by Kimber White
It couldn’t be true. Except, I knew in my heart that it was. It’s why Luke had been so afraid of letting me close to him. He was afraid I’d finally see the truth. He’d been lying to me this whole time. He had to have known what happened.
He was waiting for me as I slammed the Jeep into park and spilled out of the driver’s side. He stood with his hands in his pockets, the wind blowing through his wavy brown hair as he looked at me with those devastating green eyes. Pat and Bas stood on the porch behind him. Each of them looked at me with sorrow in their eyes, and I had the momentary urge to scratch them all out.
I meant to rage at him. Curse his name. Order him off the property. But, as I took the first step toward the house, the weight of everything I’d been told . . . everything I’d seen, came crashing down on me and my knees gave out. I crumpled slowly to the ground, finally letting my tears fall.
Luke was fast. In a blur of motion he came to me, gently putting his hands around my waist and pulling me into his lap as I sank to the ground.
“Why?” I sobbed. “Why did he kill her?”
Luke buried his face in my hair and kissed me. Even now, when I had a million questions and rage in my heart, it was Luke’s touch I craved.
“No,” I found the strength to push him away. “No.”
He spread his hands wide, not touching me as I found the strength to stand and then take the first steps toward the house. I couldn’t even look at Pat or Bas as I walked past them and went into my grandfather’s house. From the corner of my eye, I saw the giant maple tree where my father’s lifeless body had lain.
The three of them filed quietly in behind me. Luke put a hand up when Pat tried to come to me. Even in my grief and rage, I was grateful to him for that small gesture. I didn’t want her comfort. I wanted answers.
“Why?” I asked again, turning toward him. “You knew. This whole time. You knew Asher was the one who took my parents from me.”
Luke hung his head and let out a breath. “I knew. I’ve always known.”
“Were you there? Did you . . . help him? Is that one of the awful things he made you do?”
“No! God. No!”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I grabbed the back of one of the kitchen chairs to steady myself as relief flooded through me. He was a liar. But, Luke wasn’t a killer.
“I told you. About ten years ago Asher challenged the Alpha of our pack and lost. Some of us followed him anyway, but we didn’t have anywhere else to go. We were banished from Wild Lake. Asher secured some land for us in Kentucky. But, it came at a price. I didn’t know what that price was at the time, I swear to God. Not until months later, after we got settled in Mammoth Forest. I made him tell me. It sickened me. I would have left then. I wanted to. But, by then he’d made it so none of us could.”
“My mother was the price? He used Asher as some kind of werewolf assassin to make her pay for not going off with that pack?”
Luke nodded. His face turned a shade of green, and for a moment, it looked like he was about to be sick. I knew the feeling.
“I told you there was a pack war going on in these parts that started fifty-some years ago.” Pat picked up the story. “The pack that terrorized the people of Oodena were driven out by the Wild Lake packs. By my family. But, werewolves have long memories, and that pack had a thirst for revenge. After we drove them out, we heard they settled in Kentucky.”
“Oh, God.” I slid the chair out and sank into it, burying my face in my hands. When Luke made a move to come to my side, I put a hand up to stop him. “And when Asher went looking for new digs, they told him he could come if he settled an old score with Oodena. Is that right?”
“Yes,” Bas answered. “Tamryn. We didn’t know. We had no idea what Asher was capable of. If we had, we never would have let him set foot out of Wild Lake alive.”
Luke went to his knees by my side. This time, when he touched me, I didn’t push him away. I didn’t have the strength to anymore. I didn’t know what to think. What to feel. He knew and he didn’t tell me. I wasn’t sure I could forgive him for that deception. But, I knew in my heart Luke was just as much a victim of Asher as my parents were.
“I should have told you. I’m sorry.”
It was all too much. Energy leached out of me, and I laid my head on the table.
“Tamryn, say something. Please.”
“They told me that pack raped and tortured the women from Oodena for over a hundred years. In exchange for protecting the town and the tribe. Did you know about that too?”
