Circle of Lies (Red Ridge Pack) (28 page)

Fear struck me again. Could I just leave? Should I go to the police? My dad was dead. Would they think it was me who killed him if I vanished? What would the pack do with his body? How could I have just left him there? Before I knew, I was on my knees, sobbing, curled up in a ball with my arms wrapped tightly around my duffle.

It wasn’t long before the need to get away returned and overcame my sadness. Slowly, painfully, I made it to my knees and then to my feet. Feeling faint and empty, I threw the duffle bag over my shoulder and trudged to the front door. I stopped dead in my tracks as I opened it. Aiden stood on my doorstep.

63.

Aiden

Seeing the tears streaming down Teagan’s face, all I wanted was to wrap her in my arms and make everything okay. She was devastated, and it was all my fault. Her entire world was falling apart.

“Oh, baby, come here,” I said, hoping she’d just walk into my embrace. But when she looked up at me, there was fear in her eyes.

She shrank back from the door and attempted to slam it in my face. I caught it with my hand, and she took another step back and commanded, “Stay away from me!”

I’d known that one day she’d find out about me, but I’d never in a million years thought she would be scared of me. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Pushing the door open I promised, “You don’t have to be scared of me, Teagan. I could never hurt you. You know that, right? Please, just let me talk to you.”

She tried in vain to shut the door. “I mean it, Aiden. Stay away. If you don’t leave, I’ll call the police. I swear it.”

I removed my hand from the door and backed up a step. Immediately, Teagan slammed it. But I wasn’t about to leave. I couldn’t give up. That wasn’t an option.

“Teagan, let me explain,” I begged as I heard the lock click into place. “Please. That’s all I ask. Please let me just explain things to you. Give me five minutes, and if you never want to see me again I promise I’ll leave.”

Silence. My heart was pounding in my chest. At last the door unlocked and slowly opened. Relief washed over me. Then I saw Teagan standing there, shoulders slumped, her tears having made dirty trails down her cheeks. A bag lay at her feet.

“Were you leaving?” I asked, horrified. She’d leave without me?

She just shrugged, and fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

I picked up her bag and carried it over to the couch. She followed, and once we were both sitting I said, “I didn’t want you to find out like that. God, I’m so sorry. I should have told you the truth, but I swear that I would never, ever hurt you. I couldn’t, and not only because I love you, but because you’re my true mate.”

Her eyes widened. “Your true what?”

“My true mate. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but it’s true, Teagan. That’s why I looked so sick when you came over earlier. I can’t…I can’t be apart from you. That happened to Alli and Cade, too. They were made for each other and can’t be apart. Kind of like soul mates,” I said. “But physical. It’s very real for us.”

“And I’m yours?” she repeated, clearly confused. “You can’t be serious. Are you telling me that if we aren’t together you’ll get sick?”

“I’m sorry, Teagan. But, yeah.” When I saw her face harden I said, “Not that that should be why you stay with me. I thought about telling you the truth about us time and again, but I didn’t know how. Then I toyed with the idea that maybe we could live our entire lives without you ever finding out. If you knew I was a wolf, I worried you’d stop loving me, reject me. I just…I didn’t want to lose you,” I admitted. “But I knew a day would come when I had to tell or that you would find out and I planned to tell you…”

“But you
didn’t
tell me, Aiden,” she said when I trailed off. “You lied to me about everything. How can I ever trust you again?”

“I know, and I’m so sorry, but we’ve only been together a short time. If I’d had longer, I’m sure I would have found a way.” Moving closer on the couch, I took her tiny hand in mine. It was trembling when I pulled it to my lips, but she didn’t shrink away. “Can you ever forgive me?”

She looked at her hand in mine, and then she looked me in the eyes. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and it stopped dead when she let go of me and scooted away. “I just don’t know what to think. I need some time.”

Her words cut like a knife. Every guy in the world knew what those four words meant. They were always bad.

I tried to be brave, to put on a smile, to not let her know that I was crumbling inside. She didn’t need guilt to go along with the grief she felt tonight. Her whole world had collapsed, and now I was asking her to forgive everything. To move forward like nothing had happened, or at the very least to just move forward.

