Chapter Six

She enticed him, drew him closer. The bear demanded to be close to her, demanded Archer wrap her in their arms. He hushed the bear, reminding it they would save Joanna and her pack. Only then would the bear leave him be.

They’d never spent this much time together before. When their marriage had been arranged, he’d only ever seen her a few times. She was younger than him, barely an adult at the time. He thought he’d been in love with someone else and the decree that he would marry this teenager cut him in half.

He knew now that love was a sham, but the woman she’d grown into and the heat that burned between them promised much. And, it had delivered when he’d captured her mouth. She tasted like sweet, summer tea. He could drink her down for days.

Seeing her shrink like that, fall in on herself, Archer knew he had to do something. It hurt him to watch the snarky woman grow quiet. Pain flashed across her eyes, cutting deeper than it had in Paul’s Mart. He’d done the only thing he could think of in the moment to make it go away. And, it’d worked. For a blissful moment, she’d let him taste her. Then, with her fiery self returned, she hit him.

“Go on! Eat her face,” Gage’s voice shouted from near the back door of the house.

Archer shook his head and offered his younger brother his middle finger.

“He hasn’t changed,” Joanna muttered.

“Then you don’t see anything.”

She looked back at him with a question on her face.

Archer sighed. He bore the weight of his decision, knowing that Cohen and Gage had followed so he wouldn’t be alone as an outcast. He tried to return the favor by keeping them together, but it had been a struggle. As the years went on, Cohen drifted away from them. He took jobs that kept him on the road until, one day, he didn’t return home. Gage had taken the blow personally. It’s left the youngest brother bitter, something he did his best to hide behind humor.

“The only thing that hasn’t actually changed since we left is Dad. Sure, cancer got its evil fingers into him, but he’s still the same old asshole he’s always been.”

“You’re not wrong there,” Joanna agreed. “You know, you’re still naked, right?”

Archer smiled. “What’s wrong with that? Am I distracting you?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head away from him. He couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his lips.

“Welcome home, Archer.” She walked away from him, arms still crossed over her chest.

He stood back and admired the view as she left, enjoying the sway of her ass. She wasn’t what he’d expected. Archer wondered if it would have been so bad had he chosen to stay and adhere to his father’s decree. Life with Joanna wouldn’t have been so bad. Not if that was what he got to lay with each night.

But, he knew it would have been loveless just like his own parents’ relationship. They would have grown bitter and angry at one another before long, just like the clients he helped serve divorce papers for.

No, he’d made the right decision. Archer only wished he could have known what it was like to lay with her before he’d left. As he watched her leave, he decided he would find out before he hunted the man hurting her. Archer would have her in his bed before he died.

With a new resolution bolstering him, he turned back toward the house to find the clothes he’d shed earlier. It wasn’t until Gage held up a scrap of flannel that he realized he might have been a little hasty in his earlier shifting. The bear demanded destruction and his clothes had paid the price.

“I’m sure you could find something inside,” Gage said before throwing back the last of beer in his bottle.

Archer sighed and resigned himself to old clothes before looking around. “Where’s Cohen?”

“Being a responsible adult?”

Archer bit his tongue. He didn’t have the energy to deal with the fountain of bitterness that was erupting from Gage. The day had already dragged on, hours of driving, an ambush, and a nasty surprise already weighing on him. Archer wanted to crawl into bed and pull the feisty Joanna down with him, basking in her scent, exploring her taste, but he knew there was more to do.

He also knew she’d never let him.

Gage said nothing, nothing further than he was willing to give. He went to take another swig from his bottle before realizing it was empty. Instead of taking it inside, the shifter chucked it into the woods. They heard it shatter against a tree in the distance.

“Good job, asshole. I hope no one steps on that later.”

Gage probably had nothing to say, but the chance to retort was cut off by the sound of voices around the front of the house. Their eyes met, and they realized what was going on.

Cohen announced that he’d called the Pack, igniting a phone chain that would have them at the stone house by night fall. Archer was not looking forward to seeing them. He wanted to beat sense into their daft heads. Joanna had been coming to them for years now, begging for help with the monster in her pack. Not once had they thought to tell their Alpha what was going on. If Archer hadn’t been at Paul’s Mart earlier, there would have been more deaths on the Pack’s heads.

Did they even care at all?

Better yet, why did Archer care? They’d turned their backs on him when his father cast him out. Not one of them spoke up in his defense. No one thought to argue for his happiness. No, they stuck to tradition and saw him as a traitor for even considering breaking tradition.

What good it had done them all.

Still, a voice whispered in the back of his mind. They might not have been happy, but would the monster of an Alpha have been able to get his fingers into their territories if Archer had listened?

He shook his head. Now was no time for thoughts like that. He couldn’t go back and change the past. He could only move forward. That meant dealing with his father’s pack mates first.

Gage followed him inside, splitting to grab another beer from the kitchen before meeting him in the parlor. Cohen stood by the far wall, leaning with his hands in his pockets, but looking no less threatening. Archer was sure the dark shadows over his brother’s eyes were mimicked in his own. The Pack had a lot to answer for.

***

Joanna was nervous to go home, but she knew it had to be done. If she stayed away too long, Killian would start to suspect something, and her Pack couldn’t afford that kind of recklessness. She’d already ruined their lives.

A few of them remained, some of them having escaped before things took a turn for the worst. Some of them fell when Killian made his bid for power. She wished she’d been as smart as those who’d left. If only she’d seen the signs.

She’d been too wrapped up in her own pain and how his attention made it go away. She’d been a silly young woman, too trusting of those around her. No longer would she be that woman. No longer would she put her faith into the hands of others.

Killian paced the kitchen, energy pouring out of him. His black hair was pulled into a long pony tail that whipped around like the tail of a cat. When she entered the room, his head snapped up. There was a hint of suspicion there, but it was swallowed by the thrill of victory.

