Sinking his teeth into the other wolf’s flesh, Ethan shook him, ripping a gash along his shoulder.
Eric howled, leaping back enough to break Ethan’s hold. Even in wolf form, the insanity could be seen in Eric’s eyes.
The distant sounds of gunshots continued to ring out as Ethan circled his opponent.
The gray wolf launched at Ethan once more, only to roar in pain as Ethan’s powerful jaws locked on to his neck.
“Ethan, stop!” a voice shouted from nearby, penetrating Ethan’s rage-fogged brain.
Without releasing Eric’s throat, Ethan lifted his feral gaze to Isaac Foster.
The old man stood on the porch of the same house Eric had come from, his eyes full of fear and sadness. “Please, Ethan. Let him go. Your mate is unharmed.”
Ethan only held on tighter, a low growl rumbling from within.
Isaac lowered the gun. “I’m begging you. Regardless of what he’s done, Eric is your flesh and blood. You don’t want his death on your conscience.”
Ethan disagreed. He bit down harder.
Eric’s cowardly whine was nearly drowned out by the fearful beating of his heart.
Isaac turned toward the house, reached inside the door, and pulled Piper out by the arm.
Ethan’s heart stuttered. The sight of Piper standing there with her chin held high, attempting to hide the fear he saw swimming in her eyes had to be the most beautiful image he’d ever beheld.
She stared straight ahead as if avoiding looking at him.
“Let Eric go,” Isaac bit out, pulling Piper closer to his side, “and you can have her.”
Tossing the piece of shit Eric away from him, Ethan stalked toward the porch, his lips peeled back over his teeth. If Isaac made any sudden movements, Ethan would kill him without a thought.
Ethan slowly approached Piper, a soft sound coming from his throat.
She shrank back from him, her gaze briefly flicking to him before returning to stare straight ahead.
He could see her hands trembling, noticed the hint of moisture appearing in her eyes, and his soul shattered. He’d done this to her. It was his fault she’d been taken. He was to blame for her fear and uncertainty.
With a growl of surrender, Ethan forced his wolf down enough to free the man inside.
Naked and bloodied, he stood before her, his eyes pleading with her to forgive him.
She made a strangled sound, her body stiffening as he reached for her.
Ethan’s heart cracked. He lowered his hand, his gaze shifting to Isaac. “You crossed the line, old man.”
“I had no part in her abduction, Ethan. But it’s been brought to my attention that she carries my heir in her belly. I—”
Piper’s cry cut off the rest of Isaac’s words as a naked Eric snatched up his gun and pointed it toward Ethan. “You win, huh, Ethan? You even have my father’s love, a love he never freely gave me.”
Pulling the hammer back, Eric continued. “Well, that’s fine with me. My face will be the last thing you see before you die. Fitting since your mother died by my hand as well.”
“What did you say?” Ethan growled, easing his body in front of Piper’s.
Eric grinned to reveal a broken front tooth. “You heard me. She died with you thinking she’d killed herself.” He laughed, a hideous sound. “The poison I put in the dinner she’d cooked that night was meant for you. But you didn’t come home, and so she ate without you. Pity. I kind of liked dear old Ruth.” He pulled the trigger.
“Noooooo!” Isaac roared, throwing himself in front of Ethan. His body jerked forward, and he dropped to his knees at Ethan’s feet.
Ethan’s arms flew behind him to cover Piper as Eric lifted his arm once again.
A lone brown wolf suddenly rounded the house, leaping through the air and slamming into Eric with the force of a truck.
Ethan watched in disbelief and more than a little pride as Wallace Seaborn attacked Eric, shaking his body around like a ragdoll before ripping out his throat.
The large brown alpha threw back his head and howled, Eric’s blood dripping from his teeth.
Swinging around, Ethan scooped Piper up into his arms and took her inside the cabin. He gently deposited her in a chair in the small kitchen. “Are you hurt?”
She didn’t answer, simply stared straight ahead in shock.
He cupped her face in his hands, tilting it up to look into her eyes. “Piper? Are you injured?”
