by Anya Nowlan
Kali stumbled backward, watching as the two great beasts went for one another time and time again, tireless, although their strength was starting to wane.
Why isn’t anyone else here yet!?
Desperation bloomed in her ribcage. She gasped as the dark-coated beast managed to ram Rhodes in a way that Rhodes stumbled back, his foot getting caught behind a root and he fell over, his stomach exposed. For a second, Kali was sure it was all over. She would watch the love of her life die right in front of her very eyes without being able to do a damn thing about it.
But just then, with the flames lapping over their heads, another bear appeared, roaring so loud that the mountain quaked. He too had a dark coat and no marking, but he charged the other dark bear with full force, slamming him toward the fire. He did it again and again, jaws and teeth snapping with rage, catching the other bear by surprise.
Rhodes got to his feet, though he was swaying as he stood, looking like he would fall over at any moment. Throwing caution to the wind, Kali slogged through the river and to his side, wet to the hips when she finally got her hands around his bloodied neck.
“Baby, you can’t help,” she whispered frantically, desperate to have him snap out of it and move before the flames caught both of them. “We have to go,” she said.
The growls and groans of the two dark-coated bears were lost in the fire now. Rhodes looked shell-shocked, staring at the disappearing bodies of the two large, dark-coated bears. She ushered him away from the fire, putting enough distance between them and the danger that she felt safe stopping.
“Snap out of it,” she said, taking his torn muzzle in her hands and looking him deep in the eyes. “Please, for me.”
His dark brown eyes were worn, tired. She could see his body quaking with exhaustion and she could smell the burning on him. The fire had licked at his coat, scorching the ends. His shoulder wound was still gushing blood and so were the other various cuts and bruises on him. Rhodes collapsed right into her arms, the shift taking him as he hit the warm, welcoming ground.
He changed, the thick coat of the bear retreating and the body morphing into the toned, strong form of the man she loved. The wounds looked even uglier when he was shifted; the burns on his back and thighs had scorched his torn jump suit. Tears welled in her eyes, but at least he was alive.
Looking up, her heart strangled in her throat. She saw one of the large, dark bears marching through the fire, smoke rising up on him and the smell of burning flesh and fur scarring her nose. He came right up to them, sniffing at Rhodes and for one insane moment, Kali wasn’t sure which bear she was looking at. The one who had come to their aid, or the one who had attacked them?
But then, he shifted, groaning painfully as the protective coat of the bear disappeared from around him and the heightened pain tolerance of the beast floated into the recesses of his mind. She held her breath, watching him change, until he stood up as a man with blue eyes similar to Rhodes.
He was badly wounded, favoring one side, but that didn’t seem to bother him one bit.
“Come on. We need to get him out of here,” the man said, getting down on his haunches and throwing Rhodes’s arm around his shoulder, dragging him up.
“But, what about…” Kali said, not finishing the sentence as she stared at the fire, which had stopped at the line that Rhodes had created.
It wouldn’t hold long, but maybe just long enough for the others to get there. In the distance, she thought she could hear the sounds of a chopper approaching. The mystery man looked over his shoulder at the blaze thrashing and howling behind the thin line between rock and water, which restricted its access because there was nothing to feed on. His eyes got hard, emotions flooding them that she could not read.
“Nothing we can do for him anymore,” he said solemnly, standing up to his full height.
Kali believed him.
CHAPTER TEN
Rhodes
Rhodes slept for what seemed like a lifetime. It might as well have been, with what went on during his restful slumber.
He woke up only once, immediately after being handed over to Royce and Redmond and carried into the chopper to be shipped into town.
“Is she okay?” he had hissed, eyes wildly darting around for Kali.
When he saw her right there, grabbing his hand, he passed out again.
Blinking his eyes now in the bright sunlight flooding in through the window, he needed a moment to get his bearings. He felt woozy and somewhat worse for wear, but wiggling his toes and fingers, he confirmed that he was still all intact. Rhodes tried to hike himself up on the pillows, but a gentle hand on his chest pushed him back. The voice of an angel made him comply.
“Nuh-uh. Kacey said you need your rest, so that’s what you’re going to get,” Kali said, her gorgeous green eyes twinkling with relief. “It’s good to see you awake, baby.”
Spirits above, her voice sounded good to his ears. Growling slightly as he rolled onto one side, he tugged at her arm and pulled her into a tight embrace against his body, making her curl up in bed next to him. He felt the familiar tightness on his back of slight burns, and a biting pain in one of his shoulders that was in the middle of healing, but he didn’t care. It scarcely seemed important at the moment.
“You’re here,” he said, kissing the back of Kali’s neck.
“Where else could I be?” she asked, sounding incredulous.
Another nuzzling kiss to the back of her ear made her break out in little giggles that made Rhodes’s cock strain against his boxers. Good to know that all his important extremities were still operational.
“Well, going by our history, I figured you’d be anywhere but here, really.”
