Unbound (4 page)

G
lory and Dane
,

I
’m
glad you both agreed to be in the same place at the same time. I wasn’t sure I could make this happen.

I’m dead now, so there’s no way I can know for sure, but I’m hoping that the past has enough pull to bring you both here for this reading.

I’m going to try to cover a lot of history in as short a letter as I can. I’m going to ask one thing only, after the reading is done, please take a moment to talk about the things I’m telling you. I won’t make it a condition of the will. I will appeal to your decency and to your commitment to each other.

G
lory looked at Dane
. How the hell did Frank Forester know about them?

Dane shrugged.

I
always knew
the two of you were fated for each other. It makes what had to be done that much more heartbreaking. Dane, when Glory was still a toddler, her parents made a commitment. They agreed to an arranged marriage for their daughter to the son of a leading ivy shifter family. I’m not one who understands the ways of the ivy shifter clans. But I do respect them. I respect their taboos and their laws
.

A
frown made
its way to Dane’s face, drawing his brows down in a
V
, pulling a set of lines above the bridge of his nose. He had a question in his eyes.

Glory didn’t want to contemplate that question. She looked away.

So when I told you she was promised to another, and when I showed you the contract her parents showed me, I did what I thought was right.

I don’t think I was now, but it is too late to change the past. And I feel responsible for the loss of her parents and her sister Honor. So how can I possibly bring to light my role in this?

M
r. Shelby cleared his throat
. He paused. Was it Glory’s imagination or did his eyes seem a bit more watery than when she’d first walked in?

“Frank Forester was an honorable man. His role in this didn’t sit well with him.”

Glory sat back in her chair, trying to absorb. She needed a moment before he continued reading. “Mr. Shelby, could we take a small break?”

“Certainly.”

What is he saying? My parents colluded with his uncle to tell Dane that I was promised to Perry?

She glanced at Dane.

His gaze was steady.

Is that’s why he left? Without asking me anything about Perry or the agreement or how I felt about something that was drawn up before I could even read?

She wanted to get up. To walk around, to do the things one does when one was in shock.

No. I want to run out of here.

Dane shook his head. “Don’t.”

How did he know what she was thinking? How could they still have that connection, where he knew her better than anyone else, and often better than she knew herself.

D
ane couldn’t have ripped
his eyes from her if he’d wanted to. He knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to escape. To sink away from the world — including him. She wanted to hide in her garden like she did when he’d first met her.

“Don’t do it, Glory.” He reached his hand out toward hers but kept it inches away. When she didn’t pull her hand under the table, he covered hers with his. “Please, don’t run.”

Where his flesh touched her, an energy field buzzed, running throughout his body.

How can she still affect me this way?

Glory shook her head, shock was clearly setting in.

She hadn’t known what drove him away.

Hell, he hadn’t even know all that. He didn’t know her parents had talked to his uncle. He only knew that one day his uncle had told him Glory belonged to another man.

Dane hadn’t had the hutzpah to tell his uncle he’d already made her his, that he’d taken her virginity. It didn’t seem to matter anyway, if she was already promised to another.

Crushed, he’d packed his bags and struck out on his own. He couldn’t have said goodbye if he’d wanted to. He would have choked on the words. And then when he learned her family had been attacked by shifters, there hadn’t been much point in life. He’d gone through the motions. Made a life — such as it was.

One fact repeated itself in Dane’s head, over and over again. If he had been told the full story, maybe there’d have been a different outcome.

No, this isn’t the time to give headspace to that.

“Please continue, Mr. Shelby.”

Dane kept his hand on top of hers, hoping it would keep her distracted, keep her there, something.

I
n the course
of the last few years, I’ve learned that Glory’s family was annihilated by the same rovers hunting us.

G
lory gasped
.

Dane’s shifter senses picked up her pulse’s speeding pace.

Mr. Shelby looked up. Waited for a few seconds, perhaps giving Glory a chance to compose herself.

She nodded for him to proceed.

I
’ve always refused
to answer your questions when you’ve asked them, Dane. I know you were troubled by your father’s and Brad’s deaths. I couldn’t have you taking them on single-handed. They are experienced in the art of killing. They would have no problem killing a young solitary shifter.

I
’m still going
to kill those bastards. One day.

Dane held his hand up for Mr. Shelby to pause. “Rovers did it, didn’t they? Probably the same ones.” Fury was unleashed in Dane’s body, whipping through his veins, rushing to his nerve endings.

Mr. Shelby took a drink from his cup. “Please allow me to finish.”

“Continue.” Dane gritted his teeth.

D
ane
, I can only imagine your response to this right now. Heed my advice, please. Promise you will not seek revenge.

A
gain
, Mr. Shelby stopped reading. He glanced at Dane, expectantly.

Dane didn’t respond.

Mr. Shelby’s gaze became pointed. He tapped one fingernail on the table.

