“The cameras are off so if you want to change awhile we’ll work on getting you out.”
Miles riffled through his bag and found a pair of wire cutters. “I figured it would be fastest. We’ll tie it back together so none of the wolves can get out. It will do until morning, at least.”
Owen had heard him but wasn’t watching what Miles was doing. He was focused on Vince who was lying on the ground painting with an effort to change. Through their bond, he could feel his struggle. “Vince. Stop. Just give us a minute and I’ll help.”
He didn’t stop.
“Vince. Enough.”
The waves of anguish subsided a bit.
Miles was making quick work of a makeshift door. Together they rolled back the chain-link fencing so Owen could step through. He knelt beside Vince and placed a hand on his back. Owen traded Vince. Pain for strength. He then pushed a change through Vince so hard that neither of them had time to prepare. Owen grunted at the assault of Vince’s injuries as he filtered the burn through their bond. Vince shifted faster than expected and lay sprawled out on the ground, panting. There was deep bruising on his ribs and small lines of stitches over his body.
Miles tossed some loose fitting clothing at him. “Get those on and let’s get out of here. Lee can look him over in the car.”
At her name, Vince rolled his head to the side and smiled. “She found me. Thought she hated me, but she found me anyway.”
“Lee is a mystery. Can you sit up?” Owen asked, his hand still resting on his shoulder, filtering any discomfort.
Together, Miles and Owen helped him to his feet. He slipped on the clothes while Miles zip tied the fence back together. They’d have to replace that part of the fence but considering that was the only damage they did to the place, Owen considered it a small price to pay, which he would. That donation was slowly growing.
They walked back the way they had come in. Vince seemed to loosen up the more he moved. Owen was pushing as much strength from the pack as he dared. Vince would heal better at home when he was surrounded by pack.
Lee was waiting with the driver’s side door open and half her body out and ready to move at a moment’s notice. Owen walked Vince over to the car as Miles locked up. Her expression went from elation to indifference. Vince had seen it too but smirked all the same.
“Get in the back so I can look you over,” she said when they got close enough.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Vince hadn’t stopped smiling which made Lee scowl.
Owen felt like he was missing something big here. Then again, lately he always felt that way about Lee. Miles jogged over and slid inside the open driver’s side door. Owen took the front while Lee helped Vince into the back beside Tyson. It was cramped but no one complained.
“The prodigal son returns!” Tyson jeered as Vince slid onto the seat. “Welcome back,” he said seriously this time.
“It took you all long enough,” Vince joked.
“If you want to be found faster next time then leave us some kind of note telling us where you went.” Lee’s edge of hysteria calmed the easy attitude of the car. She was looking at Vince as if she was pissed at him for getting kidnapped. Owen was watching from the front seat and was surprised at the outburst but even more at the sheen of tears in her eyes. Lee watched Vince with such a battled expression, Owen wasn’t sure she even realized that there were three other people here. Relief and anger fought in her eyes. Vince had a grin on his face. He patted the seat beside him in invitation. She looked at where his hand rested on the empty seat and then back to him, then she realized everyone was staring at her. Lee’s cheeks flushed red. She ducked her head and squeezed in between Vince and the door.
Miles immediately turned around and then drove back to the main road. One large SVU was slowing down and signaled to turn into the sanctuary. “You expecting another ride?” Miles asked as he turned on his headlights. The SUV immediately sped up and drove past.
“That would be my other ride. I’m not going to lie, I’m glad you all got here first.”
Miles pulled out onto the main road.
“What do you mean?” Owen asked. “Who else knew you were here?”
Vince sucked in a pained breath as Lee palpated his bruised ribs. “Canidae. Found me yesterday. Jesus woman that hurts!”
Her hands stilled and Lee flicked her eyes up to his face. Under her breath, Owen heard her mutter, “Baby.”
“You’re going to have to fill us in on what happened back in the woods. We think we have most of it pieced together but it would be helpful to know the whole story.” Owen had turned around in his seat so he could address Vince.
“I was on my way over to-- FUCK!” Vince snapped his head over to Lee.
“Sorry,” she said sweetly and went back to looking at his stitches.
There was a moment where an entire conversation was had silently between the two of them. Owen watched intently. He was beginning to understand. From the looks of Miles and Tyson, they were putting it together as well. Vince had been interested in Lee for some time. It was no secret but not common knowledge either. Lee could play the indifferent woman very well. But to be able to have a silent conversation in the space of a few seconds, you have to know the person more than polite indifference.
Vince rolled his eyes, ending the conversation and turned back to address Owen. “I was out for a walk when some Canidae attacked. I got a two of them pretty good but there were a couple of them and one of me. The sanctuary people found me shortly after.”
That’s pretty much what Owen had figured. “Well, I’m glad that it was them and not more Canidae.”
“Me too,” Vince agreed.
Chapter Sixteen
Miles pulled off the side of the road and right next to Lee’s car. She silently got out of the car and then waited. Vince carefully moved himself to the seat she just vacated. Lee held the door open for him. She’d help him into her car, then they would drive home where she would get a better look at his stitches and bruising. She was worried about them. Even without the pack bond lending him strength, he should have been more healed than he was.
