Rise

by Heather MacKinnon

   “If it was someone with any in-depth knowledge of cars and the desire to really kill her, they would have cut both the brake lines and the e-brake cable, leaving her with no way to slow down,” Brad concluded.

   Abraham snarled and let go of my arm so he could pace the length of the garage. “So, you don’t think it was Craig.”

   He said it as more of a statement than a question, but Brad answered anyway.

   “I think if Craig wanted to kill her, he would have done a better job of it.”

   Abraham halted his pacing and let loose a growl in Brad’s direction. He stormed over to the skinny mechanic, his hands fisted at his sides. I figured he did that to stop himself from strangling another pack member.

   “That is my mate you’re talking about,” he said, his voice deep and dangerous.

   Brad held up both hands, his eyes wide. “I know, Alpha. I’m just telling you what I think. I don’t want anything to happen to Ellie. I think she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to this pack.”

   My heart warmed at his sentiments, but I had little time to bask in his words. Abraham spun around and grabbed my arm again before tugging me back down the driveway. He didn’t say a word as he hauled me back toward the lodge.

   When we got to Craig’s house, he was still outside, holding onto what had to be a pretty sore neck. Abraham stopped and turned to him, his voice low and deadly.

   “If you so much as sneeze in her direction, I’ll tear you apart piece by piece. You hear me?”

   Craig held up his hands and nodded slowly. “I wouldn’t hurt her, Alpha.”

   Abraham grunted and stormed off again, towing me behind him. I tried talking to him on our way back to the lodge, but nothing I said made any difference. With a sigh, I decided to keep quiet until he was ready to talk.

   Clearly, what happened today was affecting him more than I thought it would. I knew he’d be mad, knew he’d be worried, but I hadn’t prepared for this unadulterated rage.

   We made it inside the lodge where most of the pack was convening for dinner. Abraham’s head whipped around the room before he stomped toward the hall and up the stairs.

   At that point, I was getting a little sick of him dragging me around, but I knew better than to say something when he was like that.

   We made it to the third floor, and he turned down the sisters’ wing before I could ask him what we were doing there. When we got to Callie’s door, he pounded on it as viciously as he had at Craig and Brad’s places.

   When Callie opened her door, her eyes were wide as they looked between the two of us. “Abey, you’re home.”

   He pulled me closer and shook me slightly. “She doesn’t work for you anymore.”

   I whipped my head around to face him so quickly I almost gave myself whiplash. “What?!”

   He ignored me.

   Callie looked just as shocked as I felt. “Why? What happened?”

   Abraham let loose a menacing snarl. “What happened? She almost died today on her way to your office and I won’t let that happen again. She’s done there.”

   Callie looked at me and shrugged before turning back to Abraham. “If that’s what you think is best, Abey.”

   “Well, I don’t think it’s best,” I said as I struggled to pull out of his hold.

   He ignored me again and took off back down the hall. I figured he was heading toward our wing, but I’d had enough of being dragged around like a rag doll. I dug my heels into the carpet and wrenched my arm out of his grasp.

   He turned to me with wild eyes and I almost balked. But then I remembered he was being irrational and unreasonable, and I wasn’t going to take it anymore.

   “I’m not quitting my job.”

   “You are. It’s done.”

   “The hell it is, Abraham. You can’t do that! I get a say in my life!”

   He took a step toward me and I just barely held my ground. It was instinctual to back down, but I didn’t. I tipped my chin and met his gaze head on.

   “You are my mate and I’ll tell you what you can and can’t do.”

   An incredulous laugh shot out of my mouth. “That’s not how it works.”

   “That’s how I work.”

   “No, you don’t because if you did, I wouldn’t be your damn mate.”

   He took another step closer, and I fisted my hands at my sides to stop them from shaking.

   “You say that like you have a choice,” he rumbled.

   I tipped my chin up higher. “Of course I have a choice. If I knew what an unbearable ass you would turn out to be, I’d have stayed in Raleigh!”

   His eyes widened before he threw his hands in the air and paced away from me. “Someone tried to kill you today, Elizabeth! Don’t you get that?!”

   “I was there! Of course I get that!”

   “Well, you’re not acting like you do!”

   “This is nothing new for me! Ever since I took that godforsaken trip out here, I’ve had someone trying to kill me! That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop living my life!”

   “If I don’t find a way to protect you, you won’t have a life to live!”

   “Well, I’d rather die living my life the way I want than live under your thumb!”

   His eyes widened further and his mouth fell open. “You don’t mean that.”

   I narrowed my eyes at him and stood my ground. “Yes. I do. I won’t be told what I can and can’t do. You don’t own me, Abraham. You never will.”

   His head fell back as he let out an exasperated growl. “I’m not trying to own you, I’m trying to keep you alive!”

   “Then do it in a different way!” I yelled.

   He took a deep breath, his hands opening and closing at his sides. Finally, he speared me with a look so full of anger, it almost knocked me back a step. “This conversation is over. You’re not leaving pack lands again until the threat is eliminated. That’s an order.”

