by Eve Vaughn
A satisfied smile curved his lips, giving him a look of pure evil. “Because you were born.”
Gavin spotted Zora’s car as well as Logan’s on the side of the road. Logan’s car door wasn’t closed, which meant wherever he’d gone, he’d left in a hurry. He looked around for signs of which direction and sniffed the air. There was one thing he was certain of, his cousin was in bear form, and Zora had definitely been here. He loosened his tie and headed in the direction where the scent was strongest.
He could smell Logan, Zora and someone else. As he headed toward the woods, he heard another car pull up behind him. Without looking back, he knew it was Heath. He kept going, knowing his cousin would catch up. He didn’t want to lose precious time getting to Zora.
By the time Gavin reached the woods, he’d shed his shirt and kicked off his shoes. He could tell from the tattered clothing trail, Logan didn’t bother to undress before changing.
He kept moving as he practically ripped his clothes off, starting to morph before he was completely nude. He paused just long enough to completely transform. Once his bear was loose, his senses were heightened. He could smell better, run faster and see farther.
He reached out to Logan knowing he was much farther ahead. “Do you see anything yet?”
There was a pause before his cousin answered. “I thought I heard some rustling a few hundred yards ahead. Her scent is strong.
I’ll be there in…”
“Logan?”
“I see them!”
“I knew you’d come to this end. You’re an abomination. A whore,” her father sneered in disgust as he continued to squeeze the life out of her.
Zora clawed a deep wound on the side of his face with the last of her strength.
He screamed out and let go of her neck just long enough to slam his fist in the side of her head.
Zora saw stars, and almost immediately those meaty hands were around her throat again. But instead of choking her, he slammed her head into the ground. “Slut. You’ve been cavorting like a whore. Just like her! I saw you in town with those three men,” he screamed. Spittle splattered across her face.
Zora was too woozy and her head hurt way too much to know what he was talking about.
He continued to talk, his eyes blazing with insanity. “You whored yourself years ago and drove that boy crazy, didn’t you? Too bad those bullets didn’t hit you.”
There was no reasoning with or overpowering a crazy person. Her only chance of making this out alive was playing possum. She closed her eyes and went limp.
He squeezed her throat just a little longer and Zora feared it wouldn’t matter if she played dead or not because he was going to kill her. Just as she hovered on the threshold of unconsciousness, he let go. She remained still as she felt him pull away, but instead of leaving her alone, he grabbed her arm and began to drag her.
She dared to open one eye to see him yanking her farther into the woods. While her attacker wasn’t paying attention, she glanced around to see if there was some weapon she could use. She reached out and grabbed a nearby tree branch.
Her movement drew his attention. This time she was ready for him. With all her might, she swung the branch, connecting with his face. The sharp edges of the bark gouged his cheeks.
Though he clasped the side of his face with one hand, he still kept a firm grip on her with his other hand. It was almost as if the pain hadn’t registered.
“Now I’m going to cut your damn heart out before I send you to hell, bitch.”
As he ranted, she rolled away from him and made it to her knees to crawl away. She stumbled to her feet, but he grabbed her by her hair and pulled back.
She screamed, ready to fight for her life when she heard a loud roar through the forest, followed by two others. Zora collapsed to her knees. They had come.
Logan knew his cousins were close behind as he made his way to Zora. He could smell her fear and anxiety, which while not a good thing, told him she was still alive. He could also smell another emotion. Blind anger, but he was sure it wasn’t coming from her. He didn’t care what her attacker’s motive was, the bastard was a dead man walking.
He spotted them just as he saw Zora get to her feet and the stranger grab her by the hair, yanking her back toward him.
Logan let out a roar. His cousins followed suit, letting their bears be heard.
He lurched forward, making his presence known. The man grabbed Zora and pushed her toward him as if offering her as a sacrifice before taking off. This only served to piss Logan off even more. Not only had he fucked with the wrong woman, he was a coward to boot.
Logan nudged Zora with his muzzle. “Are you okay?”
She seemed to struggle for air before answering. “I’m a little woozy, but I think I’ll be okay.”
He noticed a hand mark on her cheek and her bottom lip was busted. This ensured his prey would die a painful death.
“Stay here and don’t move. I’m going after the son of a bitch.”
“Please be careful, Logan.” She stroked the back of his head.
He nodded before taking off. Being that he was faster on four legs than the man’s two, he caught up to Zora’s attacker within minutes. Logan pounced on the man’s back, knocking him down. As the man tried to get away from him, Logan bit into his shoulder, tearing into flesh and bone.
The man let out a loud, blood-curdling scream. Logan ran his claws down the man’s back, ripping through his shirt, digging deep rivets through his skin and muscles.
The man still tried to wiggle away from him. Logan pinned him down, biting and breaking flesh but making sure not to go deep enough to actually kill him. His cousins would want a piece of this as well.
The other man, cried, screamed and yelled at God. “Why have you forsaken me, Lord?”