The tears he saw there tore at his heart. “Answer me.”
“He could have killed you,” she whispered in a small voice.
Ethan pressed his lips to her forehead before meeting her gaze once more. “But he didn’t. Now, I need you to stay put while I check on Isaac.”
Piper didn’t respond. Her beautiful pale eyes were glassed over in disbelief.
With more than a little regret, Ethan released his hold on her face and rushed back out onto the porch.
He dropped to his knees next to Isaac. “Foster?”
The old man’s eyes fluttered open. He attempted to reach up and touch Ethan’s face, but his arm fell heavily at his side. “I’m sorry for everything…”
“Don’t try to talk,” Ethan ordered, pressing his palm against the wound in Isaac’s chest to slow the bleeding. “We’ll get you some help.”
The distant sounds of gunfire grew less and less until they stopped all together.
“You’re not going to die,” Ethan assured Foster, pity replacing his earlier rage.
Half a dozen Kenwood shifters rounded the house with their hands in the air and Ethan’s pack tight on their heels.
Billy spoke first. “Where is Wallace?”
A low growl echoed from the yard, telling Billy without words that Wallace wasn’t far.
Isaac coughed, his mouth slowly moving. “Sit…me…up.”
Ethan slid his arm behind the older man’s head, lifting him into a half-sitting position.
Foster turned his unfocused gaze toward what was left of his pack. He coughed once more before speaking. “Ethan Seaborn...is your rightful…alpha. My…grandson... My…blood. You will honor…him.” His eyes slid closed, and his body went limp.
A foreign emotion stirred inside Ethan’s chest, feelings for the old man he’d never acknowledged until that moment.
Since learning of the Fosters’ existence, Ethan had been telling himself he didn’t need his father’s people, didn’t want their approval. Yet, now as he stared down into Isaac’s pale, lifeless face, Ethan realized that some part of him had always sought acceptance.
Eric had killed Ruth, and in turn had died by her father’s hand.
Fitting, Ethan thought as he watched what remained of the Kenwood pack reverently lower to their knees.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Piper pushed to her feet and stumbled to the front door in time to witness Foster’s men kneeling before Ethan.
Though her mind rebelled against the thought of what that action implied, her heart knew it to be true. Ethan was not only a shapeshifter, but an alpha wolf hiding inside the skin of a man.
How could such creatures exist in a world where they were thought to be a myth? Yet there he stood in all his naked splendor.
He turned as if sensing her approach. The sadness in his eyes belied his stiff posture. “Let’s get you home.”
Piper pushed the door wider, her gaze touching on every man in that yard. Shifters. All of them.
And then she noticed the large brown wolf standing over the mutilated body of Eric Foster.
Her stomach heaved.
“Don’t look,” Ethan commanded, lifting her into his arms once again.
He descended the steps and strode across the yard toward a tan pickup truck.
“Where are the keys?” he snapped to no one in particular while opening the door and depositing Piper onto the front seat.
The men on the ground all carefully got to their feet. One of them called out, “They’re above the visor.”
Pi
per watched as Ethan stormed across the yard and gathered up his clothes and a weapon lying on the trunk of an old blue car. He dragged on his jeans and addressed the group staring back at him with huge eyes. “Bury your dead and rid this place of any evidence of what happened here today. You report to Billy in my absence.”
Without waiting for them to respond, Ethan climbed inside the truck, grabbed the keys, and started the ignition.
“They’re all shifters?” Piper whispered, her gaze glued to the men scrambling to take care of the dead bodies.
Ethan put the truck in gear and drove toward the gate. “Not Billy. He’s the same as you.”
An injured man hobbled forward to open the gate, bowing his head to Ethan as he drove the truck through.
Piper turned to gaze at Ethan’s profile as he drove. “I’m pregnant, Ethan.”
“I know,” he responded, briefly glancing in her direction.
“You know?”
He gripped the wheel with both hands. “I saw the tests in your bathroom when I came looking for you.”
