Chapter Nine

Gavin leaned into Dale, grasping the front of his long-sleeved, black T-shirt in his fist. If it was possible to draw strength from another being without words, Gavin was doing his damnedest to make it true.

His mind wandered from one problem to another, never stopping long to focus on any one thing. In a way, it was good that he was so worried about his connection to Dale because it kept him from hyperventilating over what Paige was going through.

Please let her be safe, he repeated over and over again in his mind between fretting about what the council was going to do when they arrived and what his relationship with Dale would look like when this was over. The way the man gripped him gave Gavin the eerie feeling that after this morning he might never see Dale again.

There were demons in Dale’s past. Enormous ones that might be insurmountable. It wasn’t explicable how Gavin knew this, but he did.

Gavin jerked his attention out the front window as the SUV pulled off the main highway onto a dirt road. “Where are we going?” Lord, he hadn’t realized when Dale found the address that they would be heading to a remote location.

“It’s a rental cabin. The company owns several, but they’re spread out off this main road. Secluded. If I hadn’t discovered the address, there’s a chance no one would have found Kelly for months.” Dale shuddered against Gavin.

Gavin sat up straighter, keeping one hand on Dale’s thigh but dislodging himself from the tight embrace. The SUV took another turn, and then he saw Paige’s car sitting at an angle in front of a small cabin in the distance. Small was the operative word. Someone would really have to enjoy nature and embrace being alone to drive out to this secluded area on purpose.

“Is she in there?” Gavin asked, knowing Dale would have already scented her.

“Yes. Just her and Kelly.”

George pulled the SUV over to the side of the dirt road well away from the cabin to avoid detection. Two seconds later, Bernard pulled up next to the SUV with Wyatt in the passenger seat.

All six of them jumped out and soundlessly made their way toward the cabin.

Gavin had never been more of an outsider. He watched as everyone else communicated with each other without words, sometimes pointing toward one side of the cabin and then the other. He grabbed Dale’s shoulder when they came to a stop and crouched down. “Talk to me,” he whispered.

Dale set his hand on top of Gavin’s and squeezed before murmuring under his breath, “She’s safe. No sign of a weapon. Sounds like Kelly is totally whacked.”

“We knew that.”

Seconds went by. Everyone else rushed into various positions. Gavin’s heart pounded.

Dale pulled Gavin’s hand down and held it against his thigh, never taking his eyes off the cabin. He whispered again. “Wyatt’s going in first, followed by the council members. We’ll follow.”

Gavin watched as Wyatt inched to look into one of the two windows on the cabin. He immediately ducked and turned around to signal he was going in.

As soon as he pushed the front door open, he and the council members stormed inside.

Gavin heard a squeal of surprise coming from Kelly, and without thinking, he jumped to his feet and raced toward the cabin. He needed to see Paige for himself. Nothing else mattered. The second he stepped into the cabin, relief washed over him. “Paige,” he called, rushing toward her.

She was in a cage, a damn animal cage, like something you would keep a gorilla in or some other strong, larger animal. It wasn’t big enough for Paige to stand or lie down. Paige smiled. “I’m okay.”

Gavin grabbed the bars and tugged as if the cage would open from that simple motion.

A second later, Wyatt nudged Gavin out of the way, a set of keys dangling from his hand. He quickly stuck one in the lock, swung the cage open, and rushed to pull Paige out of the enclosure.

Gavin sat back on his heels, breathing heavily.

Wyatt held on to Paige for long minutes, his body language telling Gavin how much he cared about her and how important she was to him. It was absurd for Gavin to feel as much relief as he did. There were still so many unanswered questions. But he knew one thing for sure—Paige was in good hands. The best. She would be loved like she deserved for the rest of her life. For that Gavin was grateful.

When Gavin finally pulled himself to his feet and looked around, he found Bernard and Dale holding Kelly securely to a chair. They wrestled with her until they could tie her arms behind her back, attaching her wrists to the rungs at the back of the chair.

George and Henry had stepped outside and were currently pacing in front of the cabin, speaking in hushed tones to each other while occasionally pausing to communicate with someone not present.

When Wyatt finally released Paige enough for her to breathe freely, she reached back and gave Gavin a big hug. “I’m okay,” she repeated as she grabbed his face with her hands to look in his eyes. “Promise.”

Gavin realized he was shaking.

Wyatt leaned down to wrestle the keys from the lock and handed them to Gavin. “Hold on to these, will you.”

Gavin noticed the set of keys were Paige’s. The crazy woman had put the key to the cage on Paige’s key ring. He shuddered.

“We need to go outside. George and Henry are waiting for us,” Wyatt stated.

Gavin nodded and followed the others out the door.

George had one hand on a hip and was rubbing his forehead with the other hand. “This is one of the most complicated cases I’ve ever dealt with.”

