by Jules Tyler
Chapter Ten
McKinzy laid in bed, trying to battle her inner demons away. What the fuck did you just do? This could ruin everything! We’re supposed to keep to ourselves, take care of the others, and stay safe! How the hell are we supposed to do that now? How could you be so stupid? So what, we let him in our pants and now we’re supposed to go back to normal? Pretend nothing happened? He works for us! How irresponsible. Seriously, what is wrong with you?
Adrian shifted beside her interrupting her thoughts. Glancing over her shoulder, she took in the sight. He kept one arm tucked under his pillow and the other was draped across her, as though to prevent her from running from him. He looked so peaceful there, so relaxed like there was nothing to worry about. But there was everything to worry about! Like what were they going to do about this? Were they together now? Was this a one-time slip up kind of thing? Was he expecting to continue doing this in secret? What about Cole? Was he friend or foe? Why was he really here?
McKinzy sighed in frustration. Seriously, what was wrong with her? She had just had the most amazing sex of her lifetime and she was laying here speculating about everything instead of allowing herself to enjoy the moment? Something wasn’t sitting right with her protective instincts though. Something was off. Cautiously she slipped out from under his arm, letting it land gently on the bed. Sliding out of the bed, she started making her way through the house to pick up her clothes and get dressed quietly.
“Abby…” Adrian whined in his sleep.
McKinzy stilled. Who was Abby? Why was Adrian saying her name in his sleep instead of McKinzy’s? What was going on here?
“Please come back to me,” he whimpered.
Come back to me? What the fuck? Where is this woman? Who is this woman?
McKinzy felt sick as the pain slashed through her middle. He didn’t want her. He wanted another. Of course he did, that was the way with men. They were all the same. Take what they want and leave nothing but broken pieces of hearts in their wake. She turned away from the bedroom and headed towards the futon to gather the rest of her clothing. The sooner she got out of here, the sooner she could wash away her shame. This was the second time in twenty four hours that Adrian Brenton had managed to make her feel this way.
Chapter Eleven
Adrian smiled as his alarm went off and rolled over to hold McKinzy only to discover the bed was empty. Furrowing his brow, he slid out of bed and padded through the house. Where did she go? He hadn’t taken her as an early riser, but perhaps she was. Glancing at the clock on the microwave he realized she must have gone home so she could shower and get ready for the day.
Shrugging, he resolved to do the same. He rushed through his morning routine. The faster he was ready, the faster he could be with her again. Fumbling with his laces, he tugged his boots on and hurried out the front door.
McKinzy was seated on her front step, coffee in hand. He smiled as he drank in her appearance. She was beautiful. Remarkable even. My mate. His lion purred with pride. Must make her ours. Bite. All ours. Taking a breath, he closed the distance between them. The closer he got though, the more he realized she smelled different. Sad. Mate is sad. Why?
“Good morning, beautiful,” he grinned, plopping down on the steps next to her.
McKinzy scooted away, “Who is Abby?”
Adrian felt his eyes go wide, “Did Jasper say something to you?”
“No. You did. Now who is she?” She demanded, glaring at him.
Adrian looked at her in shock, “She’s no one.”
McKinzy’s nose wrinkled at the lie, “Then why are you hiding her from me? Why do you look scared? And why the hell are you saying her name in your sleep after having sex with me?”
In his sleep? He had had this reoccurring dream about Abby, but he didn’t know he had been sleep talking.
“Forget it, Adrian. Until you can trust me with your secrets, don’t waste my time,” McKinzy said, standing and entering the cabin.
He stared after her, rubbing a hand over his face he suppressed a snarl. You did this. You hurt mate. Fix this. Now. But how? How was he going to fix this when he couldn’t even admit out loud what Abby had been to him or what she had done? Figure it out, dumbass, before you lose this one forever. Already lost one mate, can’t do it again.
Chapter Twelve
McKinzy took a deep breath as she sank to the floor of the cabin, trying to gain some semblance of control over her emotions before she went about her morning. This was ridiculous. She was being overdramatic about this. With any other guy, she would’ve let this go and moved on with her time, but she couldn’t ignore the niggling feeling in the back of her head that said there was more to this story than met the eye. Why was he trying so hard to keep this secret?
Who was Abby and why was she important enough to keep her a secret from McKinzy? In all fairness, McKinzy had only been here two days, but what was transpiring between her and Adrian was big, and not in some “they could hook up and be happy for a little while” kind of way. This was something deep in her core, way down deeper than her and her dragon, pulling on her heart strings in ways she didn’t think existed anymore, big.
Mate. Her dragon bellowed inside of her head, causing McKinzy to shake her head violently.
“No,” McKinzy whispered, “We need to keep quiet. We need to stay safe. How can we run when we need to if we put down roots with someone? A risk like that is too dangerous.”
Don’t care anymore. Let them find us. Claim him before it’s too late. He’s ours.
“You may think he’s ours, stupid lizard. But I promise you he’s not. Why can’t you just understand that he belongs to someone else?
