Asher recalled how Zara had walked away. She shifted every time, running through the woods to avoid walking on the sides of the road.
“You’re right. A little bit of retail therapy might be helpful.”
Alec didn’t look convinced at the mention of frivolous spending, but Asher got to his feet anyway. The house behind him was a watery mess. It would need to be ripped down. Replacing it would take months. But the land was still good. Nothing would change that.
15
Zara’s whole body ached. She regarded the window she usually shimmied in. It seemed higher off the ground than she remembered. At least Chelsea hadn’t closed it. Zara was grateful for that.
Her whole body protested when she jumped. Her lungs still burned despite the shift. When she got through the window and tumbled onto the bed, she gave up. The memory of the pieces of her future falling around her filled her mind again. The lake house had crumbled. It sank into the lake.
Where the monster lurked.
She’d forgotten about it. And Asher never brought it up again. She didn’t know why he didn’t warn her about the monster. Had he told her what the creature was, she wouldn’t have stayed there alone. Hell, she probably wouldn’t have stayed at all.
The last thing she needed was to have a monster kill her before she had the chance to enjoy her life even a little. And her phone sank with the house. If she wanted to continue the major change, she would have to go to campus. That meant a long walk on foot, and Zara was just too tired.
She barely had the energy to shift back when she heard Chelsea’s footsteps coming up the hall. Zara yanked the blankets over her naked body just as the door cracked.
Chelsea’s brows lifted in surprise, her mouth a perfectly painted O. “I didn’t expect to actually find you here.”
Zara wanted to bury her face in her pillows and forget everything that happened the past two days. Maybe sleep would help her escape. If only Chelsea would leave her alone.
Instead, Chelsea pushed into her room. There was a magazine rolled in her hand. When she flopped onto the bed, she unrolled the magazine and handed it to Zara. On the cover was a candid snapshot of Asher and Zara. They were outside the art center. Asher’s face was filled with a blazing fury, and Zara’s hand was on his arm.
“I saw this in the checkout line today.”
It was a cheap tabloid, the headline claiming that the prolific playboy had finally settled down. Zara flipped it open. Inside were more candid photos. There was one of them on the beach, when Asher laid down beside her. More pictures of them outside the art center lined the top of the page. In the middle of one page was an image of an expensive looking engagement ring and a question mark.
She wondered when anyone had the chance to take these pictures. They had reached the printing press at a lightning fast speed.
“I was so wrapped up in myself that I didn’t even notice. Is it true? Were you and Asher a thing this whole time? Was I…” Chelsea hesitated, cringing. “Was I flirting with your boyfriend right in front of you?”
Zara ran her thumb over Asher’s face. Like it or not, she was probably going to keep the magazine. She would tuck it under her futon mattress and pull it out when she missed him.
“Asher and I never had an official title,” she confessed. Yet she knew the one that other shifters would have given them.
Mates.
Chelsea made a sound in her throat. “That tells me you two were something and I was being an ass. There’s no excuse.”
Zara gave her roommate a sad smile. She wasn’t ready to say it was over. While Zara had been the one to walk away, she couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge it. Everything in her hurt from her legs to her lungs to her heart.
Tears burned her eyes. She pressed them shut to fight them back, but it didn’t work.
“Oh, did the two of you have your first fight?” Chelsea didn’t sound condescending for once in her life. If anything, her tone was compassionate.
Chelsea climbed over Zara to lay behind her. She rested her cheek against Zara’s back and held her while she cried. Neither of them said anything. Zara didn’t have to explain, and Chelsea didn’t have to know. All that mattered was that they were there for each other.
Zara didn’t realize that their friendship ran this deep until now. Until she could hold Chelsea’s hand and let out all of her fears, frustrations, and pain in a choking sob. It didn’t leave Zara feeling any better, but it did drain the last of her energy and suck her down into a deep sleep.
While visions of Asher danced through her head, Chelsea must have left because when Zara woke her roommate was gone. Alone, she kicked off her sheets and put on come clothes. The fox inside her whined. It scratched at her and begged her to go back to Asher. Zara ignored it and reached for her laptop.
The college website told her that the switch from business to art had gone through. It showed her the new selection of classes she could enroll in. Most were already filled, but the ones she managed to grab made her heart flutter with excitement.
Asher wasn’t around to help her anymore. She couldn’t rely on his finances to keep her safe from the foxes, but she wasn’t going to go back to business classes. Ever. The joy that made her fingers tingle was a heady drug. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been this happy.
No, she could. She just chose to ignore it.
That life wasn’t safe. Asher had left her in the dark about the monster in the lake and she nearly paid the ultimate price. When death waited for her on one side and a forced marriage on the other, Zara couldn’t decide which was worse.
Her old books had been washed away in the lake, not like she needed them now, but it would have been nice to return them for the little bit of cash she could have gotten back. Her bank account was dwindling, and she needed all new supplies for her new classes.
The magazine looked back at her from the futon. The picture of Asher defending her wrenched her heart. She snatched it and shoved it under the mattress, but the knowledge that it was still there danced around her mind. So, after sending a quick email to Oscar and Regina telling them that she’d lost her phone, she got up and left.
