by Cecilia Lane
They turned down first one flight of stairs, then another, then pushed through the door leading to the underbelly of the building. Bearden’s deepest secrets were guarded on the basement level.
At one end stood one of the many entrances to the tunnels beneath the town. Most of the larger businesses and even a few homes led to the vampires’ sanctum. They were the last line of defense should an attack on the enclave succeed and the Broken need to be spirited away.
The door leading to the trio of sleeping figures was surrounded by a group of scientists. They were a new and constant presence with a singular goal of understanding the magic powered by the Broken. When the figures touched orbs of fae creation, a barrier rose around the territory and blocked pure humans from detecting anything inside.
But those mysteries weren’t what Sawyer and Hudson needed. They were there for the level’s only truly living occupant: Mara.
“Security is tight down here,” Hudson muttered.
There were many more SEA agents buzzing around than either of them expected. “I’ll get them out of here. You know what you need to do.”
He peeled off from Hudson and went straight for the group of humans. They eyed him sharply, and most crossed their arms over their chests to look like they gave even less of a shit than he already suspected.
He was sure there were a few agents looking to actually do their jobs and play neutral cop between the super and natural worlds. But most were assholes wanting to prove their toughness against someone with claws and fangs.
“Hey, you the guys we’re supposed to talk to if we see something suspicious?”
A few arched brows, a couple faces turned away. Curiosity and boredom mingled in their scents.
“There’s a truck parked off the street. No tags, no one around. Smelled a bit like gasoline to me.”
That got their attention. Without a word of thanks, they cleared out to check the threat above. Too bad none were shifters and could smell a lie.
His bear huffed in his head as Sawyer turned back to his next target. The beast thought they played a great game. Hand to heart, Sawyer was simply pleased the beast wasn’t trying to murder him for once.
He poked his head around the visiting room. Mara was seated with her back to the wall and a guard stationed at her shoulder. A thick, silver collar around her throat kept her beast locked away. That was part of her punishment and containment. A human would have less luck escaping than a lioness in her prime.
The sight of it killed the good nature of his bear, and the unruly animal rose up with the reminder of their own captivity. Sawyer shoved and kicked on the bear to force words out of his mouth. “Hey, Mack. I just saw that clump of dick weasels take off muttering about someone parked out of zone. You want to head upstairs and make sure they aren’t beating on some innocent construction worker or tourist?”
Mack grimaced. “You know I can’t leave. Someone has to stand guard at all times. I’ll radio the station to send someone.”
“Yeah, but are they going to get there in time? I’ll keep watch. They’ll listen to you quicker than they’ll listen to me. And I can detain a lady better than I can convince those assholes that someone isn’t a threat.” Sawyer held his breath and prayed that small town concern for his fellows trumped direct orders from his alpha and Chief of Police, Judah Hawkins.
Mack slid his gaze to Mara and Hudson, then to Sawyer. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but don’t fuck me on this. Stay here, or it’s all our asses on the line.” Muttering curses and threats under his breath, Mack hustled out of the room and out the same door the SEA agents exited.
Sawyer winked at the unhappy couple and slipped out of the room himself. He slid to the floor outside and kept watch while they shared a private moment.
Tension was palpable in the air. With Callum gone, the entire clan shifted around to fill in the gaps. Cole stepped up as fire chief. Somehow, Sawyer found himself babying all the feelings of others. Cole was better at it. He knew what to say or when to tell them to get over their shit. But with his attention turned elsewhere, someone had to take responsibility and soothe the rest of the clan.
None felt the uncertainty of leadership more than Hudson. The man thrived when he knew exactly who ranked where. The shifting of the clan did him no favors, and Sawyer was sure trouble with his mate only exacerbated matters. Hudson needed to find calm, and Mara was the key.
Sawyer understood. Maybe more than the others. Hudson needed his mate’s smiles.
Just like he needed Everly’s.
He’d yet to find a way to convince her to give him a shot—or to convince himself that he deserved it. Each day saw them circling one another with a thick wall between them. Yes, they kissed. And she’d made certain not to let him close since.
There was a rustle of paper and the slide of a bottle across the table. Food was allowed, if inspected, but no alcohol. Sawyer smiled when he heard Mara say, “Thank you.”
From the way Hudson increasingly boiled over, Sawyer suspected they were the first words she had said to him since he returned from his last trip.
Quiet enveloped them for a long moment before more wrappers were undone. They ate in silence until Mara asked, “Your clan?”
Hudson grunted. “Made sure Leah went with the mates this morning. They’re at Pierre’s now.”
“Good. She needs to eat. She needs to stay strong for Callum.”
And for the rest of them. Cole could only manage so much, and his time was consumed with the firehouse. The caring of the clan fell to the alpha’s mate.
It was triage, though. It wouldn’t last. Already Sawyer’s bear wanted to fight more. A pecking order needed to be established. There would be more fights if Callum didn’t return soon. Sawyer couldn’t imagine any of the others filling the role of alpha as well as Callum. He didn’t even like to think about who had a shot at the position if things took a turn for the worse.
