Burned (22 page)

The rage coming
from my beast was because he viewed Adri as his. He felt like she was
his mate, and he didn't want anyone else claiming her. The human part
of me knew that people weren't possessions, that Adri was perfectly
free to choose someone else, but that didn't change the fact that
she'd given me nothing but crap about Brindi.

Time and time
again she'd acted as if we were together. Time and time again she'd
expressed her displeasure when it came to just about anything in my
life that took precedence over her. I'd come over here intending on
apologizing for being so curt and instead heard her cheating on me
with the guy she'd claimed was nothing more than a friend.

I put my hand
through the door. It was every bit as sturdy as I would have expected
from an exterior door to a place like this, but it still wasn't a
match for the rage-fueled muscles of a shape shifter. I shattered the
locking mechanism, and stalked forward on legs that were trembling
with the need to shift.

They were
there, just like I'd imagined based on the sounds that had made it
past the door. Tristan and Adri were lying together on her bed, his
shirt already off and hers pulled up high enough that it was obvious
it would be joining his on the floor in a matter of seconds.

I'd moved so
quickly that they were only just separating from each other by the
time I made it to the foot of the bed. Tristan was scared—the
fear coming off of him was unmistakable—but that only egged my
beast on. I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall
with enough force to leave a body-shaped impression in the sheetrock.

I used a lot
less force than my beast wanted to, but Tristan still mewed in pain
as his legs hit the wall.

I turned to
Adri and sneered at her.

"After all
the times you complained about Brindi—Brindi, who I've never
kissed—you really thought I wouldn't mind if you made out with
Tristan? You told me that you didn't want him, that you wanted him
and Cindi to get together. You lied to my face and I believed you.
You didn't just betray me, you betrayed Cindi too."

Adri smirked at
me. "You believed what I wanted you to believe. I don't care
about Cindi any more than I care about you. She's treated me like
trash over and over again—this is nothing more than she
deserves. As for you, I got tired of waiting for you to give me
access to the reins of power. I didn't go through everything I've
been through in the last few months just so that I can hold your coat
while you make all of the tough decisions."

"That's
what you were in this for? You're nothing like the person I thought
you were. How could I—"

"How could
you be so wrong about me? Simple. You're an idiot. Every decision
you've made since you left home has been one catastrophe after
another. You're not fit to lead one pack, let alone the entire
rebellion. The only reason you haven't died yet is because people
like Jack and Carson continue to bail you out."

I sagged back
against the wall. It felt like she'd hit me. The urge to just give
into the rage and hurt pouring through me was almost overpowering,
but something didn't feel right. Try as I might, I couldn't get all
of the pieces to fit together. Unless this wasn't about what she was
claiming it was about.

"Your
parents. This is about your parents, isn't it? I told you I was
sorry. I don't know what else to say."

"How about
that you're completely incompetent? I've been trying to pretend that
everything was okay, but nothing's been okay since before I met you.
Everything you touch wilts and dies, Alec. Get out of my room before
I call for Isaac and the rest to come kick you out. They all feel the
same way I do, they are just better at hiding it."

My fist had
tightened in step with my anger, and Tristan had stopped being able
to breathe seconds ago. Killing him would have been the easiest thing
in the world. I considered it for the briefest of moments. It might
hurt Adri, but I doubted it. The monster sitting on that bed with her
clothes halfway off didn't care about anyone, not really.

More
importantly, Tristan hadn't done anything worthy of death. He hadn't
done anything but fall for someone who would use him up and spit him
out. He'd done exactly the same thing I'd done. I dropped him on the
bed and then turned and walked out of the room without looking back.

Adriana Paige
The Crazy Cactus Motel
Tucson, Arizona

My stomach felt
like it was going to explode from all of the food I'd crammed into it
while we were shopping. I didn't understand why Isaac had asked Cindi
and me to go along on the shopping trip with Dominic and Heath, but I
was incredibly grateful to have had a chance to get out of my room.

Actually, I was
more than a little surprised that Alec had been willing to have Heath
leave our base, but maybe his new asset—the one he'd blown me
off to go pick up—had made Heath redundant.

I'd tried to
convince Nellie to come along. Having another person with shape
shifter strength along to help carry the heavier boxes and cans of
food would have been welcome, but she'd bowed out. I expected to miss
her while we were gone. For the last few weeks I'd never been more
than a few dozen feet away from her, but it was actually refreshing
to spend some time with other people—Dom especially.

It made me feel
bad for not having sought her out when we'd first arrived in Arizona.
Dom had been the best friend I could have asked for, but somehow I'd
let everything else that was going on distract me from spending time
with her. As we pulled back into the motel parking lot, I promised
myself that I was going to do better—and not just with regards
to Dom.

I'd been witchy
towards nearly everyone in my life. Dom, Cindi, Taggart and Tristan
all deserved apologies, but Alec deserved one most of all. I'd been
impossible lately, but even before that I hadn't made things
particularly easy for him.

Before I'd
blamed him about my parents, I'd been attacking him for not cutting
Brindi loose. Even lately it had been all I could do to avoid
bringing her up. I needed to just start trusting him. If he said that
he and Brindi were just friends, then I needed to either accept that
or move on. This weird, halfway state of existence wasn't fair to
either of us.

I helped unload
the food we'd brought back, and then headed out to make my first
apology, the hardest, most important one.

The walk over
to Alec's RV flew by too quickly, and I found myself standing outside
of his command center without a clear idea of how I was going to open
our conversation. The door was cracked, which surprised me—Alec
usually kept doors closed as a way of helping the privacy boxes
defeat eavesdroppers—but my surprise quickly turned to horror.

