Lion's Share

  “Another way?” I held her at arms length, studying the startling change in her as it happened. Her jaw tightened and an emotional veil dropped over her eyes, shielding her thoughts from me. “Another way for what, Abby?” Had she done it on purpose? “Why did you kill him?”

  But I already knew that whatever she said wouldn’t be true. Not the whole truth, anyway. She’d locked me out. Hell, she’d practically said good-bye, and that realization sent a terrifying bolt of panic through me.

  I couldn’t lose her. Not because of this. Not because of anything.

  “I killed him because he deserved to die.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and her gaze narrowed. “He needed to die, and you obviously weren’t going to step up, so I did what had to be done.”

  A growl rose from deep inside me. Tension filled the room, expanding to occupy the widening gap between us as the guys—even Lucas—stepped back, instinctively distancing themselves from the challenger.

  From the five-foot-nothing, one-hundred-pound female challenger, whose strongest muscle by far was that dagger of a tongue.

  Abby’s words were a deliberate provocation. Her tone, and her stance, and her steady, bold eye contact—they were all intended to provoke me. To elicit a reaction.

  They worked.

  “That wasn’t your call,” I growled, struggling to remain calm even knowing she was manipulating my instincts. “Hargrove would have been able to give us names and addresses. He could have told us how far-reaching a problem these hunters are!”

  “We can get all that from his records. From his computer,” she insisted. “I couldn’t recite the phone number of a single person in my contact list, because no one memorizes that stuff anymore. We store the data on devices, which means that Hargrove’s cell and laptop are way more valuable than he is.”

  “You better hope you’re right,” I said. “But that’s not the point. You violated a mandate from the council and disobeyed a direct order from me!”

  “It was a stupid order.” She snatched the towel from me with her bloody left hand and scrubbed at her cheek. “I feel no obligation to follow orders that don’t make sense.”

  Yet I heard a quiver in her voice—more evidence that she didn’t believe what she was saying. She was playing a part. Putting on a show.

  “Abby!” Lucas whispered fiercely, warning her to shut the hell up. To stop making everything worse, but she knew exactly what she was doing, and so did I.

  I just didn’t know why.

  What I did know was that she wouldn’t be doing whatever she was doing if she thought she had any other choice. She needed an out.

  If she told the right lie, I could give her one.

  “You need to think carefully about the next words you say.” How she answered my question would dictate what happened to her in the immediate future. Her insistence on being treated like any other enforcer meant she would be punished like any other enforcer. Even if I took the lion’s share of the blame, she could lose her claws, her canines, or her freedom.

  “Abby did you intentionally disobey my order and kill an unarmed, restrained human?”

  Say no. Tell me you had a flashback. A psychological break. Tell me the fucking devil made you do it. Just give me an excuse to make this go away.

  “Yes.” She met my gaze boldly, and Lucas groaned. “You know damn well I did.”

  Anger blazed a path up from my gut like heartburn. Every word she said made it harder to help her. Did she have any concept of the position she’d put me in?

  This is why Alphas shouldn’t sleep with their enforcers. Much less fall for them. But it was too late for that, and she’d left me with no choice about what would come next.

  “Okay.” I took a long, deep breath, and for the first time since taking over the Appalachian Pride, I hated myself for doing my duty. “Abigail Wade, you are hereby permanently relieved of duty as an enforcer.” An ache swelled inside me, and I couldn’t pinpoint the source because it hurt all over. Why was she making me do this? “I’d tell you to turn in your phone and your credit card, but I haven’t issued them to you yet.”

  I felt like I’d just put a bullet in my best friend, but the lines in Abby’s forehead faded and the tension in her jaw relaxed. She’d clearly gotten exactly what she wanted from pushing my buttons, but I had still had no clue what the hell was going on in her head. Or how I was going to explain this to the rest of the council.

  Why would she manipulate me into hiring her, then provoke me into firing her?