Henry nodded in agreement. “We’ve communicated with Charles and Laurence, who cleaned out this woman’s apartment in Calgary, and we’ve come up with a plan.” He turned his attention to Paige. “I’m sorry you got messed up in this. Unfortunately, there’s no way to keep you from the fallout.”

Paige nodded.

Gavin grew tense. He glanced at Dale to find him standing next to the cabin’s closest window, keeping an eye on Kelly, though there was little chance the crazy woman could escape. And where would she go? The tiny cabin had only the one main room and a bathroom. Dale could easily see the entire inside through the window. There was one door.

He turned his attention back to the two powerful council members whose mere presence alone was enough to shake the fear of God into anyone passing by. George’s gaze was focused directly on Gavin, his brow furrowed. “Son, I don’t know how much you know about our species, but we’re about to discuss things you can’t begin to imagine. At this point, you’re so involved with the situation that it can’t be avoided. In addition, we’ve had to include you in part of the solution, so I’m going to ask you to stay and hear me out.

“Ordinarily I would not include a human in any aspect of this cleanup, but this is an extraordinary situation, and it can’t be avoided. Taking care of this threat to our community is my number one priority. When we’re finished, either Henry or I will want to speak with you separately.”

Gavin nodded slowly, his neck feeling stiff. He stood several feet from Dale, though he wished he were closer so he could draw strength from the man he’d grown to trust. As it turned out, Paige reached a hand out toward Gavin, and he went to her side where she was crushed against Wyatt’s chest. She took his hand and whispered, “Sorry.”

George cleared his throat. “Here’s the plan we’ve come up with. If anyone sees a hole in it or has a suggestion that would improve upon the details, feel free to jump in.”

Paige squeezed Gavin’s hand so tight, her grip telling him this was going to blow his mind. He knew something huge was about to happen. He expected the council members to take Kelly away. Would they dispose of her instead? Here in the mountains? The woman couldn’t be permitted to return to her life. She knew too much.

Gavin’s mouth was dry. He couldn’t draw in another breath. Instead, he put all his focus on George’s next words.

“Wiping her memory is going to be tricky in this case. She has accumulated so much evidence in two apartments that we’re concerned about her stumbling upon her own pictures and videos at some point. But that’s what we’re going to attempt, and then we’ll have a few shifters assigned to her to ensure she doesn’t veer from the plan.”

Gavin froze. His hand went limp in Paige’s grip. Wiping her memory… It was difficult to focus on the rest of George’s speech, but he forced himself to concentrate while his brow began to sweat and his hands felt clammy.

“Of course we’ve already eliminated all signs indicating the existence of shifters from both her apartments. However, due to the nature of her human crimes, we’ve decided it isn’t prudent to simply erase her knowledge and release her to society. She’s unstable and unpredictable.

“Therefore, we’ve decided to create a new reality, one in which she will believe she has been pursuing Gavin Wright romantically for a long time.” George glanced at Gavin as he continued. “She was so enamored with him that she found herself wanting to eliminate his long-time girlfriend.” He pointed at Paige.

Paige nodded her understanding.

“We’ll alter her reality and then call the human police to arrest her.”

George kept speaking, spelling out the intricate details of the plan, but Gavin had lost the ability to think or feel or hear. It felt like the world had paused, frozen in a new state. Or perhaps he’d slipped into another dimension.

Wiping her memory… He could hear only those words over and over again in his mind. The Arcadian Council had the ability and the power to change what Kelly knew?

They could do the same to him. For an entire day, he’d worried about what the council was going to do to Kelly when they found her. He’d imagined all sorts of horrible fates and projected them on himself. Why wouldn’t the shifters want to eliminate any threat that existed against their people?

There was no reason to let Gavin walk the earth knowing such intimate details about the existence of grizzly shifters. He’d feared whatever they would do to Kelly would also happen to him. And now he knew. They had the ability to erase her knowledge of shifters.

Fuck.

His entire world for ten years was wrapped around his best friend, and she happened to be one of this other species. If the council erased his knowledge of shifters, what would be left of his friendship?

His knees started to buckle.

Everyone was still discussing their options, but he couldn’t breathe. He needed to get as far away as possible. Rationally, he knew he couldn’t escape these powerful men, but he still had to flee. As fast as possible. Put as much distance between himself and the end of his existence. Now.

Without another glance at anyone, Gavin pulled Paige’s keys from his pocket and ran toward her car. He had only one thought. Escaping. Now. As fast as possible. It would only buy him time, and probably not much, but he would cherish every hour that passed before he found himself living in another reality. Who was he kidding? He would never even know his world had changed.

He fumbled with the door to Paige’s car. It was locked. His hand shook, and his ears were ringing as he found the right key and stuck it in the hole.