“We’re done running,” Kali said sternly, twisting around in his arms enough so they came face to face. “You hear me? We’re done. We hold our ground now. Truth only. If I want to yell at you, I yell at you, I don’t go off somewhere and brood on it. And when you get annoyed at me, you do the same. I don’t care if we break a few plates, but we’re going to argue this shit out. We’re in this together. I don’t want to hear a word to the contrary,” she huffed, her high cheekbones tinted with pink.
He couldn’t help but grin. She’d always had a little bit of a temper on her and he’d always loved it. Matched his. But she’d always been better at controlling hers. When he was around her, sometimes he got the inkling that maybe it was a skill he could pick up from her. Maybe now was the time to get some classes.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a mock salute, regretting his decision immediately as the pain shot through him like a bullet to the chest.
“You shouldn’t be doing that,” she chided, looking worried. “Kacey said you needed time.”
“Time for what?” he asked, letting a hand slip down along her plush, welcoming curves and allowing his hand to sneak underneath her top.
She stopped its travels along the softness of her belly by laying a hand on his, and gripping it tightly.
“None of that either. Nurse’s orders,” she said with a giggle. “Soon, though. Give it a few days.”
“But I don’t want to give it a few days,” he whined, feeling like a kid being denied dessert. Yes, he felt like he’d been put through a meat grinder—and it wasn’t entirely untrue—and yes he was exhausted, but Kali’s sweet curvy body was completely worth enduring a few extra days of recovery for.
In an obvious attempt to distract him, Kali changed the subject, though her hand remained where it was despite Rhodes’s probing kisses along her hairline.
“You did good, baby. The line held until your brothers got there and with Sear there to help as well, they had it contained by the time the volunteers arrived.”
“Sear?” Rhodes asked, his brow furrowing. “Sear Hassleback?”
“Yeah. Don’t you remember? He came in when you were fighting Slade. I’m not saying you would have lost without his help, but you would have definitely taken more of a beating. He got Slade off of you and… well… anyway, h
e’s a Hotshot. Did you know that? Used to be in the service but quit a year ago when their mother died and it was just him and Slade left. He moved back,” Kali recounted.
It wasn’t lost on Rhodes that she was trying to distract him from something. He swallowed hard, remembering the images of Slade’s fearsome jaws tearing into his flesh and how he fought back, exhausted from digging and bringing down trees and creating the damn safety line. The fucker had caught Rhodes off-guard and if Kali hadn’t been there, he would have been dead for sure, never having had the time to shift otherwise.
“What happened?” he asked sternly, catching Kali’s green eyes. “Tell me everything.”
“You don’t need to hear this, baby. Not now,” she said, trying to wiggle out of his grasp.
“You said truth only. So talk. I’m a big boy, I can take it.”
She paled, but nodded eventually. Good girl.
“Sear took Slade off of you. He pushed him back into the fire until… I couldn’t hear them anymore over the flames, or see them. They were gone for a while. Slade fucked Sear up good, but he came out. Slade didn’t. They found his body later, burned to a crisp.”
“Just like Jonathan,” Rhodes said blankly. “And my father. And Eric Hassleback. Damn.”
His gut knotted and bile wanted to rise up in his throat. He’d seen firefighters get caught in the blaze and never come back, but that was different. He’d stood in the middle of a fireball, watching it go up around a lifeless body on the ground, and the mental image still haunted him every day. It had been the right thing to do, he knew. Jonathan was a lone wolf; there was no one to avenge him, not to Rhodes’s knowledge. But the way it had happened struck far too close to him.
And now Slade, going the way of Eric Hassleback and their father Holden Hamilton? Brutal.
There was sadness in Kali’s eyes and her teeth grazed her lower lip. She huddled closer to him and he squeezed her tight, relief blossoming in him. It was all over now. Plenty of horrible things had happened, but they would have to put it past them now. Life was too fucking precious and love even more so to waste any time.
He’d fouled things up once by running from Kali, thinking he would save her by putting himself out of her life. But she’d stayed in a cocoon, as broken by what had happened as he had—as if stuck in a bubble until he could pop it. He would have to go find Sear Hassleback as soon as he could and thank the man for saving his life, though that was a conversation that was going to be awkward as hell.
How was he going to thank a man who killed his own twin for him? An Alpha twin who sacrificed for someone else’s well-being, destroying his own future in the process. Rhodes couldn’t even wrap his head around it. He must have been squeezing Kali really hard because she gasped as his fingers dug into her side, making him relax his grip immediately.
“Sorry,” he said, kissing her on the forehead. “The thought of a loss like that… fuck. Kali, I can’t promise a lot of things, but I’ll promise you this: I’ll never run again. I’ll be by your side, no matter what the hell we manage to get ourselves into. I… I love you.”
The words came out almost as a whisper. They were so alien to him that his tongue barely twisted to say them, but when they were out, it was the best thing in the world. He loved her. He fucking loved her.
“I love you too,” she said, smiling a private smile like she’d been expecting to say this for one too many years.
“That settles that, then,” Rhodes said with a grin, his hand moving down to her ass and pressing her harder against him.
“We shouldn’t,” Kali said, biting her lip again in that absolutely sanity-destroying way of hers.
“We really shouldn’t,” he agreed, crushing his lips against her and stealing the breath from her lungs.