“Rhonda,” Piper breathed, only to be cut off by Ethan’s next words.
“She’s safe. We found her unconscious in your living room when we arrived. Billy moved her to your bed to sleep off whatever drug Foster’s men used on her.”
Relief was instant but temporary. “What am I going to tell her?”
“Hopefully, nothing. If she’s still asleep when we return, you’ll convince her that she fainted. She need not ever know about this, Piper.”
Anger replaced Piper’s relief. “You think I would tell her? Hell, I wish that I didn’t know. When were you going to tell me, Ethan?”
His gaze returned to her. “I was hoping I didn’t have to. Not for a while anyway.”
The look of torment in his eyes tore at Piper’s heart. She softened her tone. “How is this even possible? I mean, how are there immortals walking the earth?”
“I’m not immortal, Piper. I’m just…different. And I wish I could tell you everything you want to hear, but the truth is, I don’t know how we came to be. Whether we were created this way by God or something else is beyond my realm of knowledge.”
He took an expert turn at the main road before continuing. “I only know that we can be killed as any other man. Though we have healing agents that help us to heal rapidly, we can still die. We live slightly longer than other people, but that also has its downside and can be more of a curse than a blessing.”
Understanding dawned. “The money in your closet. The compound off-grid in Alaska.”
“Yes,” he interjected. “The place where I’ll go when the time comes to disappear.”
Piper’s rubbed at her aching head. “So, you’ll outlive me by how long?”
When he didn’t answer, she lowered her hands and studied his expression. “How long?”
“I don’t have to outlive you.”
Though Ethan spoke in a quiet voice, Piper had no trouble understanding him. “What does that mean?”
Ethan quickly glanced at her before returning his attention to the road. “I’d rather not go into that right now.”
“And I’d rather you did,” Piper shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Tell me.”
“Okay,” Ethan rumbled, pulling the truck over on the side of the road.
He turned in the seat to face her. “Shapeshifters can live a hundred and fifty years. Some even longer. It’s rare, but it happens.”
Piper almost swallowed her tongue. “A hundred and fifty years?”
Ethan nodded. “We carry certain enzymes in our saliva that most people aren’t born with.” He paused.
“I’m listening,” Piper whispered, motioning for him to continue.
“Shifters will usually only mate with other shifters, but there have been occasions where a shifter takes a nonshifter for a mate. If the nonshifter is a female, then the male will mark her as his.”
Piper’s hand drifted to her neck. “So, that’s what Isaac meant when he asked if you’d marked me.”
When Ethan simply stared at her with that apologetic look in his eyes, Piper cleared her throat. “Tell me about this marking.”
“It lets the other males know you’re taken. That you are the mate of another. It also passes the enzymes from the shifter’s saliva to the mate’s bloodstream, enabling the healing agents to form and grow within.”
Piper’s stomach flipped. If what Ethan said was true, then his bite would not only make her his mate but would also ensure she lived as long as him. Only, he hadn’t bit her.
As if reading her thoughts, Ethan reached out and took hold of her hand. “I couldn’t mark you, Piper. Not until I knew where I stood with you.”
“You’re going to have to give me some time,” Piper confessed, holding his whiskey-colored gaze. “I don’t know if I can do this or not. I need some time to process it all.”
Ethan gently squeezed her hand. “I understand, Piper. But know this, I would never do anything to hurt you or our child, and I will do everything in my power to keep you both safe.”
“I know…”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ethan pulled up in front of Piper’s house a little over an hour later. He quickly got out, rounded the front, and helped Piper climb down.
All the lights were off in the house as Piper eased the front door open and stepped inside.
Following her up the stairs, Ethan stayed close, inhaling the faint scent of the shifters that had been there earlier that day.
At the landing, Ethan relaxed as Piper poked her head into her bedroom and sighed in relief.
“She’s still sleeping,” Piper whispered, the sounds of light snoring reaching Ethan’s ears.
