Gage pulled back a groan. He asked his own bear to pull back, reminding the creature they needed a human mouth to speak their mind. The bear grudgingly backed away, grumbling the whole time.
Kaylee dropped to the ground, putting herself beneath Cohen as if her instincts were guiding her. She was smart, quickly adapting to the creature and its voice. Gage felt a small amount of pride rise through him as he sat on the ground beside her.
“Alright. Fine,” he said. “I’ll take you as my Alpha, Cohen. It means we’re bound forever. You and me. We’re family.”
Gage offered Cohen his open hand. The beast slapped his paw into it and the pact blasted like a physical force. They clung to each other until it passed; until a human man stood before them. Kaylee, in turn, rose her hand and did the same. The blast was smaller, but it still shook the world around them.
Once the pacts were made, Cohen let himself fall to the ground. He pulled the two of them into his arms and held them tight.
“Well, that didn’t end as bad as it could have,” Gage muttered, trying to lighten the mood.
“I beg to differ,” Kaylee said with a grimace.
Gage spun toward her, his heart in his throat. She gestured to her left hand and his heart stopped. Her fingers were bent in all the wrong directions, broken in strange places as if someone had crushed her hand.
He could barely breathe through the panic that gripped him, but he offered her a weak smile before tenderly taking her hand. “I had a shifter outside Chicago do this to me once for screwing around on his territory.”
“You never told me that,” Cohen said, staring at his brother.
Gage shrugged. “It was after you left.” He turned to his mate. “It looks bad, but it will heal just fine. Try shifting into your coyote form. It won’t heal the breaks, but it will reset them. I can carry you home that way.”
She looked up at him and he left his heart grow. He knew what they were, but did she? Kaylee had just pledged her life to Cohen as a pack mate. Did that mean she planned on staying with them? Or, had it just been a last-ditch effort to get Cohen under control? Would she break the pact the moment she could?
Kaylee must have seen the war in his eyes because she launched herself into his arms. Her lips met his and kissed him with voracious need. It pulsed through him, making him pull her body into his.
“Great,” Cohen grumbled. “My only two pack mates are a pair of love-sick mates. Please. Kill me now.”
Kaylee broke away from the kiss just long enough to comment. “Please don’t. Because then Gage will be my Alpha and he already has enough power.”
They were a pack. It was a strange feeling, to belong again. Just when he thought he would be cast back into the world, adrift and alone, he found himself bound to a family. He looked to the woman in his arms. She seemed to want to stay, to be committed to the pack bond she’d initiated, but he couldn’t help but wonder if she was committed to him.
It didn’t matter, he told himself. He was committed to her. That was all that mattered. He would stand by her side for the rest of his years, no matter what she said.
Kaylee let her forehead rest against his and her body relaxed in his arms. Her voice was barely a whisper, but he caught it.
“I love you.”
If anyone asked, Gage would have denied the burning in his eyes. He would have said the tears belonged to someone else. Kaylee, too, would have blamed Cohen for the tears. Even as they slipped down Gage’s cheeks and mingled with their kiss.
Gage’s grip on her tightened until he thought she would protest. Instead, she melted into him. Her body sank into his until he thought they were one.
“Get a room. Later, because Archer is here.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Well,” Archer began, rubbing the bear on his chin as he regarded the situation. “This is certainly a mess. How do we deal with three packs in Stonefall?”
Gage shrugged. Kaylee reached up to wipe blood from his brow. He turned toward her, feeling pride bloom through his chest. An arm rose to pull her into his body. He should tell her to shift soon. His eyes dropped to her hand, the twisted mess still held against her chest, and anger flared through him. The shifter who’d hurt her was dead now. It’d been too quick, too easy. But, fear followed. He’d lost control of himself, the bear rising and demanding vengeance after they watched the shifter hurt their mate. Would his control always be so slippery where Kaylee was concerned?
“It’s not the worst that could have happened,” Gage argued, stretching to scratch the back of his head. “I mean, this really isn’t all that bad. Now Cohen is stuck with me. For life.”
“Yay for me,” Cohen grumbled even as a smile slipped across his face. As much as the man wanted to pull away, it seemed even he was happy to find his family once more.
“We have three packs in a very small area now,” Archer reiterated. “As if the tensions here weren’t high enough. This is going to cause some issues, even if you think it’s no big deal. Something is going to blow up in our faces.”
Archer’s face was lined with worry, more lines than Gage had ever seen before. He stood behind Joanna as she tried to rebuild her pack. They all saw the stress it was putting on both of them. While Joanna had the power to command her pack, she was losing the battle with energy. When she flagged, Archer was there to pick her up, but it meant both of them were drained.
“I see a lot of coyotes, but where is Killian?” Archer ran his hand through his hair, fingers curling and twisting.
“Slippery mofo got away,” Gage told him. He met his brother’s eyes. The guilt in them was overwhelming. He was surprised the weight of it didn’t shove his brother into the earth with each step he took. “Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to end this once and for all.”
“Don’t worry,” Cohen replied as he sidled up to his brothers. The fire of his monstrous beast burned in his eyes and tainted his smile with a dark twist. Where Gage had lost control because of his fear for Kaylee’s safety, it seemed that Cohen never had any control to begin with. It was almost as if the man was cursed. “Killian doesn’t get another chance.”
