FRACTURED (11 page)

“
Yes,”
he said, cupping my face softly
.
“You are, though the details are a little off as usual.” He smiled at his jab, but it quickly faded. “Of course I forgive you, Ruby. There was never any question that I would.

The question now is whether or not
you
can forgive
me?”

“Do I get breakfast out of the deal if I say yes?” I asked, smiling up at him while my stomach rumbled. It was one thirty in the morning, but our bedroom escapades had left me famished.

He leaned in slowly to kiss me, and I found myself with eyes closed, rising up on my toes to meet him. My heart beat faster and the electricity that flowed between us was in full force. Time stood still, the seconds drawing out painfully while I awaited his contact. When his breath tickled my lips, I parted them with an inhale of anticipation.

Instead of a kiss, I got interrupted by an unwanted banging on my door.

“Are you up?” Cooper shouted, knowing damn well I was since he could usually hear me from the living room. Without any acknowledgment, he slammed open the bedroom door.

“Seriously, Coop?” I snapped, scooping the blankets up around me tighter.

“Oh, please, Ruby. Like I haven't seen it before,” he sighed, flipping on the light. Sean growled. “I think we need a family huddle. These guys are making me crazy already. I think it's time for them to go.”

“I think it's time for
you
to go,” Sean said calmly, staring Cooper down.

“Oh,” Cooper said, looking back and forth between Sean and me. “I wasn't interrupting, was I? So sorry. Please continue. I'll entertain your squatters while you two carry on with whatever it was you were doing. No problem.”

He turned off the light and threw the door closed behind him, punctuating his sentence with a slam.

“You two are really going to have to try and find a way to get along,” I told Sean, making my way to my walk-in closet. “It doesn't make things easier on me to have you two constantly at odds. And frankly, I don't even know why you are.”

“It's a male thing,” Sean offered for explanation.

I stuck my head out and gave him my best hairy eyeball.

“I still haven't officially forgiven you, you know,” I said haughtily.

“I could drag that out for months, if you'd prefer. It's kind of a
girl
thing.”

“Point taken,” he said, walking towards me. I pulled on my pants just before he cornered me in the closet. I kept my back to him while I fumbled with my tank top, trying to figure out which end was which in the dark.

“Does your offer still stand?” he asked, turning me around as I pulled the hem of my top down past my navel.

“It does, but now I'm tacking on good behavior. You have to promise to try,” I pleaded. “Cooper will be getting the same speech, if that makes you feel any better.”

“And what of the trio of foreigners in your living room? Must I be well-mannered to them too?”

“I'm undecided on that,” I said, pulling myself up to kiss him quickly. “I'll keep you posted.”

“Do that,” he said intensely. “I think Cooper's right about one thing; it's time for your unwanted houseguests to leave."

“Sean,” I breathed, preparing for a battle. “I really want to hear them out.”

“And I want to
see
them out,” he countered, positioning his body only inches away from mine.

“And they came here to see me, not you, so I'm going to entertain their plea and then decide what to do,” I told him firmly. "This is still my home, and I'm still in charge of what goes on in it. I know that fact pains both you and Cooper greatly, but it's the truth and your reality.” His expression cooled ever so slightly. “Please, Sean. You ask me to trust you. Please trust me enough to do the right thing here."

His face contorted in such a familiar way that it startled me momentarily. He was giving me Cooper's famed 'are you fucking kidding me?' face. I knew that good judgment wasn't my strong suit, but there was something about the boys that seemed honest, despite their reserved energy. They saved me from my hell; I owed them one. If I could help them escape from theirs, then I would.

“Please?” I asked, pressing against his fortress of a body. “I'm
asking
you to let me lead on this one.” His chest rumbled beneath me. “I promise, the second bodies need to drop, it's all you and Cooper."

“Well,” he started, pulling me up off the floor to wrap my legs about his waist. “Since you asked so nicely..." He pulled me in forcefully for a kiss. It was good that he was holding me up because my body went weak the instant he started.

