Lowlander Silverback (Gorilla Shifter Royalty 1) (13 page)

Today had been an incredible respite from everything that had happened. Waterlogged, full of hot dogs and s’mores, and chilly from the late night breeze, Layla watched the Gray Backs filter into their trailers, chuckling softly and talking low as they disappeared.

She was sitting on the top stair of 1010’s porch, legs splayed on either side of Kong where he sat a couple of stairs down. He was leaning back into her as he chewed languidly on a long piece of wild grass.

Layla wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and pressed her cheek against the back of his head. “You make me so happy.”

Kong chuckled as he threw the grass away from him, then kissed her hand. He turned and opened his mouth to say something, but a limb snapped in the woods, and the words got caught in his throat. Kong jerked his head to the side, listening.

“What is it?” Layla asked, panic clawing through her.

“Go tell Creed they’re here,” he rumbled in an inhuman voice. When he turned, his eyes were hard and churning bright green. “Warn the others, then get inside and stay there.”

“Kong, what’s happening?”

“Fiona’s here.”

Fiona? She didn’t understand. This was over. Over. Why was that horrible woman still after them? And why did Kong look completely unsurprised that she was here?

“What are you going to do?” she asked as he stood to his full height and pulled his shirt over his head.

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, then murmured, “What I should’ve done a long time ago.”

He sauntered off toward the front of the trailer park, and Layla blasted off the porch and toward Creed and Gia’s trailer. “Creed!”

The alpha was already coming down the steps of his trailer, pulling his shirt off. “I hear them. Matt! Jason!” He was punching something into his cell phone but he stopped to turn and yell, “Beaston!” off toward the tree line.

The Gray Backs trickled out, faces somber and ready. Gia came to stand by Layla with baby Rowan in her arms. “I think we should go inside.”

“You go,” Layla said drawing the knife that Easton had made her from its sheath on her hip. “This is because of me. I can’t just hide and let Kong get hurt for me again.”

A silver sedan pulled slowly up the gravel road. Its windows were tinted too dark to see inside but Layla would bet her life she knew who was driving. After the vehicle stopped, a slim woman in a dark business suit unfolded from the car. She stood ramrod straight, chin held high over a long, graceful neck as she looked down her nose at them in turn. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled so tightly into a curled updo, it looked headache inducing. She looked pale as the moon from the glow of outdoor lights that illuminated the trailer park. Her eyes were so light, they looked white, and were cold as death as she narrowed her inhuman gaze on Kong.

“Fiona,” he greeted in a dead voice.

“You’ve caused us quite a mess of trouble, Kong, breaking your contract for a human
whore
.” She clenched her fists and smiled thinly. Voice steadier, she continued. “And then you killed my best guards and made us come all the way up here to retrieve you.”

“Us?” Kong gritted out.

Behind Fiona, the trees shook with dark figures, and giant gorillas appeared from behind the tree line on the forest floor, roaring and beating their chests. There had to be a hundred of them, at least.

Layla gasped as they approached closer from the shadows of the trees, the animals illuminated silver in the moonlight. Each was massive and thickly muscled as they exposed bright white canines that looked impossibly long and contrasted starkly against the dark knight.

On shaky legs, Layla weaved through the Gray Backs and stood next to Kong.

“Hi there,” she said, meek as a mouse. Layla gripped the handle of her knife harder and anchored herself in the moment. In a stronger voice, she said, “Human whore here, and I’d just like to say—”

“You don’t speak to me,” Fiona said, eyes livid. “How dare you—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Layla yelled, fury blasting through her like a grenade. Red tinged everything. Red gorillas, red Fiona. “You are so desperate to keep Kong at your beck and call.” She dragged her gaze across the gorillas inching closer out of the trees. “Are any of you happy? Are you? Are you so weak you would put a monster like Fiona on a pedestal and allow her to make all the decisions for your lives? How many of you has she broken? Huh? How many! Are you happy with the family groups she places you in, or do you wish you could choose your own? Do you wish it was about more than just some scientific chart that shoves you together regardless of your feelings? Regardless of your similar interests? Kong chose me.
Me
! He doesn’t want to be with you, doesn’t want to head a family group. He doesn’t want to breed mindlessly. He’s happy with me. And P.S.,” she snapped at Fiona. “I tainted his seed, like, ten times already.”