The walk into town took a while. Her body still hurt. Maybe it would have been smart if she’d eaten something, but she hadn’t given herself the time. She needed to move, to busy herself so that she didn’t think about what she’d left behind. It wasn’t safe with Asher. She would never be able to find the kind of peace she’d yearned for her whole life.
Not with that lake lurking outside the house.
Zara retraced her steps back to the art center. The woman behind the counter gave her a tight smile, as if she remembered Asher’s glower last time they were there. Of course, she did, because there was a copy of the tabloid on the counter. Asher followed her everywhere she went.
Ignoring the aching pangs in her heart, Zara turned to the wall of art supplies. She wouldn’t have had to buy any of these had it not been for the thing in the lake. Now, she was forced to buy them on her own. She tried to recall the list of supplies online without a phone to pull it up with.
At the checkout, Zara saw a photo of a familiar mural on the wall behind the woman. It was one of Jo’s murals back home. Zara cocked her head and wondered what kind of sign this was. To find a piece of California here in Michigan baffled Zara. Home was a great many things. It was the people she knew and the things she’d done.
It was the feeling she had when she was wrapped in safety. A feeling she’d found with one person in particular.
Zara growled at herself. She was weak, yearning for a man who she’d known to be dangerous from the beginning. Asher kept invading her mind despite the number of times she’d kicked him out.
The woman bagged Zara’s things and tried to strike up a conversation. Just when Zara thought the woman would mention Asher, she mentioned the picture of Jo’s mural and asked Zara why she was interested.
“I actually helped with that mural,” Zara confessed.
&
nbsp; The woman looked impressed. “You’re surrounded by a lot of talented people. I would say that you’re bound to be someone important yourself.”
Zara was about to answer when she heard a snort behind her. Ice slid through her veins. She noticed it on the air now, the scent of someone she’d been trying to avoid. Her heart slapped the floor so hard she thought it would burst.
The woman behind the counter had a confused expression, but Zara snatched her bags and darted for the front door. Of course, her ex-fiancé was hot on her heels. He grabbed her arm, yanking her to a stop. A snarl ripped out of her unexpectedly.
Her fox growled, low and insistent. This man had no right to touch her. The fox wouldn’t stand for it. Not anymore. She would sooner bite his fingers off.
“Come with me,” her ex-fiancé told her. He didn’t wait for a response before pulling her along.
She wasn’t a teenager anymore. She was a grown woman. Zara dug in her heels and pulled away. Her ex-fiancé grew annoyed, reached back to grab her, and ripped a hole in her plastic bag. Art supplies spilled all over the sidewalk.
“Ignore them,” he said. “You won’t need them anymore. Time for dawdling is over. You’re coming home and you’re going to assume your role. Everyone is tired of this.”
He was going to drag her away. She tried to pry his hand from her wrist, but his fingers felt like steel sinking into her bones. If he got her on a plane, she wouldn’t be able to leave. He would get her back to California and the fox family would help him force a marriage contract onto her. Zara had seen them forge the documents when a fox woman refused.
Zara looked back at the paint tubes and pencils scattered on the ground like garbage. But they weren’t garbage. They were the pieces of the future she wanted for herself. No one else was going to decide what she could be. No one could force a damn thing on her. She was the only one who got to make the decisions.
Zara acted without thinking. Her fist hit the man’s jaw. She jerked back, surprised. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, his fingers loosened, and he dropped to the ground. She clamped her hands over her mouth, completely surprised that it worked.
She hadn’t been able to get a hit on Asher at all. It seemed the training had paid off, though. While her ex-fiancé lay on the ground, she went back to pick up the things he’d made her drop. He made a soft groan behind her. She glanced back to find him dazed.
“What the hell happened?”
Zara stood and planted her boot on his chest. She’d spent too much time around fierce dragons. She was starting to act like one. Their confidence and prowess possessed her. She looked down at her ex-fiancé.
He scowled, but when his gaze dropped to the spikes on the toes of her leather boots, fear filled his eyes.
“I’ve always been too much woman for you to handle. Run back to my biological parents and tell them they will never see me again.”
He didn’t shout or run after her when she walked away. It’d worked. All she had to do was stand up for herself once and the man scurried back to whatever hell-hole he’d climbed out of. There was a chance someone else would come after her, but Zara didn’t have to worry about that anymore.
They were all fox shifters. It left them on equal ground. They never had to walk among dragons like she had. They never tried to punch a dragon mixed martial artist. Pride swelled inside her and made her lift her head high. Even with all of her art supplies in the same bag, it didn’t bust on her way home.
She had to admit that she was a little disappointed that Asher wasn’t waiting for her when she got there. She half expected him to be there with an apology. It’d only been a day since she walked away, but every minute he didn’t chase after her made her wonder if the bond had been real at all.
16
The first day of classes quickly arrived. Zara didn’t hide in bed like she did the last semester. This time, she was up long before Chelsea. She even had breakfast prepared for once. Chelsea got up, groggy as always, and slumped in a chair near the kitchen window. Her gaze was distant when she spoke.
“Have you talked to Asher at all since your fight?”
