Every Dawn Forever (2 page)

Byron rarely let her leave the house.  He worked during the day, pouring concrete for his grandfather’s company.  He would lock her in the house, where she would spend her time wishing she could run away.  But escape was a pipe dream.  She had no money, no identification, no where to go.  For so long she’d resigned herself to someday dying at Byron’s hand that when help finally came, she almost didn’t believe it.

Byron’s grandmother grew ill in August.  Byron and Monroe decided that Sydney would handle caring for Katharine.  Sydney didn’t mind, because Katharine was one of the few females who would actually speak to her, and that Byron would allow to visit.  Although she’d never been really kind to Sydney, she hadn’t been outright horrible or mean, and her emotionally starved heart was willing to take anything.

She had tirelessly taken care of Katharine as she grew weaker and weaker with each passing day.  Normally, wolves didn’t get sick, so everyone was puzzled.  She was only seventy, too young to waste away.

After the first week, when Sydney was spoon-feeding Katharine some broth because she was too weak to hold the bowl, she turned her head away from the spoon.

“Can I get you something else, Katharine?”

Katharine looked at her with soft gray eyes.  She’d never considered her to be a real grandmother, because there was no tenderness between them, but now she could almost imagine it.  “You can go to the bookshelf and find the book
Songs and Poems of a Winter’s Night
.  It has a black leather cover.”

Sydney found the book, pulled it from the shelf, and brought it over to Katharine.  She opened the cover and Sydney was surprised to see that the interior of the book had been hollowed out.  Inside the small space was a tiny cell phone and a scrap of paper.

“Katharine?” Sydney asked in confusion, when she handed the phone to her after turning it on.

Katharine’s eyes hardened.  “I was never allowed to love you the way that I wanted to.  Harris refused to allow me to be overly kind to you, saying that it would only coddle you against the realities of life.  You see, child, Byron learned how to treat women from Harris.  I have suffered through his brutality since I was sixteen.  It’s taken me a long time, but I am finally almost free of this life.  I won’t go into the beyond and leave you defenseless.”

Sydney looked down at the phone.

“What are you saying?”

Katharine licked her dry lips.  “There is a group of wolves that will help a female in your situation, Sydney.  They’re called the Were-animal Relocation Group.  You send a text to them and explain your situation and they will help you get away from Byron and the pack and start your life over.”

Her whole world narrowed down to those last few words.  She could start her life over again?  She could actually be free of Byron and his abuse?  The fragile seed of hope, which had never quite died completely, bloomed to life inside her.  Fear and relief twined in her chest.  Dare she hope that she might be free?

Her hands trembled and her eyes filled with tears.  “I don’t know what to say.  It sounds too good to be true.  Why would strangers help me?”

Katharine sighed.  “Not all packs are like ours, Sydney.  There are males out there that revere and love their mates and never strike them.  This group is like that.  They want to help people like you.”

Sydney wiped away the tears on her cheeks.  “Why haven’t you called them?”

Katharine smiled and coughed a few times.  “I didn’t find out about them until a few weeks ago.  It’s too late for me now, child, but it’s not too late for you.  Start your life right and find the male that is right for you, one that will worship you and treat you like a queen.  Have lots of cubs and live a long, happy life.”

Happiness.  Was it really a text away?

She’d never been allowed to have a cell in high school because her mother couldn’t afford one, so she didn’t know how to send a text.  Katharine taught her how to open a text message, and Sydney texted the phone number on the scrap of paper with the message that Katharine dictated: 
I need help.  My mate beats and rapes me.  My alpha refuses to intervene.  My name is Sydney Nichols.”

When she pressed the ‘send’ button, Katharine showed her how to turn off the phone and slipped it and the scrap of paper into the book before closing it gently.  “You need to run away, Sydney.  Do you have any family?”

“My mother’s parents are in Europe somewhere, and she has a cousin in Alaska.”

“The relocation group will find a way to get you to safety.  You must flee soon.  Harris is riding Byron about your inability to provide children, and they’re going to take matters into their own hands soon.”

Sydney’s mouth went dry.  From time to time, Byron liked to inject Sydney with drugs that made her full moon desires ramp up.  On a normal full moon, a she-wolf would be horny and excitable, but the drugs made her insatiable, turning her desires into pain-filled hours that would only ease when she was having sex.

Tears filled her eyes.  “I can’t do this anymore, Katharine.”

“Then leave, child.  My time on this earth isn’t much longer.  The last good thing I do in life will be to help you get free.”

Sydney hugged the book to her chest, not sure she really believed it was possible.  Could she really find freedom somewhere beyond the walls of her prison?  Outside of the pack’s territory?

“Hand me the bottle of pills on the dresser, dear,” Katharine said.  Sydney fetched them.  “I think I’ll take three this time.”

Sydney held the glass of water for her as she placed three white oval pills on her tongue and then finished the water.  Sydney returned the empty glass and the pills to the dresser.

“It won’t be long now, child,” Katharine said wearily.

“What won’t be?”  Sydney smoothed the blanket.

“The pills are taking me from this life, slowly, so that it won’t draw any attention to what I’m doing.  Harris thinks they’re vitamins, but they’re poison.  Promise me, dear.  Promise me that you’ll get free and live the life that I could have had if I hadn’t mated Harris.  Or that you could have had if your mother hadn’t betrayed you.”

“I promise, Katharine,” Sydney whispered, crying softly.

