by Dannika Dark
“Do you know him?” I asked, sitting up straight.
Trevor launched to his feet. “Stay here.”
I didn’t like his tone; it was a warning. I’d grown up with Shifters and knew a lot about the way they spoke and their body language.
The man branched away from his friends and approached Trevor with a menacing stride. They were out of earshot, and as they closed the distance between them, Trevor glanced back at me. So did the man, who cursed and shouted, but Trevor just waved his arm as if he were trying to brush him off. Then he held his middle finger in front of the man’s face.
I gasped when the man shoved him backward. He stalked toward Trevor, but Trevor didn’t take a swing. That was so unlike him! Trevor loved a fight, and I’d never seen him back down so submissively. The man shoved him again and then gripped his throat.
I launched to my feet, wanting to intervene. Since Trevor had cautioned me, that meant this guy was probably a Shifter. They were dangerous animals, and if they shifted, I could get killed. Trevor could heal; I couldn’t.
“Trevor!” I yelled out.
He raised his left hand and signaled me to stay back. I clenched my hands into fists and took a step forward. My heart pounded against my chest as adrenaline rocketed through my veins, compelling me to do something.
When Trevor knocked the man’s arm away, he got backhanded. The stranger hit him again and then kicked him over.
That was it. I was gone. Before I knew what was happening, I was running across the grass in their direction. “Leave him alone!” I shrieked, trying to attract the attention of people nearby. Maybe that would keep him from shifting. I stepped in front of Trevor, making myself into the most laughable, blond, bikini-clad shield there ever was.
“This isn’t your business,” he growled.
“Trevor is my packmate. Back off.”
“Or?”
“Do you have a Packmaster?”
He flinched. Of course he did.
I threw back my shoulders and lifted my eyes to his. “My Packmaster doesn’t like unprovoked assaults against his pack. He might seek compensation.”
“You can’t scare me with that bullshit. There’s no law against kicking some ass.”
“You’re right; there’s no law. But you and I both know that every Packmaster has the right to determine if he thinks someone has stepped over the line with his pack. While your Packmaster might turn away from this kind of thing, mine won’t. Austin Cole has a reputation in this area, and he looks after his pack. And doing this in front of humans?” I swept my arm toward a distant crowd of onlookers. “You could have made him shift, and then laws would have been broken.”
Trevor tugged on my arm as he stood up. “Come on, Maizy. Let’s go.”
A sardonic smile eased across the man’s face. “Maizy? So that’s the human runt.”
“Watch it, Aaron,” Trevor growled, wiping a blade of grass off his arm.
Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who better watch it. No one orders me around. This ain’t over.”
Trevor hurried me toward the blankets. “It’s over,” he shouted over his shoulder. “It’s so fucking over that they’re going to make it into a national holiday.”
I gripped his bicep and looked up at him with concern. “Who was that?”
“My ex.”
“Why did he hurt you?”
He huffed out a laugh. “I’ve been asking myself that for months.”
Trevor knelt down and collected our things, wrapping most of them inside the blanket. I hurriedly slipped on my shorts and T-shirt.
“Trevor, wait.” I pushed at his chest when he tried to walk away from me. “All these secrets need to stop. This family is full of them, and—”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
I had to backtrack before I put my foot in my mouth. “How long has this been going on?”
He shrugged. “We were together five months, except he didn’t start showing his true colors until a month ago. It always starts with the verbal punches. Doesn’t take long before they brave a swing or two.”
“How does no one know about this?” I asked in disbelief.
“I’m good at keeping secrets; don’t you know that by now? I shift, Maizy. I shift and heal before going home with a black eye or a swollen lip. I’m an asshole magnet. If fate keeps throwing them at me, then maybe it’s all I deserve.”
I cupped my hands around his neck, which was still hot from the blistering sun. “You said April deserves to be happy, but why don’t you think the same about yourself? You’re amazing. And every time you give yourself away to someone like that, you’re chipping away at all that amazing. We can’t always see a person for who they really are in the beginning, but the only thing you should ever allow someone to break is your heart. Not your spirit and most certainly not your handsome face. Why did he approach you in the first place?”
Trevor began walking at a slow pace and I joined his side. “Because he doesn’t want it to be finished.”
“That’s his version of smoothing things over?”
“Pickings are slim in my dating pool, and he didn’t date around much, which is why he became too controlling. He didn’t want me going out, he was always accusing me of cheating… it was too much drama. I never fought back, so maybe he doesn’t think I have any fight left in me. But I’m so fucking tired of trying to please people and it never works out. I give and give and all they do is take. Worst of all? The best he could do on a night out was treat me to Burger King. That shit pisses me off. I like a good flame-broiled burger now and again, but maybe I’m dating the wrong gender. Everyone says the best guys are either gay or married, but that’s a load of bullcrap.”
“I’m guessing it’s not easy to find Shifters to date, especially wolves.”
He snorted and adjusted the blanket beneath his arm. “You got that right. It’s like a secret society. Sometimes I have to hang out with someone for a few weeks before I start to get that vibe. I get lucky now and again at the clubs with a few who are brazen enough to approach me, but they’re not all Shifters. I just don’t mesh well with other Breeds.”