“Okay, baby. Take some time,” I said, not wanting to scare her. I was scared, though. Time wasn’t something we had. Marcus’s threats were real. But maybe I could hold him off for awhile. With luck it would be until she came around and realized we were meant to be together.

I stood up. “You don’t need to leave home, though, not if you were afraid of the pack coming after you. Please don’t run. Stay here, and I promise you’ll be safe. Rest. Think. Cry about your dad.” I took a deep breath and vowed, “I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”

And I wouldn’t.

Wiping a tear from her face, I leaned down to kiss the top of her head. Then, feeling my own agony threatening to break free, I turned and walked away.

*****

As I pulled into my driveway, my house appeared completely deserted. The lights were out and no one was in sight. The back yard was empty.

It was more than a little disconcerting that the entire scene had been “fixed” in under an hour. The thought made me sick to my stomach. It was as if the whole bloody scene had never happened. And that’s when it hit me: I’d killed a man tonight. I was a vicious, bloodthirsty animal that had needed to be pulled off Peter’s bloody, twitching body. I had the overwhelming urge to run upstairs and take a hot shower, to wash away the memories.

When I walked through the front door, I knew the shower would have to wait. Marcus was sitting at the kitchen table with my mother.

“I take it things didn’t go well,” Mom said.

I threw my keys on the kitchen counter and turned on the overhead light. Without answering, I grabbed three beers from the refrigerator. “Why were y’all sitting in the dark?”

Mom eyed the beers in my hand and said, “I don’t know. So, are you going to tell us what happened?”

I handed a beer to Mom, one to Marcus, and opened the last for myself. No one questioned me or told me I was too young. I supposed if you were old enough to kill a man, you were old enough to have a beer.

I sat down across from Marcus, took a long swig and asked, “What happens if she says no?”

Marcus looked at my mom before answering. “To you, or to her?”

“Both,” I answered.

Mom set her beer on the table. “You’ll get sick again. You’ll grow sicker every day until you die.” The look in my mother’s eyes was too much to bear, and her voice was blank, like I was already gone.

Or maybe it was for a different reason. Marcus added, “Or until
she
dies.”

Mom was crying suddenly. She excused herself and headed to the restroom.

Marcus gave me a stern look. “I meant what I said, Aiden. Brian won’t leave here with an unfriendly domestic knowing about us. She’ll either accept you or she dies. That is that. And even if Brian felt differently, I will not lose one of our own. I will not lose my son.”

I just stared at him, revolted. Finally I said, “She’ll accept me.”

Marcus shrugged. He placed his beer on the table and walked out of the house. The door slammed behind him.

I turned and saw Mom standing in the hallway. She was still crying.

“I need you to promise me something, okay, Mom?” I said.

“No! No, Aiden, I won’t. Don’t even say it!”

I got up and walked to her. I held her in a tight hug and whispered, “You have to, Mom. You have to promise me that if Teagan can’t accept me, can’t accept what I am, that you’ll help her get away from here. You can’t let Marcus or Brian kill her. You’re the only one who’d know how to stop them.”

She trembled, holding me so tight I thought my ribs would crack.

“I don’t want to live without her, Mom. And Teagan can’t die because of me. Wouldn’t you have done the same for dad if he hadn’t accepted you? I know you would have. You would have sacrificed yourself to keep him safe, Mom. Help me do the same,” I pleaded.

She didn’t respond, but I felt her grip on me loosen. I thought I knew what that meant.

64.

Teagan

Aiden hadn’t been gone long when the doorbell rang. I pulled myself out of the fetal position and trudged back to the front door, expecting to find him standing on my porch once again. When I looked out the peephole, I found Alli and Paul looking as if they’d been dragged through the mud.

Damn it, I wasn’t ready for this. Why couldn’t they understand that I needed some time alone? Was that too much to ask?

With the back of my hand, I wiped away my tears and tried to pull myself together, but I felt an emptiness inside, a void that scared the shit out of me. I was completely numb and could hardly string two thoughts together. My father was dead and my boyfriend was a werewolf, but the day just seemed like a bad dream. Maybe I would wake up and find that everything was okay.

I just stood there staring at the door, willing them to turn around and leave me alone. I couldn’t do this, couldn’t face them. Not now.

