Chapter 14
Honor wiggled in the driver’s seat of the van, trying to get comfortable. She was parked alongside a road that skirted the edge of the males’ territory. She prided herself on being able to handle most any situation, but this one right here had her stomach in knots. Ever since they’d hit Indiana, she’d been feeling odd. Gretchen and Julia had noticed something was off with her, but she hadn’t been able to put it into words. She could only describe the feeling as one of longing, but that didn’t mesh with what her brain was telling her. What could she possibly be longing for anyway? She had everything she could ever want – a nice house, the females, and the safety of living out in the middle of ass-nowhere.
Maybe that was the problem. They were back in the states, when that was the last place she wanted to be.
Although…something about this place felt like home.
Letting out a disgusted snort, she shook the idea of home and family from her mind as swiftly as it had appeared. Females did not mate with males and start families; it just wasn’t done. And aside from Melody, and now Jilly, no females Honor had ever known had been interested in a relationship of any sort.
“I need some air,” Honor said, pushing open the driver’s door and climbing out. She stretched her arms and rolled her neck, but the odd antsy feeling was still there, hovering in the background of her mind.
Gretchen rolled down the passenger window. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I just wish that Tanya and the others would freaking hurry. This place is…”
“Is what?”
“I don’t know. Never mind,” she said, shaking her head and waving a hand dismissively at her.
Someone screamed suddenly. It was feminine and full of pain and terror. Where she should have felt no emotions, the sound pricked at her subconscious and made her heart ache.
“I think that’s it then,” Julia said from inside the van. “They should be back soon.”
“Yeah,” Honor said.
“Then we can get the hell out of here and back home,” Gretchen said.
A roar so full of fury and malice that it made Honor’s blood run cold, rent the air.
“What the hell was that?” Julia said.
Worry settled over Honor as the roar sounded again. She glanced at her watch and back at the females. “I’m going to get Tanya and the others. I don’t know what that was, but it doesn’t sound good.”
“Why do you have to go?” Gretchen asked.
“I just do. Stay here and keep the van running. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Julia climbed into the front seat behind the wheel and said, “We’ll be ready.”
With a last look at them, Honor turned and raced into the woods. She stopped from time to time and scented the air, easily picking up the females’ scents. She wove through the trees, intent on getting to her females and getting their butts safely back to the van and on the way out of this damn town.
She heard the roar again, and she skidded to a halt to clap her hands over her ears as the deafening sound echoed all around her. She peered through the darkness, the full moon lending a pale glow to the woods. She saw four figures crouching in the shadows. She opened her mouth to urge them to leave, when something dark appeared above the females. It hovered in the air for a heartbeat before there was a clicking sound, and then a stream of fire lit up the night.
Tanya and the others screamed as they were caught up in the flames. The heat was so great that even at a distance, Honor felt it. The dragon blew out another stream of fire, and Honor watched in horror as the four females’ voices were cut off abruptly and their bodies dissolved into ash.
Her mind stalled at the scene. She stared at the still-burning trees and at the dragon that hovered over them.
A male shouted, “Treasure! Come back! We need your help.”
The dragon inhaled and seemed to suck the flames into itself, and then it disappeared, the sound of its flapping wings growing faint as it moved away.
Honor stood frozen. She’d never seen anything like that before. She couldn’t stop staring at the place where the four females had crouched in the darkness. That dragon had snuffed out their lives as easily as blowing out a candle. She knew she needed to get back to the van and get out of this damn place, but she couldn’t make her legs move.
A branch snapped to her right. It startled her, and she turned to run when she was tackled from behind. She hit the ground hard as a large person landed on her back and forced the air out of her lungs. Her vision filled with stars as she struggled to catch her breath with the heavy weight on top of her.
The person eased off her slightly, and she gasped in a deep breath. She was thinking about yelling for help or telling whoever it was to get the hell off her, when the person – a male, she decided – slapped his hand over her mouth before she could get out even a squeak.
The male growled, and she could feel the vibrations through her clothing. Her skin tingled, and her cat rolled in her mind, suddenly aware of the male. She pushed at her beast and ignored how good it felt to have the solid male behind her. Instead, she jerked her head back in an attempt to break his nose or cause him harm so he’d get off her.
He avoided her head, and his fingers dug into her cheek.
“Stop that,” he ordered.
There was something very familiar about his voice. She was sure she knew him from King; although she hadn’t been back there in so many years her mind could be playing tricks on her. Not to mention that she was probably suffering from a concussion or internal bleeding from his reckless disregard for her safety.
