“You and I are going to talk now, Emily. This has been a long time coming.”
“Talk about what? James, you aren’t making sense. One minute you show up at my place drunk out of your skull asking questions that make little sense. Now you’re standing there a few hours later telling me we need to talk. You started this evening barely looking at me or saying anything beyond hello. Then you take over my going away dinner with some crazy mistake you did nothing to fix but left me, too.” He didn’t bother listening to this. He guilted her to say this as she followed him back to the Lake House.
“I think we’ll both need a drink to have this conversation. Come on.” He disappeared into the house, expecting her to follow him. Flustered and more than a little frustrated at his actions, she followed him to say her thoughts and then leave again.
“What do you mean, another drink? Didn’t you have enough to before this?” She couldn’t believe he was drinking again, and how’d he get sober so fast? Even shifters took longer than that to sober up.
“One more drink won’t hurt.” She watched his back as he poured two drinks. She wasn’t sure what he was making, but it wasn’t the whiskey she’d found all over the lake house when she search.
James turned, holding two low ball glasses in his hands, and held one out to her, waiting for her to take it from him. “Fine, thank you.” Emily accepted the drink and looked at him suspiciously in the eye. “Now, what have you got to say for yourself? I’m curious. Since I thought we were friends all these years, I’ll give you a chance to say your peace.” She took several large sips of her drink as she waited for him to say his piece.
“Thank you. I’d like to say first, I hope you like your drink.” It was a minty, oddly sweet thing, but nothing she’d drunk before when out in a human bar. The fruit and sweets in their drinks could get overpowering for a shifter’s palette. Their tastes ran more for savoury and spicy.
“I’m afraid I’ve had better. Now, what did you want to talk about that we didn’t cover the first time we spoke about two hours ago.”
James felt tongued now. He wasn’t sure how he would pull this off. Emily was never this short-tempered with him before this. He’d trained her better than this, and he had higher expectations for her. James knew how she acted when she was angry, but this wasn’t just anger. However, he couldn’t figure out what the elusive emotion was. It wasn’t irritation, though it presented like that. He couldn’t even tell if she knew this elusive emotion existed, or that it presented itself. But one thing he knew. He didn’t want to lose her. If he kept her here, he wasn’t sure how he’d do that or how he’d explain it away. But he knew he needed to tell her, she had to say. How to do that without her walking out, never to be seen again. He’d honestly believed that she wouldn’t follow through with this. That she’d back out in the end if he just gave her enough time to think about it. “I want to talk about why you aren’t leaving.”
Emily felt forced to swallow the sip she’d just taken. “What?! We’ve been over this many times in the last few weeks. You’ve said nothing about not allowing it. Also, I quit. I gave you notice which I did out of respect. But never once did you object. No, never mind about that. This is over and I’m leaving.” Emily swallowed the last of her drink and slammed it down on the side table beside her. “How could you pull this stunt now of all the times you could? I have twenty hours before my flight. I’m leaving in sixteen hours. I have made promises and when I get there, I’ll sign the contracts and take an oath to a new alpha. You can’t embarrass me like this. No. I’m sorry. I’ll always care for you as the friend I grew up with. But I can’t respect you anymore. Goodnight. Morning, whatever it is right now.” She spun on her foot and moved toward the door to leave. But she didn’t quite make it out of the sunken living room before the world shifted under her feet and Emily stumbled, almost falling.
James was there in an instant, catching her before she could fall and hurt herself on a piece of furniture. They decorated the room with hand-crafted furniture made from local forest trees. So many pieces were rough with bark and twisted into unique shapes.
He set her down on a sofa with her feet up. “What’s going on?” Her speech slurred and her thoughts slowed like she was suffering from brain fog. This wasn’t like her at all. Concerned, she looked at James in horror.
“You’re fine. Everything will be fine. You just aren’t going anywhere until we hash this out between the two of us. You rest and we’ll talk when you feel more like yourself.”
“Asshole. You did this deliberately, didn’t you?” Her words were slowing down because it was getting harder to talk. “You drugged me!”
“Emily, I did what I had to do. Just sleep and we’ll talk later. Mother was right. We avoided speaking about so many things, and those things stayed as elephants in the room. Now rest up and we’ll talk more later.”
Emily couldn’t speak anymore, and her mind couldn’t get through the fog and betrayal she felt right at that moment. She couldn’t find the words to express herself, and her mind slowed down like a weighted object held in place. Now her eyes couldn’t stay open, and her limbs grew heavy. She couldn’t move them to stand or push him away from her. Then she lost the fight to stay awake.