Fiona clenched her fists and crossed her arms. Her eyes blazed the color of snow, contrasting eerily with the darkness around her. “Bring her out.”

The back door of her sedan opened, and a man emerged, dragging a shorter woman by the arm.

“Kong!” The woman screamed past a swollen, bloody lip. “Don’t you dare give into them!”

Something powerful blasted through the air an instant before Kong lifted his arms into the air. His skin ripped apart, bones breaking as an enormous gorilla exploded from his skin. He slammed his closed fists onto the ground and shook the earth beneath her feet so hard Layla stumbled backward.

The man shoved the woman, Kong’s mother, to the ground and gripped the back of her hair. A pained sound wrenched from her throat.

Beaston stepped forward beside Layla. “We sure do appreciate you bringing the mother of the Kong so we don’t have to track her down.”

“You’ll watch her die,” Fiona spat out. “Stupid silverback. You’ve just killed all of your little friends. Do you think I give a shit that you’re surrounded by a handful of grizzlies right now? You’re outnumbered a hundred to one!”

Layla panted in horror as she watched Kong’s towering form pace in front of the Gray Backs, eyes on his mom. His massive shoulders flexed with each step he took, and his ebony lips pulled back to expose three inch long canines. He was bigger than the other gorillas by a head at least.

“Oooh, look at those pretty markings,” Willa said as she approached Kong slowly. She jerked her chin. “Look at that gray back. You want to hear something terrifying about the Gray Backs?” Willa asked Fiona through a smile.

A long, prehistoric roar bellowed through the trees and shook the mountains. Birds flew from the evergreen canopy in droves, and the gorillas behind Fiona jumped, screamed, and stumbled backward.

Willa quirked her head. “Gray Backs fall under the protection of the last immortal dragon.” She lifted her voice higher above the rising discord of the screaming, frantic gorillas behind Fiona. “As almost alpha of the Gray Backs—”

Creed sighed and corrected, “Second of the Gray Backs—”

“I claim Kong and his chosen family group as honorary members of this crew. So unless you want to be burned into crispy gorilla bacon and devoured by a grumpy dragon, I think you should release Momma Kong and kindly fuck off.”

Fiona had the good sense to at least look nervous as she yelled, “Kill them all,” behind her at the panicking gorillas.

Fiona’s army shook the trees but didn’t advance any closer.

“Perhaps you didn’t understand her,” Creed drawled out. “So I’ll explain it like this. The Ashe Crew and the Boarlanders are charging through the woods right now, boxing you in. You have maybe two minutes before they’re on you, and then the entirety of your fucked up shifter species will be dead.
Dead
, Fiona. All for a man who doesn’t want you. He isn’t Kong of the Lowlanders anymore. He’s Kong of the Gray Backs.”

The gorillas behind Fiona were melting back into the forest as Fiona screamed at them to, “Hold your ground!”

Now the woods echoed with the roaring of the bears.

“One minute,” Creed said blandly. “What’ll it be?”

An enormous figure flew overhead, blocking out the moon and bending trees under the powerful beat of its wings.

Beaston shook his head sympathetically beside Layla. “Mad dragon. Had to stitch our Kong back together. He’s going to eat you. Chomp.”

“Shut up,” Fiona said, looking at the sky.

“Chomp,” Beaston said again through a feral smile.

“I said shut up!”

The man who held Kong’s mother released her and ran for the car.

“Run, little monkey,” Beaston said.

“Never!” Fiona shrieked as her car backed away behind her. “You’re mine! Mine! Do you hear me? I’ll never rest until you are broken beneath me!”

Kong beat his chest and roared.

Kong’s mother was running toward them at a dead sprint as Fiona’s car sped away. Layla rushed forward and grabbed her hand. “Run,” Layla urged Kong’s mother. Panicked, she said, “Don’t stop.” Something awful was about to happen. Her instincts screamed to escape the clearing.

