by Moira Rogers
She touched her lips. There was time. No need to rush into anything when they could both take it slow and figure out exactly was developing between them.
No need to rush at all.
Joe rubbed his chin. “You know I love you, Gavin, but this assignment of ours? It’s bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit,” Gavin snapped. “You need to check out the situation in Bedagi Creek, and Dylan and Sasha need to find Adam Dubois.”
“So we’re going to road trip? It’ll take two weeks, and that’s assuming we drive there and straight back.”
In Helena, being trapped in a room with two strong, annoyed alphas would have ended with bruises at best, and broken bones on a normal day. Dylan stared into the mug of black coffee Joe had poured for him and cleared his throat. “I know it’s at least partly about getting Sasha out of town.”
“And the rest of it’s about getting Brynn out of town.” Gavin ignored Joe’s snarl and refilled his own mug. “If it were just about the constant challenges, I could handle it. But people associate her with Sasha’s magic now, and they’re scared. Scared enough to cause problems.”
“You could slap them down,” Joe argued. “You’re still the fucking alpha.”
“I know who I am!” With the roar came a sharp lash of energy strong enough to force the air from Dylan’s chest, and Joe backed away. “I’m responsible for everyone in this town. Everyone. I cannot afford to drive people out of sanctuary because I can’t be bothered to show them how stupid their prejudices are.”
Joe spoke in a strained whisper. “Isn’t that what you’re doing to Brynn? To Sasha? Driving them out of this sanctuary?”
It took every scrap of willpower Dylan had to lift his gaze to Joe’s. “Not forever. If we go, we give Gavin a chance to settle things without someone ending up hurt. And Brynn may be tough enough to handle being in a town where people fear her, but it’s killing Sasha. She’s better off leaving for a while.”
The righteous anger in Joe’s eyes faded a bit. “She wants to go?”
At least Dylan could answer the question honestly. “Yes. And I want to go with her. I may as well have challenged everyone in that bar a few nights ago when I told them to back down. No one pushed it, but…” But eventually the status he’d gained by rescuing Abby and killing Matthews would fade. He’d be a mid-level wolf, a newcomer to the pack, challenging stronger wolves. Over a witch.
A witch who would add every fight, every word, every goddamn scrap of kindness to some mental balance sheet as a debt she owed him.
Joe ran a rough hand through his dark hair and sighed. “If we leave first thing in the morning, I can push it hard and make Laramie, maybe even Cheyenne before we stop.”
Gavin lit a cigarette. “I don’t know how long you’ll have to stay, so get out there as quick as you can and take care of business. When you’re done, we can decide whether you should hurry home.”
Dylan glanced from Joe to Gavin. “I know part of what’s got Brynn so riled is that she’s protective of Sasha. Maybe if Sasha and I go on our own it would be enough. We can make contact with your friend, and Joe would be here in case there’s more trouble.”
“I have to go.” Joe’s mug thumped down on the counter.
Gavin’s jaw tightened. “The alphas from Bedagi Creek didn’t come to the summit. I told you that much. But when I called Irene looking for Adam, there was something wrong.”
Dylan felt tension arc through him. “How wrong?”
“She didn’t say anything overt, but it felt like she was asking for help.”
His fingers tightened around the coffee mug until he was afraid it would shatter. It was too easy to picture bringing Sasha to Helena, to imagine what would happen to her when one of the corrupt dominant wolves decided Dylan had stepped out of line and needed to be punished—
The mug shattered.
Neither man seemed surprised by his reaction. Joe retrieved a kitchen towel and began to gather the broken stoneware. Gavin crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and leveled a serious look on Dylan. “Not like that, son. If I thought it was dangerous, I wouldn’t let her near the place.”
Dylan wiped his hands on the towel Joe offered him without taking his gaze from Gavin. “Sasha needs to stay out of werewolf politics. Even the not-so-dangerous kind.”
“Which is why you two will be looking for Adam, not trying to figure out what’s wrong with the pack there.” The alpha propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I stopped by the apartment on the way here, Dylan, and I told her all this. She still wants to go.”
