Legacy Read online

  The other pack rarely ventured into town, or so I’d been told. When they did, they often caused trouble, so the local businesses didn’t welcome them. I also understood they’d been banned from a few places. Like this one.

  “I don’t know why they are here. If they weren’t walking past us for the second time in two minutes, I’d assume maybe they had legitimate business to take care of.” Pushing back his chair, Brandon stood up. “Excuse me a minute, Wendi. I’ll be right back.” He spoke calmly, but I’d been around him long enough to recognize when he was tense, and he practically vibrated with it now. His wolf lay close to the surface, revealed by a low rumble just before he stepped away from the table and out the door.

  The two Rattlecreek members had stopped pretending to walk anywhere and stood directly in front of where I sat, staring inside, when Brandon approached them. I wished I could read lips or the glass was thinner, the window was open…not that a sheet of plate glass would open…but anything to let me know what they were saying. But it didn’t take a word-for-word translation to know tempers were flaring. The other two, who I recognized but didn’t have names for, were gesticulating wildly and pointing to me over and over. Brandon seemed to contain his ire at first, but as everyone in the restaurant turned to watch, things were escalating.

  About the time the first fist flew, my fellow diners crowded around me, making it impossible to do anything more than wring my hands like a heroine in a melodrama. That first fist was one of the troublemakers, and Brandon dodged it, ducking low and to the side. They hit out at him a couple of more times, and I knew it was only a matter of time until the two against one resulted in bad things for Brandon. No matter how strong or fast he was, they were lean, stringy, and, judging from their bent noses and scars, used to fighting.

  And then…it happened so fast the few people who were standing outside watching, those inside with me…and even I couldn’t have known how, those two miscreants were lying on their backs, Brandon was smoothing his shirt, and he strolled back inside.

  “So, what were we talking about?” he asked after making his way through the diners heading back to their tables. “Oh shit. My ice cream is all melted.”

  “Let’s ask for a new one,” I told him, but the waitress arrived before I finished, bearing a sundae of at least five scoops with several different toppings. The others applauded, and we all watched as the Rattlecreek dudes climbed to their feet and slunk away like the cowards they were. Two against one!

  They had picked the wrong one.

  Chapter Fifteen

  After we got back to pack lands and let the guys know about the stalkers from the other pack, Brandon grew quiet—a weird thing, especially for him.

  “You’re okay?” Moss pushed a lock of hair behind my ear while trying to low-key scan me from head to toe.

  “I’m fine. I didn’t even talk to them. Brandon handled it all.” I reached out and touched Brandon’s fisted hand, wincing at a little blood on his knuckles.

  “Good. They’ve become brazen. I probably had something to do with it,” Escher said, always taking the blame.

  “This isn’t anyone’s fault. They’re just ridiculous.”

  Cash arrived last and kissed my temple while rubbing a circle along my lower back. None of the other guys flinched at their respective shows of affection in front of one another. “The alpha knows, and he’s wanting to speak to us. Wendi, would you do us a favor and stay in the alpha house until we are done?”

  I blew out a breath of frustration. I had plans involving me and muffins and a book, but what could be done?

  “Sure. Why not.”

  We walked like a mini-pack into the alpha’s house. Christie emerged from his office, her expression unreadable.

  “What’s going on?” I stopped her march out of the place by putting my hand on hers.

  “Oh…” She looked back at the office. “It’s nothing, really. Nothing to worry about. Call you later, okay?”

  I nodded, but the knowing lodged in my throat. Something was up with my friend, and I intended to find out what. Her reactions at Rattlecreek and my determination to be a better friend, to support her as she supported me, lay close to the surface. “Okay. Promise.” I didn’t let go until she relented.

  “Yes. Promise, Wendi.”

  I plopped down on the couch and pulled out my phone, intent on playing some mind-numbing game that would help to smooth over the day or at least make me forget about it for a while. The guys went into the alpha’s office, but it wasn’t long before voices were raised and I put down my phone. The dream of being distracted popped like a bubble.

