CHAPTER TWELVE
Connor paced the floor, unable to rest for a single moment. Sarah was sitting back against the cushions, her eyes barely open as she watched him.
“You know she’s going to run back to him, don’t you?”
Turning to stare at Sarah, Connor shook his head. “She won’t. She promised.”
Sarah’s eyes closed tightly as a ripple of pain ran over her features. “She loves you too much to stay. I can see in her eyes that she’s planning to run back to him.” A single tear dripped down her cheek, the first display of emotion Sarah had given him.
“We’ll get Thomas back,” Connor murmured, sitting down next to her and taking her hand. “Don’t worry, Sarah. Thomas can look after himself.”
She gave a tiny nod. “I know he can.”
“I’ll go on the hunt if I have to.”
“You can’t!” Sarah exclaimed, opening her eyes to stare at him. “Stephen is an alpha, and who knows who else he has on his side! If you go against him alone, you’ll probably end up captured or worse!” She grasped his hand tightly. “We have to wait for the others.”
Frustrated, Connor ran a hand through his hair. “But we don’t know how long they’re going to be, Sarah! They could be gone for days, and I’m not sure we can wait that long. Thomas—”
“Thomas will be fine,” Sarah insisted, her eyes shimmering with tears. “He’s alive, isn’t he?”
“I—I think so,” Connor replied, remembering the finger. “There wasn’t enough blood to make me think Thomas was badly injured.”
Sarah’s eyes cracked open again. “Blood? Where?”
Inwardly wincing at what he’d inadvertently given away, Connor growled in frustration. “Sorry. It doesn’t matter. You just need to rest.”
“Connor.” The warning note in her voice let him know that she wasn’t about to let him away with that.
He sighed. “When I said that Stephen left something of Thomas’s, it wasn’t something immaterial. It was . . . a piece of him.”
Sarah blinked twice. “What do you mean?”
“His finger,” Connor replied, bluntly. “That’s what I meant when I said there wasn’t a lot of blood.”
Sarah’s went even paler, her eyes staring at Connor as though she didn’t quite believe him.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you,” Connor muttered, wishing he’d been a trifle more delicate. “I mean, I—”
“No, it’s important I know,” Sarah interrupted, closing her eyes again as her hand tightened in his. “We’ll need to come up with a plan, Connor. You can’t tackle him alone and neither can Beth.”
“And we can’t wait for the others to come back either,” he replied heavily, getting up again to pace the floor. Everything in him was tensing for a fight, his wolf growling incessantly. His mind worked furiously over his options, not settling on a single idea. He was too full of anger and frustration to think clearly, recognizing that he needed to slow down and think through one thing at a time.
“I think I need to go to bed,” Sarah murmured, interrupting his steps. “My head hurts still, even with those painkillers.” She winced as she tried to stand up. Connor was beside her in an instant, wrapping one arm around her shoulders as she slowly walked to the door.
“Don’t worry about Thomas,” he said quietly, amazed at how strong she was being. “We’ll get him back safely, Sarah.”
“I know we will,” she replied, as they began to climb the staircase together. “But I’m not going to be of much use in this state. I need to get some sleep and so do you.”
Connor snorted indelicately as he pushed open Thomas and Sarah’s bedroom door. “I don’t think I can, not in this state.”
“Try,” Sarah murmured, practically falling onto her bed. Tears began to stream from her eyes, running down her cheeks and wetting the pillow. “We have to work together to find Thomas.”
"We will," Connor murmured, aware that she'd finally given in to her emotions. "I can stay with you if you like?"
She waved a hand at him. “I don’t like crying in front of people,” she replied, her words catching in her throat. “I’ll be fine. Just make sure this place is safe, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“OK.” Patting her hand, Connor pulled the duvet up around Sarah’s shoulders before leaving the room. Sarah wasn’t one for talking about how she was feeling, not with anyone—except Thomas, of course. As he pulled the door closed, he could still hear her crying softly, hating that he couldn’t do anything more to help.
Jogging down the stairs, Connor went through the entire house, making sure the windows and doors were all locked securely. He had no idea how Stephen had got in, but he wasn’t about to take any chances. Making sure everything was locked tight, he turned to make his way back to the living room, only to realize that he hadn’t seen Beth.
Where had she gone?
Fear curled in his belly, shooting adrenaline into his veins. He’d checked every room, except his own bedroom, and hadn’t seen her. Powering up the stairs, he pushed his bedroom door open—only to sag with relief.
“Beth?” he asked, walking in and shutting the door. “What have you got there?”
She looked up at him from where she was sitting cross-legged on his bed, her face streaked with tears. “I found his note,” she whispered, holding it up. “And . . . the finger.” Her entire body shook. “I have to go, Connor.”
He was beside her in a moment. “No, you can’t. Your arm means you can’t shift, and he’ll just take advantage of your weakness.”