  “I understand,” she said with a formal nod. “You have no choice.”

  I wanted to yell and throw things. She could have given me a choice. If there was ever a time for her to lie to her Alpha, that was it.

  “Don’t let them pin this on you,” Abby said, as she carefully shifted her right paw back into a human hand, and I saw the first glimpse of regret in her eyes. Of guilt. She turned to glance at the guys, each in turn. “Do not let them pin this on Jace. I killed Gene Hargrove against orders. You all heard that. He told me not to, and I did it anyway. He couldn’t have stopped me.”

  “Abby…” Lucas began, and she cut him off with a fierce look.

  “You know what happened here, and if you lie for me, I will never forgive you.”

  No one tried to argue with her that time, so she nodded, as if something had truly been settled. As if emerging from shock had put her back in control not just of herself, but of the rest of us too.

  She was wrong on both counts.

  Abby swiped at her face one more time, then began scrubbing blood from her left hand with her newly formed right one. We probably weren’t supposed to notice that they were both trembling, or that her eyes were standing in tears.

  She set the bloody towel on the kitchen counter, then took a backward step toward the door. “Okay, I guess I’ll go back to the lodge and let you guys do your job.”

  “That’s no longer an option for you,” I said, and every word hurt as if I were carving my own heart from my chest. But again, she’d left me no choice. “Your membership in the Appalachian Pride is hereby revoked. Lucas, take her to the airport and put her on a plane.”

  I headed straight for the back door, desperate for the shock of cold air. For some distance from the most painful sentence I’d ever uttered.

  “No!” Abby grabbed my arm, then planted herself in front of me, pleading with her eyes. “You can fire me. I won’t fight that. But don’t send me away, Jace. I need to be here. With you.”

  “Don’t you dare say that.” I ripped my arm from her grip, but the truth was that I was almost relieved to be angry at her. Anger was much easier to deal with than the confusion and betrayal I was starting to associate with her very presence. Abby was hot and cold. Innocent and manipulative. She’d whispered brave truths and shouted bold lies, and I couldn’t tell from one moment to the next whether she was going to kiss me or put a knife in my back.

  The really scary thing was that she didn’t seem to know either.

  “Jace, please...”

  “You broke your vow!” I yelled. “You disobeyed a direct order. You killed someone in cold blood! You’re finished here. Don’t make this worse for yourself.” I pushed past her toward the back door, but she shouted after me.

  “Do not walk away from me!” Desperation echoed in every syllable, but it was her underlying anger that triggered the dangerous rumble rolling up from my throat.

  The guys froze, still mired in the tension rising from Abby and me like fog from a lake. I turned slowly, and the room came into crystal focus as my eyes hovered somewhere between human and feline. “If you were anyone else in the world, you would lose a tooth for that,” I growled. But I couldn’t hit her, even if she was the single most insubordinate shifter I’d ever met.

  Bar none.

  “Everybody out,” I snapped.

  Logically, I should have left them inside to start cleaning up Abby’s mess, but this wasn’t a fight I wanted to have outdoors, where it felt li
ke the whole world would be watching. It was bad enough that they’d all seen her push me around like a pawn on a chessboard.

  Mateo and Warner headed into the backyard, but Lucas stopped in the doorway. “I’m staying.”

  He was six inches taller and at least sixty pounds heavier than I was, which made him both stronger and slower. He might only get in one punch before I took him down, but it’d be one hell of a blow, and I couldn’t afford to have to fire another enforcer. Especially one whose brother had knocked up my sister, and whose sister I was in love with. Even when I wanted to kill her.

  No family tie had ever been quite so tangled.

  “Get out,” I growled, irritated that I had to look up to threaten him. I was losing control of my Pride, my enforcers, and my entire territory, and the only sure way I knew of to get it back would be to unleash more violence. But we’d all seen more than enough spilled blood. “Lucas, I gave you an order. I don’t have to explain it. I shouldn’t have to repeat it. You should know and trust me well enough to do whatever I tell you, without hesitation.”

