by Angela White
Tracy’s stress levels went up at that image. “Why would they come for you if Kyle’s in charge?”
“To get my mom to surrender. If she can’t find my dad, she’ll go to the bunker to take out the whole thing. She said the time for holding back was over.”
And with that, Charlie kissed Tracy in front of the camp.
Because he had made the move, and Tracy didn’t move at all, the Eagles left them alone. Even Daryl’s group only frowned and then went about their duties. The boy had made his choice. They had bigger battles to fight.
7
Angela and Dog walked through the camps around Safe Haven in tense silence. When the base fell the first time, these men had returned to honor their promises to Marc. As she moved through them, she read their grief and their love.
There was no doubt as to who she was. If Marc and the others hadn’t filled them in, they would have known her by those red orbs and the wolf at her side. This was the mate of their ghost. She was taking his place roaming their shadows.
Grendin joined Angela without speaking, dark eyes full of her misery. He could feel it coming from her in waves and regretted his choice to leave Marc behind.
“He insisted?”
Grendin found his voice. “Yes. He said my people were not to die for him…”
“Only for me.”
“Yes.”
Angela didn’t speak again, but Grendin could feel her scanning their thoughts, their memories. She wanted to know everything that had happened and Grendin had little doubt she would dig until she got them. Marc had been strong, but this woman radiated dark power like a ten-foot cloak. He could almost hear the hum.
Dog stopped suddenly, looking toward the small creek that ran alongside a few of the camps.
Angela changed direction.
Dog went to his old place at her heel and Grendin understood they were searching for more than thoughts or memories.
“You think he lives!”
Angela’s eyes blazed and Grendin recoiled as if stung. Her shout in his mind was ringing like a bell.
“I should have searched harder. I’m sorry…”
Angela ignored him to follow Dog’s nose.
They walked steadily for the next three hours, only stopping when the wolf needed to pick up the scent. Marc wasn’t answering her, but he couldn’t avoid the wolf. He’d healed Dog and that connected them. It also meant that Marc would know when she was close and have the chance to disappear.
He waits with great fear, Dog stated, tracking Marc easily now by the sense of doom. It matched that of the woman at his side. He is not alone.
Angela hadn’t expected him to be. Grendin was trailing her, along with a dozen others from the outside camps, and she was prepared to break through any defenses if she had to. Marc was alive, but he hadn’t come. She had to find out why. There was no moving on without knowing that.
8
The camp surrounding Marc came clear through the early morning fog and Angela paused at their border. She didn’t speak with any of the men on duty, but she stole every memory they had as she swept them.
Angela waved Dog into the tent, letting Marc have that moment to prepare for facing her. She could feel his terror from here. It was so unlike the man she knew that Angela had to give him time to get ready instead of bursting in like she wanted to.
Dog disappeared into the center tent and Angela heard Marc’s deep rumble.
“Welcome home.”
Angela longed to hear those words and she stepped forward, forgetting what Dog had told her.
Kendle came from the tent ready to fight…and listened to her heart shatter. One glimpse of the real thing was all it took to convince her she didn’t stand a chance.
Angela picked out their similarities and also their differences. The feel of Kendle’s disease was like a flame. She wondered if that heat was what had drawn Marc.
She scanned the scarred women intently, face tightening at the images. The need to kill was strong, but the pain was still in front, pushing the fire aside.
Kendle didn’t move.
The wolf behind her had growled and she’d left, but this woman wasn’t doing anything except staring. Kendle realized the wolf had been less dangerous.
She studied Angela’s clothes and looks, but it was the sense of raw power that said the most. She was stronger than Marc, stronger than any of the descendant fighters who’d come to help them. This woman wasn’t an alpha. She was the alpha.
Angela pulled every moment, every word, every touch. When she got to the kiss, pain lanced into Kendle’s heart. It wasn’t her own.
Angela broke the scan and pulled out of Kendle’s mind. She had sympathy against her will. The island woman had indeed come during salvation and blood, as Charlie had predicted. If she would save them all, remained to be seen. From Angela’s view, it appeared as though she’d destroyed them. It would depend on how Marc felt. Like him, Angela could walk away if that would make him happy.
Angela made a carefully controlled gesture, and Kendle was tossed aside as if she weighed nothing.
The castaway fell heavily against a nearby tent and scrambled to her feet.
She immediately went the other way and the watching Indians laughed and nudged each other. They knew what it was like to have two women in a tent together and it was amusing to find their Ghost having the same trouble. Betting began on who Kendle would be given to. Like her, they knew it was no contest on who he would keep.
Angela took a deep breath and ducked into Marc’s tent. She wasn’t as sure.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Homecoming
1
“Angie.”
“Marc.”
Sparks exploded as soon as their eyes locked. The same shade of red, they were both struck by the changes.
Angela was stunned to find out how strong Marc had become. Those glowing orbs said he really was like her and the other descendants. The door to his cell had snapped and he now embraced who he was.
Marc saw how much she’d aged since he left. Her power had grown and she’d gained a little weight, but the gray hair in that braid was striking. She hadn’t been feeding from Adrian or it would have returned to shiny ebony.
