by Cecilia Lane
“Aren’t the hitchhikers supposed to be the serial killers? We’d be the innocent victims if she turns out to be an ax murderer. If that happens, you have my apologies.”
“Because I’m sure a lone woman in the middle of nowhere is going to see it like that.” Hudson passed a hand down his face.
She glanced over her shoulder and picked up her pace. Unless she dove off the road and into the woods, there was no escaping. He pulled up even with her and pushed open his door.
“What are you doing?” Hudson asked again.
Sawyer inhaled as soon as he stepped out of the truck and shut Hudson’s objections away. His bear sat up in attention. Something sweet and exotic and wild, like fruit and rainforests, filled his nose and made his mouth water. Perfection was the only way to describe the combination.
And even if her eyes didn’t take on a faint glow or her lips part to scent the air better, he’d recognize the smell of fur. She was a shifter, just like him. Big cat of some sort, he’d bet.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked to break the thick silence between them.
“That’s not your business,” she snapped back and spun away.
Sawyer hustled in front of her to cut her off. He couldn’t tell if her eyes were gold because of her inner beast or if the swirl of green and brown and gold were a natural hazel. Her hair hung loosely around her shoulders, thick and with just a hint of wave. He scanned her frame—to check for any serial killer weapons—and nearly groaned. Her clothes were oversized and baggy, but didn’t quite hide the sweet curves underneath.
When he returned to her face and studied her straight nose and full lips, thick lashes hid guarded eyes that were staring him down just as hard. She played at being frail, something he saw too many women of his birth clan do, but he was sure she was all fangs and sass.
“I saw you in town. Did those assholes drive you all the way out here just to leave you?”
She frowned and took a step back. “They had somewhere to be. I can walk. It’s not far from here.”
“Lady, the enclave is the nearest town. Heading back the other way is going to take you hours on foot. And I can smell the lie on you.” He tapped his nose.
His bear rumbled in his head and Sawyer didn’t bother quieting him. He was pissed, too.
Her frown deepened and lined her forehead, but she didn’t say anything else.
He gentled his tone and tried again, taking a step closer. “What’s your name?”
“Everly. What’s yours?”
“Sawyer.”
He liked that she didn’t hesitate or put more distance between them. She lifted her chin and met his eyes in a challenge. That was a mistake. The motion shifted her hair to the side, and he caught sight of the bruise around her eye and spreading over her temple.
The growl built in his chest and he reached for her. No one should hit a woman, especially not Everly.
He needed to protect her from those assholes who laid hands on her and left her on the side of the road. He’d take her home and keep her safe. If they didn’t want her, he’d be sure to take care of her.
His bear was in full agreement. No one would touch their mate again.
The sending nearly brought Sawyer to a standstill. No, no, no. They didn’t have a mate. They were just helping the woman get back on her feet and figure out her next plans away from the abusive fucks in her life.
His hand wrapped around her wrist and electricity jumped up his arm. Hers too, if he trusted her sharp exhale and the shiver that ran through her. Her eyes went wide and she stared where their skin touched.
That sealed it for him. His bear wouldn’t accept anything less. Instinct took control of his actions. She was in danger, had already been injured, and had been cast aside like trash. She wasn’t his mate. He wasn’t fit for love. But he could protect her.
“You’re coming with me,” he said in a thick voice.
Her eyes shot from her captured wrist to his face. Her cheeks paled. “I am not. I need to get back to my pride.”
“If they want you back, they can come get you. Then they can have a talk with me about the proper way to treat a woman.” He shoved her toward the truck and whipped open the door to urge her inside.
“Sawyer. Sawyer! Gentlemen do not hustle ladies off the road and into their trucks to hold them hostage,” she growled, tugging on her arm without any success.
Hudson looked from him to Everly and back. “Uhh, Sawyer? What are you doing?”
“She needs help, Hudson. I’m giving it to her. In.” He released her wrist and bundled her between him and Hudson. “My bear needs this,” he muttered under his breath.
“I don’t need help,” she insisted. She turned her attention to Hudson. “I need to get home, that’s all.”
“Home. Where they do that to your face.” Sawyer reached forward and brushed a finger across her cheek. Sparks danced up his hand at the touch. Fuck, those felt good.
She pulled her hair forward to cover her eye. “I did it to myself,” she mumbled.
He didn’t like the fake subservience in her tone. He wanted her to fight and snarl and make demands like she’d done before.
Was it fucked up? Probably. But she wasn’t made to roll over and take whatever was given to her. She was stronger than that.
He was going to see that she realized that. Away from those that would beat her down and force her into a mold of their creation.
“Sawyer, what the fuck?” Hudson growled. “You can’t do this.”
Beside him, Everly nodded.
“No one touches my mate,” he snarled in answer. He threw the truck into gear and drove on toward Bearden.
The bomb dropped and blew all other words into smithereens. Hell, he wasn’t even convinced of it. But her scent called to his bear and grabbed him around the throat and shoved his face in the evidence.
He didn’t just want to help her. He needed to do it. He needed her off her feet, healed up, and away from anyone who tried to hurt her. The instinct to protect her invaded all his cells until there was no other function left. His organs worked to keep his body going in order to see Everly safe.
