bowed. His Alpha was clearly pissed. It'd be no good making a bad situation any worse than it already was.
“You know the rules, Cade.”
Hell yeah. He knew them, being reminded of them twenty-four-seven kinda made it impossible to forget.
“Goddamnit, Cade!” Fleet thrust a fist down onto his desk in frustration. “Does the girl know?”
Cade's head reared up and he caught his Alpha's furious scowl. “That I'm a shifter?” He shook his head. “No.” At least not yet. During the fight, both males had retained human form apart from fangs which had been concealed and retracted as soon as Fleet arrived. “But,” he added at his own risk, “I'm not backing away from Kit.”
“You made the pledge, the Society won't allow it and you know that.” Fleet knew Cade would do as he pleased, he always did when he felt passionate about something. It was a quality more than a hindrance, but it stung like the tail end of a damned whip when he defied pack laws and refused to listen to him. He sat down with a heavy thud and pushed his back into the leather chair. His muscles were pounding fists
beneath his skin, unable to relax and sleep most nights. He blew out a discontented sigh.
“Do you remember much about the accident?”
Cade's brow wrinkled at the sudden shift in subject. “I was just a boy, but yeah, I remember parts.” Memories flooded his mind. Twenty-four years on, he'd only been about six when his parents died in a car crash. His mom had been driving and swerved to miss a deer on the road, Cade had been thrown through the windshield. The scar on his face was a constant reminder. He later learned that any injuries sustained as a youngster before puberty and the transition hit, the scars would be permanent.
Even now he recalled the blood filling his mouth, the taste of the warm, metallic liquid. Pain stabbed him in the chest when he heard the faint echo of his mom's voice telling him to buckle up. He'd ignored her, and it eluded him why he hadn't fastened the damned seat belt.
Still, if he had perhaps he would have died that night too, and growing up without his parents he so often wished he had.
“It was me that found you.” Fleet's own memories turned back the pages. He'd only shifted a few years prior, and having been out checking the perimeter he'd heard the collision. He'd found the bloodied body of a female wedged between the front seat and steering wheel, and a male slumped forward over a thick branch that had pierced the glass and decapitated the poor bastard. The only survivor had been a small boy who had been propelled forward between the front seats and through the shattered windshield. It had been a goddamned miracle to find the kid alive.
Cade's eyes were wide. “You?” All his life he'd wondered about that night, trying to remember the little details that still escaped him. A sudden rage bubbled upward. “Why didn't you tell me?” He'd been placed with a surrogate mother. Alisha had been a kind and loving maternal, who raised Cade as her own among the families and elders until just before his transition hit, and he was chosen by the Society.
