Prey to the Heart

by Kristen Banet

  “I was better when my patients weren’t burning down houses,” she answered with a sarcastic bite. “Excuse me, I need to see-”

  “They aren’t here,” Thomas chuckled. “They went to Denver to handle some legal stuff concerning the house fire and other drama they have going on. I was asked to put you in Brenton’s office until they got back. It could be a little while, though, so I was hoping to talk to you.” He moved out of her way at that. “If you can tolerate it.”

  She ground her teeth and nodded, stepping all the way into the mansion. She let Thomas follow her to Brenton’s office and held the door for him, so they could talk.

  “What is it?” she asked gently, feeling a bit calmer. She shouldn’t be ranting about one patient to another, even if Thomas wasn’t yet her patient.

  “I don’t want me and the guys in therapy long term, but I would appreciate if you sat down and just…talked to us a little about what happened,” Thomas began, sighing as he sat down on Brenton’s office couch.

  Abigail put her bag down and sat in one of the chairs by Brenton’s desk after pointing it towards the couch. “I understand,” she responded. “You want to just get some feelings off your chest and have someone validate them. Like you would with a trusted confidante in a Pack.”

  “Yeah,” Thomas agreed, watching her. “Think we can do that?”

  “I’m more than willing to do that for you,” she answered, giving him a genuine and gentle smile. It was good, in her opinion, to see wolves talk more about their grief. They were notorious for just burying it and moving on, thanks to the loss they encountered every day in their lifestyle. “Since we have time, I can start now. You’re already on the couch.”

  Since it was obvious he didn’t know who she was, she felt more comfortable now. It wasn’t such a big deal. It was possible that he knew her ex-fiancé quite well, and she just didn’t want it brought up. She preferred to leave that entire relationship where it belonged: the past.

  “I wonder if I should feel worse? Or maybe I should get over it,” Thomas admitted softly. “You know, my brother didn’t even slow down to grieve? We weren’t even here a day before he ran off to try and become an Alpha again or something. We’d fought the entire day over it and then he ran off. I wonder if maybe I should be more like him.”

  “I think everyone, even among wolves, grieves differently. There’s no right or wrong here,” she explained to him. “What all of you went through…it was horrendous, Thomas. It’s one thing to lose Pack members to Pack fights, but you were hunted. You were captured and hunted down like…dogs.” She couldn’t find another way to point it out. They were treated not as competitors, but as game.

  “I know.” He sighed. “The Pride wasn’t there as long.”

  “Would you like to tell me what it was like being there for a long time? You were there for nearly a month,” Abigail inquired, wondering if she would get the wolf Alpha to open up about the long-term issues they’d had there.

  “Maybe next time,” Thomas said. She saw the pain flash through his eyes and he looked towards the window. “When our first brother was dragged away, we knew it was bad. Then he didn’t come back…”

  “Thomas?” She reached out to touch his knee, hoping to bring him back. She wondered what he was seeing in those blue eyes. They were like crystals, light sapphires.

  “I saw his pelt during our escape,” he said quietly, still distant. The moment her fingers even grazed his knee, he jumped up, shaking his head. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled and left the room, leaving her in abject horror.

  She didn’t know who ‘he’ was, but she knew it had to be one of the members of their inner circle. She’d experienced it before, the horror, the pain, the sadness. She knew others who’d seen their loved ones butchered by hunters - shot, killed, or maimed. And yet she could never become desensitized to it. It always made her upset. She kept it private, kept it internal so she could continue speaking with her patient. It was a good thing she could feel it still. She knew her scent of horror and sorrow for the victim was also soothing to her patients. They knew she understood, that she could imagine and relate to their pain.

  One of the first things she learned about therapy for shifters was that it was different than therapy for humans. When someone took into account their sense of smell or heightened hearing, the dynamics changed. She could hear changes in heart rate when she was close enough to her patient. She could smell their mood change or even smell an illness if she was right next to them.