He put me down moments later and straightened my disheveled clothes while I came to my senses.

“I like it when you ask for my permission,” he purred in my ear.

“I'll do it more often if that's the reward I get,” I replied, sounding mildly winded.

His eyes were darker than normal, but that wasn't entirely surprising. I was getting a crash course in how to navigate Sean's split personality. Why he had it in the first place was becoming clearer, though it was still a bit of a mystery. Exactly how it worked was too.

“Are you two fucking finished in there yet?” Cooper hollered from the living room.

“Coming,” I sighed, not looking forward to our family meeting.

Sean looked at me with a controlled harshness that told me he was having a hard time letting me take the lead. I placed my hand in his and gave a little squeeze.

“I guess we should get this over with,” I lamented.

“The second one of them screws up…” Sean started, eyeing me tightly.

“Agreed,” I nodded. “You can get medieval on them.”

He choked out a harsh and hearty laugh.

“I’ve never understood that saying,” he declared, pulling me towards the bedroom door. “There were periods in time far more torturous than that one. I actually found the medieval methods to be rather civilized."

“Of course you did,” I groaned, following him out to the living room.

The four men stared when we entered. Nervousness coursed from the Maine trio, and hostility rolled off of Cooper at an alarming rate. He really wasn't pleased with his babysitting role. Funny how he survived keeping an eye on me just fine.

“So what did you guys figure out during your little outing?” I asked, needing to break the silence in the room.

“Nothing,” Cooper said with great annoyance. “They only want to talk to you.”

“Seriously? They didn't say anything?”

“Not a word.”

Cooper was hanging on by a thin thread. His distrust was apparent to all parties present, and unfortunately for me, Sean was completely on his wavelength.

“And if I ask for answers?” Sean asked, his voice calm and menacing.

Janner shrugged slightly. “That is an entirely different matter.”

Cooper growled. I don't think he enjoyed being one-upped by Sean.

I decided to try and sort the mess out, seeing that it was still either that option or a bloodbath in my living room. The little cooling-off period Sean had mandated the boys take hadn't done anything to help. There was too much testosterone in too confined a space.

“You said you need refuge,” I started, trying to recall what Janner had said earlier. “But why here? Why do you think you're better off here with me? With
us
?”

“Because of what you are,” Janner stated like that point was painfully obvious. “I have to admit that we were surprised that it was so easy to
collect
you in the woods that day. We thought we were possibly going on a suicide mission even attempting to approach you. But once we saw you sitting against the tree, you seemed so frightened―fragile even.

We were far more concerned with your well-being at that point. More so than our own.

“So we took you in and helped you, which afforded us an opportunity to see how the real you stacked up against your reputation.

Pleasantly, we found you to be far more rational than we had been led to believe. Had we not seen you in action prior to that, I don't know that we would be here now, asking for your help. You seem as though somehow, unlike other werewolves, you and your wolf are polar opposites.”

“Yes, well, I do seem to be a bit of an enigma,” I replied with a smile, trying to make light of his observation. He had hit the nail on the head and it made me uncomfortable. It seemed to have the same effect on Cooper and Sean.

“So what you're basically saying is that you want to hide behind Ruby's skirt just in case your big bad alpha comes looking for you?"

Cooper sneered. “You made your fucking bed. Figure out a way to sleep in it.”

“I don't hide from anyone, you fucking prick,” Alistair barked.

Cooper laughed.“I wouldn't even break a sweat killing you.”

“Well, I guess it's good that nobody will be killing anyone tonight, so we won't have to test the veracity of that statement," I interjected.

“Not yet,” Cooper and Sean chimed together. The two slowly turned to look at one another with the most unsettled expressions.

“Anyway,” I said, trying to bring the focus back to the issue at hand.

“You think that I'm going to take you in so that I can just invite trouble to my doorstep?"

“My hope, Ruby, was that you would consider our situation and think about it before readily dismissing us. The stories that I've heard never spoke of your dual nature. You seem so very human to me. I wonder if our plight could possibly appeal to that inflated sense of humanity. If Tobias were to find out about our location...," he said, letting his lack of completion speak for itself.