  “Luke—” Abby began.

  I snarled at her, and she flinched. He had to go because I’d told him to go. Not because she’d given him permission.

  “Don’t make this worse,” I said, turning back to her brother, and finally, Lucas nodded. Then he stepped outside and pulled the busted door shut after him. As shut as he could, anyway.

  I turned on Abby the moment the door closed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “I’m sorry. I haven’t done a damn thing right since we got here.” She twisted her fingers together so tightly, I was afraid they’d break, but she didn’t seem to notice any pain. “But please don’t send me home.”

  I leaned against the door to keep it closed. “Hell, yes, I’m going to send you home. Even if I had a choice before, I don’t now. You’re insubordinate and disrespectful, and anyone else would have gotten a fistful for shouting orders at an Alpha.” That was standard; for our society to function, an Alpha had to be respected and obeyed without question, and he had to be worthy of both. “But I can’t discipline you like I’d discipline one of the guys”—not that that had ever been necessary—“because…”

  “Because you love me?” She reached for me, and I pushed her hands away, even though every instinct I had told me to pull her closer.

  “Don’t muddy the waters,” I snapped, fighting to maintain objectivity. “You’re half my size. That wouldn’t be discipline; that would be assault.” Especially considering that she’d only ever been hit by men who followed up their blows by ripping off her clothes and stealing every bit of trust and security she’d ever had. “I would never hurt you, even if you broke every rule we have.”

  What I wanted was to kiss her until she couldn’t argue anymore because her mouth was too busy, but that wouldn’t exactly make my point.

  “And you know that. You’re taking advantage of how I feel about you, which means you’re getting away with murder. Figuratively speaking.” The council would never let her get away with what she’d done to Hargrove. “I can’t make you obey the rules, but I can’t let the guys see you walk all over me. You can’t be here anymore, and you know exactly why.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jace.” Her tears spilled over. “I didn’t mean for any of this to make you look bad. I would never do that on purpose.”

  “Any of what?” There it was again—that glimpse of some hidden purpose behind the chaos she’d thrown my entire territory into. “What’s going on, Abby?”

  “Nothing.” She sucked in another shaky breath, then met my gaze again. “I’ll go, if that’s really what you want. Can you just give me a couple of days to get my stuff packed?”

  “No. I’ll have it shipped to you.” If she stayed one more night, I’d break down and change my mind. Which she clearly knew.

  “Please, Jace. I won’t even go back to the lodge. I’ll just go pack up my dorm room, and you’ll never even know I’m in the territory.”

  “No.” I crossed my arms so they couldn’t reach for her, trying not to be swayed by how upset she was. She’d dug her own grave and had refused to let me pull her out of it. “You need to go home, where you’ll be safe. And so your father can start working on your defense.”

  “I don’t care about that. I need to be here.”

  “Why?” I wanted her to say that I was the reason. That she couldn’t stand even the thought of being away from me, because that was how I felt, after only one night with her. Even after everything she’d done. But I wasn’t the reason she wanted to stay.

  Not the only reason, anyway.

  “What’s going on, Abby? If you want to stay, you have to tell me the truth.”

  “Nothing’s going—”

  “Don’t lie to me!” I shouted, and she flinched. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I will put you on a plane right now.”

  Her eyes watered, but she held my gaze. And her own tongue, possibly for the first time in her life.

  “Abby, don’t do this. Tell me what’s wrong. I know you wouldn’t have killed him unless you had to.”

  Her tears ran over and her chin began to tremble, and that was all I could take. I wrapped her in my arms, bloody clothes and all, and spoke into her hair. “Let me help you.”

  “You can’t. It’s too late,” she said into my chest. “I’d only drag you down with me, and I can’t let that happen.”

