by Amy Star
Guilt formed a hard pit in her stomach. It wasn’t her plan to lie about Elise. She simply didn’t want anyone to know about her until Holly found out more.
Elise had double-crossed Trevor. Holly didn’t know to what end, but Elise was playing a dangerous game. Holly didn’t want to disrupt that game if she didn’t have to. Something like that could cost Elise her life.
One thing Holly knew for certain. If she were to see Elise again, she’d offer her a room in the house. Whoever Elise was, she deserved a safe place to crash.
“I’m glad you did.” Johnny’s face softened. His gray-green eyes glimmered like the stars above them. “I was going insane.”
“I want to hear more about the witches.” Holly stepped closer to him, resting her arm against his. Warmth radiated from him. She huddled closer. “So, the house is gone?”
Johnny lifted his arm, letting her nestle against his side.
“Not gone. Invisible. Nothing will stop someone from smacking into it if they get close enough.”
Holly furrowed her brow.
“How does that help us? At least two of Trevor’s goons know how to find the house.”
“No thanks to Loch,” Johnny muttered. “If they show up, they won’t see anything, and it’ll take them an age to find the door. By that time, we’ll have taken care of it.”
“Don’t be too hard on Loch,” Holly said. “He’s on our side now.”
“Can you be sure?”
“The Maiden all but confirmed it. I’m not going to start questioning her anytime soon.”
“Probably wise.” Johnny barked out a laugh. “Has she said anything else useful?”
“Define useful.”
They fell into silence. Holly stared up at the stars above. Johnny kept his eyes trained on the woods before them. It was a long time before either of them spoke again.
“I can’t imagine how horrible it was for you to be locked up like that.” His voice was scarcely more than a whisper. The slight breeze drifting through the tree branches was nearly enough to drown him out completely.
“I couldn’t tell how much time passed,” she whispered back. “There was no light where we were kept. Not even starlight. Time got all blurry. Sometimes it felt like it was moving so fast I was sure I’d been there for months. Other times, time seemed to stand completely still. I’m glad I’m out of there.”
“So am I.”
Johnny turned to face her and drew her into his arms. He rested his hand against the back of her head, holding her against him.
Holly sunk into him, savoring the feeling of her body against his.
“I didn’t think I was going to survive it,” he whispered. “When Keller came to us and told us what had happened, I felt my world end. I think my heart stopped beating for a full minute.”
“I’m so sorry to have put you through that.”
Johnny’s grip tightened on her. “Don’t you dare apologize for something that was done to you. I know you wouldn’t have gone willingly.”
There was a time where Holly would have gone willingly. She snuck out of the house once, like a thief in the night. Loch had nearly got her out of Silver Spruce. She didn’t want to think about that now. She didn’t understand what was at stake.
“Every day, while we were tracking the witches, I thought I was going to lose my mind. I kept thinking about the dark shifters doing terrible things to you while you were at their mercy. I tried not to, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
“Nothing like that happened.” Holly wrapped her arms around him and ran her hands over his bare back in big, soothing circles. “I was left alone most of the time.”
“I dreamt of them killing you.” His voice sounded heavy and tired. His head dropped onto her shoulder.
Holly held him tighter.
“If I’d lost you…” His voice weakened into nothing. “If I’d lost you, I don’t know what I would’ve done. I don’t think I would’ve survived it.”
“But you found me,” Holly reminded him. “You found me.”
“I always will. It doesn’t matter who tries to take you from me or where they take you, I will find you.”
“I know.” An unexpected tear slipped down Holly’s cheek. “I know.”
They held each other for a long while. Neither one of them wanted to let go first.
“Are you tired?” Johnny asked.
Holly nodded against his chest. She felt as though she could fall asleep right there, standing up in his arms.
“Let’s get you back to your room.” Johnny tucked her under his arm once more and led her inside.
She let him guide her up the stairs and into the master bedroom. When she looked at the bed, she hesitated.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“Um.” Holly shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I had a bad dream. That’s why I woke up in the first place.”
“Oh.” Johnny’s face melted into a sympathetic smile. “How about I stay with you?”
Holly chewed on her bottom lip. “Would you mind?”
“Not at all. My selfish motives aside, it’s important you get your rest. I can’t imagine you’ve gotten much sleep in the last week.”
“Almost none.” Holly pulled back the covers and crawled into bed. “It didn’t feel like it at the time, but now I feel like crap. My limbs feel like they’re filled with wet cement. I’m both starving and too full to think about eating.”
“Sleep deprivation isn’t something you want to fuck around with,” Johnny said with a knowing nod. “Especially now that you’re going to go through Maiden boot camp.”
“That’s a fun spin on it.” Holly curled against Johnny’s side as he slid under the covers. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his cheek on top of her head.
“I try to make ancient prophecies and shifter wars fun where I can,” he replied. “Comfortable?”
“More so than I’ve been all week.” Holly sighed sleepily.
Already, it was getting difficult for her to keep her eyes open. Sleep had her in its grip. She almost drifted off when images of cage bars and snarling teeth filled her subconscious. She shot up in bed with a cry.