  Twenty minutes later, Abigail knew Thomas wasn’t going to come back. She was glad he’d said as much as he did. It was hard prying anything from the wolves when it came to grief. Other things were much easier, like romantic or sexual feelings. They were free with those, just not grief.

  She decided to use her free time looking over the other patients she’d picked up from the Pride. Troy and Gabe Walker. Half-brothers, both with addiction issues. Troy was a recovering alcoholic and Gabe had a habit for hard drug use. Both went to rehab a few years ago and showed serious improvement during their time in the inpatient facility. She’d inquired with Brenton how they ended up there. He told her that he took them there and forced them through it, orders from Alpha to Pride member.

  “You two will be the hard ones,” she whispered to herself, flipping through their history. They had a pretty sad situation when they were teenagers. Accident when they were both under the influence, human girlfriend dead when help arrived on the scene. Tragic.

  Riley’s story was different. Normal girl, Brenton had told her. She was just existing when they stumbled on her and brought her into everything. What they found was a half-breed shifter with a fiery passion for those she cared for. They hadn’t been expecting the woman they found.

  And they were all madly in love with her, he’d said. Abigail snorted. That much was obvious.

  Abigail had a small bit of jealousy. In a week, she’d gotten to see Troy and Gabe’s eyes light up at just the mention of her. She saw massive Zachary stop in the hall to watch Riley walk up to him. Andrew was indulgent of her in a way that was precious.

  She never had any of that with her ex, and she wanted it. Abigail initially thought having that many men would be a pain, but it worked so well for that little cheetah.

  She sighed and leaned back in her chair.

  “As I was saying, Riley,” Brenton’s voice came through the door. Abigail should have been paying more attention. She’d been so deep in her own head that she missed them driving up and entering the mansion. She was normally pretty attuned to the sounds around her. “You will talk to Abigail. Today. I can smell her, so she’s already here. Go in and have a chat.”

  She stood up as the door opened. She smiled at Riley, who groaned with an eyeroll back. “I didn’t realize my patient was a teenage arsonist,” she said immediately. “Eyerolls are for kids.”

  “Wow, you are uppity,” the cheetah retorted, stepping inside.

  Brenton chuckled behind her, holding the door open.

  Riley spun around to him. “You think this is funny?”

  “I do,” Brenton laughed softly and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Have a nice talk. Don’t be mean to the prey shifters. It’s rude, since you’re a predator. She doesn’t have to tolerate it.”

  “Oh,” Riley sounded immediately guilty. She turned back to Abigail as Brenton closed the door. “I didn’t think about that…”

  Abigail was impressed that the girl could turn around on her attitude so quickly. “They told me that you weren’t educated about how to treat prey shifters,” Abigail informed her with a smile. “I’m not worried. Be yourself with me. I want to know Riley Stern, not an act.”

  “All right,” Riley mumbled, looking around the office, away from Abigail. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Why did you burn the house down?” Abigail asked, retaking her seat. She motioned to the couch and waited for Riley to sit down.

  “Because Abel Cartona was the shifter who
tried to…buy me in the compound. He wanted to keep me,” Riley whispered. “I got him back for that. And because he was trying to overthrow my Alpha at Kingson, Inc.”

  “I understand a bit better now,” Abigail admitted. That changed things, the multiple ways this shifter had gone after the Pride and her. It was going from awful, disgusting person who was looking to be a sexual predator to truly devious feline plots. Those got messy. Abigail silently thought Riley might have let this guy off easy by just burning down his house. “Not only did he assault you, but he was trying to ruin your life, and in turn, the Pride’s.”

  “I also got him arrested by the SSTF.” Riley growled with a grin. “Now that motherfucker is going to be locked away in prison for the rest of his life.”

  “Ah,” Abigail tried for mildly surprised. She failed. Felines. They were always so…cunning. They never did anything in halves. “Let’s move…to a side topic. Off of…” She checked her notes. Brenton had texted her the name of this male. “Abel Cartona. How do you feel?”

  “Right now?” She chuckled. “Pretty fucking good. I won, Abigail. Why wouldn’t I feel good?”

