Blair sighed and walked into the kitchen where Scarlett and Lani were doing dishes and talking. Blair poked a lazy finger in the dish water and sighed again, which Scarlett knew full well-meant something was on her mind.
“Spill it, girl. We’re mostly alone, so there is no better time.”
“Nah, I’m fine. I may just get some air though. Maybe the view will do me a little good, clear my head,” Blair said as she made her way out to the patio. Scarlett called after her.
“It gets really dark out there at night! Don’t forget to turn on the lights. The switch is by the patio table off to the left.”
Blair walked out on to the pitch-black patio and fumbled around for a minute looking for the light switch. When she finally found it, she flipped it on, and light flooded the porch. And when the light hit the patio table, revealing a tiny woman flaming red hair sitting on the edge…
She caught the scream threatening to escape her throat.
Chapter 16
Blair
“Who the hell are you?” Blair stammered as she inched back toward the sliding door. But the woman held up her hand, and Blair stopped in her tracks. Despite her size, something was dominating about her, and Blair felt like doing anything other than what she asked would be a bad idea.
“There’s no need to involve anyone else, Blair. We’re just two ladies, having a chat, on a beautiful night under the harvest moon.”
Blair crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “It’s the wrong time of year for a harvest moon. That’s just a full moon. And how the shit do you know my name?”
She shook her head, laughing, and it put Blair even more on edge.
“I know a lot of things, Blair. Like, you think you’re dating Declan. And that maybe, he loves you? That he plans to stay with you and make you his mate? Am I in the ballpark?”
Blair tried to inch a little further away from her. Is this why everyone has been so on edge? This woman? Blair tried to gather all of her strength and courage because this chick seemed to be sapping it from her sure as she stood there.
“I’m not sure it’s fair that you claim to know so much about me, and I don’t even know your name,” Blair said with as confident of a tone as she could muster. The woman half-smiled.
“I’m Lucy. It’s lovely to meet you officially.”
Oh, fuck. It suddenly clicked. Lucy. The red hair. The screaming. The crying in the bushes at Scarlett and Kurt’s engagement party.
“I know you. You’re the one who caused the scene at the party when Declan had to leave. I think it’s safe to say that not only does nobody know you’re here, but nobody wants you here either.”
Lucy laughed bitterly. “Listen, Blair. Let’s not be rude to one another. I’m here to help you. To do you a solid. I think women should look out for each other, and since your little friends in there don’t seem to have your best interest at heart, I thought someone should. I’m only here to help, Blair.”
The way she said her name made Blair’s skin crawl. “Oh? And how exactly are you planning on to help me?”
Lucy leaped to her feet like a little ninja, and Blair almost fell backward. Why am I so scared of this woman?
“No one here is being honest you. I’m going to be honest with you.”
Blair looked out of the corner of her eyes into the house, but she couldn’t see Scarlett or Lani. She wondered if they’d gone to bed. Great timing, ladies. “Okay, then. Be honest.”
“Declan is using you, Blair. The same way he used me. All of these shifters? They just want a warm body to stop Declan’s bear from going feral. And you were the first one he saw that seemed like an easy target. I know this man, Blair. I was with him for a long time. He is going to use you and throw you away as he did to me. And you don’t deserve that. I can tell.”
Blair’s heart dropped. “And why should I believe you? Over Declan? Over my best friend?”
Lucy shook her head like Blair was the most pitiful person in the world. “Because, Blair. Everyone in the clan? Their future is dependent on Declan not going feral. It’s bad for the group, for their image, if they lose a member to mate madness. Plus, they’re all in just as much danger as anyone else if he were to go on a rampage. It’s in their best interest for him to stay nice and docile. And they see you as a means to an end. I mean, come on, Blair. Do you really think he fell in love with you after three days?”
Blair shrunk back against the house, feeling her whole being deflate. Lucy was verbalizing every fear she’d had over the last two days, but hadn’t wanted to express in case they were true. But could this strange, possibly-crazy woman, actually be telling her the truth?
“I don’t believe that Scarlett would lie to me,” Blair said feebly. Lucy tilted her head and made a pouty face that would have totally pissed Blair off under different circumstances.
“Oh, honey. I don’t think she’s lying to you. I just don’t think any of those women know the truth. These bears have them snowed, so to speak. And while it might be too late for them, it’s not too late for you. You should get away from him while you still have the chance, while you’re not tied to these monsters.”
Blair choked back a sob. “How do you know any of this? About me? That Declan is lying to me about… anything?”
“Because I came here to warn you anyway, to try and tell you that you were too good for these filthy beasts, and I overheard Declan and Kurt plotting. They’re just trying to trick you into staying, into being his beard to shut up that raging creature inside of him. Why should you do that, Blair? Why should you let yourself be used like that?”
Blair bit down on her lip. As much as she hated to admit it, Lucy was probably right. There was no way Declan could have actually fallen for her in just a matter of days. Blair didn’t want Lucy to see her cry, so she spun on her heel and ran down the porch to the bedroom where she and Declan were staying. She was gone so quickly; she couldn’t see the satisfied smirk on Lucy’s face as she walked down the stairs, and into the woods.
