Ashwood Falls Volume Two (8 page)

However, Addyson knew deep down that Keegan could never hurt her. As his mate, she needed to be strong and show him she wouldn’t back down from him.

And she wouldn’t run. Not from him. Not ever again.

He stopped inches from her. His lips twitched as he slowly brought his hand up to stroke her cheek. All the tension fled her body, and she leaned into his touch.

“How was your bath?” he whispered.

She smiled. “It was nice.” She rose up on her toes and kissed his cheek then walked around him to greet Blaine. “How are your mates and the kids?”

The stern glare he had when she’d first come into the room softened. “They’re wonderful.”

She stepped closer and concentrated on blocking his psychic energy. Like with Tanner, she used Blaine’s aura to create a mental shield surrounding her mind. She offered Blaine her hand. She heard Keegan step up behind her, but he didn’t touch her, just growled out, “What are you doing?”

“I need to practice building my shields,” she replied in a firm tone that made her want to apologize, but Blaine shook his head as if telling her to stay strong.

Blaine sat up on the sofa and hovered his hand over hers then looked her in the eyes. She could only hold his stare for a second before peering down at their hands. “Are you sure about this, Addyson?”

She nodded. “I won’t see the same vision twice. I’ve been working on rebuilding my shields.”

Hesitantly, he placed his hand on hers. His Alpha power washed over her in a soothing caress. It felt familiar and like home.

She didn’t get hit with a vision from the connection. She relaxed and almost became giddy at how easy it was getting to block others the more she did it.

Then a blurred image of two males, bodies entwined together in a bed, came into her mind’s eye. She gasped and jerked her hand back, her cheeks heating.

“Addyson?” Blaine and Keegan asked at the same time.

She waved them off and shook her head. “I’m fine. It was a...happy vision and fuzzy.”

Keegan wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck and massaged her tense muscles. “That’s good, right?”

She leaned her back into him. “Yes. It seems when I try to shield I pull the most recent happy event.”

Blaine cleared his throat and met her gaze. Addyson held in a smile but quickly averted her eyes, her submissive nature not allowing her to hold his stare for more than a few moments.

Keegan kissed the top of her head and nudged her to sit. Automatically she went to take a step toward the sofa then stopped. She turned to Blaine then Alec, lodged in an armchair to their left and Will silently sitting on the sofa next to Blaine. “Would you like tea or coffee?”

They nodded, and she turned to the kitchen where she filled the kettle with water and placed it on the stove. A few moments later, Will entered and came over to stand next to her as she filled the tray with cups and the fixings for tea and coffee.

Will reached out and touched her arm. “Are you okay?”

She stopped and turned to him, brushing his too-long hair out of his eyes. “Yes. The bath Keegan drew for me helped.”

She caught a shy grin before he looked away, most likely trying to hide it from her. “He likes you,” he whispered.

She sighed. “I know.” It was all she could say right now. There were too many uncertainties between them. The pain too sharp, their pasts haunting them both.

She tried to replay the vision over in her mind again. Something about it didn’t sit well with her. A mate just didn’t betray the other, not under their own power anyway. Addyson was almost tempted to go back out there and take Blaine’s hand in an attempt to bring back the vision.

She couldn’t do that. It had nearly broken her all over again the first time. The small shield she’d created wasn’t strong enough. Not yet.

Determination drove her to do whatever it would take to strengthen those shields so she could become the woman she once was. Well, at least as strong as she used to be, if not stronger.

“Do you think she was controlled?” Alec’s voice drifted from the living room. He spoke loud enough that his voice echoed off the stone walls of the cave.

Most likely to be heard over Keegan’s and Blaine’s heated discussion of Cate.

Addyson closed her eyes. She wished they’d stop arguing so she could think. Then Alec’s question settled into her thoughts and she stilled. Controlled? Damn. That was it. She turned to Will and asked him to bring the tea and coffee in when the kettle sounded. He nodded, but she felt his concerned gaze on her as she left the kitchen.

Keegan and Blaine stared at Alec as though they expected him to grow a new limb or something.

“I believe she had been,” she blurted

They turned their gazes to her now. Keegan started to shake his head. “It’s not possible.”

