Ashwood Falls Volume Two (21 page)

Kidnapping.

Good one, asshole
.

A
dull ache throbbed in Christa’s head as she opened her eyes. Where the fuck was she? Taking in her surroundings, she groaned as the realization of what had happened settled into her mind. The Memphis unit of Shield was no more. Well, for the most part anyway. It’d take them months to rebuild.

Why did she care? She finally had her out.

Movement beside her made her sit up and cast a cold stare at the man next to her. Her captor.

Leave one hell and enter another.

She ran a hand through her hair and tried to think and not look at the man next to her. There was something about him, something familiar, yet she’d never met him before. She lifted her gaze to meet the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror. There was a hint of compassion in the depths. Then again, she could be suffering from shock and the effects of that drug they’d given her to put her out.

She leaned her head against the window and sighed. There was nothing she could do now but play nice—if only for a little while. She had to find the twins and haul ass somewhere.

The setting sun made her realize that she’d been asleep a lot longer than she first expected. Lifting her head from the cool glass, she peered over to the man who had kidnapped her. His eyes were closed as he rested his head against the seat; his black hair was cut short on the sides and slightly longer on top. She let her gaze roam down to his broad shoulders and hard chest covered by a black cotton tee then farther down...

Good God, what the hell was wrong with her? Ogling her kidnapper? She must have hit her head when she passed out.

Forcing her gaze to his face, she asked, “How long have I been out?”

One shoulder lifted in a half shrug. “About two hours, give or take.”

She clenched her jaw together while she patted her pockets. “Where’s my phone?”

“You don’t need it.”

Like hell. She needed to contact the twins soon, or they’d come looking for her. It was the one argument Christa lost with them. They might be only sixteen, but they were wolves and very strong fighters. She’d made sure of the latter. Trained them both herself.

“Where are you taking me?”

Neither man answered. Surprise, surprise.

She guessed she’d find out soon enough. Right before they killed her no doubt.

She pressed her head against the glass again and watched trees, the occasional car, and the asphalt race by. Well, she had asked for an out. She just hoped she live through it to finally have a normal life with Brenna and Bryce.

Her eyes lids felt heavy, and finally she lost the fight to keep them open and submitted to sleep. She’d figure out her escape plan later.

Christa opened her eyes just as the Range Rover pulled to a stop. Sitting up, she pulled on the door handle. Locked. Of course.

Her captor opened his door then grabbed her hand to tug her across the seat. She yanked her hand from his. “I’m capable to getting out by myself.”

His lips twitched before he turned from her to get out of the vehicle. However, he didn’t go far. He waited outside the SUV. She scowled at him as she slid across the backseat. She hopped out and sidestepped him when he reached out to her. To her relief, he let it go and didn’t touch her.

That only made her suspicious of him. Was he experiencing remorse about holding her prisoner? She hoped he did.

Jerk.

“Where are we?” she asked as she scanned her surroundings. It appeared to be, or at least had been at one time, a town or small community hidden in the mountains. Debris littered the cobblestone streets and overgrown yards where most the houses sat, either burned to the ground or looked as though a very large truck had driven through them. “What happened here?”

“Rogues.” The gruff reply was all she got before he gestured to her to start walking.

“Rogues? As in shifters gone rogue?”

He grunted then said, “You ask too many questions, human.”

She whirled around, and her breath caught. He was beautiful, but she’d noticed that in the car. Well, beautiful for a man. Under the full moon’s light, she could make out his handsome features. High cheekbones, full, kissable lips. She wondered if he’d let her bite his lower lip...

Whoa. She really needed to get a grip on her hormones. She turned away from him. Insanity sure settled in fast. Or was it the fact that she hadn’t had a lover in...how long? Oh hell, she was domed.

He growled low as if knowing where her head was and, none too gently, grabbed her upper arm and pulled her to one of the few houses that looked livable. Once inside, darkness enveloped her, and she started to panic. It became hard to breathe, and her skin tightened. She hated the dark. It was the only time she was completely vulnerable. Things happened in the dark; people became monsters in the dark.

