by Sara Summers
“My mother said she would help. She made me wait outside, said it would hurt too much to watch my mate give birth.”
His smile turned into a big, angry, almost rabid-looking glare.
“My mate died in that room, and my mother made me leave. She killed her!” he shook his head. “It was her fault!” his voice cracked. “I could’ve saved her.” And then his voice dropped down to a whisper. “If I’d been in the room, I would’ve saved her and the baby.”
“I’m sorry.” I apologized again. His story was really sad, but it didn’t excuse the fact that he had murdered someone. Two someone’s, if he had killed his mom like he said he did. “Do you want a hug?”
Did I really want to hug an unstable murderer? No. But if it would help him, which I thought it might, I felt I had a responsibility to do so. Monty was messed up because he had lost his soulmate and the child she had been pregnant with. I made sense, having that mess him up. That could mess up anyone.
Instead of answering my question, he put his arms around me for a hug. The man squeezed me so tight I was almost afraid for my life.
Just as Monty was about to pull away, I heard a roar in the distance. You’d think all roars sound the same, but I am here to tell you they don’t. As soon as I heard that roar, I knew whose it was.
Ross had realized where I’d gone, and he was coming for me.
“I’m sorry to do this, Shifty Chick.” Monty held a knife to my throat. “But it’s time my brother answered for his crimes.
“Get your hands off of my mate.” Ross demanded. My still-tangled hair was mostly covering my eyes, but through the knotty strands I could see him. Ross stood tall and angry… really, really angry. His muscles bulged, his face was red, and his hair was crazy.
Holy frick, don’t ask me how I got so lucky. My mate had to be the sexiest man on the entire planet.
“I won’t ask again.” Ross’s voice chilled me. “You let go of my mate and I’ll let you live.”
Geez, that escalated quickly.
“I’ll only let her go if you give me your word. You swear to me that you and your pack will let me grieve in peace and I won’t hurt any of you.” Monty leaned over my shoulder, pressing his knife against my neck. It was sharp, and I felt as it broke through my skin. I gasped at the pain, and Ross clenched his fists when he heard my gasp.
“Fine. I swear that we’ll let you grieve if you let go of my mate.” Ross said the words through gritted teeth.
“Swear on her life.” Monty leaned forward even more and the knife pressed the tiniest bit deeper into my skin. I bit back a scream.
“I swear on her life, just let her go.” Ross stepped forward. Monty studied him, my Alpha, he studied his desperation and the way his fists were still clenched.
“Fine.” Monty pulled his knife from my neck, then gave me a little push forward. I stumbled into Ross, and he caught me around the waist. He acted like he was kissing my forehead but whispered roughly,
“When I call out, you shift and run back to the house as fast as you can.” He looked at Monty, who was glancing back at his soulmate’s grave. Ross pulled us backward a few steps, his arm still around my middle.
Monty walked back to the grave and pressed a kiss to the headstone. He ran his hand up and down it.
“Now!” Ross shouted the order, and pack members surged forward, seeming to come from nowhere. Lions lunged at Monty, tackling him and holding him down until a few humans came in to hold his arms. I stood there, dumbfounded, as I watched this pack beat up the broken man in front of me.
“Enough!” Ross commanded. They stopped fighting Monty, just holding tightly to his arms and legs.
I gawked as they took the man to an old brick house that had bars over the windows—they were taking him to prison. And if I knew anything about traditional shifters, it was that they didn’t value life the way humans did.
They were going to kill Monty, there was no doubt. He’d disrespected their graveyard, he’d murdered a human… Ross’s pack would kill him.
The thought made me nauseas.
“Go home now.” Ross grabbed my arm and looked straight into my eyes. “Rowland will follow you there to make sure your safe.”
He turned and walked away.
“Ross?” I called out. He turned to look at me. “Don’t let them kill him. Take him to a mental hospital, or have him imprisoned, or put in a straightjacket or something. Just don’t kill him.”
