Every moment, Swift made it clear she didn’t want Brett around and the tension from Noah’s departure only made her edgier. His bear snarled at him, demanding that he do something to put her at ease. She was his mate, even if she didn’t like that fact, and he didn’t want to see her so full of anxiety that her body ached. He’d rather she ached for other reasons…

He had been at this juncture and his bear was eager to take over. He’d made it through and was determined to help her do the same. The first step was to get her to trust him. He rose from where he squatted before her, grabbed one of the two chairs from the small table on the other side of the room and brought it closer.

“What did Noah mean that we have a lot to discuss?”

“Jase planned to send me even before he learned I was your mate.” He placed the chair close to her but far enough away that they were not touching, and sat down. “Actually, it was Sin who I spoke with about joining Noah for this trip. She wanted me to see if I could help you because I’ve been where you are.”

“I’ve already been through that. Garrett’s sister Ginger tried but I can’t…”

“I don’t know Ginger’s story. I only know that according to Sin, it’s different. You witnessed your leash get—”

“Don’t say it!” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Don’t say it, please don’t…”

“Shh, Swift.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay. It will never be okay.”

“I know.” Without letting go of her hand, he moved his chair closer so that their knees touched. “What happened will stay with you forever. Nothing will erase the memories or the blood spilled. But you can move past it.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it’s possible.” He rubbed his thumb over the top of her knuckles. “Mating will help, too.”

She tried to pull back from him but when his grip on her hand tightened, she stopped. “I’m not mating with you just because you think it will help me. I don’t even know you. It might be impossible for us to put up with each other and that would only make a bad situation worse. It’s not happening, buddy, so if you think you can just stroll in here and claim me, you’re out of your mind!” She tried to pull back again, but he gently yet firmly had her stay put.

“It’s a pleasure to see that your temper is still intact.” He gave her a smile and squeezed her hand. “Listen, feisty, that’s not what I meant and you know it. Your fear reeked through this motel room when we arrived, but since I took your hand, it has subsided.”

“Maybe I don’t see you as a threat anymore.”

“Noah and I weren’t the ones you feared.”

To prove a point, he let go of her hand and made sure their knees weren’t touching. As soon as the contact between them ceased, the fear started to rear its head once more.

“What…what are you doing?” She reached out to him again but he pulled back.

“Focus on the fear.”

“What?”

“Trust me.” He wanted to comfort her but, with the slightest touch, the fear would pop around her. “Focus on the fear. What are you terrified of? What does the darkness hold? Whatever it is, I know it’s not Noah or me.”

“I can’t…”

“You can. Now focus and tell me what you see. What do you fear?”

“They’re coming for me. They know I lived and they want me dead.” Her voice broke and tears welled in her eyes. “Guns and knives. They want to see the fear in my eyes as they kill me. I’m scared but there will be peace afterwards. No more running in terror.”

Unable to take it any longer, he rose from the chair and went to sit on the bed next to her. He wrapped his arm around her, pressing her against his body. “It’s okay, Swift; no one is here. You’re safe.” The details he gathered from Sin about what happened to her leash gave him further insight into his mate.

“They’ll come back. Just as they did with Zoe’s family.”

“They’re dead. They’re not coming back.” He smoothed his hand down her arm. “Jase and the others made sure they were dead. I know you don’t believe it, but you’re safe from them.”

Even though he wanted to, he couldn’t stop himself from adding ‘from them’. The men responsible for the attacks on the foxes were dead but that didn’t mean some other lunatic wouldn’t pick up where they started. There was a terrorist group out to eliminate them and their kind. Each week, they picked a new target, but how long would it be before they chose foxes? Swift wouldn’t see this as a random thing; she’d see it as a personal attack on her. He needed to get her back to Crimson Hollow where she would be safe and shelter her from news of these murderers.

They sat there in silence, mostly because he didn’t want to push her further and make her kick him out. She was his mate and he needed to help her move past this if they were going to have any kind of future together. Jase and Sin were also counting on him to bring her back to the tribe. Being a new member, he was just getting them to trust him. Bringing her back would be a good stepping stone to making a home for himself in Crimson Hollow.

“Ginger tried to help me, but the murder she witnessed was to protect her. My family was slaughtered in front of me and I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t save them.”

“You’re feisty but you’d have been no match for them.” He laid his other hand on her leg, linking their fingers. “You were what? Five? Six?”

“I had turned seven the day before.” She rested her head against his shoulder. “My parents arranged for everyone to come together in the courtyard. They had a bonfire, lots of delicious food, games, and a birthday cake that would rival a wedding cake. It was taller than me, with multiple layers. A beautiful thing; I almost didn’t want to eat it but Sin’s mother had baked it and I knew it would be the best damn cake I’d ever tasted. She was a hell of a baker.”

“See?” He unhooked his hand from hers to gently lift her chin and bring her eye to eye. “Those memories are what you need to focus on when the fear returns. Remember your family at the party, having a good time. Surrounded by everyone you love.”

“But they’re dead now,” she reminded him.

“Dead but never forgotten. They wouldn’t want you to remember them the way you do now. They’d want you to focus on the good times.”

“How do you know? You never met them. I don’t know why you’re even here. Why does any of this matter to you?”