Addyson didn’t take her gaze from him as she disagreed. “It is, and I saw Felix do it more times than I like to remember.”

Keegan turned his body to face her and started stalking toward her. She forced her legs not to shake and her body to stay planted in place. The tension in the air coming from Keegan made it hard not to revert to her submissive nature.

He stopped a few inches from her, the heat of his body caressing her still too-sensitive skin. Yet, she didn’t break eye contact as she reached out and placed her palm on his chest. He closed his eyes for several moments, and when he opened them, she saw a hint of gratitude.

“It wasn’t her fault,” she whispered.

Keegan stroked his fingers down her cheek then stepped back, the pain too raw in his gaze. He was too stubborn, too fixed on burying the pain to see the logic behind what she’d just told him. It frustrated her and made her heart ache for him all at once.

Without another word, Keegan turned to the door and left. She took a step but stopped when Blaine said, “Let him go. He needs to run off the frustration and think.”

She dropped her shoulders but nodded. Blaine was right. Keegan needed time to think and run off the building emotions. She couldn’t imagine what he was feeling after what he’d learned over the last few days.

She’d give him time to think, for now. He needed to talk about it, figure out where to go from here. And she was going to see that he did.

K
eegan stepped out into the cooling evening air, unable to draw enough of it into his lungs. His head spun with the possibilities surrounding Cate’s death. Could Felix have controlled her, forced her to betray Keegan and the Pack? He wanted so desperately to believe it because, in his heart, he knew she’d never willingly betray her family. And Pack was family.

Yet, there was a small part of him that doubted the possibility of a mindbender. They were rare. The few times Keegan had come face-to-face with Felix, he’d never sensed the ability in the rogue Alpha. There was only one way Keegan wouldn’t have detected the other male’s power.

It would have to mean that Felix had dual psychic abilities.

Another impossibility.

Or was it?

Keegan took off through the thick trees surrounding the cave. He didn’t shift because his human side needed to run more than the leopard, although he did allow the cat to come to the surface and enjoy the run just as much.

He came to a stop at a small stream and scented the air. A low growl rumbled up his chest to his throat. The unmistakable stench of the mutants Onyx used as their assassins drifted in the wind. The hairs on the back of Keegan’s neck stood on end, and his whole body went taut with tension.

Damn bastards will not take another mate from me
.

Keegan’s leopard roared in agreement and paced beneath his skin.

The shuffling of footsteps had him whirling around to come face-to-face with a large wolf mutant. The half-man, half-wolf stood over seven feet tall with fangs that jetted out of his top jaw to stretch over his bottom lip.

When Keegan shifted one hand into a claw and allowed his own fangs to release from his gums, he sensed another presence come up on his right.

“I wouldn’t challenge that one, Alpha. Or should I say Elder?”

Keegan turned to the unfamiliar voice while keeping the mutant in his line of sight. Narrowing his eyes, Keegan sent out his senses to the male and hit a mental wall. The bastard was either naturally resistant to Keegan’s telepathy or he’d development the ability to block it. “Who are you?

The male smirked. “The name is Van. I hold his leash,” he indicated the mutant next to him, “and those of others like him. I’m also the new Marshal of Onyx.”

Keegan ground his molars and breathed in through his nose slowly. The half-ass meditating routine didn’t help soothe his already pissed-off mood. “That tells me nothing.”

The male shrugged. Arrogance rolled off him, thick and oily. His dark hair was cut short to the scalp, and his midnight-blue eyes held a darkness Keegan had seen before. Felix possessed the same evil within him.

Van locked gazes with Keegan then grinned to show the tips of his fangs. “I know you know about your daughter and your plan to steal her away from her pack. Soon Felix will too.”

Fear burned inside Keegan’s gut. There was no telling what Felix would do to Ana just to send a message to Keegan.

Not happening. Keegan had to trust that Kieran would keep her safe until they came up with a solid plan to get her out.

Van laughed. The evil sound sent a cold shiver up Keegan’s spine. “She is very pretty and strong. I bet she’d give some male lots of sons.”

