by Sydney Addae
“I told you to leave her alone,” Jim said, his words gritty. “She belongs to me.” His lips barely moved and Ethan wondered if he had a hard time speaking.
“She belongs to herself.” Ethan forced himself to focus on Vanessa and not the hyped up experiment standing in front of him. The words hadn’t fully left his mouth before Jim slammed into him. They flew backward and knocked over a few fallen tree limbs.
Ethan gasped for breath and barely avoided the blow to his face. Using his feet, he pushed, Jim flew back but didn’t fall. Within seconds he charged again.
Ethan rolled to the side, but not fast enough to avoid a kick in thigh. Pain shot up his leg and radiated throughout his body. Favoring his right thigh, he ducked at the last moment, avoiding a roundhouse kick to the face. The momentum caused Jim to fall hard, leaving him winded. Ethan kicked him in the stomach, grabbed him by the hair and punched him in the face three times in succession before Jim blocked and pushed him away.
Ethan fell on his ass and rolled to the left to miss being hit by a large tree branch Jim swung so hard he spun around and tripped.
Chest heaving, Ethan ran forward, slamming his shoulder into Jim’s stomach, pushing the larger man back unto they fell over the rock and tumbled down the cliff a few feet. Jim landed on top of Ethan, grabbed his hair and slammed his head on the ground.
For several seconds Ethan couldn’t focus. Jim lifted him above his head and body slammed Ethan onto the hard earth. Then he kicked him in the side so hard the breath left his body.
It hurt to breathe.
“I’m better than any full-blood,” Jim said, grabbing Ethan by his hair and dragging him up the cliff. Pack howled in the distance, rousing Ethan’s beast.
“This is one human you can’t beat.” By the time Ethan caught his breath, Jim went to pick him up again. This time Ethan spun and got behind Jim and locked him in a choke hold.
“Aargh,” Jim growled as he turned left, then right, trying to dislodge Ethan. When one of Jim’s blows landed on Ethan’s shoulder, Ethan squeezed tighter and pierced Jim’s skin with his claw and ripped into his skin.
As blood poured from the wound, Jim’s movements slowed. His body deflated as if someone had pulled a plug, and he slumped against Ethan. Satisfied the man still had a pulse, Ethan morphed to human and slapped Jim in the face.
“Wake up, wake up you bastard,” Ethan growled, his beast still close to the surface and ready to finish the kill.
“Stop,” Jim said, blood running down his nose. His skin took on a pasty, splotchy hue. Even his lips were blue tinged.
“Where is Vanessa?”
“Vanessa?” Jim coughed, blood trickled down his nose. He wiped it with the back of his hand, smearing it over his face. “Dead. I hid her away from you, away from everybody.”
“Where is she?” Ethan growled as his pack mates moved closer.
“With me, or she will be soon. We’ll be together forever real soon.”
“What did you do?” Fear for his mate made Ethan’s voice hard.
“I win. She’s dead. I’m dead. We’ll be together,” Jim said in a thready voice.
Ethan grabbed the man by the neck and shook him back and forth. Specks of blood hit his chest and the dirt.
“I thought you loved her,” Ethan said, deciding to try a different approach.
“She’s mine; I do love her.” Jim sounded like a spoiled kid.
“So why kill her? What if you’d won?”
“I’d save her.” His voice sounded weak, as if it was a struggle to talk. Whatever he’d been taking took a serious toll on him. “But I can’t, so we’ll be together forever,” Jim said, his eyes blazing with malice.
Ethan stood and jerked Jim to his feet. The Goddess would help him find his mate but this wasted piece of flesh was done.
“Run.” Ethan pointed toward the forest.
Jim looked at him and then at the wolves surrounding them who stood on both two and four legs. “Why? So they can catch me before I reach the trees.”
Ethan spat on the ground next to Jim’s feet. “None of them will chase you.”
The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds. Ethan knew the exact second Jim would try to land a sucker punch and jumped back.