When Blair got to the bedroom, she jammed all of her things back into her suitcase, then dug around in Declan’s stuff for the keys to the rental car.
“He can find his own ride back,” she muttered to herself as she jammed the keys in her pocket, then tried to quietly drag her suitcase down the hallway so she wouldn’t wake anyone up. When she got to the living room, she could just hear the dull hum of conversation from the bears’ meeting space. Blair tip-toed to the front door and pushed it open, hoping they didn’t have crazy heightened senses that would hear any of the noise she was making.
Once she was outside, and the door quietly shut behind her, she ran to the car and threw her bag in the back seat. Then she jumped behind the wheel, just trying to keep her faculties in check long enough to get out of the driveway. She turned the car on, and just as she put it in drive, she saw Scarlett come running out onto the porch. The windows were up, but Blair heard her shout through the muffle of the glass,
“Blair! What the hell? Where are you going?”
Blair just shook her head and wiped away a tear, then pressed the gas down as far as it would go, spinning the tires on the gravel, then speeding off down the driveway and away from the lodge. She could just see Scarlett in the rearview throwing her hands in the air in frustration as she tried to chase after the car. Once Blair was out of view of the house, she turned off her phone, so she wouldn’t see any calls that came in. She didn’t want anyone calling her and trying to convince her to come back.
Tears started to well up even more as Blair pulled out of the mile-long driveway and onto the road that lead away from the lodge. She was grateful that there was only one road in and out of the town, and it would take it right down the mountain and back toward Boston. Her first order of business was to drop off the rental car and trade it for one that was in her name, so Declan couldn’t claim she’d stolen anything.
Not that he would.
Not that she knew that for sure.
She didn’t fe
el like she knew anything for sure anymore. All she wanted to do was get back to Boston, so she could think, so she could make sense of everything that had happened. Maybe Lucy was the last person in the world she should trust, but did she know Declan well enough to trust him either? Blair felt her eyes getting blurry from the tears, so she pulled over to try and calm down.
Blair wiped the tears from her eyes again once the car was in park and took a few deep breaths. She checked a map in the glove compartment to see where the next town was since she wasn’t sure was going to make it to Boston in the state she was in. Instead, she found a town called Marion that looked large enough to have a rental car place and a hotel, so she set the GPS that came with the rental for the town and got back on the road.
With a heavy heart and a head full of doubts, she put Boulder, and Declan, in her rearview…
And didn’t look back.
Chapter17
Declan
Six Weeks Later
“Declan! Declan, man, open the door! You need to eat something. It’s been days.”
Kurt shouted through the door, but Declan just ignored him, like usual. With a frustrated sigh, Kurt left a plate of food outside of the door and went back down to his office. For the last four weeks, Kurt was the only person that was allowed to go to east wing of the manor in Boulder to check on Declan, but for the last two weeks, he wouldn’t speak to even Kurt. He had only been getting worse with each passing day, and Kurt had made it clear that he no idea what to do about it.
Nothing had gone right since that last night at the lodge. Declan and Kurt had been finishing discussing calling in backup on Lucy when Scarlett had come running into the meeting room.
“She’s gone!” she’d shouted.
Declan and Kurt had looked at each other, confused.
“Who? Lucy?” Declan had asked.
“No! Blair! She just charged out of here with her suitcase, took the car, and sped off! Wait, Lucy? Why the hell would Lucy be here?”
Declan had charged out of the lodge and down the driveway, thinking he might be able to catch up with Blair but had been no use. He’d called her phone all night, had Scarlett call, and Kurt, but she’d turned her phone off and wasn’t turning it back on. Declan assumed that she had gone back to Boston. However, Blair wouldn’t answer any of their phone calls. Scarlett had even flown back home to Boston and went to Blair's apartment and office. But she was nowhere to be found.
Declan was inconsolable. Not only was Blair gone, but he had no idea what he’d done to make her leave. Nothing made sense, nothing about why she left, or why she was still gone. Scarlett and Lani had gone to bed, so they had no idea what had happened. One minute she was there, in his bed, in his arms, and the next she a shadow. Declan wasn’t the only one who was distraught, however…
His bear was out of his mind.
At first, his bear hadn’t wanted to admit that Blair was gone. It just paced back and forth, back and forth, until it was about to drive Declan crazy. Then the rage kicked in. Declan started snapping at the other guys in the clan, getting angry over nothing. But it kept getting worse. The next thing they knew, they were out at a bar, and Declan was throwing a college kid across the room for stepping on his foot. That night, the bears had a meeting and decided it was time to quarantine Declan until they figured something else out.
So, ever since that night, Declan had been stalking around the east side of the manor like a damn fairy-tale beast. Frank had been complaining about the persistent sound of his Declan’s feet walking back and forth across the floors, that it was driving him insane too. But nothing Kurt said was giving him any comfort, and no one had any idea how to help.
Kurt stayed near the east wing in order to watch over Declan. Through the thin walls, Declan could overhear Kurt sat in his private office, contacting some of the other clans, hoping to find an answer to Declan’s problem, when his Skype began ringing. It was Scarlett, and she sounded exhausted.