My mate didn’t respond. The look on his face was grave as he turned back and walked further from me.
I wasn’t one for following orders, but I knew that this order came from Ross’s fear. He was terrified of losing me (probably my fault, since I’d almost died so many times) and he wouldn’t risk me being near Monty during the execution in case something went wrong.
So I shifted and ran back to the cabin house, all while begging the Creator to spare Monty. He was a man with a broken mind and heart; he needed professional help, not a death sentence.
Chapter 18
I turned on the bathtub as soon as I got back to the house. Pacing the bathroom as I waited for it to fill up, my mind was sprinting. Monty was broken, he didn’t need to die. He needed help and possibly medication. I’d taken medication for mental illness before, I would know. That much pain can do horrible things to the inside of a person.
Besides, in my experience, there’s nothing more terrifying than fighting your own mind, and Monty had been doing that alone for a long time.
While his mental illness didn’t excuse his crimes, the fact remained that he needed help. And despite the bad relationship between the two of them, I knew that seeing his own brother killed would haunt Ross for the rest of his life. That would haunt anyone.
“Omega?” the guy Ross had sent with me called my name through the door.
“Yeah?” I frowned, wondering what the heck he wanted. Yes, I was naked, and no, he wasn’t invited inside.
“I have orders to visually check on you every ten minutes. I’ll need you to open the door.”
Yikes. Talk about over-protective.
“That won’t be necessary. If you have to stay, wait in the living room.” I instructed.
“I have orders to break down the door if you don’t let me in.” the man said. I shook my head.
“You just said I was the Omega, that means my orders should mean just as much as Ross’s.” I put a hand on my hip.
“I don’t want to face the Alpha’s wrath if something happens to you. You have ten seconds to open the door or I will kick it down.”
Geez, this guy wasn’t playing around. I sighed and grabbed a towel off the hook, wrapping it around myself for the sake of modesty. After un-trapping my hair, pulling it out of the towel and over one shoulder, I yanked the door open.
“Look, I’m fine.” I half-turned, gesturing to the half-full bathtub. The water was still flowing out of the faucet. “Now please get out.” I went to shoot him an icy stare, but the expression on his face caught me off guard. He was staring at me with wide, hungry eyes.
“Are you okay?” I demanded. Not gonna lie, the dude was scaring me. He took a step toward me, and I took a step back.
“Your cotie matches mine.” His voice was low and predatorial.
“No, my cotie matches Ross’s. Your Alpha’s.” I emphasized the Alpha part, hoping it would scare him away.
It didn’t.
He took a step toward me and I took another step back.
“Think this through. Even if we’re soulmates, Ross will kill you if you touch me.” I reasoned. “Wait until he’s here to get it sorted out.”
He didn’t take well to reason. The man—I couldn’t even remember his name—growled when I mentioned Ross.
“You are mine.” He took another step toward me. As I stepped back, my heels hit the porcelain tub behind me. I gulped.
It was time to do whatever I could to appeal to his humanity.
“You’re right, we’re made for each other.” I lied thro
ugh my teeth, giving him a tender smile. “But I’m not ready to get intense yet, please, wait for me.” I begged.
“You. Are. Mine.” He snarled, grabbing my upper arms and holding on so tight you would’ve thought he was trying to strangle my biceps.
There wasn’t enough humanity in him to appeal to. This man was certain I was his mate, despite all the evidence against it. He was an animal, incapable of thinking straight the way I thought he could.
With that knowledge sinking in, there was only one thing I could do. I closed my eyes and tried channeling my lion. She didn’t usually come when I called, but I was trying to bring her back. She wanted a say in everything after all.
Much to my surprise, she knew exactly what she needed to do. While my human mind didn’t understand how I’d get out of the situation (other than kneeing the guy in the nuts, but I was pretty sure I’d lose the towel if I tried that which would lead to certain unpleasant things he’s try to do to me), the lion in me had no doubts.