“Then I’ll go with her.” Dylan looked at Joe. “What about Brynn? What does she think?”
Joe tossed the broken shards of the mug in the trash. “She could use some time away, but she won’t admit it. That’s tantamount to abandoning Abby, and you know the Adler sisters.”
“Brynn’s never been good at telling Abby to mind her own business. Abby smothers her and Brynn gets pissed and snaps, then she feels bad and lets Abby smother her more to make up for it. They’ve been doing it for years.”
“Sounds about right.” Joe handed Dylan a fresh mug of coffee. “Can you and Sasha be ready by morning?”
“Yeah. We packed up the most useful books. I can read in the car if I need to.”
“Around five, then. We’ll get breakfast on the road.”
Dylan nodded his acknowledgment before taking a sip of coffee. It was still black and too strong, but he drank it anyway. He needed it for what he had to do next. “Gavin, do you mind walking back to the bar with me?”
“Sure.” Gavin rose and clasped Joe’s hand in a firm shake. “Have a good trip. Check in from time to time.”
“We will.”
Dylan nodded at Joe. “See you bright and early.”
“Early,” Joe corrected with a grin. “Probably not bright yet.”
Outside on the porch, Dylan sucked in a deep breath of cool night air. “How was Sasha when you were there? Did she seem okay?”
Gavin ran his hand over the railing as he stepped off the porch. “Well enough. She was busy packing.”
“Gavin…” Dylan curled his hand around the balcony and closed his eyes. “Hell, I don’t know how to say this. I don’t even know what I want to say. I just know I’m fucking terrified.”
“What do your instincts tell you?”
After the last ten years, he’d learned one lesson so many times it had superseded instinct. Maybe it had become instinct. “That anyone I care about is in danger.”
“No one wants to use Sasha to hurt you, and no one wants to hurt her because of you. But you know that.” Gavin’s eyes held a haunted look. “The question is, would it matter? If being with her meant endangering her, what then? Not what would you do, but…could you stop? Could you walk away, satisfied that you were protecting her and let that be it? Or would you still want her?”
He tried to imagine it. To imagine that sending Sasha to Maine alone would be the only way to keep her safe, and that he’d have to stay in Red Rock without her. He thought of the way her eyes lit up when she wrestled some new fact out of a dusty book, her good-natured smile and the way she’d felt under his hands and mouth.
He imagined never seeing her again, and it hurt. His chest felt tight and he shook his head slowly. “I’d still want her.”
“Then you have to trust in that.” The alpha laid a hand on Dylan’s shoulder. “I’ve seen you look at her. You could replace her, fill that instinctive need to take care of someone, but I don’t think it’d be the same.”
Trusting his instincts would have gotten him killed in Helena. And you’re spending too much time worrying about what would have happened in Helena. Escaping his past wouldn’t do a damn bit of good if he kept living in it.
He squared his shoulders and opened his eyes to meet Gavin’s gaze. “Thank you.”
The alpha nodded. “If you’re still worried, talk to Sasha. Figure it out together.”
Another
slippery slope. Sasha knew there were scars on his heart, but she’d never understand how many and how deep. Some of them would heal, but not all of them. He only had to look at the shadows in Cindy’s eyes seven years after her rescue to know how long those wounds could take to heal. More terrifying was the pain that tightened Sam’s eyes sometimes, even though she’d escaped from Helena long before Dylan had been born.
And they were strong wolves. Alphas with the will to fight and the stubbornness to overcome any obstacle. If they couldn’t fight free of the past…
Gavin still watched him, so he tried to make a joke. “I haven’t dated in a decade. I’m a little out of practice.”
The older man’s expression remained somber. “You could talk to Samantha,” he suggested finally. “I may run a sanctuary here but, in a way, I’m at a disadvantage with a lot of you. The horrors of my life have been straightforward.”
The horrors of Dylan’s life had been anything but, which was the problem. “My life sucked, Gavin, but it’s an insult to people like Cindy and Sam to pretend I had it all that bad.”
