Nobody's Hero

by Bec McMaster

  Colton stiffened.

  “No, don’t!” Lily cried out, grabbing Wade’s wrist. “He looked after me. He stopped the other man from hurting me.”

  Wade looked at her beneath his lashes. Slowly, his gun lowered. “That's the only reason I won't do this. Don’t follow us.”

  Colton slumped back, giving a pained wheeze that might have been a laugh. “No... intentions of....” He looked down, lifting his bloodied hand to examine the wound. As if the effort strained him, his head flopped back. “Leave me... a gun. For that pack... of hyenas... out there.”

  Wade tucked the pistol in the waistband of his jeans. “Riley, can you fetch my amulet?”

  She quickly retrieved the pair of polished charms, tucking them into her pocket. Wade had stepped past Colton with his bare feet, his body shielding Lily as he peered through the door. “They’ve gone to ground.”

  “For the moment,” she murmured, glancing at Colton. It was clear Wade had no intention of sparing him a weapon.

  A split-second decision. She clicked the safety off her own pistol and dropped it in his lap.

  Colton looked up at her in surprise.

  “Don’t make me regret it,” she told him, then slipped out after Wade.

  Twenty-Four

  One month later...

  LUC SHIFTED in bed, a warm armful against his chest hampering his movements. Riley grumbled sleepily, then brushed her lips against his bare chest.

  “Morning,” she murmured.

  “Morning,” he replied with a bemused smile. Of all the things he’d learned about her in the last month, the one that never failed to amuse him was this: she was barely human until after ten in the morning. "You said you didn't snore."

  "If I recall, I don't believe I ever actually answered that question. I asked if you snored," she grumbled sleepily, but the drum of his fingers along her hip was starting to wake her up. Riley shifted, brushing her ass against his cock.

  Luc inhaled sharply. "Temptress."

  "Demon," she whispered.

  "Crazy woman."

  "Kidnapper."

  "Best mistake of my life."

  Riley laughed. The sound of it thrilled him, sending his heart soaring. These were the moments between them that he enjoyed the most.

  Turning her face toward the door, she cocked her head, listening. “Lily’s not up yet?”

  Lily. His smile faded. “I can hear her shifting. She’s not quite awake.”

  Noticing the sudden stiffening of his shoulders, Riley stroked a hand over his chest. “Give her time,” she said. “She’s been through a lot.”

  He knew that. But knowing it didn’t stop the ache in his chest whenever his daughter’s gaze slid away from his. He let out a slow breath. Lily was getting better, slowly starting to respond to his questions, and letting him help her when she needed it. But he was fully aware that without Riley there to act as buffer between them, he wouldn’t have had a hope. As far as Lily was concerned, her father had died when she was two, and he was the warg who'd tried to kill her Uncle Adam. The fact that he was her father had been a nasty shock for her.

  Riley pressed a gentle kiss to his throat, in order to distract him. It might have been a whirlwind courtship, but she knew his moods well. Luc’s hand slid over hers, giving it a squeeze. That was one thing that was right about this new life of his. He didn't know when it had happened – when Riley had become the part of his life that he never wanted to lose – but he was glad it had.

  Wargs don't get happy-ever-afters. Wargs don't have a future.

  They were words he'd spent years telling himself, and they still struck at odd moments, but he knew them for the lies they were now.

  "This is my happy-ever-after," he whispered, rolling Riley onto her back, and coming over her.

  Her smile was slightly mysterious, but also happy. "Do I even want to know?"

  That smile. It killed him. Wrapped a hand tight around his heart and wouldn't let go. His gut tightened with nervousness, but he leaned forward and brushed his mouth against hers. A fleeting kiss, just a tease, and then she drew back with that wicked gleam shining in her whiskey brown eyes.

  Soft lips brushed against the slope of his shoulder, nibbling up to his neck. Those fingertips traced burning circles on his hip. Lower. Lower. Not quite low enough.

  "Again?" she whispered.

  "Helps keep control," Luc replied quickly.

  "Really?" The word came out dry. "You wouldn't just be telling me that in order to get me into bed?"

