The Mercy of Promise, page 14
“I want to start a new tradition,” he said softly against her lips.
“Mmm,” she asked dreamily. She rested her cheek against the door frame. “And what’s that?”
“You come spend some nights at my place.”
“In town?” she asked.
“Mmm hmmm.”
“In Stark’s territory?”
“Doesn’t matter where my home is, Aspen. You’re safe.”
She rested her open palm against his cheek. “It’s more important that you are safe.”
His blond brows drew down slightly, and his churning red eyes filled with question. He would understand someday though. He was an Alpha. A leader. He was important.
“I got you something.” He pulled a drape of fabric from behind his back and offered it to her.
Curiosity piqued, she straightened her spine and took it from him. She unfolded the T-shirt and her mouth fell open. It was a Leadville Ballers T-shirt in her size. It even had her last name printed on the back. “Darren!”
“Would you be on our team? Permanently?”
“Is it all right with the guys?”
Darren snorted. “We’ve won three games in a row. I believe the guys’ response was ‘why haven’t you asked her already, you fuckhead?’”
She belted out a laugh and threw her arms around him. “Yes!”
His chuckle was deep and genuine, and warmed her from the inside out. Darren lifted her off her feet and carried her inside. The swinging door closed firmly behind them, and he took her straight back to the newly-patched bedroom. It didn’t look as fancy anymore, and there was just a mattress on the ground where the bed used to be, but it worked. He laid her on that mattress and kissed her lips. He rested his forehead against hers and said, “Someday, say yes.”
She cupped his cheeks. “To what?”
“To staying in my den. It feels like…it feels like I need it.”
Aspen’s heartbeat stuttered. That meant his wolf was bonding to her. He was growing possessive and wanting her scent in the place he rested his body at night. It was an admission of his wolf’s devotion to her, and oh, her heart.
Leaning up, she pressed her mouth to his gently, then lowered back to the pillow. “Next time you ask me, I’ll say yes.”
Darren stroked her cheek with the tip of his finger. “Good girl.”
Mmmm, she liked when he said that to her. He was the perfect balance of gentle and dominant.
Every place his body touched hers ignited with warmth, and she relaxed under him as he searched her eyes.
“You’re mine, you know?” he asked so softly.
Her entire life she’d been terrified of a man really seeing her. Really understanding the complications of her life, and the layers of herself that weren’t so pretty, but Darren saw it all and he was still here, making her feel pretty. Making her feel worth a damn.
She grabbed his wrist and pressed his hand to her cheek as she nuzzled him. Aspen nodded. “I know.”
He kissed her again and dragged his hand down her jawline, down her arm, down her ribs to her waist. He rolled to the side an inch, just enough for him to unsnap the button of her jeans. He slid his hand down the front of her jeans, slipped his fingertips against her slick folds and allowed a soft growl as she arched her back against the mattress.
“I like when you let go,” he whispered against her ear, and nipped her earlobe.
Aspen’s knees drifted apart wider, and she rocked against his touch. Tease. Tease, tease, he was torturing her so perfectly. Only when she was writhing against his touch, begging him, did he slide his finger inside of her. He groaned right along with her, and she could feel how hard he was against her thigh. She reached for him but he shook his head. “Let me take care of you.”
And God, she was gone. Gone, gone, nothing else existed but his touch. She’d never trusted anyone this much. He could have everything. Every secret, every vulnerability. She really was his.
The moans in her throat matched the pace he set, and he stole them from her with a kiss. With a taste. He absorbed her pleasure and pushed two fingers inside of her, faster, smoother, and she was there.
She gasped and bowed her back against the mattress as her body imploded. Squeezing her eyes closed, she whispered his name shakily.
