It was hard to believe that the man she’d been living with for the past three months was capable of such callousness. Part of her wanted to think that there was another explanation, because Scarborough had never shown her anything other than kindness and compassion. But it had to have been an act, and that was scary, that she had never picked up on it, that she had been so desperate for companionship, she hadn’t noticed anything was off.
Wandering aimlessly around Sebastian’s musty and cold condo, she knew she couldn’t just sit there, worrying. He had clearly been hurt, and she understood that. She only hoped he would give her the opportunity to have a rational discussion about it.
In the meantime, she needed to cancel her wedding to his brother. Both for herself and her own peace of mind, and for Sebastian’s reassurance.
Leaving a note for Sebastian right inside the front door taped to the back of a kitchen stool she had dragged over, Liv put his house key on the stool and left.
Sebastian paced in front of Nick, who was sitting in his easy chair looking distinctly uneasy, his hair standing on end.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sebastian was wearing a pair of Nick’s sweatpants. Despite the cold, he hadn’t bothered asking for a shirt. He actually felt like his anger was generating a heat from his insides out.
“Tell you what?” Nick yawned. “Dude, I need some coffee.”
“That Liv is marrying him next Saturday!”
Nick’s eyebrows went up. “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess I figured if you knew about them being together, you knew that too. And I didn’t think I should be bringing it up . . . thought it might be a sore subject for you, ya know?”
That it most definitely was. “Well, what the fuck! Why would she do that?”
“I’m guessing you need to talk to her about that, not me.” Nick shrugged. “And maybe it was just because he asked and you never did.”
That was exactly what he didn’t need to hear.
“Thanks a lot.”
“Sorry, but what do you want me to say? Bad shit has gone down, man, and I think it’s more important that you figure out what you’re going to do about it from here.”
“I’m going to stop him. I’m going to take over the pack again.” Sebastian knew Scarborough would be back at his house around eight. He would deal with him, then go back to his condo and get Liv. The whole thing could be handled in the next two hours.
Nick leaned forward, hands on his knees. “I support you wanting to take leadership again. I’m there with you. What your brother did was beyond wrong. But I can’t be a part of murder.”
“I’m not going to kill him unless I have to.”
That was the difference between him and his brother.
He still had a conscience and moral boundaries.
“Can you get the others and meet me in the woods beyond Scarborough’s in about an hour?”
Nick still looked reluctant, but he stood up. “Yeah. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to Denny’s for a steak and egg breakfast.”
His cousin gave a snort of laughter. “Nice.”
“What?” Sebastian touched his bare stomach, the pit there driving him to distraction. “I need protein.”
“We are one wacky family, man.”
“Tell me about it.”
Liv tried to watch TV, glancing at the time on her cell phone every five minutes. Seven-thirty. Scarborough should be there soon. She was a bundle of nerves, alternating between staring blankly at the TV and checking her phone for both the time and to see if either Sebastian or Scarborough had called her. Neither had, and she was about to crawl out of her own skin if she were left alone any longer.
She jumped when she heard the whirr of the garage door going up.
When Scarborough came into the family room, rolling his suitcase behind him, dressed to the nines and looking alert and fresh despite the fact that he couldn’t have slept more than a couple of hours, Liv swallowed hard and tried to force a smile.
“Hey,” he said, looking surprised. “I didn’t think you’d be awake so early. It’s Saturday. You usually sleep in.”
“I couldn’t sleep. How was your flight?” Liv hugged her knees to her chest and mentally rolled her eyes at herself for making such an inane comment.
“Fine. My call didn’t wake you up, did it?” He left his suitcase by the kitchen door and came over to her, dropping onto the couch next to her and squeezing her knee.
Shaking her head, she said, “No.” Liv searched his eyes for any sort of anger, animosity, evil, but she couldn’t see anything. They were just . . . eyes. Maybe a little empty, but that wasn’t a crime, was it?
“I missed you.” He smiled and leaned forward.
He wanted to kiss her, obviously. Like normal. Like anything was normal anymore.
“We need to talk,” she blurted out, unable to fake her way through even a simple kiss. She just couldn’t do it.
He sat back, his face calm, a smile still playing across his lips despite the fact that she knew she must look slightly crazy. Liv could feel her fingers shaking on her legs.
“Okay. What about?”
“I . . . we . . . I think we should really think about postponing the wedding.”
His smile disappeared. “Why would we do that?”
Liv told herself not to give in to fear. Just be honest, explain how she felt. He would understand. “Because I have all these feelings, all these questions and concerns, and I think the thing is that maybe we rushed this.”
“I don’t think we rushed it at all. I’ve cared about you for years, we know each other backwards and forwards. You’re just feeling pre-wedding jitters. I think everyone has those.”
Damn. He wasn’t going to make this easy. “Do you have them?”
“No. But then I never doubt any decision I make.”
That was definitely true about him. “See, I doubt every decision I make. I just feel like something is off. . . .” That she was in love with his brother. “And it’s not fair to you.”
