He shook his head. "What?"
"Show me where the bullet hit."
"It's insane. You would have seen or heard something. You're a wolf and even non wolves would have noticed that."
"Theo," she gripped his shoulders. "Maybe you're just more attuned to things because you've been out here on your own. If my shifting into a wolf in the middle of the jungle taught me anything it is that the impossible is possible, so show me."
He pointed at the log. It smacked into that, right in between where we had been sitting. She knelt down next to it and gasped.
"What is it?" His heart pounded.
"There is a bullet hole here, it's clear as day, but no bullet. How is that possible?" Her eyes were huge.
He grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. "I don't know but we're getting you out of here."
She shook her head. "Not if you're not coming too."
"I'm not..."
Interrupting, she scowled at him. "Don't you dare tell me you're not safe because when there was danger--that I might mention I didn't even know about--your first instinct was to protect me. You are as safe as anyone I know, maybe more. So, either you come with me or I stay here with you and we figure out what is wrong."
I vote we go with her.
His wolf's opinion heard, Theo had no choice but to agree. He nodded. "Let's go."
Chapter Four
The lights were too bright. It was the only coherent thought that wrestled its way into Faith's mind. It had been nine months since he'd been indoors with unnatural light and this had to be killing him.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward through the front hall of the residence. "I'll see if I can get you into my rooms while we figure this out without everyone else knowing you're here."
You're all wolves remember, they've all smelled him already.
That was true and if she'd been thinking clearly she would have realized it. Too late to change her mind about bringing him here, she walked more quickly and was glad to see he kept up.
He cleared his throat. "It's okay, Faith. I'm keeping it together."
But she knew better. He'd nearly lost it in the woods and for a moment she'd given in to the easy answer and believed he was truly whacko. One second they were flirting about how old she actually was, and the next he was throwing her on the ground thinking there were gunshots where there were not.
Thank the heavens she'd thought to at least check the log. She shook her head. What had made her look?
Me.
Faith stifled a giggle. That was true. Her wolf would have exploded with rage if she hadn't at least given it a gander. Of course, now that she had things were more complicated. She'd seen nothing happen that should have caused the bullet hole but there it was and now she had to deal with it.
The truth was in the six months since she'd been security chief, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. In fact, she'd all but convinced herself all of the danger and drama were behind them.
She turned the corner that would lead to the sleeping quarters. It would only be moments before the pack descended on them or the Royals at least. Somehow it would fall to her to keep them away from him until he seemed stronger otherwise they'd never believe him and he'd probably run to the woods again.
But by damn they'd believe her, one way or another.
She pushed open her door and Theo followed her inside. Shutting the door, she did something she hadn't done since coming to Westervelt: she locked the door. If they wanted to see him they'd have to break down the door.
Don't put that past Tristan if he wants to get to Theo desperately enough.
She'd have to hope Ashlee could keep him cool and be patient until she got things sorted out. Theo crossed the room and sat down on the small couch that sat under the windowsill. She often lounged there herself, it gave her a great view of the western lawn, which most of the time she'd found soothing, although she wouldn't have if she'd known Theo was wondering around in the woods just past her view all this time.
He placed his head in his hands and she remembered her earlier thought. Quickly, she shut off the main light and put on one table lamp instead. He looked up, a grateful glint in his brown eyes. Crossing to the fridge, she took out two bottles of water and handed him one. He stared at it for a moment before twisting off the lid.
Deciding it was better to start off lighthearted she made a joke. "Used to getting your drinks from the stream, huh?"
"Or the lake, yes."
Faith sighed. "I think we only have moments before I have to keep all of your brothers from pounding on the door demanding to see you."
He nodded. "I figured that out when we sprinted through the lobby. Thank you for thinking this might be a lot on me and not making me say it."
"Like you just said it now?"
