It wouldn’t, but it was nice to pretend that it would while Drew sat there on the bench with the tray overflowing with food on his lap, studying her as he slowly devoured her late night snack. She was definitely going to have to order a second tray, she decided as she tried to scoot back in the tub, but unfortunately, there was nowhere to go.
“So,” Drew said, pausing to dip a fry in the large puddle of ketchup taking up a good portion of her plate before he popped the fry in his mouth, “it seems that Miss Smith has been coming here for over ten years, comes once a month, stays for three days and is an excellent tipper.”
“They have great room service?” she offered as an excuse.
He nodded, accepting that as a fact as he picked up her burger and helped himself to a big bite. Yup, definitely going to have order a second tray, she absently decided as she sat there, naked in the quickly cooling tub while Drew sat on the small bench, blocking every single exit, which admittedly there was only one and that was the bathroom door that he seemed to have shut and locked without her realizing it.
“And the reason that you come here every month during the full moon is…,” he said, prompting her to admit what they both already knew.
That she was a pathetic excuse for a werewolf?
That the idea of spending the night sleeping on the hard, twig covered ground was enough to make her want to cry?
That she was incapable of actually sleeping outside, because she knew the moment that she closed her eyes that all the bugs in the forest were going to attack her, claiming her human body as their new host and desecrating it with their furry little pointy legs?
Yeah, admitting to any of that was probably not a good idea, not unless she wanted to be forced to watch over her back for the rest of her life, wondering when the next time the bastard was going to try to scare her with a bug. So, instead she simply looked down and shrugged, doing her best to look as pathetic as humanly possible so that he would feel bad for her and just let it go.
So, when he said, “Is it because of my Pack? Did they…did they try to hurt you?” he asked hoarsely. She quickly peeked up at him just in time to see him carefully placed the now empty tray on the floor and rub his hands roughly down his face, looking like he was buying this.
When she just sat there, staring down at the water, because there really was no good way to answer that question, especially since his Pack, or rather his father’s Pack, had spent the first five years of her life in Boston playing “scare the shit out of Kara,” when they had to hit this forest to shift, he sighed heavily. She didn’t point out that they’d stopped harassing her after she may have accidentally shifted to human, climbed a tree and threw rocks at the assholes coming after her until they finally got sick of making her miserable and left her alone.
Then again, the threats and subtle hints that they hated her and wanted her to leave and never come back hadn’t exactly made her feel welcomed, but she’d never mentioned it before and she sure as hell wasn’t about to mention it now. The only thing that she was willing to do was to continue staring down at the water, looking pathetic and hoping that he didn’t continue questioning her until he found out the real reason and mock her until the end of time.
“I’m sorry, Kara,” he said, actually making her feel bad until she remembered the fact that his Pack had gone out their way to let her know that if they ever got the chance to kill her, they’d take it in a heartbeat.
So, yeah she’d let him think whatever it was that he wanted to think if it meant covering up the real reason why she refused to sleep in the woods as a human. Granted, she could have slept in the woods in her shifter form, but that would have given away her status and made her the ultimate trophy for hunters, not exactly the way that she wanted to spend eternity, stuffed and mounted on some guy’s wall.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, hoping that he would just let it go and order her a second tray of food, because she was starving.
When he didn’t say anything else, she got hopeful, risked a glance up and immediately regretted it when she saw the expression on his handsome face.
Determined.
“Kara, tell me what happened with your Pack?” he asked, making her blood run cold, because she knew without a doubt that he wasn’t going to let her leave this room until she told him everything that he wanted to know.
*-*-*-*
“There’s nothing to tell,” Kara said smoothly as she kept one arm wrapped around her indrawn knees and reached forward, turning the hot water on at full blast.
Sighing, he reached over and shut the water off, refusing to let her put this off for one more day. He stood up, drained the tub and held his hand out to her, letting her know that it was time to start talking. Ignoring his hand, Kara stood up, keeping her jaw clenched and avoiding his gaze, she carefully stepped out of the tub, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself as she headed into the hotel room.
He followed after her, refusing to let her out of his sight. “Kara, it’s time to talk.”
“Not about this,” she said with a firm shake of her head as she headed straight for her bag.
“We are definitely having this conversation, Kara,” he said firmly as he walked over to her and snatched the bag out of her hand.
“No,” she bit out, snatching back the satchel, “we’re not!”
“Yes,” he said, grabbing her bag and tossing it across the room, “we really are. I want to know why your Pack threw you out and I want to know why my father only gave you sanctuary when most Alphas would have taken you into the Pack.”
She stepped away from him, shaking her head as she walked over to her bag and snatched it up off the floor. “You don’t want to know what happened so just let it go, Drew. It’s ancient history.”
“I can’t let it go, Kara, not until I know what happened to you and why you’ve been hiding behind my Pack for nearly six decades.”
“I haven’t been hiding behind your Pack,” she snarled, slamming the bag down on the bed.
“Really?” he asked, walking over to her and grabbing her arm, forcing her to turn around and face him. “Then what the fuck would you call it?”
“I would call it none of your business,” she said calmly, but the way that her beautiful emerald eyes turned silver let him know that he was on the right track.
