by Lacey Thorn
“We’re not losing him,” Gideon reiterated. “We’ll figure this out.”
Laura cleared her throat. “Someone needs to go get his mate.”
“Laura.”
“No, Finn. I know you’re worried about her. I know you think she’s fragile, but she’s not. She couldn’t be to have survived what she did, otherwise. And she did survive. She’s stronger than she thinks, stronger than others believe her to be. It’s time someone reminded her of that. And by god, her mate needs her. She could be the difference between Daniel lying here or opening his eyes. We need Ariel here, and if none of you are willing to go get her and drag her here if needed, then I will.”
“She’s not at the cabin,” Gabriel said. “I checked earlier. I was going to do some begging of my own to get her here.”
“She hasn’t been staying there,” Laura told them. “When Daniel’s gone, she goes to his house.” Laura let out a cross between a sob and a laugh. “Funny how she seeks out the scent of her mate when he’s gone but won’t be around him when he’s here.”
Ariel went to his house? He’d worried he was losing it when he’d scented her in his home. He’d thought he was imagining things. She’d been there. Maybe sleeping in his bed. Touching his things. Surrounding herself with him. It should make him angry that she would choose that over the flesh and blood man, but it only made him sad. For both of them.
“Gideon, we’ve got a problem.” Griffin’s voice carried as he entered the room. He’d been with Ariel at Thomas Walker’s. Walker had taken them both in, though Daniel hadn’t decided yet if Thomas’ motives had been good or not. The man was an enigma. Everything they learned painted him as a man obsessed. Daniel wasn’t sure with what yet. Revenge. Justice. Family. He doubted they’d know for sure until Thomas showed up. If he were still alive. That was questionable, as well.
“What’s wrong? Is Dr. Jensen okay?” Gideon asked. Dr. Jensen was a good man. A physician who worked with the local shifters, helping take care of more serious injuries. He and Griffin had gone to check on several shifters who were in the doctor’s care. Daniel hoped they hadn’t been attacked. It wasn’t uncommon. God knew, hunters were growing more and more bold when it came to their annihilation plan.
“It’s Ariel,“ Griffin panted as if he’d been running the whole way. Daniel held his breath as he waited for the other man to finish.
“What?” Finn demanded. The other man along with his brother, Murphy, had taken to Ariel when they’d first met her. Murphy had told Daniel she reminded them of their sister, and that’s what she’d become to them.
“What’s wrong with Ariel?” Gideon asked. Gideon was the one who’d often held Daniel’s mate through her nightmares. The one who’d offered comfort. The one she still turned to, staying by his side most of the time.
“I went to check on her as soon as we got back. When she wasn’t at the cabin, I headed to Daniel’s. I was going to tell her he was back and what had happened. I didn’t figure anyone else had done that yet. She deserves to know,” he challenged though no one said anything. Daniel wondered what Griffin had seen in their expressions. “But she wasn’t there. And…his car was gone. I tried to call but it keeps going to voicemail. She’s either ignoring it or has it turned off. I’m worried. She…she left an envelope on the counter addressed to Daniel.”
“And?” Laura prompted when Griffin stalled.
“I don’t think she’s planning on coming back.”
Daniel ignored the rest of the conversation surrounding him. None of it mattered. His mate was gone. She’d left. Alone. For what reason, he wasn’t sure. She’d gone to his home first. Taken his car and left a note for him.
He had to wake up. Had to go after her. She might need him. He wasn’t going to let anything else happen to her. She was his to shield and protect. His father might have thought him weak, but Daniel would prove to his mate, he was more than capable of protecting her.
Wake the hell up! he screamed at the lion, who’d always been a part of him, and deep inside, so deep he almost missed it, he briefly felt the soft rumble of his beast. Then it was gone, making him question if he’d really felt it.
What had they done to him?
Wake up! he screamed again, but once again, it was only in his head. His body remained still with nobody aware of what was going on inside him.