Awkward silence filled the cab as his actions took root in his head. He was a thinker, and he went into action without considering anything.
He plucked Everly off the side of the road. Right or wrong, it was done.
“We can take her back where she belongs,” Hudson suggested quietly. “Talk this over.”
His hands tightened hard enough to force a complaint from the steering wheel. His bear raged inside him and flashed him image after image of his desires. Hudson covered in red. Bits of the man strewn about. Everly hidden from everyone except him.
The first kick of his change hit him in the stomach and a groan cut his snarl in half. Fuck. Fuck.
“Stop the truck, stop the truck!” Hudson reached across Everly and grabbed the wheel to straighten them out.
Too fucking late for that. His bear snatched at his control and tore at his skin.
Then something cold washed over him and chilled the raging beast. He glanced down at Everly’s hand resting on his arm.
“It’s okay,” she said, eyes wide.
The words soothed away the last of his shift. The bear stopped fighting and simply watched the woman like a lovesick puppy.
“Just get us wherever we’re going in one piece.”
Sawyer swallowed. The sting of her fear pierced his heart. He caused that. With all his talk of how to treat a woman, and he set her heart racing.
They were right about him, his family. Nothing could cleanse the stain on his soul. He wouldn’t ever get rid of them, not completely. They would always be part of him and forever fucking up his life. He was born of a weak-willed man and raised by a monster. He deserved nothing.
He drew in a shuddering breath and tried to sift out the fear to the sweet, exotic scent below. He’d keep her safe. From the fucks who hit her and from himself. “I promise.”
Cha
pter 4
Everly stared straight ahead as silence overtook the truck again. With a big man on either side of her, there was no hope of escaping until at least one of them left the truck, and that didn’t seem like a possibility while they careened around turns of the road. She tried to keep from pressing her legs against one or the other. Her panther hissed at the burly one and tried to shove her closer to Sawyer. Neither reaction made a lick of sense to Everly.
His declaration was impossible. Silly. Crazy. They weren’t mates, and the fact that her cat went quiet at his words meant nothing. It had to be shock.
Her current situation was the cherry on an already terrible sundae. She was being kidnapped, for goodness sake. But for whatever reason, she was more upset at her chaperones leaving her on the side of the road than Sawyer picking her up. Walking back to camp was her punishment for her attitude that began as soon as she woke that morning. The walk was supposed to curb her defiance.
Instead, it saddled her with an abductor and his unwilling accomplice.
A strange calm came over her the moment Sawyer stepped out of the truck. She should have fought more, like she fought Mike from dragging her out of the SUV. She’d kicked and screamed then, and took another blow to the face for it. No wonder Sawyer was so pissed at the mark. Her second black eye of the day looked fresh.
She slid her gaze to the side and tried to get a measure of her captor. He brushed auburn hair away from his face, though the sides were trimmed up short. His eyes tilted slightly and, combined with olive undertones of his skin, made him look more exotic than the solid country boy on her other side. At least she wouldn’t need to stare at ugliness while he held her against her will.
She slowly peeled her hand off his arm, and the truck immediately filled with his vibrating growl. She swore she could feel it humming over her skin like a breath of air.
Her panther echoed the growl. Not at him, or the other one who tried to move away from her as much as the cramped bench seat allowed. Her inner animal hissed and spat at her for pulling away from their mate.
Swallowing hard, she slapped her hand back on his forearm. The noise cut as soon as she made contact.
Impossible.
One, he wasn’t a cat like her. Two, he wasn’t part of her pride. And three, he freaking stole her off the side of the road.
He couldn’t be her mate. No way, no how.
Sawyer cleared his throat and glanced at her. “Has this,” he circled his eye with a finger, “happened before?” He tried to keep the tone light, but his voice was still thick with his inner beast.
“That’s none of your business.” Everly snapped her teeth together before she could say another word.
He had her on edge. Truth was, her cat wanted to roll on over and flash her belly, and rub up and down his body, and curl her tail around him. The beast purred anytime a bump in the road slung her against him. The reaction was at odds with what she should be feeling: sheer panic.
“You know it won’t stop, right? You’re going to die. Physically or mentally, this will kill you.”
It was too close to an uncomfortable truth she didn’t want to admit contemplating over and over. She spent far too many nights—especially after Aileen’s death—staring at the camper ceiling and wondering when it’d go too far. A human punishment that didn’t stop or the raking of claws hitting the wrong spot, either would do her in. “You don’t know that—”
“I do.” He shifted slightly in his seat like he needed to scratch his back. “I’ve seen it happen before.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Hudson cocking his head to pay attention. So Mr. Growly Bear had secrets even from his co-conspirator.
“I just need to watch what I say. It’s what happens when you’re obstinate.”
Hudson snorted at her other side. “You’ll fit right in with our females, then,” he muttered.
“It’s what happens when you’re surrounded by assholes. Decent people don’t do this,” Sawyer gestured toward his eye again, “because you have an opinion. You’ll see.”
