“Why?” Kaci didn’t miss a heartbeat, and I wished I’d been half as perceptive at her age. “What did you do?”
I glanced at Jace, who mirrored my stance on the other side of the door, and I was suddenly glad we’d both showered before our flight. Otherwise, they would all have smelled us on each other—except for Holly.
Ryan followed my gaze to Jace, and his eyes widened. Kaci caught on a second later, and the hurt in her eyes ripped right through me. “Do you have to take everything for yourself?” Without waiting for an answer, she stood and ran for the hallway. An instant later, a door slammed.
I started to go after her—with no clue how to start that particular conversation—but my mother stood. “I’ll talk to her.” I hesitated, then finally nodded. Kaci probably didn’t want to hear from me, anyway. At least, not for a little while.
I headed for the kitchen and the lure of fresh coffee, but when I passed by Ryan, his mouth opened, his brows high in what could only be amusement over my catastrophic personal life. I didn’t even slow. “One word, and I’ll rebreak your nose.”
Ryan’s mouth snapped shut. Though his nose had been broken several days longer than mine, his looked much worse. He obviously hadn’t Shifted as much as I had. I wasn’t sure which one of us that said the most about, considering that my last Shifting binge nearly left me unconscious.
I drank two cups of coffee alone in the kitchen, trying to concentrate on the upcoming fight. Our allies had all RSVP’d, and I’d given the birds the pertinent details, including the fact that all the good guys—the ones they weren’t allowed to slaughter—would be wearing a strip of bright orange construction tape tied somewhere on their bodies, be they human or cat.
But my thoughts kept wandering to Marc, and to my fervent wish that I’d thought to tell Kaci about Jace without an audience. I’d completely forgotten about her crush on him, with all the other life-and-death drama going on around me. But to her, that crush probably was life-or-death, and I’d just given her a double scoop of bad news.
My father would never have been so thoughtless.
“So…Faythe was with Marc, but then she slept with Jace?” Holly said, drawing my attention to the card table, where Michael and Owen had joined her and Manx. “And when Marc found out, he left you all high and dry without your major source of muscle?”
“Um, yeah, I guess that sums it up.” Michael shrugged at me in apology, but I could only roll my eyes. My life had become an open book. Evidently a very adult book.
“This place is like a scary, furry soap opera,” Holly opined, evidently oblivious to the fact that I could hear her. And see her.
“I could not agree more.” I set my empty mug on the counter and headed into the living room without waiting to watch Holly flush. But when I saw my mother on the couch with Ryan, I frowned.
“She didn’t want to talk,” Mom explained, and I sighed. I didn’t want to go to war with Kaci hating me.
In the hall, I started to open the door to the room she was sharing with Manx and my mother, but stopped when I heard Jace’s voice from inside.
“Hey, kiddo, don’t be mad at Faythe. She didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, and neither did I.”
“I’m not a kid,” Kaci insisted, and I could tell from the nasal sound of her voice that she’d been crying.
“I know. Sorry. People called me ‘kid’ until after I turned twenty. And now that I’ve said that, I remember how much I hated it, too.”
“I’m not mad at Faythe. I’m just… I knew you liked her—everybody knew that,” Kaci said, and the air mattress squeaked as Jace squirmed. “And I guess I kinda knew she liked you back. But…what about Marc?”
However, what she really meant—but wouldn’t say—was: What about me?
“Kaci, sometimes things just happen,” Jace said softly. “And it’s nobody’s fault. Or it’s everybody’s fault. Sometimes people connect when they don’t mean to. When it isn’t convenient, or even fair. Sometimes it doesn’t mean anything, and they can both go their separate ways afterward. But sometimes it changes things for them both, and for a lot of other people.”
Kaci was silent for a minute, presumably thinking that over, and I held my breath in anticipation of her response. When it came, I nearly laughed out loud. “When you say ‘connect,’ you’re not talking about some sappy, deep eye gazing, are you? You mean you and Faythe hooked up, and things got messy—figuratively speaking—so Marc walked. Right?”
