by Cecilia Lane
He wasn’t an unattractive man, even if he was old enough to be her father. She even understood why other females in the pride tried to catch his eye before he took Emery as his mate. But if she answered yes, she’d betray her sister. If she answered no, her alpha.
Every time she looked at him, she saw Aileen’s eyes go dead.
Wade saved her by continuing his questioning. “Do I not provide for you and all the others?”
The silence stretched on and she realized no other questions would come to her rescue. “You care for us,” she said carefully.
“Then you have no reason to refuse my or the Oracle’s wishes. I will provide for you the same as I provide for Emery. You will give me the heirs where she has failed.”
The world felt like it caved in and left her with little air to breathe. The room around her and the universe outside rushed at her, crumpling into a distorted version of itself.
Wade was not her mate. Her inner cat didn’t trust the man and disliked his inner beast. He didn’t call to her in any way. Her stomach turned at the thought of stripping down and doing anything with him, much less performing acts designed to produce an heir.
Produce. Like she was simply a means to an end. He didn’t want children with her. He wanted something to hold up as his legacy.
“Are you sure that’s what the Oracle wishes?” she blurted out.
His eyes bored into her and the human brown bled away into shifter gold. “Yes,” he said in a hard tone. “The ceremony will take place under the full moon in one week. You may go while I make arrangements with your father.”
Everly snatched her hand away. She opened her mouth, but her mother reached forward and dragged her out of the RV.
The door shut behind them with a firm click and she rounded on her mother. “You can’t let this happen!” Everly hissed. “Did you see the look on Emery’s face? She doesn’t want this, either.”
Her mother raised her eyes, but there was no sympathy in them. “This is what Wade has demanded. He is your alpha, Everly. You will obey.” Maggie Mather allowed no further argument by hurrying toward the family camper.
Blindsided by the news, Everly was left alone outside the RV that would become her home in a week. She tried to find help in the males who looked on with impassive faces. Did they know? Did they even suspect?
If she couldn’t find help from her parents, she doubted any of them would object. Wade was their alpha. He spoke for the Oracle. If the Oracle demanded he took a second mate, then they would fall in line and watch it happen.
Everly shook as she blindly pushed through them. She had a week of her life left before Wade claimed her, and she had babies to attend. Her work was the only brightness she had left.
Chapter 2
Sawyer Strickland pulled to a stop at the end of the arrivals lane and waited for Hudson to spot him. After a long week away, Sawyer looked forward to the other shifter returning to the clan. He was a life raft of sanity in an ocean of crazed, mated pairs.
It didn’t take long before the man chucked his duffel onto the floorboards and hauled himself into the truck.
“What did I miss?” Hudson demanded as soon as he was settled.
He was too loud and his eyes too bright. Sawyer was surprised the man’s voice wasn’t pure gravel. A scent of wildness filled the air. Hudson’s poorly contained mania put Sawyer’s bear on edge.
Sawyer understood it. The other shifter was wild from his past and current experiences and let his beast direct his emotions. Sawyer was one of the few trusted enough to see the reasons behind the need to poke at everyone around him.
His understanding didn’t do a damn thing to quiet his own demanding creature. He kicked his inner beast and ignored the displeasure building in his chest. He kept his own animal on a short leash.
“The veil opened up right under your cabin, so that’s gone. Good luck finding a place to sleep because you’re not rooming with me,” Sawyer deadpanned while merging into traffic and out of the airport.
“Asshole.” Hudson landed a punch on his leg. “You know I’d make the best roommate.”
“Not likely. I can hear you snore all the way across the clearing.”
Hudson grinned and folded his hands behind his neck. “That’s just my mating call. Don’t feel bad if you find me irresistible.”
Sawyer snorted. “If that’s your mating call, I feel bad for your mate.”
A bit of his wild side slipped off of Hudson. His throat worked with a swallow. “Did... you go see her while I was gone?”
The hesitation looked wrong on a man as big as Hudson. He wasn’t as tall as Cole, but he was easily the widest of them all from his years in the service and long hours in the gym after.
“Twice,” Sawyer said and immediately launched into details. He’d hate if someone kept him hanging, and he didn’t even have a mate. He never would, either. He wasn’t made to make someone else miserable, and that was all he had to offer. “She was fine both times. Quiet, but I think that’s because she wasn’t used to me. She asked about you and how long you’d be gone. I told her you’d be back as soon as you could, but you didn’t share all the details with us.”
He couldn’t, Hudson explained. He operated on military rules before heading out on his missions. He couldn’t afford anything leaking to the wrong ears and putting his life or someone else’s in jeopardy. The clan typically only knew a rough date of when he expected to return.
“She looked okay? Did she eat? She looked a little thin before I left.” Hudson swallowed again and stared out the window.
Sawyer shifted his gaze to the other man then back to the road. He thought of gunning it, then kept to the speed limit. No chance of him making it back to Bearden before visiting hours were over. “Mara looked fine. Will you have any news to share with her tomorrow?”
Hudson turned back to him with a scowl. “Not much. She gave me the exact location of a camp, but the hunters had already cleared out.”