“We’re telling the pack when we get home.”
Trevor tossed our stuff in the back of his car. “That’s not happening.”
I pulled open the door to let the hot air out. “It’s happening; like it or not. I’m sorry, Trevor. I love you too much to watch you get hurt. What if he tries that again and I’m not around? I want to make sure that everyone knows who’s after you.”
He sat in the car and turned the engine over. “Well, this should be interesting.”
***
The strange part about my return to Texas was that while initially I’d felt as though I was the only one in crisis mode, I realized the whole pack had their own toolbox full of issues. First Lexi and now Trevor. That’s the reality of growing up. Suddenly it wasn’t just about my problems anymore, and I needed to put others ahead of myself. Someone had to step in and fix the wrong—secrets they’d been keeping that threatened to tear the pack apart from the inside. That meant putting aside all my childish feelings of not belonging and doing some damage control.
“Family meeting,” I called out, kicking off my shoes in the hall by the front door and strolling toward the living room. “Anyone who doesn’t come down will get filled in by the next person who sees them. I want the whole house to hear the news.”
“What’s this about?” Lexi asked nervously.
I shook my head ever so slightly and closed my eyes to let her know it wasn’t about what had happened that morning in the bathroom.
Wheeler plopped down on the leather sofa and gave me a vacant stare.
When Melody entered the room, Izzy shooed her upstairs.
“Wait, I think she should hear this,” I said. “If you’re raising kids in this house, then we need to teach them core values.”
William stood in front of the window to my right. “Agreed.”
Izzy put her arm around Melody, and I noticed my mom and the twins weren’t home. Neither was April.
Austin took a seat in his leather chair and Reno leaned his hip against the side. Trevor looked like a spooked horse the way he hopped from one foot to the other with his hands tucked beneath his armpits. It was as if he wanted to get as close to the front door as possible in case he needed to run. I pulled him nearer to me and gave him a reassuring nod.
“I don’t know about this,” he said under his breath.
I stuffed my fingertips in the pocket of my jean shorts.
“Nice tan,” Denver said, pointing at my legs. “You missed a spot.”
Distracted, I glanced down and noticed a faded square on my right thigh that had come from falling asleep with a bookmark halfway on my leg. God, of all times for a silly distraction.
“Today I went to the lake with Trevor. We had a nice time together until a man showed up and punched him around.”
William moved ever so slightly.
I kept my eyes on Austin because the Packmaster would be the one to determine how his pack should respond to this.
Austin leaned forward. “What was the scuffle about?” He turned a sharp eye toward Trevor.
My stomach knotted when I realized Trevor wasn’t going to speak up. I knew about his past—the abusive pack who had raised him. But I couldn’t have imagined that the abuse was still going on, especially with the men in his life.
“Trevor just got out of an abusive relationship.”
The air left the room.
“Jesus,” Reno murmured.
It was a good thing April wasn’t there or she would have flipped. Trevor was like a brother to her, and I was certain he’d kept it hidden from her most of all.
“I don’t get it,” Austin said reluctantly. “How did this escape my attention?”
“It’s not the first time,” I said. “Trevor told me… he told me it’s been going on for years with other men.”
I could feel the energy rolling off William. Lexi covered her mouth, and Melody looked between everyone as if seeking her own reaction.
“It’s over,” Trevor said, one arm tucked around him and the other holding the back of his neck. “He just doesn’t want it to be over.”
“Who is… he?” William asked in thick words.
“A soon to be dead man,” Reno replied. “That’s who he is.”
“His name is Aaron,” I said before Trevor chickened out. “And I want everyone in the pack to know about him because Trevor needs our protection.”
“We have to do something,” Lexi said to Austin. “You know guys like that won’t give up.” They shared a private look, one I knew all about. The whole pack knew about her ex who had tried to take her life in a fit of despair and rage. He hadn’t been abusive, but the breakup triggered something violent in him.
Austin shook his head. “I’ll tell you one thing right now: nobody fucks with my pack. I’ll talk to his Packmaster and—”
“No, don’t,” Trevor quickly said. “That’ll just make it worse.”
“Worse than beating you?” William asked, pointing at Trevor’s bruised eye.
Trevor’s jaw slid forward. “Yeah. Worse. He’ll make it his personal mission to make my life hell. He’s just letting off steam right now. It’ll fizzle out and he’ll go away if I ignore him. They always do. It’s not like I stay in the relationships long when they start to go south, but sometimes it takes time to end it.”
I reached out to touch Trevor’s arm and he stepped out of reach, arms folded as he examined his oxfords. He was the kind of guy who liked to dress neatly—a pair of nice jeans, black leather shoes, and a button-up that conformed to his body. He had a signature style that never went out of fashion.
Denver sat up. “I say what comes around goes around, so how about we go make some of that come back around to him?” He snatched a piece of candy from a bowl by the TV and unwrapped it, popping a green mint into his mouth. “Some assholes need someone bigger to pick on them.”
Jericho snorted. “Well, you’re out then.”
“Shut it.”
“I’m the tallest one here,” Jericho said. “Maybe I need to take care of things.”