“You are waiting for me to make a statement that I won’t seek revenge before you read more?” Dane knew his tone was terse, but he was unable to control the fury.

Mr. Shelby gave a small nod, the tiniest inclination of his head.

Dane looked at Glory. He couldn’t read her expression. Her eyelids were lowered over green eyes he’d always been able to read, she was hiding her emotions from him.

“Fine.” That was all he could say, and barely that.

D
ane there is
a condition to the property becoming yours. Else it will be given to a developer. You have to live on the premises for a month. Once that condition is met, all rights to the property will be transferred to you.

Glory and Dane, I owe both of you an apology for my role in the course your lives have taken. If I’d stood stronger, if I’d insisted a heart’s desires are more important than protocol, then things would have gone much differently.

Again, my apologies.

Francis Evan Forester

M
r. Shelby folded
the letter in half, then slipped it back into the envelope. He slid it toward Dane, then slid another matching envelope toward Glory.

“The original is in my office safe. Here are copies for each of you. If you don’t have any pressing questions, I suggest you have the conversation that Frank wanted you to have.”

“I have a damned question.” Dane was over controlling his anger. “Who the hell killed my uncle?”

“I was going to have that conversation with you at another time.” Mr. Shelby placed papers in a flip-top maroon leather briefcase.

“I’d rather learn now. I don’t have a problem with Glory hearing.”

Mr. Shelby reached for a different pocket in the briefcase. “I was coming for my weekly coffee with Frank. It was a habit we had developed, two older men, having coffee, reminiscing. Only the place was quiet and there were no lights on. He didn’t answer the door, so I used the spare key he’d given me.”

Mr. Shelby wrung his hands, blue-veined, knotty-knuckled fingers seeking solace with each other. “I found this next to Frank’s body.” He pulled on a handkerchief sticking out of his front suit jacket and swiped at his nose.

He took out a piece of paper in a clear plastic storage baggie.

Glory didn’t have to be next to him to notice the dark brown stains on it. She also didn’t need anyone to tell her what it was.

Blood.

Mr. Shelby handed the baggie to Dane. “Then I did as I’ve been instructed to do: I called Mae Forester and she sent someone — a cleaner crew of some sort, I can only presume. In twenty-four hours when I returned, all signs of Frank and a skirmish had vanished.”

“Why didn’t you call me right away?” Dane wished he could have been there for Uncle Frank.

Too little, too late. All I can do now is make it up.

His uncle’s last written words on the matter echoed in his mind. “Promise you will not seek revenge.”

That’s not really a promise I can make. I’s certainly not one I can keep.

“Frank want3ed to be sure you try to get revenge.” Mr. Shelby tucked the handkerchief back in his pocket then clicked the briefcase shut. “Now, I’ll take my leave and allow you both the time to do the talking Frank clearly wanted you to do.

G
lory watched
Mr. Shelby leave through the front door. Her mind was still reeling from the information they’d received. All the manipulation, all the deception.

Then to learn that the same shifters that killed Dane’s father and Uncle Brad were the ones that slaughtered her family.

She walked back to Dane still seated at the table, looking at the note Mr. Shelby had given him.

She wanted to know what it said, but not at the risk of invading his privacy. “Do you mind?” she pointed to the plastic-encased paper.

He held it out to her, his hand gripping it tightly, his knuckles white. When he released it, his fingers shook.

She studied the writing.

It was written in pen and that was definitely blood on it.

S
ame bastards that killed Brad
, Greg and Aleman family.

Call Mae.

T
here was no signature
, but who else would have written it?

Dane forked fingers through his hair, then held his head. “Too much to process.” His face was pale, his mouth drawn.

Did he even realize she was still there? His gray eyes looked into the distance, through the window that overlooked the woods where they’d hung out when children. The same woods that led to the walled garden.

An overload of emotions flowed through Glory at his presence and her memories.

“I should go.”

“Please don’t.” His tone was haunted. “I thought you were dead.”

“When?”

“After your family was killed. No one told me you’d survived.”

“I don’t think anyone knew one way or another. I didn’t know your uncle knew, but clearly he did, because he wanted me to be at the reading of his will.”

“I couldn’t believe that you’d deceived me. That you were some other man’s.”

“Dane, I wasn’t. I never gave that a thought. I’d learned about it when I was a little girl, probably when I was five or so. But I never took it seriously, nor did it influence anything I did.”

“So you are mated now? I’m not picking up a scent that you belong to another. No couple bond scent at all.”

“Ivy shifters don’t have the same couple bond as the bears, wolves, and leopards do.”

“So you are mated.” His hands vanished beneath the table, but it was clear from the way his tendons popped out, he was clenching his fists.

“Not yet. I’m to be mated next week.”

His jaw muscles worked “I see.”

You don’t see at all. This is the last thing I want. But you’re so busy being happy as a Hollywood movie star, with all those girls around…

“I’m glad to see you’re well, Dane.”