The man pulled her to him, and she screamed and slapped at his chest.

“Christa!” He gripped her face in his hands and held her steady. “Open your eyes.”

They were open, weren’t they?

“Come on.” His voice was softer, soothing.

She calmed a bit, gripped his wrists where his hands still held her face, and opened her eyes. The room was filled in a soft glow of candlelight. She met his green gaze and lowered her shoulders.

“Sorry. I haven’t had an attack in years.” Not since she started training for Shield—because she knew how to kill an attacker.

Only now she felt weak for the first time since that horrid day that changed her life forever. Then her sister’s death had pushed her to stop the monsters once and for all.

She stepped back, breaking all contact with the man to peer around the room. It had furniture, although it was dirty, mostly from sitting for so long unused. There were broken lamps on the floor and overturned tables. It looked as if there had been a fight or someone had robbed the place.

From what little she could see outside, with the partially torn-down buildings, she’d say the small neighborhood had been attacked. By who she wasn’t sure. Shield hadn’t had OPs in the mountains until Vance came on board and started talking about Ashwood.

Yet, this place looked as though it had been abandoned for some time.

“There won’t be any running water or electricity until the morning.” The man paused, frowned, and then said, “My name is Hayden. The male with me is Tanner, my brother.”

Then he walked outside, leaving her alone.

She sagged into herself and wrapped her arms around her middle.

You know how to find trouble, don’t you?

****

H
ayden stepped outside and looked up at the dark sky. His mate was afraid of the dark. Not just afraid, terrified, as though something very bad had happened to her when the lights went out. He knew that because he’d seen that type of fear before, once with Addyson, the Pack Scribe, who’d spent about one hundred years as the Onyx’s captive before she arrived in Ashwood Falls.

He also seen it in his mother the day his father died.

Shaking out of his thoughts before he was sucked into the past without the ability to come back from it, he went to search for Tanner.

He found his brother a few feet away, staring at the wreck of homes and other buildings. “This looks worse than MoonRiver did.”

Hayden nodded. They didn’t call MoonRiver their den anymore. Their den was now Ashwood Falls. MoonRiver had died with its Alpha. When their mother, Luna, took on the Alpha powers, she changed everything, even the location of the den.

“That’s because Travis burned eighty percent of the den down.”

Tanner nodded. “To keep the mutant virus from spreading.”

Travis Hunter was the former Alpha of Hunter Ridge—the same den they stood in now—and now mated to Shayna, the adopted sister of Blaine, the Ashwood’s leopard Alpha. The couple made quite a pair. No one had thought that a wolf and a tiger could ever be mates, but Shay and Travis were a bonded pair and so in love it made Hayden’s teeth hurt to be around them.

“Can you clean up most of the clutter? I mean put it in one pile or something.” Hayden hated messes and disorganization. If he had to be here for God knew how long, he wanted it halfway organized. If that was at all possible.

Tanner laughed. “I’ll do it in the morning when the light is better. Your OCD is worse than Mom’s.”

Hayden growled, but he felt his lips rise in a grin. “Go rest. I’ll take the first watch.”

Tanner slapped him on the shoulder as he moved toward the house Hayden had placed Christa in. He had to fight the urge to not growl at his brother for being so close to Christa.

Yeah, Hayden was in trouble. Christa was his. He’d known the moment he saw her at Shield. His wolf paced and nudged him to claim her, hard. And he’d have her as soon as this screwed-up shit with Shield was straightened out.

First, he’d have to gain her trust and make her see the truth.

A
na must have been staring at the family photo for hours. At least that’s what it seemed like, even though she’d arrived at Blaine and his mates’ home fifteen minutes ago.

The Alpha family home.

The one she should have grown up in, but didn’t, thanks to Felix Darwin, the bastard Alpha of the rogue Onyx Pack and the same male trying to destroy so many shifter communities and innocent lives. The one she believed was her father until a few weeks ago. That was when she had left the only life she’d known for a new one within a new Pack where her real family lived.