  "I'm already in your bed," he said. Those teasing fingers trailed down his flank, growing lighter and lighter until they broke from his skin, just before she reached the thatch of hair between his thighs. "I want to be inside you."

  "You already are," she whispered, kissing his soft mouth. Taking his hand, she pressed it between her breasts. "You're in here. You'll always be in here."

  Luc stilled above her, a shudder running through him. "You don't know how much I fucking love hearing those words."

  Riley laughed, pressing her head back into the pillow and exposing her throat. Oh, she knew, all right; he could see it. A fierce urge came over him and he bit her throat, nipping at the skin, and then easing enough for him to press a kiss there. Riley moaned, her thighs falling apart and welcoming him between them.

  He took her slowly, filling her with one sure thrust, and then sliding sensually within her. When she moaned, he captured her mouth with heated kisses. "Quiet," he whispered.

  Riley shuddered beneath him, biting her lip as she tried to obey. The walls at Haven were solid stone, but there were some things he didn't want his daughter hearing. Somehow, the secretiveness of these encounters made them even more thrilling. He lost himself in her, and she in him, skin on skin, biting, licking, fucking….

  Afterward, they lay entangled, with Riley's head resting on his chest and her breasts pressed against him. Luc dozed, idly untangling her hair. These little moments were the most precious to him.

  A door creaked open elsewhere in the house, a sign that Lily was up and about. Riley sighed softly as he eased her head off his shoulder. “Time to be up and about, love.”

  “You’ve worn me out.” She stretched and yawned.

  “Hardly.” Luc laughed, slipping from the bed. “Come on, sleepyhead. This place isn’t going to rebuild itself.”

  * * *

  The sun soared in the sky by the time Luc set about his duties. He could hear Riley talking to Lily in the little room they'd managed to scratch out of the burned mess she'd once called home, and were now using as a kitchen. Haven had been hit hard by the reivers, but he liked the feel of the place. There was a natural spring in the center of town, around which sprang up a grove of cottonwood trees, and most of the buildings were still standing, as they'd been built from stone. Plenty of room for pens for some goats, or whatever Riley wanted to rear, and enough space in the lush garden at the back of her home so Lily could play safely all day.

  Of course, they were all alone out here, but that was the way he liked it. The rest of the townsfolk originally from Haven had stayed at Absolution, though some of them had ridden out after him and Riley when they'd discovered Lily was missing. Eden had led the charge, despite what the Council of Absolution had argued for. A rescue party made up of settlers, not soldiers, but he'd been grateful to see them when he, Riley and Lily made their dusty escape from Copperplate.

  Of course, that gratefulness had changed when they’d arrived back in Absolution.

  The soldiers on the gates had refused to let him in, eyeing him with hard, flat eyes. The distrust had probably been earned, but the rejection had come hard on the heels of his daughter’s. Luc had taken one step back, not quite certain what he was going to do, when Riley came to the rescue, taking Lily by the hand and telling him she’d be back with their things.

  So he’d sat on the hot sand outside Absolution’s walls and waited, wondering if both of them would return. Eden had brought him water, perhaps out of pity. Per
haps out of a sense that her own brother was facing the same rejection. Or perhaps just because that was the type of person she was.

  When Riley and Lily returned with their bags, he’d almost been surprised. He shouldn’t have been, however; Riley wasn’t the type of person to go back on her word. With a smile, she’d slipped her hand inside his and gestured for the keys to one of the jeeps from Eden. “I know exactly where we’re going to go,” she’d said.

  Haven.

  It felt strange to think of the place as his new home. He’d moved around so much in the past eight years that he could barely remember what it felt like to have a place of his own. He liked it. Every day was long and hard, but at least he could sit back as dusk settled in the sky, looking out over what he’d done for the day with a solid sense of achievement.

  Squatting low, Luc took hold of a heavy beam of fallen timber, grit his teeth together, and began hauling it out of the way. Sweat trickled down his spine, and he dropped it in the pile of lumber that was still good enough to re-use. Dusting off his jeans, he paused. An engine’s roar echoed faintly on the breeze.