The smile returned, and he looked confident that he would coax her back around. “I’ll decide what’s fair to me and what’s not. I want to be married to you.”
“Why?” she blurted out. She had stupidly thought this would be easier. That she would say she had doubts, that he would be hurt and retreat in anger. The wedding would be off, and she would figure out her next step from there.
“Because I love you,” he said smoothly, with no hesitation.
For the first time, she thought his words had the hint of a pat answer. Was there true emotion? Or was he just telling her what he thought she wanted to hear?
“I . . .” God, she didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t even express her gratitude to him for the last six months knowing it was him who had taken Sebastian away from her. “What if the sex between us is terrible?”
That wasn’t really what she was concerned with, but she was desperate. She had only half-truths and betrayal, and God knew, she wanted to get out of this without any sort of real confrontation. She wasn’t good at conflict. She had always liked everything even.
Which was probably the very reason she had found herself engaged to Scarborough.
He actually laughed. “Given that we’re two healthy, experienced adults who care about each other, I can’t imagine that would happen.”
Oh, she could imagine that it would be quite awful, actually.
“But if that’s your main concern, we can settle that very easily, you know.” His fingers moved up her leg to her inner thigh and he stroked across the seam of her jeans.
Liv jerked a little at the feel of his touch on her crotch. That wasn’t what she had meant, and it felt invasive, not seductive. Panicked, she opened her mouth to say something, anything, but he was already moving in closer.
“I’ve wanted you for a long time,” he said, eyes darkening. “Let me make love to you, Liv.”
“Scarborough,” she managed, clamping her legs toget
her. “This isn’t what I want. No.”
“Yes.” He was close to her face, intending to kiss her.
Liv shoved his hand off her leg and was about to scramble away from him, when he suddenly froze, nose wrinkling, eyes narrowing.
The transformation on his face was unbelievable. He went from calm and determined to base and ugly, his features contorting in anger.
“You have Sebastian’s scent on you.”
CHAPTER NINE
At the look on Scarborough’s face, Liv felt the fear slam into her like a gale-force wind.
“What?” she said stupidly, even as she dropped her feet to the floor.
This wasn’t going to go well.
How could he know about Sebastian? There was obviously a lot she didn’t know about werewolf abilities.
“He’s not dead, is he? He’s not dead, and you fucked him. I can smell him on you!” Scarborough grabbed her arm and shook her. “Answer me.”
She shot up off the couch and stumbled backward, tripping over the coffee table. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You told me Sebastian just skipped town. Why would he be dead?”
“Don’t be cute.” Scarborough stood up slowly, his hands curled into fists. “You know everything, don’t you?”
Though the power of his presence, his height, the strength of his arms, the broadness of his shoulders intimidated her, Liv didn’t want to cower. Now she knew the whole truth, and it wasn’t a pretty one. Scarborough had played her for a total fool, and none of his affection for her had been real.
“Yes. I know that I’m a werewolf too, and you didn’t bother to tell me. I know you lied to me about Sebastian. That you tried to kill him.” She started to back up slowly, wanting distance between them.
“Is that what he told you? Very interesting, and very pathetic on your part.” Scarborough shook his head in disgust. “He just walked back into your life and you fell for his lies, and let him right back into your pants.”
He was the one lying, she knew that. She trusted Sebastian.
But it still hurt when Scarborough said, “You’re blind, Liv. Totally blind. How long are you going to let him keep screwing you? What’s in it for you? I’d bet this house he still didn’t ask you to marry him.”
He hadn’t. But they had talked about a future together. It was implied. She knew that.
But anything she said was going to sound stupid and defensive. So she just tilted her chin up and said, “I’m not going to discuss this with you if you’re going to talk to me like that. I appreciated at the time that you helped me out and were a friend to me when Sebastian disappeared, but the truth is, I never would have needed that if you hadn’t betrayed your own brother. So I owe you nothing. No thanks and no explanations.”
He gave a short laugh. “So you’re going to stand by your piece-of-shit man, is that it? Well, more power to you, honey. Enjoy a miserable life in poverty with an unemployed man who will never commit to you.”
Liv just turned on her heel and headed for the door, not wanting him to see that he knew how to hit on all her worst insecurities. She craved commitment, a permanency, had a neediness about her because she’d lost her parents so young. She knew that. Which was why she was going to be content with whatever Sebastian offered her. If it was genuine and with love, which she knew it was, then her insecurities had no business forcing him into something he didn’t need or want.
“Why are you wearing shoes in the house at eight in the morning?” he asked.
Liv didn’t answer, just kept walking, grateful she did have shoes on. She wouldn’t have to pause when she went through the door and got the hell out.
“I guess I should be glad you fucked him somewhere other than my own bed.”
She couldn’t help it. She reacted, pausing, her shoulders giving an involuntary jerk.
“Oh, you bitch,” he breathed from right behind her, his voice shaking with fury.
Liv walked faster. Scarborough grabbed her arm and drew her up short. Shocked at the rough grip of his hand on her arm as he forced her to turn and face him, Liv yelled, “Let go of me!”