“Um, yeah. That’s the short version.”
And suddenly I felt sorry for Jace. He wasn’t prepared for Kaci’s birds-and-bees routine, or her uncanny ability to boil down any complicated situation into two sentences or less. Nor was he prepared for her complete lack of a verbal filter.
“But she still loves Marc,” Kaci said, as if she weren’t gutting us both and laying our dripping emotional innards on the floor for all to see.
“I know,” Jace admitted, and my heart ached for us both. For us all. “That’s her business.”
“Is he coming back?”
“I don’t know. I hope he will. He’ll always have a place in the Pride. But he’s really mad and hurt right now.”
“He might get over it. If you stay away from Faythe for a while.”
Oooh, clever girl, working her own angle! I was almost proud.
Jace cleared his throat, and I knew he’d gotten serious. “I can’t do that, Kaci.”
“I know.” She sighed, but no longer sounded like she was fighting tears. “But it was worth a shot.”
I snuck back into the living room before I could be caught eavesdropping, but the place was packed, and every gaze seemed to be trained on me. There was no room to breathe. So I stomped out the front door and sank onto the top concrete step with my elbows on my knees, staring at the driveway, where Marc’s car still sat, unclaimed. A minute later, the door squealed open, and Vic sat down next to me. “Well, you really fucked up this time.”
I choked on the absurdity of his understatement and probably would have been irritated by his delivery, coming from anyone but Vic. “Does the term ‘Alpha’ mean nothing to you?”
“You know I’m right.”
“Doesn’t matter now. He left.” And just saying the words made the bloody hole in my heart gape wider.
“Do you blame him?”
“No.” I turned on Vic, and the back of my throat burned with words I needed to say, but probably shouldn’t. “I blame myself. It’s all my fault—I’ve never denied that. But he just got up and walked out, in the middle of the night! Without even taking his stuff.”
“Maybe it hurts too bad for him to see you and know he can’t truly have you. It’s the same reason he never took a shift watching you at school, only it’s worse now, because this isn’t just physical betrayal—you let someone else into your heart, and until now, that’s been Marc’s exclusive territory. But he doesn’t have that anymore.”
“But I can’t help that!” I scrubbed my face with both frozen hands. “I can’t help loving Jace.”
“Maybe not,” Vic conceded. “But you didn’t even try. You didn’t love Marc enough to even try living without Jace.”
I frowned, my head spinning, my stomach churning, my heart aching and empty. “This is the worse pep talk ever.”
“This isn’t a pep talk. This is the truth.”
I had no answer for that. Vic was right—again. “But this is about more than our relationship. He broke a promise. He didn’t just leave me. He left you guys, too, when we need him most. People are going to die—some of whom he’s known half his life—and he’s not going to be there to see it. To prevent it. How could he do that to…the Pride?” Because no matter how badly Jace and I had hurt him, the rest of them hadn’t done a damn thing, and they didn’t deserve to be deserted.
Vic frowned, but held my gaze, and my stomach pitched harder. “What?” I demanded, when he didn’t say whatever he was thinking.
“He’s not breaking his promise, Faythe. He
’ll be there for the fight.”
“You talked to him?” My heart thumped hard enough to bruise my chest. I’d tried calling him twice, and didn’t even get his voice mail. “When did you talk to him?”
“This morning, before your flight landed.”
“And he’s coming back?”
Vic nodded and met my gaze, and the truth shining in his burned. “He promised your dad he’d help you, even if you two didn’t wind up together. And that’s what’s happened, Faythe. He’s coming back for your father and for the Pride. Not to be with you.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked, watching Jace stare at his phone. Moonlight shone bright on his face, and his eyes seemed to glow. He was beautiful, without a doubt.
“Hell, no.” He gave me a nervous grin and leaned next to me against the trunk of a massive oak tree in Marc’s backyard. “But we do what we have to do, right?”