“Hi, Evan. I’m fine. Everything is fine. I need to take a few days away from the pack. I just need to get my head on straight. You’ll need to complete the deal with Alpha Haden. Just get him to sign the paperwork and keep Annabelle from making anyone else’s lives miserable.” James disconnected his call. He’d been lucky and got Evan’s message machine. That was perfect. He wouldn’t need to answer any prying questions for now. They could leave messages on his phone. He leaned over and looked at Emily’s sleeping form in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Now he just needed to get them settled in the old packhouse and then they could finally talk about this. James wasn’t sure what he’d say yet. All he knew was that whatever he felt about her leaving, it felt wrong. It hurt
Emily woke slowly. Her eyelids were heavy and hard to keep open. Groaning, she shifted. When did she go to bed? Her blurry sight came into focus. That’s when she realized nothing was familiar. Dust clung to everything. Whoever owned this place covered the furniture in drop cloths. The air felt stale and not pleasant to breathe. Where was she? Sitting up, Emily pondered her next move. She felt like she should go back to sleep, but her brain registered that this wasn’t a safe place to sleep. She needed to get out of this building so she could breathe. Stumbling to her feet, she found the door in the gloomy room. Her feet felt sluggish and weighted. But she made it to the door to find out that it's locked. The door handle and lock were old, and she couldn’t see the key anywhere.&n
Evan entered the office looking for James and he didn’t find him anywhere. He assumed James went for a morning run to check up on things around the territory. Which, by Emily’s notes, he often checked on things first thing in the morning. Evan decided he’d start the day by recovering the phone messages and checking email. The email went easily, and he’d got all the documents printed for the day. So, he started in on the phone messages. Nice, simple, call this person back about that. Nothing important or rushed. Until he found a message from James. His voice sounded distracted. What did Evan do now? Their guests were still here. They’d not concluded their business yet. This was a disaster in the making. He tried calling Emily, but she wasn’t answering h
“James, this is insane. What did you do? Where are we?” Emily couldn’t believe he wasn’t a victim. She was the victim. James kidnapped her, but she didn’t understand why he’d done this. “What do we have to talk about that we haven’t talked about a million times? I need to get back soon because I need to close up the cottage before I leave for the airport.” “Rebecca. Never mind about closing up your cottage.” James said simply as he watched Emily and any telltale response, she might miss and betray herself true feelings with. “We’ve never talked about what happened.” He tried to approach her but hesitated. “What’s there to say? We lost many people that night. R
It stunned Emily when James’ lips came down in an insistent, no demanding kiss. Ever since he’d found Rebecca, she’d shied away from any thought of James like this. Gods, she could feel the heat of his body as he pulled her against him. He’d caught her arms between them and now his hands roamed her back for the first time. Feeling her body for the first time. With surprise on his side, she clung there, feeling him, and the inexplicable response to his kiss, his body, even his demands. Time felt like it stood still, and Emily’s mind struggled to make sense of this new turn of events. Finally, she broke the kiss and hid her face in his chest. Breathlessly, Emily demanded. “What was that? That was wrong on so many levels. No, this can’t be happening and it can’t happen again.”
Emily’s eyes popped open to see the dusty ceiling about her. What just happened? Gods, they had sex. James just blew her mind. She knew he would. That’s why she’d avoided it. Yeah, she may have known that Rebecca didn’t plan to go through mating with James. She still felt like she was betraying her friends, and she’d never tell James about the hurtful actions Rebecca would have done if she’d lived. Oh, this complicated everything. Damon expected her to be at the airport catching a redeye to Montana. He planned to meet her at the airport, and he’d take her back to his territory. Then they’d get her settled into his territory, sign the documents, and make her joining official along with their mating. She’d made agreements, promises even to do this. Emily felt grateful to have this
Janine couldn’t figure out what her son was thinking, let alone where he’d gone. The boy infuriated her for some days. Though she was more concerned about Emily. They found the girl’s phone at the lake house amid a mess. She prayed they were together, wherever they were. Janine was thankful that they found no blood at the scene. Alpha Haden, thank heavens, was a man who kept a finger on the pulse of his pack. That meant every morning he checked in with his Beta for news, and to deal with their private business. This meant Janine needed to do something while she waited for him. So when he finished with his things, he found her pacing and demanding that they continue their search. Embarrassed that he overheard most of the situation from o
Damon’s phone rang, waking him up. “What? Talk to me.” He looked at the clock. Phone calls at three in the morning were never a good thing. “Sir, it’s Tommy. I’ve been here for three hours. The plane landed, and she wasn’t on the plane. I’ve checked she didn’t reschedule her flight. I tried her cell phone and there was no response. I tried contacting her several times over the last hour. I’m not sure how you want me to proceed.” Damon sighed in exhaustion, though he felt concerned too. Emily seemed so interested in this arrangement. Something must have happened. He’d need to call her and if she didn’t respond, he’d call her previous alpha. Someone must know what’s going on.&nbs