Pride Before the Fall (6 page)

Ami slapped Vivian on the nose. "Don't you hiss at me, bitch. You want me to bust you in the face instead?"

"God, you've got balls, Ami." Conall muttered under his breath. He kept his eyes on the angry feline hovering close as he slid pants on Melissa's legs.

"She knows I'll shoot her. And I know when she gets back in her own head, she'll thank me for it."

Vivian woke up in frenzy. Her tank top was soaked with sweat and the covers were on the floor. She put on her house shoes and walked to the open window. Working at the clubs had their days and nights switched. The sun was about to set and the world was bathed in burnt gold.

Only one thing brought on her nightmares. Vivian was about to come into heat. Unlike their natural counterparts, shifter females only came into heat twice a year. It was painful for the unmated. Like the tigers in the wild, she would need to copulate multiple times over a period of several days.

"Damnittohell," she muttered to herself. Why now? Why
here
when Kasey was so close? Why couldn't it wait until she was miles away?

"Couldn't sleep?"

Vivian turned to see the co-star of her latest nightmare. Melissa's hair was pulled back into a ponytail, making her look innocent and young. Vivian gave her a smile and opened her arms. "Bad dream. Come hug me."

Melissa wrapped her arms around Vivian's waist. "I'm sorry. Can I do anything?" Her contact helped the tension seep from Vivian's muscles. Mel's scent grounded her and reinforced that her little sister was alive and safe.

"You're doing it." Vivian pulled Mel closer. "I wish I could scrub my brain with bleach, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. I also know what brings on these nightmares." Melissa looked up into Vivian's hazel eyes. "You should go to him."

Vivian retreated and shook her head. "No. Absolutely not." Her words to her sister held harshness intended for someone else, anyone else but sweet Melissa.

"V," she whispered. "He's not like Trace. He won't do those things to you."

"How do you know? He's an alpha, isn't he?" Melissa flinched at her sister's angry tone. "I'm sorry." Vivian ran her hands through her hair, pulled the mass up off her neck to cool off.

"It's the fever, V. What are you going to do?"

Vivian avoided Mel's gaze. "I'll find a place to hole up for a while."

"Please don't do that," Melissa begged, remembering the last time they'd found Vivian five days into her heat in an abandoned hotel. "Conall coul—"

"Hell no." Vivian shut that thought down quickly. It was hard enough to be in heat around him with their past. Letting him service her would only dredge up bad memories. "What are my options, Mel? I can't stay here. Conall and Amilynn go bat shit crazy. He can't have me so he ruts after her like some horny teenager. She beats the crap out of him for a few days, and then gives in. You and Ty don't leave your apartment and God knows I don't want to think about that."

Melissa giggled. Vivian cracked a smile. "Keep it to yourself. You mated people are disgustingly cute and you make me want to barf."

Melissa hugged her sister's waist again. "You could be too, you know."

"Don't go there, Mel. I can't let myself get swept away by some fantasy. Even if that fantasy's kiss is perfection," Vivian said, remembering the texture of Kasey's lips. She shook it out of her mind. "It'll never work, not with an anvil hanging over my head."

"But it can—"

Vivian grabbed Melissa by the shoulders and looked into her naive blue eyes. "What do you think Trace will do to Kasey when he finds out we're mated?"

"So you are?"

Vivian shook her head. "That's all you just heard? Melissa! Come on. Trace will kill him and make me watch."

"But you won't let him, sis. You nearly killed Trace once, you can do it—"

"No. I never want to be that monster again. He had you, Melissa. There's no one on this earth I love more. That's the only reason." Vivian closed her eyes. The memory of Melissa naked and strapped to a table, Trace slapping her and shredding her clothes so he could rape her, replayed in her mind. Vivian shook her head, wishing she could dislodge the memory. "I'll never be that helpless again. Not even to my mate. I don't care what it costs, I'll protect my family."

Melissa stood paralyzed as Vivian shut herself in the bathroom. Their conversation was over, but she had one more person to talk to and she would need Ty to help her do it.

* * * * *

It had been twenty-four hours since his encounter with Vivian, and Kasey could barely sleep. When sheer exhaustion took him under, his dreams featured a satin kiss and long legs in a tight red dress.