  “Alpha, that’s not enough. The details are keeping her safe, but these bastards have become brazen. Loitering around us in public. We have to keep her safe above all. You know what she is.”

  “What she is to all of us,” Cash added to Brandon’s shouts, making me sink deeper into the couch.

  “I won’t see her hurt or even touched by those mongrels. I’ll die before I see that. You know how important she is to all of us, alpha.” Escher’s voice boomed above the rest.

  Important to all.

  Need to be protected.

  Oh, Wendi, girl. You are so stupid.

  I was just a healer to them. Someone who could heal them. Fix their wounds.

  Be the prophecy or whatever they said was coming…

  That was all I was needed for. For powers I still didn’t know how to conjure or work with.

  Powers I clearly couldn’t even use on myself.

  Tears formed in the corners of my eyes.

  These men didn’t want me for me. I’d had the thought before but decided I was wrong. I wasn’t wrong. They wanted me for what I could do for their pack. Period.

  I got up slowly, trying to make the least amount of noise possible. And with streams of tears running down my face, I walked out of the alpha’s house, intent on keeping my chin raised and my shoulders squared.

  I would act like it didn’t matter to me. I would act as though I knew that was the deal the entire time. Aloof. That was it. I would pretend I didn’t care either way.

  It was the only way to save face and to save myself public heartache.

  Put on your straight face, Wendi.

  My legs had never walked so fast or so true. I was in my car and out of the pack gates in a matter of seconds, so glad I’d driven instead of riding with Brandon. It wasn’t until I was on the freeway and headed in the direction of my old town I let out a sob. Putting a fist to my chest, I attempted to stop the pain of my chest cracking open while I cried so hard my vision blurred.

  The thing was, I knew this place by heart and only needed to make it off the correct exit. The rest was a matter of memory. My mind knew where it wanted to go.

  As I passed the ashy ruins of my childhood home, I put a hand on my window, silently telling it goodbye one more time.

  I parked at the graveyard a couple of miles down the road and got out almost mindlessly. While I had always rolled my chair to the spot in the past, I knew the steps, the path back to my roots.

  “Hi, Mom, Dad. I…didn’t know where else to go.”

  I sat on the back side of their graves, not wanting to sit on top of where their bodies were buried deep in the ground, no matter how long it had been. I leaned my head back and hit my skull on the concrete headstones, joined together in death as my parents had been in life. They had been so in love—even as a young child, I’d recognized that. As I’d recognized their love for me.

  “I’m so stupid. I thought they were…I thought they liked me for me. It was just whatever they say I can do. They want me for my powers. No more. But I can’t be there…with them…not if they don’t…” Each of the cut-off sentences came out between sobs as the sun beat down on me. Droplets of moisture formed on my forehead and ran into my eyes, stinging, but I couldn’t be bothered to do more than squint to avoid them.

  I breathed deeply, concentrating on the in and out of it all, calming myself as my arms were wrapped around my waist, attempting to keep myself in one piece despite the shattering feeling—the cracking into tiny pieces.

  “I know what I’m going to do. No more of this pack bullshit. I’m going to move back here. Find an apartment and sell the property. I can get a regular job. I can just be normal. Normal is good, right? You guys were normal.”

  I turned to their headstone, almost expecting an answer but receiving none.

  Something on the gravestone at the bottom corner caught my eye, and I cocked my head to see it. I moved a few shoots of grass blocking the symbol—a symbol carved into the stones.

  Why hadn’t I seen it before?

  “What is that, a sword? What the hell?” I asked no one and anyone who would listen. Except I was in a graveyard, and, if someone answered, I would lose my shit, you know, more than I already had in a day’s time.

  More things I didn’t understand. Perfect.