Mara had been locked up under the enclave for almost a year and had more time to serve before she was given her freedom. It had to be hard on Mara and Hudson both, even if it was her punishment. Seemed to Sawyer, in that time and all those conversations, Mara had begun to care for them.
Sawyer let his head fall against the wall behind him. Simply being in the area and knowing it was entirely possible to be held captive there frenzied his bear. He counted the tiles in the ceiling to keep his mind occupied. He didn’t feel right listening in on a conversation between mates.
The details he left out when he told Everly his sordid tale included time spent behind bars. Petty shit, stealing food to survive, had landed him in human lockup for a month with no chance to shift. His bear had wanted to murder him by the time he saw free skies above him again. At least Mara was given an opportunity to change shapes daily. He’d had to hide his other half from tearing up himself and those around him.
It was part of the reason he had sought out an enclave. He needed to feel part of people like him before he fucked up enough for them to put him down.
Fuck, they needed their alpha back. They needed their world to make sense again.
Too many problems made his head hurt. All those jumbled thoughts angered his bear. He had to keep himself straight so he didn’t frighten off Everly. He didn’t deserve her, but he couldn’t let her go. That damn kiss proved it and wrecked him all at once.
He was a giant fucking asshole who only cared about himself and the sweet curves of one woman.
He kept coming back to the conversation that prompted Hudson’s little jailbreak. He’d tried to exhaust himself in the weight room, but Hudson’s growls and glares threatened to pull Sawyer’s bear to the surface. Maybe a brawl would’ve done them both some good. Ease the tension just a bit.
But no. Sawyer’s need to fix everything around him pushed words out of his mouth. He lured Hudson back from the edge. He heard what really troubled the man, aside from knowing their alpha was stuck in a bed at the clinic. And he made the suggestion to get Mara talking again. �
��Maybe it’s not words she needs. Maybe she needs actions.”
Sawyer brushed his hair out of his eyes and shifted his gaze to the side. Still no sign of movement at the end of the hall. No one was coming to break up the little party inside the room at his back.
He’d solved one problem, but a thousand more were waiting for him at his cabin. Everly’s people tried to hurt his clan. He was the source of their ire, but they didn’t give a shit who they harmed. They just wanted to blow shit up and watch a clan burn.
Everly didn’t believe him. Not really. Hell, he wasn’t sure he could prove it. But the coincidences were too many. He had taken her. He had kept her away from Wade. The pride had visited other spots where shifters were targeted. The instinctual part of him wouldn’t move on from the subject.
To keep his people safe, to keep Everly safe, it’d be easier to cut his mate loose.
His bear roared in his head. He was fucked. He couldn’t give Everly up, even if her shitty pride tried to take out his clan. Maybe especially because of it.
He stretched himself too thin. Everly never left his mind. Her exotic scent made him crazy to get his hands on her. The most harmless of flinches sent him spiraling into reminders of her life before he stole her away, which in turn made him want to rage and snap at anything that could hurt her. No matter how much his bear insisted otherwise, he stood near the top of that potential list. He was raised by a monster, and he didn’t want to be her monster.
She was the flame to his moth. He couldn’t stop trying.
And just like Hudson, he was at a loss of how to get her to talk to him. They were mates, he was certain. Her heart jumped in pace when he neared her. Her breath hitched in her throat. Even her scent softened and heated with desire. But she wouldn’t concede she felt anything for him.
Ordering her to listen or think about her shitty relations got her back up. Trying to reason and sympathize had worked only once, and she had shut down every time since he showed her his scars.
If she wouldn’t talk, he had to change tactics. Maybe she didn’t need words. Maybe, like Mara, Everly needed actions.
Cole leaned over the engine and fiddled with something inside. Sawyer knew his way around the basics, but the truck was old, and he wanted an expert to look her over before he let Everly settle behind the wheel.
“You’ll want to replace the carburetor in the next couple months, but everything else looks good. Rusted out in a few places, but that’s nothing more than cosmetic,” Cole said with his face planted in the engine. He poked and prodded at every inch under the hood.
Sawyer tilted his head to catch a distant sound. “Just in time. Sounds like Rylee’s car coming up the road.”
“I wish she’d let me get her into something like this. That clown car has nothing between her and the outside.” Cole slapped the front bumper. “This baby is solid. I’d be more worried about anything she might hit.”
Sawyer huffed a laugh. The thought wasn’t far from what pushed him toward buying the thing off Ethan. He had to find creative ways to keep his mate safe and calm his bear.
Everly ducked out of Rylee’s car and gave her a tiny wave of farewell. When she spotted him and Cole leaning over the open hood of the clunker, she cocked her head in confusion. “What’s going on?”
Cole slammed down the hood and wiped his hands on a dirty rag hanging from his back pocket. “I’ll leave you two alone,” he said gruffly, then jogged after Rylee to follow her into their cabin.
Words didn’t work with Everly. He could tell her all damn day they were supposed to be mates, but he wasn’t the only one to say those words to her. He could hold their marriage over her head and be just as awful as her pride. They fucked with her head so much that she didn’t trust her own instincts.