Jim took off running.
Ethan released a howl and allowed his beast to take over. It took less than a minute to land on Jim’s back and topple him to the ground. Ethan morphed to human, allowing Jim time to stand.
Jim threw a punch that connected on Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan backhanded him so hard, Jim spun before hitting the ground again.
Ethan’s claws protruded from his fingers and his fangs dropped as he stood over Jim. “Where is my mate?”
Jim tried to spit but couldn’t because Ethan placed his foot on his neck. “For your crimes against my mate, your life is forfeit.” With his hand poised over Jim’s chest, he thrust his claws downward and twisted slightly. He removed his hand, and sprinkled sand from the ground over the wounds.
Jim screamed and rolled into a fetal position as blood rolled down his chest.
“You don’t deserve to die quickly.”
“Are you finished playing with dick-head?” Kitchi asked.
“What’s going on, Kit?” Ethan watched Jim writhe on the ground.
“You ‘bout done?”
“Yeah.”
“Get here when you’re done, I’ve got something for you.”
“Can’t, we’re searching all the properties this group owned for Vanessa. This piece of shit left her someplace with no food or water. I’ve got to find her.”
“I know. Come here.” He disconnected and shut Ethan out.
“Do you know where she is?” Kitchi didn’t respond.
Ethan looked down at Jim, noticed how still the man had become and placed a finger on his neck. No pulse. He grabbed him by the head and twisted, breaking his neck. No one regenerated from a broken neck. Standing, he released a victory howl. The others joined in. With Kitchi’s request in the forefront of his mind, he tossed Callum the keys to the SUV.
“I want to run for a while. See you later.”
Callum caught them, nodded, took Fulton’s daughter’s hand and walked away. Ethan morphed into his beast and ran toward the house. If Kitchi was playing another game, he’d kick his ass. But it wasn’t like his brother to be so cryptic. Curiosity propelled Ethan down the mountain toward his temporary lodgings. As soon as he crossed the creek he picked up her scent.
Heart pounding, he ran faster and reached the porch in record time.
“Quiet, she’s asleep,” Kitchi said as he walked inside.
Ethan returned to his human form and tiptoed into the house. Fulton sat at the dining table. Kitchi lay on the sofa and pointed to the hall. Eager to see his mate and to make sure she was okay, Ethan opened his bedroom door and stared at her lying across his bed. “She’s not sick is she?”
“Not that I know of. Chogan contacted me, told me where to find her. He appeared to her and gave her directions to this place. By the time I found her, she’d strayed from the path and was heading in another direction. I brought her here, she made a call, then asked to use the bathroom, and I suggested she rest until her friend arrived. I think she was afraid of Fulton.”
Ethan snorted. Fulton didn’t look half as deadly as Kitchi, who wore his hair in a Mohawk and sported totem tattoos all over his body. “Who’s picking her up?”
“She didn’t tell me; I think it was a female. Want me to check”
“No, it’s probably Shyla. She’s pack.”
“Yeah?”
“And Vanessa’s best friend.”
Chapter 29
Elated to finally be in the same room with Vanessa, Ethan sat on the foot of the bed and watched her breathe. He noticed the dirt and blood on his skin. “I better shower or she’ll run screaming when she wakes up.”
After the quickest shower ever, he pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. Vanessa hadn’t moved. Dark hair r
ested on the pillow, her chest rose and fell gently. His gaze remained on the outline of her full breasts beneath her shirt and traveled further.
“What happened to your feet?” He stooped and gently held both in his hands. Moving quickly, he went into the bathroom and returned with a poultice he’d made for small cuts that took too long to heal. He applied the gel-like concoction to the sole of her feet.
“Ethan?” Vanessa hadn’t fully opened her eyes. He didn’t want to scare her.
“Yes, how do you feel?” There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but started with that one.
“Tired. Hungry. Achy. Is Shyla here?”