  If I thought I’d lost it before, it was nothing to compare to what happened next. I pounded my fists on the headstones, demanding answers in screams that didn’t even sound like my own voice. My face heated, the blood vessels rising to the surface like the skin on my cheeks would ignite at any moment.

  “Why? Why did you die? Why did you leave me with her? She fed me pills and treated me like a fucking baby. You didn’t teach me anything about shifters or mating or even try to live. You were shifters. You could’ve survived somehow. Why didn’t you try? For me! Now they think I’m something special, and I’m fucking not! I’m nothing! I’m just a girl who can barely walk. Why couldn’t you stay?”

  I cried with my forehead planted against the cool stone until there were no more tears left.

  “Come here, sweetheart,”

  I had strength to stop the arms tightening around my form.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “What are you doing here?” I pried myself from Moss’ hold and scrambled off his lap. He looked hurt by the move, but I ignored it. Clearly, I was bad at interpreting expressions and intended to not try to read them ever again.

  “We tracked you. Cash is a pretty damned good tracker.”

  I raised my gaze to them. All four of them had come.

  Come to save the healer.

  The person their pack needed.

  Cash was shirtless and wore only random gym shorts that looked like some I had seen on Brandon before. His skin gleamed with sweat, and his usually green eyes were flecked with gold.

  He had tracked me in wolf form.

  “What for?” I stood up, determined not to wobble or falter. No more leaning on these guys for support even when they offered, physically or otherwise.

  “What for…? Wendi, what happened? We were speaking to the alpha about your protection one moment, and the next thing we knew, you were gone. Why would you do that?” Brandon stepped forward while he spoke, and my gut said there was hurt in his tone.

  Then again, my intuition about these things was clearly skewed.

  Nope, not reading into things.

  “I know. Protecting the healer. And how can you track me? I don’t understand.” I crossed my arms over my chest like a child and cocked my hip out, more for stability than sass.

  They exchanged looks but I waited for an answer.

  “We can track you easily. Let’s put it that way.”

  I scoffed at Escher’s half-ass explanation. “Well, I’m not coming back. This way you don’t have to pretend to like me because I’m the healer or whatever shit you’ve made up in your heads about me. I’m going to get an apartment and a job. No worries anymore about the pathetic female. I won’t be pack anymore. Congratulations, your protecting me days are over. You are free.”

  Cash stepped around the others to get right in my face. He looked me up and down. “You have no idea, do you? You have no clue what you are to us.”

  I shook my head but answered to the contrary. “I’m the healer or whatever. You think I have some kind of gift.”

  Cash chuckled a little and looked over his shoulder. “She thinks she’s the healer. That it’s the only reason we look after her. Care for her.” He turned back to me. “Feed her. Watch over her. Protect her. She thinks that’s the reason, boys. We’ve fucked up somewhere.”

  “I’m not?”

  He smiled, and one of his dimples emerged, and gods above, I wanted to reach and touch it.

  No, you can’t feel that way. They don’t belong to you.

  They do. They are ours.

  I jumped back at the sound of my wolf’s voice. She had to stop scaring the shit out of me.

  “What was that? Did she speak to you? She’s so strong now. Every day she’s stronger.” Cash put his hand on my sternum and, God help me, I swayed into his touch like a flower toward sun breaking through clouds after a storm lasting weeks.

  “She’s been speaking to me more. She saved me today.”

  “How? You didn’t say anything on our date,” Brandon demanded though he had no room to do so. He was the worst betrayer of them all. Showing up at my door and flirting. He was just being nice.

  Date. How dare he use the word date. He should use the words babysitting the healer.

  “I fell off the ladder at work, trying to reshelve books. She…she came out, and I landed perfectly. I mean, I didn’t turn furry or anything, it was like, she took over my muscles. And she speaks to me now. More every day. Still makes me jump.”

  The guys looked like they were mulling over the information, but while they did, I hardened, heart and soul.

  “So you can go now. I’m not what you’re looking for. I’m not the healer.”

