Ashwood Falls Volume Two (3 page)

She didn’t have any mental shields, yet she was unreadable to him. In fact his whole telepathic ability seemed to dull around her.

She narrowed her eyes and said, “You’re not coming back.”

He sighed. “Not here. Tanner and Kirk will move you and Will to a new location. Can you make sure you’re ready at a moment’s notice?”

“Of course. Do you expect an attack?”

He gave a nod, and she removed the glove from her right hand and cupped his cheek. They’d discovered a couple of months ago when he visited with her to see if she could pick up something from a journal that belonged to Graham’s ex-lover, that his touch didn’t hurt her. Addyson had a way to read an objects energy without touching it. That way she’d know if the object held dark emotions and could gage how much it would hurt to read the object. When she went to stand to get him a drink, he grabbed her arm to stop her. She’d said she hadn’t had a vision when he touched her. Even though he was still careful with her, he could sense that his gentleness annoyed her at times. Yet he still didn’t understand why his touch didn’t affect her. Why she couldn’t read his psychic energy like she did others.

Looking into her violet eyes, he asked, “Is this causing you pain?”

“No. It’s like when I touch Will. There’s no transfer of energy at all.” She averted her gaze shyly and he had the urge to kiss her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Closing his eyes, he covered her hand with his and pressed his forehead to hers. Complete silence and calm. He didn’t understand how her touch could shut off the low hum inside his head due to his telepathic abilities, but he was selfish enough to enjoy it.

“Be safe, my Alpha,” she whispered then pulled away and lowered her eyes so he couldn’t see her face.

He didn’t have to see the emotions she tried to hide behind that wall of control she clung to. He could smell them. Fear and sadness were a mixture of sour and sweet that came together like spoiled fruit. His leopard growled and clawed beneath his skin, wanting out so he could comfort the broken female in front of him.

No, Addyson wasn’t broken. She was scarred on the inside so deeply that she hid from the world around her.

Why? Keegan didn’t know for sure. He might be the only one, besides Rhea, the head den mother that ran the nursery, and Shayna, Keegan’s daughter, that were close enough to Addyson to be considered her friends, but that didn’t mean he knew anything about her. Sure he knew she’d spent most of her life held captive by Onyx, and they’d forced her to use her psychic gifts to feed them information—like which Packs were the weakest and any Pack secrets she could glean from stolen items.

When her mind finally broke, tearing down all her natural shields that protected her from the painful emotions she received from her visions, and she was of no use to Onyx anymore, they set her free, only to hunt her down like an animal.

Keegan ground his molars together at the memory of the day he’d found her, beaten, bloodied, and crazed out of her mind. She’d crossed over Ashwoods’ wards as she ran from the mutants hunting her. Keegan’s sentries and enforcers destroyed the half-animal assassins while he wrapped Addyson in a blanket and brought her to his home, where he discovered that he couldn’t read her thoughts, nor could he help repair her mind.

She had to do that on her own.

Coming out of the past, he studied her for a moment, then asked, “Will you be okay while I’m gone?”

She cut her gaze to him. “I’m not a child. I’ll be fine.” She lifted her chin and left the kitchen.

He couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his lips as she walked away from him. She had a hidden fire inside her, and he was going to enjoy bringing it out.

****

A
ddyson sagged in relief as a knock sounded on the door and drew Keegan’s attention away from her before he could chase her down. He was too close in the kitchen. His heat caressed over her body in sensual waves, calling to her. She had the overwhelming need to rub up against him like a needy house cat just to see if a full body skin-on-skin shorted out her senses. It’d been way too long since she’d let another touch her or even be as close as Keegan had been the last few weeks.

God, his wild, earthy scent drove her mad.

She peered at the door as Keegan opened it to the two young sentries. Each nodded to Keegan in greeting then flicked their gazes to her. Tanner Raines, Luna’s youngest son, offered her a gentle smile. She relaxed a little more.

Tanner was a strong, yet quiet, wolf. He was also very handsome like his brothers, Dane and Hayden. Tanner’s dark auburn hair fell over his ears and reached his jaw line, framing his young face. His boyish good looks and his quiet nature told nothing of the power inside him.