The family in the photo was hers, at least should have been hers. Longing filled her, making her chest ache and her eyes burn. The three males, Keegan, Blaine, and Alec, circled a dark-haired female. Keegan, her biological father, stood at the female’s back, hands resting on her shoulders.

The female was her mother. Cate. Ana’s nose tingled and vision blurred. Taking a deep breath, she blinked the tears away. She would not cry, damn it.

Ana wasn’t as sad as she was angry. She’d missed out on so much of life because Felix stole her away her parents and her brothers. Now she had thirty-eight years to catch up on.

She reached out and brushed a finger over Cate’s smiling face. The only difference in their looks was Cate had brown curly hair, and Ana had straight black hair like Keegan’s.

“I still can’t believe how much you look like her.”

Ana whirled around at the sound of the male voice, startled and a little embarrassed to be caught nosing around. Alec leaned against the kitchen island with his arms folded. His expression was devoid of any emotion, just like all the other times she’d seen him. “I’m sorry, I...”

Alec straightened and walked toward her. Something flashed across his face that looked a little like sadness, but it was gone almost as fast as it appeared. “Don’t apologize. This is your home, too.”

She shrugged and turned back to the photo. “All my life I’d wondered who my mother was. I imagined what she looked like. If she would have told me bedtime stories.” She sighed and swallowed the lump in her throat. “All silly little-girl dreams.”

Alec stepped next to her and pressed his shoulder into hers. His warmth and the connection she felt whenever she was near her new family was almost too much for her. She fought not to move away from him. The discomfort of all the kindness and acceptance was making her sappy.

She didn’t have time for softness. She had to hunt Felix down and stop him before he did any more damage.

“She did read to you when she was pregnant. I used to sit nearby to listen while pretending to work.”

She peered at his profile, studying his sculptured features that she guessed females embarrassed themselves over. When Ana had first seen Alec, she’d thought he wouldn’t welcome her. In the medical center, he’d just stared at her, brows dipped in a frown, and shadows showed beneath the surface. Her first thought had been
stay away
.

And that’s what she’d done.

Now to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, as he shared a private moment with her made her heart ache all the more. He took in a deep breath and rolled his shoulders then stepped away from her. “What are you doing today?”

“I’m shadowing Cameron.”

He nodded and put his hands in the back pockets of his blue jeans. “Good. Well, I have junior soldiers to train and the computers in the new nursery need setting up.”

Alec and the wolf Beta, Dane, were the go-to people for technical issues, and they’d built and monitored the electronic part of the security system for the den.

Silence filled the small space between them. Ana looked around the room, unsure what to say to the brother she felt a connection to, but had never known.

Finally, Alec spoke. “Well, I better get going. I’ll see you at dinner?”

She smiled. The Andrews family along with a few extended family members and friends got together every night for dinner at Keegan and Addyson’s home since it was large enough to accommodate their growing number.

“Yes, I’ll be at dinner.”

Alec smiled, wide, making his brown eyes crinkle a little. “Good. See you then.”

He turned and left. Ana was still smiling when the front door closed, and Cameron came into the room from the hallway behind her.

“Was that Alec?”

“Yes.” Ana turned to look at the Alpha’s mate, her new sister-in-law, and frowned. Cameron seemed a little pale. “Are you feeling okay?”

Cameron smiled, but it wasn’t a very convincing one. “Yeah, just a little queasy. Probably something I ate.”

On the heels of that statement, Graham, one of Cam’s mates, walked into the room bare-chested and the top button of his jeans undone. Ana felt her cheeks heat, and she turned her head when he wrapped his arms around Cam and kissed her neck.

A few moments later Cam met her at the door. “Where do you want to go first?”

“I’m not sure. I’m just shadowing today, so whatever you need to do is good with me.”

“Cool. It’s my off day, so we can see if we can stir up some trouble.”

Ana smiled, deciding she liked her new sister-in-law.

“O
kay, Christa. Calm down and breathe.”

She took a deep breath and peered at the single lit candle on the coffee table. Its flame danced, casting shadows everywhere. Shadows that threatened to stir up the demons living inside her head, again.