Ethan moved around Piper, nodding for her to go back downstairs. “I’m going to clean up the blood on the bathroom counter to remove any evidence of what took place here today. Why don’t you go downstairs and get something to eat?”
Piper nodded, the dark circles under her eyes tearing at Ethan’s heart.
She turned without speaking and slowly made her way back down the stairs.
Ethan spent the next few minutes straightening the bathroom and cleaning up the blood from the sink.
Satisfied that everything looked okay, he hurried back downstairs to find Piper sitting at the bar eating a donut.
“You should probably eat something more nutritional,” he began, opening the fridge and taking out the makings of a turkey sandwich.
He poured Piper a glass of milk and set it in front of her on the bar. “I know you’re tired, Piper, but we really need to talk.”
Piper paused, took a drink of her milk, and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I agree that we need to talk, but now’s not the time. I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’m scared. I need to think, Ethan, and I find that hard to do with you here.”
Her words cut Ethan to the bone, though he didn’t blame her for how she felt. “Do you want me to leave?”
She merely nodded, not meeting his gaze.
The hardest thing Ethan had ever had to do was walk out of that kitchen, but that’s exactly what he did.
He stopped at the edge of the living room, unable to make himself leave without telling her how he felt.
With his back to her and a lump the size of a tennis ball in his throat, he quietly confessed, “I can’t help what I am, Piper. If I could change it, I would. For you, I would. That baby you carry beneath your heart is part of who and what I am. We created a life together, a beautiful life, innocent of any wrongdoing. Please don’t punish me by keeping the two people from me that I love the most in this world. Please, Piper…”
The sound of silence destroyed Ethan’s soul. He’d lost her. He’d lost Piper.
Striding to the door, he gripped the knob and left the house before he did something he would regret. Like toss her over his shoulder and take her home with him against her will.
But then he’d be no better than Foster.
* * * *
&nbs
p; Linda Peterson tapped on Ethan’s office door and entered without waiting to be invited in.
She set a fresh cup of coffee in front of him, the morning paper, and a sausage biscuit.
“Thank you, Mrs. Peterson, but I’m not hungry.”
“You can’t continue on this path,” Linda gently scolded, refusing to budge. “You’ve lost weight, you haven’t returned any of your calls, and your eyes are starting to sink into your skull. Billy’s worried about you too, sir. He calls and checks on you every hour.”
Ethan picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip. “I’m fine, really. Thank you for the breakfast.”
With one last look of despair, Mrs. Peterson left the room, pulling the door closed behind her.
Rubbing at his gritty eyes, Ethan stared down at the newspaper, reading the headlines with no satisfaction. Local Mercedes Benz purchased by Seaborn Industries.
This should be a day of celebration for Ethan. He’d swooped in and snagged the Mercedes Benz right out from beneath Steinberg’s nose. Yet, Ethan felt no joy in his accomplishments. None of it mean shit without Piper.
Ethan hadn’t heard from Piper in nearly a month. She hadn’t returned any of his texts or calls. She didn’t answer her emails or her door for that matter when Ethan stopped by every other day.
He’d lost her.
“Your grandfather is here,” Linda announced over the intercom on Ethan’s phone.
“Send him in.” Ethan didn’t want to see Wallace at the moment. In fact, he didn’t want to see anyone but Piper.
The door swung open, and Wallace Seaborn marched into the room. “What the hell are you doing, boy?”
“Pardon?” Ethan responded in a soft tone. No one spoke to him in that manner. Not even his grandfather.
Not stopping until he stood before Ethan’s desk, Wallace flattened his palms on its surface. “Are you going to sit here and drown in your sorrow, or are you going to go after what’s yours? You’re a Seaborn, damnit, start acting like it.”
Anger reared its ugly head. “Because you’re my flesh and blood, I’m going to let that slide. Once.”
“Threaten me all you want,” Wallace shot back. “But from what I’ve heard about that girl, she’s as stubborn as they come. She’s not going to simply come running back, Ethan. She’ll have to be dragged back. Kicking and screaming if necessary. She’s your mate. Go claim her!”
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