She needed to get back to the van. She’d been worried about Tanya and her females getting caught by the males, and here she was the one who’d been busted.
Doing the only thing she could think of, she bit down on the male’s palm. Her cat helped by letting out her fangs and they dug right into his flesh. She tasted his blood as he let out a curse and jerked his hand away.
“Damn it! That hurt, woman!” he snarled.
Something snapped to awareness inside her as the coppery taste of his blood saturated her tongue. A headache bloomed behind her eyes, and she let out a sharp cry of pain. In a heartbeat she was on her back, and Jackson Whitman hovered over her. His brows were drawn in worry, and she could see the amber of his beast in his eyes.
“Honor? What are you doing here?”
Her head throbbed, the ache making her vision blur.
“What the hell’s going on, Jax?” a masculine voice said from behind her.
She tipped her head back and blinked to clear her vision. Holden, Jackson’s brother, stood with his hands on his hips. He was naked, and she realized that Jackson was, too.
Her cat roared in her mind, and the ache grew until her eyes watered, and her fangs cut her gums.
“Get. Off. Me!” She shoved at Jackson’s shoulders, and although she knew he was strong enough to overpower her, he rose onto his knees. She scrambled to her feet and stumbled as her knees weakened.
Holden caught her and drew her close. Everything within her quieted for a moment, and her cat was right there, purring in her mind, urging her to close the distance to his very kissable lips.
“Fuck it,” she whispered and rose onto her toes and kissed him.
She couldn’t remember ever kissing a male before. When she had sex, she didn’t kiss. Maybe this was her first kiss?
He groaned, a combination of a purr and a growl, and pushed his tongue past her lips. She closed her eyes as the urge to kiss him, and also kiss Jackson and maybe do other things, overwhelmed her. Her fangs erupted again as her cat happily purred in her subconscious, and she felt Holden jerk slightly as she cut his tongue.
A voice rang out from the woods. “Jackson? Holden? What’s going on?”
Honor broke the kiss and pushed away from Holden. Her mind spun, and the headache that had eased slightly in his arms intensified suddenly. She grabbed her head with both hands and groaned.
“We’re fine, Eryx,” Jackson called. “Give us a minute.”
“Honor?” Holden asked. “What’s wrong?”
She knew Eryx Fallon and his family well. If they found her, Gretchen and Julia were sitting ducks. They’d assume that Honor was attempting to harm the pride. They’d never believe she was an innocent bystander, only trying to keep her females safe.
She spun on her heels and raced away as her headache grew stronger and more painful. Tears streamed down her face as the branches slapped at her skin, and Holden’s and Jackson’s shouts of alarm echoed in her ears. Something split apart in her mind, like a wall that had been built and suddenly cracked from the foundation up. She saw older females clawing her arms throughout her childhood, the growing resentment she felt toward her father, and the relentless need to punish the males who were simply trying to carve out a piece of happiness.
“Go! Go! Go!” she shouted as she cleared the woods and hit the side of the van, wrenching open the side door and leaping inside.
Julia squeaked in alarm but shifted into gear and stomped on the gas. Honor pulled the door shut and fell backward, her mind flooding with memories that she didn’t realize she even had. Sorrow filled her, because she was leaving behind two males who had somehow unlocked her mind.
Jackson and Holden.
They were her mates.
But she couldn’t think about that, because she was the leader of the females and she had a duty to see them safely home and to watch over them. She’d think about her mates another time.
Her cat rebelled at the idea of leaving, but Honor lay down on the seat and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and told the creature to let it go. She couldn’t go back to Ashland because she was a criminal in the males’ minds, and they weren’t wrong. She’d done terrible things in the name of keeping the pride together, and the two sexiest males on the planet didn’t deserve such a shitty female.
Even if there were something bigger going on here than just her finding her mates.
Why had she been clawed by the females three times?
And what happened to her family?
“Are you okay?” Gretchen asked once they were on the highway and speeding away from Ashland.
No.
“Yeah.”
“What about Tanya and the others?” Julia asked.
“A dragon shifter burned them up.”
“Damn,” Julia said. “I didn’t like them, but I didn’t want them dead like that.”
“What’s done is done. They knew it was foolhardy to get revenge on Jilly, and they died in the process,” Honor said. “It’s time to go home.”
“It didn’t come soon enough,” Gretchen said. She was quiet for a moment and then said, “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“We’ll be home before you know it,” Julia said. “And now we don’t have to worry about the males in Ashland again. I’m ready to put it behind us and focus on the future.”
A future that Honor wanted to include Jackson and Holden. But there was no way that would happen. Their kind weren’t meant for relationships and love.
Right?