“Not yet.” He sat on the end of the bed, placed her feet in his lap and massaged them.
She moaned and closed her eyes. “That feels good.”
Pleased she hadn’t sent him away, he continued taking care of her.
“What are you doing here?” She watched him and then leaned up on her elbow. “How’d you find me?”
“This is my place. I live here.” The truth was always the best approach.
“Oh? I didn’t know, the guy didn’t say, but he does look a little like you. Sorry. No, I mean thank you for letting me wait here.” She slid her feet from his lap and moved to the edge of the bed. “Is this your room?” She looked around and he wondered what she was thinking.
“Yeah. You don’t have to get up if you’re tired.” He stood. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I’ll leave.”
“No. That’s not it.” She bit her lip and ran her hand across her wild hair. “It’s been a weird day, I mean night and morning, that’s all.” She met his gaze. “You don’t think I’m stalking you, do you?”
His brow rose and he laughed. “I wish.”
She smiled.
His heart skipped a beat. “Not at all, seeing you here made my day. Please don’t get up or rush out because of me. Whatever you need before you leave, feel free to take.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep from touching her again.
“It’s just…” She looked at him for a few seconds and then pulled her feet beneath her. “Jim drugged me last night after I left you at the school.”
“Are you okay?”
She continued staring at him. “You don’t sound surprised.”
Ethan snorted. “He’s an ass, nothing he does surprises me.”
“You know him? I mean, did you know him before you met him at the school?”
“Never saw him before in my life, but I’m both Cherokee and Marine.”
Her brow rose and her lips twisted upward. “Which means?”
“I read people, seen his type.”
“His type… okay. Well, I didn’t expect your reaction, but I’m glad you’re even-tempered.”
“Vanessa, don’t mistake my dismissal of that guy as being even-tempered. He means nothing to me, so he doesn’t rate my concern. Now if you said Jim held something of yours hostage, or if he was somehow harming you right now, you’d see a different response. I don’t know what happened at your home last night and am hesitant to ask because I don’t want you uncomfortable. So I’m trying to be chill but if you’d like to talk about it, I really want to know.”
Their gazes locked for a few seconds and she nodded. “Thank you. I’m still processing everything that happened, it seems like a dream. A really crazy, bizarre dream, know what I mean?”
He ran his fingers through his damp hair and tied it back. “I have visions sometimes, so I know exactly what you mean.”
“Visions?”
He smiled at the skepticism in her voice. “Cherokee gift. Usually I see events unfold before they happen, came in handy while I was active duty. Lately it’s been off.”
“Have a seat, it’s hard looking up all the time.”
Pleased she wanted him to stay, he returned to the spot where he’d sat before. “How’d you find this place?”
“Some guy told me how to find this place. Weird, he disappeared after telling me what to do. Whatever you put on my feet helped.” She looked at them. “They feel much better by the way, what’d you put on them?”
He pulled the small container from his pocket and held it out for her. “Some herbs and aloe I made.”
She sniffed. “Interesting.”
“Keep it,” he said when she tried to return it. “Put more on later today.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Neither spoke for a few moments.
“When you said Jim wasn’t the right man for me, you were right. I planned to break off things last night, but never got the chance.” His gaze followed hers and he noticed she’d removed the ring. His heart lightened and his beast yipped in approval.
“I’m the right man for you,” he said with conviction.
She smiled. “So you said. But that’s not why I broke things off with him.” She waved her hand and shook her head. “Are you a part of an organization that kidnaps women?” The words flew from her mouth so fast it took Ethan a second to understand the question.
“What? No.” He didn’t mean to sound offended but couldn’t help it.
She reached in her pocket, pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to him.
Ethan read the page once and then again. “That son of a bitch. He flipped the whole thing.” He returned the paper to her. “He’s lying. I never kidnapped you in New Jersey or anyone else. If there’s a secret group, it’s one he belongs to, not me.” He hoped she believed him.