“We know you’re in there, Teagan,” Paul called. “Just open up. Please. We need to talk to you.” He banged his fist against the door just as I looked out the peephole once again, and I jumped back, my heart pounding.

“Come on, Teagan. Just give us a chance,” Alli pleaded.

Hesitant, I unlocked the door and pulled it open. The two just stood there without speaking. Bile rose in my throat, and suddenly I felt as if I might be sick. Leaving the door ajar, I rushed to the bathroom and hung my head over the sink. Taking several deep breaths, I looked up at myself in the mirror. All color had drained from my face, and I looked even paler than usual.

I turned on the faucet and splashed some water on my face. A tingling sensation spread throughout my body, and if I didn’t sit down I…

It felt as though my chest caved in, and I fell to the cold tile floor.

“Teagan! Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

I sensed Alli kneel down beside me. My eyes struggled to open, and my vision was blurred.

“Dad, get Teagan some water!” Alli yelled. “I think she’s in shock.”

Paul rushed in and helped Alli pull me into a sitting position. They tilted the rim of a glass against my lips, and water ran down my face.

“Please drink, Teagan,” Alli begged.

I parted my lips slightly to allow the water into my mouth. Moments later Paul heaved me to my feet, and I was surprised to find my body cooperating. They helped me to the couch, but I still didn’t have the strength to remain upright. I laid my head down on the pillow and closed my eyes.

Paul rubbed his hand across my forehand, sweeping back the hair from my eyes. “Teagan, you’re going to be okay, but we can’t leave you like this. Alli and I will stay. You just get some sleep.”

A voice that hardly sounded like my own replied, “No. I want to be alone. Just go.”

With conviction in her voice, Alli said, “We aren’t leaving, Teagan. We’ll talk in the morning.”

I didn’t have the strength to respond. I just lay there, and soon sleep pulled me under.

*****

I woke to find Paul making coffee in my kitchen. It was the next morning. Alli was sitting next to me, and when she felt me stir she said, “Hey, you feeling any better?”

I dragged myself into a sitting position, and Paul placed a cup of coffee in front of me. He smiled warmly. “I’m glad to see some color back in your face. We were worried about you.”

“What are y’all still doing here?” I asked. Memory returned of the night before. I fought back tears.

Alli picked up the coffee cup and offered it to me. “We wanted to make sure you were okay. You shouldn’t be alone. When we saw Aiden leaving, we decided it would be best if we stayed.”

Paul took a small sip of his coffee. “I know this is a lot to handle, and we want you to know we are here for you. The whole family. You have nothing to fear.” After a moment he added, “Aiden loves you, you know. It’s killing him to not be here. He’s respecting your wishes, but he’s called at least a dozen times.”

“But he lied to me. You all did. How am I supposed to react? Y’all are
werewolves
, for God’s sake.”

Paul put his cup down on the table. “Actually, I’m not a werewolf. Just a regular ol’ guy in love with one. Kinda like you.”

It took a moment for my brain to register that. So, Paul was human? And he was completely okay that his wife and children were supernatural creatures out of a horror movie?

When I didn’t respond, Paul continued. “I’m serious, Teagan. I’m human just like you. I fell in love with Lily a long time ago, and when I found out that she was…uh, different, I had a hard time dealing with it. But then realized I that it didn’t matter. I loved her, and that was all that mattered.”

Alli reached for my hand. “I’m so sorry, Teagan. I know I kind of pressured you to go out with Aiden, but it’s because I wanted you to be happy. And I knew my brother could make you happy. Aiden loves you, Teagan. You have to give him a chance. He needs you, and you need him too. Let him love you. You won’t regret it.”

Let him love me? Aiden
did
love me. That I couldn’t deny. The way he looked at me, touched me, held me, made me feel whole... No one could fake that. And he’d respected my wishes and left when I was angry at him; he hadn’t tried to pressure or cajole me. He was even getting sick because I wasn’t with him, but he hadn’t wanted that to influence me. At that moment, I knew what I wanted. What I needed. Alli was right: I had to let him love me. Because I loved him back.

She wrapped her arms around me and said, “We can be your family now.”

My heart constricted, and tears filled my eyes. “This is just all too much, Alli. My father… What happened to him, to his…body?”