He was telekinetic—able to move and control objects with his mind—and from what Addyson heard, his ability was very powerful. Shay, Keegan’s daughter, had told her once that Tanner’s gift went beyond just moving objects. He could bend them, break them, and even shatter glass with his mind.

She smiled back at Tanner then at Kirk, who was always a little too serious. “Hello, boys.”

Kirk grunted, but she swore she caught a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. The sentry was a leopard shifter. Underneath that hard exterior, he had a gentle soul. His family had survived the first wave of attacks on Ashwood over two hundred years ago. He’d been there when Keegan found her outside the den. God, how long ago had it been? Twenty-five years, give or take.

“I’m hardly a boy, ma’am.” Kirk took a step toward her with his hand raised as if he was going to touch her. It was an automatic response for shifters. In fact touch was as important to them as breathing. When they greeted a fellow Pack member it was customary to touch a hand or shoulder.

It was something Addyson couldn’t allow no matter how much she craved it.

She took a step back and Keegan moved to stand in Kirk’s path, halting him and drawing his gaze from her to his Alpha. A moment later Kirk lowered his head in a submissive way.

Addyson’s heartbeat kicked up for several beats. None of the sentries or the enforcers was submissive by any means. Each one held a dominant power that was unique.

She wanted to tell Keegan it was okay, but she remained motionless. Mistakes like the one Kirk was about to make could get him killed. And not from the Alpha who protected her in a way she didn’t quite understand.

No, in the field, if Kirk forgot the dangers for even a split second, he’d lose his life.

With his head still lowered, he lifted his gaze to hers as if waiting for her reaction and spoke to the Alpha. “I will go back to the den and have Blaine send a replacement.”

Silence filled in the space around them for far too long. Addyson wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand it. The childish urge to knock over furniture or a lamp or something to break the silence made her palms itch. She’d had enough of the cold quiet during her hundred years as the Onyx’s pet.

Finally Keegan spoke, easing her tension a little. “Be at ease. Your comfort with Addyson is the reason you’re here. However, be warned that if you forget about what touch can do to her again, you will know exactly what she feels.”

Kirk lifted his gaze to meet Keegan’s and nodded. “Understood.”

The sentry didn’t even flinch at the warning. However, she did, even though she knew that the Alpha was law and if he didn’t have a handle over his soldiers, then he’d be seen as weak.

She stepped forward until she was a foot from Keegan and offered her gloved hand, first to Tanner then to Kirk. Each gently squeezed her hand before releasing it. She dropped her hand. “Thanks for babysitting me.”

She didn’t bother keeping the annoyance out of her tone. She was still mad at Keegan’s too-careful, too-fathering tone in the kitchen. She wasn’t a child, damn it. She sure wasn’t some helpless submissive that needed coddling.

When she was around Keegan, she had an uncontrollable urge to spar with him, in more ways than one. The male just brought out a side of her she didn’t recognize. A side that was a little naughty. She wanted to misbehave so he’d stalk her and make her be good.

Keegan turned to face her, and she knew her skin was flashed from the thoughts running in her mind. His brown eyes narrowed as if he was trying to read her, but she didn’t feel the dull pressure that usually came with a telepath shifting through her thoughts. After a few moments he lifted his hand, knuckles facing her as though he was going to caress her cheek, but he dropped his hand and stepped away from her.

She frowned. She’d thought Keegan had shared the information that he could touch her. Pushing away the tinge of hurt she had no right to feel, she turned her attention to Will, who came up beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist. She smiled at him and ran a hand over his hair.

Keegan touched her gloved hand tentatively, and she lifted her gaze to meet his. “Be ready in an hour.”

At first, his statement confused her, and then she remembered what he’d said in the kitchen. Tanner and Kirk were moving her and Will to a new location.

“I will. Thanks.”

Keegan stared into her eyes for several moments before he turned, walked out the door, and disappeared into the forest surrounding the cabin.

Her heart ached as she suddenly felt alone. She pushed the feeling away, straightened her shoulders, and studied the sentries still standing on the front porch. “What now?”