He smiled and she was shocked to see that under his scar he had the remnants of a dimple. What the hell had happened to him to cause the disfigurement? Everyone said he rescued Braden but left it at that. It frustrated her to no end. It was like coming into a story in the middle and no one wanted to tell her what had happened before.
"So you must want to question me." That was true--he'd been in charge of security before she had come. He knew the protocol.
"If you're up to answering."
"Can I ask some of you?"
Faith found herself watching his lips as he spoke. The simple movements of his lips touching each other and the brief glances she got of his teeth and tongue transfixed her. Swallowing hard, she tried to get control of herself.
She became aware the second he noticed her stare and not for one moment was he confused about why she stared at him. He raised an eyebrow and stood up off the couch.
Standing like that, he towered over her. She took one step closer to him and rubbed her palms against his shirt, feeling the hard lines of his chest. He exhaled on a hiss.
"Faith, I'm not safe for you, not yet, maybe not ever."
Her hands felt hot and she wished beyond reason she was touching his skin and not the cotton of his tee shirt. "Theo, I don't want safe in my life. I've never had it and I'm not sure what to do with it when it briefly presents itself. Besides, weren't we designed for each other in heaven or whatever you believe in before we were born?"
A pounding on the door had him stepping backwards and she couldn't help the little whimper that came from her throat. Rubbing a hand against her forehead, she was shocked to feel it was as hot as her hands. Damn, she practically burned up.
"It's Tristan and Rex." Theo's voice sounded rough. At least he'd had the good sense to sniff the air. She was so befuddled she'd lost all sense of what to do next.
Nodding, she composed herself. "Get in the bedroom, close the door. I can handle them. Rex doesn't scare me and Tristan only scares me before he gives me permission to address him."
"I'm not going to hide in the bedroom while you handle my brothers." The flare in Theo's eyes surprised her. She'd do well not to underestimate him.
He's not our supreme Alpha but make no mistake, our mate is an Alpha-male.
Faith wanted to stick her tongue out at her furry half. Any other insights you have, I'd prefer if you shared them before I need to know them.
Theo stomped to the door and swung it open. "Tristan and Rex. Won't you come in?"
"Because it's not my quarters or anything."
"Yes, alright, is it okay if we come in, Faithy?" Rex's tone sounded indulgent and Faith rolled her eyes.
"Fine, if it's okay with Theo. He's the one not yet up to receiving guests." Tristan and Rex must have assumed his consent because they walked on in.
"Faithy?" Theo still stood by the open door. He shut it, hard.
"Faith is our buddy, Theo. Why, with no mate around to keep us from hanging out, she's one of the guys." Rex's eyes sparkled with mischief. Were they really trying to goad him? That was a terrible idea.
Theo narrowed his glare at the youngest of the Kane brothers. "Well consider yourself warned off. She's
found her mate and I don't want any nicknames coming from you."
"But I don't know if I can stop calling her Faithy now."
"Alright." Tristan interrupted and Faith had never been so glad to hear Tristan speak up in her life. "So are you back?"
"Not permanently, no. I can't be back until I know I will be safe and not harm anyone, but Faith and I made an interesting discovery in the woods and it was worth hashing it out in a less dangerous place."
Tristan's eyes flared and he whirled on Faith. "What danger?"
Our Alpha is angry with us.
Faith's eyes hit the floor. "I should have come to you immediately." Her voice shook. "But I'm not even sure what happened yet. I don't want to report on something until I understand it."
Theo stepped between Faith and Tristan and suddenly Faith could look up from the floor. "If you're trying to blame someone, brother, blame me. I'm obviously such a mess my mate felt she had to hide me from the world in her room before she could do anything else."
Does he forgive us?
I don't know but I'm wickedly aroused by the fact that Theo just stood up for us.
"I'm not angry with you Faith." Tristan's reassurance let Faith finally breathe again. Okay, then all would be well or at least improved from where it currently was.
"Yeah, Faithy, he's not angry with you."