The sounds
coming from inside of the RV were unmistakable. I didn't need
shape-shifter hearing to pick out the moans—not when I was this
close to the door. I stood there for several seconds trying to tell
myself that it was a mistake, that I couldn't be hearing Alec, but I
knew that wasn't possible. Nobody from either group would have dared
use Alec's RV for something like what was going on in there.

Shape shifters
were all possessive by nature, and Alec's beast would take something
like that to be a demonstration of insubordination that would have to
be punished. It was Alec in there, I knew that without a doubt, but
that wasn't enough for me.

Alec and I were
through, but I had to know who he was with. My bet was that it was
Brindi, that my suspicions had been right all along, but it could
have been anyone. Jasmin, Jess, even Nellie. Even before Alec had
manifested his power he'd been one of the single most eligible
bachelors in the shape shifter world. Now that he had a top-tier
ability at his beck and call, he was capable of protecting his future
children from anything up to and including the Coun'hij. He was the
perfect mate.

Almost as
though working without any input from my brain, my fingers slowly
pulled the door to the RV open. It was ludicrous to believe that Alec
wouldn't hear me coming, but I didn't care about that. He could pull
away from whoever he was with, but that wouldn't change the fact that
I knew what they'd been doing.

It was going to
infuriate him that I'd come inside of his RV, but I just had to know
who he'd cheated on me with. I needed to know who I was going to hate
as much as I hated him.

I stepped into
the RV and saw the two of them. It was Brindi. Her shirt was off,
showing a lacy black bra, and her pants were unbuttoned, showing the
top of a matching set of underwear. Alec's shirt was off, but for
once I couldn't appreciate his impressive muscles.

Brindi was on
top. She spun around when she heard me, but any hope that she'd been
the aggressor, that she'd somehow forced Alec into a compromising
situation, evaporated when Alec reached up and pulled her back down
against him. He met my eyes without shame.

"Don't
look at me like that, Adri. You can't have really expected me to
continue waiting around for you, not given the way that you were
beating me over the head with the death of your parents."

I ignored him.
I wanted to explode into a screaming, clawing mess, but instead I
just looked at Brindi calmly.

"You have
to know that this is wrong. I was told that you were starting to get
over your addiction to him—this isn't because you don't have
any other choice."

She was
obviously uncomfortable, but I watched her push past that, watched
her settle down against Alec's chest.

"You've
treated Alec like garbage for as long as I've known him. He's right,
you should have been thanking him for saving your life. He went in to
save Cindi fully planning on dying, but you've been so stuck on
yourself that you couldn't see what an amazing catch you had."

I shook my
head. "That's nothing more than a justification. You know this
is wrong. If he did this to me, then he'll do it to you too—it's
just a matter of time."

Brindi's lips
were quivering as she wiped away a tear. "He told me that the
two of you were through."

Alec nodded.
"We are. I told Adri that things weren't going to work out—it's
not my fault that she's having a hard time coming to grips with it.
Are you going to believe her, or are you going to believe me?"

She didn't
respond. She just turned away from me, burying her head in Alec's
chest, and I knew that she was too far gone to recognize that she'd
just become the other woman.

I turned and
left the RV without saying another word. Tears were streaming down my
face, but I still somehow managed to make it across the blurry
landscape that separated the RVs from the motel. Taggart intercepted
me before I made it to my room.

"Adri,
what's going on?"

"It's
Alec. He…he isn't the guy I thought he was. It was just like
you warned me—I caught him with Brindi. He's been lying to me
for weeks, saying that he wasn't interested in her."

Taggart went
stiff. "I don't understand. I didn't get any of that from
him—not once in all of the times we've talked to each other.
How could he have concealed that from everyone?"

"I don't
know—go over there yourself if you don't believe me. You'd
better hurry though, based on the way they were acting when I left,
it won't be very long before they'll both be naked. I just don't
understand why he would do that now of all times."

"I'm so
sorry, Adri. I told him that you were gone. He was over here just a
little while ago. He asked about you and I told him that you'd left
to pick up food. He told me that he was going to talk to Isaac, but
he didn't."

I laughed
bitterly. "Of course not. Instead he headed right back to his RV
so he could screw that slut."

I pushed away
from Taggart and walked into my room. Tristan was sitting on my bed,
looking like his entire world had just been turned upside down.

"Adri…I'm
sorry about Alec. I know I'm not supposed to say anything, but I just
feel so bad about everything…"

I'd never seen
Tristan struggle to get words out—come to think of it, I'd
never seen him conflicted about anything before this. Tristan had
always just gone after whatever he wanted.

I followed his
gaze over to the dent in the wall and then turned around and
re-examined the door that I'd just walked past. It was obvious to me
what had happened.

"You saw
Alec earlier, didn't you, Tristan? He was here, wasn't he?"

Tristan looked
miserable, but that was exactly what I would have expected out of
someone who'd been threatened by the most dangerous person within a
thousand miles. Tristan was the one person in my life who hadn't been
taken in by Alec. He'd never been vocal about his dislike, and I'd
always put it down to simple jealousy, but I'd been wrong. Tristan
had seen through Alec's ruse, and Alec had obviously come by and told
Tristan not to say anything to me.

I'd never given
Tristan's opinion where Alec was concerned enough weight, and now I
was paying the price. Tristan slowly nodded, and then opened his
mouth, but I cut him off.

"I don't
need to hear anything else—I know exactly what happened. I
don't want you to ever speak of it again."

Taggart was
looking back and forth between the door and Tristan, but he looked up
when I started throwing clothes into my suitcase.

"Where are
you going, Adri?"

"I can't
stay here, Taggart, not as long as Alec is going to be here. I know
it's dangerous, but I've got to go. As long as I can manage to get a
couple hundred miles away from here, I'll probably be okay. Kaleb and
the rest are probably so focused on this little corner of the country
that they won't even be keeping an eye out for me anywhere else."