“Shh.” Johnny’s arms were around her, and his soothing voice filled her ears. “It’s all right. You’re all right.”
“I don’t know what happened.” Holly’s voice was thick with unshed tears.
“Your brain is simply trying to deal with what happened, that’s all. Your body is safe. Once your brain figures that out, you’ll be all right.” Johnny slowly lowered Holly back down against her fluffy pillows.
“You sound like you know what you’re talking about,” Holly murmured, her eyes already closing once more.
“I do.”
Holly’s eyes sprang open.
Of course, Johnny knew what he was talking about. He’d probably spent hundreds of nights like this after his parents died.
“Johnny,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking and I—” She felt one callused finger press against her lips.
“No need to apologize.” He stroked her hair slowly and gently. “If I can use what I learned healing those wounds to help you, I’ll gladly do it.”
“I’m sorry you have to do it in the first place,” she replied. “It’s not fair.”
Johnny’s parents were killed in the battle between the Silver Spruce Bear Clans and the clans of Golden Oak fifteen years ago. The Golden Oak shifters wanted to return to the dark ways. The Silver Spruce Clans were able to stop them before things got out of hand but at great cost. Johnny wasn’t the only one who lost family. Keller had lost family as well. His father.
Holly often wondered if the Maiden looked for a vessel at that time. She made a mental note to ask next time she conversed with the Maiden.
“No.” Johnny sighed. “It’s not fair. But, because of my parents, the Golden Oak clans didn’t get their way. I truly hoped that would be the end of it, but I guess not.”
Holly
propped herself up on her elbow to look at him.
“We’re going to smash them,” Holly said to him. “We’re going to drive them into the ground for what they did to me and for what they took from you.”
That’s my girl, the Maiden’s voice purred in approval.
Some privacy, please? Holly fought the urge to roll her eyes.
She felt the Maiden’s presence slip away. She’d have to get better at detecting when she was being listened to.
“I like the fire in you.” Johnny smiled. “I’d really like to see it turned on the bastards who think the dark ways are the right way.”
He lifted his head off the pillow, his eyes darting to Holly’s mouth.
She dipped her head, closing the distance between them. Their lips touched softly at first, but their kiss quickly deepened.
Johnny wound his hands into her hair, pulling her against him. He rolled, gently pushing Holly onto her back once more.
Holly sank into the pillows and wrapped her arms around Johnny’s shoulders. Something sparked to life inside her, something she hadn’t felt since before her kidnapping.
Lust. Desire. Need. Want.
She took his bottom lip between her teeth and bit down softly.
A deep groan tore from Johnny’s lips before he broke away. “If we keep going, you’re not going to get any sleep tonight.”
Holly arched up into him. She felt the hard length of him press between her legs.
“I don’t have a problem with that.” She sighed.
“Neither do I.” Johnny bent down to kiss her again, but he pulled away too soon. “However, I care too much about you to let you push yourself even further than you already have, even for this.”
“How noble of you.” Holly smirked.
“I’d like to think so.” With a grin, Johnny rolled off of Holly. He laid on his side, behind her, and wrapped an arm around her.
Holly rolled onto her side and slid closer to him so her back was pressed against his chest. She arched into him, pressing her ass into his groin.
“Not fair,” Johnny groaned, his lips pressed against her neck.
“Totally fair.”
CHAPTER SEVEN—Loch
Loch sat at the kitchen island, staring at Garret’s back as he fried up more food than a family of ten could eat in a day. It was more food than Loch ever had in his home at one time. A pang of envy dug into his stomach, but he willed it away. It wasn’t Garret’s fault that he grew up with so little.
“Is this what you usually do in the morning?” Loch asked when the silence was getting too much for him. Just over a week ago, Garret was threatening to rip him limb from limb.
“Cook?” Garret said without looking over his shoulder. “Yeah. I might have gone a little overboard today, though.”
“A little?” Loch chuckled. “You could feed an army.”
“It’s Holly’s first morning since she was taken. I’m not the best with words, but I am good with a skillet.”
“Comfort food.” Loch nodded. “They barely gave us anything in the mines. Literally bread and water. Holly’s going to be thrilled when she sees all this.”
Garret’s broad shoulders drooped as he let out a sigh. He turned around, his eyes filled with apology.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve been so freaked out over getting Holly back that I forgot you went through the same shit she did.”
“Do you believe that?” Loch asked with a wry smile. “I know there’s been some debate over where my loyalties lie.”
“There have,” Garret admitted. “But Holly wanted you here. That’s good enough for me.”
“I’m glad you see it that way. I wouldn’t want to give you any reason to tear my arms off.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“But you could.” Loch eyed Garret’s thick arms. Loch wasn’t a small man, by any means. He was well over six feet. Years of doing manual labor to make ends meet had kept him in damn good shape, but he knew he was physically outmatched by Garret.
“Yeah.” Garret grinned. “I probably could.”
He turned back to the stove and grabbed a delicate white plate painted with pink, blue, and yellow flowers from the upper cupboard. He piled the plate high with a little bit of everything and passed it to Loch.