Tanner cleared his throat. “Umm, we’ll just search the perimeter until it’s time to go.” He spoke low enough that only the four of them could hear, most likely in the event spies were lurking about.

She nodded, and Kirk held out a small walkie-talkie. She motioned to Will next to her. “Give it to Will.” Even though she could take the device with her gloves on, she just didn’t fell like dealing with it. No, she had to think of a way to break down the walls around Keegan’s heart.

Kirk handed the walkie-talkie to Will without question, and the two sentries took off in separate directions.

Addyson slid the door back into place and dropped her shoulders. There was something Keegan wasn’t telling her. She could feel it in the air, a muted electric current that had nothing to do with the desires Keegan rose in her. No, this energy was dark and evil.

There was something out there. Something waiting for them to make their move.

“I’m picking up on something dark,” Will said.

Addyson ran a hand through his blond hair and rested it on his shoulders. “So am I, hon. I feel it, too.”

K
eegan turned the Jeep onto the narrow dirt road that appeared to humans like a walking trail. Once he drove through the wards surrounding Ashwood Falls, the path opened up to a road that was big enough for one vehicle at a time. He didn’t have to worry about humans too much. The wards gave them a false sense of unease, making them turn away from the property. In many places, like entry points, the wards also held an illusion spell that changed roads to foot trails and buildings appeared to be run-down.

The wards also served as an alarm system of sorts. Keegan and his enforcers and sentries would instantly know if anyone crossed through them with the intent to harm.

It didn’t, however, stop Onyx from sending their soldiers to test out the added security.

No, the rogue bastards didn’t care. They’d come through them anyway and meet with the force of Ashwood’s sentries, who wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest to bring down any threat to the Pack.

Over the last few months, Keegan and Blaine along with Luna—the wolf Alpha—and her son, Hayden had worked to increase the security around the perimeter of Ashwood Falls’ territory. They’d doubled the amount of sentries on patrol by putting their strongest soldiers on rotation.

He rolled to a stop at the security gate, and Alec, his youngest son, stepped out of the small building, gave him a nod, and then opened the gate. Keegan waited for his son to come around to the passenger side and climb into the Jeep before stepping on the gas.

Alec punched him on the shoulder. “’Sup, Pops.”

Keegan laughed and grabbed Alec’s forearm, relishing the instant connection to his son. God, he’d missed his sons and Shay. A weaker shifter would have gone crazy without his Pack for two weeks.

This whole thing sucked sewer water, but his plan had to work. He gave Alec’s arm a little squeeze, then drove through the gate, taking the left toward his home. “It feels good to be here.”

Alec growled and turned to peer out the window. “I don’t like this plan of yours. We should stand together, whole like the powerful Pack we are.”

Keegan ignored Alec’s growl of disapproval as he pulled into the driveway of his house. Blaine’s truck, along with Cameron’s and Graham’s cars, was parked under the carport. He lifted a brow at Alec. “I take it I no longer have a home.”

Alec grinned. “The trio and I swapped. I’m staying at Cam’s old apartment. The house has more room for the kids.”

Besides the house isn’t the same without you here.

Keegan caught Alec’s thought, knowing his son had deliberately left his mental shields down, the shields that blocked Keegan from “picking his brain,” as Alec usually called it.

His chest tightened.

Yeah, this sucked.

The front door opened, and Blaine stepped out with Max, his three-year-old stepson, on his hip. Keegan smiled at the sight. He knew one day Cam and Blaine would bless him with grandchildren, but the sight of Blaine holding the small boy still amused Keegan. His eldest son was such a hardass that he forgot the softer side that Blaine showed only to his family.

Shutting off the engine, Keegan opened the car door and stepped out, and a smile spread wide on his face. He couldn’t stop the smile if he’d wanted. It felt too damn good to be home, even if it seemed his house had been taken over.

Blaine pulled him into a one-arm hug. Keegan hugged him back, tight. He inhaled, taking in the scents of home and family. He was doing the right thing. The transfer of power was for the better of the Pack. They’d all be stronger for it. All he could do was pray that he wasn’t setting himself up and walking into a trap.