Tension built between them until Dog rose from his place at Marc’s feet and left the tent. They listened to him curl up outside the flap.
Marc slowly stood up and Angela almost broke. His use of the crutch was minor compared to the scars running down his arms and neck. They were from a knife fight, but the badly set ankle wasn’t healing right. The witch was pointing out each injury and cause as she found them, but Angela gently pushed her into the far corner.
The witch fell silent.
Marc was also refusing to listen to his own inner voice. He didn’t need to have her glow pointed out or the guilt on her face. Even if Adrian hadn’t tortured him with mental messages, he still would have known she’d been slowly falling apart.
Angela stepped closer, raising her hand. It wasn’t orbs that shot out this time, but a pale bolt of green light.
Marc stiffened at the feel of her–I’ve missed that!–and then realized his ankle wasn’t hurting anymore.
Angela didn’t heal his other wounds. He needed those badges of honor, the same as she did hers.
“Thank you.”
Angela’s eyes filled with tears that she blinked away angrily. The sound of his voice was enough to break her. How would she hold out if he wanted the island whore?
Marc wanted to go to her, but he wasn’t sure if that’s what she now needed from him. Adrian had sworn that a month was all it would take and he’d gotten quite a bit more in total.
“How are you?”
Marc’s voice was a live wire of nerves that made Angela wince.
Marc took it as another sign that she hadn’t been cared for.
“I’m alive,” she stated wearily. “As you are.”
Now came the time for it, but Angela found she couldn’t ask yet. She stalled
with the next biggest thing on her mind. “She loves you.”
Marc stiffened in misery and triumph. “Yes.”
“You allowed it…encouraged it.”
Marc felt her digging in his mind then and didn’t defend. She had a right to know.
“In case I’d chosen Adrian, or even fled with him and the boys.” Angela’s heart broke as she got the rest. “So you wouldn’t be left alone, without us.”
Marc came closer, red fading to sad blue. “Have you picked him?”
“No. Never.”
“Something happened. I sense it, feel it on you.”
Angela shoved her hands into her pockets so that she could clench fists against the desire of recalling it all, and then opened her mind.
Marc viewed it without any change in expression. He’d known Adrian would do something like that, but he’d expected it to go much further than an unwilling kiss. She’d been faithful to him.
“Always,” she whispered. “Can you say the same?”
Marc didn’t hear any accusation, only heart-stopping fear, and finally relented. “Yes. I can.”
Tears welled for her. “I’ve missed you…”
Marc didn’t hesitate any longer. “Come here.”
Angela curled into his embrace and began sobbing inside. The relief of still being wanted was powerful, but it was the easing of his mind that tore her up. He’d been so sure Adrian would win that he’d surrounded himself with platitudes and safety nets. The coldness wasn’t from him choosing another woman. He was trying to breathe, to go on, without her.
Marc held her close, nuzzling her neck to get in as much of her scent as he could. God, I need her so much!
She shivered against him. “Please?”
Marc took them to the cot and sank down with her in his arms.
Across his chest, Angela repositioned herself at his side, drawing a concerned glance thrown in a quick study.
Angela rose up on one arm and took his hand, placed it on her stomach.
Marc connected the sound and the feel, and then what it meant. That dark part of his soul began to lighten quicker.
Angela felt the wall between them melting, becoming a river of regret at her feet, and wrapped him in her arms. She didn’t budge again. She had no energy left. She’d used the last of it to demonstrate her power to Kendle.
Marc stayed awake a bit longer, remembering the few times it had felt like this while on the way to Safe Haven. It held the sense of a new beginning, but he wasn’t sure why. The new life they would welcome had to be a part of it, but there was the feeling that maybe he’d missed something else good that would come from all of this.
“Will she stay with me?” he questioned in a soft whisper.
The witch roused herself from his demon’s arms long enough to give an answer.
No. She came to tell you of the baby, and to set you free. If you love her, never leave her again.
Marc’s grip tightened. He wouldn’t. She’d been faithful to him, she still wanted him. That was all he needed.
2
Angela woke in the one place that she had longed for since the split and stayed still, breathing in Marc’s thick scents, listening to his light snore. The urge to bury her head against his chest and stay here forever was strong, but it wasn’t enough to hold her. She’d already chosen the herd over him and that hadn’t changed. If he wanted to be free, he now was. She slipped from his arms reluctantly.
Angela left his tent a few minutes later. She’d taken the time to say goodbye to Dog, and to thank him for bringing her here.
Reunited with his master, the wolf’s parting words had been much like the bond they’d shared before Marc’s power came between them.
You’ll be with him soon. I’ll be by his side.
Angela walked through the noon light with a blank expression. She didn’t speak to any of the Indians, leaving the way she’d come.
Kendle observed her exit from a nearby tent that the Indians had put up for her. She already knew what choice Marc would make, but over the hours she’d been waiting, Kendle had come to a few conclusions of her own. The biggest was that she didn’t love Marc, not the way she had Luke. She needed Marc to keep her sanity. Luke had been in her soul.