  “You know, Riley.” Abigail tried not to roll her eyes at the bravado. “Not all of it is about winning. Brenton said you had nightmares for a little while after you were abducted earlier in the year.”

  “Yeah,” Riley replied cautiously. “Why?”

  “You might get them again and you need someone to talk to. This revenge might help, and I know for some that it does, but you should still give this a shot. Often times, the revenge doesn’t help and you need support,” Abigail informed her. “Let’s try to have some relationship, so you have someone you can talk to. I don’t want you to feel like, if those nightmares come, that you failed.” Abigail locked her eyes onto those amber ones.

  Riley looked a bit shocked, but began to slowly nod after a moment. “You think it could become serious?” Riley asked softly.

  “Have you noticed anything abnormal in your recent behavior? Aside from burning down a house?” Abigail gave a small smile, trying to inject some humor.

  She got a small smile back, but it faded quickly from Riley’s face. “I’m not ready to talk about it,” Riley conceded.

  “That’s okay, too,” Abigail told her, reaching out to touch her knee. “But…call me when you are? I’d like us to have weekly meetings, but you can get me any time.”

  “Actually,” Riley gave her a strange look that made her a bit uncomfortable. “Can we try…something else? I’m not sure I like these…meetings.”

  “Sure,” Abigail answered, leaning back again. “What would that be?”

  “Can we just exchange numbers and try…friends, instead?” Riley seemed insecure for a moment. “I…uh…lost all my female friends over the last several months. It would be nice for you to just be a friend, or even an acquaintance, that I can talk to.”

  Abigail was momentarily at a loss. This wasn’t something that normally happened. Normally, her patients appreciated that she wasn’t a part of their personal lives. Did she dare? Abigail had no idea how long she would be in Wild Junction, and she still had all the others as patients. She’d thought Riley would be a challenging patient, but as Abigail thought about it further, maybe Riley would be an easier friend. She seemed like she needed friends, and Abigail sure wasn’t going to turn down the chance at one, since she was running short on them.

  “If you think this will work best for you, then yeah,” Abigail decided, “we can try that instead. It’s been a long time since I’ve had more than my sister as a female friend. I’m sure I can think of things we can do.” Abigail chuckled awkwardly.

  “Awesome,” Riley announced with a nod. “What do you want to do? Personally, I’m exhausted.”

  “Go,” Abigail told her. “Go get some sleep. Well, write down your number then go,” Abigail laughed, holding out her empty notepad. She was genuinely excited about this now. This spit-fire was an inspiring force to be reckoned with, and Abigail now had an in to help the young woman move on and push forward, hopefully without being destructive.

  “Talk to you later, then?” Riley asked, handing back the notepad.

  “Of course,” she confirmed, and with that, the cheetah shifter was out of the room. Abigail watched the door shut itself and started to chuckle.

  Of course she found herself working for the Kingson Pride and they had a female who went and burnt houses down. Totally fell in line with the reputation of the Pride. She expected it to be all over the shifter news by the end of the night, if it wasn’t already. The SSTF were chatterboxes and spread gossip like teenagers did, even though they were supposed to be apolitical.

  Abigail picked up her bag and left the office quietly. She didn’t wear heels this time, so there was no annoying click as she stepped out of the office and into the main hallway of the mansion. She laid eyes on Andrew giving Riley a slow kiss and something tightened in Abigail’s chest. It was sweet and adorable, all these huge males bending to the little cheetah.

  “Abigail,” a voice called out, and she turned. She looked towards the stairs and smiled.

  “Hello, James,” she greeted the wolf walking down to her. She hadn’t seen him since she’d met him. She took a moment to appreciate how cute he was. He was rugged and sweet-looking, all at the same time. “Are you here to be rude and find a reason to apologize again?”

  “No,” he chuckled, walking closer. “Thomas wanted us to talk to you. I’m glad I caught you.”

  “I’m willing to listen,” she told him kindly. “But do you really want to?”

