Broken (53 page)
Authors: Dean Murray
Tags: #romance, #paranormal romance, #paranormal, #werewolf, #werewolves, #shape shifter, #ya, #shapeshifters, #reflections, #ya romance, #ya paranormal, #dean murray
As my pulse sped up again Alec pulled me in
close.
"Sorry about that. You do have to admit, it
would help explain why you're still here."
"Right, gorgeous, rich boy who also happens
to be the next best thing to a super hero. I must be out of my mind
not to run for the hills."
"You don't like it when I spend money on you
and the more involved you get with me the less likely it is I'll be
able to protect you."
"If I let you buy me something will you quit
trying to scare me off?"
"No, but it would make me feel better."
He said that last with his heart stopping
blue eyes gazing directly into mine and I nearly stopped breathing.
Somehow he hadn't realized yet that when he looked at me like that
there wasn't anything I could deny him.
"Ok, you can get me a present, something
small and relatively inexpensive."
Alec smiled and reached over to the backpack
as he sat up. I let him pull me up and then felt my face freeze as
he pulled out one of the largest velvet boxes I'd ever seen.
"Alec, no."
"It wasn't that expensive and you've already
told me I could."
"I didn't think you'd have something already
ready and waiting to ambush me with. I thought I'd at least have a
few days to prepare myself."
He smiled again and I gingerly held my hand
out. The green velvet lid swung up to reveal the most delicate
necklace I'd ever seen. It was a thin glass heart set inside a
slightly larger heart.
"I saw it when I was in Virginia last week
for business and thought of you."
"It's beautiful. You shouldn't have, but
thank you."
Alec slipped it around my neck and did the
clasp, his fingers lingering a fraction of an inch from my skin but
he pulled them back without ever actually touching me.
It really was beautiful; I looked back up to
thank him again when a wave of weakness slid through me. Alec
caught me before I hit the ground.
"Are you ok?"
"I think so. I thought I was past all of this
recovery stuff."
He looked concerned but I'd learned to read
his expressions better than I think he realized. He was worried,
but not just about me. He spent a lot of time worrying. The rest of
the pack, the town, his mother, his sister. It was a lot for
someone our age to deal with.
"There's an uncommon amount of that going
around right now."
Alec shook his head at my curious stare. "Dom
and Jasmin both seem to be spending more time in bed than you'd
expect based on the wounds they took putting down Cassie and the
others. Isaac moved like an old man when we spared yesterday and
Donovan is looking old lately."
I thought back and realized he was right,
about Donovan at least. The old shape shifter always moved gingerly
thanks to old injuries that had left his right leg permanently
crippled. I hadn't thought anything of it at the time but Donovan
was looking frailer lately.
The thought of Donovan getting to the point
that his age was starting to show nearly made me choke up. I didn't
have the extensive history with Donovan that Alec's family had, but
he'd been unfailingly kind to me despite the fact that I'd
endangered everything he cared about.
Alec correctly read my thoughts. "Don't
worry; I'm sure it's nothing. I'll force him to take a couple of
days off and I'm sure he'll be fine. He's only a bit past middle
age for one of us."
I nearly protested, but Alec was right, it
would take an actual order to get Donovan to slow down, and two
days was probably pushing it. Donovan somehow managed to
respectfully circumvent any order he thought prevented him from
taking adequate care of Alec's family.
"Tell me about Christmas at the Paige
house."
I blinked a couple of times. The progress I'd
made lately notwithstanding, I half expected the question to drive
me into a panic attack. Apparently Alec's presence was proof
against a second near attack today.
"I don't know. We always used to do the
standard kind of stuff. Presents, eggnog and the Christmas story.
Usually Dad made us breakfast Christmas morning and then we'd drive
out of the city later in the day and go sledding. I hadn't thought
about what it would be like this year."
Alec nodded like he'd just checked a box off
on some kind of mental list. "So snow's always been a pretty key
ingredient sounds like."
"I guess. It hadn't really sunk in that we
wouldn't be getting any of that this year. A month ago I would have
thought that was a good thing, that it would be one less thing to
remind me of Dad and Cindy. I think I might actually miss it this
year though."
I rested my head against Alec's shoulder. "It
doesn't really matter. The important thing now is that we're
together for Christmas. Beyond that I don't really care what
happens."
I was still safely wrapped in my blanket so
Alec pulled me into a hug. Even taking into consideration his
annoying efforts to protect me from the addictive effect of his
touch, this was the happiest I'd ever been. I'd had plenty of bad
times over the last year or so to offset the near perfection of my
life now, but it still didn't seem like something that could
last.
We just sat there in silence with his arms
wrapped around me for several minutes before his cell phone rang.
Sometimes I wondered if the slim device was some kind of super spy
phone. It seemed to get reception in some of the most incredible
places.
He shifted around just enough to answer it
without letting go of me with his right arm.
"What's up?"
Whoever was on the other end was talking too
quietly for me to make out more than the occasional word.
"...Jack...now...no time..."
I could suddenly feel the energy radiating
off of Alec as his beast woke and rose to the surface. His limbs
hadn't taken on the fine tremble of someone only seconds away from
changing shape, but he was obviously unhappy. Given the tight leash
he kept his beast on, I would have been willing to bet that just
about anyone else in the pack would have already shifted shapes and
ripped a tree out of the ground or done something equally
destructive by now.
Alec shifted the phone slightly, I couldn't
hear whoever was on the other end anymore, but whatever they'd just
said hadn't made things any better. The invisible ants marching up
my arms went to double time and the metaphysical breeze that
started on his skin and went outward turned into a full-blown
gale.
"Stall them. We'll be down in eight minutes
if worse comes to worse you two contain Isaac and tell Dom to sit
on Jack. Keep Rachel out of the way."
Already moving with the unearthly speed he
normally concealed even from me, Alec hung up the phone and started
throwing things into the backpack.
"Jack's working himself up to a dominance
fight with Jess. This couldn't have happened at a worse time. If
we're not back before it starts odds are someone's going to
die."
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