His idea was a pleasant one and so far from the truth that she wondered if he had some sort of illness. The pride was built around a strict hierarchy. The men provided, and the women cared. Provoking someone ranked above was a good way to get popped back down. For the good of the pride. Everyone had their place.
Maybe the bears of the enclave were as lawless as the rest of the world.
The truck slipped again into silence and she focused on the big, green trees that lined the road and formed the landscape. The pride traveled all over the country and sometimes even dipped across the northern and southern borders. She’d lived in desert and wetlands, but her heart belonged to the mountains. There was something refreshing about standing on top of one and screaming all her frustrations into the void.
Because deep down, she wanted to believe Sawyer was right. The pride placed too much focus on their ranks and it allowed too much abuse in the name of structure. A pervasive sense of wrongness filled her every waking moment, and she buried it as deep as possible. A mother shouldn’t need her mate’s permission to switch to formula. A father should want to help his child thrive, no matter how it was done. And the pride’s midwife shouldn’t have her throat ripped out for disagreeing with the alpha.
Voicing those opinions got her smacked down every single time.
Sawyer hit the turn signal and slowed. A bumpy road opened on a clearing with cabins scattered on the edges. The roofs of each one peaked, and the owners decorated every porch in a different fashion. One held a swing, another nothing at all. She thought she spotted strands of lights wrapped around the column of another. They were all lived in and cared for and made into homes.
Sawyer circled the center, avoiding the group of people gathered around a pair of picnic tables, a handful of smaller camp chairs, and a large grill that one man worked. As Sawyer pulled to a stop in front of one cabin, she watched the grilling man lean over a very pregnant woman and kiss her forehead.
Everly turned away from such a private show of affection.
Hudson threw himself from the truck as soon as Sawyer put the truck into park. Everly eyed the door, then Sawyer, before slithering away from him and out the passenger side.
A group already gathered around Hudson and drew him into hugs. A dull rumble of questions followed while she tried to make herself invisible and keep an eye on the unfamiliar group.
Bears, she assumed. Most of the shifters in Bearden were, though she once overheard one of the males mention the mixed pairings the enclave supposedly accepted with a note of disgust.
Regardless of their proclivities or progressive desires, they were other shifters and as dangerous as humans. They simply couldn’t be trusted.
Enclave shifters were the worst. They were happy to shackle themselves to one place and let the threats come to them. They had nowhere to run and kidded themselves that their precious Broken would save them. That worked out spectacularly, right until someone spilled the beans to the human media.
Nope, nope, nope. She wouldn’t be caught up in their fights. She didn’t want any focus placed on her.
Everly slid her gaze to the tree line, then to the mingling group. They were too close for her to make a run for it. Even if she shifted on foot, they’d be after her. She didn’t know the area to find a bolt hole, and they could climb a tree just as well as she could.
Best to just watch and take her chance later. Her cat rumbled agreement, twitching the tip of her tail like she’d caught sight of something interesting.
They weren’t so different than her pride. The need to touch was strong. It reinforced their bond and reapplied their scents. Their animals would know the others belonged and weren’t a threat.
They all had the same underlying scent of earth and fur that she assumed revealed their bear nature. It was a different perfume than her jaguar pride, but not entirely bad. She kind of liked the freshness of it, especially what she gathered from Sawyer. He reminded
her of a storm about to break.
She parted her lips and pulled more air through her mouth. There was something else and she couldn’t identify it with just her nose. Then she stiffened and flicked her gaze to the blonde wearing glasses. She was human.
“Sawyer’s off his rocker. Ask him what happened,” Hudson proclaimed and threw his hands in the air. He stalked away.
A woman with brown hair and purple tips cocked her head, and Everly felt caught in her gaze. “Sawyer… who’s this?”
“Everly. She’s staying with us,” he said.
“Everly. He found me on the road and forced me into his truck,” she answered over him.
As much as she tried to take a step away from him—and when had he gotten so close?—she couldn’t make her legs move. Her panther grumbled protest at even thinking of parting from the male. He was a surprising source of comfort when nine pairs of eyes watched her intently.
The woman reached forward and brushed her hair to the side. Her eyes glowed silver. “Who fucked with your face?”
“He forced you into his truck?” Someone else growled. A quick glance showed it was the tattooed behemoth, who draped his arm over the shoulder of the blonde with glasses.
“All good questions.” A rougher, though barely shorter, version of the behemoth shouldered to the front. Hard eyes found Everly. “You first.”
She wanted to look away. Or feel fear. Or run. Her cat kept her calm and in place. The animal wouldn’t shift a foot from Sawyer. “Someone in my pride.”
“Kitty cat,” another male whispered into the ear of a black-haired female. Her eyes widened and her mouth went round with an ‘O’ of realization. Of them all, she looked familiar, but Everly couldn’t place where she knew her.
“Sawyer? What the fuck?”
Sawyer lifted his chin and met the other man’s eyes without flinching. “They left her on the side of the road after knocking her around. I couldn’t let that slide.”
“So you brought her here. By force.” He blew out a harsh breath and looked to the sky. “Introductions, I guess, until we get this sorted out. I’m Callum, and this is my mate, Leah. Cole and Rylee. Gray and Meghan. Nolan and Becca.”