“Not until you give me a piece of the ass you keep letting my brother have so willingly.”
Bile rose in her throat. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m very serious.” Scarborough yanked her purse out of her hand and tossed it fifteen feet back into the family room. “Were your keys in there? Why don’t you bend over and get them?”
Disgust and fear swept over her, turning her skin clammy, and a hot anxiety rose in her mouth. She didn’t know what to do. If she went for her purse, she would be nowhere near a door, and he would have her on the ground in a minute. There was no way she could fend him off if he truly wanted to rape her.
Her fear was amusing him. A sick smile was smeared across his face.
“Not your first choice? You know, you’re right. I’d actually like to see your face when I’m fucking you. Back up against that wall.”
Without further thought beyond the immediate desperate urge to get away from him, Liv backed up, then turned and ran, hurling the door to the garage open and darting through it. She tried to pull it closed behind her, but she just managed to hit him in the shoulder with it. Sprinting across the concrete, she expected to feel him grabbing on to her, but a glance back showed he was just standing in the doorway.
Maybe he hadn’t been serious. Maybe it had just been a sick mind game.
“Go ahead and run,” he told her, his voice hard and cold. “I like the chase. And you know I always get what I want.”
She did know that about him.
And she also saw that as she left the garage he was shifting to wolf.
Her first thought was to run down the driveway to the main road. A car was bound to pass in a minute or two. But then that car could very well just be Scarborough. A glance at the woods as she ran across the grass showed her a lone wolf standing on the edge of the tree line. It was too far away to see who it was, but she veered towards him. If it was Sebastian, she had to assume that, angry with her or not, he would protect her. If it was one of their cousins, she would pray for the same.
But then as she got to the edge of the woods, ten feet from the wolf, she realized there were three more with the first, none of them recognizable to her in wolf form. She just knew they weren’t Sebastian.
A glance behind her showed Scarborough running effortlessly behind her, keeping pace about twenty feet back.
She didn’t know what the wolves could understand, having no real memory of being one herself, so she just ran past them yelling, “Help me!” hoping they would understand.
Then her dream popped into her head as she leapt over brush and a fallen log, her lungs already straining with the effort of running as fast as she could. The cold and the wind slashed her cheeks as she remembered standing in the woods in her dream, facing down the dark wolf with the angry eyes.
While the others simply watched.
Scarborough was the dark wolf.
She was truly alone. No one was going to help her.
Slowing down, she realized for the first time in her life, that being alone wasn’t the enemy. Fear was.
Liv halted her steps. Whirling on one foot, she turned and confronted Scarborough.
He drew up short, obviously surprised that she had stopped running. Back twenty or thirty feet were the other wolves, moving warily as they watched.
No Sebastian.
“Go ahead,” she told Scar. “Rape me, kill me, do whatever you want. But I’m going to fight you. And I’m going to spit in your face while you do it.”
Scarborough stared at her, his dark eyes flashing, his teeth baring, a low growl deep in his throat causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end.
But she refused to let that stop her. She couldn’t outrun him. At least she was going to have some dignity and go down letting him see the disgust on her face and the hatred in her eyes. She leaned over and picked up a stick and threw it at him.<
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He jumped out of the way, but it still clipped his back.
“Just do it!” she screamed.
Watching him hunch down low, she knew he was going to spring, that he would be on her in seconds and then it would all be over. Liv narrowed her eyes and focused on his canine teeth to steady herself.
Her own teeth hurt, her fingers tingled, her legs twitched.
And right as Scarborough sailed through the air and landed on her, Liv realized she was in wolf form.
She didn’t know what she was doing, but instinct sent her straight for his throat.
Sebastian knew something was wrong the second he reached the house. Both Scarborough and Liv’s cars were in the garage, and the door was open. He was still in wolf form and he headed for the woods, picking up the scent of the entire pack immediately, including Scar.
He also smelled the sickly sweet smell of Liv’s fear.
Damn it. Why the hell hadn’t she stayed at his condo like he’d meant for her to do?
Of course, he hadn’t really told her that. He’d been so angry, his shift imminent, that he hadn’t communicated anything to Liv at all. She had probably been wondering what he was doing.
And now she was in danger, and if anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
He got to the woods in time to see Liv shift and meet Scar’s charge head-on.
Jesus.
She could never overpower Scarborough, and Sebastian’s adrenaline pushed him faster. This was not a fight for domination. He could see from his brother’s stance and blows that he intended to kill.
Liv got in a good bite on Scarborough’s throat before he knocked her to the ground. The yelp of pain she gave infuriated Sebastian. He jumped, landing on his brother’s side, shoving him off Liv and tumbling to the ground with him.
He had the element of surprise. His brother didn’t immediately react, and Sebastian pinned him and went for the throat. They locked eyes, brother on brother, and for a split second, Sebastian thought about showing him some kind of mercy. Banishment. Retribution.
The Howling Page 6