“Let me tell you a story.” Needing space, he stepped away from her. He could sense the fear beginning to creep back into her but she was doing her best to suppress it. “At eighteen, I was wild, running with the wrong crowd, and basically needed a good ass kicking from my old man. I wanted freedom. I was tired of being stifled by their rules and customs. I thought I was tough and, to impress a girl, I borrowed a friend’s motorcycle. This didn’t go smoothly and, needing time to lick my wounds, I went on a drive. There was an abandoned farm a few miles out of town where we used to hang out, drinking and partying. That’s where I was heading.”

When he fell silent, she probed him. “What happened?”

“I parked a few miles away, planning on going for a run in the woods, but something stronger was calling my name. In the master bedroom there was a loose floorboard which I’d turned into my hidey hole for the bottle of whiskey I kept there. My anger controlled my beast enough that I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings and I stumbled into something I should never have witnessed. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who wanted to use the house that night. Two guys were there with an older businessman. Over the howling of the wind, I couldn’t hear what they were saying but they must have heard me because they shot him and started to come after me.”

He stood near the window but didn’t pull the curtains back so he could see outside. It wouldn’t have mattered because all he could see before him were the results of what he’d set into motion that night. “I was young and naive. They warned me if I said anything to anyone or went to the cops, I’d be the next one left for dead. But, did I listen?”

“Being Mr. Tough Bear, I highly doubt it.”

When he glanced over his shoulder at her, she had a small grin on her face. “You’re right, I couldn’t. The man’s family deserved to know what had happened to him. But I didn’t know what I was getting into. I didn’t know these guys were cops. They were on the take—”

“Huh? On the take of what?”

“They were being paid off not to do their jobs. Drug dealers were paying these guys to look the other way. The guy they killed was an accountant who skimmed money from his clients. He was late on a payment and they didn’t like that.” The scent of fear, sweat, and gunpowder filled his nose as if he had gone back in time. “I didn’t know who they were but I couldn’t sit and do nothing so I went to the one person I knew I could trust. Sergeant Black, a black bear I’d met a couple years before. They were gathering evidence on the guys and they needed my testimony to help bring them down. I had done some things I wasn’t proud of and to me this was my chance to make amends. Doing the right thing meant I could save someone else from that same fate. Bad cops like that taint the whole force.”

“Good, assholes like that don’t deserve to be on the force. But I don’t understand what this has to do with anything.”

“My actions had consequences.” He dragged his hand through his hair and down his face. “I expected them to come after me. Sergeant Black put me up in a safe house outside of town, leaving a careful trail for them to follow. We were ready for them when they made their move. What I wasn’t ready for was them going after my family.”

“Oh, Brett, I’m sorry.”

“They called my cell phone and I could hear my mother screaming in the background. Without taking the time to tell Sergeant Black, I jumped into my car and took off toward home. They wanted me, not my family. If only I could get to them in time. Desperate to save my family, I raced across town. We had our differences, but they didn’t deserve this. It was my fault they were in this situation.” He slammed his hand against the wall and, once again, he could sense her fear spiking. “Time wasn’t on my side. I was too far away and these assholes wanted to eliminate anyone that could be trouble. Mom, Dad, and Annie—they couldn’t live because they had seen the officers’ faces and could identify them. I wasn’t thinking, just reacting. I arrived too late.”

“Brett, you don’t have to do this.”

He ignored her and continued, “They saw my father as a threat and eliminated him before I arrived. The medical examiner said he’d been dead before I even received the call. I arrived just as another shot echoed through the air. When I opened the door, I found my mother slumped over and my sister screaming. She was bound to the chair; terror filled her eyes as tears streamed down her face. I offered myself up in her place.” He could see himself back in the living room of the house he’d grown up in. His parents’ bodies on the floor as the blood seeped out of their wounds…

“It’s me you want, not her.” Willing to exchange his life for his sister’s, he moved farther into the house. “Let her go. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“We warned you. Did you really think it wouldn’t come to this? You were off in a safe house protected, leaving your family vulnerable. We were within our rights to make them pay for your betrayal.”

“Betrayal? That’s what you consider this? You killed a man.”

“Since you couldn’t keep your mouth shut, your family will die and then so will you.”

Officers descended on the house and chaos erupted. Shots rang out as he rushed toward Annie and his shoulder exploded with pain. This didn’t stop him—he had to get to Annie; he had to save his sister. She was all he had left. Fifteen years old, she hadn’t even started living yet. Reaching her, he sliced through the ropes that bound her to the chair, but it was too late. She was shot, her white t-shirt covered in blood. “Annie!” he screamed as he lifted her into his arms and ducked behind the kitchen counter. There was no way he’d make it out of the house. Not with all of the gunfire. “Annie, don’t you die on me!”

“Brett…” Her words were soft as she reached out to touch his chest.

He couldn’t do anything for her as the darkness still surrounded him. He needed to finish the story, to get it off his chest once and for all. This was the first time he’d told someone everything and there was a bit of relief to it. “Sergeant Black must have heard me leave because the next thing I knew, he and his officers descended on the house. I rushed toward Annie, but before I could get there, another shot was fired, striking her in the chest. She died at the hospital later that day. All because of me. If I’d have kept my mouth shut, she’d still be alive. If I had been home, they’d still be alive.”

“Or you might be dead.”

He blinked away the past and looked down at her. “We’re both alive for a reason. While the memories of what we witnessed and the guilt will always be with us, we need to remember that we are alive and we owe it to those we love who died to take advantage of every moment. We have to live life to the fullest because of those who didn’t have the chance to do so.”

Some days, that was harder to do than others, but now that he’d found her, maybe that would change.