Logan swatted him with his paw and dragged his claws down the side of his face. He continued to torture his prey slowly, making every blow more painful than the next. His bloodlust rose at the sound of the man’s howls for mercy. He hadn’t given Zora any and Logan sure wasn’t going to start feeling sorry for the bastard now.
Gavin and Heath made it as the man started to drift off from the blood loss. Logan clamped down on one arm, Heath got the other. Gavin sank his teeth into the guy’s leg and they each ripped off a limb. The three of them bit off body parts one by one until there was nothing left but a bloody stump on the ground.
Zora knelt on the ground as tears streamed down her face.
She couldn’t believe this had happened to her. Nor could she fathom why her father would hate her to the point of homicide. She flinched when she felt a hand fall on her shoulder. She looked up to see Gavin standing beside her. It didn’t matter that he was covered in blood and that he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. She went into his arms without thought, clinging to him as sobs wracked her body.
He held her tight. “It’s going to be okay, baby. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Heath came behind her and kissed the back of her head.
“It’s over now, baby.”
Logan moved beside her and nuzzled her leg. He remained in bear form.
When she finally calmed down, Gavin asked, “Who was he?”
A wave of pain swept through her body, causing a fresh stream of tears to glide down her cheeks. “My father.”
Chapter Fourteen
Zora thought she’d feel relief to finally have this chapter in her life closed for good. After all, now that her father was dead, she’d never have to worry about looking over her shoulder again or wondering if someone was out to do harm to her and her men. But all this brought up an intense pain that ripped her heart to pieces. She’d already told herself her parents hated her, but to actually want her dead? The foul things her father had said to her cut deeper than the sharpest knife.
As Heath carried her out of the woods, she rested her head against his bare chest and silently cried.
“It’s going to be okay, baby. We’ll get you home so you can rest,
” he whispered to her.
“Resting isn’t going to change what happened today. My father wanted me dead.”
When she thought back to the harassing calls, she’d assumed they were from Dale because he knew things she’d told him about her family. Because she’d been estranged from her parents for so long, it didn’t occur to Zora her father had been behind the calls. What really turned her stomach were the sexual references he’d made toward and about her. He’d made comments about her body. Just the thought of it made her gag.
“That man wasn’t your father, Zora,” Heath said from beside her. “No father could treat his child in such a way. It doesn’t matter that he raised you like his own, he lost the right to call you daughter when he treated you the way he did.”
Raised her like his own? She didn’t understand why he’d worded it like that, but she didn’t bother to ask him what he meant. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact her own father had tried to kill her.
The rest of the way, they walked in silence, Heath carrying her and Gavin walking beside them. Logan was still in bear form. Just as they were at the road, Logan stopped.
“What’s the matter, Logan?” Heath asked.
“Blood. Lots of it.”
“That’s probably the blood covering us,” Gavin answered.
“No. Not ours. Someone else’s. It’s similar to Zora’s, but not hers.”
Zora could hear what Logan was saying through their mental link, however she had no idea what he was talking about. But Heath and Gavin seemed to. Both men paused and sniffed the air.
“You’re right,” Heath finally answered. He transferred Zora into Gavin’s waiting arms. “Gavin, put Zora in the car.
Zora, you wait for us and don’t move. Logan, I know you’re still angry but I’m going to need you to change back. Let’s get dressed and see who it is. There’s an extra pair of jeans and a T-shirt in my trunk.”
Zora wanted to protest but knew there would be no point in arguing with them when they were in protective mode.
Gavin set her in the passenger seat of his Range Rover. “Stay here, Zora.”
“What about my car? We can’t just leave it here in that condition. Someone may drive by and contact the police when they see it. Maybe I should stick around for a tow truck?”
“One of us will come back and get your car. You’re in no condition to sit around waiting for a tow. Physically or emotionally.”
“Are you telling me that as a doctor?”
“No. I’m telling you that as someone who loves you. When I think we could have lost you… ” He leaned over and gave her a hard swift kiss. “Stay put.” He closed the passenger door on her before she could argue further.
Thankfully, only a couple cars drove by and they both sped along without stopping. She watched out of the window as the men gathered their clothes and quickly put them back on. Logan ran back into the woods with the clothing in his mouth. He returned shortly in his other form in a pair of jeans and T-shirt. He joined his cousins at Zora’s father’s vehicle where they spoke. Zora couldn’t make out what they were saying. She looked through the rear view mirror to see as they moved to the back of her father’s car.
Heath opened the driver’s side door, extracted the key from inside and returned to the trunk. When they popped the trunk open, Zora could no longer make out what they were doing. But she didn’t have a long wait. She saw Gavin move first with a bloody bundle wrapped in a sheet. Unable to remain seated, Zora got out of the car as Gavin rushed toward her.
“Open the back door,” he instructed.
Zora did as she was told and stepped back, allowing him to lay the bundle across the backseat.
“Get in the car, Zora. We have to hurry.”