“Whatever it takes.” That had become my mantra. I’d do whatever it took to get the Pride back, and I’d sort out the carnage later. And Jace was in it with me, one hundred percent.
“Can I get a kiss for luck?”
I went up on my toes. “You can get a kiss for whatever you want.” Because Marc had washed his hands of me, so there was no reason not to kiss Jace now. So why did I still feel half-empty inside? Why was I sure my chill would last long after I went in from the cold?
“Well, at least there’s a perk.” Jace kissed me, and though my heart ached, my body responded. Remembered. But it wasn’t the right time. There hadn’t been a right time, because there was no privacy in such a small house.
But privacy wasn’t the real problem. The problem was that being with Jace could only make me feel better for a few minutes at a time. Marc was always there in the background, just out of reach, while my hands ached to touch him. I couldn’t tell Jace that, and eventually I would learn to deal with my loss, but getting over Marc wasn’t as easy as jumping into Jace’s bed. It would take time, and denying that would be doing us both a disservice.
A car door closed in the front yard, pulling me from my private agony. In the house, they were waiting for us, all packed and ready to go. We just needed official word from Patricia Malone that her husband and his men were on the ranch. Once we had that, we could leave. We’d eat dinner on the road and arrive in time to attack before dawn, when our invaders were hopefully still asleep.
Uncle Rick, Aaron Taylor, and Bert Di Carlo were all standing by with their men, within a few hours’ drive of the ranch. Waiting for word. The thunderbirds had assembled a couple of hours’ flight from the property, ready and eager to swoop in on command.
“I guess it’s time,” Jace whispered against my ear, and I tightened my arms around his neck.
“Yeah. Let’s just get it over with.” I understood his dread and respected his willingness to work through it.
He stepped back and autodialed.
“Jace?” His mother answered on the first ring. “Is that really you?”
“Yeah. It’s me.” He turned away from me, and I stared at the back of his head, brown waves shining in the moonlight.
“You shouldn’t be calling here. Cal says you… Do you know what they think you did?” Over the line a door opened, and her light footsteps rushed quickly over a hard-surface floor.
“No, but I know what I actually did, and I know why I did it.”
“They said you turned Lance Parker over to the thunderbirds and let them kill him. Cal says you tried to kill Alex, and that you cut up Colin’s face. Is…is any of it true?”
Jace sighed. “I never tried to kill Alex. I was just defending myself and Faythe.”
“But you did the rest of it?”
He leaned against the tree again, and I could see his frustration in profile. “I don’t know what all Cal’s told you, or what you believe, but you’re my mother, and I was kind of hoping you’d take me at my word, even if my version doesn’t line up with his. Cal framed us, Mom. Lance killed a thunderbird, and Cal set us up to take the fall. We had to turn Lance in to keep them from slaughtering the rest of our Pride and killing Kaci Dillon. We did what we thought was right. And I stand by that.”
Patricia was quiet for a long moment. Almost half a minute. “I’m sorry you were put in such a difficult position.”
“I’m still in that position. Cal’s put Kenton Pierce in charge of the south-central Pride and kicked us out. We’re living in the free zone, Mom. All of us. Women and children included.”
Her sharp inhale spoke volumes. “That can’t… That’s not safe, Jace. You have to send the women back. Kent will take them. I know he will. Or we will. Send them here.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned against the tree trunk, but Jace answered without even glancing at me. “They won’t go. I need to talk to Cal, Mom. I have to work something out. Can you put him on the phone?”
“He’s…” Springs creaked as she sat on what sounded like a bed. “He’s not here. He’s still helping Kent get everything set up in Texas. But don’t call him there, Jace. Not unless you’re going to send the women to us. If you come back into the territory, they’re going to arrest you, and Cal says… Jace, he doesn’t think he can keep the other Alphas from giving you the death sentence. Treason is a very serious charge, and they don’t seem inclined toward mercy.”
I nearly laughed out loud. Cal couldn’t convince the others to go easy on us? Patricia Malone was either in serious denial or completely brain-dead.