“Having your own pain doesn’t lessen anyone else’s. That’s the worst part of what the alphas like Matthews do.” He stepped back and surveyed the forest beyond Joe’s front yard. “It’s insidious, Dylan. How they try to make you think it’s not so bad, and they could make it so much worse if they wanted.”
“They could have. They did, sometimes, just to remind us. Because otherwise we’d run off to places like this, and they’d lose their easy income and grunt labor.”
“It’s a perversion.” Gavin bit out the words. “Being alpha is about doing what’s best for your pack, not for yourself.”
“It is here.” Dylan stepped off the stairs and stood next to Gavin. “That’s why I’ll go to Maine. That’s why I’ll help you fight however I can. This is the way it should be.”
“Yes.” He started down the drive, beckoning for Dylan to follow. “Maritza intended to settle here, you know. Sasha’s mentor. She felt that the prejudices and bad blood could be overcome.”
Sasha didn’t agree, and Dylan couldn’t even blame her. Not after the past month. “What do you think?”
“I hope so. I think they have to be, if any of us are going to survive.”
He had to believe in Gavin. He had to believe in the alpha’s ability to realize his hopes, to bring change and understanding to his pack, because Gavin wasn’t just an alpha. He was Dylan’s alpha, the first one he’d had who made him feel safer with his presence. The first one whose trust and respect he wanted. Gavin was the steady strength that had been missing all those years in Helena, the one who could make it possible for Dylan to live a life without terror and misery.
Red Rock was the first home Dylan had found in a decade…and Sasha wanted to leave it. For good.
Chapter Five
Sasha wiggled the key in the handle and almost stumbled when the door yielded suddenly. “I thought motels used plastic key cards these days.”
“Guess it depends on how old they are.” Brynn followed her into the room, both of their bags under one arm and a sack of snack food from the gas station clutched in the other hand. “This place doesn’t look all that classy.”
It really didn’t, though at least it looked clean. The sparse room held two queen beds with wildly patterned bedspreads, a television and a battered desk. “It’s not the Ritz, but I’m too tired to care, even if I would normally.”
“Mmm.” Brynn dropped both bags just inside the door as her gaze jumped around the room. She moved to the small closet and peeked inside, then wandered to the bathroom and pushed open the door. “The whole place reeks of bleach.”
She could smell only the faintest trace, but Sasha nodded. “You want the bed by the bathroom or the door?” She didn’t know if it mattered, but the careful way Brynn surveyed the room told her it might.
Brynn’s gaze drifted toward the wall that separated their room from the one Dylan and Joe occupied. “I’ll take the one by the door.”
Quick escape or first in line to defend against an intruder? “I’m too tired to eat, but I could use a shower. Did you want one first?”
“You go ahead. I’m starving.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Sasha took her time. Even with the rigors of travel, she already felt lighter just being away from Red Rock. Free. Out here, the worst she’d had to endure was the way people stared at her face, and most people averted their gazes quickly, not wanting to be caught gaping.
Of course, she could never tell Gavin or Sam that. They’d taken her in, and they’d tried so hard to make her feel at home, but she didn’t expect them to defend or protect her at the expense of their own. That wasn’t the way of things, and she understood that.
She’d come closest to telling Dylan. He alone knew that she planned to leave permanently as soon as she could and, ironically, he was the only thing that made her want to stay.
The towels were scratchy. She bypassed them completely and wrapped up in her robe, depending on the thin cotton to dry her. Her hair would take a while, but she could brush it dry if need be.
“Brynn, do you—?” When she stepped out of the bathroom, it wasn’t Brynn but Dylan sitting on the bed by the door. “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t realize you’d come in.”
His gaze swept up her body to her face, and she could have sworn he blushed before he jerked his attention back to the open book in front of him. “Sorry. Brynn’s…antsy. Their bond works better with proximity, so she’s over with Joe in the other room. I’m pretty sure neither of us want to disturb them before breakfast.”