“We always heard rumors,” Pat said. “It’s one of the reasons the Wild Lake packs finally made the decision to go to war to drive them out of the state. One of many, anyway. But, the men that make up the council of the Nine Families sure like to keep secrets. Some of it I understand. They had ample reason not to trust the were. But, I just think how many girls we might have been able to help them save if they’d come to Bas’s grandfather or Luke’s great-grandfather. They could have helped.”
This time, when my stomach churned, I couldn’t stop it. I staggered out of my chair and made it to the kitchen sink just in time to be sick into it. God. All that loss. All that pain. For what? Some silly superstition. I turned on the faucet and let cool water run over my lips and down my throat. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand I turned back to them.
“I need some time alone,” I said. “Please. Can you just . . . go back to Wild Lake for now?”
Pat gave me a tight-lipped smile, but she was already on the move. “Don’t you give that a second thought. We’re gone, but we’ll be close. My farm is straight up 31 about fifteen miles. Either of the boys can be back here in a flash if you need ‘em.”
Then, Pat moved in a blur as if she too had were strength. She disappeared into one of the back bedrooms and came out carrying a large duffle bag stuffed with her clothes and probably Luke and Bas’s. She made a clucking noise and started to try and shoo the two of them toward the front door. Bas followed her, but Luke stayed rooted to a spot in the hallway. Pat looked at him, then looked at me, then gave a shrug and disappeared with Bas straight out the front door.
“Luke,” I said. “I mean it. I need some time to myself.”
He nodded but took a step toward me, then another. His pulse mixed with mine until all I could hear was his thundering heartbeat in my ears. My heart warred with the need to go to him and push him away all at once. His eyes held a challenge to me, and I was about to find out if I could rise to it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Please,” I said. “Not now.”
That emerald glint flashed in his eyes, and the vibrations of the low growl he made went straight up my spine. Heat flared inside me. I took a step back.
“I pushed you away and I regret it,” he said. “I’m not going to let you do the same thing to me.”
Tears welled in my eyes and stung my cheeks as they spilled out. “Dammit. Not now.”
“Yes. Now. This is me, Tamryn. You and me. You’re standing there questioning who I am. There’s only one way I know how to show you.”
I loved him. I hated him. My heart held anger, despair, grief. It wasn’t Luke’s fault. He hadn’t been the one to kill my parents. I knew it. And yet, I wanted to lash out at something, someone. He lied to me. They all lied to me. My grandfather sent me away. He said he did it to protect me, and I understood that now. Still, the pain felt fresh and raw. That lost little girl still lived inside of me. The hurt and rejection I’d tried to cope with for so long unfurled in my heart. I grew up alone. I grew up with lies. He should have protected my mother, and he couldn’t. He should have protected my grandmother and he couldn’t. Then, it hit me. In that moment, my rage centered on a single point.
Luke.
He knew what Asher was better than anyone. He should have protected my mother and he didn’t. Even though I knew he wasn’t responsible, he felt close enough. I couldn’t hold the rejection and betrayal inside of me anymore.
Asher wasn’t here. I could never seek justice against him. I took a step toward Luke, as my tears flowed and my body trembled.
“Why?” I sobbed the word for what seemed like the thousandth time. Since I’d known him, I’d told Luke he had no demon inside of him. That might be true, but now I felt a demon rising inside of me. I wanted to lash out and hurt the closest thing I could to Asher.
I raised my hand, wanting to fight back against the murderous wolf in the way my mother couldn’t. It was if I could see the world through her eyes in her final moments. I drew my fist back and tried to strike him. But, it wasn’t Luke I saw. It was Asher. Luke caught my wrist in his powerful grip. I raised my other fist and tried again. He caught that one too and held my arms above my head.
We stayed like that, locked in an unspoken battle of wills. Luke was what he was. Part beast. Part man. Imperfect, brutal, beautiful. He was willing to lay his sins bare for me if I was strong enough to look at them. And I needed to look at them. If I had any hope of saving the man or myself, I needed to understand the beast.
