Seven Years (25 page)

The tires skidded across the driveway of his house and Austin hopped out, opening the back door.

“What the hell is going on?” Reno shouted out.

Austin gently lifted her out and growled a warning at Reno when he stepped forward and got an eyeful.

Austin actually bared his teeth. “Get away from her,” he said darkly.

“Bring her inside.”

Lexi’s head flopped down and she began to twist her body. “Easy, girl,” he soothed in his alpha voice. She relaxed and Austin stalked toward the house with Reno following close behind.

Denver strolled along the edge of the woods with Maizy up on his shoulders. She had a jar full of lightning bugs sitting on top of his head. “Lookie, Mr. Cole! I got a bunch of ’em!”

“Denver, you two stay outside,” Reno demanded before turning his attention to Austin. “What happened? I tried calling your ass and you didn’t answer. I happened to check the monitor and caught a man entering her apartment, but we don’t have cameras set up inside.”

“Someone tried to strangle her,” Austin replied through clenched teeth.

“Hope that someone is taken care of,” Reno said in a chilling voice.

Lynn shrieked at first sight of the wolf. “What are you doing bringing
that
in the house?”

“Red alert, boys. We got a situation,” Reno announced.

Austin gently placed the silver animal on the brown carpet spread across the center of the living room. Ben and Wheeler stepped back, and Ivy cautiously lingered in the hallway, tugging the end of her braid.

Austin searched Lexi’s body to see the extent of her injuries; she needed to shift once more in order to heal. He had already tried in the car, but her wolf refused.

“Hold her back,” he ordered the twins without looking up. They hooked their arms around Lynn to keep her from running—the worst thing you can do around a wolf.

Silken fur tickled his palm as he grazed his hand around her graceful neck. She whined, and it felt like a pitchfork pierced his heart.

“Lexi,
shift
,” he demanded.

Three more times proved unsuccessful.

“That’s not going to work,” Ivy informed him. Her loose braid draped over her shoulder and the ends of her long gown swished as she took a step forward. “Do you think a woman wants a man yelling at her when she’s hurt and afraid? She won’t listen unless she trusts you.”

“And what do you suggest I do?” He lifted his eyes to meet hers. What Austin didn’t say was that he was willing to do anything.

Ivy knelt down and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Kiss her nose. Tell her she’s safe. Whisper you need her back. Don’t demand it, Austin.
Ask
her. Let her wolf know she’s more than just another Shifter of a lower rank; make her trust you because you care about what happens to her.”

In front of all his pack, Austin laid down on the floor without a second thought. He stroked her white face and nuzzled against her snout, close enough to her canines that her wolf could have taken a chunk of his face off if she wanted.

“You need to shift to heal,” he whispered, stroking her soft ears back. “No one here will hurt you; I won’t allow it. No one will ever touch you again.”

Her glittery eyes partially opened and she whined, her tail flapping once.

Austin smiled and kissed her nose. “There’s my Ladybug.”

And just like that, Lexi’s wolf shifted.

Nudity was not a huge deal because it was part of their lifestyle with the shifting. Austin still pulled his shirt over his head and draped it across her hips to protect her modesty. The cuts healed and the bruises on her windpipe were faded, but not completely gone.

“I don’t understand. What’s going on?” Lynn gasped, barely holding on to her sanity.

Austin lifted his chin. “Your daughter is a Shifter. Your husband stole her from a pack years ago after killing her mother. We can discuss this later, but right now, I need to save her life.”

He turned his focus back on Lexi and she moaned, her hands beginning to slide up to touch her throat.

“No,” he said, gently holding her wrists. His mouth grazed against her ear and he asked her to shift. In another split second, Lexi switched back to her wolf. Relief swelled through him, as he knew this process would work the healing magic.

Most guys didn’t care about scars, so they didn’t bother shifting to heal the little things. Serious injuries could be taken care of by shifting, allowing the magic to work its way through the body, as long as it was done as soon as possible. The more time that elapsed, the less likely a wound would heal through shifting. Breed magic was something remarkable without explanation.

Austin rose to his feet and confronted Lynn with the truth about her daughter. “It’s imperative you never speak of this to anyone. There are consequences for revealing our secrets. This is who I am, who I’ve always been. This is why I couldn’t stay here after Wes died, because I belong with my own kind. Lexi loves you as a mother, and I hope you can still love her as a child. But know she’s a dangerous animal, and the only reason I can get so close is because she’s barely conscious. Our animals are nothing to mess around with.”

When he twisted around to kneel by Lexi’s side, Lynn broke free from the twins and flung herself on top of the wolf.

“Don’t you touch my daughter!”

I opened my eyes and found my face nuzzled in silken fur
.

“Oh no,” I murmured. Lorenzo had somehow found me again and wrapped me up in fur blankets. Although, they
were
warm blankets. I lifted my heavy head and glanced around.

No penthouse view. I noticed a poster of Led Zeppelin on the wall and my left arm was tucked around something soft, furry, and warm. When his head popped up and he growled, I was eye to eye with a wolf.