Kasey startled awake but didn't move his body. The wolf had caught a scent. He was not alone in his room. Using all his heightened senses, he pinpointed the exact location of two people by their heartbeats. One steady and slow, one like a rabbit. He smelled the gun oil and knew when he opened his eyes he would be within inches of the business end of a pistol. But he also smelled a mutated version of his mate.

"Melissa, darling," Kasey kept his eyes closed. "Will you please tell your husband to put down the gun? I would hate to make my future sister-in-law a widow."

"Last time I checked," replied a gravel bass voice, "I was the one with the gun to your head. Not the other way around."

Kasey opened his eyes. Tyrone was as close to his animal as Kasey had ever seen a man. His eyes were night-glow yellow rimmed in black.

"I see my security is slacking."

"Slightly."

Kasey frowned and moved to sit up. "I'll have to work on that." Instead of focusing on Tyrone, he looked at Melissa. She was standing in the corner with her arms wrapped around herself. Even with her mate in the room to protect her, she was scared. "Come, little one." He held out his hand. "I'm not the big bad wolf and only something important would have you sneaking in here. What's wrong?"

Hesitantly and looking to Tyrone for reassurance, Melissa walked over to his bed and sat down on the furthest edge. She ignored his out-stretched hand, and Kasey remembered that Melissa didn't touch outsiders. Tyrone put the gun in his lap as he sat down in a chair within striking distance. If Kasey made a move he didn't like, this man, this shadow, wouldn't think twice about killing him.

"I'm sorry for breaking in. But it's urgent and I didn't think you would care... I hope."

"Is something wrong with Vivian?" Kasey's heart sped up at the thought of her old alpha catching up to her.

"Not yet. But you know why I'm here. She told me that the last time we saw you at the club you kissed her. There's no way you missed the fact she would be in heat soon."

"And she is?"

Melissa nodded and blushed slightly. "It's coming. She was on edge tonight, having nightmares, snapping at me. My sister never snaps at me except when she's in heat."

Kasey knew exactly why Melissa had made a dangerous trip to his home and snuck into his bedroom. "She won't let me near her. You know that."

Melissa looked over at Ty. He nodded, giving her the go ahead to speak of nightmares. Pretty blue eyes looked right into Kasey's, but only for a second. The sadness those eyes held tore him to pieces.

"Our old alpha, Trace, took Vivian from our family." She stared down at her hands in her lap. "He wanted me. Well, he'd wanted us both: me on his arm, Vivian in his bed. Our family was well known and respected in our Pride. Vivian and I were both highly sought out and our father often set us up with influential men in hopes we would find our mate among his peers. My sister wasn't going to have it. Ty and I were already promised to each other. We knew at a young age we were mates. Trace found out, threatened Ty." Melissa looked at Tyrone with a deeply rooted love that Kasey envied and needed like his next breath.

"Trace told our parents that Vivian had been selected for a training program out of state with a larger Pride. We didn't know that he'd locked her away, put her in a cage just big enough for a human, but not for a tiger. He would beat her, rape her, and do things I can't even speak of. Her body was a reward for his men who pleased him." She took a deep breath, her next confession a painful one. "Conall is... Trace's first cousin."

This was news to Kasey and he wondered if that's how Trace knew where the Pride was. That thought was quickly banished.

"Trace knew that Conall was smitten with V. We were all friends. We played music together. It's what bonded us. Trace saw Conall hanging out with Amilynn and me. He also knew that Amilynn was Ty's twin sister. He put the pieces together and thought that if he used Vivian as a prize, Conall might give up where Ty had disappeared to. Then he could use Ty as leverage to get me. Thankfully, he highly underestimated the friendship we had and the character of Conall. As soon as Conall saw Vivian, he knew he had to get her out. But he couldn't do it alone.

"The problem with sick, twisted people is that they don't care who they hurt, not even their own blood. Trace knew Conall would never rape Vivian. He cared too much. So Trace forced his hand. If there is one thing Trace is good at, it's leverage. Moving one pawn to manipulate another. Conall had to take Vivian to save her life."

Kasey scrubbed his hand over his face. He had no idea what a sick fuck Trace was until that moment. All Kasey had ever heard of the Nevada alpha was that he was powerful and a strong leader. He had the façade perfectly in place. No one ever heard these stories and no doubt Trace would do anything to keep word from getting out. Including tracking and killing five people.