Sawyer waited for him to continue, but Hudson only turned to stare out the window.
Hudson tracked down hunters using information Mara provided. She had to serve out her sentence for setting fires to homes and establishments in Bearden, but she was ready to give up names and locations if doing so kept others safe. She’d been held captive by the assholes and forced to do their bidding to protect her family. Sticking it to them eased the scars on her soul.
Sawyer doubted Mara even cared about the possible reduction to her sentence for the information she gave, but Hudson certainly did. He claimed mate’s rights in finding the people who forced her into heinous deeds, but he wouldn’t be able to properly claim his woman until he could hold her freely in his arms.
Sawyer’s bear rattled against the cage in his mind. Keeping away from a mate was no easy thing. Even his unmated beast recognized that singular misery.
Everyone else had someone, even if something separated them for the time being. They had someone to care for and protect and share their burdens. Gray and Meghan, Nolan and Becca, Cole and Rylee, Callum and Leah… Hell, even Hudson knew his mate and where she laid her head at night, even if she remained stashed away behind bars for crimes against the enclave. That knowledge was driving a wedge between Sawyer and the other men, Hudson especially. They were the closest in the clan, but a divide was growing between them and her name was Mara.
Because Hudson had someone and Sawyer couldn’t.
He raised his lips in a snarl. Damn. He was on edge. His bear rode him hard and demanded a price he couldn’t pay.
The beast wanted a mate.
Too fucking bad.
The rest of the clan all thought he was straight-laced and steady, without a care in the world. It was a mask he worked hard to keep. He wasn’t steady. His bear tore at his control. He thought long and hard about his actions only so he didn’t lash out in anger or anxiety. He refused to give his bear that much sway over his life.
No Strathorn knew how bad his scars itched when his thoughts
sped up and his bear roared in his head. Sawyer found it hard to think over all that noise, but dammit, he would manage.
Sawyer rolled his shoulders, pushing back on his unruly beast and ignoring the itches the ran in long lines down his back. He wasn’t made for a mate. He wasn’t fit for love. That’d all been beaten out of him at a young age and driven home with scar upon scar.
He tightened his hands around the steering wheel and focused on his breathing. In and out. Steady. Sweat broke out on his brow. No moving. Giving in to that urge would just bust open all the old wounds and leave him bleeding.
His bear snarled and brought him back from the edge of memory before those bad years could overtake him.
Distraction. Sawyer needed to focus on something other than mates and pain and itching scars. He had to keep his shit packed away.
“Everyone missed you around the firehouse. Callum’s been rotating in a probie and one of the new academy brats in your place this week. You should have seen the way Cole followed around his pet wolf the entire shift Jacob joined us.”
Hudson stayed silent and lost in his thoughts.
“Meghan’s still pumping out articles, and the last one all but called that fucker Bentley out by name. If we were living in the old west, I’d expect her to demand they count paces and draw guns at high noon.”
Meghan’s battle was just beginning, and it would play out all over the news. The man who attacked her and turned her into a shifter was one himself, obviously. But he’d hidden his other side so well that he passed as human. He turned his hatred of his other nature on those like him and funded several pro-human initiatives.
Meghan was loud and unapologetic in her articles demanding fair treatment of her new brethren. It was good shit, in Sawyer’s opinion, but she was just asking for danger to pour down on her. Her latest obsession called into question the need for a registration list at all.
Registration came with a price. It lay all the private details and public records of a person’s life bare for anyone with an internet connection to see. Registration was supposed to ensure humans remained safe in a world filled with shifters, vampires, and fae, but humans weren’t the only ones pissed about cracking open their secrets. Other supernaturals were equally displeased at being outed as humans were to learn they weren’t the dominant species.
Shifters on the list were being targeted. Bar fights, lawns torn up, hateful messages spray-painted on property. The worst were the bombings. Five so far, with no end in sight. Hell, it was hard to get anyone to care. Three explosions needed to rip lives apart before anyone connected the dots between the crimes.
Hudson remained silent, and Sawyer tried once more to draw him into conversation. Joking around with the man kept his mind off his own troubles. He kept Hudson from edging too far out of line. They needed each other.
“You missed the summer fair. Becca tried raffling off the names of the twins like she’s been threatening, but Nolan put a stop to it. They still don’t have any picked out.”
Hudson grunted and Sawyer let the silence stretch between them while the road ticked by.
Two hours of heavy quiet later, and they neared the closest human town to the enclave. Oxmark was in a boom period, catering to the tourists who couldn’t get a spot inside Bearden and the assholes who wanted to make sure supernaturals knew their place was under someone’s boot. The signs for food and campgrounds springing up along the highway reminded Sawyer of pikes set to ward away invaders.
He’d grown up with a healthy fear of humans. He shied away from anywhere with too many in one place.
Hudson tapped a finger against the glass at a billboard for burgers and shakes. “Stop for some food. I’m starving.”
Sawyer slid his eyes to the man and shook his head. “We’re almost home. Just eat when we get into the enclave.”
“Fucker. Pull over. It’ll take five minutes, tops. Doubt you have anything going on tonight, anyway.”