She laid her head back against the door and stared at the ceiling, this was just great. So much bad could come of this. But so much good could become of this too. Her dragon was right, this wasn’t something she could ignore. There was chemistry there that hadn’t been there before with the other men she had taken to bed. Shaking her head, she pushed herself up to her feet. If she was going to do this, she needed answers, and if Adrian wouldn’t give them to her, she would go to the one person who would.
“Hey Duke, could you meet me at my place ASAP?” McKinzy called over the radio, forcing the emotion from her voice.
“Sure thing, boss. Be there in a sec.”
“Copy that.”
Sitting at the table in the kitchen, she promised to keep her emotions in check. If she let herself get too overwhelmed, she would have an involuntary shift and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.
A knock at the door brought her attention back into focus.
“Hey, boss, you called?” Duke drawled out as he crossed the threshold and closed the door.
“Yeah, I need to talk to you about something. Have a seat.”
“I don’t care what Elijah told you, I did nothing wrong,” his eyes widened in worry.
“We’ll come back to that, but that’s not why I called you here” she forced a smile. These boys and their shenanigans, always getting into something.
“Oh, okay,” he said, pulling up a seat.
“I need you to be honest with me about something that has to do with Adrian.”
“If you have questions about Adrian, shouldn’t you be talking to him about them?” Duke asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“I tried, but he shut down.”
“Yeah, he’s kind of like that. He’ll talk to you about whatever once he gathers his thoughts, but if you spring something on him that he isn’t prepared to discuss, he has a tendency to shut down for a while.”
“Like when someone asks him about Abby?” Even her name in McKinzy’s mouth made her tongue taste sour with jealousy.
“How did you hear that name?” Duke whispered, leaning forward on the table like they were gossiping girls in high school.
“I uh...I heard him say it in his sleep this morning,” she said, trying to avoid looking at him as she said.
Duke’s dark eyes grew wide, “Wait, what w
ere you doing at Adrian’s this morning while he was asleep?”
McKinzy tried to ignore his knowing smile as she admitted the truth, “We kind of hooked up last night.”
“Awe shit, this is just too good!” He exclaimed as he leaned back in the chair and folded his arms.
“Anyways, back on topic. Who is Abby? What did she mean to Adrian? Why did he shut down when I asked him about her this morning? Where is she now?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, darlin’. One question at a time, but first, I have one for you. Don’t you dare lie to me, either, because if I’m going to bring you into the circle of knowledge, you have to pay the price first.”
“Okay?”
“What does Adrian mean to you?”
Shit, she hadn’t been prepared for that. What did he mean to her? The word her dragon had said earlier kept swimming through her head, mine.
Watching the emotions flash across her face, Duke’s smile grew, “Then I guess I can enlighten you about the situation our friend found himself in three years ago. Just be warned, once you know, there’s no going back. Adrian doesn’t like to talk about her for a reason.”
“Thank you.”
“So, about five ago Adrian’s lion started stirring for a mate and had been running with pride that’s hiding out the Cascade Mountains. Prides work a little bit differently. They have a breeding protocol. You don’t mate for money or for love; you mate based on your matches that will provide the strongest lines of offspring. Your pride’s alpha lioness chooses a mate for you and you both have to accept that you are intended to be together. Abby was handpicked for him and he was smitten with her right away. The plan was for them to go away and make a life together and they would have to keep in touch with their pride. Once Abby was with young, she would return to the pride for them to guide her through the pregnancy.”
“Why couldn’t she stay with Adrian? Isn’t that the point of a partnership?”
“Like I said, it’s different for prides. Anyways, Adrian received a job offer to come down here and work. He was thrilled at the chance to provide for Abby in a place where there was nothing but room for miles. The first was easiest. They went through the motions and he did his best to keep her happy. But after a year of trying, they still hadn’t conceived. Things started getting rocky for them. She wouldn’t leave the cabin, except to shift when necessary. Adrian started pouring himself into his work and spending less and less time working on their relationship. Abby’s lion started getting restless, started making her crazy because she needed a cub. Adrian was at a loss. He didn’t know what to do, and in his mind, he loved her, so he tried to outweigh the bad with whatever good things he could think of. After fighting and struggling to keep her sane, they got into a huge fight one morning. She said she was going to leave him. She would go back to the pride. She claimed to be barren, and barren lionesses were in charge of taking care of the young. He watched her pack her car and leave him.”
“But if he loved her, why did he let her go?”
“Calm down and let me finish the story, woman.”
“It only took Adrian about thirty minutes to decide to go after her. He was just outside White Bird when he found her…” Duke trailed off, looking as though he had seen a ghost.
“Where was she?”
“She wrecked her car. Probably swerved to avoid something, judging from the tire tracks that pointed towards where her car ended up. When he pulled her from the car, she had already lost a lot of blood and was unconscious. He tried to use their bond to heal her, but it wasn’t working. He drove her to the Grangeville emergency clinic, but it was already too late. There wasn’t anything they could do for her. She was three weeks pregnant, according to the autopsy. The police said she had likely committed suicide when they concluded their investigation. Adrian blamed himself. Said he should’ve tried harder, should’ve left sooner. The way I see it, when someone is so far gone that they aren’t even honest with their mate, there’s no bringing them back from it. Do I think what she did was wrong? Fuck yes, but there’s been no reasoning with him. He swore to never take another mate. He swears he’s damaged goods. Can’t say that I blame him. The whole situation is messed up if you ask me.”