“Hey, baby. What’s wrong?” Kurt said.
“I found Blair,” she answered rubbing her eyes. Declan's sense immediately picked up. “She’s in upstate New York with her mom. She’s been working from home, using email and Skype to deal with clients. And no one has any idea when she is coming back if she comes back at all.”
“How did you find all of this out?” Kurt asked.
Scarlett laughed sadly. “I waited until after-hours and called the night receptionist. She’s a ditz and gives out info she shouldn’t all the time. What do we do, Kurt? Do we get her? She’s still not answering her phone. I mean, I hate that this happened to Declan. But I miss my friend too.”
Declan stood up, unable to sit still any longer. He walked over to the nearest wall and punched a large hole through it shaking the frame. Declan knew Kurt could hear him as he let out a frustrated sigh.
“Do you know where Blair’s mother lives?” Kurt asked.
“Yeah, of course. I used to go down there with her all the time after the accident,” Scarlett said with a nervous tone. “Why?”
“I’m going to buy you a plane ticket. You can fly down and talk to her. See if you can sort out what is going on here before Declan loses it entirely. I don’t know how much longer he can keep going like this.”
Scarlett quickly agreed. “I’ll pack. Just send me the flight information.”
Declan heard Kurt hang up the phone and listened to his footsteps pace back and forth. By this time, Declan had already punched another hole in the wall. He could tell he was barely hanging on to his sanity, but he refused to let his bear take over. He was afraid that if he did, he would never come back.
“Declan, I’m coming in," Kurt said as he knocked on his door.
He opened the door, and Declan watched as Kurt's shoulders slumped when he saw Declan, and what he’d done to the bedroom. There weren’t just holes in the walls from where he had been punching; there were long, deep claw marks everywhere, likely from Declan half-turning simply for the satisfaction of better-destroying things. Kurt kicked a torn-up pillow and blanket out of his way and walked over to where Declan was sitting in the corner of the room.
“Man, what the fuck are you doing in here? Are you trying to make the whole place just fall to the ground?”
Declan growled, and it was a sound that was far more bear than man, which made Kurt take a few nervous steps back. Declan didn't blame him. He strained to control his bear because the last thing he wanted was to turn the lodge into a fighting ground with Kurt; the lodge definitely wouldn’t survive it. Declan clenched and unclenched his fists as Kurt tried his best to defuse the situation.
“We’re doing everything we can to help you, Declan, but you have to help us too. You have to tell me what is going on in your head right now. We can’t do anything to get you out of this if you don’t give us some direction.”
Declan snarled again. “You think I know? I don’t know. All I know is my bear knows Blair isn’t here and it wants to destroy everything and everyone until she comes back. There is no reason left, and the frenzy is creeping over into my own mind. There is nothing to do without Blair here. No point. Nothing matters.”
Kurt kept his back to the wall, and Declan noticed that he kept his hands free so he could reach the door quickly if he had to. Declan knew that there was a wild, unhinged fire in his eyes that hadn’t been there a few days ago. The frenzy was getting worse.
“Declan, we’re trying to find her, but can you think of anything, any reason, why she left? Anything you did? Anything we did?”
He shook his head and twitched slightly as if he was fighting with an invisible, stronger force. “I didn’t do or say anything. We were supposed to talk after I talked to you. I was going to ask her to make things official. To try and be a couple. And then she was gone. I don’t know…”
Declan’s eyes got wider as if he had a revelation. “Did you see Lucy again after Blair left?”
Kurt furrowed his brow as he thought. “I mean, I never saw her begin with. But no,
I don’t remember catching sight of her before we left. Why? You don’t think?”
A low roar began deep in Declan’s belly, and when it escaped from his throat, it shook all of the furniture in the room. Kurt put his hand on the door knob, ready to run if he had to. But all Declan did was pick up an antique wooden chair and throw it with all of his strength against the wall, where it splintered into a thousand pieces. Then Declan turned to Kurt. Kurt needed to leave, and fast. He wasn't able to hold on to his humanity as easily when he was there.
“Get out. Get out before I do something I’ll regret.”
Kurt didn’t need to be told twice, and he spun around and booked it out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him. As soon as he was gone, Declan went into a fury, slamming his fists into the wall, ripping down curtains, and screaming at nothing and no one in particular. If Lucy had done something or said something to Blair, he didn’t even know where to begin or where to focus his fury. Instead, he just kept breaking things.
And his bear? The bear was even more furious. It was uncontrolled and thrashing inside of him, desperate for some outlet for its rage. It was taking all of Declan’s self-control to stop from turning right then and there, and he wasn’t sure how long he could manage to maintain himself. All he could think about was Blair and the fact he’d lost her, and that it might have been Lucy’s fault, and there was nothing he could do about.
At least nothing legal.
With one final roar, Declan threw himself on to the remainder of the torn-up bed and growled, hoping that some sleep might shut the bear up. It hadn’t worked so far, but every day brought fresh hope. Hope that his bear would calm. Hope that Blair might come back.
Furever Always (Furever Series) Page 31