My heart skipped and I slowly retracted my arm. The wolf flipped onto his feet and stood over me, yawning. I curled my arms, instinctively covering my neck, and then it all came back.

Beckett choking me.

I threw my arms out and slapped at the wolf’s chest and head. In that moment, I didn’t see a wolf—I saw Beckett. My breath quickened, my legs kicked. He merely turned his head to the side and made a grunt, taking the full beating. My panic attack subsided and I threw my arms over my face, trying to catch my breath.

He was an impressive creature. Sable black fur with the iciest blue eyes I’d ever seen, rimmed in black and staring down like two glaciers. He stood astride me with his legs on either side, sniffing my nose. I would have been willing to bet he weighed more than I did.

“I have to pee.”

He seemed unconcerned with the current state of my bladder. The wolf lapped my cheek with his pink tongue. When I tried to push myself up, my weakened body refused. It was similar to the gravity you feel when you try to get out of a swimming pool after having spent over an hour in the water. I tried again and sighed in frustration.

The wolf rested his chin on my shoulder and snorted, making an impatient sound. Instinct took over and I did what might have been one of the dumbest things I’d ever done, and that was wrap my arms around a wolf’s neck.

He backed up, pulling me to a sitting position. There wasn’t much room on the bed, so he hopped on the floor and sat down. Thankfully, someone had dressed me in a long nightgown.

“Austin!” I called out.

The wolf barked.

“Austin!”

Then he howled. The door cracked open and Denver peered in. “What the fuck is going on in here?”

The wolf reared around and snapped at him, causing Denver to swing the door closed to just a crack.

“Denver, where’s Austin? Why am I locked up in here with a wolf?”

The animal delivered a death threat with a low, thrumming growl.

“Damn, girl. You really were knocked in the head. Austin won’t let anyone near you.”

“Where is he?”

“In front of you.”

The door slammed and my mouth opened. Austin had warned me about his wolf—how dangerous he was. I didn’t doubt it, either. He was always a tough guy growing up, but the past seven years had changed him from the person I once knew. He had a fierce animal with thick shoulders, sharp canines, and savage eyes.

“Uh, Austin?”

He lifted his eyes to mine and I blinked, looking away. Raw power emanated from his gaze, and while I’d never felt submissive in Austin’s presence before, I now understood why his brothers were so obedient. He truly was born to lead, in all forms.

I touched my throat and felt the back of my head. There wasn’t any bruising or pain, so I must have shifted to heal. I couldn’t remember.

A series of knocks sounded at the door and it swung open. “Lexi, honey, Denver told me you were awake,” Mom said, squeezing inside.

“Mom, no!”

She held a small plate of food and my eyes went wide.

“Oh, it’s okay, honey.”

Mom reached down and patted Austin on the head and I almost rolled right out of the bed when she walked past him and set the plate on my lap.

“Mom?” I asked in disbelief, having expected her to get mauled due to her careless behavior.

She smiled and kissed my forehead. “I don’t believe it, I don’t really understand it, but you’re still my daughter. It took them a while to pull me off you and then I had a long talk with Austin. Ivy made the most sense and I really like that young lady; she has a good head on her shoulders. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, so I can’t deny who you are.”

“You got near my wolf?”

My mother was truly a fearless woman.

She sighed and patted my leg, as if I had just asked the dumbest question on the planet. “Eat up and if you don’t feel like getting out of bed, then you stay here all day.” Her face tightened and she looked down. “I actually liked Beckett; I thought he was a nice young man. Obviously I have no sense when it comes to men.”

“It’s not your fault, Mom.”

Jericho slipped into the room and looked down at the wolf. “Austin, you need to come see this. Someone brought you a present.”

The way he said it rattled me, but Austin didn’t shift. I followed Jericho down the hall, the black wolf never leaving my side. He walked with the same stride, keeping his body pressed against mine.

Jericho and Denver were in the hall by the front door with their arms folded. I walked around them and to my left, two dead wolves lay side by side on the front porch.

“It’s a message,” Denver said. “A warning.”

Parked out front was Lorenzo, leaning against the grill of his truck with one hand tucked in his pocket and the other holding a cigarette. He took a long drag, watching me as I stood there in an ankle-length gown that belonged to my mom.

Austin growled when I got too close, but I knelt down and got a good look at one of the wolves. “It’s not a warning,” I said. “It’s an offering.” I didn’t know if Austin could understand me or not, but I turned and looked at him as if he could. “This was the dog that treed me in the cemetery. I don’t know who the other one is though. The warning is for Lorenzo’s pack, not yours. But this is a gift… for me.”

The message being that anyone who thought about hurting me would answer to him. I wondered who the second wolf was—maybe the one who was supposed to have been watching me that night. Lorenzo said he had a man following me at all times.

Somehow, a dead body was not a romantic gesture.

“Come away from there, Lexi,” Jericho said, stepping forward with his arm outstretched.