“But if I don’t go, I don’t know what will happen to Thomas,” she replied, heavily. “I can’t let him hurt Thomas more than he already has. It isn’t fair.”
Frustration riled him as Sarah’s words haunted his mind. “So, you’re just going to leave and go straight back to him? Without thinking about what could happen to you?”
Fresh tears ran rivulets down her cheeks. “I can’t let him hurt Thomas—or any of you—because of me.”
“And you’re going to just go with him?”
"No," she replied, her voice wobbling. "I'm going to try to stand up to him, to let him know that I won't be under his control anymore."
“And if he does what he tried to do to you last time?” Connor barked, his eyes narrowing. “Then what?”
She crumpled in front of him, covering her face with her hands and crying deep, heaving sobs. His anger left him at once, making him realize exactly what it was he’d said. He’d been callous and blunt, but perhaps it had been what she needed to see the danger in what she wanted to do.
“I care about you too much for you to do this alone, Beth,” he murmured, shifting closer and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just can’t bear the thought of you leaving me and going back to him.”
Beth shuddered, shaking her head before pressing her head into his neck and putting her good hand around his neck. Connor took a breath and closed his eyes, hating that she was so obviously upset. He hadn’t meant to drag up terrifying memories for her, but he couldn’t let her go out alone. Hauling her bodily onto his lap, he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry, holding her as tightly as he could.
“You promised me you’d stay, Beth,” he whispered in her ear. “Trust me, please. You’ve never had someone to turn to before when it comes to Stephen, but now you do. The whole pack is here for you, even if they’re not around right now. I want to be there to protect you, to help you to stand up against Stephen. Don’t let his threats turn you back into who you were when you were living with him.”
She sniffed but nodded against his neck.
“You’re already stronger,” he continued, reassuring her. “But we have to face him together. The three of us can take him on. We can work out a way to get Thomas back without you having to sacrifice yourself.”
He felt her let out a long sigh, her tears slowly abating. Connor held her for a long time, feeling her slowly relaxing. Soon her breath came evenly and slowly, letting him know she was asleep.
Gently, Connor laid her down on the bed, pulling a blanket over her. Brushing a few strands of hair away from her face, he looked down at her for a few minutes. She was pale with dark shadows under her eyes, evidently completely exhausted from everything that had happened.
“I’m going to keep you safe, Beth,” he promised, running a finger over her soft cheek. “I won’t let you go back to him. You belong with me now.” His wolf growled softly as he turned away from her to walk back downstairs, closing the door tightly behind him. His feelings for Beth were growing with almost every hour that passed. The way she had clung to him had set off a powerful emotion in his heart, something that was slowly twining itself into his very being. What he felt for Beth wasn’t going to go away, he knew that now. He’d already been with her once, but that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to help her come out of herself, out of the terrified, obedient statue Stephen had forced her to become. Already he was getting glimpses of it, and he wasn’t about to let her shrink back inside herself.
Connor had never really believed that someone could “fall in love” and definitely not after only a few days, but the way he was feeling about Beth contradicted all that. The depth of emotion he had for her was so intense at times that he thought it might explode out of him somehow. His wolf wanted her, wanted to be with her and protect her almost every minute. Connor couldn’t imagine life without Beth, couldn’t bear the thought of her not being under the same roof as him.
“Then I have to catch Stephen,” he muttered to himself, walking downstairs again. “That’s the only way she can truly be free.”
Flicking on the living room lights, Connor glanced around the room, seeing where blood marked the floor and the furniture. He had to clean this up. It wouldn’t do any good for either Sarah or Beth to come downstairs in the morning and see this. It wasn’t as though he was about to sleep anyway. His mind was working through all the possibilities for their next plan of attack, and, come the morning, he was going to have to have something concrete in place. Sarah was going to want to come with them, even if she was still concussed, and they’d have to take the truck since Beth had her arm in a cast still.
If only Ross were here. He was the leader, the alpha, the one who always managed to come up with a plan. Connor felt woefully unprepared for the role, knowing that Beth's safety and Thomas's well-being was lumped entirely on his shoulders. At the same time, perhaps, with all of Stephen's plans, he hadn't realized that Ross, Ash, and Jenny were on their way to his home intending to free the other shifters who were there. He'd try to get a hold of Ross on his cell phone, but he was probably already out scouting and wouldn’t shift back into his human skin until he had everyone safe and was heading back to Rockshore. Connor had tried to get through to him using the telepathy that they shared as a pack, but that wasn’t getting through. It seemed Ross was too far away.
Connor drew in a long breath, attempting to fill himself with determination. He could take down Stephen with Beth and Sarah’s help. It just meant he’d have to come up with a plan.
“You’re going to have to do something, Connor,” he told himself, bending down to scrub at the first lot of bloodstains. “This is all hanging on you.”