Awakening: Book 1

by L. T. Marshall

  It’s the only way to pass the time, as I’m not ready to simmer and douse these flames I have burning for that jerk. I start compiling a list with a lot of bones I have to pick. Starting with a major one! Betraying me with that skanky puta while claiming he loves me.

  You’re Safe

  “Alora, I believe that may be our escort. This is route ten.” The doctor nudges me lightly, snapping me out of my long weird daydream in which I bludgeoned Carmen to death with Colton’s running shoes, before handing them back to him and walking off into the sunset with a flip of my finger, and I sit upright startled to reality. Heart missing a beat and full on nerves smacking me in the stomach.

  There’s a convoy of headlights heading our way in the now pitch-dark, long road, stretching ahead, dazzling us slightly as they approach, along what seems to be a long empty highway, lined with dense trees on either side of us. I hadn’t even noticed the change in terrain when we got off the dirt track and got onto an actual road. My insides tighten, tense, and painfully pray it is who it is.

  I lift the veil and link him, in case we’re not at where they are yet, and this is someone I should be worried about. I don’t see any other vehicles on the road.

  Colton please tell me that’s you, the convoy heading towards the military truck on route ten?

  I hold my breath, pausing as nervous energy overtakes and straining to see beyond the blinding lights, but it’s too dark to make out if the trucks are Santo at all. All I can tell is there is a succession of them as they weave slightly, and headlights peek out on the route ahead.

  It’s us. You’re safe. Pull over.

  That husky warm flow of assurance as I hear him inside my mind and I relax a little, letting out the breath I was holding in anticipation. He sounds weird, tense, and maybe still a little annoyed, probably from obsessing over my ‘boyfriend’ in the last half hour, or however long we’ve been driving. I’ve been silently staring out the window, lost in my own head, and the doc just kept ploughing on heading north. No concept of time.

  Shouldn’t we just follow you?

  I query, confused that with the possibility of a pack on our tail that he should want us to stop and not keep moving. I don’t understand why he would expect us to.

  PULL. OVER!

  It’s a sharp command, not a request. No hint of polite, or even trying to explain. In that bossy, arrogant, snarly, I am pissed tone, that verges on his alpha gift and I wonder what the hell is eating him. From seemingly calm, and logical, to idiot in a millisecond, all because I questioned him. Maybe he is like his father after all, and that gives me the unyielding urge to tell him where to get off. It brings back my rage from earlier and I spin my head to the doctor with attitude.

  “Our lord and commander says stop. He obviously has some reason to make us pull over, and he doesn’t sound like he’s in the mood to argue about it.” I sound like a petulant child, eye rolling as I flick my hand at the oncoming vehicles and the doc raises a brow and then frowns instead.

  “Better not disobey an irate alpha in the making. If he’s anything like his mother, I would say it’s better to accept a request and question later.” It’s an almost submissive stance to take, but the doc looks tired and weary, and maybe he needs a commander right now, more than I do. The doctor pulls us over to the side of the highway and brings us to an immediate stop, waiting, and watching, as the distant vehicles shrink the gap between us, and the tension becomes unbearable.

  “I’ll quickly check on Sierra, make sure she’s’ still tubed and everything is plugged in.” He moves first, gets up and shifts into the back of the truck, exhaling and stretching with relief when he gets to the standing room part of the back. I watch him for a second, but my own anxiety as I can feel Colton getting closer almost makes me combust.

  “I need air.” I point out, opening my door and hopping out before I scream. I’m overcome with the sudden heavy nervous tension of seeing him again, and the rising flames of temper and accusation, because he’s being a jerk about it, and I hate him. It’s hard to put the Carmen thing aside when I’m going to come face to face with the cheating ass once more.

  I expected maybe some sort of sweet directions, not bitchy commands, and aggression from him. My own turbulent emotions are strangling me, and I have this newfound energy buzzing through my limbs suddenly. I can’t sit at peace and his getting closer is like waiting on a tornado hitting your house and knowing there’ll be carnage. Colton is the tornado and my heart is my home. I have no chance.