With all the strength I had, I pulled my wrists away from him. He opened his fingers and let me go, but the force of my momentum made me stagger backward. I recovered and came at him again. I raised my hands to him a second time. This time, Luke didn’t try and stop me. My fingers hovered over his face. I could claw at him the way my mother probably tried to do to Asher in the last moments of her life. He was going to let me. His eyes went dark and he held his arms to his sides, and thrust his chin out, challenging me again. Whatever I needed to release, he would stand there and receive it.
Then, I went up on my tiptoes, threaded my hands through the hair behind his ears, and pulled him down to me. If a kiss can be cruel and hard, mine was. I bit his lip until I tasted blood. Luke stood stock still at first, but I felt the low rumble of a primal growl rising through him. Breathless, I tore myself way from him. Luke had his fists curled at his sides and his eyes flashed as his wolf struggled to get out. And I wanted to see if I could make it.
I threw myself at him again, flailing my fists against his chest. I screamed and raged, becoming part beast myself. But, Luke stayed still, and only a tremor in his jaw hinted at the struggle inside of him. I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and pulled him toward me. He teetered on the balls of his feet but otherwise stood immoveable.
Hot tears streamed down my face. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to hurt me. I wanted to feel the grief and anger inside of me as physical pain. But, Luke wouldn’t touch me. He wouldn’t even raise his hands. He left me to my own struggle for self-control. I stood quaking before him. Luke’s steady pulse thundered in my ears.
And then I lost my battle for self-control.
I was on Luke again. Flinging my body against his, he finally moved. We ended up stumbling backward against the kitchen table. I tore at his shirt and the button of his jeans. At last, he touched me, ripping my shirt apart, exposing my bra. His hands were hot and urgent as he pulled the clasp apart, freeing my breasts. I leaned back until he had me sprawled over the kitchen table. Luke tugged at my jeans and had them off me and cast aside in one fluid motion. My chest heaved with heavy breaths as I laid before him.
Heat coursed through my blood and settled at the throbbing juncture of my thighs. Luke leaned down and kissed me, trailing his tongue between my breasts, down the slope of my stomach, until I felt his hot breath between my legs, teasing the sensitive bud beneath my panties. With his teeth, he tore the fabric to shreds, leaving me completely exposed to him.
I cried out as Luke fastened his lips around my clit and sucked me there. I arched my back and carved my fingers through his hair. More. Harder. Faster. With his expert tongue, he coaxed the hard nub to a point and drew my first shattering orgasm out of me. I screamed his name as I writhed on the kitchen table. Wave after wave of pleasure washed over me as I struggled to open my legs even wider for him.
When the pleasure turned almost to pain, Luke finally lifted his head and smiled at me. His emerald wolf eyes flashed, and he shifted so he laid on top of me, carrying his weight on his elbows. The table couldn’t hold the two of us and it buckled beneath us, sending us both crashing to the ground. It felt right. I wanted to break things. Tear the house down. Be reborn.
Luke lifted me effortlessly and carried me through the wreckage. He had me pinned against the wall and I lifted my legs, wrapping them around his waist. He held my wrists above my head in one of his hands and in one, slick movement, he sheathed himself to the root inside of me. He was huge and hard and I felt split in two, just like the first time. He pumped hard and strong and I rose to meet his thrusts. With his free hand, he punched a hole in the wall. Plaster rained down around us. Then, he moved me into the kitchen while I held on, impaled on his turgid cock. He set me on the counter, never breaking his punishing pace as he fucked me with abandon. Pots and pans fell from the hooks, the windows rattled; I felt the counter tile buckle as Luke gripped the edge and drove himself into me.
He was strong and fierce, a man still, but the beast raged inside of him as it did in me. I felt just as strong. We could tear each other down and lay our souls bare for each other. But neither of us would break.