“You have been hiding in Boston for nearly six decades, Kara, in a city where it was more than obvious that you weren’t wanted. Who in their right fucking mind would do that unless they were hiding?” he demanded, pulling her closer as he glared down at her, daring her to try to bullshit him one more time.
“This has nothing to do with you,” she bit out through clenched teeth as she tried to pull her arm free, but he wasn’t letting her go anywhere.
“I’m your mate,” he said coldly. “It has everything to do with me.”
“Not by choice!” she snapped, trying to start a fight and distract him, but it wasn’t fucking happening.
Not tonight.
Someone was after her. His own Pack was rebelling against him and he felt like he was losing his fucking mind every time he tried to figure out why someone was trying to hurt him through her. He needed answers and he was going to get them tonight.
He’d hoped to have this out with her after their run when she was more relaxed and he’d proved to her that she could trust him, but things had changed. She’d left, forcing him to come after her and have it out with her now, because there was no fucking way that he was returning to Boston without some answers.
Chapter 26
“Let it go, Drew,” she said, closing her eyes in defeat, because she knew without a doubt that it was over.
If she didn’t tell him, and she knew that he wasn’t planning on taking her back to Boston until she told him, he would start asking questions, questions that could get them both killed.
Or worse…
And in their world, there were things that could be a hell of a lot worse than death and since she’d a
lready experienced a taste of that hell on earth, she wasn’t eager to go through it again.
“No, it’s time to talk, Kara,” he said, using his hold on her to pull her down on the bed next to him.
When she went to move, needing to put some space between them, he did the unexpected. He took her hand in his and entwined their fingers together, sending the silent message that she wasn’t going anywhere. It was the second time since that night when everything had gone to hell that someone had shown her a little human compassion.
Mick tried his best, but all his grunting, glares and groans just weren’t the same no matter how much she knew that he cared. Mick was the one that had made the split second decision to risk his position in the Pack and put his life on the line when he’d found her. He’d been the one that Drew’s father had punished, making sure that he never took her in, but most importantly that he kept his mouth shut about her whereabouts.
Whether Drew was aware of it or not, Mick’s main responsibility to the Pack wasn’t to work for Drew and to keep him protected. Mick’s job was to keep Kara’s existence a secret and if she was discovered, it was also his job to get rid of her. He’d refused the job at first, but once Drew’s father had made sure that he had no choice, that he would simply kill Kara if Mick refused to do his job, Mick had reluctantly accepted the conditions of her stay.
Crying, in pain, hungry and terrified that she was about to be turned away or worse, she’d quickly agreed to do anything that Drew’s father’s demanded, no matter how terrifying the words coming out of his mouth had been, she’d quickly agreed to whatever he’d said, begging Mick to just say yes! He had to say yes, she’d begged him, promised him that she would be good, she would do anything they asked as long as they let her stay in Boston. She didn’t care about the restrictions or the punishment that they would have to give her if she was found, she just wanted to stay there, wanted to know that she was safe for the first time in her life.
He’d granted her that, but with so many restrictions that at fourteen years old, she’d had absolutely no idea what she’d been agreeing to, but as an adult, she knew exactly how dangerous her situation was to her and now, to Drew.
So, she did what she had to do in order to keep him safe.
*-*-*-*
Well, it was probably a safe bet to say that they weren’t going to be welcoming her back next month for her usual three day stay, she thought somewhat hysterically as she kept her hand pressed to her mark that felt like it was being torn apart by barbed wire and acid as she ran through the woods, foolishly trying to outrun the nine foot werewolf that wanted to kill her.
So, kicking him in the balls to distract him from his line of questioning so that she could get away and start that new life that she’d haphazardly planned a few weeks ago probably wasn’t the smartest thing that she’d ever done, but she’d been desperate. Then again, she probably hadn’t been as desperate when she’d come up with that asinine plan to kick him in the balls so that she could make a run for it as she was now as she actually attempted to outrun a nine-foot Alpha werewolf hell-bent on making her pay for the damage that she’d done to his balls.
The loud growl that came from behind her and a little too close for her comfort only confirmed that suspicion as she tried not to think about what he was going to do once he caught her and just kept running. It didn’t matter to her that there was no way that she could outrun him stuck in human form, or that she was most likely going to end up taking her very last breath tonight, all that mattered was that she continued to keep her big mouth shut, kept him safe and-
“Oh, thank God!” she gasped in pain when she spotted the rippling surface of the lake and changed direction, hoping that the water would help cover her scent and buy her a little more time to think of a better plan.
At the very least, it should make her mark feel better, she bullshitted herself as she headed for the lake, stumbled over a branch, went flying, landed on her hands and knees on the soft cold pebbled shore and kept moving her ass until she was crawling in the cold lake. As she dove beneath the ice-cold water, shoving large pieces of ice out of her way a thought occurred to her.
He should have caught her before she got a chance to make her escape, which meant…
Praying that she was wrong, she broke the surface of the water, stood up in the hip-deep freezing water and nearly groaned when she spotted Drew, back in human form, dressed and putting the final touches on what looked like a very nice, very warm bonfire. As the first tremor tore through her and he sent her what could only be described as a predatory smile, she realized that she may have overestimated her ability to outsmart her mate and keep his ungrateful ass out of the mess that her father had made.
*-*-*-*