  “It won’t.” I held her tighter, breathing in her scent. “Don’t make me send you away.” I ran my hands down her back, wishing more than anything in the world that we could just rewind the day and wake up in bed together, so I could fix this. So that she would never get blood on her hands and I wouldn’t lose her. “Please, Abby. I love you.”

  Her next breath came with a soft, surprised sound. Then she stiffened and pushed me away. “Don’t say that.” Her eyes were full of tears again and her voice was strained, as if she was holding back more than she was saying. “Not like this. Please don’t tell me you love me, then kick me out of your life.”

  “Don’t make me kick you out.” A perilous mix of heartache and anger stormed inside me. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to help her. I wanted to keep her. But she wouldn’t budge. “Tell me what’s going on!”

  “Stop asking!” she shouted. “I can’t!”

  My temper snapped. I turned and pulled the door open before she could say anything else. “Lucas!” I called, and he jogged up the steps and into the kitchen, obviously having heard every word. “Put her on a plane.”

  “No!” Abby reached for me, but I stepped back and gave her brother a signal he couldn’t possibly misunderstand. He took her by both arms, holding her in physical custody, and glared at me over her head the entire time. He might never forgive me for it, but he would follow my orders, both because I was his Alpha and because I was right.

  Any other Alpha would have fired her long before.

  “You want me to take her now?” Luke glanced pointedly at the dead body. “What about him?”

  “We’ll clean this up. Stop somewhere and get her something to change into, then buy her a ticket and give your parents the flight information. I’ll tell your dad she’s on the way. And that she’s all his.”

  “Jace, please!” Abby tried to reach for me, but she couldn’t break her brother’s grip. “Please don’t do this!”

  “Get her out of here.” I made myself watch as Lucas hauled his sister out the door and into the woods, even though it felt like he’d just taken my heart with him.

  And just like that, Abby was gone.

  FOURTEEN

  Abby

  “Lucas, you have to change his mind,” I said, as my brother’s truck sped down the highway toward Lexington. “Jace will listen to you.”

  Lucas snorted. “No he won’t. Thanks to you, I’m on his shit-list too.” He glanced to the west, where the sun hung low on the horizon, half covered by dark clouds. The forecast called for snow, but I knew he was hoping for r
ain instead, because we weren’t good winter-weather drivers. We hadn’t had much practice in South Carolina. “What the hell were you thinking, Abby? You swore an oath! You can’t go around disobeying orders and questioning your Alpha’s authority just because you’re—”

  “Don’t do that!” I snapped, slamming one hand down on his dashboard. “Do not assume that everything I do or say is because I’m some fragile kitten suffering from post-traumatic stress. I knew exactly what I was doing with Hargrove.”

  I’d hoped to avoid killing him in front of Jace, to keep him as uninvolved as possible, and I’d kind of lost it for a minute when the whole thing sank in. But other than that, I’d been in control. Doing what had to be done, even if none of the rest of them understood that. And it hadn’t escaped my notice that everyone was upset about the fact that I’d killed Hargrove, but not about the fact that he was dead.

  Lucas glanced at me with one brow raised. “I was actually going to say, ‘You can’t go around questioning your Alpha’s authority just because you’re sleeping with him.’ Which is really weird for me, by the way. It’s my brotherly duty to pound him into the ground, but I swore an oath to respect and obey him.”

  “Have you ever noticed that the enforcer’s oath reads like an archaic marriage vow?” I said. Lucas glared at me and I shrugged. “Okay. Not the point. I’ll try to think about your comfort level the next time I decide to assert my sexual independence.”

  “That’s all I’m asking. Except maybe that you never again use the phrase ‘sexual independence’ in front of your brother.”

  The truth was that I didn’t want there to be a next time. I couldn’t imagine wanting anyone other than Jace to touch me. Ever. But things weren’t looking good for us, considering he was having me forcibly escorted from the territory the very day after we’d gotten together.

  How to lose an Alpha in eighteen hours. My life was a romantic comedy waiting to happen.

  Minus the romance.