He was done playing it safe. His heart was on his sleeve all the way from now on. It was either that or burning up in his private form of hellfire and he’d seen that too many times. Fuck that. This was his happiness and he was going to go for it, full speed ahead.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kali
To say that she was nervous was an understatement.
Austin’s Texas was buzzing with excitement as she fussed around on the small stage, getting herself settled in. It was silly, really. She’d done this a million times. Set up for a show, sat down or stood up, sung her little heart out, and then disappeared to be swiftly forgotten despite her lovely voice and the soul she put into it.
But today felt different
She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something was in the air. Her fingers strummed her acoustic guitar a few times, silencing the crowd though she was only making sure it was tuned correctly. As if she hadn’t checked it a million times before. She smiled apologetically at the gathered Shifter Grove locals, beers in hand and waiting for the first real live show in Shifter Grove.
Her heart was beating out of her chest and her ears were ringing.
How the hell am I supposed to be able to go through with this if I can’t even hear my own voice? she wondered feverishly, glancing around as if some exit would suddenly reveal itself to her.
There was shuffling in the front row as Rhodes fought his way through to her. He gave her a questioning look and Kali stood up, walking over to him at the edge of the stage.
“What’s wrong, baby? Nerves getting to you?” he asked, taking a sip from his beer.
“Give me that,” she snorted, snatching the glass from his hands and taking a deep gulp.
The humming in her ears lessened a little. Good.
“Take a breath, Kali. You can do this. I know you haven’t sung your own material in forever, but you’ve got this. You dragged me out of fire, I’m pretty damn sure you can sing a song,” Rhodes said, grinning widely.
She smiled, letting her shoulders relax. Rhodes was right. In his infuriating way, he always tended to be right, and she loved and hated it in equal measure. Well, currently she definitely loved it more. She stepped back and took her seat again, correcting the microphone for the right level. Clearing her throat, she took another breath and went for it. There was no other choice than to jump right in. If being with Rhodes had taught her anything, then it was that victory was meant for the brave.
“Good evening, everybody,” she spoke, liking the way her voice sounded. “My name is Kali Jameson and I’ll be singing a few songs for you tonight.”
She got a round of applause and not a single face in the crowd looked anything other than happy to be there. Despite her nerves, she grinned. Austin dimmed the lights so only a small spotlight shined on her, the center of attention. She strummed her fingers over the strings, picking the song she wanted to sing.
Rhodes had confirmed the concert with Austin a week in advance, almost immediately after he was allowed to get out of bed, and still she hadn’t hammered down a set list. She’d said she wouldn’t do it, and he’d jokingly said he’d pack her back on a plane and send her to Seattle if she didn’t. She’d believed him.
It had felt like making those kinds of decisions would make it so… final. This felt better, singing from the heart and picking what seemed to suit the situation the best.
She settled on a song she wrote after Ragnar’s call, when she was going back and forth about whether or not she should come to Shifter Grove and put herself through the heartache of loving Rhodes again. It had turned out to be the best decision she’d ever made.
Her voice was clear and strong as she fell into the notes, and she closed her eyes as her hands played the chords she knew by heart. Every Hamilton was in that bar that night, and most of the rest of the town as well. Kali knew that if she’d open her eyes, she’d see Rose’s sweet face lit up with a smile, rooting for her, and Abigail grinning as she sat on Redmond’s knee.
And of course Rhodes, giving her that cocky smirk of his that she knew hid a wonderful, big-hearted man who beat himself up far too much for the good and the bad things he did. She loved him, and he loved her. And that was exactly how it was su
pposed to be. Every word she sang felt like another shackle being released from around her.
All the indecision, worry, and fear that she’d suffered through, unsure of where she was coming from and where she was going during those years she’d tried to make sense of her life were now floating away, releasing her to be the woman she knew she could be. Someone who would stand up for herself. Someone who wouldn’t let happiness pass her by without her grabbing hold of it.
“The howl of wind,
The spark of fire,
It took you from me,
And it brought us back together,” she sung, opening her eyes and looking at Rhodes.
He grinned back at her and for the first time in years, Kali could be sure that everything was going to be all right. There were going to be problems, yes. While it had been little more than a fling that grew over both their heads when they were younger, Kali knew that what she and Rhodes had now was true love. She was his mate; he’d told her as much, though deep in her heart she’d always known. They didn’t know everything about each other, far from it, but she was excited to learn everything she could.
A deep, all-encompassing warmth spread in her, locking gazes with the man of her dreams. He’d saved her and she had saved him. They were even now. It was a clean slate to start off with and Kali knew they were going to enjoy every damn moment of it.
When the song ended, the gathered crowd erupted in applause and Kali grinned ear to ear, soaking up the cheers. God, it felt good to let her voice out again, her real voice, not the one she’d thought people wanted to hear. It was another new beginning and she had Rhodes to thank for that.
There was going to be no more fear from now on. A whole new Kali in a whole new world.
EPILOGUE
Rhodes
“You’re being ridiculous,” Redmond huffed, trying to tie the bow tie around Rhodes’s neck again as he dodged and ducked like a fighter in a boxing ring.