“You think he'd be dissuaded from coming after you because this seemingly too-human werewolf is actually a ruthless assassin."

“If you're comfortable putting it that way, then yes.”

“So I'm the 'just in case' plan?”

“In a sense.” His expression was surprisingly unapologetic.

The irony of the situation was too much for me. They wanted to be near me for protection, and I couldn't even take care of myself because Scarlet had taken a leave of absence.

“I don't really know how to tell you this, guys, but I'm not really going to be able to help much because―"

“Ruby!” Sean and Cooper yelled simultaneously. It was truly bizarre.

“I think what Ruby is trying to say,” Cooper started, “is that she's on a tight leash these days. She can't just go and take care of your problems without consequence." Cooper shot a glance at Sean and then back to the boys. “He may be her mate, but her survival is dependent on keeping her nose clean. All you three seem to want to do is dirty it for her.”

“I don't think it'll be an issue,” Janner countered. “If Tobias knows that we're aligned with you, I don't think even he would be dumb enough―or suicidal enough―to come after us. He enjoys breathing far too much for that.”

“That's quite a gamble,” Sean added. “And one that none of us are willing to make.”

“Agreed,” growled Cooper.

Flanked by the two men in my life, I looked over at the somber threesome. Beckett's face was impassive, but Janner and Alistair had looks of uncertainty and the energy to go along with it. Their shields had been dropped the instant the conversation started, and whatever they had hoped to accomplish by coming to my house during the storm of the century wasn't panning out. It looked as though they were running out of hope as well as options.

“Now that we've heard what you came here to say...,” Sean began, motioning toward the door.

I watched as Janner took a deep, cleansing breath before giving Sean and Cooper both a curt nod and leading his men to the door. Beckett followed without argument or acknowledgment of any of us. I looked on, feeling as though something just wasn't quite right. It didn't feel good sending them away. When I brought my attention back to Alistair, he stood steadfast, staring at me with a pained expression. He looked desperate to say something.

“Ali,” Janner called from the doorway. “We'll find another way...”

Alistair's eyes remained fixed on mine with a pleading gaze. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and started to go to his packmates, a slightly defeated posture overtaking him.

“Alistair,” I called, lunging toward him. He startled at my approach, but halted all the same. “Is there something you want to tell me?

Something other than what I've heard?"

He looked to Janner, seeking permission with his eyes. Janner pressed his lips tightly and sighed before giving him a nod of approval.

Without skipping a beat, Alistair dropped a bomb on us.

“They've been going missing for a while now,” he told me, jumping right to the meat of his story. It left me completely bewildered.

“Who? Who's been going missing?”

“Pack members,” he said flatly. “At first, we thought it was coincidence. One or two had disappeared, but there always seemed to be a reason to explain away any doubt. Most were lower ranking members who weren't really in love with being a part of the pack. They would rather have been loners. Initially, we thought they'd all just buggered off."

Again, he looked to Janner with an air of uncertainty clouding everything around him. It was apparent that this was a card he'd hoped to not have to play.

“But later...,” I prodded, trying to drag it out of him.

“Later, it was random members of the pack. And the last one to be taken, she was my mate. Someone took my Jemma."

My shoulders sagged with compassion. The pain he felt was staggering, and part of me knew all too well what that felt like. The other part of me that also knew exactly what that felt like was still too AWOL

to care.

“When?” Sean asked, his booming voice startling me.

“A few months ago,” Alistair said, trying desperately to compose himself. “She left to run some errands one day and never came back."

“I'm so sorry, Alistair,” I whispered.

“What does this have to do with you staying here?” Cooper blurted out from behind me.

“Cooper!”

“Well?” he snarled. “It's a sad story and all, and I feel bad for him, but that doesn't have anything to do with us. Maybe you should send Sean over there to figure out what's happening."

“Have a little compassion, Coop! How would you feel if your mate were taken?”