When that part of me took over, the answer was simple. I opened my mind as far and as large as I could, and with that mental link, I screamed as loud as I possibly could.
Ross howled in the distance, and I knew he was coming to save me. My heart stopped racing so fast, knowing that.
“We’re getting out of here.” The guy snarled.
“Get your hands off of me.” I tried to yank my arm out of his grip, but instead he pulled me closer and tighter. His hand went straight to the towel that covered me.
I once again turned to my lion side, and that part of me was quick to act. I kicked my knee upward, as hard and fast as I could. My attacker crumpled to the ground, at least for a moment, and I ran for the door.
His hand grabbed my ankle and held tight, tripping me before I could escape. I screamed again, louder, praying that Ross would be there.
“I need you!” I cried out to him mentally, though I couldn’t see or feel that he was close.
Just as the pervert started pulling me back to him, Ross appeared in the doorway. He was big and strong, and so angry I thought he would accidentally shift. His whole body shook with fury.
My soulmate didn’t try to talk to my attacker. He didn’t hesitate or worry. He stepped over me and grabbed the man, Ross’s own friend and pack mate. He yanked the guy to his feet and stepped into the bathtub, slamming the perv into the wall.
“If I ever see you near my mate again, I won’t hesitate to kill you.” Ross’s voice was low and rumbly, and he was more serious than I had ever seen him before.
“She’s mine.” The attacker growled. “I saw her cotie. You’re trying to steal her from me.”
“Say that again and you won’t have a home.” Ross glared at the man, who still struggled to get free.
Once again, my soulmate didn’t hesitate. He protected me without a second thought. I felt his dominance, his power, fill the room the way the faucet was still filling the bathtub. Ross controlled his dominance in a way I had never seen anyone control it, using it a weapon that only he could wield.
The man fought back, but Ross’s power was far too much for him to resist. His dominance was like a sword resting against the attacker’s chest, telling him to back off or die. Still, the guy kept fighting. Ross didn’t give him another chance. My mate hit the perv over the head with dominance, easily knocking him out.
Ross threw my attacker’s unconscious body over his shoulder. He then took my hand, helped me to my feet, and towed me out to our front porch.
As it turned out, a massive group was gathered around the porch, waiting to find out what was going on. Ross’s first and second waited just outside the door. They took my attacker’s body from Ross, and in the process, showed the crowd who he was.
A woman in the group shrieked. She surged forward, shoving her way through everyone.
“He’s alive.” Ross announced. “But the next person who attacks the Omega won’t survive to tell about it.” He let go of my hand and stepped forward, gripping the metal railing. “I don’t care if you like her or not, Brooke is my soulmate, and I will punish anyone who challenges me the way any of you would.”
“This is your fault!” The woman screamed at me. She didn’t try to come up on the porch, but she glared at me so heatedly I sort of wondered if I’d catch on fire. “You effing slut!” okay, she threw a chain of worse insults in there, but I’d rather not dwell on them. “You waltz in here, flashing your cotie and showing off your body, as if there are no consequences for that. You’re the one who deserves to be killed!” The woman yelled.
The crowd went dead silent. The pack members waited for a response, waited for Ross to threaten her or waiting for his first and second to step in and beat her into submission.
As Ross opened his mouth to speak, I stepped forward and put my hand on his arm.
“I’ll take this one.” I whispered. He closed his mouth and nodded once, placing his hand in the middle of my back.
“If taking a bath in my mate’s home makes me a slut, every mated woman in this crowd should be attacked and ridiculed.” I pulled my hair to one shoulder and turned around, showing my cotie to everyone who was looking. When I turned back around, a few women looked pale.
“That’s my cotie, or, my mate markings. These markings a gift from the Creator, you all believe that. It’s the place that my soul touches Ross’s, and it’s very special to me the way yours is to you. And you’re allowed to have your own opinions—everyone is entitled to that— but you have to realize the damage your belief is causing.