They spent the rest of the night cleaning up the abandoned church and the graveyard. Kaylee shifted back into her coyote shape, and Gage carried her around like a kitten in his arms, reluctant to let her get too far away from him. Grover carried the unconscious coyote shifters back to Animal Control where they would spend the night in lock up. They sent the silver wire with him, carefully wrapped in a thick layer of fabric. The shifters would wake up with surprise ankle bracelets if Gage had his way.
The three packs, acting like one, made their way back to Vancourt house. The sun breached the horizon, the night lost to the nightmare they’d lived through. While some went about preparing breakfast and making coffee, Gage held his mate close and wondered how he’d gotten them all into this mess.
If he’d had his head on straight, if he’d been more careful, they never would have gotten the upper hand. Gage and Cohen would have cleared out the church before anyone could have been hurt. But, his anger and fear had made him reckless.
Perhaps his hope for Fredrick had made him soft. He wanted to pin the blame on Killian, but Fredrick had played a part in this as well. If anything, he was sure his friend had reveled in the terror Killian wrought. He’d seen the signs, knew that the abuse Fredrick had faced at home had twisted him into one that abused, too. Part of him wondered if he could have stopped it before Fredrick’s blood stained his hands.
If he had been the one to change him…
If he had tried to save his friend from the hurt…
But it was over. Fredrick was gone from this world and there was no going back. He looked down at his mate, her still broken paw hanging over his arm as she slept. Her pain was his fault and it haunted him. He was too reckless, too driven by his own emotions.
Gage had a family now, a pack to protect. There was a lot of change he was going to have to work on. He didn’t want to lose himself, b
ut he knew there was a fair amount of growing that needed to happen. She needed someone who was smart and careful. She needed a mate that would look out for her.
He hadn’t done that. He’d gone out in search of revenge.
Gage retreated from the packs. He went upstairs and laid his mate down on the bed. It felt like it was not that long ago that he’d done the same thing, and laid on the floor to give her space. This time, he curled his body around her. She let out a small sound and snuggled deeper into him.
They would deal with the too many packs in a small space situation when they woke. Until then, his only concern was for her. For the woman who’d come running back for him.
Chapter Eighteen
Gage shoved his hands into his pockets, as if suddenly ashamed of the ink that sprawled across the backs of his hands. He didn’t know why it plagued him now. Kaylee, herself, was sprinkled liberally with brightly colored ink, wearing a spring dress that bared her shoulders. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but his mind told him it was. No one would look at him and think responsible adult.
“You okay?” Kaylee asked, arching a brow with amused curiosity as her hand rested on the doorknob. She paused, giving him time to collect himself and answer before they went inside.
He flashed her a glare, trying to hide the fact that his heart was pumping furiously. Why was he so afraid?
“If you don’t want to meet them…” Her voice trailed off.
“No!” Gage spit out, too fast, too loud. He cleared his throat and wrestled for control over himself. “No, I want to. I really want to meet them.”
Kaylee had spent the past few days searching for places to set up her new shop in Stonefall. It was her home now that she was part of the strange Pack they made with Cohen. Having them around seemed to help Cohen’s control, but her family was important to her. Even though there was no going back on the bond between them, Kaylee wanted to make sure he was a part of her family, too.
Behind this door, her parents waited for him. The thought struck more fear in him than Killian had. It was a strange feeling, to fear a pair of humans, but the idea of meeting them made him second guess every decision he’d made in his life.
All but one.
He pulled his gaze away from the door and looked to his mate. Her eyes sparkled with the laughter she held back. She found his hesitation amusing. He scowled. This wasn’t a laughing matter. He was well and truly scared. What if they didn’t like him? What if they forbade them from being together?
Before he could turn and run, the door swung open. A woman with brown and blonde streaked hair appeared, jaw slack when her eyes fell on Gage. He offered a small smile, unsure if he should shake her hand or offer a hug or…
“You brought him home?” the woman asked with joyous surprise in her voice. She clapped her hands together and jumped with excitement before pulling her daughter into a tight hug.
“Uh, yeah. Turns out he’s pretty good for me. Mom, meet Gage. Gage, this is my mother.”
The woman pulled back from Kaylee. She studied Gage from head to toe, eyes dragging across his tattoos. Gage wanted to step back, to hide what he expressed in his ink, sure she was going to turn him away, until the woman looked back at her daughter with a sly smile. She gave Kaylee an obvious wink before pulling them both inside.
She led them into a small living room that connected to the kitchen. The smells of homecooked food filled the air, tinged with the fermented smell of beer. Gage peered around the kitchen, searching for the golden liquid when someone tapped his shoulder.
An older man offered him a brown bottle with a look of conspiracy on his face. “You’re going to need this.”
Gage said a small thanks before taking the bottle. He tried not to look obvious as he slugged half of it back, but Kaylee caught him and laughed. He wanted to pull her into his arms and smother the laughter with his kisses. She could see the desire on his face and her laughter faded into a sublime smile of promise.
Later, she mouthed.