Fury boiled in Keegan’s veins, and he charged forward, aiming straight at Van’s throat, only to be knocked to the ground right before his teeth made contact. He slid along the ground and slammed into a tree. Pain raced up his spine, as the breath was knocked out of him.

Shaking off the pain, Keegan rushed the mutant, nailing him in the gut and taking him to the ground. Keegan struck out with his clawed hand and scratched the beast down the side of its long snout. Blood oozed from the wounds, and the mutant yelled out in fury and pain.

Keegan hit him again, harder. Much too fast, the mutant’s hand came up and gripped Keegan’s throat, cutting off his airway. The mutant rolled them over so he straddled Keegan and raised his clawed fist over Keegan’s heart.

Keegan braced for impact, knowing good and well that in this position he was done for. Mutants’ brains were too jumbled, their thought patterns too wild. That was one of the reason the Onyx Pack used them to fight against Ashwood Falls.

Keegan reached in with his telepathy to distract the creature long enough to break free.

In the next moment, the mutant froze in place. Confusion followed by pain crossed his face before he looked down at the point of a blade sticking out of his chest. His body jerked, and then he fell to the ground. In his place stood a woman with long raven hair.

His heart stopped for a few moments before it jolted back to life, hammering against his ribcage.

Cate
.

It was the only thought he had as he peered into the gray eyes—Cate’s eyes. They were the same color as Blaine’s.

By the way she stood over him frozen in place she was as shocked as he was. Then her eyebrows drew together, and she pulled another dagger from a sheath strapped to her thigh and raised it at him. “Who are you?”

Keegan laid his head on the ground and looked at the darkening sky. “Keegan Andrews, Elder of Ashwood Falls.”

She pursed her lips and said, “I thought there weren’t any more Elders.”

“I’m a new breed,” he said dryly as he rolled to a sitting position.

Ana tensed and shook the dagger toward him. “Stay where you are.”

He met her eyes. She stared back with the strength of a dominant female facing a challenge. A challenge she’d be glad to take on, he bet. Keegan smirked. His daughter held the strength of an alpha.

He eased to a stand, forcing Ana to shift uneasily from foot to foot. Facing her, he held up his hands because he didn’t want to spook her and end up with that dagger buried in chest. “Thank you for saving my life.”

Her gaze flicked to the dead mutant beside them, and then back to him. “I hate the mutants. Vile beasts.”

He grinned, turned his back to her, and walked off. His grin turned into a chuckle as he heard her curse and start to follow him. “I said stay put.”

He twisted around and came nose to nose with her. With quick efficiency, he disarmed her of the dagger and threw the thing into a large oak about ten feet away.

“Hey!” She glared at him as if ordering him to retrieve her knife.

Not happening.

Without realizing what he was doing, he reached out to touch her face. She recoiled and stepped back. He pushed away the ache in his chest from the rejection. She didn’t know him, didn’t know he was her father.

Leaning into her, he whispered, “I owe you a debt for my life, but I can’t pay it today.”

She stilled. “What kind of debt?”

He stepped back because it was too tempting to grab her and take her to the den, lock her up until she knew the truth and accepted it. No, he couldn’t do that. That was what Felix had done, except the bastard had stolen her and built her a life on lies.

“You saved my life. So anything you need just ask.” He turned again to head toward the cave.

He got about twenty feet away when she asked, “How will I find you?”

Without looking at her, he said, “Ask Kieran.” Then he darted off into the woods faster than he knew she’d be able to follow. Not many could track him. His son-in-law and the Pack Tracker, Travis, had difficulties following his trail.

No, there was only one who wasn’t bound to him that could track him.

That male currently lived inside the Onyx den, and his scent was all over Ana.

Keegan hoped Ana trusted Kieran enough to tell him about the meeting and that she’d soon come to collect on the debt Keegan owed her.

****

T
he only thing Addyson didn’t like about her new temporary home was the lack of windows. So she’d come outside to sit in the grass next to the door. The wolf Marshal, Hayden, growled at her when she tried to wander beyond a few feet from the cave. She growled back, which made his lips twitch, but the rest of his face held on to the scowl.