Chapter Fifteen

“DAD!”

Mikel’s declaration had settled around the square, and it was slowly coming back to life. Subdued surprise still hung in the air when Tim appeared at the edge of the center space. The guards caught him before he could get closer.

“What the—Dad?” His gaze was hard when he looked up from the body of his father to Mikel, his eyes golden. “You killed him?”

“Get him out of here.” Mikel tipped his chin, and the guards tugged Tim back while he fought their grip, red faced and furious.

“You fucking killed him!” He kicked and pulled and tried to yank himself free. His stream of profanity got fainter as they dragged him away.

Mikel unbuttoned his shirt and stepped unflinchingly up to Kane’s bloody form. He spread the dark fabric over his head and torso. It was wrong, but Violet’s gaze clung to him, the thick muscles in his back and strapped across his shoulders. The alpha. Something inside her that she was starting to recognize as the wolf surged and sighed at the sight of him and the energy between them changed to want.

He turned and caught her gaze like he’d heard the thought. The eye contact was hot enough to melt her, and Violet’s vision went amber a few seconds before his eyes turned gold.

“Your…husband is a werewolf?”

Violet understood from her sister’s voice there was more than one thing she struggled with in that sentence. It was almost painful to drag her eyes from him, to deny the primal thing inside that called to him, to look at Lila instead.

“Yeah, kid.” She noticed the wariness on her face at the sight of her eyes. “Me and you too, though neither of us are turning into giant, fluffy dogs.”

Mikel grumbled from behind her, a low, rough sound that made her embarrassingly hot and forced her to shift her weight, pressing her thighs together.

“This place makes no sense,” Lila said, thankfully none the wiser to the near combustion inside her.

“I can help with that.” Margie appeared beside them. “I’d like very much to get to know you, Miss Lila.”

Violet was torn in two by the need to keep her sister close now she’d finally got her back and the need to go to Mikel, who had slipped into conversation close by with the council members, but she knew he was hovering, waiting for her.

“I…uh…” Lila looked to Violet for guidance, visibly unsure about the strange old lady she’d only met an hour ago, who’d shot her sister.

“How about you help Margie get home, and we’ll come by and get you in an hour or two, lots of cleanup to happen here.” She gestured lamely around the square, hoping her real intent wasn’t obvious, and this didn’t make her the shittiest sister in the world. Violet loved Lila, she’d missed her terribly, but she needed Mikel, the alpha. Her teeth were on edge with the urgency of it.

“Back in my day the alpha bred for the whole pack,” Margie piped up, a vicious twinkle in her eyes. “It was an event. We brought popcorn, and there was a betting pool on the birthday and gender of the heir. I was only three days shy of winning on Mikel.”

Lila looked sideways at the old woman, cheeks pinking as she processed the words.

“Okay, time to go.” Violet ushered them both in the direction of Main Street.

“I’ll take them to the bookstore,” Dani called from the thinning crowd, and there was so much Violet needed to do; there were people like Red and Dani and Mikel himself whom she wanted to talk to, but the carnal need inside her wouldn’t be denied. She raised a hand in thanks and returned Red’s crude gesturing in response with a middle finger.

Mikel was behind her before she could turn around. His hips pressed against her, and Violet’s breath caught at his hardness, at the heat that poured off him.

“You should go with Dani.” His voice was rough, richer and darker than she’d ever heard it.

The demand made no sense. She pressed back against him, unable to help herself, despite the quickly clearing but still very public space.

“Violet,” he breathed, his hips rutting against her just once before he was still, holding her. “If I breed you tonight, then I don’t know what will happen.” His fingers stroked gently over her stomach, and she understood. The touch was soft, reverent almost, and she knew he wanted it.

“You can go home,” he gruffed out. “There’s work here to be done. We can talk tomorrow—”

“I don’t want to talk tomorrow.” She couldn’t stand the thought of being away from him. She was already slick, hot, hungry, and she loved him, loved this life she’d found with him. “If it happens, it happens,” she breathed, and butterflies fluttered in her stomach at the thought of him, a family, and the home here she’d unexpectedly found. The chuff of his approval against her ear sent them spilling down into the lava in her stomach that demanded the alpha have her.

Now.

“Fuck,” she said. Her knees almost gave out at the tickle of his breath against her ear. “Won’t make it home.”

He tugged her forward on wobbling legs, and they rushed through the thinning crowd, crossed over Main Street, and he towed her along behind him into the dark forest.

 

“LILA’S GOING TO want to go home.”

They’d been walking together in the quiet, night all around them. Violet looked over at him, cheeks still dark from what they’d been doing, the angles of his face severe in the streetlights and shadows.

“Probably.”

His hand was warm around hers, and she was still high on the victory of Kane being gone and of him, the way he’d held her against him in the forest and taken her apart over and over.

“What about you?” Mikel asked.

The question stopped her dead. Their joined hands pulled him up too, then they were facing each other on a now-deserted Main Street.

“My home is here, with you.”

His eyes were green in the artificial light, soft at the sentiment. Mikel tipped her chin up, stepped into her, and kissed her.

“I know,” he said when they parted. “But if you want to leave now, then it’s at least an option.” The truth of it settled over her, but all her longing for Frankston, for her lonely, old life, was gone.