Chapter Three
Ariel wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it hadn’t been the picked over remnants of the place she’d once called home. Walker’s Trading Post was a shell of what it had once been. It didn’t look as if Thomas had made it back after she’d left with Gideon and Griffin. The building was still standing but sported broken windows. The door was obviously broken, though someone had taken the time to try to make it shut. Other than the sounds of nature from the woods, there were no other noises. It was completely empty.
She gingerly pushed open the door, gritting her teeth at the squeal of the rusted hinges. The interior was in even worse shape than the outside. Broken glass littered the floor, making each step hazardous. Ariel was glad she’d worn her steel-toed combat boots. They’d protect her feet and pack a mean punch if anyone tried to sneak up on her.
She’d come back because she didn’t know where else to go. This was the place where she’d started to heal. At least, physically. She wasn’t sure she’d ever started to heal emotionally or mentally. Maybe, she never would. Maybe, she was too broken. No matter how hard she wished, there was no getting back to the girl she’d been. She’d become that person who could define their life by before and after. The person she’d been before it happened, and who she was after. She couldn’t be the before again, but she could remember her.
There was a hidey hole in the bedroom where she’d stayed. She had hidden the few personal things Thomas had found and brought with them but hadn’t bothered to grab them before she’d left with Gideon. Mostly, because she’d always assumed they’d be back.
Gideon wasn’t one to join a group. It had never crossed her mind that he might be taking her and Griffin to join the pride where Clara had gone. Clara Walker had mated Logan Dobson, one of the inner circle of the pride. Then Gideon had fallen for another member of the inner circle, Vic Dorsey. Ariel hadn’t liked Vic at first, because Ariel had felt threatened by the other woman. Gideon had been the one person Ariel could depend on, and it had felt as if she were losing him to the other woman. She’d been afraid Vic would refuse to let her spend time with Gideon, but Vic didn’t have a jealous bone in her body. She loved Gideon and trusted him completely. And Ariel thought Vic might just love her a little, too. Vic had become much like an older sister to her. Hell, those who didn’t know them often thought they were sisters.
Ariel would have loved to have a woman like Vic for her sister. Really any of the women in the pride. They were a group of strong women who supported one another. It started with Abby, Tah’s mate. She oversaw everyone and everything. Tah might be alpha, but Abby was the one no one wanted to disappoint. She surrounded herself with the other mates; Amia, Clara, Kenzie, Vic, Diane, Laura, and Darby. They were all so strong. Ariel wanted to be a part of them, to laugh and joke with them, but God help her, she didn’t feel worthy of being a part of their group. She didn’t feel strong. She felt fucking fragile, and it killed her to admit that even to herself.
Laura had challenged Ariel to put herself back together the day Ariel had shared her story with the other woman. Laura had known who Ariel could be to Daniel, a man Laura thought of as a brother. Ariel had told her the pieces didn’t fit, anymore.
“Then make them fit,” Laura had encouraged her. “Until you do, they win. You’ll always be that girl, bleeding on the ground. And you’re so much more than that, Ariel. You deserve to be more than that.”
“I don’t know how to make them fit.”
“One piece at a time,” Laura had told her. “One at a time.”
So here Ariel stood, ready to confront the past. Maybe. She wouldn’t call it closure. She didn’t b
elieve there was closure for what she’d been through. There was no forgiving or forgetting. But maybe, she could learn to stop blaming herself for what had happened. Maybe, she could find a way to believe she hadn’t deserved what had happened.
She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to have a normal life or relationship that wasn’t overshadowed by that day. She might never move past it. That would be something she’d have to accept. But if she kept going through the motions without trying for more, she’d never know. She wouldn’t give Daniel false hope any more than she’d give it to herself. Some things were never meant to be, no matter what others hoped for.
