Prologue
Eden Millicent Lancaster stared at her friend in growing horror. “Bayleigh…” She swallowed. “Don’t say things like that, honey.”
“You know it’s true. My husband’s going to kill me one of these days.” Her friend Bayleigh’s shaking fingers curled over but couldn’t completely cover the large, hand-shaped bruise on her forearm. “And he’s started being verbally abusive toward Sybil. It’s only a matter of time before…” Tear-filled eyes pleaded with Eden. “She’s just a baby. He’ll kill her too.”
Both of them glanced toward the eighteen-month-old girl who slept in the portable crib set up in a corner of Millie’s one-bedroom apartment.
“But…why?” Eden didn’t understand in the slightest. Things had seemed to be going well between Bayleigh and her husband, Garland Scott, until the last month or so. Unless… “How long has he been hurting you?” she asked her best friend, eyes narrowed and heart braced.
“From the beginning,” Bryson whispered.
Eden’s legs gave out, and she slumped in a heap onto an armchair in her living room. She and Bayleigh had known each other, instant friends, since the first day of ninth grade.
She was a shit best friend, to not realize things had gotten this bad.
“You couldn’t know,” Bayleigh said and sat down on the sofa. “I was too ashamed, and afraid of what he’d do if I went public with the abuse. Plus…” She curled into herself and put her face in her hands. “Oh, Edie, I’m such an idiot. He totally manipulated me into thinking everything was my fault. If he got angry over something, it was because I didn’t do what I should have. When he hit me, it was to get my attention because I let my mind wander.” She looked up, face shiny with tears. “I let him do that to me. But he will not do that to my daughter.”
“She’s his daughter, too,” Eden reminded her. “Surely he loves her.”
“Like he loves me? He tells me that all the time, even when he’s hurting me.” Bayleigh wiped her face with her fingers. “Women have little value to him,” she said. “He wouldn’t think twice about killing her, if she turns out not to be what he wants. And she will, because she’s my daughter. If he views me as weak, which he does, he’ll never see her as anything but weak, too.”
“But the Itan will intervene, right? Or at least punish him.” Women and cubs were supposed to be cherished. Protected. At least in other clans they were. Maybe that was just an old wives’ tale. Maybe all bear clans were like the one she and Bayleigh belonged to.
Bayleigh shook her head. “You have to know our exalted leader has the same viewpoint as my husband.” Sarcasm edged the sorrow and fear in her tone. “Otherwise Garland would never be permitted to get away with it. Anytime he’s had any interaction with us, it’s clear he considers us to be sub-standard. Partly because we’re female and therefore, in his opinion, weak, and partly because we’re not purebreds. And, therefore, weak. The only ones the Itan of Lookout Mountain cares about are purebred bears.” She stood. “He won’t do squat about Garland. Heck, he probably tells him to go ahead and beat on me.”
Like Eden, Bayleigh was half bear, half human, and the human half kept her from shifting. There had to be more to it than that, because they both knew of other mixed breeds who could shift into their animals, but Eden and Bayleigh could not, and the Itan wasn’t forthcoming with an explanation.
This was wrong on so many levels. That Bayleigh had to ask a friend to hide her child in order to protect her from the other parent was incomprehensible. Yet that was where things stood.
“Edie, I’m a thirty-one-year-old, seemingly-intelligent woman who’s stayed with an abusive husband for seven years!” Bayleigh grabbed her purse. “You…you just watch Sybil for me, okay? I’m going to go home and pack some things and get them loaded into the trunk of my car while Garland’s at work.” She checked her watch. “It’s early yet, but if you don’t hear from me by lunchtime, you have to take Sybil and run.”
Eden popped up off the sofa. “It’s come to that?” she whispered. She had no doubt about what her friend was trying to tell her. She just couldn’t get her head wrapped around it.
Bayleigh nodded. “The best thing you can do is settle with a bear clan where Garland and the Itan have no influence. I put together a list for you.” She bent her head and dug in her purse. Dragging out a thick envelope, she pressed it into Eden’s hands. “The list is in here, along with four thousand dollars. I’ve been saving for months. This was all I could get my hands on without alerting Garland. It’s not much, but it should help.”
“Bayleigh, no!” Eden tried to hand the money back. “You don’t need to pay me to watch over your daughter.”
“This is to keep her safe. You need it,” Bayleigh returned, her inner mama bear lending her innate ferocity, even if the bear couldn’t come completely out. Bayleigh walked to the door, her heels clacking on the hardwood floor. “If you have to run, you need to leave your cell phone behind so he can’t trace you through it, so you’ll need a new phone. You’ll need fake ID.” When Eden started to object, Bayleigh lifted a hand. “We both know a couple of guys back from our time in foster care. They’ll kit you out. Plus, you might need to buy a car so he can’t be on the lookout for yours. I’m sorry, with all that, four thousand dollars won’t go very far.”
If she had to buy a car and pay Mike for fake ID, it wouldn’t go far at all.
“You take the next couple of hours and get yourself ready to go. Seriously.” She swallowed. “You’ll need to put some of your blood on Sybil’s skin, somewhere beneath her clothes, so that she smells like you. Every day, Edie. Don’t forget. Get your blood on her, and that should fool other shifters into believing you’re her mom.”
“You can count on me.” Eden dragged Bayleigh into a hug and fought back tears.
“I know.” Bayleigh drew away and glanced at her daughter. Even with Eden’s limited abilities, she could scent anguish rolling in waves from her friend. A tear trailed down Bayleigh’s cheek, and she drew in a sharp breath. She opened the door and looked at Eden. “Take care of my baby.”
“Come with us,” Edie begged. “We can leave right now. We’ll make sure he never finds us.”
Bayleigh shook her head. “I can’t take that chance. If I’m not home when he gets there, he’ll come looking for me, us, right away. I don’t care what he does to me. He won’t touch Sybil.” She wiped tears from her cheek. “Take care of her.”
“I’ll protect her with my life,” Edie promised.
And that was the last time Eden Millicent Lancaster saw her best friend.