Austin snapped at him. Jericho turned his head and sighed through his nose in frustration. “Is he ever going to shift back?” he asked Denver. “’Cause that biting shit is starting to piss me off.”

“How long was I out? What time is it?”

“Two days,” Denver said. “Ivy and your mom took care of you; they were the only ones who could get near Austin.”

“He hasn’t shifted back?”

Denver strolled out of the room, hiking up his sweats. The motor fired up on Lorenzo’s truck and he slowly backed out.

“He’s been that way since he brought you in,” Jericho said, putting an unlit cigarette into his mouth. “All hell broke loose when your mom jumped on top of you. We tried to get her off and Austin suddenly shifted and guarded you two like his life depended on it. Between you and me, Austin’s wolf is one
badass
alpha.”

“Where’s Ivy?”

Jericho stuffed his hands in the pockets of his black jeans, shredded from thigh to knee, biting down on the cigarette as if he hadn’t decided whether to light it or not. “Helping your friend at the store.”

“Do what?”

“The power is on and the shipments are due to arrive today. The twins are unloading while the girls set up.”

I tucked my hands under my arms. “Lorenzo paid for all that?”

His brows knitted and he tucked the smoke behind his ear. “No. Austin did.”

I took a moment to process that, because I had never asked him for any help in that regard. It wasn’t even his problem, and yet he took money out of his own pocket to keep the store running. A store that only paid me a mediocre salary.

“I can’t believe it,” I whispered. Jericho shook his head a little to get his hair out of his eyes and I lowered my voice. “What happened to Beckett?”

Jericho made a slicing motion across his throat and I shuddered. “Austin took care of that problem, and your friend took care of his.”

“Which friend?”

The wolf’s toenails clicked on the tile as he turned in circles and sat in front of me.

Jericho combed his fingers through his hair. “Your neighbor. I guess she knows some cleaners and instead of waiting for the cops, she had the body removed like nothing had happened.”

“Are you sure you don’t mean Lorenzo?”

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “Shifters have connections, and I guess she’s got the hookup for taking care of dead bodies.”

“Naya is a Shifter?”

My legs weakened and I closed the door.

“Mmm. We went to check on things and she was in there picking up roses. Nice tits on that one.” Then he looked at the shock plastered across my face. “You didn’t know she was a Shifter? Our kind tends to gravitate toward one another, even if we don’t know it. We also look out for those we bond with, so if you two were tight, then that explains why she went the extra mile. Believe it or not, this city is teeming with Shifters. Not sure what her animal is, but I’d be willing to bet it’s a cat,” he said, rolling his tongue over his bottom lip. “Afraid I’m not into cats; too much maintenance. But they’re prettylicious to look at.”

“I think I’m going to throw up now,” I declared, walking around him and into the living room.
Naya was a Shifter?
It made sense, but I still couldn’t believe it. “Where’s Maizy?”

“Denver’s keeping an eye on her in the study across from the atrium. When I last checked, she was looking at the pictures in some old
World Almanac
we’ve had around for about fifty years. He took her outside to play ‘slay the dragon’ this morning. They were trying to kill the snake Reno saw under the house.”

“
What?
” My question was more of a declaration I would kill him if he was serious. “Can you trust him with her?”

I was beginning to have second thoughts about Denver if snake hunting was on his daily agenda.

Jericho waltzed by me and lifted a box of matches from the bar. “Emphatically. It’s his wolf I don’t trust. Denver has control over his animal and doesn’t shift on emotions, so she’s safe with him. But don’t ever let that child near his wolf. He’s loco.”

***

I decompressed in the shower and allowed the hot water to rinse away my salty tears. While I had no physical marks from the attack, the emotional ones left behind became fingerprints that would never wash away.

I’d never seen it coming.

I kept analyzing our relationship to see if there were any signs that Beckett was capable of that level of violence, but he’d only been aggressive with other men. He obsessed over professional wrestling, and sometimes I wondered if he took the job as a bouncer just to push people around and feel superior. Off the clock is when he got in the most fights, and usually it was after a few beers if he spotted some guy talking to me. But he never actually pushed
me
around, quite the opposite, in fact. Outside of his infidelity, I thought Beckett loved me.

Maybe too much.

His behavior had started to change after we split, with phone calls and confrontations. Losing me didn’t seem to push him over the edge as much as the thought of another man in my life. And being as drunk as he was…

Then the memory of his death slammed into me like a train. I shouldn’t have felt guilty for someone who tried to choke me on a blanket of rose petals and glass, but I did. Then I got angry and threw a bottle of shampoo against the wall, hating him with every fiber of my being. Rage poured through me as I shut the water off and tore down the shower curtain—the rod clamoring on the tile. I growled, sobbed, and made guttural noises—gripping the edge of the tub and letting the pain consume me.

Denver called my name from outside the door and I heard Austin’s wolf viciously snarl.

“You okay in there?” he yelled.

Was I?

Had Austin not showed up and forced me to shift, I would have died. My mother would have had to bury another child.