  As the first of the vehicles pull up along the side ours and disappears behind the bulk of our vehicle, I lose my nerve completely, turn, and walk to the rear of ours into the darkness, around the back to catch my breath and take a few seconds to re-center myself. I need some Dutch courage and some mood levelling before that moment of reunion with him. I inhale and blow it out heavily, hearing doors opening and slamming, and footsteps, and I know I should just do it. Bite the bullet, walk right out to him. I move out from behind the truck, walking along and turning up the side to head towards doc’s door. Head in chaos, eyes on the ground as my sight adjusts to nocturnal and I watch where I’m stepping.

  I walk smack bang with a certain amount of whack into the black dressed, very large figure, cutting down from this side and yelp with the collision. Knocked back momentarily, not really hurt, but definitely winded, my heart skipping a beat which instantly makes my legs go weak, and my insides lurch in surprise.

  “Lorey?” Colton’s tone drops completely, almost a breathy whisper as I jump back and stare…. wide eyed, lost for words. We just sort of stand and look at one another for a crazily heavy, and lengthy, loaded second, so much translating in the moment and then he lurches forward, partially shadowed out so I can’t make out his face perfectly. He grabs me by the wrist and yanks me to him forcefully.

  I don’t get a chance to react, or recoil, because all I get is a flash of glowing amber eyes appearing in that darkened face, and then I’m completely cocooned in strong arms and molded to a hot hard body that makes me feel small and precious. Wrapped up tight, unable to resist the way he lassos me. He knocks the wind out of me with the intensity of his embrace, hugging me in completely, and burying his face in the crook of my neck, snugly united, and highlighting how perfectly he fits to me. He squeezes almost all the air from me with the force of his hug, not a single part of me that’s not pressed to him. His breath tickles and tingles my skin as it makes it way under the neckline of my sweater and I’m dazed by the speed in which he absorbed me into his body.

  I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t make me momentarily forget everything except how he feels, how good he smells, and how right his touch is. Heartbreakingly so. I melt, my head getting hazy with this need to let him hold me, and I have to swallow back the overwhelming surge of emotion that has my heart rate hitching, and my breathing getting shallow. Biting back instant tears, and I taste my weakness shining through, urging me to wrap myself up and tell him how much I missed him.

  He squeezes me half to death, arms tightly wound around my upper body and waist, a hand comes around the back of my neck, under my hair to hold me in place. Pushing his face against mine so we’re cheek to cheek, but his nose grazes my shoulder and I hear, and feel him inhale and release with the same depth of relief I did. That strong contentment of finally finding home and sinking into it deliciously. Savoring these few seconds of finally getting what you’ve been craving for, needing, for weeks.

  I almost cave, my limbs aching to curl around him to get lost in everything that’s good about him. So caught in the heady sensation of being back in his arms as he wraps me up, like a mouse caught in a snake’s death grip, with no hope of escape. I almost fade out into nothing, but feelings of tingles, warm inner waves, and butterflies, and senses of belonging, when something mentally slaps me in the face and reminds me what a shit head he is. Carmen’s smug face in my mind’s eye and the pain I felt four days after I left him.

  I shove him back, with a
little more power than I’m used to, a gush or surge of that misty energy conjuring from the intense anger that comes shooting out at speed and hit him right in the abdomen with enough force I send him reeling back. His arms impulsively splaying out to stop himself and he manages to stay upright, even though it’s obvious I managed to throw him off. That look of utter shock that I just overpowered him, and about landed him on his ass, and my surge of aggression, when he thought snuggling was on the cards.

  I don’t quickly forget that betraying asshole has a mate out there who wouldn’t be too pleased to see how he’s behaving with another femme. Even if I was his fated mate once upon a time.

  “Don’t touch me! Who the hell do you think you are, huh? That you can just yell at me, make demands, and then come walking on over here to grab me like that? Like you don’t have a shit load of apologizing to do.” Its fury building from inside of me, aching to be released, and his simmering to low glow eyes fire right back up, like two very terrifying orange beacons in the pitch black. I can almost feel mine glowing in response and it feels good to let my inner wolf peek again.