Before he could open the door, two arms came around him and pulled him back.

Dale.

Gavin struggled against Dale’s chest, trying to free himself. “I need to go. Please…”

“No. Gavin stop.” Dale held him tighter. “Listen to me.”

Gavin bucked forward in a last attempt to escape the arms of the man he’d fallen so hard for in just a few days. But Dale was far larger than him. There was no way Gavin could match his lover’s strength.

He gasped for air as Dale turned him away from everyone else and practically carried him farther from the house and the car. He didn’t stop until they were out of sight behind a grove of evergreen trees. Only then did Dale release his tight grip, not entirely, but enough that Gavin could breathe.

Dale kept one arm around Gavin’s chest, but he lifted his other hand to brush Gavin’s hair off his forehead and then stroke his cheek. “You’re okay. Relax. Deep breaths.”

How could he be sure Gavin was okay? He had no way of knowing what it was like to be a human in a shifter world. “Let me go, Dale. Please.”

“You gonna run?”

“Yes.” There was no sense in lying. Dale could track him down again in an instant.

“Then no.” He held on tighter. They stood there forever while Dale rocked Gavin back and forth, stroking his fingers over Gavin’s face and neck. Soothing him with his presence. How long would it last? How long before that older shifter came over and erased all knowledge of Dale from Gavin’s mind?

“You don’t understand,” Gavin offered.

“I do. I saw your reaction when you found out what George is going to do. I knew you would freak out if you heard of that ability.”

“Freak out?” Gavin’s voice rose. He gave a sardonic chuckle. “Why would I freak out?” Sarcasm oozed from his mouth. “I mean it’s no biggy. The two enormous older guys are just going to wipe Kelly’s memory. No reason to think they won’t fix mine next.” He slumped. There was no way to stop this thing from happening. He didn’t know why he bothered to struggle.

Dale’s voice was calm. Low. Almost a whisper. “No one is going to wipe your memory, Gavin. You aren’t a threat to our society. Kelly is.”

“How can you know that?” He twisted his head around and glanced up. “You don’t know that.”

Dale nodded. “I do. I need you to trust me.”

“Trust you? Why? So you can lure me back over there and those two guys can hold some sort of flashing light up to my face and change my history. No thank you.”

Dale smiled. It looked like he tried to fight it but lost. “Flashing light? You’ve been watching too much sci-fi, baby.”

Gavin turned all the way around, though Dale didn’t release him. Now they were chest to chest. “Dale, I’m living on the set of a sci-fi movie. It’s my life. Don’t try to act like it would be any weirder for your giant ruling body to flash something in front of my eyes to wipe my memory.”

Dale didn’t laugh this time. “You’re right. From your perspective, I can see your point. But your situation is different from hers in so many ways. Evidence would suggest Kelly has been plotting to out shifters from the moment she found out about them last year. That’s when she started following Paige and by default you too.”

Gavin shuddered. “A year? I didn’t realize it went back that far. How did she find out?”

Dale cringed. “Same man who revealed himself to you—Antoine Tarben.”

“Damn.”

“And once again, Tarben is already in custody. I’m sure he left a wake of issues the Arcadian Council will be cleaning up for years to come.”

Gavin nodded slowly. “That’s all very interesting, but it doesn’t make me feel better.” The council could alter his mind at any time for any reason. Just knowing that gave him chills that would never go away. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. He would always be worrying, wondering, afraid. He needed to get out of there.

“I’m still asking you to trust me.”

“And I’m asking you to let me go.”

Dale hesitated. He glanced off to the left, his brown eyes glassy in that way he got when he was communicating with someone else. When he dropped his face back to center, he nodded. “Okay. We’re going to take Paige’s car. I’ll drive.”

“What? You can’t leave. They probably need you.”

“They don’t need me. There’re plenty of people here to clean this up. I’ll get you out of here.”

Gavin watched Dale’s face for any sign the man was lying and found nothing but genuine concern. “Okay, please take me back to my apartment.” It wasn’t as if Gavin had another way to get there. He would need to rely on someone to take him if he wasn’t going to be permitted to drive himself.

Dale angled Gavin to press him against his side and led him back to the car. The others were no longer standing around the front of the cabin. George and Henry were inside. Bernard, Wyatt, and Paige were sitting in Wyatt’s truck. Waiting? For what? For the council to return and let them know the deed was done in the house? Or perhaps they were waiting for Gavin and Dale to emerge from the trees.

Either way, Gavin didn’t make eye contact. He was scared and embarrassed. Instead, he let Dale lead him to the passenger door of Paige’s Nisan and climbed inside. He slumped against the seat and rubbed his temples with both hands. Seconds later Dale drove them away from the scene.

He didn’t say a word as he headed back down the windy mountain path toward Silvertip. Twenty minutes later, he pulled up in front of the apartment building and shut off the engine.