He thought for a moment of letting Hudson have the insult. He was looking to kill time, that was it. The longer they were outside the enclave, the shorter he’d have to wait to visit his jailbird the next day.
But the way he suggested Sawyer had nothing and no one in his life grated on him and his already riled up bear. A growl bubbled up in his throat and he glared at the other man. “What if I do? What if I have some hot date and need to wash your stink out of the interior before I pick her up?”
Hudson stared at him for a long second. “What’s her name, then?”
Still growling, Sawyer slugged him in the leg and merged for the nearest exit.
Chapter 3
Sawyer drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, the dashboard, his legs while he peered around the tiny shopping center. Hudson’s insistence on food led them to a place that didn’t have a drive-thru and apparently butchered the cow the moment someone placed an order.
He wasn’t sure if the unnecessary stop or the wait ticked him off more. He was determined to act on neither and keep his damn cool. He couldn’t let his inner bear rumble his way into acting out. No good came of acting on his instincts. The last time he let them run away with him was the last time he saw his family.
His bear growled at the same time a prickling wave rolled down his spine. Sawyer clenched his fists hard enough to leave half-moon indents in his palms to keep from scratching at his back. The family that rejected him wasn’t one he wanted to remember.
He glanced toward the burger shop then turned his gaze to the rest of the stores in the shopping center. A blonde woman pushed a loaded cart out of the grocery store and toward an SUV sitting alone at the far end of the parking lot. A trio of men unloaded as she neared. Instead of doing the decent thing and helping, the three crossed arms over their chests and leaned against the SUV while the woman packed the groceries away.
Sawyer pressed his lips together in a thin line. He’d seen that behavior before. He grew up around it.
His bear stopped the near constant internal growling and watched.
Family disputes weren’t their place, Sawyer reminded the beast.
With the groceries put away, he thought the scene would come to a close. Instead, the three men loaded into the SUV and shut the doors. When the woman tried to open one, it remained locked.
Sawyer clenched his fists together as she pounded against the glass. The driver crept forward slowly, and the windows rolled down. The men laughed as she jogged forward a few steps to keep up with them and tried the door again.
They toyed with her three more times, pulling forward and then breaking hard to give her time to catch up. The laughing and leering faces brought back his bear’s growl and Sawyer echoed the noise. It was shameful what those assholes were doing. Someone needed to crack their skulls and teach them some manners.
He reached for the door handle just as the assholes pulled to a fourth stop. Their obnoxious laughter didn’t lessen, but they finally let the woman into the vehicle. Then they gunned forward and Sawyer locked eyes with the woman for a brief second as the SUV passed.
He recognized the look on her face. Barely suppressed rage and sad acceptance warred on her features.
He wondered how long until just the acceptance remained.
His scars prickled again. He wanted to go after her, make her realize she didn’t have to put up with anyone’s shit. He played out the scene before he made a move. If he followed them and jumped out of his truck as soon as they parked, he’d looked like a crazy person. If he got in their faces, they’d call the cops. If the cops learned he was a shifter, or those men were of the gun-toting, pro-human variety, he’d put himself in danger.
No good would come with interfering. Especially when it was over a lack of respect and dicking around like teenagers.
The passenger door opened and the smell of burgers and fries invaded his nose. Hudson shoved a handful in his mouth and settled himself in his seat. He pulled a burger from the bag and waved it underneath Sawyer’s nose. “I got you one.”
S
awyer smacked away his hand. “I don’t want it,” he growled. “Can we go now, or do you need to pick up some dry cleaning and rent a movie before visiting the bank and getting your nails done?”
Hudson grinned around the straw in his mouth. “Don’t go getting your panties in a bunch. We can go home now.”
Thank fuck. Sawyer twisted the key in the ignition and turned the truck toward home while Hudson inhaled his meal.
Each mile they neared made it a little easier to breathe and a lot harder to control his bear. Freedom to shift and ignore his problems waited just as soon as he parked outside his cabin. He’d avoid the others while they questioned Hudson on his trip, let his bear take his skin, and run the beast to exhaustion.
Soon, he told himself, and forced his limbs to stay still instead of fidgeting like a junky needing a fix.
He made the turnoff toward Bearden just as an SUV blasted through a stop sign and zoomed past them. Sawyer glared in the rearview at the vehicle, so much like the one that’d been full of fuckheads at the shopping center.
“They sure have somewhere to be,” Hudson muttered darkly. He cleared his throat. “We going to talk about it?”
“What?” he snapped.
“Whatever has you growling over there? Fuck, man, you’re getting my bear ready to fight.”
Sawyer cut the noise with a quick shove of his beast to the back of his head. His mask was slipping. He needed to get himself under control. He couldn’t let his bear or his past rule him. “No.”
The next curve started their climb into the mountains and brought an unfamiliar sight. He drove right past her before his brain caught up with his eyes and he realized the blonde woman trudged along the side of the road.
Without thinking, he slammed on the brakes and threw the truck in reverse.
“What are you doing?” Hudson asked, glancing at what stole his attention. He twisted back in his seat and waved a hand. “Leave her be. She’s going to think you’re a weird serial killer.”