The Gray Backs were retreating with them now, too, sprinting toward the trailers as the breeze that had been a whisper moments before kicked up to gale-force. The sky went dark above them.

Terror clogged Layla’s throat as something massive wrapped around her waist. Kong crushed Layla and his mother against his chest as they skidded to a stop on the dusty gravel road. Behind his massive shoulders, the night sky lit up with burning fire.
So hot. Hard to breath.
Tears streamed down Layla’s face as she clutched the thick fur on Kong’s arm.

A moment dragged on and on, and then suddenly, it was done.

The heat lifted, and the night was doused in darkness once again. All that was left of Fiona was a long streak of charred grass and billowing smoke.

A few feet away, Beaston hovered over Aviana, shielding her with his body. He dragged his inhuman gaze over the scorched earth and whispered, “Chomp.”

“Barney, you’re cut off,” Layla said, taking his empty glass away to clean it.

“I’m barely tipsy,” he argued.

Jake settled the phone into its sling and said, “Perfect timing because your brother is in the parking lot waiting for you.”

“It’s only eight.”

“It’s ten, and Sammy’s has been booked for a private party.”

Layla frowned at the back of her boss’s head as he led Barney toward the door. “What private party?”

If Jake heard her, he ignored her like a champ. Not once did he turn around as he made his way to the door with a stumbling Barney. A stream of customers flooded in around them, and a grin split her face when she saw Willa and Aviana at the helm.

“Mid-week and the Gray Backs are here? Party animals,” Layla teased as she wiped down the sticky bar top where Barney had spilled half his last drink.

“We need tons of shots,” Willa said as she sat on the barstool.

“What’s the occasion?” she asked.

Willa jerked her head toward the door just as Kong ducked under the frame. “You.”

With an uncertain smile, she shook her head, baffled. “Okay, how many shots is a ton?”

Denison and Brighton were now up on stage plugging in their cables, and the rest of the Ashe Crew were trickling in around Kong.

“Enough shots for all the crews and Damon,” Willa said.

Layla’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Damon is going to be here?” As far as she remembered, the gorilla-chomping dragon had never set foot in Sammy’s Bar.

Aviana leaned over, her eyes bright and excited. “Rumor has it he’s coming down from his mountains to party with us.”

Layla blinked hard and whispered, “Wow,” as she began lining up all the clean shot glasses they had.

Layla laughed and chatted as her friends dropped by the bar to say hello. Maybe this was a version of the Shifter Nights she and Jake had discussed. If so, he could’ve warned her, though. She went from a few customers to slammed in seconds. Jake helped her rush to fill glasses, and every time she looked up, Kong was watching her with such adoration in his gaze. He didn’t have to ignore her anymore. One of many changes that had happened in the two months since Fiona’s barbecue.

Now, Kong’s mother, Josephine, and Kirk helped him run the sawmill. Layla had wiggled out of her apartment lease and had moved into Kong’s cabin with the three of them. It was crowded, but anyone with eyes could see it was good for Kong to live near Kirk and Josephine. Layla smiled as happy warmth flooded her cheeks. Kong had the best of both worlds now, as he deserved. He was a part of the Gray Back Crew, and he’d secured a family group in Saratoga.

And Fiona would never hurt them again.

Layla called out, “Pass ’em around!” and laughed as she watched the most important people in her life hand out shots through the notes of the Beck Brothers’ song. Her eyes landed on Kong as he wove through the crowd and approached the bar.

His eyes were soft brown and locked on hers. Tall, strong, scarred, and with that hesitant smile tugging at his lips, Layla’s breath froze in her chest with how beautiful he was. When he reached the bar, he set a book on top of it.

She read the title.
Heart in the Riptide
. It was the last book she’d read to Mac before he died. Layla shook her head, confused.

“Shh!” Willa and some of the others hissed. The shifters settled, and the room went silent except for the soft notes Denison and Brighton played on their guitars.