Faith rolled her eyes at Rex's jibe. The brothers could joke with Tristan as no one else could. While they respected him, and Faith had seen numerous occasions in which that was apparent, they could also jab at him and make fun of him as you only could with a sibling.
Faith's heart panged. Andrew had been the closest thing she had to a sibling. They'd been as close as any brother and sister ever could be and his death haunted her nightly. She needed to keep the goal of avenging Andrew in mind if she wanted to get through this. The rest of it, mating aside, was pudding in comparison to that mission.
"Got any food here, Faithy?" Rex had used that nickname again.
Theo leapt at Rex, shifting as he did it. Rex had one second after impact to shift himself and seconds later Faith had two growling wolves wrestling and destroying her set of rooms. She shrieked.
Tristan grabbed her arms. "Let them alone."
"Yes my Alpha." Wait, what? "Why am I leaving them alone while they destroy my home?"
"Theo has to be welcomed back into the pack whether he wants to be or not or he cannot stay here. Rex is testing him, seeing who is stronger. It's a testosterone thing."
"Do you think they could take their macho show outside?"
Faith knew who would win the fight if it were left to go to conclusion. Rex was tough, she'd watched him spar, but Theo had lived in his wolf form for months hunting for his food and surviving on his own. She'd pit him against anyone, even Tristan if it came to that, which she truly hoped it didn't.
Tristan whistled and both wolves jumped back. "You are destroying Faith's home."
They stepped away from each other, Theo's dark wolf growling as he walked back to the couch. Still in his furred form, he jumped up on the cushions. Faith had an urge to tell him to get off of the furniture as her foster mother had done a million times to the dog when she'd grown up. She shook her head. Where had that crazy memory come from?
Rex shifted back and stood behind Tristan, his eyes not leaving Theo.
"Tell us what little you saw of the danger. Perhaps we can help."
Faith wanted to pull out her hair. All good intentions aside she wanted them all out of her space so she could speak with Theo about what happened, draw her own conclusions, and then report to the group when she was ready.
"I was just going to clarify some things with Theo."
"And you don't want to tell me?"
Tell him; tell him, he could cast us out.
Faith often wondered if other people's wolves had the neurosis hers did. She didn't know if Tristan would cast out a member of his pack or not but she couldn't live her life based on that fear.
"I don't want to discuss it yet, no." There she had said it, consequences be damned.
Tristan nodded. "Okay, I'll expect your report in the morning." He nodded to Faith. "Good to see you, brother. As far as I'm concerned you're back. I am revoking your rights to live on your own." Theo yelped on the couch and Faith's heart nearly exploded. She had done this; she'd made him come back, and told him he could leave again. Damn it. "Rex, let's go."
Tristan shut the door behind him and Faith almost gave into the need to sink to her knees. She'd never felt grief like this before and she'd just met Theo. If this was what it was like to be mated without even having consummated the thing then she wasn't sure she and Theo should ever take it that far. How much more co-dependent could she get?
"I don't suppose you're going to talk to me now are you?" The silence that met her question was all the answer she needed. She nodded. "Fine, I suppose you're entitled to your silence. I'd be pissed at me too."
Her clothes felt heavy, her hair sticky, and she needed to be clean. Turning around without another word, she walked into her bathroom and closed the door. She put on the shower and threw her clothes on the floor.
"Pick up after yourself, Faith, don't be a slob." She mimicked the administrators of the orphanage who had come and taken her from the foster home. Those women had hated everything about her and she couldn't blame them for their dislike. She'd never been easy and in an institutional setting she'd been a disaster.
She scrubbed her hair with the strawberry shampoo Ashlee made for all the women on the island and contemplated her life. Everything had happened so quickly. She'd lost Andrew in the most awful way and when she'd used all of her abilities to track down where he'd been and how he could have gotten that way. With the little she'd gathered she'd run off to Mexico thinking she would be a big hero and stop it from happening again to anyone else, kidnapped Summer--stuck in her wolf form--and gotten more than she'd bargained for in the process. I mean who didn't want their first shift forced on them in the middle of the jungle and by accident to boot?