“Fuck,” he moaned, and grabbed her hand, pressed it down her panties and against her throbbing sex, and she understood. She pushed her own finger into herself and kept his pace as her orgasm pulsed on. He unsnapped his jeans in a rush and shoved them down his hips, took himself in hand. He was so big, so hard, and a part of her wished he would slide into her and finish on the tail of her ecstasy. But she understood. This wasn’t for Darren right now. It was for the possessive wolf inside of him, and as he locked an arm beside her face, she slid her other hand up the strained muscles of his tricep and shoulder. She couldn’t take her eyes from his powerful hand gripping his dick. This was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen in her life and she didn’t want it to end. The pressure was building in her middle again as she slid her finger in and out of herself with the rhythm he set with himself.
He gritted his teeth and she was there again. And as he shoved her shirt up to her neck and angled himself over her, the release came again, shattering through her body as the warmth of his pleasure splashed across her tits.
Nothing had ever felt so right.
“Mine,” he gritted out as he emptied himself onto her skin.
Her body twitched with the last lingering pulses of release, and she smiled, eyes on him. “Yours,” she murmured.
Sated and drained, he sat up on his knees, his chin high, looking down at her with blazing red eyes that had captured her heart and soul. His chest lifted and fell with his breath, his abs flexing. She adored every scar on his body. She adored every new thing she learned about him. She adored the way he made her feel about herself…about her wolf.
He had more power than he would ever realize, because he was capable of building up a broken thing. And that’s what she had been. She’d been broken, with sharp edges, and missing pieces, and he’d come in and told her she was beautiful just as she was.
And the best part…
The most important, biggest, undeniably surprising part…
She believed him.
How could she ever doubt something she could see so clearly in the way he looked at her?
There was truth in his voice as he whispered, “I’m yours, too.”
Chapter Fourteen
She didn’t know what woke her.
Perhaps a dream had dragged her out of that deep slumber. Darren had tucked the edges of the blanket carefully around her before he’d gone home last night. A glance at her phone showed it was 3:15 in the morning.
She blinked hard and sat up in bed. The fine hairs on her arms were electrified, so it must’ve been a dream, right?
It was quiet outside, but her wolf was listening so intently, and a trill of something uncomfortable tickled her chest.
Maybe if she got a drink of water, she could shake the remnants of the nightmare she couldn’t remember. Aspen pushed out of the covers and stood, stretched, but it didn’t calm the chills on her body.
Run.
Aspen froze, mid-stretch.
Why the hell was her wolf telling her to run? Alert, she padded to the front door, but out the window beside it, she couldn’t see anything.
Nothing except…
Naomi was standing next to the picnic table in front of Ru’s RV. Relief washed through her, and she sighed as she pulled her door open.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.
Naomi turned, but the look on her face had Aspen hesitating at the bottom of her stairs.
“I can’t sleep,” the woman said.
“That’s okay. You’ve been through a lot. When did you and Ru get back? How did your Changes go?”
Naomi’s wide, gold eyes were glowing in the dim light of night. She turned back to the woods. “I hear something.”
“Your senses are heightened now,” Aspen said soothingly. “You’ll hear all kinds of sounds now. Birds, mice, squirrels. Everything will seem overwhelming for a while.”
“Ru taught me how to listen,” she whispered. “I hear something.”
Frowning, Aspen came to a stop beside her and stilled. She opened up every sense, listened for anything out of the ordinary.
“What does it sound like?” Aspen murmured.
“Like...bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum.”
The chills were back, crawling up her spine this time. Aspen took three steps toward the woods and listened for the heartbeat Naomi was describing, and there. Softly. So softly, she could hear a heart. And another. And another.
The snap of a small twig came right before she saw the glowing eyes of a wolf, right in the tree line.
“Naomi,” she whispered. “Go back inside.”
“There is a wolf,” she said softly, her voice shaking.
“Ru! Bootlace!” Aspen yelled.
“Aspen?” Naomi asked, fear tainting her voice.
Aspen grabbed her shoulders and told her, “Naomi, run. Go inside. Wake up Ru.”
And she could see it out of the corner of her eye—the end of her normal days.
Nathaniel’s karma had found her.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair.