“You say women should hide their mate marks, and for what? So men aren’t tempted to attack us, the way that man attacked me? You honestly believe it’s my fault that he never learned to control himself? Well, newsflash. You guys obviously understand the basics of being a shifter a thousand times better than me and my friends and the people in Glacier with us. You know things about it that we couldn’t even guess.
“But when it comes to equality, you’re a lightyear behind us. Men and women are definitely different, but we are equal. Ordering me to hide the cotie that I love is like telling me that men can’t control themselves so I have to do it for them.” I shook my head.
“Women in Glacier wear their coties with pride. We show them to our friends and gush about how adorable the markings are. The men there aren’t tempted by seeing another person’s mate marks because they’re too busy loving their own mates. So go ahead and call me a slut. Kick me out of the pack, attack me again and again.” I shrugged.
“You won’t scare me into hiding who I am or the markings that broadcast it. I’m a lion shifter and I refuse to be afraid of letting people see my soul written on my back.”
I spun on my heels and walked back inside, closing the door behind me. Sighing, I walked back into the bathroom. Had I completely screwed up Ross’s place as Alpha? Was he going to be mad at me?
I stepped inside and closed the bathroom door, locking it behind me. I didn’t realize there was water on the floor until I looked at the tub and saw water flowing over the top.
“Oh no.” I gasped. How did I forget to turn off the water?
I hurried over to shut it off, then looked back at the floor. Yep, wow, it was definitely wet. I dropped my towel on the floor to start drying the water, tossing the other two on the hooks to the floor to join it.
After unplugging the tub for a minute to let it drain a little, I slipped into the water. Though it was only lukewarm it still felt great.
I leaned back and closed my eyes. There’s nothing in the world quite as relaxing as a bath. Say what you want, but my opinion will never change. Baths are the best.
Outside, I could hear people yelling and arguing and fighting. The noise continued for quite some time, long enough, even, for me to wash and condition my hair. When the water started getting cold, I climbed out. There were no dry towels, so I had to sneak out to the closet across the hall. It seemed like the place you’d store towels.
The closet was mostly bare, holdi
ng just one towel and one old quilt. I wrapped the towel around me and hurried to Ross’s room, before someone else came in and tried to attack me. Ross’s pack didn’t need any more reasons to call me a slut.
I pulled on a pair of my mate’s sweats and an old t-shirt. This one was black, so it would hide the shimmery maroon marks on my back. Sitting down on the still-messy bed, I took Ross’s phone off of the dresser beside me and dialed Jazz’s number.
Chapter 19
“Hey Brookie. How’s it flying?”
“How’s it flying? That’s a new one.” I forced myself to smile, praying that acting happy would suddenly make my world a brighter place again. “You pregnant yet?”
“That would be a definite no. Are you?”
“Not yet. I’m trying to convince him.” My smile faded even as Jazz chuckled. That was an obvious lie, I was way too sick to have a baby. “I think I might’ve just screwed up his whole life.” I admitted.
“What happened?” Jazz asked.
“I almost died, like… three times I think? Maybe two, maybe four. I can’t even remember.” I sighed. “Besides that, his pack still hates me. I’m apparently also a slut for letting people see my cotie. Ross’s brother kidnapped me, and then my guard attacked me because I’m a whore who hypnotized him with my mate marks or something.” I rattled off reasons.
“Wow.” I could imagine my friend nodding, the way she always did when I told her things like this.
“Yeah, so I don’t think faking it is going to work anymore. The pack’s been shouting and screaming for the past hour, and I have a feeling Ross won’t be happy when he comes back in.” I leaned back against the wooden bedframe.
“Well that sounds eventful.” Jazz said.
“Quite. Quite eventful.” I nodded, and then closed my eyes and shook my head. “What do I do, J? Should I leave? Start covering myself like a nun? Act like I agree with all the ridiculous rules and traditions this pack follows?”
“You’re not going to do any of those things.” Jazz told me. “You’re Brooke the freaking Beast, remember? You’ve been sick for years, and you—wait, are you still just as sick?”
