They nodded slowly, lips drawn into thin straight lines. “Under control,” Kyanne repeated, each syllable separated. “Thank goodness you lead by example.”
I was on her in an instant, my hands wrapped around her neck, my face so close to hers I brushed the hair hanging across her forehead.
“There you go again,” she croaked. “Leading by example…”
Strong hands gripped my shoulders and a mouth was by my ear, whispering, “… now. Leave her be. Shhhh. ’laena…” Gareth’s hands slipped around me and traveled the slow lengths of my arms to get to where my fingers pressed tightly to Kyanne’s throat. One by one he loosened them. “Shhh. She’s a child. She’s disappointed. She’s not challenging you.…”
I rolled back, limp against his chest, my eyes burning with anger. I was trapped in a world where I couldn’t do anything right. The pack was turning against me.
My family was falling apart.…
“Thanks, Gareth,” Kyanne said, bitterness in her voice. “She’s a child,” she repeated. “Awesome. Like I’m the immature one.”
“Shhh,” he urged her. “Then don’t admit to being immature,” he agreed in a calm whisper so close his breath heated the edge of my ear. “But if it’s not that—”
“Brave,” she snapped. “I’m being brave enough to speak up.”
“There’s a thin line between bravery and stupidity,” he concluded, his tone so calming it made my skin crawl. His even pitch reminded me of the lapping of the ocean on the shore. Steady. Dependable.
I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. I heard Kyanne scramble away from me. I concentrated on the rise and fall of Gareth’s chest, the strong beat of his heart, the soft sound of his breathing, his existence anchoring me … and I took sanctuary in that moment.
“Get up, Princess,” he whispered. “Let’s take a minute. Just you and me, okay? We’ll have us another stroll.”
I grunted and let him help me to my feet. He slipped an arm around my waist and, guiding me out of the motel room, paused on the long balcony.
The door closed and the volume inside the room rose once again. But Gareth held me—stopped me from going back inside to shout some more.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I confessed. “I’m…”
The room grew silent, and shadows hinted at figures leaning behind the curtains on the far side of the picture window.
Gareth nodded. “A stroll,” he said, turning us as one and starting us on our way.
“They’re going to get us in trouble,” I protested. “They’ll get us noticed.”
“Since when did you worry about trouble?” He tugged at the ends of my hair, teasing me. My bright red hair had been an issue for the guys for a while, Gareth being quick to point out how memorable redheads are. If we really didn’t want to attract attention, I should dye my hair. Go brunette. Be just like the less memorable majority.
So I hadn’t.
“I get it. I’m a hypocrite.”
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“What?”
“Don’t be like that. Not with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re so all-or-nothing. Hot or cold. Love or hate. It’s like there are no settings in between. You take things too far sometimes.”
“I commit. I’m not wishy-washy,” I defended myself.
He smiled at me. “There you go again. It’s not being wishy-washy to just take it easy sometimes.”
“They can’t be breaking beds.”
“They weren’t. They were bouncing on them.”
“Ugh.”
“Something’s eating you up inside,” he said, pulling me tight to him. “Tell me what it is.”
“I can’t.” I thought about Jessica Gillmansen. Duct-taped and hidden away. About Pietr and the way his image ghosted around in my head.
Gareth’s hand slipped from around my waist to hang beside him, his fingertips brushing mine. They stroked the inside of my palm, and the world blurred and tilted as I struggled to keep breathing. “Come with me,” he said, fingers encircling my wrist.
I nodded, feeling fire brush my face as my ears fought to decode his tone. “Yes,” I replied, not caring what he was trying to do because at least he was trying to do it with me.
He slid his magnetic key out of his pocket and tugged me toward a door. Room 206.
Gareth’s room.
My vision swam.
“I need you—”
I didn’t hear the rest of what he was saying because the sound of the ocean—of my pulse fuzzing out—filled my ears. Gareth needed me.…
The door opened, and we slipped inside, his body snug to mine. Even in the dim room I could see the strong angles of his face: the sharp jawline and crisp cheekbones, the broad and supple lips that rested a thumb’s width from the base of his aquiline nose. And the powerful eyebrows, so much like the bend and sweep of a blackbird’s wing.… Beneath which his lavender eyes lit with just a hint of the wolf’s red.
Moving backward, my calves bumped up against the edge of the bed and my breath caught. He bent down, flowing like deep, dark water, and untied my shoelaces, slipping off my sneakers. Then his eyes met mine again and he grinned, his lips twisting at one end. A sliver of white showed from between them as they parted to reveal his perfect teeth.
“Ready?” he whispered, stepping on the heel of one of his sneakers with the toe of the other to shirk them both off.
I nodded, mute. With Gareth, I felt ready for anything.
His hands closed around my waist and he lifted me onto the bed. The grin, all devil now, widened, the beads at the ends of his dreadlocks bouncing.
He jumped onto the bed and looked down, stooping over me, the entire mattress rocking. He took my hands. “Up, Princess,” he said, rolling his weight back and forth so the bed moved like the waves on an unsettled ocean.
“You’re kidding,” I whispered, glad the bad lighting hid the blush rising in my cheeks. “You brought me here to…”
“Bounce,” he finished with a laugh. And, holding my hands, he started bouncing in small but growing increments and forced me to join in as his jumps got bigger and crazier.…