As Luke thrust in me ever deeper, I felt the next rising tide of a powerful orgasm. I peppered his neck with rough kisses, scoring his back with my nails. I wanted a piece of him. I wanted all of him. And he wanted all of me. I spread my legs wider, giving him even deeper access. Luke lifted me again and with me still straddling him, we wound up in the living room, knocking over lamps and end tables until he had me on the ground.
Yes! This! I wanted him to take me on the floor, the table, against the wall. Anywhere and everywhere. I was just as wild as he was. He flipped me over until I was on all fours. Luke withdrew for a moment. My pussy throbbed and felt so empty without him. I thrust my hips backward and lowered my chin almost to the floor so my ass was high for him. He put his hands on my hips and angled me even higher. I shuddered as he ran a finger over my slick, throbbing folds.
“Please,” I gasped. I’d lost count of how many times he’d made me come, but it wasn’t enough. It felt like it would never be enough.
“Yes,” he answered, his voice husky with lust. “Like that. I want to hear you. Beg me.”
“Oh, God. Please. Luke. Fuck me. I want you. Do it.”
“Do what?”
“Take me!”
When he growled, it went through me too. He slid a finger deep inside me and a fresh gush of juices coated my sex as he worked me there, priming me even more for him. He had me. He owned me. All he had to do was claim me.
He had told me he could wait. Give me time to decide. But, as I quivered beneath his touch, it felt like I might die without him. Luke took two fingers and opened me, spreading me impossibly wide as I felt the head of his cock at the edge of my slick opening. I trembled in anticipation. Not having him inside me was torture. Then, as he slid himself inside me again, a new hunger woke within me. As Luke plunged into me, I felt his breath on my ear. Instinct took over. I reached back and gathered my hair to one side, exposing the nape of my neck to him.
Time froze. It was as though every point in my life intersected and I understood with absolute clarity what I was. Why I was here. I was here for him. He was here for me. Everything that had ever happened led me to this point. This time. It was a rebirth. A homecoming.
Luke leaned forward, stretching me even wider as his cock slid deeper inside me. His teeth scraped the sensitive skin at the base of my neck. I cried out his name as he finally bit me, sinking his teeth deep into my tender flesh. It burned for just a moment. Then, a new wave of desire spread through me as if he’d created a new pleasure zone where he marked me.
I came hard, my orgasm exploded from the deepest parts of me and extended outward, leaving me shuddering and spent. Luke poured his seed deep, coating my walls as he came too. Blood flowed out of the wound in my neck as Luke slowly withdrew. Heat flared there as it did between my legs. As I cr
ested down, he gathered me in his arms and held me close to him, smoothing the hair away from my face.
Luke whispered my name against my cheek as he kissed me. I raised my hand to touch his face and kissed him back. A bridge of time passed between the moment he marked me and the moment I felt what it meant. Like the instant just before you crest the top of a hill of the tallest roller coaster. Then, my stomach dropped. I closed my eyes. A fraction of a second later, I opened them and the world changed forever.
I felt him. Luke was inside of me. I saw everything. Took all of it in. His pain. His sorrow. His essence. He filled my soul with his just as he had filled me with his body and seed. I didn’t just hear or feel his pulse; ours beat together now as one. It was as if I breathed when he did. The path before him seemed to spread in front of me now. I could hear his thoughts. I saw his darkness and his light. And it was beautiful.
I love you. You’re mine. I’m yours.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tears spilled out of my eyes. Luke helped me up and we walked hand in hand out the back porch. The woods spread before us in all its winter glory. We were stark naked, but I didn’t feel the cold, just the heat of Luke’s body as he held me against him, sliding his arms across my stomach and burying his face in the crook of my neck.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whispered.
It was like seeing for the first time. Smelling, tasting, touching. Colors grew more vibrant. I heard the rustle of branches and the trickling waters of Miskwaa Creek miles to the west as it cracked through thick layers of ice. The scent of fresh, metallic blood filled my nose. Another heartbeat, strong but erratic. God, it was an elk running swiftly through the barren trees far to the north. Something stronger and faster chased it down, and I knew the elk would fall before it even happened.