He swept her up in his arms and spun her around the room. She fought back the rise of bile from her stomach with the clench of her jaw. When he set her down, Killian didn’t let go.

“Did you see what happened today?” he asked. “I mean, Teddy Bear wasn’t accounted for, but that’s beside the point.”

Joanna shook her head, unable to talk.

A smile swept over the man’s face. It was full of teeth and violence. “The Bear of the East Coast didn’t make a show. It was obvious someone tipped them off, but I can’t stand a small loss. The Mart wasn’t that big of a grab anyway.”

“What are you going to do about Archer?”

Killian’s grip on her tightened. His hand left her waist and rose to her chin. “You mean your former betrothed? The one who left you at the altar?”

His words spoke truth and sent a small dart of pain through her heart. Killian’s words were true. No one in this world would help her. Not the Vancourt brothers. Definitely not Archer.

“The boys left their family behind once. They’ll do it again; it’s just a matter of time.”

He’s right, she thought to herself. No matter what brought them back, they won’t stay. There’s too many bad memories and not enough love tying them to Stonefall or to their father’s pack.

“And, if they don’t leave, we just pick them off one at a time. It’s not that hard.”

His words struck the air from her lungs. She found it hard to breathe. Hiding her struggle, Joanna nodded in false agreement. Quickly, she pulled away from Killian’s grip and ducked out the back door.

Outside, she fumbled to find her breath again, gasping and clawing at her chest. Why had it affected her that way? She barely knew the brothers. They weren’t her family or her Pack. There were people here who she should care more about, and yet Killian’s blatant statement had affected her.

She fell to a crouch, her back against the wall of the house. If she closed her eyes, she could still hear her father and brother puttering around the kitchen. She could hear her mother’s surprise when she came home from work to a three-course dinner. The clank of ceramic on wood sang in her ears, as if ghosts danced around her. But, they were only memories.

A crash behind her snapped her out of the daydream. Straining, she twisted her neck to peer through the door. Killian and another shifter, whose name she hadn’t bothered to learn, marched toward the sink with red dripping down their arms. Her stomach turned, but she watched them wash their hands in the sink as if it were only the blood of a package of burgers before the shifter jerked open the fridge door and tossed Killian a bottle of beer.

This horror was her life. Not the kiss she’d shared with Archer behind Vancourt house. That was just a moment in time, perhaps the echo of their tangled threads, but nothing more. Gathering herself with a long and steadying breath, she turned around.

“You alright?” A figure sat on the ground beside Joanna. Her voice was soft and sweet, ringing true even though her body shimmered in the air.

Ashe was astral projecting again, the only way she visited Joanna anymore. Joanna couldn’t blame her. The soft and sweet woman was prey in the eyes of Killian’s feral shifters.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Sampson?” Joanna asked.

Worry made Ashe’s face fall. There was guilt in her eyes, her small lips twisting to the side as the words caught in her mouth. Ashe must’ve known, right? She was technically part of the Vancourt pack, even though she was unable to release the animal inside her.

Joanna shook her head. Ashe probably hadn’t known until recently. Last Joanna knew, the woman tried to avoid pack meetings altogether. They didn’t end well for her. No one could blame her for avoiding that.

“It’s fine,” Joanna said instead. “It’s nice seeing you again.”

Ashe smiled, the guilt fading from her eyes.

“Did you know the Vancourt boys returned to town. I guess I should stop calling them boys at this point. They certainly don’t look like boys anymore.”

Ashe giggled. It was a sweet sound that brightened the darkness of Joanna’s day. It eased the tension in her shoulders and helped her take a deeper breath.

“Oh, I know,” Ashe said with a confidence the woman didn’t normally have. It made Joanna’s gaze slide back toward her friend.

She was enjoying Ashe’s presence until the woman’s eyes went wide and her existence blinked out. Joanna sat up straight to find Killian leaning in the doorway. There was a wild grin on his face and a gleam in his eyes. She couldn’t help but glance at his hands, wondering whose blood had coated them moments ago.

A human or another of her former Pack? The thought made a defensive growl rise through her, but she shoved it down. She couldn’t afford to show dominance in front of Killian. There was no telling what he would do if she acted out.

“I’m calling a Pack meeting,” Killian said. The grin didn’t change.

Her heart hammered inside her ribcage. Had she done something wrong? Could he have figured out what she’d been doing the whole time? Fear surged through her, cold enough to shatter her.

“I think it’s time for a celebration. Don’t you? It’s finally warm enough here that we could turn the meeting into a cookout.”

Joanna swallowed. He seemed in high spirits, so she nodded in agreement. She didn’t trust her voice not to waver or betray her. He told her to start making calls while she prepped the burgers, leaving her to the work while he went to pull the grill from the shed.

She didn’t want to do this. She stared at her phone and wondered if she could lie. Would Killian believe her if she said she’d tried and no one picked up their phone? Of course, making calls meant her old Pack members, those who remained. Killian’s feral wolves stalked in and out of the kitchen while she stared at her phone.

She counted the faces, coming up with fifteen before she sighed and lifted the phone. Her stomach churned. She didn’t want to have to do this, but what other option did she have? Joanna could deny him and face his wrath, but if he killed her, there would be no one left to defend her Pack.

The Vancourt brothers had returned, but it seemed their loyalties didn’t even lay between each other. They danced around one another as if they hadn’t lived together for the first fifteen or so years of their lives. She would not place the safety of her family in their hands. There was no telling what they would do with it.

The calls had been made, each and every shifter responding with a mixture of reluctance and fear. Their voices cut her to her core. Her fault, it screamed every time. She began separating the ground beef and portioning it for patties, all the while worrying what the night would bring.