Cash moved Jenna until they were laying on the bed more fully and comfortably, neither of them willing to move much more. Cash loved the feeling of Jenna next to him curled up, and he didn’t want to break the moment, but they had so much to discuss, and both of them had a meeting in less than an hour. Cash needed to tell her what had happened and what was going to happen next as long as she agreed.
It was weird to be so connected to someone but not really know them. The things he did know about Jenna he respected. She was loyal, caring, and selfless. She was also a loner who liked to run away from her problems. He planned on changing that. If she was going to run, he wanted her to run to him, nowhere else.
“Babe, we need to talk,” Cash said as he played with Jenna’s hair, sifting it through his fingers, letting it fall, only to put it up again. He loved her cinnamon and vanilla scent and the way that her hair seemed to glow blue in the sunlight filtering into the room from the window. He was surprised when she sat up and leaned toward the nightstand, getting the cup of coffee he had brought her.
“I think I’m going to need coffee to get through this.”
“Babe, don’t be like that, you don’t even know what I’m going to say, yet.”
“Let me guess, it will start with ‘I need to, or You should?’”
Cash pulled her back carefully, not letting the coffee she had in her hand spill but with enough force to let her know he wasn’t happy right now.
“No, from now on,” Cash said, looking her right in the eye, “everything will be, We should or What do you think. Don’t put me in the same category as everyone else in your life, Jenna, because I guaran-damn-tee, I will fight any mold you try to make.”
“We have a lot to figure out, we need to get to know each other better, but Jenna, your days of running are over. I will always find you now, there isn’t a place on earth you could hide from me. Do you understand?”
Jenna leaned back further into the bed, a scowl on her pretty face.
“I don’t want to hide from you, but I’m scared. I don’t know what happened while I was in there with Jacks, but I felt you, all of you. Gemini. But that isn’t the worst of it, I also know Declan and Uncle Matt know what you did too. I haven’t talked to them, but Cash, this is what they always wanted. Giving it to them seems wrong. What they will expect. What they will ask of you, everyone, I don’t know if I can live with that.”
“Do you have any idea why I choose to live alone, so far away from another soul I couldn’t even get you help when you needed it?”
“Tell me.” Cash knew he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear, but for Jenna, he would listen. He would try to understand, then he would go out and beat the hell out of the people who had harmed her.
“Uncle Matt found me when I was five years old at an orphanage. My file was sealed, but I was deemed unadoptable, something I was made aware of daily. When he took me away from there, I was thrilled. He scared me a little, but he had been so patient and kind, and he brought me Kayden.”
“Kayden Walker, the Bravo Team Alpha?” Cash didn’t know how he felt about Jenna being close to another Alpha. He could hear the affection she had for the other man when she said his name. After the man in question attacked him the same night Jenna saved Jacks, he started to think there might be more to their relationship, and his bear was clawing at him to get free.
“Yeah, that Kayden,” Jenna laughed and patted him on the chest. “Calm down, Kayden is like a brother to me, always has been. I do love him but only in that way, like you do Jacks or Ryleigh.”
That appeased his bear in a small way, but it wasn’t much. Cash still didn’t like it. He still needed to tell Jenna what went down with her so-called brother, but that would have to wait, he needed her focused on where she was now. He needed her to open up to him, so he knew what to do next.
“Anyway, Uncle Matt was gone a lot, so Kayden and I were raised by nannies. But when he was home, he would shower me with affection, gifts, and basically anything I wanted as long as I did one thing or another. I didn’t realize it then, but he was testing me.”
“But you were a child.”
“Yeah, it didn’t matter. He did the same to Kayden, only without the affection and gifts. He demanded it, or there would be consequences. I don’t think Uncle Matt abused him, but he wasn’t easy on him either. More like a very strict parent. Everything pretty much remained the same until I was fourteen and started to change when my gifts started to manifest. Kayden had hurt his hand in the woods, damn, I remember it like it was yesterday. He had been playing with one of Uncle Matt’s knives and cut himself deeply. I already knew he was a shifter and what that involved, I even knew his healing would take over, and he would be okay, but there was so much blood. I grabbed his hand, and my gift took over.”
“Pretty scary.”
“You have no idea. We both ended up on our asses. Kayden begged me not to tell anyone, and I was so scared, I agreed, but Uncle Matt already knew somehow. That’s when the tests intensified; he would bring other children over who were hurt or sick to “play” with me, always saying, “Now, Jenna, you can’t let them know what you’re doing.”
“Fuck me.”
“Yeah, every time I used my gift, I would get weaker and weaker, and I couldn’t let the person go. I would know things about them or know when they were going to do things. I started to refuse; I wouldn’t allow anyone to come near me except for Kayden. That’s when Uncle Matt and Declan brought Jessie and the Gunthers to me. Instant family, the only problem was they didn’t want me. Jessie was their golden child, and I was the one they didn’t want to remember. The one they gave up to get what they wanted. I was this constant reminder of how low two people would go to get what they wanted, and they let me know it. It wasn’t overt, but it was always there. Jessie, on the other hand, welcomed me with open arms as long as I played along with whatever she was doing at the time. It’s funny, I didn’t even know you, but she talked about you constantly that first year. I had this image in my mind, and I always wondered what it would be like if we ever met. I even saw you a couple of times when Jessie was sent out to find you.”
