I somehow made it to the ledge. I pushed open the window. Did I dare jump down? It was probably two stories to solid concrete. I slowly eased myself down, careful to only use my right elbow as a brace if I needed my right side. The stump was still tender. I made it to solid ground. I walked around the building and got to my car. I turned the key and drove away.
990 miles to Easterville.
16
Present day
Complete calm unlike anything my wolf had ever known washed over me. She was with her mate. She’d longed for this moment since she first burst through my skin. He was petting her fur so gently so sweetly.
“You’re such a beautiful wolf, Aster,” his voice rumbled through my wolf’s ears and she rubbed her neck over him. He laughed and ducked his head, so she had better access.
“What the fuck man?” the wolf, Owen, I learned his name behind the wheel asked, he was struggling to keep his eyes on the road, “That’s Aster? No way. Aster Fields has a wolf? Since when?”
My wolf’s mate gently eased her down, so she was sitting on the floor at his feet with her front paw and head on his lap. She wanted to stare at him forever. My wolf’s mate pet her head and rubbed her ears. She loved the way he smelled, the way he touched her. She needed this. She wanted this.
I fought to get free from my wolf form, but she wouldn’t let me. I was stuck. I screamed and thrashed against the fur walls that trapped me. She never trapped me. I tried every trick I remembered from Sunday Shifter School. I pictured myself human, I pictured myself wolf then human, I went through every molecule of my being and willed it to be human. And I was stuck on his goddamn lap like a pet.
He was talking about me. I could hear him. I wanted to snarl, but the wolf was in complete control. This wasn’t fair. He’d kidnapped me.
My wolf sat gazing at Kendrick for four hours before they needed to stop for gas. Kendrick looked down at her and pet her gently behind the ears, “Want to stretch your legs?”
Her tail thumped eagerly; she’d go anywhere with him. He reached behind him and pulled out a harness. I was mortally offended. He expected my wolf to wear a leash? Oh hell no. But my wolf was totally fine with it. She trusted her mate. She let him latch the harness to her and didn’t even flinch when he brushed her stump. She hated when anyone got near her stump. Kendrick got out of the car and latched the leash to her harness. He walked her around to a grassy area by the gas station.
“I know it’s not classy or lady like, but if you have to go, you should go,” he told my wolf, “I’ll turn around, if it makes you feel better.”
I fought so hard for control of my wolf when he turned his back to my wolf. But she fought back twice as hard. No this was ridiculous. He was treating us like a dog! We weren’t a pet. We were a fierce wolf. A fighter. A survivor. She didn’t care. She did her business, like a good dog. She wanted to please her mate.
He rubbed my wolf’s head and cooed at her. She preened pleased she had pleased him. I wanted to die. He led us back to the truck. The other wolf had bought a bunch of gas station sandwiches.
“Are you hungry Aster?” Kendrick asked my wolf sweetly. She wagged her tail. Her mate was a provider. He was giving her a meal. She was over the moon. She inhaled every morsel he offered her and licked his hands clean eager to taste him.
“You should get some sleep now,” he whispered to her sweetly and he let her curl between the driver and him on the bench seat of the truck. Her paw and head rested on his lap.
I didn’t sleep. I was listening.
“So, when did Aster get a wolf?” the driver asked again. After listening to them talk for hours I recognized him. Owen Nelson. He was a year or two older than me in school. He was one of the wolves Aster hung out with after he first shifted.
“I have no idea, I first saw it ten and a half Years Earlier,” Kendrick said. His voice sounded sad, pained, “It was the night we graduated. My wolf thought we’d lost her forever. And then he heard her howl. I’ve dreamt of that howl every night since.”
“You’re fucked in the head,” Owen told him.
“Yup,” Kendrick agreed. He was still petting my wolf’s head. He hadn’t stopped petting her since he’d forced me to shift.
“How long?” Owen asked after several painfully dull hours of silence.
“Not long, probably another 4 hours left, why do you need another break?” Kendrick asked giving an update on the ETA.