  Two shadows leapt to life across the blistering haze of the plain surrounding Haven. Two men on motorbikes, by the look of it. Luc headed for the shotgun he’d propped against the porch and yelled, “Riley! Visitors!”

  "Friend or foe?"

  "Don't know!" he replied.

  Stalking out into the street, he squinted through the hot sunlight. Tension eased from his shoulders when he recognized the lead rider. McClain. A different kind of tension filled him, but he lowered the shotgun, waiting for the pair of them to arrive. At McClain’s side was a lean young man, whom he recognized as Cole, the soldier he’d cut up at Salvation. They eased to a halt, McClain raking the buildings around them with a hard glare.

  Silver winked at the kid's throat – the amulet that Luc had taken from Cane and given to him at Absolution when they'd returned with Lily. It had been the least he could do, though judging from the narrowed look Cole shot him, the gesture hadn't granted him forgiveness.

  Not that he blamed him.

  Cole's hand strayed to his hip, and Luc tensed—

  And then a hand slid into his, tugging at it to get his attention. Lily stepped between them, giving Cole her back as she held up her hands to Luc.

  It was the first time she'd made some sort of overture toward him. And even though it cut his heart fair out of his chest, he tried to steer her back toward the house, where Riley stood watching, with a shotgun slung over her shoulder."Honey, you shouldn't be out—"

  "Up," she said, tugging at his hand again and glancing over her shoulder toward Cole.

  The kid looked like a kid again, barely a man, but old enough to look chagrined. "Ain't here for vengeance, Lily."

  "Good," she said, and somehow Luc found his arms full of his daughter, with her legs slung over his hip. She was far too big to carry, but he didn't let her go. The last time he'd held her like this, she'd been two.

  McClain eased in beside him, riding on the brakes. "Wade. Riley." He tipped his head in a nod. "Got any water a man could borrow?”

  "This way," Riley said, stepping forward with a wary smile. She gestured to Cole. "I'll show you where the spring is. Lily, do you want to help?"

  "Hey, Adam!" Lily waved, then slipped down his hip and took off after Riley and Cole.

  "He won't—"

  "He won't hurt them," McClain said, watching them both go. He arched a brow at Luc as the tension eased out of him. "He's a good kid. Not your biggest fan, but then I've explained matters."

  Something wriggled in the saddlebags slung over McClain's bike. Light flashed off the solar panels that decorated the metal body of it. Gasoline was getting scarce – and expensive – and most vehicles out here were equipped with both sources of fuel.

  "You bought a housewarming gift?" He could smell it.

  McClain actually grinned, then flipped open the bag and hauled out a fat, wiggling pup. He handed him over, and Luc was forced to take it. The ball of fluff wriggled its little body, then licked him.

  "You might as well put him down," McClain said. "He'll follow Lily."

  Doing as he said, Luc watched the pup shoot off in the direction the others had gone. Damn dogs. The pup vanished behind the wall Luc had patched the day before, and then let out a few happy yips. Two seconds later, Lily cried out in delight, "Arthur!"

  "Let me guess, I have another mouth to feed now?" he asked drily.

  "You don't have to." McClain shrugged.

  Yeah, right. He could hear the sound of his daughter's happy laughter. It wasn't really a choice. Checkmate to McClain.

  "So Cane's dead," McClain said, slinging his leg over the bike and kicking out the rusted old kickstand. "And Colton?"

  "Probably still alive to haunt me." Luc scowled. "I couldn't shoot the bastard. He saved my life, shot Cane himself."

  A humorless snort from McClain. "Guess he finally broke free of that alpha bond Cane had on him. I'd still watch my back if I were you."

  "Always do."

  "Different now you've got family to watch over though," McClain said. "It makes it harder, when you care for them. Takes away that edge you always had."

  "You should know."

  "I did know." McClain's voice held a soft note of what was in the past. He looked away, surveying the burned buildings that Luc and Riley had been slowly cleaning up, but it was clear that he didn't see them.

  "So, they let you out of the cage?" Luc said. "What now?"