She needed proof, and he had to give it to her. Just like Mara needed more than words from Hudson, Everly needed her freedom. He had to reassure her that she belonged to nobody. She was her own person and owned her actions, whatever they would be.
That was the fuzzy part of his plan. The risk was great, but the reward would last a lifetime. He had to put himself on the line if he wanted to keep her around. Talking didn’t work. Actions had to matter. If his went sideways, he’d be giving her the keys to drive right out of his life.
“It’s yours,” Sawyer said. “If you’re going to be in the enclave, you need a way to get around. We’re too far out for you to get everywhere on your feet, and you can’t rely on rides from someone else. I hear you’ll be making house calls soon enough. So this is yours.”
She looked from him, then to the truck. Her blonde hair swished with her denial and filled the air with her mouthwatering scent. “This is too much. Clothes were one thing, but this is an entire truck. Too much. Way too much.”
“You’re right.” That stalled her objections and her eyebrows shot together while she tried to puzzle out his intentions. To keep you forever and get you back on your feet, darlin’. “Which is why I expect payments every month. I don’t care how much, as long as you start paying it down once you get your own money rolling in.”
Independence and responsibility. He read between the lines of her shrouded comments. He saw her life through the lens of his family. She’d been denied a chance to be anything but property. He left words behind and offered her actions that said he thought of her as a full person.
He pulled a phone from his back pocket and handed it to her. “Before you refuse this, it’s an old one I had laying around, and most of the numbers are worn off the keypad. It’s loaded with minutes from cards purchased at the gas station. If this boat breaks down, you have a way to call for help.”
“This is too much,” Everly mumbled.
She shifted her hair forward to hide her face. Sawyer inhaled and slid through her complicated scent. Happy and sad were piled on each other. He couldn’t even begin deciphering which one dominated.
She glanced up, and his heart nearly stopped when he spotted her eyes shiny with tears. Then a small smile graced her lips, and he felt like he won a victory.
“It’s exactly enough.”
Chapter 14
Still in shock, Everly palmed the keys dropped into her hand. The weight was easily as heavy as the world.
She looked from Sawyer to the pale blue truck, then circled the vehicle. She expected it to disappear any second and her dream to end and snap her awake.
It was ancient. Rust and mud colored the wheel wells. The hood was a slightly lighter color than the body. Chips of paint revealed the metal underneath all around the windows.
“Ready to take her out?”
“Now? Right this moment?” He barely nodded his head, and she spat her answer into the air. “Yes!”
The door thunked heavily with her inside. Her inner beast purred loudly, and Everly didn’t even care if the noise spilled out of her throat.
Sawyer hauled himself inside with words of warning rolling off his tongue. “Don’t go too fast. Take the turns slow. Watch how close she gets to the sides of the road. You don’t want these tires to hang off the edge.”
“Would you relax? I learned how to drive on something bigger than this.” The engine rumbled to life with a turn of the key. Everly smoothed her hands over the rough and discolored steering wheel before slamming her foot on the gas.
“Slow down!” Sawyer yelped with all the shock of a nervous parent.
Everly grinned and didn’t ease off until they neared the main road. She knew how to drive a truck. She had learned on campers. She was more scared of little cars than something big and heavy like the clunker he gave her.
With freedom under her foot, she turned toward Bearden.
The little under two weeks since she’d been inside the enclave were enough to get a general idea of where the main sights were located. She still wanted to eat up the main drag whenever she neared it. The shops and small-town crowd and a square always with some sort of activity taking place were too cute not to bring a smile to her face.
&n
bsp; Sawyer surprised her by rolling down the window and resting his arm on the edge while settling in for the ride. They passed by a local bar and barbecue joint. When the shops and houses thinned down to mostly trees and woods, he pointed to a fork in the road. “Turn up there.”
Everly slid him a look. His voice was a shock to hear in the silence she hadn’t realized sat between them. She hadn’t even turned on the music to drown it out. She had been contented enough with her new truck that she didn’t need to fill the air. Her cat brushed against her mind and let out another happy purr. “Where does this go?”
“The reservoir. There’s spot to park and watch the sun set.”
“That sounds almost like a date, husband.” Everly glanced to her side with a smile. She couldn’t remember ever feeling as good as she did that moment.
“I did just buy you a truck, wife.”
Sawyer’s smirk made her mouth go dry and her stomach flip. If they were any other people, and if their lives had intersected at any other time, she would have tripped over herself to get a little closer to the man. His quiet ways made him all the more mysterious, and she welcomed when he turned his attention on her. Her cat prowled in the back of her head and pushed her closer.
For once, Everly didn’t want to fight the beast.
The spot he directed her to was dotted with a handful of other vehicles. She turned off the engine and rested her arms over the wheel. She saw why it was a popular spot immediately. Paths led down to the water where a handful of families splashed around. The lake was built with mountains rising up on either side and a clear view of the orange evening sky beyond.
She felt as free as the birds circling on air currents above the lake. One terrible day had led her far away from a life where she had no control. “What’s to stop me from leaving the moment you get out?”
“Everly.” The word filled the air with a heaviness that forced her to look at him. “I want you to make that choice. It’s your life to decide.”