“No,” Owen huffed, “How long did you know Aster was your mate?”
“Fifteen years tomorrow,” Kendrick said. He wasn’t petting my wolf anymore he was holding her. Tightly. I didn’t understand. I tried again to get control and to shift but even in restful sleep she wouldn’t let me out.
“And you’re just now claiming her?” Owen asked in surprise, “I’m sure that’ll go over well with the pack.”
“I don’t care,” Kendrick stated, one of his hands started to pet my wolf again.
“Does she care?” Owen asked.
The truck was silent again for an uncomfortably long time. I felt Kendrick’s breath on the top of my wolf’s head. He was sniffing her. I felt his lips press to the top of her head. He was kissing her? No, this was wrong. This was not ok. I tried to get control but all I could do was snarl. And he jolted upright.
I heard Owen chuckle, but he didn’t say anything. This car ride was taking forever. They weren’t listening to the radio. They weren’t talking. The damn wolf was sleeping and wouldn’t let me be in control. I was bored.
17
10 years earlier
I was so tired I could hardly focus on the road. I needed to sleep. I still had 500 miles to go before I would reach Easterville. I pulled off the highway to an exit that boasted Clarksville, a travel town with an assortment of inexpensive hotels conveniently off the interstate. I didn’t have a lot of money, only a few hundred dollars my mother had hidden for me, and the thousand or so I’d managed to squirrel away from my after-school job. I needed every penny of that money to find an apartment. But I wouldn’t need an apartment if I died in a car crash. The sixteen hundred dollars in my backpack would be nothing compared to the hospital bills I’d incur if I survived a car crash.
I pulled into a hotel parking lot. It was a chain, probably way more than I could afford, but probably safe. I collected my backpack and walked through the sliding glass doors. As soon as the girl behind the desk saw me, her eyes widened, and she ran into a room behind the checkout counter.
Finally, the other door opened, and the middle-aged man in a suit who opened it jolted backward, “Jesus Christ,” he cursed before regaining, “Get out of here, I don’t want your kind causing trouble.”
“Please, I can pay,” I pleaded, “I just need a shower and a place to sleep. Please.” My voice trembled I could hardly talk I was so weak.
The man looked me up and down, “Get out before I call the cops.”
I hung my head, “Can you please point me in the direction of the next nearest motel?”
The girl came out again and she looked terrified. She pointed down the road. I left the hotel and drove further down the road. The clean off the highway look disappeared, and I was in the town proper. Small houses with broken windows left unrepaired, shuttered storefronts with plywood covering the window, and finally the motel came into view.
The motel’s light was flickering vac-cny. I pulled into the parking lot and grabbed my backpack. I pulled open the broken office door and dinged the bell. Even inside, the motel was falling apart. There was no one behind the desk so I rang the bell and waited. There was a mirror behind the counter, and I didn’t recognize myself even from the night before.
My cheeks looked hollow; my eyes sunken. My hair was a matted mess, there was dried blood all over me. The bruise beneath my eye was a sickly yellow color. My tank top and shorts were clean, but almost every inch of my exposed skin was dirty. No wonder I was hurried out of the hotel. I sighed and leaned on the counter, ringing the bell again. I would probably have
to sleep in my car.
“I’m coming I’m coming,” a woman’s raspy voice called from behind another door, “Keep your bells on,” the door opened and an almost artificially thin woman with unhealthy bottle blond hair and a heavy eyeliner framing her leathery face entered the office.
If she was taken aback by my appearance, she didn’t look it, “You old enough to rent a motel room in this state?”
“I’m eighteen,” I told her, “I won’t be any trouble, I just need a shower and a place to sleep.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, “When’s the last time you ate kid?”
I shrugged, I didn’t know, maybe breakfast yesterday, I hadn’t eaten much, I’d had too much to do.
“The rooms are fifty a night,” she said, “Water heater’s on the fritz again so I can’t guarantee your shower will be warm one.”