Suddenly nothing about her life made any sense so she'd had no choice but to go to Westervelt and find out who she really was, who her parents were, and how she was going to live the rest of her life.
Now there was the Theo to contend with.
Tears she hadn't known had dripped from her eyes fell down her cheeks and she had a hard time distinguishing them from the water pushing out of the showerhead. Not surprisingly, any thoughts of Andrew while she was alone led to tears one way or another. Also there was the problem that she didn't seem to have any special mystical powers and all the females on Westervelt were supposed to have those.
Don't be so hard on us. We'll get there.
She shut off the stream of water and covered herself in her large purple bathrobe. The logo on it read Westervelt Spa, they sold it at the gift shop on the other island. She'd been given one when she came to the island.
A soft scratching at the door caught her attention. She sighed and opened it, not caring how awful she must look. Theo whimpered softly, his tail moving back and forth.
"Still hanging out in wolf form, are you?" He stared up at her, his eyes--Theo's human eyes--encased in his furry body. Faith knelt down to be face to face to with him. "You're not talking either, not even in my mind."
Theo licked her cheeks and Faith remembered they were covered in tearstains. The gesture felt so comforting she almost started crying again. What must this man have been like when he spent most of his time as just that, a man? If he hadn't been hurt and she hadn't waited so long to come to Westervelt, would their life have been easy together like it was with the three couples she'd watched form in her time here?
"We still need to talk."
Theo snorted and ran to her bedroom. He jumped on the bed.
She laughed. "So sorry, buddy, but you'd have to spend a lot more time in man form for us to do that. When you're like this I kind of think of you as the friendly family dog."
Theo gro
wled.
"Well if you don't like it, change back."
Walking to her bureau, she pulled out her comfy pink cotton pajamas. She had sexier things she could wear but if he was going to spend all of his time walking on four feet, he could very well look at her in whatever she felt like wearing. Quickly, she shoved on her PJs.
Faith considered her options for a moment. She could kick Theo off the bed or she could let him lay next to her like some kind of Golden Retriever. Lying down, he snuggled up next to her while she turned off the lamp encasing the room in total darkness. Why did she put the clothes on?
A warm white light briefly glowed as Theo shifted back to his human form. Where his paw had been now his hand resided. This was a much more intimate feeling. It was as if they were lovers resting in each other's arms.
Theo planted a kiss on the back of her head. "Don't ever make the mistake of thinking of me as the family dog."
She rolled until she faced him nose to nose. His breathing was hard and she placed her hands back on his chest where she'd had them earlier. "I know, you're big and mean and dangerous, right? Somehow you're a danger to me and everyone here, right?"
"I am, Faith, never doubt it. The acid that destroyed my body has started playing havoc with my human brain."
Reaching up, she placed her right hand on the scarred part of his face. He flinched and tried to pull away but she held him still. "Except I saw it too, Theo. I couldn't see the actual bullet or hear the fire but I saw hole that wasn't there only moments earlier. Something did that and maybe you're the only one who can see it, maybe whatever happened to you is going to turn out to be a gift, to save us all."
"Faith, before I left, I was having terrible thoughts. Violent, dangerous images I could have acted on."
"Except you didn't."
"I could have."
Faith placed a kiss on his nose. "Theo, I could have dyed my hair blue, I didn't. Just because we think something doesn't mean we act on them."
Theo sighed. "It's so much more complicated than that."
"Most things are simple. We'll figure it out." She felt warm in his embrace and for the first time in a long time not alone in the world. Yawning, she rolled over onto her side. He placed his hand over her waist and pulled her tight against him. Even though it seemed crazy, within seconds she found herself drifting off to sleep as if they'd been sharing a bed for years.