Kong licked his lips, then lifted his voice. “I only got to meet Mac one time. He made me read this book to him, but near the end of Chapter Sixteen, I couldn’t do it anymore. It hit too close to home. And before I left, he told me that someday, I should read the end of the book.”

Layla bit her trembling lip as her eyes filled with tears. She remembered how the book ended.

Kong pushed the book across the bar top and smiled, his eyes full of emotion.

“Read it!” Creed called across the bar.

“Read it,” the others said.

Layla huffed a thick laugh and nodded. “Okay.”

A few cheered and a few whistled as Kong opened it to the last page of Chapter Sixteen. Wiping her damp lashes to clear her vision, Layla cleared her throat and read. “So many decisions in his life that got him to this exact moment in time would haunt him, but he couldn’t regret the journey. The jagged road he’d taken in his life had led him to a few glorious moments with her. He’d lived more in the last two weeks than he had in the entirety of his forgettable life because he’d known love—the bone-deep kind that changed a man from the inside out. And now…he knew sacrifice. The riptide carried her farther and farther, the strokes of his first mate’s oars like a lash against his heart every time they dragged through the choppy water. Was this really what sacrifice meant? He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t take his eyes away from his love as she wept silently, eyes filled with tears that he’d caused. Sacrifice wasn’t supposed to hurt them both this much. He had a responsibility to the ship, to the crew, but none of that seemed to matter when he could see he was ripping her heart out by sending her away. It didn’t matter to his love that he was trying to keep her safe from the dark end that awaited every pirate. It only mattered that they would be separated from here on. For the rest of their lives, they would bear a hole in them that was too deep to ever be filled by another. He’d ripped that into her by allowing her to fall in love with him. He’d ripped it into himself by adoring her like this. As he stepped up to the railing and stared through the sea spray waves that pounded against his ship, he realized he’d had it all wrong. He wasn’t supposed to give
her
up. He was supposed to give himself up. He turned and looked at his boat—the boat he’d worked his whole life to captain. He looked at his crew, and in their eyes, he could already see it—their silent goodbye. Standing on the bow, he inhaled the salty brine and closed his eyes against the sea mist, savoring it for the last time. Then he lifted his hands above his head and dove into the frigid, unforgiving waters below. Every stroke he swam toward his love changed him. Whoever he’d been yesterday didn’t matter anymore. She required and deserved more. The only version of himself that mattered was the man he would be tomorrow—for her. And when he broke the surface to gulp air, she was there, tears glistening in her eyes and arms outstretched, ready to help him up. Ready to catch him. Ready to push him to be the man she believed he could be.” A tear slipped to Layla’s cheek as she looked up at Kong and uttered the last lines. “She was everything, and he was nothing, and the sacrifice was never his to give. It was hers.”

Layla blew a long, steadying exhalation of air as she wiped the tears from her face.

“Turn the page,” Kong whispered.

She sniffed and turned the heavy paper slowly. On the other side was taped a simple white gold band and a key. Her face crumpled, and her vision blurred again as she plucked away the chipped, pink camouflage key she’d carried on her keychain since she was sixteen, up until the day she was asked to give it back to the bank that took Mac’s house after his death.

“Did you buy Mac’s house?”

Kong angled his head and nodded once.

“For me?”

He shook his head. “For us.”

She laughed thickly as she pulled the ring off the back page. “Is this one for me?”

Kong leaned over the bar and kissed her softly. Just a sweet sip of her lips that said he loved her. Then he rested his cheek on hers and whispered against her ear, “Will you be mine?”

She gripped the back of his neck to keep him there against her, touching her until she could steady her thoughts enough to speak. She looked out at the Gray Backs and the Ashe Crew. At the Boarlanders and at Damon, who stood just on the outskirts of the shifters he protected. She’d always feared that when Mac died, she would be left alone in this world. No home, no purpose, no family.

She’d been so wrong.

As she dragged her gaze over her beloved Gray Backs to Josephine, who smiled through her tears beside Kirk, Layla drew a deep, steadying breath.

With a smile, she nuzzled her cheek against Kong’s and whispered, “I’ve always been yours.”