“I’d like to get Lila situated. I don’t know how much Magnus knows about her being here, and obviously now she knows about the Bluff. Could you even let her leave without the pack revolting?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “It won’t be easy, but we can work it out if that’s what she wants.”

“She has to finish school, but maybe since she knows anyway, she can come back after?” There was hope in her voice she hadn’t meant to put there.

“She’s a descendant,” Mikel reminded her. “She belongs with a pack, whether she’s realized it yet or not. She’ll probably be back.”

The idea of Lila staying was welcome. It seemed almost too good to be true, this life she’d found with Mikel, her friends, and the cohesiveness of the Bluff without the shadow of Kane to darken it.

“What’s on your mind?” Mikel stroked her cheek.

“How everything kind of feels too good to be true,” she answered honestly. He huffed out a laugh.

“I love you, Violet. It’s been too good to be true since the day you showed up.” He dipped his chin, bashful, and tried to keep on walking, but she dug in her heels and waited for him to look at her.

“Love you too.” She did. He smiled that crooked smile, and they shared a laugh.

They set off walking again, hands joined. The soft rustle of the wind through the trees was the only sound, as the town was finally asleep after a long night.

Light still spilled out from Bards Books, casting a golden glow on the sidewalk. Mikel opened the door and held it for her. Violet smiled up at him as she passed, then her eyes landed on a prone figure on the ground. The expression fell away, and she rushed forward.

“Margie?” Adrenaline hit her for what felt like the hundredth time that night, turning the blissful afterglow of being with Mikel in the woods into yet more fear.

Mikel crouched down beside her and held a hand over her mouth. “She’s breathing.”

She looked for all the world like she was asleep with eyes closed and white hair splayed on the dark hardwood.

“Margie?” Violet shook her shoulder gently, but she didn’t stir.

“Mikel.” Her heart dropped. “Where’s Lila?” Unease crawled down her spine. “She should be here.”

“Hold on. I’ll call Dani after the ambulance.” He already had the phone to his ear, voice steady, but Violet could see the concern in his eyes. She looked around the bookstore again, getting up to check behind the counter and take a pillow from the chaise to prop under the old woman’s head while he rattled off their location.

“Violet,” he said when he was done. “Go upstairs and find her a blanket.” The phone was already to his ear again. She was desperate to stick around, to hear that Lila had just decided to go home with Dani, but something inside her already knew that wasn’t the case.

She hurried quickly up the stairs, fumbled in the dark, and snatched the first thing she found—a plush throw from the back of the sofa—then clattered her way back down. His face was steely.

“No,” she demanded.

“We’ll find her, baby,” he promised, and her stomach flipped.

He stood and took the blanket. He barely had it tucked around Margie when a flood of red and blue light entered through the store’s bay window. The medics burst in seconds later, and Violet’s panic was lost for a few moments to getting them up to speed, watching them load Margie onto a stretcher.

“I don’t understand. Where could she have gone? Why would she leave?” she asked him as they watched the stretcher be loaded into the back of the ambulance. His face was a grim mask, and that terrified her.

“There’s one person who was hurt more than anyone by what happened tonight.” He took her hand and led her across the street and back to the square where his truck was still waiting.

“I… Someone on the council or Kane?”

He opened the passenger door for her and lifted her up in the seat when she didn’t move, still staring at him and waiting for answers. He pulled the seat belt around her and jumped up on the frame to click it into place before finally, he looked at her.

“Tim.”

 

THE TRUCK CRUNCHED down a gravel road that dissolved into forest and shadows on either side of the headlight beam.

“This is it?” They stopped outside what looked like a body shop—a long, rectangular building made of sheet metal. Cars in various stages of dismantling sat in neat rows on the concrete pad in front. Mikel was already scouring the darkness ahead.

“You’re not stayin’ put even if I ask, are you?”

Violet had already unclipped her seatbelt. She shot him a look, opened the door, and slid down into the night. The air felt thick. Her stomach rolled, and she hoped that Mikel was wrong about this. The Tim from her memory, who had pulled her out of the smoky shop, sat her on the grass, and stayed with her, refused to align with this Tim, who he suspected had left Margie unconscious and possibly hurt Lila.

She was already halfway to the door when Mikel grabbed her arm and tugged her back. “Let me go first.”

Any other time she would have fought the demand, but something in the stillness of the air and the tight set of his shoulders made her bite her tongue. “You just going to march up and knock on the door?” she asked instead.

“Yup.”

Mikel had barely confirmed it when bright light flooded the area. He caught her round the waist and pushed her behind him again when she stepped forward to look. Metal on metal screeched. Violet peered around the bulk of him and saw the roll-up door was rising.

“Tim?” Mikel called, one hand up to shield his eyes against the floodlights. “That you? We don’t want any trouble, just out here lookin’ for someone.”

“You found her.”

Ice slid down Violet’s spine.

Tim stepped into the doorframe with Lila in front of him, his arm wrapped tight across her chest while she blinked her golden eyes, desperately searching the dark night.

“My dad was a good man,” Tim declared, voice thick. “You took him from me.” Violet’s stomach bottomed out.

“Lila—”

“So, I figured it’s only fair I take something of yours too.” Tim reached up, bizarrely gentle while he brushed back Lila’s dark hair and tugged the collar of her shirt to the side. He bodily turned her into the light.

There on her pale shoulder was a still-bleeding, fresh mating mark.