Reno cracked his knuckles. “I’m the biggest.”
As William walked by us with a scowl on his face, he said, “And I’m the baddest.”
“Will, don’t do anything stupid,” Austin shouted out as William left the house. “That’s an order! Dammit, Reno. Go follow him.”
Wheeler locked his hands behind his head. “And boom goes the dynamite.”
Reno took off, and moments later, we heard his motorcycle roaring down the driveway.
Trevor was trying to crawl back into his turtle shell, so I grabbed his hand and held it, whether he liked it or not. “I’ve been gone a long time, and I guess I’m seeing everything from a new perspective. So many things are starting to make sense, but this pack still needs a lot of work. I don’t mean to offend, Austin, but maybe that old saying about not being able to see the forest for the trees has some validity to it. You’re a family, and you need to pay attention to what’s going on with those around you.”
“Don’t you mean we?” Izzy asked.
“What did I say?”
“You said you’re a family. Aren’t you part of this family too?”
Before I could answer, Denver raised his voice. “Aaron what? William won’t get far without his last name or the pack he belongs to. I’m assuming he’s a wolf.”
Trevor grimaced. “William’s the one who introduced us.”
“Are you shitting me?” Izzy exclaimed. “Melody, go upstairs. Your mother is about to unleash a few words I’d rather you not hear for another decade.”
Melody snickered and looked relieved to escape the drama. The pack didn’t care one way or the other about cussing; they never had. It was just Izzy’s way of excusing her.
Trevor held up his hands. “Will didn’t know. He wouldn’t have set me up with someone like that intentionally. Hell, I didn’t know until the last month when he got pissed off after I went to a concert in Dallas.”
Austin rubbed his hands across his face several times. When he stopped, he touched the cleft on his chin and then steepled his fingers. “If Aaron contacts you again, I want to know about it. That means in person, on the phone, text, billboard… whatever. He’s not allowed to even say hello to you. I’m going to put out a warning to his Packmaster, and don’t worry, I’ll be discreet about your business.”
“Thanks. Sorry about all this,” Trevor said, dragging his gaze to the floor.
He started to shuffle toward the stairs when Wheeler launched off the sofa and followed behind him. He put his hands on Trevor’s shoulders and I heard him say, “Let’s go shoot a few games of pool, brother.”
Chapter 8
After the family meeting regarding Trevor’s ex, the pack settled down and returned to their usual routine. William still hadn’t come back. Reno had tailed him, but William had already put distance between them. Wheeler kept in contact with Reno because when a Packmaster gives his second-in-command orders, that beta wolf doesn’t want to let him down. Reno would stay out for as long as it took to find William, but Will wasn’t answering his phone.
Austin handed me the keys to the blue truck and told me to use it for as long as I wanted. There was someone I needed to pay a visit to, and it was a conversation I couldn’t stall any longer.
Lexi said Prince might know about Potentials. It wasn’t as though I had plans to date a nonhuman, but what scared me was what I didn’t know about the mark and what else it could mean. While I mostly kept it hidden, there were moments I didn’t think about it—like earlier at the park with Trevor. It was time to find out if this was something I really needed to be secretive about.
I knew the turnoff where Prince lived, but I’d never actually been to his house. He was one of the wealthiest Packmasters in the territory, and I’d heard plenty of stories about his land a
nd was curious what it looked like. I laughed to myself because when I was a little girl, I used to imagine it looked like a glittering castle made of crystals.
When my truck turned onto a smoothly paved private road in the woods, I ducked beneath the visor with my mouth agape. “Whoa.”
Iron gates that towered fifteen or twenty feet high blocked the road. Columns bordered each side, and there was an intricate design at the top of the gate that looked prestigious, as if royalty lived there.
The guard wasn’t too pleased with my unannounced arrival. He was a stern-looking man with a blunt chin, shaved head, and camo pants. The kind of guy who might leap out of a military truck and crawl through the mud, pulling grenade pins with his teeth. He stood on the other side of the gate, arms folded.
I got out of the truck and approached him.
“That’s far enough,” he said gruffly. “State your business.”
“I’m here to see the General.”
No reaction. Doesn’t anyone have a sense of humor?
I shifted my gaze toward the lamps affixed to the columns, noticing stone wolves in a howling position atop each one. “I came to see Prince. He’s obviously not expecting me, but he knows who I am. Can you tell him it’s Maizy?”
He sniffed, flaring his nostrils. Then he took a step forward so his nose pushed between the bars on the gate. When he sniffed again, I stepped back.
“Are you a human?”
Shifters couldn’t smell humans—not that I knew of. Maybe some had special gifts I wasn’t aware of, but it’s possible that he’d sensed my energy was weak.
“Could you just relay the message?”
“What makes you think Prince would want to speak to a scrawny human?”
Scrawny? I glanced down. So maybe my legs were on the slender side, but I wasn’t by any means emaciated. “Call Prince. Tell him Maizy Knight is here to speak with him, and I won’t wait more than five minutes.” After storming back to the truck, I slammed the door and sat there watching the man make a call on his phone. The air inside the cab became stuffy, so I opened the window and fanned myself with a map I found in the glove compartment.