I slid the backpack off my shoulder and my right hand automatically went to unzip it before I remembered I didn’t have a hand anymore. I hefted the bag on the counter and used my teeth to hold the bag while I pulled the zipper.
“Here,” the woman said pulling my backpack over to her side, “I take it that’s recent?”
She was motioning to my stump. I nodded.
“You got a credit card?”
I shook my head.
The woman sighed, “Then I’ll need five hundred up front if you pay in cash, you’ll get your money back after you check out.”
That was over a third of my money. I caught a glimpse of my eyes wide in the mirror. But I nodded, “My wallet’s in the front pocket,” I breathed.
“How long you staying?” the woman asked.
“Just tonight,” I told her.
“Name?” she asked finally finding my wallet in the pocket she flipped it open pulling out a wad of twenty-dollar bills and counting out five hundred and sixty dollars.
“Aster Fields,” I told her, “And you promise I’ll get that money back?”
“It would take a lot for me to be able to justify taking your deposit,” she said reassuringly, “Unless you have a wild animal with you, you’ll have all but this sixty back in the morning when you leave.”
I gulped and nodded my head, “Thank you.” I realized I didn’t have a name to call her. She zipped my wallet into my backpack and handed it to me.
“Call me Mary. Do you mind if I walk you to your room?” the woman asked casually, “I’ll help you get it unlocked and get the shower on for you.”
I nodded overwhelmed with gratitude. I held my backpack in my left hand and followed her out.
“I have you in room four, it has the best lock,” Mary told me, “I understand it may be hard to get them in place, so if you like, I can use my extra key before I’m off shift tonight and make sure it’s locked.”
I nodded along, “I’d appreciate that,” I told her.
She unlocked the door. The motel room was not much to look at. The bathroom door hung crooked on its hinges and there were cigarette burns visible on the comforter. The whole room reeked of stale smoke. The wolf inside me whimpered. She didn’t like the smell.
Mary moved effortlessly to the bathroom and turned the knob in the shower and yanked hard pulling the little plunger on the tub spigot to change the water direction to the shower head.
“You should be able to manage to turn it off by yourself,” she told me confidently, “It’s that stupid faucet always gives guests trouble, no matter how many hands they have. If you need me, I’ll be in the office until 10. Just dial zero on the phone.”
“Thank you, Mary,” I told her setting the backpack on the bed. She walked over to it and unzipped all the openings.
“My brother lost an arm in the Gulf War,” she said, “Always had trouble with zippers after that.”
Before I could respond, she left the room and I heard her key click, locking my door behind her.
18
Present day
I landed hard on my stump and pain radiates up my arm. I yelped rolled off my right side to cradle it falling to the ground. Several thoughts raced through my head in an instant. Why was I on my right side? Why was I naked? Why was I in a blanket? I was on a hardwood floor. I wasn’t home. I had shifted at some point. I struggled to sit up. I was tangled in the blanket.
“Aster,” Kendrick’s voice ran across my skin like a summer rain, “Come back to bed.” I heard mattress springs groan and sensed him standing over me. His hands were on me. He was moving the scratchy wool blanket around untangling my limbs. I jolted away from his touch, hitting my head on the underside of a bedside table, “Damn it woman,” he cursed, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
I stared right in his golden eyes, they were filled with concern, “Fuck you,” I was finally free of the blanket tangle I reached my left arm up to the bedside table and stood. Kendrick’s right hand grasped my wrist and his left reached lower grabbing my waist. He pulled me up to the bed, he was warm and felt like home.
No. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t controlled by my wolf. While he reached down to grab the blanket, presumably to cover my indecency, I crawled over the bed and tried to reach the door.
“Aster,” Kendrick scolded standing upright. He crossed the room reaching me before I got to the door. He grabbed me and I twisted away wrenching my right arm. I yelped in pain again and winced as I pulled my stump away from him, “You need to stay here, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Fuck you.” I cursed again I flung open the door and ran down the hallway.
“Now, I don’t mind the view,” Kendrick called after me, “But I’m not keen on the rest of the pack seeing my mate’s naked body.”