Gavin climbed from the car, but Dale followed him. Gavin doubted there was any sense arguing with the man. He wouldn’t win. Dale was persistent when he needed to be. He would see Gavin to his apartment. Hopefully, Gavin could ditch him quickly so he could be alone.

No such luck there either. Dale’s first words were spoken after he shut the door and led Gavin to the couch, lowering the two of them onto it. “Damn this place is small. I can’t believe Alton lived here for two years let alone kept it to sublet.”

Gavin nodded, not bothering to glance around. He stared at the floor. He was fully aware of how tiny the seven-hundred-square-foot apartment was. It was hardly bigger than the cabin they’d just left. It was also the most boring space Gavin had ever seen in his life, and he had intended to spruce it up over the summer to make it bearable.

He realized now he wouldn’t stay in Silvertip. He needed to head back to Calgary. Paige didn’t need him. He wasn’t even sure he would remember who she was in a few hours.

Dale reached for Gavin’s chin and forced him to meet his gaze. “Talk to me.”

“Nothing to say. You can go. I’m fine,” he lied. Maybe he could gather his shit and slip out of town before anyone noticed. He couldn’t take much since he only had his Chieftain, but he could leave and go any direction he wanted. Get a hotel room somewhere and relax for a few days before they found him.

Dale’s expression was serious, his brows drawn together. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

The feel of Dale’s fingers against his skin was more than Gavin could handle. He jerked free and stood, heading to the kitchen to grab a water. He was so thirsty.

“The memory-altering has totally freaked you out.”

“Ya think?” Gavin asked as he twisted the top off his water bottle. He couldn’t avoid the spew of sarcasm that was about to rush from his mouth. “I mean no big deal. Just my best friend since I was like three years old. The person who helped me stay in the closet all these years. The sweetest woman I’ve ever met who has kept this secret for me for my entire life.” He shrugged. “What difference does it make if she’s erased from my mind?”

“Gavin…” Dale’s voice was tense. He stood.

Gavin held out a hand. “No. Really. It’s fine. I won’t even know the difference, will I? Hey,” he widened his eyes and snapped his fingers, “while they’re at it you think they could also make me not gay? Life would be so much easier if I were attracted to women. Then it wouldn’t matter much that I lost Paige.”

Dale’s face was hard.

Gavin kept going, his thoughts tumbling over each other in rapid succession. “Maybe when they erase Paige, they can replace her with an actual girlfriend I’ve had for several years. My parents will be so pleased.” He frowned, thinking of complications. “Damn. That won’t work either, will it? Because that would require also altering my parents’ memory. Can they do that too?”

Dale stepped forward. “Gavin. Babe.”

Gavin’s stress level was rising instead of lowering. He wasn’t the sort of person who lost his cool, but suddenly he’d had more than he could handle. He lifted the half-empty bottle of water and flung it across the room. It whizzed by Dale’s head and hit the far wall—about ten feet away—and splashed all over the beige carpet.

Jerking his gaze to the man he’d only known a week, he continued, his voice higher. “You know what sucks the most? It’s not even the lifetime friendship or my knowledge of another species. I wouldn’t say this in front of Paige, but dammit, the last five days have been the best five days of my life. My short pitiful life. I have felt more at home in my skin this past week than ever before.

“I felt like I fit in better with a bunch of freaking bear shifters than the regular humans I was raised with. And I know we’ve only spent a few hours together, and it probably meant very little to you, but I’ve never been so comfortable with another man. Never felt so in tune, so cared for, so…happy. Erasing that from my memory makes me hyperventilate.

“I don’t care that it never would have worked out in the end. I’m not stupid. I know it wasn’t meant to last. It was a fling. But it meant something to me.” He shrugged again, trying to make light of the fact that he was on the verge of crying—something he hadn’t done even alone since he was a child. “You have a life to live. I have to go back to Calgary anyway, face my parents, finish my thesis, get a job.”

He lowered his gaze to the floor and whispered the rest. “It’s probably for the best. Not remembering I mean. But it hurts all the same.”

Dale closed the last few feet between them, grabbed Gavin’s wrists, and backed him into the refrigerator. He pinned Gavin’s arms at his sides and slammed his mouth down onto Gavin’s. He didn’t waste time thrusting his tongue in deep and devouring Gavin like a starving man.

Gavin groaned at the intensity of the contact and the instant arousal that shot straight to his cock. There was nothing sexier than when Dale took control like this and demanded compliance.

When Dale released Gavin’s wrists to smooth his hands up Gavin’s arms and then cup his face, he also thrust a knee between Gavin’s legs, holding him firmly against the fridge. The kiss went on for long minutes while Gavin’s body melted into his lover’s embrace, and he wrapped his arms around Dale’s waist to hold him tight.