Miles rolled down his window as she stood there considering all the reasons he was not healing properly. “Do you mind closing the door so we can go?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Yeah.” She looked at Vince, about to ask him if he needed help but then stopped as she realized how stupid she was being. Lee assumed he would go with her but why should he? It made more sense for him to go with Owen, the alpha, than with her. But even without that, she had lied to him. Years of it. He probably hated her because if she hadn’t lied so much then he wouldn’t have felt the need to go to her house that night and then he wouldn’t have gotten attacked.
“We’ll meet you back at the pack house, alright?” Owen said gently.
She blushed, unable to look at him. The tone of his voice said all it needed to. He saw what she had been waiting for. He had seen all of it. Had probably seen it for a while now.
“I’ll just stop by tomorrow and check on your injuries.”
Vince was about to say something but her embarrassment was already too much. She slammed the door and got into her car. Miles drove off. She sat and waited for twenty minutes before doing the same. She didn’t want to follow them home, to see Owen’s face studying hers in the rearview mirror. Or to see Vince look back every few minutes to see if she was still there.
He’d be fine till the morning. She was probably just overreacting anyway.
Lee drove the speed limit. There was no need to speed after all. She was just going home to sit alone and pretend she wasn’t feeling dejected. Maybe she’d even eat some dinner considering she hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, save for a large caramel latte she had gotten on the way to the sanctuary.
The radio was not her friend tonight. Every song was more depressing than the last. Even songs she once thought were upbeat and happy she was finding some dark and twisted meaning to. Mostly she just passed over those songs for some
thing a little more her emotional speed.
Home brought with it a feeling of emptiness. She should be happy right now. She should be at the pack house surrounded by all of those excited to see Vince. They are probably even having an impromptu party in his honor. Would anyone tell them that it was Lee, outcast and broken Lee, who had figured it out?
Would it matter if they did?
She turned off her car and forced herself inside. It was dark, not that she minded but she turned on the light in habit. The place had gone to hell since her stress cleaning weeks ago. This was probably the first time she had really looked at the mess that had become her house. With a sigh and no desire do anything about it, she walked through the living room to the hallway and into her bedroom.
It was an hour later that she was forced to get out of bed. Not that she was sleeping, no Lee was just huddled under the covers and letting her mind drift. It was soothing until someone pounded on her door.
Lee swung her feet out of bed and padded down the hallway to see who her uninvited guest was. She had taken one step into the living room when she saw him looking through her windows. Lee jumped back against the wall and flattened herself against it. Had Vince seen her? What the hell was he doing here anyway? He was supposed to be resting and or partying.
“Lee!” he yelled.
She didn’t answer.
“I saw you, Lee.”
“No you didn’t,” she said softly.
“Stop hiding behind the wall and let me in.”
She banged the back of her head against the wall he knew she was hiding behind. “Dammit.”
“Don’t make me try and find a way in. I will but I don’t feel like ripping my stitches out again in the process.”
She was at the door in an instant. “What do you mean by again? Why did you rip them out in the first place?” Lee had grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled him through her door. She ignored his triumphant smile and led him to the couch. She had to move a few piles of clean clothes onto the dirty ones on her other couch so he could sit.
“Stay here. I’ll go get my bag.” Lee went off in search of her tools so she could take a look at these ripped stitches. It had only been a few hours and he already had hurt himself. Seriously, how did men survive without women there to fix them up?
When she came back into the room he had made himself comfortable and was using one of her sweatshirts from the clean pile of clothes as a pillow. He had sunk down into the corner and stretched his legs out the length of the couch. Lee stopped in her haste and watched him for a moment. A smile hit her lips the longer she watched. All he was doing was resting there, in her house, waiting for her to help him. It shouldn’t have made her smile but his need for her settled something inside of her.
“Lift up your shirt,” she said. Lee had put her bag down on the coffee table beside her where she sat.
Vince opened his eyes and gave her a grin. “Gladly.”
It was slow going, the motion pulled his skin and sore muscles in all worst ways but he had gotten it over his head in time. Lee immediately began checking out all of the lines of stitches. They were clean. The skin was raw and agitated. It looked like a few of them had been restitched many times.
“Are you going to kiss it and make it better?” he asked with a grin that she flushed at.
Lee chose to not respond, she didn’t trust that grin of his. “What were you doing that they needed to restitch these so often?”
“Shifting,” he said.
Lee shook her head. “You’re an idiot. Without the pack bond, the shift would just make it worse.”
“You don’t say?”
Lee flicked him in the head, the one place he wasn’t injured.
“I was trying to get myself out. I couldn’t do that as a wolf.”
There was nothing for her to do. His stitches weren’t ripped out. She had misunderstood and he had known she would. So now he was in her house just as he had wanted to be. “Everything looks fine. As long as you don’t shift for a few days, you should heal ok. I can prescribe you something for the pain if you want.”