Zara’s excitement ebbed. She’d tried hard not to think about him, even though she pulled out the magazine every night before bed. The cover of it was fraying and the cheap binding was starting to fall apart.
Asher hadn’t once tried to reach out to her. It was difficult without a phone, but he knew where she lived. He could just as easily stop by and see how she was doing. It bothered her how much she wanted exactly that when she was the one to walk away.
The day the lake crushed Asher’s house had terrified her. She nearly died. Yet, even though she’d walked away, a part of her had never left.
“Looks like you’re in for a surprise, then,” Chelsea mumbled.
“Huh?”
Zara stumbled to the window and pulled back the curtain. Outside, Asher leaned against an orange Jeep with his arms crossed over his chest. There was a big black bow on the top of the Jeep, like it was a gift. Her heart fluttered. She thought it would fly right out her mouth and into the clouds.
As if he sensed her watching, his eyes found hers. His smile spread wide, revealing that dimple that could strike her with Cupid’s arrow. He waved and beckoned her outside.
Chelsea wiggled her eyebrows at Zara. “Go outside. I think he’s trying to apologize. I see why it took so long now.”
Zara couldn’t believe it. She stumbled out and right into Asher’s arms like a magnet pulled them together. There, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her soul settled into his and found the sensation of home all over again.
“I missed you,” he breathed into her hair. “Damn, you still smell like pumpkin. It wasn’t a figment of my imagination after all.”
The moment drew on, but Asher eventually parted. He didn’t let go of her but kept one arm around her shoulder. Zara leaned into him because she couldn’t stand to part from him yet either.
“Consider this an early birthday present. I can’t have you walking around town with that bag of dicks waddling around.”
The car was…for her? The grill had a custom design that made it look like a grinning jack-o-lantern. It was both wicked and adorable all at once. Once her shock began to fade, she craned her neck to look up at Asher.
“About that bag of dicks. He won’t be bothering me. Your fighting lesson paid off better than I expected. I knocked him out a week ago and it scared the shit out of him.”
Asher’s jaw dropped. He pumped his fist in the air before giving her a high five. “That’s my girl!”
Wait. Was she his girl?
Zara didn’t know for sure. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him. Every part of her soul screamed to go back to him. What she wasn’t sure of was if he’d forgiven her for walking away.
“There were some other things I had to take care of, which is why it took me longer than I would have liked to get back to you. Everything had to be in the right place before I showed you.”
“This isn’t the best day to show me things,” she told him. “Classes start today. For once in my life, I don’t want to miss them. Can it wait?”
He grinned, a secret hidden behind those lips. Lips that she desperately wanted to kiss again. Maybe if she did, she would pluck the secrets from his tongue with her own. He spun around and opened the door to the Jeep.
“It’s all yours. Take it to class today. There’s an address loaded into the GPS. Follow that when you’re done. I’ll be waiting for you.”
She didn’t know what to say. The mystery he’d blended into this gift intrigued her. Where would this address lead? She didn’t even know if she would follow it. She could just accept the jeep and drive back to the apartment after her first day of classes.
But she wouldn’t. Not when she could barely let go of Asher. She wound her fingers with his and clutched him tight, reveling in the heat between their palms. To think that this little fox shifter had found herself a big dragon warrior blew her mind.
&n
bsp; She climbed into the seat. There were keys already in the ignition. Asher leaned into the car and gave her a gentle kiss. It sparked an inferno inside her, like a small ember over a dry field. She wanted more and more, but as she leaned into him, he pulled away.
“Oh, and explore the Jeep. I left surprises everywhere.”
He shut the door and waved. Chelsea had already leapt into the passenger seat and was pilfering through all the compartments. In the few seconds Chelsea had while Zara backed out of the driveway, she’d found a package of luxury paint brushes, high end tubes of acrylic paint, and a small velvet box.
The velvet box absorbed Zara’s attention. Her gaze flicked from the road to the box over and over, making her swerve.
“You do have your license. Right?”
Zara shook herself. “Uh, yeah. Yes. I do.”
Chelsea didn’t open the velvet box. She just grinned and tucked it back into the center console. Her attention was firmly on the pair of iced coffees that Asher left in the cupholders, like he’d known Chelsea would weasel her way into the car. There were even snacks in the glove box.
Her first day of art classes left her rejuvenated. Zara wanted to dance, but the unknown address on her GPS called her name. She opened the trunk to tuck away her books and art pads and found another box of gifts in the back. There was a pair of super goth boots and a new phone.
Asher couldn’t buy her love. She told herself that, and yet she was still enchanted by the lengths he had gone through. Everything in the Jeep had been bought with care. Even the snacks were her favorites. It was like he knew her inside and out.
She tapped the GPS and brought up the address. Her mind was on the velvet box that she still hadn’t opened. She thought of the gaudy ring that had been in the tabloid article about them. She didn’t want an ugly ring like that.
Did she even want a ring? Was she going to commit to Asher after being the one to walk away? The lake was dangerous. It still scared her. Fear tingled the tips of her fingers when she thought about how the lake destroyed Asher’s house. She’d been pulled down like she was nothing.
Asher (Keepers Of The Lake Book 4) Page 13