She moved quickly through the interior of the building, winding her way to the bedrooms attached at the back. Her room hadn’t been left alone, either. The few things she’d left littering the top of the dresser and bedside table were gone, or worse, ground into the floor at her feet. She ignored it as she pushed the bed out of the way until she could reach the loose board in the wall. It would be easy to miss, but she knew where it was. She pulled it out, tossing it to join the rubble before pulling out her treasures. A journal she’d kept the year she’d been on her own, one she’d last written in the day before… Well, before. A picture of the mother she’d never known but always longed for. The scarf her grandmother had knitted for her the last Christmas they’d had together. And the necklace Thomas had found lying in the dirt. Her father had supposedly given it to her, though she’d never met him, either.
She didn’t bother opening the locket. There was nothing in it. There never had been. It was as empty as she was.
She made herself walk through the rest of the building, as well, grabbing a picture from Griffin’s room that he must have left behind by mistake. It was of him and his brother when they were boys. Gideon had a few things in his room that she tossed in her pack, as well. There wasn’t really anything left in the lab area, but she took the time to sift through and salvage anything she thought might be useful. She knew Gideon and Vic had stopped by the trading post when they’d left Colorado and headed toward Oklahoma. It had been one of several stops they’d made.
Finally, she headed to Thomas’ part of the house. She doubted there’d be anything left, but she knew of one place where he’d hidden things. She wasn’t sure if Gideon had been aware of it. Dillon might have, but if so, he would have thrown it in their faces that he had stuff that was important to Thomas.
The male shifter had been another one of Thomas’ saves. Just the thought of Dillon made her sick…and angry. She’d felt no remorse for ripping his throat out. He’d tried to kill two members of the pride and had drugged and fed paranoia into Lydia Blane, a woman Clara’s dad had sent to Thomas for safety. Amia Blane’s mom. Clara Walker’s surrogate mom. The woman had died cruelly, never fully able to make amends to either of the women she’d thought of as her daughters. Hell, Ariel had been so wrapped up in her own problems that she’d never noticed the other woman was being drugged. None of them had. It made her wonder what other havoc Dillon might have created right under their noses.
Ariel crept carefully into Thomas’ closet. It was empty. Completely picked clean. She felt along the back wall, finding the latch with her fingertips and pushing it in the precise spot that would allow it to spring open.
Inside, she hit the motherlode. Journals and papers and pictures and a stuffed teddy bear. She forced herself to push it all in her bag without taking the time to look through it. She needed to be quick. There would be plenty of time to look at it all later. But not her. Clara. Maybe Kenzie. Possibly Gideon. Thomas’ things belonged to his family, and he’d made sure she never felt as if he were family. The one time she’d turned to him after he’d brought her back to the post with him, he’d told her exactly what he thought of her.
We all get what we deserve in the end. The things that happen to us are because of who we are, what we’ve done. Some of us are victims, and that’s all we’ll ever be.
Ariel wasn’t a victim. That wasn’t who she was or what she’d always be. She sure as hell hadn’t deserved what had happened to her. No one deserved the hell she’d suffered through. No one. If she’d gotten what she deserved, it would have been a fucking happily ever after with Daniel. She’d give anything to go back in time and meet him before instead of after.
She went through the building, taking visual inventory in case there was anything else that caught her attention. Finding nothing, she stepped out the back door and caught her breath at the sight of a woman standing by the trees, watching as if she’d known Ariel was there and she’d merely been waiting.
Ariel’s whole body tensed as she opened her senses. She hadn’t realized how overwhelming some of the scents in the trading post were until she stepped back into the fresh air. She didn’t sense anyone else, but she’d been tricked before.
“Can I help you?” Ariel called, heading down the porch steps, braced for fight or flight, depending on the woman’s response.
“I’m looking for someone who lives here.”
“A lot of people once lived here,” Ariel replied. “No one does now. Who are you looking for?”
The woman shook her head. “I need to go. Sorry.”
For the first time, Ariel regretted taking off alone. She’d been alone when hunters had found her before. Still, she didn’t feel any threat from the woman. Instead, she seemed fragile, as if a breeze might be enough to knock her to her knees. Her body curled forward as if she were making herself as small as she could. As if she were trying to disappear into her surroundings. God, it was too easy to recall a time when Ariel had done the same.