  “Not really,” James laughed. “Let’s not and say we did, shall we?”

  “We can do that,” she agreed, holding back a giggle. “What are you all up to? Certainly, a wolf Alpha and his Pack aren’t going to live with a Pride for eternity.”

  “Brenton is gifting us a place as a thank you. Because he’s rich like that,” someone else said from higher on the stairs.

  Abigail looked around James and saw a male who must be the last of the wolves. He had a smirk, a cocky glint to his jade eyes, and his dark hair was tousled as if he had just gotten laid. He was Latino, all dark tanned skin, lean like a swimmer, and he was strolling down the stairs like he owned the place.

  This was the type of wolf Abigail was used to. One that made women weak in the knees because they knew they could. Then they rolled in bed with them because wolves didn’t have a sense of relationship versus sex versus emotion. They just had sex and that was that. Thomas and James, so far, hadn’t given Abigail this vibe. But this one, he was definitely all wolf in that respect.

  “Abigail, meet Antonio,” he sighed, stepping to the side. His hand went to her back and she stiffened, even though she knew it was supposed to be supportive. He pulled it away immediately, frowning at her.

  “Call me Tony,” Antonio said with that playful smirk. “I’ve been dying to meet you.” He held out his hand and she reached out to shake with him.

  “I don’t see why,” she mumbled, confused. His jade green eyes searched her face as he didn’t shake, but rather took her hand kissed the top of it. She held back a groan as she pulled her hand away. Wolves.

  “Tony, she’s here to be our therapist,” James did groan. “Stop that shit. Thomas wouldn’t appreciate it and I don’t either.”

  “I wanted to meet you because…well, I just did.” Antonio chuckled. “Is that so wrong?”

  “No, but it is suspicious,” she pointed out, trying to smile at him. He was wickedly handsome, but she wasn’t going to fall for this. Again. She stepped out of the suddenly crowded space and away from the wolves, smiling at Riley as she walked past them and up the stairs.

  “Are you heading out?” James demanded as she kept moving away from them.

  “I am heading back to my hotel,” she told him. “Thomas has my number. Ask him if you want to make an appointment.” Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

  She desperately wanted to avoid the wolves, but
she had a job to do all the same. Tony wasn’t one she could spend any alone time with. The amount he reminded her of her ex was just too much. The playful seduction, the suggestive look, the kiss on her hand. The wooing. She wasn’t in Wild Junction to be wooed by wolves who didn’t know what to do with themselves; she was there to help those like Riley move forward past a traumatic experience. Like Thomas. Their Alpha needed her, if he was willing. Maybe those two did too, but she figured Antonio and James were more ‘standard wolf’ with any grief they might be feeling. ‘Ignore it’ was probably their motto.

  She made it back to her car and left before anyone else could stop her. She should have stopped and talked to Brenton, but after that with the wolves, she was just ready to go. She would call him tomorrow and ask when he wanted her there.

  As she drove back to her hotel, she wondered what she was going to do with all her free time. For the last week, she’d just reviewed what she knew and was given about her new patients. Hiking was insanely popular in the region, so when she got into the hotel, she picked up a few maps of the local trails.

  “Hey,” Abigail walked up to the counter and smiled at the young man there. “Do you have any advice about which trails to use if someone is a very casual hiker?”

  She hadn’t hiked in years, since she started living in LA - maybe longer than that.

  “Of course. Give me the map,” the young guy chuckled. He pointed out several options to her - easier trails, ones that were well-used and could get a bit crowded but were safer. Then he pointed out ones that no one used, since they went a bit too close to properties or just too far into the mountains.

  Abigail even took notes. She was more interested in the trails no one used.

  “Thank you,” Abigail said to him brightly. “Have a nice day.”

  “You too, ma’am.” The guy grinned at her and she watched him give a casual glance over her. Well, Abigail still had some flirting skills, it seemed. She thought so, anyways. Maybe she just got lucky. She didn’t have any intention of having a bedfellow on a work trip, but some casual flirting with a cute human was nice.