Trapped With the Alpha (Balfour Shifters Book 1) (13 page)

Brody tightens his arms around me and barks out, “You are my mate.”

“I assumed so, since she is freshly marked. From the look of it, she has been marked multiple times,” he says with a smirk, staring at the spot where Brody’s shirt has slipped from my shoulder. 

His words seem to draw Brody’s attention to my semi-nude body. “Turn your heads,” he snarls. With those parting words, he nearly runs up the stairs as the guys all burst out into laughter behind us.

Brody

MAKING MY
way down the stairs, I grab myself a glass of the good shit. As soon as I saw Izzy’s face again, I realized I didn’t need to drown myself in liquor any longer. I no longer want to submerge myself in the feeling of numbness. After everything that’s happened, though, I figure one drink won’t hurt.

Turning around, I see my brothers and cousin standing only a few feet behind me. I ignore their questioning looks and walk to the table. Taking a seat, I motion them to join me. “We need to talk about Isabel.”

Aiden takes the seat to my right, Finn sits to my left, and Knox across from me, leaving Caleb standing at Knox’s side. 

“All right, let’s get right down to it, shall we? She’s my mate and needs to be protected at all costs,” I demand, wanting them to understand how important this is to me. “Until we discover who did this to her, one of us needs to be with her any time she is outside of the lodge. If we can keep her here, even better.”

“No disrespect, Brody, but it’d be nice if you’d tell us what happened first, don’t you think?” Knox says, anger hardening his features. “I know you are my Alpha, but I’m your beta. Why didn’t you tell me you mated her? How did none of us know this?”

“As your Alpha, I don’t have to answer your question,” I bark out, looking around the room.

Knox nods. “I know that, but as your cousin and your beta, I’m asking you to explain things to me.”

Looking around the room, my eyes come back to him. “I claimed her when I was twenty-two years old. We planned to announce it the morning after she was taken from me.”

“Twenty-two? What the hell, man?” Knox bellows.

Aiden leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. “Why did you hide it from us?” he asks calmly, always the level-headed one of the bunch. I swear nothing is able to ruffle his feathers.

“I didn’t hide it…” Before I can continue, Knox cuts me off. 

“You sure did.”

Shaking my head, I try to control my temper. “Give me a second to explain it, will you? You don’t understand. She just disappeared. I completely forgot she ever even existed.”

“What the hell do you mean, you forgot she existed? How does someone just forget about their mate?” Finn asks, looking as confused as I feel. 

How do I explain this when I don’t even understand it? “Do you remember the night of the Summer Solstice, when Father thought the clan had all drank tainted ale? No one could remember what happened the night before. Every single one of us was drawing a blank, unable to remember even the smallest thing.”

All four nod at me, so I continue. “I took Izzy to my room that night, and something happened. It was as if she were fading before my very eyes. Then, she just disappeared. After that, I can’t seem to remember anything until the next morning. It all just seemed to go black.”

“No one could remember anything,” Knox says, a look of disbelief on his face. “We had all drank the tainted ale.”

“No, I hadn’t had any ale,” I reply, my anger growing. “I had been on a raid and didn’t get back until the night was nearly over. Izzy and I danced a bit, and then we went to my room. I never touched the ale.”

Aiden nods, throwing a sly wink my way, which causes me to chuckle and shake my head. Looking to Knox, he says, “I was with him on the raid. He’s right. We were late returning, and he couldn’t have stayed at the celebration for more than a few minutes. I didn’t know he was with Izzy, but I remember looking for him when I came back from caring for the horses, and I couldn’t find him anywhere. I never thought to go to his chambers and look for him. I just figured he was out chasing a piece of tail.”

“So, you’re telling me you mated her, and she just disappeared?” Knox asks, still not quite believing me. “What do you think happened to her? Where’s she been?”

Not wanting to tell them the truth, I have to force the words from my lips. “She’s been with me all along.”

“What?” they all shout, their faces full of confusion and anger. 

Knox crosses his arms across his chest. “I thought you said she disappeared.”

“I don’t know how to explain it.” My frustration is growing. “She did disappear. I couldn’t see her, but she could see me. It was like she was living on a different plane of existence, even though she was technically still here.”

I go on to tell them everything she told me, leaving out the fact that she’s angry as hell at me. “She doesn’t understand any more than I do.”

“She was with you every moment of every day?” Aiden asks, his mind figuring out what I left out of the story.

“Izzy has seen and heard everything I’ve done for the last eight-hundred years.”

Caleb lets out a low whistle. “Fuck, brother. You’re in deep shit.”

I can’t stop the sigh from leaving my lips. “More than you know.”

He nods before walking across the room to grab himself a drink. “I don’t understand how this could happen? Someone doesn’t just disappear and reappear. That is just not right. It makes no sense, Brody.”

“What’s not right is someone imprisoning my mate and thinking they could get away with it,” I shout in anger, slamming my fist into the table in a fit of rage at the very thought of what she has been put through.

I’m the Laird of my clan and Alpha of all Alphas, part of the original Balfour’s. The fact that anyone or anything would do this to my mate and me is unforgivable, and they will pay for it with their lives. I won’t rest until I find out who is responsible for this. I refuse to leave us open and vulnerable to the possibility that it can happen again. 

“Do you think it could have to do with the rogues?” Caleb asks, taking a seat beside Knox.

“No, this happened years before Father died. Collin may have never truly accepted me as Alpha, but he did respect Father. I don’t believe he or any of the others became rogues until we left for America.”

“You’re right. Collin was devoted to your father. Even if that weren’t true, I don’t think he would make war over a woman.” Finn adds his input.