“Oh.” Sasha turned to the dresser and reached for her hairbrush, but the sight of herself in the mirror stopped her cold. Her skin was flushed from the hot water, and her wet hair had soaked her robe until the cotton covering her breasts was transparent and clinging to her nipples. “Damn it.”
He cleared his throat. “Need me to go outside for a bit? I might run down to the vending machine, since Brynn has all the snacks.”
“No. No, it’s okay. I just need…” She snatched her bag from the bed she’d claimed and clutched it to her chest. “I’ll be right back.”
It was hard to dress in the steamy bathroom, especially with her skin still damp, but Sasha managed to wiggle into her nightclothes. When she returned to the room, Dylan still sat on the bed, staring intently at his book. “What are you reading?”
“That book about the history of vampires in Maine. I had no idea it was the epicenter of vampire activity. Seems a little surreal.” He glanced up at her and grinned. “I keep picturing vampires in snow pants and parkas trying to chip the ice off their truck windows.”
She stretched out on her stomach across the end of her bed. “I wouldn’t know. Most of the vampires I met in Europe tended to hibernate all winter. But they were older. Frail, I think.”
Dylan nodded. “If you read between the lines in these books, it seems like most of them get that way. Every time anyone talks about a vampire getting a lot of power, it pretty much ends up with a discussion of how a bunch of people got together and killed him.”
“Or tried, anyway. Maritza had this one friend who’d been run out of every county in Ireland.”
“A vampire friend?” One of his eyebrows shot up. “Are vampires friendly with wizards and witches?”
“No.” Fond memories of the no-nonsense woman who’d taken her in as a young teen washed over her. “But Maritza was never one for rules. She befriended Keith, after all.”
Dylan closed the book with a great deal of care and set it on the mattress before turning to look at her. “Tell me about her.”
“She was my grandmother’s best friend.” Sasha shut her eyes and immediately called up the image of leathery, blue-veined hands sorting herbs and tracing out runes. “My grandmother died when I was ten, and my parents the next year. Car accident.” She rolled to her back and stared at the ceiling as she continued. “The court placed me with my other grandmother. My dad�
��s mom. She spent two years thinking I was crazy or maybe possessed. Maritza was in Italy, but when she found out what had happened… She came and got me.”
The corner of the bed sank slightly and Dylan’s hand slid over hers. “And she taught you magic?”
“Along with my mother and Gram.” She clutched his hand. “But they weren’t very practiced, and there were a lot of things I didn’t know when Maritza took me to Europe.”
“I haven’t met many witches, but you seem pretty strong to me.” He rubbed his thumb over the backs of her fingers in a soft caress that sent a shiver through her. “I can feel you. Your energy, or power, or whatever it is. Like another werewolf.”
“Yeah.” She rolled to her side. He was warmth, a flame, and she was drawn inexorably to him. “It’s the same sort of magic, just working in different ways.”
“Show me how it works. Show me something magical.” His voice had turned decidedly husky.
“Magical? You mean like this?” She watched him as she whispered for darkness and then light. The room dimmed, the lamps flickering and dying. When the room lit again, it was from tiny pinpoints of light that shimmered to life between them and floated up and around the bed.
Dylan stretched out beside her, his hand still curled around hers. The flickering lights cast most of his face in gently changing shadows, but she could see the slow grin that curved his lips.
It was still there when he rolled to face her and lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “Can I kiss you?”
“No.” She leaned over him, her heart thumping painfully, and covered his hand with hers. “Because I’m going to kiss you.”
His breath tickled her cheek as he laughed. “A perfectly acceptable alterna—”
She cut him off with an open-mouthed kiss. It was too hard, too aggressive, and Sasha didn’t give a damn. He’d spent the last week tormenting her with his proximity, his smiles and the heat of his body.
A groan escaped him a moment before his hand slid around her waist. He dragged her tight against his body, so tight there was no question that he was already aroused. His other hand came up to tangle in her wet hair as he parted his lips under hers.