Without looking in the back, she knew who it was. She didn’t want to turn around, she couldn’t. She sat rigidly in her seat, her head forward. They were nearly home before she asked what took her several moments to build up to. “Is she dead?”
Gavin’s mouth tightened and his hands gripped the wheel until his knuckles went white. “No. But if I don’t tend to her injuries soon, we may have a problem.”
“Why not just take her to the hospital?”
“Look at us.” He took one hand off the wheel to gesture to their blood-splattered clothing. “There’ll be questions and I’m not putting you through that. Besides, the medicine they will give her at the hospital won’t be able to fix all that’s wrong with her, at least not good as new.”
Knowing how extensive her injuries had been after the car accident and how well Gavin had healed her, she knew he’d be able to help her mother. She couldn’t help but wonder if her mother had at least tried to stop her father. At the very least, once her mother was healed, she could demand answers and perhaps find some closure to her painful past.
Zora kept herself busy for the next four days. Logan, Gavin and Heath had collectively decided she needed to stay home from work so she threw herself into her redecorating project, anything to keep her mind off what happened and who now resided in one of the guest bedrooms. She still refused to look in on her mother, not asking once how she was doing.
She held up one swatch and then another, holding them against the light to compare. Zora sensed the moment she was no longer alone in the room.
“Hey, Gavin. I thought you were going into the office this morning.” The connection between her and her men was so strong she could sense each one separately. So she knew Logan and Heath were with him.
They were all supposed to be at work. She knew what they wanted. They had, in fact, brought the subject up quite a bit within the last few days. She refused to let them stonewall her. She stood up, pasting a smile on her face, and turned to face them. “I’m glad you’re all here. I think I’ve narrowed down which colors I’d like to have the study painted. I think it would look nice in cranberry or forest green. What do you guys think?” She held up the swatches.
Gavin stepped forward. “Zora, can we talk for a minute?
Logan, Heath and I have been talking and we think—”
“You know what? These might be too bold. Maybe we should go for a more cheerful color. Royal blue? That’s soothing.” She went on as if he hadn’t spoken.
Heath crossed the room to stand in front of her. “Zora, would you stop a minute and listen to us, please?”
She turned her back to him and looked at the wall with as much concentration as the situation would allow. “Or maybe I can nix the paint altogether and look at wallpaper?”
“Zora!” Logan practically roared as he strode over and pulled her around to face him. “We don’t give a shit about what goddamn color you paint the study. But we love you and you need to listen to this.”
She pulled herself out of his grasp. “I know what you’re going to say and I don’t want to hear it.”
“You need to hear this, Zora,” Gavin rebutted. “You have the right to feel angry for how you were treated, heaven knows that woman has a lot to answer for, but for what it’s worth, I don’t believe she had anything to do with what your father tried to do to you. We know you’re hurting, even if you want to pretend she’s not here. We feel it just as deeply as if the emotions were our own and it’s killing us we can’t do anything about it. But you can do something about this. You should go in and talk to her, that’s all. No one is asking you to kiss and make up. She asked about you, but she’s too ashamed to ask for you to see her directly. We can’t make you see her, but at least think about. We love you so much and we don’t want you to keep hurting. You’re never going to heal if you don’t face her.”
Tears stung the backs of her eyes as she relived the pain of her childhood. The loneliness and shame. She thought of all the years wondering what it was about her that made her so unlovable. What was it about her that had earned their disdain? And why did her father try to kill her?
She bowed her head in defeat. “You know, when you told me she was alive, I had every intention of confronting her, but I ke
pt making excuses and putting it off until I talked myself out of it.”
“Why?” Heath asked softly.
“Because I’m scared. I guess I don’t want to hear her say she wished I was never born. I’ll never forget when she said that to me. I thought I got over my past but after what happened with my father, I know I haven’t. I don’t know if I can do this.”
“We’ll be here for you,” Gavin assured her.
“Will you guys come with me? I don’t want to see her by myself.”
“Are you sure?” Logan asked.
“There’s nothing she can say to me that she can’t say in front of you guys. Please. I need your support.”
“Of course.” Heath nodded. “When would you like to see her?”
“Now. If I don’t do it right away, I’m going to lose my nerve.”
Logan placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her out of the room. “Okay, let’s go.”
Zora stood outside the guest bedroom door, trying to build up her courage to go in.
Gavin placed his hand on her shoulder in support. “You don’t have to do this now if you don’t want to.”
“No. I can do this. I’m going in.” Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door and waited for a response.
“Come in.” If she wasn’t listening, she would have barely heard it.
She opened the door and slowly walked into the room.
Once inside, she zoned in on the figure reclining in the bed.
She gasped. It had been years since she’d seen her mother.
Gavin had warned her of the bruising she’d see, but it wasn’t the injuries that shocked Zora. Time had not been kind to her mother. Her hair was almost completely white and there were heavy stress lines around her eyes and mouth, giving her the appearance of a much older woman.
“Zora?” her mother asked in a voice that sounded hoarse and broken.