She tried to revive the hate she’d felt for him all these years — a hate countered by the love she’d never been able to kick from her heart.

“Thanks.” His tone was cold and dismissive. He glanced down at the note, rubbing the plastic between his thumb and index finger.

His expression changed while he studied the writing. She wanted to leave, to run away from his coldness, but she couldn’t, not with what she saw on his face.

“What are you planning?” As if she didn’t know.

Gray eyes, the color of thunderclouds, and equally angry rose to meet hers. “Who said I’m planning anything?”

“As if I don’t know you.”

“Do you, Glory? I don’t think you know me anymore. I’m not sure you ever did.”

That cut deep. She didn’t deserve that. Tears prickled in the back of her eyes. She closed them tightly for a second, took a deep breath. “I thought I did.”

“Seems I’m the one that didn’t know jack shit, doesn’t it? You never thought to mention to me you belonged to another man?”

“I never gave it much thought. Those were the machinations of grownups while I was a nothing more than a baby.”

“You were mine, Glory. Mine. That should have meant something.”

It still does.
“You don’t seem to want to hear what I have to say on this. You’ve got your mind made up.”

“I’ll drive you home.” His words cut her to the core.

“I can walk. Thanks.”

She turned swiftly, giving him her back so he couldn’t see the tears that beat her and welled, pooling in her eyes, clouding her vision.

She headed toward the door, her back stiff, her gait stilted, and her heart broken.

D
ane clenched his fists
, watching her as she walked away, her spine straight, shoulders thrown back. She wasn’t fooling him. He could scent her emotions. She was troubled, confused, angry, and still had feelings for him.

Last time, I walked out on her. Never gave her a chance to explain. Never gave us a chance.

Had she stayed in Woodland Creek all this time? Had she thought of him? Why was she still going through with this mating? It’s not like she didn’t know he was still alive. It’s not like his face wasn’t plastered all over the foolish human magazines.

The image of those magazines flashed across his mind. And in almost every one, he was linked to one female or another — whether that was true or not. Most often not.

No wonder she doesn’t want anything to do with me.

He hadn’t been an angel, true, but he wasn’t quite the manwhore the tabloids made him out to be.

His shifter skills preternaturally fast, he was behind her before she’d opened the front door. He took hold of her arm, turned her, and froze.

That wasn’t anger on her face. Those were tears.

Fuck.

His leopard snarled at the dismay etched in her face. Dane pulled her close, put his arms around her and held her to his body.

He’d done this to her. He’d wounded her. The only woman who’d ever mattered, the only woman he’d consider a soul mate, and he’d hurt her.

Her face was pressed against his chest, her tears seeping through the fabric. He looked at the top of her auburn head, and a part of his heart shredded into fragments.

Finger on her chin, he tipped her face upward. Tears cascaded down cheeks blotched with pink. The white of her eyes were red, making the green so much more vivid. Her bottom lip trembled and she bit into it, putting a stop to it.

Index finger still on her chin, he placed his thumb on her lip and released it from pearly white captors. Her gaze remained focused on his face, not straying, not looking away. Accusations in the emerald depths took the shredded fragments of his heart and ran them through a blender.

“Glory.” Her name came out with his breath, hushed, low, and ripped from his very soul.

His shifter senses picked up her heart rate speeding up.

The heat between their bodies, the electric charge where she leaned against him traveled through his torso, ending up in the one place showing how she affected him.

His cock pressed against his zipper painfully.

Full breasts pressed against his chest, her nipples hardened peaks.

Let her go before you fuck her. Right now.

He pushed his conscience away. Or maybe that was his leopard pushing his conscience away.

Who cares?
As long he pushed that thought away. The temptation to be with her was too great.

He hissed his desire, a whistling sound that escaped between his teeth and bore witness to the depths of his emotions.

He wrapped one hand around the long braid that trailed down her back and pulled her head back, baring succulent lips and tear-streaked cheeks.

A small gasp slipped from her lips. Her breath warm on his approaching lips.

“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered. Her voice low and tortured.

“Never.”

Fuck. I shouldn’t have said never again.

He lowered his head until his lips rested on the rosebud of her lips. He pulled her closer, his thighs melding to hers, his cock pressed against her mound.

Dane closed his eyes, sinking into the memories of their first time together. The way her body had opened and taken him in, though she’d been so tight, it had been painful for both of them — but only at first.

By the time he’d climaxed inside her, she’d been able to take his thickness and had reached her own orgasm.

That didn’t help.

No, that trip down memory lane did nothing other than make his cock harder and his heart more entrenched in a woman soon to be someone else’s.

Just. Fucking. Great.

He didn’t care if she was supposed to be someone else’s. That was another group’s codes. That wasn’t his code. His was clear: Glory was his. His body ground against hers.

She tasted so sweet. His tongue swept in, and gave in to the overdue need to take her, to make her his.

She can belong to no other.