The old woman’s eyes closed in sleep and Sydney leaned up and kissed her forehead, whispering
thank you
, before gathering the dishes and leaving the room.  She glanced back at the frail-looking woman, who was sleeping soundly.  She hadn’t known that Katharine wasn’t allowed to be kind to her, and she wondered if the other females were under similar orders from Monroe or Byron.  It didn’t make her feel any less lonely, but she understood now why she’d been so isolated.  She would have given anything for a few conversations with Katharine like this one.  To know she wasn’t alone in her suffering.  She opened the bedroom door and stepped out, and as she closed it, she silently wished for Katharine to find peace.

Katharine died in her sleep that night, and Monroe

 and Byron were beside themselves with grief.  Sydney was mourning as well, but only because she wished that she’d had an opportunity to get to know her better, without the threats that hung over both of their heads.

Each day when Byron left for work, she retrieved the phone from the book and turned it on, waiting for a return text.  It took a full week before they contacted her, and over the last three weeks she had been in contact with them as they explained her extraction plan.

Tomorrow night, Byron would be playing poker like he did every Friday night with his friends.  Normally, he would wander home at three or four in the morning, dead drunk and spoiling for a fight.  But this time, he would find the house empty and her long gone.

She had never done anything so daring in all her life, but the promise that she’d made to Katharine spurred her on.  She would leave Byron or she would die trying; there was no middle ground.

Chapter 2

Orion Stone rubbed at the headache forming behind his eyes as he stared at a spreadsheet on the computer screen.  He was sitting in his office in Stone’s Gym, where he did the books.  It wasn’t that it was particularly difficult to handle the gym’s finances; his headache was borne of two sleepless nights.

His brother Crux walked into the office and sat down in one of the two chairs across from the metal desk.  He looked as bad as Orion felt, but more than an apparent lack of sleep, Crux also looked concerned.  Immediately, Orion’s thoughts flickered to their parents.  Was something wrong?

Crux cleared his throat.  “The relo group just called.  They want us to get the girl on Friday night.”

Blowing out a breath of relief that his mind had jumped to false conclusions, he said, “Alright.  What are the details?”

Sterling, the youngest and quietest brother of the three, leaned against the doorframe and folded his massive arms across his chest.  Crux looked at Sterling and then said, “Her name is Sydney Nichols.  She’ll be waiting at a bus station at midnight and then we’ll bring her back here.”  Crux looked like he wanted to say something further, but after a moment he closed his mouth and leaned back in his chair.

Orion mused on the situation.  He’d never been around a woman that had been abused before.  According to what they’d learned already of Sydney, she was in an abusive mating with a wolf, and up to this point hadn’t been able to leave of her own free will.  When he thought of a woman — any woman — being abused, it made his blood boil.  Women were to be treated with respect, and mates were to be cherished above all else.

Crux said, “It’ll take about six hours to drive there.  Weather forecast is for rain, so we’ll want to leave about five to make sure we get there without any delays.”

“Alright.  Make sure that Nyte is ready to cover our shift tomorrow,” Orion said.  He turned his attention back to the computer, assuming the conversation was over.  When neither brother moved, he looked at them questioningly.

“Are we going to let her stay with us?  I mean, if she wants to?”  Crux asked.  He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and laced his fingers together.

He opened his mouth to say that he hadn’t really given it any thought, except that wasn’t true.  Ever since the Were-animal Relocation Group contacted their cousin Dante for help in extracting Sydney from her dangerous situation, Orion had thought of little else.  He was worried six ways from Sunday about her.  Worried that she would get hurt or killed trying to escape.  Worried that they wouldn’t be able to find her.  Worried about having her in their home, for however long it would be.  Sydney had a cousin in a pack in Alaska, and the pack were supposed to be the ones to go and rescue her.  But an unexpected storm had stranded them, and the relo group had called on the hyena
baro
to take their place.

Realizing he’d been quiet for too long, Orion said, “We said we’d keep her safe until she can go to her cousin’s pack.  As far as I’m concerned, that means that she needs to stay with us.”

Sterling, who generally was a quiet person, said, “She can have my room.  I’ll bunk in the den.”

Orion wasn’t surprised.  His youngest brother was selfless to a fault.  “Thanks, man.”

Sterling looked at Crux and said, “You handle it.”

Crux chuckled as Sterling turned and walked away.  “I guess I’ll do some shopping, then, and get her room set up.  At least we’ll have the weekend with her, to help her acclimate to being away from her pack and mate before we have to come back to work.”  Crux stood and walked for the door.

“She’s not staying with us for a long time, you know.  Probably two months at the most.”  Even as he spoke those words, something inside him howled in dismay.

“I know.  I just want to help her.”

Nodding, Orion turned back to the computer as Crux walked into the gym.  Orion wanted to help her, too.  He just didn’t know how to do that, and he didn’t know why he hadn’t been able to stop thinking of her when he knew so little about her.

* * * * *

When Sterling and his brothers had agreed to move from their home
baro
in Gorge, Tennessee to Dalton, Kentucky to work at their cousins’ gym, he hadn’t been keen on becoming a trainer.  It wasn’t that he didn’t love lifting weights, because he did.  His carefully honed body was a testament to how much he enjoyed keeping in shape.  But he wasn’t a people person by any stretch, and Orion’s suggestion that they work at the gym as trainers for the night shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. had sounded like nails on a chalkboard in Sterling’s mind.  The last thing that Sterling wanted to do was teach people how to lift weights.  Crux had been willing, had just received his certificate, and was now taking clients during their late shift.

Dante was disappointed that Sterling wasn’t interested in getting certified, but then one of the machines broke and Sterling fixed it, and that had sealed his job at the gym.  They teased him by giving him the title of Maintenance Engineer, but he was really just a handyman.  One day he’d be replacing a broken window, and the next day he was testing the water pH in the lap pool.  He liked working with his brothers and his cousins, and he got to work out whenever he felt like it, which was a bonus in his book.