Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (38 page)

“That’s not true. You don’t know anything of the
sort.”

A muscle ticked in his temple as he held her stare.
“No matter how you look at it, I know I’d never be able to give you a life
that’s anywhere close to a normal one.”

Wrapping her arms around her middle, she said, “I wish
you’d stop throwing that back in my face, because I made a mistake. I thought
normal was where someone like me belonged. I thought that was all I could
handle, but it’s not. I was wrong, and I’m adult enough to admit it. Haven’t
you ever been wrong, Aiden? Haven’t you ever changed? For the better?”

“People don’t change, Liv.”

“You’re wrong,” she argued, shaking her head. “We
grow, Aiden. We live and we learn. And we find love, usually when we least
expect it.”

His reaction was instantaneous, his rage blasting
against her like the hot, blistering force of an explosion. “This isn’t love!”
he snarled, cutting his right hand through the air as if he could swipe her
soft words from existence. “Christ, you don’t love me. You can’t love me.
You’re just confusing pleasure with some ridiculous emotion because you don’t
know any better!”

His words were so sharp she felt bruised. Beaten. She
reeled back, her face brittle, like a mask. One made of fragile porcelain that
was about to crack, shattering into a million fractured pieces.

Not in front of him. Get away…and then you can break
down. Then you can fall apart.

“I think…I think that you should just stay away from
me,” she whispered, the look on her face stopping him in his tracks. His hands
shook. A muscle twitched in his hard jaw. And his eyes…no, she couldn’t look at
them, hating what she saw there. Distrust. Anger. Fear. “I won’t run. I won’t
risk Jamie like that. But…just give me some space. I don’t want to be around
you, Aiden. Not anymore.”

Choking on her tears, Olivia turned her back on him
and started to walk away.

His rough voice reached out to her, painfully stark,
as if it had been stripped down to the rawest, bleakest of emotions. “You don’t
trust me either, Liv. You might think you do, but it’s not real.”

Wiping the tears from her face, she kept walking as
she said, “Open your eyes, Aiden. I’ve been putting my trust in you from the
beginning.”

Then she made her way toward the others…and not once
did she look back.

The Lake
District, England

Friday afternoon

IT HAD BEEN THE STRANGEST DAY. A beginning, since they
would soon be arriving at their new home. And an end, because Olivia knew that
Aiden would be leaving not long after they reached their destination.

She’d awakened that morning to find him giving a
giggling Jamie tiger rides around the private garden of the cottage they’d
stayed in overnight. Aiden had fully shifted into his tiger form, and Jamie had
been riding on his back, clutching handfuls of his thick fur in her hands.
She’d been worried that he might shun Jamie, after the things Olivia had said
to him, but he was still as devoted as ever to the little girl. It was just Liv
he gave a wide berth to, though she was doing her best to avoid him, as well.

After a harrowing drive up to the coast of Maine the
day before, they’d chartered a private plane and flown across the Atlantic, to
a rural airstrip in Scotland. Jamie’s medicine had worked perfectly, and she’d
slept through most of the flight, while Aiden had been a nervous, foulmouthed
wreck the entire time. Olivia knew he’d been worried about a Death-Walker
attack while they were in the air, but she also suspected that the tiger in him
didn’t like soaring through the clouds, preferring to have its feet planted
firmly on the ground. They’d spent the night near the airport, in the quaint
country cottage that Kierland had leased for them, and after packing up that
morning, they’d headed south, into England. The drive had gone more quickly
than she’d expected, and they were already traveling up the winding road that
led to the house she and Jamie would apparently be calling home. Olivia knew
she should feel something about that, but there was nothing. Just a hollow void
in her chest, emotionless and still.

Finally, after all that had happened, she’d gone into
safety mode and shut down. Completely. It was either that or fall apart. And
falling apart simply wasn’t an option when you were on the run for your
life…and the life of someone you loved.

At the thought of the L word, she inwardly cringed,
remembering her heartfelt declaration on Wednesday. It had hurt, but she’d had
to wake up and face reality, no matter how painful it was. Aiden didn’t want
her love, because he didn’t love her in return. Or maybe he couldn’t. Either
way, he’d thrown the idea back in her face before she could even get it said,
making his feelings clear.

Of course, she and Aiden weren’t the only ones on
edge. They’d met up with Kierland Scott when they’d landed, and the instant the
Lycan had spotted Morgan in their group, tempers had flared. It was obvious,
even to an outsider like Olivia, that the two had a turbulent past—one that
caused the tall, auburn-haired Lycan to glower every time he was in the same
room with the gray-eyed shifter. Morgan, however, had handled the situation
with a cool, I-couldn’t-care-less-what-you-think-of-me kind of attitude that
Olivia secretly envied, wishing she could be that poised and in control. It was
only when Kierland wasn’t looking at the female Watchman that a powerful flash
of emotion smoldered in Morgan’s gray eyes, the flames vanishing the instant
Kierland glanced her way again.

“We’ll be there soon,” Kellan murmured, pulling
Olivia’s attention back to the present. She and Jamie and Morgan were all
riding with Kellan in a rented Land Rover, while the others followed in two
similar vehicles. Morgan was watching a movie in the backseat with Jamie, while
Olivia sat in the front with Kellan. “That’s Harrow House up there,” he told
her, pointing toward the majestic rise of the sandstone building just visible
through a mass of swaying treetops.

“My God.” Squinting against the last rays of the
late-afternoon sunset, she struggled to see the details more clearly, thinking
it looked like a castle. “It must have been amazing to grow up in a place like
that.”

Kellan snorted. “It was actually kinda cold.” His dry
tone made it obvious he wasn’t talking about the temperature. “My grandfather
was about as soft as those stone walls.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. That couldn’t have been easy.”