"Conall vowed to get her out, and eventually he did. It took time, planning and in the end, we barely made it out with the clothes on our backs and a few stolen guns."

"He has to be stopped." Kasey looked at Tyrone. "You can bet Vivian and Melissa weren't his first or last victims."

"I have people on the inside," Ty said. "They keep me informed. Trace is alive. It's taken him a long time to get back up to health. He hasn't taken in any more girls that I know of. But yeah, he needs to die."

Kasey nodded, then turned to Melissa. "I want to help her. But I can't make her do anything. That's where I screwed up at the club. I thought she would react better to being dominated."

"I don't envy you," Tyrone snorted. "Vivian walks a thin line between wanting a male's power and needing her own. You can't ask for submission, but you can't submit either."

Kasey raked his brain trying to figure out how to make this work. "If she doesn't come to me, or ask me to come to her, this will never work. I can't push, not after everything you've told me. I'll never give a reason to associate me with that sadistic sonofabitch."

"Thank you. That means a lot, really. There is one thing you can do."

"Anything, sweetheart." Kasey gave her his best smile.

"She needs a place to stay while she waits it out."

Kasey leaned over to his bedside table and pulled a key ring out of the drawer. He took a key out of the bunch and gave it to Melissa. "This is to a cottage our unmated females use. There is food, medication, and supplies that will help ease her pain." He gave Tyrone directions. "Make sure she takes her cell phone. I'll come the second she calls. But only then."

Melissa reached out and took his hand. It surprised and pleased him. "Kasey, being away from your mate in heat is going to be difficult on you too. I'm sorry."

He patted her hand and reassured her that he didn't become alpha by being weak. Then he brought her hand to his lips. "Thank you for coming to me, Melissa. Though," he said, casting a glance at her husband, "I think you should call first next time. I'll gladly let you in."

Melissa smiled sweetly. He knew it had taken a lot of courage for her to come to him. This was a woman who would risk her life for her family and he respected that tremendously. Melissa was much stronger than she let on.

"I do have to ask how you got into my room." Kasey tilted his head in a wolfish manner.

The blue eyed, black and red haired beauty smiled like the Cheshire cat. "My mate has many talents that he's shared with me over the years. But to you, they shall remain a mystery."

Tyrone stood up and held out his hand. "Come on, angel. We need to get back before V realizes we're gone."

Kasey leaned over to his bedside table again to grab his keys, only taking his eyes off them for a second. When he looked back, they were gone. In the blink of an eye, they had disappeared into thin air. A chill rolled up his spine. "Holy shit. That guy is scary good."

He wouldn't get any sleep that night. Between thinking about how to help Vivian and figuring out how Tyrone snuck Melissa into his bedroom, his brain wouldn't shut off. By the time the sun came up, he was no closer to either answer.

CHAPTER TEN

Vivian was sweating like a whore in church by the time their show was finished. It was midnight and she was ready to get the hell out of her own skin. On the way home, everyone was quiet, her oncoming heat causing emotions to intensify and hormones to bubble over. Ty and Melissa were about ready to rip each other's clothes off right there in the car. Conall was giving both unmated females a wide berth.

When they entered the apartment, Ty handed Vivian a key and a note with directions. "Go."

"What's this?" Vivian questioned.

"It's where the females of Kasey's Pack go when they're in heat if they don't have a partner."

Vivian scowled at Ty. "How did you get this? Tyrone?"

"Just go." Without another word, he grabbed Melissa's hand and pulled her to their apartment across the hall. Melissa looked over her shoulder with pleading eyes and mouthed, "Please."

"Don't think I'll forgive you for this," she called out to the retreating couple. Vivian looked at the two people left in the room. They feigned innocent expressions.

Amilynn shrugged. "Get out of here, V. Go get your man and get laid."

Between the fever and Vivian's anger at her sibling's interference with Kasey, Vivian was almost irrational. "I told you guys not to stick your nose where it doesn't belong," she growled.

Ami, just as on edge and hearing a challenge, stepped up in her face. It didn't matter that Vivian had a good six inches on her, Amilynn was power in a small package. "Your business
is
our business, V. You mating a wolf affects us all."