  “Are you kidding me right now? Do you know how much shit I’ve been through for weeks on end, trying to find you, and this is the thanks I get? You asked me to come! I’m beyond happy to see you. Excuse me for wanting to react and touch you, when you’re all I have thought about for weeks.” my anger seems to feed his, and instead of love confessions and apologies, I’m getting asshole Colton. Sometimes I forget he’s a Santo, and then he swoops right back in and reminds me what an arrogant, douchebag, that whole bloodline is.

  “I didn’t ask you to look for me all those weeks, so don’t even with that bullshit. And You…. YOU are the reason I left, so no, I owe you no thanks and give no shits about whatever you’ve suffered in the meantime. You don’t get to touch me anymore. Now shut up and let me past. I have to tell him you’re here! He’s probably hiding in the back already, wondering what the hell is going on.” I make an attempt to get by him, to head for the front of the truck, but he steps right at me, blocking me so I bang into his torso and have to step back. Full on aggression mode initiated and he’s towering over me menacingly.

  “Him? …. About HIM! Whoever he is, whatever the fuck he is to you, I’m going to fuck him up!” It’s a vicious jealous outburst, fueled with a sudden searing rage that even I can feel flowing from him as he springs back to me, almost shadowing me he gets that close, bringing his nose down to mine, eyes burning bright, and in turn I slap him in the abdomen.

  “No, you fucking won’t. Stop being an idiot. Just shut up and get out of the way.” I push him again and this time, he doesn’t budge. His obvious mood is worse than mine and he sticks his ground and stays as intimidating as ever, right in my face. That low growl of wolf coming through at me.

  “You’re mine! ….. not anyone else’s and if I have to take down an asshole who thinks he changes that, then I will. We are not done, you and I. He is about to learn that. I’m not even playing, Lorey, I will kill that mother fucker where he stands.” I’ve never seen Colton like this, I can almost taste the fury pulsing from his every pore as he loses a slight ounce of control and his teeth start to peek. I’m only making him worse and this is not the best version to introduce to the doc, or his mom. Even I feel a little tiny ounce of fear at this version and I think maybe, I pushed him a little far with this whole other man thing. I need to calm things down, and not bite, even though his statement makes me want to rip his throat out. This isn’t helping any of us.

  “I’m not yours, so you have no right to make any kind of threats. Not anymore. And stop okay. It’s not like that, you just need to calm down and not scare him. He’s human, and he’s not the reason I asked you to meet me.” I recoil some of my own anger, my voice softening as best as I can with this internal constant pain, reminding me to never ever let my stupid heart soften for him again.

  I catch the hemline of Colton’s black hoody, yanking him with me instead of still trying to get past him, and change tactic. I turn and head for the back, to the rear of the truck, pulling him when he stubbornly holds still, fighting me for a moment and then he relents and follows. The aggression and pain oozing from him has me all kinds of uptight, but I bang on the back door of the truck to let the doc know I’m back here and I hear the lock slide open.

  Colton bristles instantly. I almost feel him get ready to pounce into fight mode as we’re about to come face to face with a guy he deems a threat to our mate bond, as ridiculous as he’s being, and the door swings open. I equally posture in readiness; in case I might have to intervene and defend doc from an angry wolf attack. Fully prepared to take Colton on to save doc’s life, after all I owe him.

  The doctor peeks his head out warily, seemingly having heard our conversation and his white pallor makes him almost glow in the darkness, a worried expression all over his face. He gets it wide enough to pop head and shoulders out fully and Colton goes from poised, lethal killing machine stance, to a sudden complete ‘what the hell’ expression in seconds. He looks from him to me, and back again, as all manner of confusing expressions flicker across his face.

  “Doctor, ummm?” He seems to be dragging his memory as he says it, staring at doc like he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing and trying to remember that mouthful of a name. That hostile jealous need to maim him dies an instant death, as he realizes there is no way in hell, I’m looking to mate up with someone older than my parents. I feel it wash away, and the surge of relief that bubbles over affects me too, taking the edge off my own anger and realize half the time I don’t even know whose mood is who’s, as we feed one another and react. My aggression slides away like I got hosed down with a cool jet in a heatwave.