That sent Cash back. Jessie had been sent to find him but never contacted him, not even once, and Senior and Mattias both knew. That was something he would be discussing with Jessie later. Right now, he needed to concentrate on Jenna.
“Yeah,” Cash said, putting his arm around her back, squeezing her closer, “did I live up to your expectations?”
“That and more,” Jenna laughed, “but I don’t want to give you a big head, so we’ll just say meeting you was okay.”
Cash had always liked the Gunther’s but hearing about how they treated Jenna made him want to tear them apart. How could parents give up one child, only to keep another one? The things she had been through, damn. But he was learning his Jenna wasn’t as naïve as everyone thought she was. She watched, learned, and adapted. It would serve her well for what was to come.
“Just okay?” Cash tickled her ribs making her squirm. “Not good enough, I might think that’s another challenge,” Cash said, leaning down and taking her lips in a hard kiss.
Jenna pushed him away, smiling.
Nope, we’re going to do this because I don’t want to do it again. This will be referred to as the history of Jenna 101. A one-time class.”
“I was always a good student, I plan on passing this class with flying colors. Go on.”
“Okay because there will be a test afterward, so you know.”
“Noted.”
“Anyway, I don’t have to tell you about Jessie, you knew her. When she gets her mind set on something, there is no stopping her. I really don’t think the Gunthers ever said the word no to her, so she felt entitled.”
“Spoiled, more like it.”
“Yeah, spoiled would be a good word. When we came together, we triggered each other; my gift increased as long as Jessie was in the room or close by. Hers didn’t come until after that first year. Declan and Uncle Matt tested it constantly. If I refused, they would say they were going to send Jessie and the Gunther’s away.”
“Assholes!”
“Yeah, that and then some. When we were about eighteen, Jessie started to hang out with a tiger shifter in Kayden’s pride. He always bothered me; he wasn’t right in the way he acted with her or hell, anytime. If she wasn’t in the room, he was a different person altogether. One day, he challenged Kayden. The fight was brutal, and Gunner was taken down. Jessie demanded I help him, pushed her power into me until I almost passed out, but still I refused to help.”
“Shit, babe.”
“That isn’t all of it. Uncle Matt and Declan came and demanded I help the downed tiger. Gunner was near death, his internal and external injuries so extensive, I knew it would be impossible. But they insisted and used Kayden to get what they wanted. He was already injured from the challenge. Uncle Matt goaded him, causing him to attack. Using me against him. Every blow Kayden took, Declan would whisper in my ear, This will end if you just do what we ask. Jessie was standing there, arms crossed, glaring, watching Kayden get his ass handed to him, doing nothing to stop it. Yelling at me to save Gunner, demanding it. It got to be too much, so I did.”
Cash could see the scene in his mind like he had been there himself. Jenna and Kayden against two of the biggest and baddest shifters in existence. Kayden, full of beast, and Jenna scared, but both of them determined to save the other. He wished he could go back to that meeting this morning and bloody them both. He also wished he had handled Kayden differently.
“What happened, did you heal him?”
“Yeah, I healed him alright. I also took a part of him into myself when I did. He was right on the cusp of going rogue. He immediately attacked me. Uncle Matt got Jessie out of the room while Declan tried to subdue the man, but he kept coming, snarling and tearing at me.” Jenna rubbed her arm. Cash hadn’t noticed the thin white scars before, but now he could see them clearly.
“That’s not all, is it?” Cash questioned.
“No, they kept him alive for twenty-four hours. Declan had subdued him, but they also kept me in the room, not allowing me to leave and kept asking me questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Do you feel this? What is he thinking now? Over and over again. Having him in my mind caused me to have a break of some sort. I felt like I was going crazy. I must have passed out at some point because I woke up with Gunner leaning over me, half-shifted, teeth dripping with saliva. Kayden saved me and took me out of there.”
“Shit, babe I don’t like hearing any of this, and I want to kill both of them all of them for doing this shit to you, but I’m glad that Kayden got you out of there. Where did you go?”
“Kayden took me to Kiera,” Jenna smiled.
“Ah, it seems like we are all connected to Kiera in some way, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, I think we are. It took me over a year to recover from healing and being attacked by Gunner. I wasn’t the same person after that. Kiera helped me get my nursing degree and negotiate my release from Uncle Matt and Declan. I think Kayden helped too, I’m not really sure though.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it, he seems like a good guy even though I don’t know him well. He always kept to himself around me.”
“That’s because he was ordered to, we all were.”
Cash had suspected it but didn’t like it.
“It doesn’t sound like they would have been willing to let you go so easily. How did you manage that?”
“Well, they say knowledge is power, and I used the only thing I had.”
“Yeah, what is that?”
“You.”