“Run!” she screamed as she turned to face the Pack of wolves running from the trees.
Her wolf shredded out of her as the first of the wolves hit her in the side, blasting her backward.
As she flew through the air, time stopped. She took an awful picture in her mind of the end of her life with Darren. Naomi was running, a gray wolf on her heels as her mouth parted in a scream. Ru’s wolf was leaping from the doorway of his RV, eyes on Naomi. He would never reach her in time. Stryker was running shirtless toward her, raging eyes blazing bright silver. Trey and Bootlace were Changed and their wolves were running toward the wolves in the tree line.
War had reached Promise Falls, and it wasn’t with Stark.
She’d known in her heart that this would happen, but it had been so nice forgetting about the outside world for a little while. Darren had taught her so much, but happiness couldn’t stop what was coming for her.
The Trader Pack’s past had caught up to them.
Chapter Fifteen
The headache was back.
Darren grunted and rubbed his forehead. “What’s wrong, Lassie,” he muttered. The sun was so bright, he had to wince against it and drag his sunglasses over his eyes.
He’d had the strangest dream last night that Aspen had told him she was sorry. That was it, just her voice whispering ‘I’m sorry.’
His shift had started at seven a.m., and he was headed out on patrol with Officer Wyatt. Redmond had called in sick, so that was weird, but whatever.
He sank behind the wheel of the cruiser and messed with the computer as Officer Wyatt climbed in the passenger seat. Trooper was already in the back, ready to work as always.
A call was coming through on the radio, but it wasn’t urgent. Someone had run out of gas on the side of one of the back roads outside of town. Officer Wyatt responded that they could take care of it while Darren checked his phone again for a response from Aspen. He’d sent her a good morning message, and she usually responded by now. Maybe she was sleeping in.
Freaking headache was throbbing.
No response yet. He texted, If you’re sleeping in…good! The fire department is putting on a barbecue to raise funds for charity tonight. Want to be my date? Send. I’ll talk to Stark and get permission for you to come into town. Send.
He put his phone away and got to work.
A couple hours went by and the headache was getting worse. He checked his phone a dozen times, and finally Officer Wyatt asked him, “You good?”
“Yeah. My lady isn’t responding this morning.”
“Probably because of your garbage dick.”
Darren made a clicking noise behind his teeth and connected a call to Aspen.
No answer.
Huh. It was ten o’clock now and she’d told him she could never sleep past nine, no matter how hard she tried. She was a natural-born early riser.
He called again to no answer.
The headache got worse. God, he could barely see straight.
“Hey, do you mind if we grab some lunch?” he asked.
“Yeah, want to go to Badger’s?” Officer Wyatt asked as he fiddled with the computer that was mounted between them. Slow day, and they hadn’t had a call since the gas incident.
“I was thinking near Alma?”
“Shit, we’re road-tripping. You’re wanting to go check on your lady, aren’t you?”
“I’ve got a weird feeling.”
Officer Wyatt’s dark brows drew down. “Of course, man. We have two other patrol cars running right now. We should be good. I’ll call in and let them know we’re on the outskirts for a couple hours.”
That hour drive was stupidly long, and by the last ten miles, he’d picked up the speed. He’d called three more times to no answer, but it wasn’t until he pulled into the RV park that he really accepted that something had gone wrong.
Aspen’s RV was gone.
The entire Pack’s RVs were gone. He parked catty-corner in her empty lot and got out in a rush. He ran his hands through his hair and linked his hands behind his head as he stared in disbelief at the empty spaces.
It smelled like wet pennies, and he knelt at a patch of mutilated grass on the lawn of Aspen’s RV site. Someone had tried to rip it all up, but they’d missed a spot. What the fuck?
Frantic, he stood and searched the other lots and found another huge area of grass that had been ripped up from the roots near a picnic table.
“Do you need the dog?” Officer Wyatt asked from near the cruiser.