  “Ahhh, dear boy, you remember me. Look at you all grown up and rather hunky. You are very tall for a Santo. Wow, you certainly did beef up somewhat, did you not. Look at those shoulders. I bet you can bench press ten of Alora on a bad day. Such a specimen!” The doctor and his usual inappropriate babbling to diffuse an otherwise awkward situation and I shove Colton aside and yank the door the rest of the way. Impatient to rip this band aid off completely and show him what we brought him here for.

  “Excuse me.” I ask the doc politely, suggesting he let me by and stop shielding the contents of the truck, and he shuffles aside as I climb up, getting halfway up the high step when Colton lays his hands on my waist, gripping me lightly, and pushes me up the last distance. It both riles me that he thinks I need his help like some feeble girl who didn’t survive alone for weeks in the wilderness, and yet makes my heart ache that he still, even mad and confused, wants to take care of me.

  God, I hate him sometimes.

  “Colton, come.” I command, knowing in this darkness the inside of the truck is pitch black and he has no idea who lies inside until he gets up and his nocturnal view kicks in. I doubt he would recognize her scent as it’s been so long, and she smells almost human due to not turning for almost a decade.

  He doesn’t question, just hops up effortlessly behind me, stealthily, and follows me so close his body touches me from behind and I know it’s deliberate. I can feel it in him, the longing and ache to get close to me again, almost as much as it’s growing in me to be touched by him. Aware of his proximity like a throbbing pulse in the air around us, making me hypersensitive of his energy. I shake it off, knowing he’s looking down at me, and not ahead, I can feel his breath on the back of my neck as he very clearly stakes his claim on me. Personal space is not in his vocabulary at this moment in time.

  He is all in wolf mode in his head and acting like a male hitting the haze. Possessively close, practically bearing down on me as the femme he clearly wants to bone. It’s a little unnerving that he is being so weird, but I get it … I left him. I knew where I was and was in control of my being gone, so I never had that frantic pain of loss. I always knew where he was, and how to reach him, and could have if I needed, and wanted to, but he had none of that.

  He just had silenc
e, no idea where in the world I went and not knowing if I was okay, so I guess it’s why he seems a little stirred up and wolfy crazy. His bond instincts to protect me must have made him insane these last weeks, and until now I never really thought of it. How that must have made him feel, the powerless nature of it. Especially if he could feel my fear, my panic, my sadness, in everything I have been through. His wolf taking over, and sheer instinct is to stay on my ass and convince me I need, and like him stuck to me. That primal aggressive urge to stick to his mate and kill anything that comes near her.

  Normally the human in us counterbalances it a lot better than he is, but I guess I can let it slide while he’s caught in our first moments of reunion. My scent alone must be affecting him on all kinds of unbearable levels, because even his is getting under my skin and making me crazy. It’s taking all my will power to not turn and wrap myself around him.

  I walk a few steps to put distance between us unsuccessfully, him bumping me the whole way in an almost claustrophobic manner. I stop when I know we’re fully inside and then reach, feeling his face above mine with his taller height, having him towering behind me. I cup his chin just behind me, stretching my arm slightly and lift it, so he looks directly at the corner where Sierra lays in front of him. His senses are all on me so that he hasn’t even clicked she’s here. That there’s anyone else in here.

  There’s a moment of pause. I sense the heart stop, and inhale. I feel everything that he exudes, and it makes my own emotions fade in comparison. His shift from ‘I need you’ possessive over-hormonal crazy, to ‘what’s going on’ confusion, and then the ‘is that?’ shock as everything about him changes.

  Colton steps around me instantly, freeing me from his presence as his attention is swept out from under him and darts to the bed in the dark. Swift, and direct, seeing exactly who it was in the dimness. Doc seems to be shuffling around and manages to click something that illuminates the back of the truck with built in low lights and I focus on Colton sliding to his mom’s side, scooping up her hand carefully, and almost gasping in shock. He leans in, making her look so small in comparison to him and gently strokes his thumb across her pale hand. All the tenderness of a sweet child, infatuated with the mom he’s been pining for years.