Page 64 of Ruined Wolf
Lucas let me go and turned around. “Hey, Ash. Want to do me a quick favour?”
Asher had been utterly confused at Lucas’s request, but he’d simply shrugged his shoulders and strapped himself into the harness. Lucas had offered to go instead, but Asher had been adamant that with his head wound, there was no way he was going to be allowed to go back underground. Instead, it was Asher who the rescuers lowered back into the cave, armed with his phone and a bright flashlight.
He must have been down there ten minutes at the most, but I still let out a breath of relief when I saw his hands grip the top of the chute, pulling himself out of the hole. He unbuckled himself then came over to where we were sitting as his team dismantled the equipment.
“Is this what you wanted?” he asked Lucas, holding his phone out. Lucas took it and nodded, then passed the phone to me. I looked down at a clear photo of the cave ceiling and the etching of the map fragment.
I looked at Lucas. “What’s the point?” I asked, handing Asher the phone. “It doesn’t matter now.” I turned away.
“What’s this about?” Asher asked.
“It’s a long story, and like I said, I’ll be happy to tell you after a hot shower and over breakfast. Her too.”
“About her,” Asher began, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the recriminations.
“No,” Lucas stated firmly. “She comes back with us, secretly, and Ethan won’t hear about it from you or your team. We need to talk first, and you’re going to keep it civil until you’ve heard what she’s got to say. We should have given her that already, and we didn’t. We were too angry to hear it, but we will now. Understand, little brother?”
I waited for the retort I was sure would come from Asher, but instead, I was astonished to hear him agree.
“Nova’s in no danger from me, and I certainly won’t be running to Ethan, and neither will my team. They have been told to keep this between us.”
“Do you trust them?” Lucas asked.
“With my life,” Asher replied. “And clearly with yours as well. We’ll get back to the cabin and talk.”
“Not the cabin. Maverick could be there, and Ethan could be waiting for us. We’ll go to mine. Once they know Nova hasn’t returned...”
“They’ll check there too,” Asher finished. “I have a place. It’s in town, but if we can get there without being seen, no one knows I have it.”
“Since when did you have a place?” Lucas asked.
“Since I decided I should give you three some privacy.”
“Idiot.” Lucas snorted. “We’re a family.”
“You guys are family. I’m on the outside, Lucas. It’s okay. I’m starting to accept it, and we’re still blood. I’ll protect the four of you with my life.”
“How did you find us anyway? We didn’t exactly leave a note.”
“Last known location of your phone.”
I opened my eyes and subtly watched Asher as he carried on talking to Lucas. Four? Did he mean me and the baby too? I looked over at them, barely daring to hope there might be some tiny chance for forgiveness, especially from Asher. I stood there and watched him as he talked to his team. He led so easily, with a quiet assurance and confidence that I’d never seen when he was home with his brothers, and my heart ached for the way he clearly felt so overshadowed by them. I wanted to go straight over to him, wrap my arms around him, and tell him how much I loved him. I wanted him to know how much I loved the quiet way he cared so strongly and deeply for his family, for the way he was so loyal and trustworthy, for the way he could have easily stepped up and become the leader but chose to support his older brother wholeheartedly. Asher was a good man through and through, and I knew the world didn’t always reward good men.
In that moment, I cursed fate with all my heart. Why couldn’t I have marked Asher too? I wanted him and loved him so deeply, and yet he refused to be mine, even before he’d found out about the lies. I’d tattoo the bloody mark on him if that was what it took. I didn’t deserve a man as good as him, I knew that. I’d lied and cheated and stolen, and maybe I had my reasons, but Asher was just good through and through. He looked up and glanced at me, his eyes catching mine. He gave me a brief nod, and my heart jumped in my chest. After what I did to him, he could have hated me, but here he was, protecting me and agreeing to give me a chance to defend myself. Maybe, if there was a chance, he could forgive me, and maybe, one day, he might even learn to love me again. It was a fool’s hope, but like a chink in the dark storm clouds that were starting to clear overhead, it was there.
As we stood there on the cliffs, the storm clouds rolling away in the distance while the wind whipped my hair around my head, I tipped my face to the sky and swore to whatever gods were out there that I wouldn’t give up. If there was even the slightest chance I could have a life with these three men, then by the moon, I was going to fight like hell for it. I was going to find Maverick, I was going to tell them everything I knew, and together, we would find a way to stop Ethan and my father. I knew it was going to be hard, and I knew there was a good chance it could bring the two packs to war, but I had so much worth fighting for now, and maybe, just maybe, after the dust had settled, I would find what I’d always wanted—a home with safety and love.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
MAVERICK
The wind was wild out here on the open water, ripping through me as I steered the boat, punishing me with its unrestrained fury. The waves thrashed against the side of the boat, tossing it about like a toy in a bathtub, but I held my ground and kept her fairly steady, my grip on the wheel unrelenting.
The weather was too rough to chance a sail. I was pissed, but I hadn’t lost my mind. There would be time before the worst of the storm hit. The radio reports had said it would be another couple of hours at least, so I ignored the sheets of rain that lashed me from all angles, soaking me through. I hadn’t even bothered grabbing a waterproof jacket. I’d only had one thought on my mind, and that was getting away, getting onto open water, and finding that calm the sea always brought me. This time, however, there was no such respite, no reprieve from the relentless tempest that raged inside me and threatened to swallow me whole.
Pain racked me, and tears mingled with the rain as I screamed my rage and grief into the wind. Agony and despair mingled together, boiling over into a storm of emotion that surged through me like a raging wildfire. I had come so close to being happy. I had my mate, I was going to be alpha, and we were going to have a baby, and then, in a blink of an eye, it had been ripped away. In one moment, I’d lost everything, even my brother. I thought I’d already come to terms with losing him. After fourteen months of no contact, I’d had to accept that he was cutting us off completely and that he would never return to Desolation, to his family, but it would seem that I hadn’t completely given up hope, and this final loss hurt worse than anything I could imagine. Part of me wanted to rage at him for leaving us, for not being here, and another part just wanted to weep for the loss I felt. I felt so frustrated and angry knowing he’d been so close, and yet died away from his family, in pain and alone—no, not alone.
Nova had been there. Nova. Her image swam into my mind, and I saw her moonbeam hair and golden eyes, but I banished the memory. She’d been there, she’d known everything and told us nothing. Her betrayal had been a knife in my heart. I couldn’t believe it, hadn’t believed it, until she’d confirmed it herself. She’d played us, played me, from the beginning, a puppet master pulling the strings of fate in a cruel game of manipulation.