“Maybe not, and at the time she was taken, Collin wouldn’t have hurt my mate, as I wasn’t the competition, so it can’t be him,” I agree, remembering how close he was to his own mate.

“Are you sure she’s your mate?” Knox asks, looking me square in the eye, still not giving up on his disbelief.

Forcing back a growl, I answer him. “Yes, Isabel is my mate. There is nothing else that I have ever been more sure of, so don’t ask again.”

Ignoring my warning, he asks again if I know my own mate. “Are you sure she is the real Isabel? Are any of us even sure there was a real Izzy? Until a little while ago, I didn’t even know she existed, and now, it’s as if I’ve known her my entire life. There’s something not right about this whole thing.”

“She is my mate.” This time, I let the growl come forth, warning him to not question me again. “She always has been, and she always will be, so stop pushing your luck with that damn question.”

“I am Isabel McKay,” Izzy says as she walks down the stairs, obviously listening to our conversation. “I was born part of the McKay clan but moved with my family to Balfour lands when I was only three. My father was the blacksmith, and my mother worked in the Keep’s kitchen.”

I hold my hand out to her, letting her know I accept her word. As soon as she places her hand in mine, I let out a relieved breath. “You are Isabel McKay, and anyone who questions that will die by my hand.”

A small smile plays on her lips as she settles down in my lap. “I understand why they’re questioning me. If I hadn’t lived through all this, I wouldn’t believe it was true, either so try to calm down and look at it through their eyes.”

Before I can reply, Caleb speaks up. “You don’t sound like the Izzy I remember.”

“And you don’t sound like the Caleb I remember,” she states, a bit of fire in her voice. 

Again, I don’t get a chance to say anything before my brother is expressing his opinion. “I’ve lived in the world, changed with the time. You say you’ve been behind some sort of barrier, lost to all of us, but you don’t seem to be surprised by anything you see or hear.”

“Brother, do not question her anymore.” I can feel my wolf pushing forward and know, this time, he won’t stop with a little nip. After eight-hundred years of being forced apart, I am more than a little overprotective of her at the moment.

Izzy places a calming hand on my chest as she responds to Caleb. “I may not have been able to be seen by any of you, but I lived in this world the same way you did. Granted, it wasn’t much of a life inside my so-called prison, but it was a life. Everywhere Brody went, I was by his side. I watched the world grow, just as you all did. I learned the language, learned about technology, and even felt a connection to people that I have never met other than through Brody. All of this I got from being connected to him.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to them, Pixie,” I say to her before looking at my brothers and beta. “If they continue to question you, they will feel my teeth at their throats.”

Knox stares at Izzy, letting his wolf senses seek the truth in her words. “I’m not saying you’re lying, just asking a few questions. Imagine if you were in my position. If I remember you correctly, you’d be grilling my ass over the fire.”

“I know,” she says, giving him a true smile. “I always liked giving you a hard time. Remember when you were in the barn with one of the serving wenches, and your sword went missing?”

“That was you?” he asks, forgetting his disbelief for a moment.

She gives a little shrug. “You told my mother that I was swimming in the loch, even though you knew she told me not to. Don’t forget, you’re the one who talked me into going. I got a whipping because of you, so I wanted to make you pay for getting me in trouble. I gave it back, so it wasn’t like I stole it.”

His lips tip up at the corners. “You didn’t give it back. You left it propped up in a chamber pot, a full chamber pot I might add.”

“I figured, since you were full of shit, it wouldn’t bother you if your sword was covered in it,” she explains, letting out a laugh.

“You little ass,” he states with a chuckle. “I should’ve known it was you.”

“Can you tell us what you think happened the night you were imprisoned? I remember you and Brody dancing, but after that, I was too far in my cups to remember much else,” Caleb asks, bringing Knox and Izzy’s banter to a halt. 

A sweet blush crosses her cheeks before she answers. “We went to Brody’s chambers and...”

Finn chuckles, realizing what Izzy is not telling him. “We know what happened there. Tell us about when you were taken? What exactly do you remember?”

“Let’s not skip the good part,” I add, wanting to see if her blush will spread. 

“Hush,” she says before turning back to him. “I went behind the screen to... well, you know, and when I came out, I started walking to the bed. All of a sudden, a chill like I’ve never felt before or since hit me. It was as if I were being frozen from the inside out.”

“Did you hear or see anything?” Knox asks, absorbing her every word.

“I don’t know if I can explain it.” Her face takes on a look of concentration before she continues her story. “It was as if the world stood still. Everything was magnified in a way that made everything seem almost distorted. It all became unfocused.”

Aiden nods, as if he understands everything she is trying to explain. “When did you realize you had been trapped inside the barrier?”

“Brody began tearing up his room, ordering me to come back to him. I kept begging him to look at me, but he wouldn’t. That’s when I realized I could see him, but he couldn’t see me. I could hear him, but he couldn’t hear me. I could even touch him, but I couldn’t feel his skin, and he couldn’t feel me. It was as if I had become a spirit, a ghost of myself, without having actually passed on to the afterlife.”

“Hmmm,” Aiden murmurs, looking past us to the bookshelf. Getting up, he walks across the room and pulls an old book down then brings it back to the table.

Watching him look through the aged pages, I wonder where his mind is going. “What are you looking for?”

“Give me a minute,” he says, not looking up from the book. After a few minutes of flipping through it, he pulls his phone from his pocket and starts tapping away at the screen.

Losing my patience with the waiting game, I move Isabel off my lap and begin to pace the room like a caged animal. Just as I let out a huff of frustration, I feel Izzy at my back before she wraps her arms around my waist in an attempt to help calm me. Lacing my fingers through hers, I attempt to calm my frayed nerves by focusing on the feeling of her skin against mine.