  Escher growled. Moss bowed his head. Brandon cringed. And Cash, well, he put his lips between his teeth, trying not to laugh.

  “Wendi, do us a favor, will you?” Brandon asked.

  I nodded despite my still being pissed off.

  “Come back to the pack lands. Let us talk to you about some things, things that include us and you and what that means. If you don’t like what we have to say or disagree, then you are free to go and follow this new future you’ve planned out in your anger.”

  I squinted. “How did you know I was angry?”

  “Female, I feel it coming off you in tidal waves, trying to crash into me—crush me. I know you don’t want to be around us right now.”

  Escher growled again, but Brandon popped him on the back of the head.

  “So, will you do us this one favor? Come back. Let us lay it all on the line. All of it. The complete truth. No more hiding or keeping secrets. Please?” Cash’s plea was whispered, and it stabbed me right through the heart.

  “The truth about what?” I asked, being a real pill and stretching this out even though I knew I would comply.

  “The truth about who you are to us and what you mean in our lives.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The ride home with Brandon was silent. We were flanked by the other guys in their respective vehicles, and Escher drove my car, insisting it was for my protection. That made me want to growl at him, like he did all the time. If I hadn’t been so emotionally exhausted, I’d have argued, insisted on driving myself, but I felt the loss of my parents all over again, on another level, a grown-up level, and I didn’t have the strength to fight anyone about anything.

  “It’s going to be okay.” Brandon put his hand between us, but I tucked mine under my thighs, since the desire to touch him almost overwhelmed me. And I was supposed to be mad.

  We got back to the pack lands and walked as a group in the opposite direction of the alpha’s house.

  “I thought we were going to talk,” I said, pointing to the alpha’s house, the only place we had been together, all together, other than my house.

  “We are. Moss’ house. It’s more private.”

  The promise of privacy with these four men made shivers spindle down my spine. I had to get hold of those feelings asap.

  “Okay.”

  Moss’ home was so…Moss for lack of a better word. Bookshelves lined two walls of the living room, and a small TV occupied the corner like it was an afterthought. Cream-colored sofas made the log cabin walls pop, and a luxurious-looking rug covered the floor in front of the enormous fireplace. The whole thing was an open concept. His kitchen was pristine, and I could see myself cooking feast after feast on his six-burner stove.

  I recognized his chuckle behind me. “I was planning to have a mate who could cook. Gut instinct.”

  “I hope she can. That would be such a waste.”

  He breathed hard, and the warmth touched the back of my neck. “Let’s get this going. I can’t take it anymore. Please, sit, Wendi.”

  I sat on the oversized chair beside the fireplace so I wouldn’t be tempted to touch what wasn’t mine.

  No more of that.

  Brandon perched on the edge of the bigger sofa, while the others took seats. Cash was beside Brandon, and Escher sat on the arm of the smaller sofa next to Moss. They all nodded at Brandon. Poor man, first to see me, first to deliver the bad news.

  “Wendi, we promised you the truth, but you have to promise us one thing in return, and we know we have no right to ask you for anything, but we are. Do you promise to stay through our entire explanation before deciding to walk away or stay or whatever you intend to do?”

  I looked at their faces one by one. “Sure. I will stay through the entire thing.” It was the least I could do before leaving forever.

  Why did the thought wrench my insides so hard?

  “Good.” Brandon inhaled an extended breath. “You think the reason we protect you and do other things for you is because you are part of this healer prophecy?”

  I nodded and begged, pleaded, and commanded my tears not to start. Fuck, I thought I had run out.

  Moss looked to the ceiling, muttering something. Probably asking the gods to strike him down so he didn’t have to endure any more of this.

  “We…fuck, I don’t know how to do this. Moss?”

  Moss tipped his chin and targeted me with his gaze. “Wendi, there’s no way to… I don’t…” It was the first time I’d ever seen Moss stutter or fight to come up with the right words.