  McClain shrugged. "Seemed a good time to head out, perhaps see a bit of the world. I know where my skills lie. Could turn my hand back to bounty hunting. At least it's one thing I'm good for, cleaning up shit like that."

  Shit like us remained unsaid.

  "You could stay here, if you wanted," Luc said, even though the offer wasn't entirely a great one. "Lily still thinks you're her uncle. She asks about you sometimes."

  McClain shook his head. "Don't think so. Thanks." And his gaze drifted to the wall, where Riley, Cole and Lily had disappeared behind.

  "A couple of months ago, all I ever wanted was to see you dead," Luc admitted. "So I won't pretend that we're friends again. But... You ever need a place to stay, you remember that the offer's there."

  "And all I wanted was to make up for what I'd done to you, to find some way to bring you back. Just can't wrap my head around it, that Riley'd be the one who saved you."

  "Some things are worth fighting for. Riley's one of them."

  A shared nod.

  "Yeah, I get that," McClain said, and there was bitterness in his voice. "Thought that myself. Once upon a time." He sighed, slipping his hat off and raking a hand through his short-cropped hair. "I can't even be pissed at you for it. She's different with you than she ever was with me. And I'm glad... Glad that someone got through to you. I guess you could say that giving her up is my penance for what I did to you. I won't begrudge you for it."

  Luc snorted. "Perhaps. But then you never had her."

  McClain's eyes narrowed, but then he laughed. "You always did have a mean mouth on you."

  "I always told the truth, whether or not you wanted to hear it."

  "Then tell me this," McClain locked hard green eyes on him, suddenly serious. "It never goes away, Luc. The monster... It's always there, lurking inside me, inside us... How can you risk it? How can you stay here, with her and Lily, knowing it might come out one day?"

  "How did you stay there?" he replied. "All those years, with all those people, even your sister?"

  McClain shuddered. "That was the second time I ever turned, did you know that? The second time. I think I managed to bury it for so many years, once I put the amulet on, that I forgot how hard it was. I had this... this illusion that I controlled it. Keeping it locked up never hurt as much as it does now. I feel like the monster got a taste of what it feels like to tear through my skin, and breathe the hot, scented air of a desert night. It could smell the people around it, and my mouth wa
s watering at the taste of flesh. At the idea of eating my friends." His voice roughened. "It's still there, and it's hungrier than it ever was. It yearns now. It remembers what it feels like to be free." McClain swallowed, his voice breaking. "How do I ever risk finding a home again? How can I ever hope... for anything... when it lurks inside me?"

  "Because it's not uncontrollable," Luc admitted.

  McClain breathed a bitter laugh. "Then what happens when one night it breaks free and you tear your wife to pieces, Wade? You want truth? That's the truth, staring you right in the face, even if you won't admit it. You can't lock the warg away within you forever."

  That was fear talking.

  "I always used to think that too. I was so afraid to destroy the people I loved, that I walked out on my wife and daughter. For years, I never considered that there could be another option." Luc sighed, reluctant to even remember that night when Riley had held a monster's hand and lived to tell of it. That memory would haunt his dreams forever. "But I've made my peace with myself, and the truth is this: I'm not afraid to live a life with Riley. I'm not. Because I've stared that fear in the eye, and I got through it." McClain shot him a hopeless look, but Luc powered on. "You want the truth? Cane locked me in with Riley, and took my amulet. All night."

  McClain's eyes sharpened. "And you didn't turn?"

  Luc shook his head. "I turned. I can't even explain it. You know we're always there inside the warg, or at least a part of us is. It scared the hell out of me, that I could lose... lose the one woman I loved, at my own hands. For the first time, I was in control of the beast. I was the one holding the reins as it lurked deep inside me, even when I wore its skin."

  McClain breathed out a laugh. "Fuck." He looked utterly haggard. "It's like a dream."

  "No, it's not," Luc said. "It was a nightmare, McClain. If Riley had shown a single hint of fear, she'd be dead. The monster would have roused at the scent of it, and overridden me. And I had someone else that I was saving all of its rage for. We were lucky. But... I understand now." Their eyes met. "I don't blame you for what you did to me, not with your own sister locked in the cell with you."