   My spine stiffened without my permission as my eyes practically bugged out of my head. “An order? You’re ordering me now?” I screeched.

   He shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”

   My blood was boiling so violently, it felt like it would spew out of my orifices any second. I knew I needed to walk away or I’d do something I couldn’t take back, like strangling my fiancé until he saw reason.

   I stormed off, slamming into him with my shoulder on my way by.

   “Where the hell are you going?” he called after me.

   Instead of answering, I flipped him off over my shoulder. I knew it was immature, but I couldn’t even form words at that moment.

   Never in my life had I met a more frustrating person.

   I knew he was concerned for my safety, but he was completely blowing this whole situation out of proportion. Like I’d said to him, this wasn’t the first time someone had tried to kill me, and it seemed like it wouldn’t be the last. My life had been in danger from the moment I’d stepped into Asheville months ago and not much had changed since then.

   I stomped down the stairs and took off through the kitchen, ignoring every greeting I got. When I made it to the sliding glass door, I whipped it open and slammed it closed behind me. Out on the patio in the warm summer air, I took a deep breath and hoped it would ease some of my ire.

   It didn’t.

   I jogged down the stairs and across the lawn, my anger pushing me to move faster. I felt out of control. Like I’d burst at the seams or explode into a million tiny pieces if I didn’t get this feeling out of me.

   I heard the back door open and close again before heavy footsteps sounded behind me. The wind carried a leather scent to my nose, and I knew it was Wyatt. Ignoring him, I made it to the tree line and let my body do what it had been craving since the moment Abraham told Callie I was quitting.

   A large crack rang out in the quiet evening air, my clothes ripping and tearing
at the seams until I was a wolf instead of a woman. I heard another series of cracks behind me and figured Wyatt shifted too.

   I took off into the woods, running as fast as I could. I hoped if I moved fast enough, I could outrun the whole day. Like I could race back through time and stop that morning from happening all together.

   “Ellie, where are you going?”

   I wanted to ignore him. I wanted to tell him to fuck off. I wanted to tell him to go away, but I did none of that. I knew he was only doing his job and I would try to not make it harder for him.

   “I don’t have a destination. I just want to be alone.”

   I heard his steps fall back a few paces before he spoke in my head again. “I’ll give you as much space as I can, but just know I’m with you.”

   My nose burned as tears swam to my eyes at his sweet words. I knew Wyatt was with me. He always was. I also knew Abraham was only acting so crazy out of love. But that didn’t change how overbearing he was being and that didn’t change the fact that he was trying to keep me caged there.

   With those thoughts and more spinning through my head, I took off through the woods, hoping I could outpace every mistake I’d made that day.

  Chapter 40

   The sun had set a while ago, but I had no intention of going inside anytime soon.

   I’d run through the woods for a long time and I’d almost been able to forget that I was being tailed. Almost.

   When I’d made a huge loop around the pack lands, I’d circled back to the yard and come out to the lake. Now I was at the end of the dock, watching the placid water and hoping it would infuse me with some of its calm.

   I was still angry.

  No, furious.

   I knew it was in Abraham’s nature to be the boss of everyone around him, but he’d never gone that far with me before. I didn’t even know he could go that far, but maybe that was my mistake. Maybe I’d underestimated him.

   Maybe this wouldn’t really work between us.

   My heart clenched in my chest, and if I’d had hands at that moment, I’d have rubbed the sore spot.

   Abraham was it for me. The only person I ever wanted to be with, but I would not be controlled. I would not be caged. I wouldn’t let someone else control my life for me. That was all non-negotiable. And so, even though my heart ached with every beat, I sat out there and tried to imagine a future without all this.

   Without Abraham.

   Without my sisters.

   Without my pack.

   I’d have done anything to prevent that, but if Abraham didn’t get some sense knocked into him soon, I didn’t know if I’d have a choice.

   I heard the sliding glass door open but ignored it. It was probably Wyatt. He’d been close by since I’d stormed out of the lodge, but I’d convinced him to let me come down to the lake by myself. The compromise we’d made was he’d sit on the patio where he could watch me. I felt his eyes on my back but did my best to ignore him.

   As the sound of heavy steps thudded against the grass heading toward me, I figured my time was up and Wyatt was finally coming to get me. But, as they got closer, the scent of spearmint and soap hit my nose and my spine instantly straightened.

   It wasn’t Wyatt, it was Abraham.

   I didn’t know if I was ready to talk to him yet, but it didn’t seem like I had a choice.

   His heavy steps sounded against the planks of the wooden dock and I knew I had seconds before he reached me. I took a few steadying breaths, but kept my eyes focused straight ahead.

   “I brought you some clothes,” he said when he reached me.

   I shot him a glance out of the corner of my eye before turning back around. There was a heavy sigh behind me before I felt the boards shift with his weight. He stepped up next to me and lowered his body to the dock.

   “You missed dinner.”

   I ignored that, too.

   I didn’t want to talk about clothes or food or any of the other meaningless things he might have come out here to say. In fact, I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to him at all. Thankfully, I was a wolf at the moment, and it wasn’t possible for me to answer him.