“I knew it.” She smiled. “When I read this I knew he was lying. At least my bullshit meter isn’t completely broken.”
A weight lifted from his chest. “I don’t think it was ever broke, you recognized something was off with him before now.” He was thinking of how she’d looked at him when they first met.
“Hmm, true, and I probably shouldn’t admit this, but if he hadn’t gone all crazy toward the end, I would’ve married him. Not sure what that says about my meter.”
Ethan pointed to her naked ring finger. “He’s history. I want to be your present and future.’
She smiled. “As a history teacher, I understand the importance of searching historical data to prevent history from repeating itself.”
He leaned across the bed and touched her feet gently. “But you have no history with me.”
“Touché.” She stretched her legs.
“In case you didn’t know, I’m very attracted to you.” He rolled up her pant legs, sat up and massaged her calves.
“You must, because I look like a hot mess and you haven’t run out the room, yet.” She chuckled.
“I won’t ever run from you or leave you. Your heart is the treasure I want, and you look beautiful to me.” He placed a kiss on top of her right foot.
Vanessa’s gaze remained on the top of his dark hair. Good lord this man was killing her, saying all the right things at the right time. His gentle touches, concern over her comfort first when she knew he wanted to know what happened, turned her into an emotional pile of goo. She needed reassurance that there were still good men in the world.
“You’re different. And I mean that in a good way, but I don’t think I’m ready to jump into another relationship.” There, she said it. Put those words into motion in the universe.
“Don’t jump, we’ll walk and explore it together. Us is the last relationship you’ll have.” He tapped his chest. “Cherokee. I know these things.”
Desperate to believe him, to give her heart one more chance, she remained silent. Her thoughts were a different matter, they screamed, collided, and got plain ugly with each other stooping to calling her names she’d never allow anyone to say.
“It’s not stupid or desperate to admit I like him. I’ve liked him from the first time he held me in the restaurant. His eyes are honest, plus he smells good,” she argued with herself. “How can he hurt me if I don’t love him? It’s just physical. I need to be held and more. It’s been too long.”
“Nothing to say?” Ethan asked. The heat from his palm
on her leg spread up to her core. Her nipples tightened and she looked away from his gaze.
“Tell me about growing up Cherokee,” she said to redirect her thoughts.
“Is that what you really want to hear?” he asked. She’d swear his voice sounded like chocolate syrup, all dark and sweet, but that was ridiculous.
Rather than speak the lie, she nodded.
His hand moved slower up and down her leg. She closed her eyes, reveling in his touch.
“One day I want to take you back there, so you can see it for yourself, but not now.” He paused. “Is it alright to touch you like this?”
Unable to speak, she nodded.
“No Vanessa, my sweet, you must say yes. Say the word.”
“Yes.” Was that her voice all breathy and low? She straightened her legs and widened them slightly because, well, she wasn’t sure why, it just seemed right at the time.
“Your skin is so soft.” He placed a kiss on her calf, just his lips at first and then he licked the area with his tongue.
Pleasurable tingles shot up her leg to her core and nipples. Wanting, no needing more, she moaned, hoping he’d get the message without her asking. Jim had said “no” too many times and she couldn’t stand the idea of Ethan turning her down.
The rough cotton fabric that protected her during the escape, grazed her skin, sending goosebumps everywhere as he pushed the material further up her legs.
“So damn sexy,” he whispered. His warm breath was inches from her sensitized skin. The feel of his lips, tongue and hands on her flesh heated her blood. Without warning an ache started low in her belly, building and intensifying.
Vanessa placed her arms over her head, holding them in place with her hands, otherwise she’d grab his head and demand he put out the fire growing inside. She’d never experienced this slow burn and didn’t want it to end.
While his lips played havoc on her senses, kissing and licking her inner thigh, his hands were busy stroking, touching, and massaging everywhere except where she needed. Didn’t he see the wet spot? Smell her need? Did she need a neon arrow pointing between her thighs?