I am the dog. There was another ripped up patch, and another. He knelt and plucked a blade of grass with dried blood on it. God, what had happened here?
He stood and pulled his phone from his back pocket, dialed Aspen’s number again. Her voice came on the voicemail, and panic constricted his chest. His head hurt so damn bad.
He called again. No answer. He texted her, Where are you? Send. You’re worrying me. Send.
Fuck! He ran his hands through his hair again. He didn’t have anyone else’s number. He hadn’t needed them. He’d thought he had time to get their numbers later. He bolted for the RV Park office, ignoring Officer Wyatt’s questions behind him.
A portly man with a handlebar mustache and thinning hairline was sitting behind the desk. “Hello, officer,” he greeted Darren.
“Hey, do you know what happened to the RVs in your spaces ten through fifteen?”
The man pursed his lips and stared back at him.
“Hello?” Darren asked impatiently. “Spots ten through fifteen. Why aren’t they here?”
The man swallowed and then carefully said, “Those spaces haven’t been filled for two weeks. It’s our slow season.”
“That’s a fuckin’ lie.”
“Darren,” Officer Wyatt said from behind him.
“It’s a lie!” Darren said, jamming his finger at the manager. “How much did they pay you? Huh? How much?”
“Hey!” Officer Wyatt yelled, pushing him in the chest. “Let’s take a break.” He turned and told the manager, “We’ll be back.”
The temptation to shove Officer Wyatt right out of the way was enormous, and it took every bit of self-control Darren possessed to stop himself from doing it, but this wasn’t Wyatt’s fault.
He turned quick and strode from the office, straight for the police cruiser.
Okay. Okay! There was blood on the ground. Lots of it, if the patches of missing earth were anything to go by. How could he find out more?
The Promise Falls Pack? Would Stark know anything? Would Marsden? He was Aspen’s childhood friend. He didn’t have their damn numbers! One call could fix that. Determined to call in a request, he picked it up to a jog toward the cruiser when dispatch came in on his radio.
“Just got word that Naomi Dunbar is home safe. I know we already called that off, but her aunt just called in.”
Naomi! Yes. She’d been with Ru, right? They were probably at her aunt’s house.
“Did anyone else come with her?” he asked into the radio at his shoulder.
“Ummm, not that I know of. The aunt just said she got home an hour ago and seems good. Just quiet.”
“Can I have the address to her aunt’s house?” he asked.
“Darren!” Officer Wyatt called from behind him.
“Get in,” Darren demanded, pointing to the car.
Trooper was waiting patiently in the back.
Dispatch recited the address.
“Thank you,” he murmured as he sank behind the steering wheel.
Something was wrong.
Something was really wrong, and Naomi was his lead on finding out more.
Chapter Sixteen
By the time Darren got there, Naomi wasn’t at her aunt’s house anymore. She’d gone back home. The fifteen-minute drive from her aunt’s house in the middle of town to the edge where Naomi lived was excruciating. He could’ve called her, sure. It was an easy thing to track down a number, but he wanted to see her facial reactions when he asked questions.
She didn’t answer her door, and when Officer Wyatt went back to check on Trooper, Darren had gone around the side of the house because he heard Naomi clear as day with his heightened senses.
The scratch of an iron chair against paver’s stone grated on his ears. When he rounded the corner of the house, she was in the backyard, standing beside an iron chair with her hand resting on the back of it, facing away from him.
Slowly, she turned, and her eyes were the bright gold of her wolf. “I knew you would come,” she said softly.
He approached slowly. The last time he’d been here, he’d been ordering the cigarettes on the table to be DNA tested. This was where she was taken. It felt haunted.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“Mostly. At least the last time I saw her, she was alive. Do you know,” she said in a dreamy voice, “I don’t remember what happened that night?” She waved her hand around her face. “It’s just not there. I can remember bits of pieces of my time back here, but not leading up to the event. I don’t remember what happened while I was gone from here either. I just woke up and I was hurting and I was a…” She gave him an uncertain smile.