   He reached out to touch me, but I flinched away from him. The last thing I wanted right then was his touch. Because I knew if I let him put his hands on me, it would make me forget why I was mad in the first place. Abraham had a way of blocking out everything else and I couldn’t lose focus like that.

   We had a huge problem between us, and no amount of sweet words or touches would fix it.

   He sighed again. “El, will you shift back so we can talk?” I ignored him again, but when he added, “Please,” my resolve crumbled.

   I looked around the yard, but there was no one I could see. Not even Wyatt. Abraham probably sent him away when he came out. He must have noticed my trepidation because he rose to his feet and set my clothes next to me.

   “I’ll block you if you want to shift back and get dressed.”

   I huffed out a breath as I considered my options. I couldn’t avoid him forever, right? If I’d had it my way, I might have waited a couple more hours, but if he’d come to talk to me, that must have meant he had something to say.

   I just hoped for his sake it was something along the lines of I’m sorry. If it was anything less, I was storming back into that lodge and sleeping in my old room.

   I checked the clearing for stray pack members one more time before I willed myself back into a woman. Once I shifted, I tugged my clothes on as quickly as I could. It wasn’t just because I didn’t want anyone to catch me out there naked, it was also because I didn’t want to feel vulnerable in front of Abraham.

   Not when I was so mad at him.

   When I was dressed, I took a seat at the end of the dock again and lowered my feet into the warm water. It was a nice reprieve from the sticky summer night, but it did little to cool my temper.

   “Thanks for shifting back,” he said as he took a seat next to me.

   “What did you want to talk about?”

   He sighed, and I caught him running a hand down his face out of the corner of my eye.

   “El, I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m really sorry.”

   Well, that was a start. The tension in my shoulders lessened by the smallest degree.

   But sorry wasn’t enough. That wasn’t a complete apology and I wouldn’t settle for anything less.

   Without prompting, he spoke again. “Do you have any idea how scary it was hearing something almost happened to you today when I was so far away?”

   My heart clenched without my permission as his words seeped into my brain. I hadn’t really thought about that. Now that I did, I realized it must have been terrifying for him. He always felt like he needed to be on top of everything and protect everyone he was responsible for, and today, he couldn’t.

   I sighed. “Yeah, I’m sure that was scary for you. It was kinda scary for me too.”

   I saw his hand reach out for me again, but he fisted it and placed it back on his lap. “The whole drive here, all I could think about was something happening to you. Of losing you. Of not being there when you needed me most. It gutted me, El.”

   Another layer of ice melted from my heart, but I still didn’t turn to him. “I don’t blame you for feeling that way, Abraham.”

   He let out another deep breath. “It made me crazy. It felt like I couldn’t even see straight. I was terrified, and instead of letting myself feel that fear, I let the anger take over instead.”

   I nodded slowly. He really had let his anger take over, and that wasn’t a good look for an alpha.

   “You probably owe Craig an apology.”

   “Yeah, I plan on that.” He ran another rough hand down his face. “I was so sure it was him, but the more I think about it, the more I believe what Brad said. Besides, Craig is a more straightforward kind of guy. If he had a
problem with someone, he wouldn’t slink in the shadows and sabotage their car, he’d confront them to their faces.”

   I snorted. “Been there.”

   He chuckled once. “I guess you have, haven’t you?”

   I nodded again and waited for him to continue.

   “Once it was clear I couldn’t take my rage out on the person who did that to your car, I turned to the next closest thing. That was you.”

   My shoulders stiffened again at his honesty.

   He sighed and turned his body until he was facing me. “I should have never spoken to you like that. Hell, I shouldn’t have spoken to Callie like that either. I don’t want to cage you here. I don’t want to hold you back. All I want, the only thing I need is to make sure you’re safe. As long as you’re happy and healthy, I can deal with anything else that comes my way.”

   I sighed and finally turned to him. “That wasn’t the tune you were singing earlier.” The anger was still brimming in my system and a bit of it seeped out into my words. “You can’t keep doing this, Abraham. You can’t get scared and start ordering me around. I’m supposed to be your equal and I won’t let you treat me like less. We’re in this together or we’re not in this at all.”

   His blue eyes darted away from me as his shoulders slumped. “I know. I was wrong. I handled this whole situation wrong. There are other ways to keep you safe and I should have been looking into them instead of ordering you to quit your job.”

   A humorless snort flew out of me. “Yeah, ordering me won’t get you very far, McCoy.”

   He shot me a rueful smile. “That is something I’m fully aware of.” He sighed and reached out for me again. This time, I let him take my hand and sandwich it between both of his. They were big and warm and rough and felt so much like home, tears swam to my eyes. “I’m so sorry, baby. Will you please forgive me? Will you let me make this up to you?”

   I stared into his deep eyes and read every sincere word there for myself. That apology from him was more than I ever could have hoped for. More than I would have asked from him, and yet there he was, admitting his fears and laying his pride on the line. For me. How could I not forgive him?