His cock rose in cheers and he cursed softly under his breath before bending to hide it. She turned him inside out, more than she had the first day when she’d been wrapped in nothing more than a sheet.
“He’s a lot better looking than that slimeball you partnered with for your shop.”
“Dad!” Kaylee cried. Her cheeks turned pink and it made Gage smile. She was cute like that. “This is a completely different situation. Of course, Gage is more attractive than him.”
The man moved to stand closer to his wife before looking back to Gage. “And, is this situation a… permanent one?”
The answer flowed out of Gage’s mouth before he could stop himself. “I’d certainly like to hope so.”
Her mother’s head shot up, wide eyes pinning them to the spot. They flicked between her daughter and the massive man she’d brought into the house. “Are you saying…?” She used the knife in her hands to point between the two of them.
There were no rings on their fingers or questions even asked, but as Kaylee and Gage gravitated toward one another, their arms wrapping around each other, they nodded. Pride filled him. Mate. She was his mate.
He never thought he’d be so lucky. Not once in his life did he think he would get a chance at anything like this. Waking to her every morning had been a dream come true. It’d gotten even better when he woke her with his tongue. She’d made a sound he’d never heard before, one that he tucked away to use against her later.
As he thought back to that morning, his cock rose again. It was never ending, his need of her. His desire for her, his mate, never seemed to fade. His fingers danced along her hip. She turned to him and nipped the tip of his nose before leaping out of his grasp. His arms were empty without her, but he watched as she moved to help her mother in the kitchen.
“This is dad’s recipe?” Kaylee asked her mother as she stirred a pot of something thick and smoky.
“Yeah. I thought this was a good occasion to bust out his mole recipe. I know it’s your favorite, too.”
The rest of the night went far smoother than Gage could have asked for. Her parents asked how they met, if she had tattooed him and fell in love. Gage and Kaylee shared a look, the true story locked behind their lips. Kaylee had talked about maybe telling her parents about what truly happened, not the full extent of it, but what she’d become. He told her it was her choice. It would happen on her time.
“We met… around town.” Kaylee’s words were the best approximation for what really happened. “He found me and took me home with him. After that… we were kind of inseparable.”
“Really?” Her mother was entranced by the story, digging for details to what sounded like a picturesque romance. Or, perhaps a romantic comedy. Kaylee fed her the story she wanted to hear, adding the humor that had actually happened, like the tea party of junk in Old Man Faulkner’s yard.
The dinner itself was unlike anything Gage had ever eaten before. To think they’d made it to celebrate him and Kaylee warmed him. Looking back, he realized he had nothing to be afraid of. He’d worried needlessly. Her family accepted him with open arms, so much warmer than any family he’d ever seen before.
Then again, his own reference point for families was a bit skewed. Sampson Vancourt would never have held such a feast for anyone, let alone his own children. Now, Gage was part of something real. Kaylee had found a family in the shifters of Stonefall while he’d found a family in her.
Beside him, Kaylee shifted in her seat. She leaned toward him and he could hear her pull in a deep breath. He cocked a brow, but she shook her head. Her parents didn’t notice.
***
Kaylee could barely stand the meal. Coming home was great. It felt amazing, but her mind was filled with other things the entire time. As her mother asked her details about how they’d met, Kaylee’s mind kept turning back to Gage’s body.
His smell enveloped her. It pulled her into him and made her wanted to peel away his clothing. She wriggled uncomfortably in her seat, wond
ering why she could barely focus. She wanted to throw her leg over his lap and mount him, to lap up his scent and rub herself against him.
What was wrong with her?
Every now and then, Gage’s eyes turned in her direction. The unspoken question in them remained unanswered. It remained that way for the rest of the meal. After, Kaylee complained that she was tired and disappeared down the hall. She could hear her mate’s footsteps behind her and it sent a thrill of excitement through her.
Her body thrummed. It ached for the feel of his skin against hers. Even the touch of her shirt against her skin was wrong. It was too much. She wanted him. Her mate.
Once she found her own room, walls plastered with old rock back posters and art printed off the internet, she let out a growl of frustration. She watched Gage shut the door behind him before throwing her arms around his neck. She wrapped her legs around his waist and rubbed her cheek against his neck. He held onto her as he moved to sit on the edge of her bed.
She breathed his scent and let her fingers roam through his hair. He moaned, his head falling back, before his eyes flashed open.
“Can your parents hear me?”
“I don’t care,” she growled.
Had she lost her damn mind? When was the last time they’d touched each other? When was the last time she’d had him inside her? She couldn’t remember. She could barely even think.
Gage grabbed her wrists and forced her back. He studied her face. “What is wrong with you? I mean, I’m not complaining about the attention, but I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I have no idea,” she breathed, trying to push him back onto the bed. She wanted him beneath her. “Is this…this need normal?”
His eyes flashed. “I don’t know shit.” He leaned back and let his hands move up her thighs to rest on her hips.
She rocked back and forth, feeling him rise into her. There were too many layers of fabric between them. They needed to go away. She needed skin on skin. Her emotions were becoming frantic. Her heart raced inside her, as if it might explode if she didn’t get what she needed.
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