Hunter strolled passed Katie and Devin. Katie’s brilliant green eyes following him after he reached the last step of the stairs, making a left turn into the kitchen on his way to the hospital. Devin reaches for Katie’s face and tilts it back in his direction and whispers in her ear. He props one arm against a column and leans into her body. His hard manhood is inescapable and enticing. Katie smiles broadly.
Hunter made an effort not to look their way when he approached them. But he felt Katie staring at him and he felt relieved.
To act unaffected by their passionate regard for each other, had to be the most difficult thing he had encountered lately, but he pulled it off. With a brooding gaze Hunter raised his head and tried not to appear upset. Katie and Devin made a handsome couple, he thought. He saw himself with her, but it wasn’t him, it was his twin, Devin, kissing and whispering in the ear of the girl he desired.
One second he cursed having a twin, and the next second he thought about all the times they had been close, but it would take a female, and a human at that, to separate them. If he had to lose her, why not to Devin. At least he would get to see her on a few occasions. He gave out a closed gracious smile, and nodded his head at them conceding that she belonged to Devin.
After Hunter drifted pass them and was out of sight, Devin felt a change in Katie. He held her hand tight but she didn’t respond. Normally she would close her grip on his large hands and he knew they were one. He knew that she wanted him and tonight of the full moon he would spend that time making love to her. But this time was different, Katie’s hand felt loose and limp.
“Do you want to come with us?” Devin said turning and shouting to Hunter who had disappeared in the hallway to the kitchen. Hunter on hearing Devin reached the door and turned back around walking slowly back to them. He glanced at them with a raised eyebrow not understanding the meaning of the gesture.
“Into town, I mean. There’s this new bar Katie likes,” a cheerful Devin said to a subdued Hunter.
Just when he was determined not to let his feelings for Katie affect his relationship with his brother, and act like a jealous lover, Devin’s invitation to him to be three is a crowd, proved too tempting to resist. Hunter certainly didn’t want to be with them and have to see them laughing and kissing each other again while he sat without a date.
Katie gazed up at Hunter with her big innocent eyes inviting him to come with them. He remembered her eyes as she had once invited him to make love to her and he did. There was no resisting her wishes when she looked like that—wide eyed and beautiful. It was that same look that sealed his fate. That same look that drove him mad with lust. That same look he remembered when they lay together and he made love to her.
And he would have continued making love to her over and over again if Bane hadn’t changed his life.
Turning to answer Devin, he took a thoughtful glance at Katie dressed in a pair of tight blue jeans, a white tee and a black leather jacket. He recognized the jacket. It was his, but he didn’t mentioned it, perhaps she had forgotten.
She glanced up at him, and he knew Katie remembered when she shivered from the cold, and he threw the jacket around her shoulders. She had smelled his scent of wild flowers and musk and she smiled looking at him.
Placing her hand around his leather jacket, she had said to him then, “I will never forget you. It will remind me of you when I’m not with you. I’ll take it with me to college.” And she gazed into Hunter’s eyes. “I like you, Hunter. I want you to be my first.”
“I like you too, Katie. But I think I love you. I want you to tell me one day that you love me,” Hunter had said when he first lay with Katie on the day bed in the shed, and after he had taken her in his arms, and they had made love together, and before Bane had tied him up, and threw him in a cage like an animal.
He made the jacket a present to her that night when they rode Lycell’s horses out into the chilly spring night. He had found it in a saddle bag draped across the horse. Noticeably she had kept it like she promised. Now she was wearing it on a date with his brother.
It took time but he made a hard decision. “I think I’ll stay here and see to the young girl. You two go and enjoy yourselves.” He gave a thin smile.
“If you change your mind it’s on Main Street, and the name of the bar is Hard Times. It’s across the street from Ray’s Hardware,” Devin said placing his arm around Katie’s shoulder.
“Is it a new club? I don’t remember father or mother talking about it,” Hunter questioned.
“Yeah,” Devin said turning around. “It’s where all the young shifters hang out who’s new in town. I don’t think father likes it, but he said they needed a place to work off some of their frustrations, so he sanctioned the opening of it.”
“You have college students driving miles to get there who heard about the place and now it’s full every Saturday night,” Katie said.
“Tonight is Saturday? I almost forgot,” Hunter added looking Katie in the eyes. Devin turned her around aiming her for the door.
“We have to go. We’re meeting some of Katie’s friends there at eleven,” Devin said looking back inching Katie to the door. “If you change your mind, you can find us in the back in a booth, or in the pool room,” Devin added, and then they left Hunter standing wondering why he came home in the first place.
Then he remembered Haley and rushed to the kitchen and out pass the barn and stables with the horse stalls, and pass the dog kennels, and he took the path to the hospital.
When he opened the door to the room, Robert was standing near Haley. “I need to get her to the hospital, Hunter. I called an ambulance from Samsaville it will be arriving in a few seconds.”
“Hunter, are you there?” Haley’s eyes struggled to open. She appeared pale and weak. She tried raising her hand and it slumped back near her side. Hunter took her hand in his and sat near her bed.
“Don’t leave me, Hunter,” Haley said in a small voice. “If you do, I think I’ll die. If I die then I can’t marry you and take care of you.”
“None of that Haley. You’re not going to die.” He wasn’t sure if she was being melodramatic as she usually does, or if it was true that she could. He never knew Robert to be an alarmist so when he said that she was very sick he was sure of it.
“Promise me I won’t,” Haley said in a faint voice. He glanced at Robert. Robert shook his head. He didn’t know.
Hunter didn’t want to promise her something he couldn’t keep. He had to think fast and he unintentionally said, “Because if you die, then I can’t marry you.”
Haley looked up at Hunter in relief with a weak smile and her eyes closed. He showed Robert a worried look. His eyes darkening. He wasn’t a wolf to smile often, but lately there were few and far in between the next one. He didn’t remember the last time he felt happy.
He stumbled over the words about marrying her. The only person he would have wanted to marry was no longer his. He had just said that to appease a sick young girl, and give her a reason to live like he needed one, too.
“Haley, I need you not to speak to anyone who comes to your bed asking questions. You have to go to the hospital.”
Her eyes opened with small slits. “Will you go with me?” Hunter glanced up at Robert and he shook his head yes. Then he gestured for Hunter to step into the next room. Hunter followed.
“I don’t think she will make it.” Hunter’s eyes grew wide and cold and settled on the floor. Then he looked up and met Robert’s gaze.
“See that she does.” Robert pulled his arm from Hunter’s grip. Hunter didn’t realize that he had reached for Robert’s arm during the conversation. His strong hands had wrapped around his wrist and cut off Robert’s circulation. Robert stood back in surprise.
“You need to control your temper. I swear if I didn’t know better, I would think you’re Lycell’s offspring,” Robert said stepping back getting out of range of Hunter’s long grasp.
A knock came to the door and in rushed paramedics pushing a gurney. Robert pointed and they preceded to place Haley on the stretcher. She glanced up barely opening her eyes and reached for Hunter.
“You are all she has Hunter. Didn’t you say you’re her guardian, now act like it.” Robert left to get his bag.
Robert hurried into the ambulance to find Hunter already sitting with Haley, her hand in his. Haley’s eyes closed. Her hand limp. Her body cold.