“I…” Jace faked a hesitant pause. “Thanks for the warning. I guess I better lay low for a while.”
“Yes. But thank you for calling. It’s good to know you’re okay.”
“Thanks. Can I call you again, just to check in?”
Brilliant! If Patricia were inclined to tell Malone that we called, he’d be ready to take advantage of another call later, but hopefully completely unprepared for the imminent attack.
“Please do. I love you, Jace.”
“Love you, too, Mom.” He flipped his phone closed and shoved it in his pocket before turning back to me, and when he did, his fists were clenched at his sides. “I hate what he’s done to my mother. To my father’s Pride. And he’s completely warped Melody.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, wishing I knew how to comfort him.
“Let’s hit the road. I don’t want to lose any of this anger before I see Calvin.”
My anger was in no danger of fading. In fact, I was confident I’d still be marinating in rage until Calvin Malone spat out his bitter last breath.
Thirty-two
I was a bundle of raw nerves, buzzing with bloodlust, drowning in impatience, and cranky from spending nine hours stuffed in a car. Again. Jace and I were in the lead, with Michael and Holly in the backseat. Behind us, Owen drove with Ryan, Manx, Kaci, Des, and Mom. Parker, Vic, Dr. Carver, and Brian rounded out our caravan in Vic’s car.
We’d considered leaving the women in the free zone, to keep them as far from Malone as possible. But the truth was that they’d be no safer there—largely unprotected and surrounded by strays, most of whom had never even seen a female of their own species—than they would be inside the south-central territory. So long as Malone died without ever finding out they were there.
I wondered if the others were all as restless as I was. So far, Jace and Michael seemed to be taking everything in stride, though I knew from the tension in Jace’s arms that he couldn’t be as calm as he looked.
“So, you guys do this all the time, right?” Holly asked, leaning forward with a hand on the back of my seat. “This fight is no big deal? It’s not really dangerous?”
I glanced from her to Michael and decided to let him field that one.
He sighed. “We fight a lot, yeah, but this isn’t a normal fight. It’s more like a war. Or at least a battle. Calvin Malone and his men kicked us out of our home and our territory, and we have to take it back by force.”
“But you’re just going to beat some
guys up, right? No one’s going to get…killed?” When Michael didn’t answer, she turned on him, and I saw the horror on her face in the rearview mirror. “Michael, have you killed people?”
“Not by choice,” he finally answered, and Holly’s mouth opened and closed, without producing any sound. “We do what has to be done to protect ourselves and the rest of our Pride. That’s just the way it is. I’ll explain it better when I get back, but I don’t have time right now.”
Because Carey Dodd’s house had just come into sight at the end of the street.
“But what if you don’t come back?” Holly demanded, as Jace turned into the driveway. “Who’s going to explain that to me?”
Michael took her by the shoulders, as Jace turned off the engine. “I will come back,” he said. “I haven’t told you the truth after all these years just to…” But he clearly didn’t know how to finish.
I twisted in my seat to face them as Owen pulled into the driveway behind us. “Holly, try not to worry. Glasses notwithstanding, your husband’s kind of a badass.”
“Really?” She looked both hopeful and skeptical.
“Yeah. Did you think all those muscles come from pushing paperwork at judges? He’s done this a time or two, and he always comes out on top.” Which was more than I could say for myself lately.
Thanks, Michael mouthed to me, as he helped his wife from the car. I nodded, and wordlessly accepted another layer of guilt for having given her false hope. I couldn’t guarantee Michael’s safe return any more than I could guarantee my own. But neither could I justify letting her worry, when there was nothing she could do to change things.
Dodd met us at the door and ushered us inside. The other toms were waiting for us in his living room, having parked elsewhere and walked the rest of the way in the dark. His house was so packed with large men it looked like the Dallas Cowboys had stopped in for a visit. At my count, nineteen toms waited for orders, all either watching me or eyeing Manx, Des, and Kaci in awe and curiosity.