He shook his head. “Don’t need anything but sleep.”
“Then why are you here?”
Since she had finished checking him over he leaned back onto the couch. “I thought we could have that talk now.”
“What talk?” she asked nervously but she knew exactly what talk he was referring to. The one they were going to have when he got kidnapped.
“Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you. When did you figure out I was Valek?”
She had weeks to answer this question. Weeks to think of what she would say if they ever had the chance. Here it was, that time that she wasn’t sure would come and she had nothing to say. “Right after you moved here. I saw you in a shop in Penbrook. I overheard you talking about this game. I went home and purchased it then sought you out.”
He didn’t say anything right away. Her words were just spinning around in his head. Finally, he said, “Why didn’t you just tell me who you were?”
“Because I was scared,” she admitted. “I should have been honest from the start but it was easier to hide.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Vince, you have to have seen how people treat me here.” How could he have not noticed the snide comments and looks disgust? “I’m broken,” she said trying to simplify it for him.
His expression didn’t change. He was still looking at her like she was crazy. “You are not broken.” His sincerity made it hard to breathe. “I’m sure there are ignorant bastards within the pack but that’s just a few of many. From what I’ve seen, it’s you who pushes everyone away.”
Lee looked away. “It’s easier to reject them before they have the chance to reject me.”
“So by not telling me your name, you were rejecting me?”
“What. No. That’s just…no.”
He smirked. “I think I understand a little better now.”
She wasn’t sure how. They just seemed to go in circles. Vince was still looking at her. It made her uncomfortable.
“You came for me. I hadn’t been expecting anyone to find me and with my body still healing, I couldn’t break out on my own yet.” His eyes had gone soft, respectful and slightly in awe. “Then you came. I don’t think I’ll be able to thank you enough. But why did you come? Owen, Tyson and Miles I understand but tracking is not your area of expertise.”
Lee shrugged. “You’re pack, anyone would have volunteered.”
“That’s a lie and you and I both know it. Owen told me you demanded to be part of the hunt. Come on Glilee, it’s me here.” He leaned forward so that their knees were an inch apart. His hands were so close she could almost feel the lines of them. “Tell me why you came.”
The nickname had made her blush. “That’s why I came,” she said flicking her eyes up to his. “Because it was you, Valek.”
“Good. That’s what I had hoped.” Then his hand was in her hair and his lips were on hers. The kiss was blissful but short. She was still reeling from the spontaneity of it all when he said, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at six.”
“Huh?” His hand was still tangled in her hair. The heavy weight of it was so foreign, so intoxicating.
“For our date. I’m taking you out under the guise of a thank you for finding me but really it’s because I want to kiss you some more.”
“What? No. You don’t have to-”
He framed her face with his hands. “Do me a favor and don’t think. Just once let someone else do the thinking. You’ve pegged me already for actions I have not yet committed. Clear the slate and let me prove myself to you.” Vince overwhelmed her again with another kiss. This one longer and sultrier than the first. “Please, Glilee Weed.”
That damn nickname. “Fine. Yeah. Tomorrow at six.”
*****
Lee had given Vince some prescription pain relievers even though he said he didn't need them. She pushed and now he was looking forward to the ne
xt twelve hours of being in a comatose state. There was a chance he wouldn’t wake up until the following evening for his date.
He grinned as he drove through the darkened streets of Andora. There was probably a message waiting for him at home about how she needed to cancel. Vince wasn’t going to accept her cancellation but she should know that already. Lee had so much self-doubt that it was painful to hear sometimes. If she just opened her eyes for once and really looked at the people around her, Lee would see that it wasn’t them who had the problem with her, it was her. There was a difference between seeing and seeing what was really there. He would guess that Lee had never taken the time to see the situation as it truly was.
There was another car in the driveway when he pulled up to his house. Miles was sitting on his porch swing. Owen had probably sent him over to check on him. No one had approved of him leaving when they got back to the pack house. After Lee had gone back to her car, there had been an awkward silence between those remaining. He could see Owen’s itch to ask him about their relationship but he kept his mouth shut. Vince had been gone for a few weeks, he wasn’t sure what it is that they had or didn’t have.
When they pulled up to the house he had stayed put, requesting a ride home. Owen had shaken his head. “I think you should stay around here for a bit. I want to hear everything about what happened and then we can fill you in on what’s been happening here.”
As logical as that sounded, he refused. “Can we do it later?”
Owen silently studied him.
“I need to go check on some things…” he added. Vince wasn’t about to blurt out it was Lee he was about to go check on. It was Lee who he needed to see and thank for what she had done for him.
“Some things or someone?” Owen had muttered. “Fine, but we’ll talk soon.”
“Absolutely.”
Tyson had been the one to drive him since they were neighbors of a sort. He assumed Owen would handle informing the pack of his arrival and hopefully keep everyone back so he could finally rest.
Vince had assumed that talk would come tomorrow or the following day. Apparently he wanted to do it now and Miles was his chauffeur.
On the Edge (Adirondack Pack Book 3) Page 13