Rolling his shoulder, he said, “Aw, we did okay. I had
Kierland, and he was the best brother any kid could have ever wanted.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “It’s obvious the two of
you are close.”

“I drive him crazy,” Kellan remarked with a husky bark
of laughter, “but he loves me, faults and all.”

Olivia laughed as well, but as they made the next turn
in the road, the soft sound turned sharply to a gasp. “The bridge is out!” she
exclaimed, staring through the windshield at what remained of the wooden
structure that should have spanned the fast-moving stream on the road ahead of
them.

“Yeah,” Kellan murmured, bringing the car to a slow
stop. “Smithson warned Kierland that it’d gone out a few years ago during a
storm. We plan on getting the bridge rebuilt as soon as possible.”

“Smithson?” she asked, trying to recall if she’d heard
the name before.

“He was the estate’s caretaker when my grandfather was
alive,” Kellan explained, pulling the Land Rover onto the side of the private
road, while the others parked behind him. “He’s ancient now, living down in the
local village. Kierland called him and got him to have the village priest come
up and bless the moat.”

Raising her brows, she said, “And no one thought that
was an odd request?”

The Lycan snorted as he turned off the engine. “The
locals have always thought everything that happens up here is odd. For
centuries there have been rumors circulating that the estate is haunted. They
say that if you listen at night, you can sometimes hear things howling at the
moon.”

Olivia slanted him a wry look. “Considering you come
from a family of werewolves, it sounds like more than mere superstition.”

“Not as far as they know,” he drawled, giving her a
wink.

Peering through the windshield, she asked, “So how are
we going to cross the stream?”

“There’s a stone pedestrian bridge that survived the
storm, so we’ll have to make our way there on foot. The bridge will take about
ten minutes to get to, but there’s a path through the trees that leads to it.”

Well, hell. She didn’t like the sound of that.
Especially after the faint message that Molly had received from Monica during
the night, warning that they needed to reach the house as quickly as possible.
Jamie was still wearing the Dark Marker that Aiden had hung around her neck a
week ago, and as a precaution, Olivia, Molly and Hope had been given Markers to
wear as well, the ornate crosses now hanging around their necks from black
velvet cords. Quinn had been carrying the Markers, which he’d brought, in a
secured case, from Ravenswing when they’d escaped—but the Watchmen and
Buchanans had agreed that they should be taken out today and used for
protection.

Olivia only hoped they didn’t need them.

It didn’t take long to get everyone organized, no more
than a handful of minutes passing before they found the path to the bridge.
They traveled in a long line, with Aiden in the lead, while Kellan and Kierland
brought up the rear. They’d opted to leave their luggage back in the cars for
the time being, deciding it would be better to focus on getting everyone to
safety first.

As they made their way along the winding trail, Olivia
couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty of the scenery, with its sloping,
tree-covered hills and the occasional outcropping of rock. It was beautiful, in
a strange, mystical kind of way, like slipping into a fairy tale, and Olivia
whispered quietly in Jamie’s little ear, pointing out each new discovery as she
carried the child in her arms.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Morgan suddenly
murmured, walking at her side.

“You do?”

Morgan nodded, a frown tugging at the corner of her
mouth. “The back of my neck is tingling, which is never a good sign. Just stay
sharp and keep your eyes open for anything unusual.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “As if this whole situation
isn’t unusual,” she muttered.

Morgan’s mouth curled with a crooked smile. “You know
what I mean.”

She did, and the idea prompted her to go ahead and do
something she’d been putting off for two days now. “Would you mind keeping an
eye on Jamie for me?” she asked. “I need to have a quick word with Aiden about
something.”

“Sure thing,” Morgan agreed, taking the little girl in
her arms. “Jamie and I are best buds, aren’t we, sweet thang?”

Olivia brushed a quick kiss against her niece’s cheek,
then took a deep breath and jogged ahead on the narrow path, around Ian and
Molly, until she reached Aiden. He didn’t turn to look at her as she moved to
his side, but by the tightening of his jaw she knew he was aware of her
presence.

She coughed, took another deep breath, then said, “I,
um, I need to talk to you.”

“Thought you were pissed off at me,” he said in a low
voice, sliding her a quick, wary look before focusing on the trail again.

“I am,” she whispered, wetting her lips. “But…this
isn’t about me. I need to ask you a favor.”

He gave a sharp nod, still not looking at her as he
waited for her to go on. “If something happens to me—”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” he grunted,
cutting her off.

“I know you’ll do your best to protect us,” she
murmured, rubbing her wounded arm. It no longer hurt, but it was still a stark
reminder of how close she’d come to death. “But things go wrong, Aiden. If
something happens, I want your promise that you’ll look after Jamie.”

“You mean find her a good family?”

“No. I mean look after her yourself.” She remembered
his poignant reaction when Jamie had given him one of her drawings—how
concerned he always was that Jamie was not only safe, but happy—and knew,
without any doubt, that she was doing the right thing. “I want…I want you to
raise her as your daughter. I realize that it’s a lot to ask, but she…cares for
you, and I know you would do everything in your power to protect her.”

Olivia was so wrapped up in her thoughts, it actually
took her a second before she noticed that he was no longer walking beside her.
Turning around, she found him just standing there, in the middle of the path.
“You want me to adopt her?” he croaked, looking as if he’d been smacked upside
the head with a two-by-four, his expression completely dazed.

Nodding, she said, “Yes. If something happens, that’s
exactly what I want.”

He muttered something foul under his breath, then
shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking again. “Well, like I said
before, nothing’s going to happen to you, Liv.”

“You don’t know that,” she told him, keeping her voice
gentle, since he was certainly wound up enough for both of them. “Things
happen, Aiden. Life’s like that. I just…I need your promise.”