I looked at my surroundings. I was in the Alpha house. In the family wing, I’d bet. I wasn’t certain, I’d never been invited beyond the public spaces before. My wolf heard motion downstairs. She smelled wolves. She ached to be with them. Kendrick was catching up to me he was moving slowly, cautiously, like he was stalking a wounded animal. I ducked into the next room I passed.
It was another bedroom. A guest room by the lack of distinct smell. I locked the door behind me and ran in search of something to cover myself with. I found a bathrobe and a towel. That’d have to do. Now to escape. I could get to my mother’s house, if she was back, steal her car, get out of town, find a phone, call Evan. Get arrested for stealing a car before I got even off of pack land, get brought right back to Kendrick. Fuck fuck fuck! I had no clothes, no shoes, no phone. It was winter in rural North Montana. I could shift to my wolf, but the traitorous bitch would probably just run right back.
I pulled the rope tighter around myself. Kendrick was rattling the doorknob. I had to figure a way out. I had to be calm, I had to be clever. Kendrick finally forced the door open.
“Aster,” he sighed, “I’m really tired, can we go back to bed? I’ll explain everything in the morning.”
“Let me go home,” I commanded Kendrick.
He shook his head in an irritatingly calm arrogant way. I turned toward the window. Maybe I could risk it. Jump down, I’d survived farther falls, and there was likely snow at the bottom this time. Kendrick crossed the room quickly, “Aster, this is your home.”
I shook my head, taking a step back toward the window, “Get away from me,” I snarled. My wolf wouldn’t fight him, but I could protect her.
He was kept his eyes firmly on my face. It was dark, I hadn’t turned the lights on in the room. The clock on the bedside table was the only light in the room read 3:06. Had to be in the morning. He’d kidnapped me mid-morning. They’d been driving since they stole me. I only remembered the one stop, but they may have had more while I was asleep.
“Kendrick,” I told him firmly, “Evan will come for me, I need to go home.”
“The grizzly isn’t a match against the pack,” he replied as if to reassure me, “Come back to bed, you’re tired, I can tell. We’ll rest up and have breakfast with the pack in the morning. They’ll be excited to see you again.”
I could smell his lie, “They hate
me almost as much as I hate them. Let me leave.”
“They don’t hate you,” Kendrick said jolting his head back in surprise, “Even if they did, it wouldn’t matter, you’re my mate.”
“I’m not your mate,” I snarled, “I have no mate.”
“Aster, I understand this is an adjustment,” he said reaching out to touch me, I flinched away, “But I am your mate. I know you know that. You feel it. Your wolf feels it. We can sleep in here, if you’d prefer.”
“I. Have. No. Mate,” I snarled biting into each word. He lost the chance to be my mate when he stood by and did nothing.
“Aster,” he winced, “you are my mate.”
I walked past him as calmly as I could. He let me go. Still in the robe I followed my nose until I reached the kitchen. Despite the crazy hour there were a few wolves sitting around the stainless-steel island drinking beers and eating from Tupperware containers. They didn’t acknowledge me when I entered.
As brave as I could I walked straight to the fridge, it was full. Meticulously labeled tubs describing what food was inside and reheating instructions. I pulled out a container of meatloaf and mashed potatoes because it was the closest tub.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Kendrick had followed me. I shut the fridge door and walked toward the microwave.
The other attention of the other wolves was now definitively on me.
“Is this your mysterious mate, Kendrick?” a sultry woman’s voice asked across the room, I said no as Kendrick said yes, the woman continued, “Emily said Owen helped find her, was she the pretty onyx wolf I saw you carrying in a couple of hours ago? Emily didn’t say she was so pretty in human form.”
“I’m not his mate,” I snarled turning to glare the woman down. The snarl caught in my throat, “Kyla? Kyla Michaels?”
She’d been my best friend before she changed. We were the last two, we’d made plans to be duds together. Then she changed and I was the scum beneath her shoes.
Tooth and Claw (Kootenai Pack Book 1) Page 5