McKinzy and Duke sat in silence as she absorbed the information he had given her. Poor Adrian, he had lost his mate and his cub all at once. That was a punishment worse than death, if you asked her. How could Abby just leave like that? How could she lie to him about having young? She wished she could go to the afterlife and yank her by the hair back to life, just to kill her again for what she did.
“McKinzy?” Duke said, breaking the silence.
“Yeah?” She asked, worrying her lip as she tried to focus.
“Don’t hurt him okay? Just be patient with him. If you give him time, I’m willing to bet you both could finally put your ghosts to rest,” he said, standing and turning towards the door.
“I promise,” she whispered as he left.
Chapter Thirteen
Adrian trudged up the path towards the lookout tower. He needed to talk to Jasper and get his take on all of this. He had been there when the police had deemed Abby’s death a suicide. He had been the one to help Adrian hold onto what shred of sanity he had left. Jasper was probably the only one who knew what he was about to do was a big deal. He needed to find a way to control himself when it came to grieving Abby so he could tell McKinzy about her. There was so much pain and anger behind his grief. This was going to be hard. There had been too much time spent with him bottling up his emotions for him to be able to even hear her name without losing control of his lion.
Climbing the stairs, he took a breath to steady his thoughts. Everything would be okay after he talked to Jasper.
“Hey, Jasper, you got a minute?” Adrian asked, leaning against the doorframe at the top of the lookout stairs.
Jasper exchanged a look with Desmond, “You good?”
Desmond rolled his eyes, “You act like you need to hold my hand, bro. Keep in mind who is older than who, would ya?”
“Let’s talk outside,” Adrian said, turning to march back down the stairs.
The two walked in silence as they headed down the stairs and out towards the hiker’s path that branched off of the lookout tower path.
“What’s this about? You don’t typically pull me out of the tower, unless it’s something big,” Jasper asked, trying to decipher what was really bothering Adrian.
“McKinzy and I hooked up last night,” Adrian muttered, stirring the dirt with his boot like a five year old who was admitting to a lie.
Jasper looked elated as he let out a whooping sound, “You doooog! I knew you still had some game left in you!”
“She feels...important.”
“Of course she does, she’s the first girl you’ve slept with since Abby. We should bake her a congratulatory cake or something for accomplishing what so many others couldn’t.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, Jas. I think we started a bond last night,” Adrian stared at a rock on the ground as he rushed the words out.
Jasper willed his eyes to stay in his head, “ You..you’re telling me...wait what? How is that even possible? If you were bonded to Abby, there should be no possibility of you bonding to another, especially within only a couple of days of knowing her.”
“Unless...unless my lion didn’t bond to Abby, which he obviously didn’t since he keeps growling at me, demanding that I claim McKinzy every time I’m near her. But that isn’t the issue. I’m ready for a bond with her, my lion is on board and I want her bad. The issue at hand is that when she woke up this morning, she heard me say Abby’s name in my sleep. Then when she asked me who Abby was, I couldn’t force my mouth to come out and say it,” Adrian kicked the rock as hard a he could, sending it flying down the trail.
“Fuuuuuuck,” Jasper ran a hand through his hair, trying to gather his thoughts. None of them had ever imagined that they would see Adrian with anyone after what Abby had done to him.
/> “What do I do? I haven’t had to speak her name in years and now I’ve had to force myself to say that name more than twice in one morning. Where do I start? How do I explain it was a pairing, not a mating? How do I explain what Abby took from me when she left? How do I…” Adrian sank to the ground as his thoughts swirled around inside his head. There was so much history here. How did he even bring up a discussion like this? He and Abby had never had a romantic relationship; it was merely a relationship of convenience and responsibility for both of them.
“Dude, take a breath and listen to me. I get that this isn’t easy. What Abby did to you was fucked up. She not only ran away from you, she took your young with her when she drove off that ledge. But you can’t blame yourself; blame the pride. They’re the ones that paired you for genetics rather than letting you choose your mate. Abby wasn’t made for living up here. You did what you felt was best to provide for your mate and the young you would produce. You’ve just gotta have enough faith in McKinzy to understand the situation. If she doesn’t understand, then she isn’t the one for you. I think if your lion is already laying claims to her, though, it means that she’s likely the one for you. You just have to be willing to trust her,” Jasper clapped him on the back and turned to leave.
“You make that sound so easy!” Adrian called after him.
Jasper let off a laugh, “Because with the right person, it is!”
Easy for him to say, he wasn’t the one who had to explain to a human how a pride works. Trust mate, she will care for us. She will listen. Of course his lion was on board. Whatever would get Adrian closer to claiming McKinzy would motivate the bastard.
Adrian pushed himself to his feet and started picking his way back towards the tower. His ears picked up a sound that didn’t belong this far out. Skulking back into the shadows, he allowed himself to stealthily follow where the sound was coming from. It was a voice, a low one, but a voice nonetheless. As he got closer, he recognized it as the voice the new arrival and took refuge behind a boulder so he could listen.
