Chapter Twenty-Three
It was just past midnight when Jackson drove away from Summer’s cottage. His arm ached, but already he could feel the itch of skin knitting together. Fast shifter healing, for the win.
He pulled up to his motel room and went inside. He threw himself down onto the bedspread and stared at the ceiling for thirty seconds before jumping up again. He was too wired to sleep. Summer’s face, when she’d seen him shift from lion to human, had been devastating. And when he closed his eyes, her face was all he could see.
At least she was safe. If nothing else came from tonight, at least he’d asserted his dominance over the grizzly shifter, and that asshole wouldn’t be harassing his mate again.
He wanted to punch something. What had been the point of all that? Obviously, some new shifter had moved into the Dark Pines territory after the Clausens chased out Jackson’s family.
Well, it was Jackson’s territory again, if he wanted it. And he’d gotten it with a challenge, not a war.
His heart thrummed quickly in his chest with the memory of the fight. No way he’d be able to sleep with all this leftover adrenaline. There was only one thing to do. Run it out.
With quick, jerky movements, he grabbed his room key and headed outside. He skirted around to the rear of the hotel and walked straight into the woods.
Home. He was really home. Whether Summer ever talked to him again or not, maybe she’d at least stay in town and he could keep her safe from afar.
After walking a few hundred feet, he took off his clothes. The bandage on his arm would probably fall away once he shifted, but he unwound it carefully, feeling a dull ache in his heart when he remembered the way Summer had wrapped it, eyes on the wound but not really seeing him.
He got down on all fours and let the magic transform his human body into that of a mountain lion.
Then he raced to the family property, leaped over the rotting fence, and approached the house. It was just as he’d left it three days ago. The collapsed side, blackened from fire and decay, and the intact side which wasn’t looking super great, either—the white siding dirty, one of the green shutters dangling at a diagonal from the window.
He circled around, and was shocked once again to see the charred remains of the beam that had fallen on Will that fateful night. If Jackson could go back in time and prevent that, keep himself from sitting helpless in the house, he would. He’d tell his parents that they should all run, forget protecting the territory, that their lives were more important than territory…although it was territory that allowed them to really live, because they needed a home. But he’d have encouraged them to join another larger, stronger pride somewhere else.
Anything to keep his family safe. He’d failed at protecting them. Failed.
The breeze shifted, carrying something with it—undertones of sandalwood. It was the cologne again.
Wait a minute. Something had been missing when he’d fought that grizzly.
The cologne.
At one point before the challenge, Jackson had seen the grizzly and smelled the cologne, but the scent had been faint. But when he fought the grizzly, the cologne had been missing entirely.
What if the grizzly had been working with a second shifter?
Summer could still be in danger.
He raced back to his clothes, shifted, and got dressed. He had to get to her, make sure she was okay. Protect her. After retrieving his car keys from his motel room, he climbed into the tiny car and sped to Summer’s street.
He parked a little ways away and ran on foot to her place, circling around from the back. All of her lights were off. He walked toward the front of the house and smelled the cologne again. Someone was fucking with him, and he’d find out who it was.
He stopped by the bedroom window and listened for sounds. Summer was in there, breathing evenly, asleep.
An even fouler scent wafted from the front of the cottage. Jackson hunched down low and approached, trying to keep his growls quiet. He couldn’t shift right here, not when there was a chance of an insomniac neighbor watching from across the street. Bad enough Jackson was here at all, skulking around like a creeper.
The scent was so strong, he stopped breathing through his nose. Rotten meat, some kind of mammal. When he got to the porch, he saw the source of the smell.
The rotting carcass of an opossum had been lovingly placed on the top step, and a wreath of dried roses had been arranged around it.
Sick fucker.
The combined scents of the rotting opossum and the sandalwood cologne made him want to gag. He held his breath and grabbed the opossum by the tail. He’d drag it away, bury it in the woods far away from the cottage.
He hadn’t gone six steps when the body disconnected from the tail and fell with a squelching sound to his feet.
Jackson would happily fillet whatever asshole had done this.
He picked up the rest of the opossum and made quick work of taking it to the woods. He scooped out a shallow grave with his boots and dropped the carcass inside. He hoped the poor creature hadn’t been killed for the purpose of scaring Summer and that it had been instead found on the side of the road, but either way, it hadn’t deserved to die.
Jackson returned to the porch to collect the dead roses, which he tossed into the compost bin behind Summer’s cottage. He used the hose by the side garden to wash off the porch as quietly as possible, rubbing the wood with his boots. Then he washed his hands, scrubbing them long after the scent of the opossum disappeared.
Afterward, he fished his phone out of his pocket and texted Hayley. She was a night owl and would probably still be awake. Something weird going on here. I have to stay, see it through. If you guys want to help, I think the territory could be ours again, if we want it. Nobody’s living on our property.
Hayley: I gotta think about it. You know Will won’t come.
Jackson: He’s just stubborn, he’ll come around.
Hayley: Need to think it over.
Sighing heavily, Jackson typed back, okay, then stripped. Yet again that night, he shifted to his lion form. He picked up his clothes and boots with his mouth, not wanting to leave them or his keys and phone on the ground, and climbed a tree. From here, he’d keep watch over Summer. He might not have been able to protect his family before, but he was going to protect her.
Even if the danger had come because of him.