“Look. I can tell something’s going on. Are you hurt? Do you need help?”
The woman stared but didn’t say anything.
“Know this, if this is some kind of trap to lure me away, it’s not going to happen. I’ll rip you’re fucking throat out and be long gone before any of your buddies can even get to us.”
That brought the woman around. She glanced around frantically, trembling with fear. No. It was more than that. Terror.
“They’re here? Don’t let them take me. Please, God. Not again.” She shook her head with desperation. “Not again. I won’t survive. Please. Please tell me you’re one of them.”
“One of them?” Ariel questioned cautiously.
“One of the good guys,” the woman replied. “I swear I won’t hurt you.”
Ariel laughed then. The woman didn’t look capable of crossing the short distance between them much less mounting any type of attack. She was scared, though. Terrified. Of who? Had she picked Walker’s Trading Post at random or had she been sent there? That thought dried up Ariel’s laughter completely. If the woman was here seeking help, then a shifter must have told her to come. God, how many others had shown up searching for help after they’d all left?
“There’s no one else here, right now. I needed to know if you were alone or if others were hiding and watching,” Ariel admitted and felt a twinge of remorse for the reaction she’d caused in the woman.
“Ask me,” the woman snapped then shook her head. “Never mind. I know you wouldn’t believe me. I don’t even blame you. I’d be the exact type of trap the hunters would set for an unsuspecting shifter. Fragile human in need of help.” She shuddered and seemed to curl even further into herself, making Ariel wonder what exactly the woman had endured and for how long.
“Look. We’re sitting ducks standing out here alone. I can help you—if you’ll let me. But we can’t stay here having this conversation. Tell me why you’re here, or we’ll both head our separate ways.” Ariel didn’t want the woman to walk away. There was something about her, a fragility, that hit too close to home.
After a long moment where the woman seemed to consider her options, which was really only one at the moment, she took a breath and asked a question that had Ariel’s stomach dropping.
“Do you know Thomas Walker?”
The voice was soft, stilted, as if their continued conversation was taking a lot ou
t of her. Ariel went instantly on alert. If it had to do with Thomas, things could go to shit real fast. She didn’t plan to be the next person he sacrificed for his cause, whatever it turned out to be.
“He’s not here,” Ariel responded. “Is there something I can help you with?”
The woman groaned, and it clicked in Ariel’s mind that the woman wasn’t so much hiding in the tree line as she was using the tree to hold herself up. The scent of fresh blood tickled Ariel’s nose. Her animal pressed at her skin, ready for a quick shift if needed. Easier to run. Easier to rip throats out if needed.
“I need Thomas.” The woman shook her head, looking completely defeated.
Ariel took a chance, moving quickly toward her, assessing everything around them as she moved. The woman really did appear to be alone. She leaned with one hand cupped over her abdomen, cradling it protectively. Her other palm was braced on the rough bark at her back. Her long brown hair managed to conceal most of her face and features. Weary. Broken. Those were the words that came to mind to describe the woman.
“What happened?” Ariel demanded, sensing the animal in the other woman. It was weak, though. Different. Something was off. It was as if she were a shifter but not. Not that what she was made her any less of a threat. Ariel and the pride had learned all too well that other shifters could and would betray them, as well.
“Only Thomas,” she murmured. “I was warned not to trust anyone else.”
Ariel sighed. Obviously, whoever had sent her here wasn’t aware Thomas Walker was missing and could possibly even be dead. If the woman was waiting on Thomas, she might never get help.
“He’s not here. He can’t help you right now, but I can.” She took another look around to be sure she hadn’t missed anyone keeping an eye on them. “Now, I’m going to ask you again, what happened?” When the woman still seemed reluctant, Ariel added what might be able to convince the other woman to talk to her. “I know Thomas. He…rescued me and brought me here.”
