Willow
Aiden was right.
It irked her to admit it, even to herself. But even more than that, it hurt. Because it meant she’d been wrong. Completely, utterly wrong. Not just about something, but about everything. The way that her father—NO. He is not my father. He is “Stephen”—the way Stephen had changed so completely and without any remorse had been a cold slap across the face.
Willow was starting to wake up now, to realize just how badly she’d been played. The reason why he’d adopted her was still a mystery to her, but it didn’t matter. For whatever reason, it had all been an act. He’d never cared. All the memories she had, they were false. Lies.
The tears continued to come down her face as her life came crashing down around her. Everything she’d thought she’d known was going up in flames. Burn it all, she figured. It was time to start fresh. The blinders were off now. No more looking the other direction.
She walked over to the door and locked it. Then she started piling objects in front of the doorway, pushing furniture, whatever she could to block the doorway.
“What are you doing in there?” Deckard called, pounding on the doorway.
“Throwing a hissyfit and preparing to smash some shit, you arrogant micro-penis!” she hollered back, surprised at her own vocabulary. “Now fuck the hell off and let me rage in peace.”
There was no more calling from the other side. But moments later she heard a plethora of voices start cursing. Heavy footsteps pounded down the hallway, and suddenly everything was silent.
Willow sniffed in derision. “Well then. It’s about time they gave me the respect I deserve.”
The sudden noise of something bouncing off her window caught her attention. She ran over to it and opened it.
“Aid—Pleh!” She spat the pebble that had landed in her mouth back out. “What the fuck, dude? You just threw that in my mouth! You need to ask before you do that!”
Aiden stood on the ground, arm raised to throw another pebble. “Uh, sorry,” he said, caught off guard.
“Seriously? You’re going to let me get the better of you with one dirty comment? Let’s go, Rescue Boy. Get me the fuck out of here.”
Aiden shook his head. “Holy shit, I fucking love you.”
She hadn’t been intending to hear those words, but they were said loud enough she could pick it up. A grin spread across her face as she realized, right then and there, that she felt the same. This man, this incredible man. He was hers and she wanted to be his oh so badly. It wasn’t going to be easy, and she was going to need some time to adjust to the complete upheaval and betrayal of her past life. But if he would stick by her and accept her nervousness over trusting someone again, she knew they could create a life together that others would only dream of.
“Yeah? Well get up here and say that to my face so that I can show you my response.”
“You need to jump,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll catch you. But we need to go. Now. There is exactly zero time, Willow. Let’s go!”
Jump? It was two stories down. Two big stories. That was a long, long way to fall. She knew Aiden was strong, but the idea of just blindly launching herself out the window was terrifying.
“Um, are you sure?”
“Yes! Positive! There are things going on you don’t know about. We need to GO!”
His tone was urgent enough to spur her into action. Willow ripped the screen off with a burst of strength she hadn’t realized she possessed. Then, backing up, she prepared to jump.
“GO!” he shouted from outside.
She started to run forward at the same instant the door behind her exploded inward under a massive blow. A huge body—Rokk—came through the door. Furniture and objects sprayed outward in a half-circle as he bulldozed his way through. A spinning piece of a chest took her in the side, throwing her off balance.
“AIDEN!” she shrieked as she fell to the floor.
Rokk was on her in a second, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder as he headed for the door. “I don’t think so,” he rumbled. “We have other plans for you. Let’s go.”
She beat and pounded on his back, but it was no use. The werewolf was far too strong for her to resist.
Behind her there was a roar and a huge figure came through the window, taking out the frame with it. Aiden thrashed his way into the house just as Rokk exited the room and ran down the hallway. Another shifter ran into the room to take him on. Langdon, she thought, but it was too fast for her to see. They retreated to Stephen’s study.
Stephen was there. His hands were a mess, covered in gauze that was soaked with red. Fury was etched in his features as he looked upon her while Flint wrapped the gauze around one palm then the other.
“I’m going to kill him,” her non-father snarled. “Slowly, and as excruciatingly painfully as I can, he will die. And you will watch.”
Rokk tossed her into a chair and then went to help Orren and Deckard, who were barricading the door behind them. They shoved a huge wardrobe in front of the door, then the massive oak desk, and piled other tables and chairs in front of it.
Orren tore up some floorboards and was in the process of wedging things tighter when a werewolf missile came hurtling through the doors, shattering the barricade in the process. The beaten and bloodied form hit the far wall, nearly going right through it before bouncing off. At first she feared that it was Aiden, but as the others reacted with anger and turned to face the door, she saw through the bruised and bloodied face that it was Langdon.
“Let her go.” The voice that came through from the hallway didn’t sound like it was coming from any human throat. It was too deep, snarly, and sounded like there were teeth in the way.
“Fuck you!” Flint shouted. “Why should we? There’s more of us than there are you. You’re screwed.”
She edged closer until she could see into the hole. Aiden was standing there, his features enlarged and filled with animal qualities. She gasped. He was holding his shifter-change in check, giving him some of the animal qualities while still in human form. His jaw was a little longer and filled with more teeth, his limbs more fluid, and long claws could be seen in place of his fingernails.
Oh, and there was midnight black fur everywhere. He still looked more human than not, but it was an unbelievable display of power that she knew very few could handle.
“Not nearly as screwed as you think,” the man-wolf hissed. She watched him reach into his pocket and remove a cell phone, waving it at Stephen’s pack.
“Oh no. What are you going to do, call the police?”
Aiden sighed visibly. “No, you gargoyle, it’s not what I’m going to do. It’s what I already did.”
There was a massive BOOM! from what sounded like the front door. The entire house shook.
“What was that?” Stephen asked, sounding a bit panicky.
“That,” Aiden said, supplying the answer, “would be the first half of the RRT that I summoned. The second should be here any mome—”
Willow screamed and dove for cover as the glass ceiling above them shattered and half a dozen figures came leaping down into her father’s study.