“Interesting flatware.” Loch smirked.
“This was Pearl’s house. She loved those plates.”
“Does she still have the matching tea set somewhere?” Loch asked.
Garret’s brows shot up.
“You think just because I don’t live here, Pearl didn’t have a soft spot for me?” Loch smirked. “She’s the reason I have an apartment now. She got the landlord to take pity on me and give me a steal of a rate.”
“You didn’t want to live here?” Garret asked.
“Nah.” Loch shook his head. “I like my space. I’m a shit roommate. You’ll find that out for yourself. Just give it a week, and you’ll boot me to the curb.”
Garret chuckled as he resumed cooking. “We can’t even if we wanted to.”
“Oh?”
“You and Holly are the only ones who know anything about the bastards who are trying to return to the dark ways. We need you both if we’re going to bring them down.”
Loch opened his mouth to speak, then paused.
Garret didn’t know about Trevor.
Loch figured Holly would’ve mentioned him by now, but she hadn’t.
“We’re all on the same team now,” he said at last.
“We were always on the same team.”
Loch didn’t look up from his plate. He quickly shoveled food into his mouth so he didn’t have to speak. He needed to talk to Holly. He wanted to know why she hadn’t said anything about Trevor.
Trevor was one of the Silver Spruce firstborns. Surely, the other firstborns had a right to know who they were up against.
Perhaps, in all the stress and confusion, Holly hadn’t had a moment to speak about it yet. She was frazzled last night, but Loch heard her walking around in the wee hours. She spoke to one of the other men, but he wasn’t sure which one. Surely, she’d tell them what she knew today.
Then again, she had deliberately left out Elise’s involvement in their escape. Something was surely going on.
“Lively bunch you are this morning.” Keller strode into the kitchen, grabbed a plate, and took a seat next to Loch at the island.
“I was held hostage for a week. He has no excuse.” Loch jerked his head toward Garret.
“Have you seen Holly yet?” Keller asked.
“No,” Garret replied.
“I couldn’t help but notice Johnny wasn’t in his studio,” Keller went on. “I went to grab him for breakfast and found it empty.”
“He’s probably up with Holly,” Garret offered. “I heard them talking on the deck last night. I think she’s having trouble sleeping.”
Jealousy gripped Loch around the throat. The thought of Johnny, of all people, curled up with Holly in bed after all Loch went through with her. It made his blood boil.
“I have some questions,” Loch said, choosing his words carefully.
“Oh, I’m sure you do.” Garret chuckled. “Fire away.”
“How does this work?” Loch asked. “Are she and Johnny together?”
Keller and Garret exchanged a look.
“How much do you know about the Prophecy of the Maiden?” Keller asked.
“Not as much as I should, obviously.”
“We don’t know as much as we should, either,” Garret offered. “What we do know is an entire clusterfuck of information, but let me boil it down for you. The Maiden will bring peace to the bear clans by choosing a King and bearing a child.”
“I knew that bit.” Loch nodded. “Only firstborns can be King.”
“Right. The Maiden, in this case, Holly, gets to choose who the King will be.”
“So, she’s selected Johnny?”
“No.” Keller shook his head.
Loch caught
the annoyed glint in his eye.
“As the Maiden, or vessel of the Maiden, or—”
“Whatever of the Maiden,” Loch cut him off.
“It’s Holly’s right to…court all of the firstborn sons.”
Loch pressed his lips together. He wasn’t liking where this is going. “And you’re all just okay with sharing her?” he asked.
“It’s not always easy,” Keller admitted. “When we found out about it, we agreed not to stand in Holly’s way. She’s the one in power here, not us. It’s for her sake, and the sake of the bear clans, that we don’t make this harder for her than it has to be.”
“That doesn’t sound rage-inducing at all,” Loch muttered.
“Maybe if you hadn’t turned your back on all of us, it would be easier for you,” Keller shot back.
Loch released the fork in his hands. It landed on the marble countertop with a clatter.
“Turn my back?” Anger rose up inside him until he tasted it on his tongue. “Turn my back?” His hands clenched into fists. He was getting ready to throw a punch when Holly rushed into the kitchen.
A shirtless Johnny followed close behind her.
“What the hell is going on?” she cried.
“We’re just getting Loch up to speed on how things work in the house,” Keller explained. “Obviously, he’s taking it well.”
“Loch?” Holly looked at him with concern.
“What?” he snapped without meaning to.
Her hazel eyes hardened. She looked away from him.
Loch let out a frustrated sigh. “Thanks for breakfast,” he said to Garret. “Excuse me.”
He pushed away from the island and stormed out of the kitchen. He wasn’t sure where to go. It’d been a while since he’d set foot in this house. He sure as hell wasn’t going to leave. If he wanted a chance with Holly, a real chance, he couldn’t leave now.
Forget about the King crap. He didn’t care about that. He was falling in love with Holly more and more every day. She barely liked him. He needed to find a way to change that before they lost their chance forever. He didn’t care if he had to play Bear Shifter Bachelor with the others. He’d do it for her.
Now, he just had to find a way to tell her that.