“That’s why I’m so dark now,” she realized. “It isn’t the ghosts of the past or the sickness. I miss my mate.”
Kendle’s tears sent her back into the tent and the Indians on duty upped their bets on who she would belong to when Marc rose.
3
“Marc’s home! Hey! Marc’s back!”
Marc withstood the greetings, the concern and the questions as best he could, rage boiling. There was only one person he wanted right now.
Neil met him at Safe Haven’s gate, but Marc cut him off. “Where is she?”
Neil waved toward the prepping area they’d set up along the mess truck. “She and Adrian are…”
Marc left him at the gate.
The guards were too happy to have him back to think of stopping him from coming through the second wire fence.
Neil hurried to catch up. “What is it?”
Marc didn’t answer.
Neil assumed he was in a hurry to make sure Angela was okay. They’d been apart for almost seven weeks and Neil hung back, not wanting to interrupt their reunion. At least we’ll have something good come from today, he thought.
Marc spotted those hated, golden spikes and that long, gray and black braid, and increased his pace. He’d been waiting for this, longing for it.
Angela turned around to view the QZ and gasped in surprise at the open, eager tiger that wouldn’t ever go into a cage again.
Adrian understood too late.
Thud!
Marc snarled at the impact. “That wasn’t…”
Kick!
“What I meant…”
Punch!
“When I said…”
Thud!
“To care for her!”
Thud!
Marc took a step back. “Get up!”
Adrian spit blood onto the ground and slung the same from his hands. “I did what I thought was…”
Thud!
Adrian’s own rage flared to life and he growled, “You don’t own her!”
Marc’s demon eyes were fierce. “You took advantage!”
Adrian spit blood again. “Yes.”
Marc paused, still not calming now that he’d drawn Adrian’s blood, felt it. “Don’t ever touch her again.”
“Unless she comes to me,” Adrian refuted, looking up confidently. “And we both know that she will. It’s why you’ve got another woman with you.”
Marc’s fist flew out again.
Thud!
“Yes, but she wouldn’t have if not for your lies and tricks.” Marc grabbed Adrian by the neck. “She’s mine. I don’t share my heart!”
Adrian’s eyes went to Angela. “She does. You can’t change that.”
Thud!
“No. I can’t.” Marc moved back, happily splattered in Adrian’s blood. “But I can take something from you and return the favor. She’s carrying my daughter.”
Marc smirked at Adrian’s thunderous face. “You’ll only have her when I’m dead.”
Adrian glared at Angela in betrayed accusation as he picked up her thoughts.
She stared back in defiant anger. “You gave me no choice.”
Marc wiped his hands down his jeans. “You can’t come between us now, no matter what services you provide while I’m away.”
Adrian’s eyes lit up with his inner demon for the first time inside Safe Haven’s borders. “I would have waited until it was safe for her, not used it to secure my hold! You’ve put her in danger.”
Marc had the grace to flush. “It wasn’t planned, obviously, but it’s been eight months since her miscarriage. She’ll be fine.”
Adrian spat at Marc’s boots. “Ask her why she told you no before, that it would come later. Ask her!”
Marc had a sinking feeling a
s he studied Angela. “What?”
Angela didn’t want to answer. She was scared of the truth. “I’m using a lot of energy. I’ll be…tired.”
“Tired?” Adrian snorted angrily. “It will consume her, drain her, until she loses it. Our kind has to keep a big reserve because the fetus is more evolved. That’s probably what happened to her last child.”
Both men glanced around for a common enemy in that area.
Kenn, drawn by the fight, flipped them the finger. “Fuck you assholes. I’ve got my own upcoming fatherhood to sort out.”
Shock came as everyone realized what that meant.
Seizing the opportunity, Adrian congratulated his XO with a bloody hug. “Good job, grunt!”
Even Marc found himself relieved. Not by Tonya’s conception, but by life trying to continue. He went to Angela with a much calmer heart.
“I’m sorry.”
Marc’s hand went to her soft cheek, nose being assaulted by her missed scent. “I know and it helped, but stop hating yourself now. That’s an order.”
Angela’s tears were unexpected and Marc hugged her close. “I mean it, Angie. I don’t blame you. His type of sleaze is hard to fight. They use the truth to trap you”
Angela cried harder, mumbling, and Marc had to strain to make out the words. “You what?”
“I was awake,” Angela sniffed guiltily. “I knew you weren’t.”
Marc stared in shock. And then burst out laughing. “I love you.”
Angela melted into his arms as a wave of purple rippled through the shield above them.
“Oh, Brady!”
She’d seen enough of the future to know this was the only thing that could give them peace. Adrian wouldn’t break up their happy family and neither would she.
4
“Hey, Smurf-balls.”
Kenn’s stomach dropped and he slowly turned around. He knew that damn voice.
Thud!
Marc’s single shot took the Marine to his knees.
“Stay there and listen.”
Kenn didn’t even think of arguing. Marc’s glaring red orbs held his death.
