Protect and Fur [3xtasy Lake 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

But what if he learned they slaughtered another family? Could he look at himself in the mirror knowing he could’ve stopped another child from being left alone in the world? He rubbed her robe against his lips and wished things could be different, because he knew that her name was carved into his soul and he’d hurt her again. That wound would never heal.

Aiden sat in his car, watching his rearview mirror as a cruiser pulled up behind him.
Dammit
. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. This spot at the top of the escarpment gave him a perfect view to the east where Brenna’s clinic was located. It also allowed him the perfect view to the west and his real reason for being there. He should’ve known that Craig would figure it out and come looking for him after a couple days.

The blissful aroma of coffee hit his senses a moment before Craig passed a large take-out cup of coffee to him. The logo of a place called The Shack wrapped around the side, but he didn’t care where it came from. He grabbed the cup and took a long sip.

Craig leaned in the window and then wrinkled up his nose. “Dude, you need a bath. I could smell you coming up the road.”

Aiden glanced into the passenger seat. Wrappers and garbage of all sorts littered the floor and seat, but the most damning was the silk robe lying over the back of his seat. Craig lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head. “You fucked up again, didn’t you?”

“Shut up, Craig. I’m trying to do the right thing here.” He lifted the binoculars and watched Brenna as she left the clinic and headed down the street.

“Explain to me why living in your car and spying on Brenna is the right thing to do?” Craig stood up and walked to the front of the car, leaning against the fender. He lifted a bag of something and shook it before placing it on the hood.

“I’m not some timid animal you have to entice out of hiding with food.”

Craig glanced over at him. “Why would I think that of you? Do you know Brenna refuses to speak to me or say your name? Here you are holed up in the forest on a stakeout.”

Aiden eyed the bag sitting on the hood of his car, and his stomach grumbled appreciatively at the scents that he was detecting. “What’s in the bag?”

“Come out here and find out.”

It wasn’t like he was hungry. He’d taken time at night to hunt, but a diet consisting of PowerBars during the day and small animals at night was getting old. Aiden could smell a sweet pastry in the bag, and his mouth was watering in anticipation.

He opened the car door and climbed out, ignoring the stupid grin on Craig’s face as he grabbed the bag and looked inside. Reaching in, he pulled out a flaky pastry that still held some warmth to it.

“Are these warm because—” He bit into it, and the incredible flavors of currants and brown sugar flowed over his tongue.

“Fresh from Catherine’s oven about twenty minutes ago.” Craig lifted his face to the sun and then took another sip of his coffee. “Looks like it’ll be a nice day today.”

Aiden took another bite and then grunted at him, unwilling to lose one delicious flake that was melting on his tongue.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Craig stood up and moved around to the front seat where Aiden left the binoculars.

Aiden watched his friend look through them in the direction of Brenna’s house, and then he slowly circled around. “What’s there to tell?”

“You got close enough to have her robe in your car.” Craig stopped and focused in on something, and Aiden was willing to bet the pastries in the bag he knew what that was.

“I’m practicing to be a stalker.”

Craig lowered the binoculars and then nodded his head in the direction he’d been looking a moment before. “And the assholes down there? I saw some of them in town the other day. What’s their story?”

“Who’s asking?” Aiden wasn’t about to share any pack information with the human police. “Is this an official police inquiry or are you asking as a fellow shifter?”

“I’m on a break, Aiden.”

Aiden finished off the second pastry in the bag and then crumpled it up and tossed it on the passenger seat through the window. “They’re a bunch of assholes I’ve been tracking for a while. They’re an offshoot of the pack that was in Nova Scotia. They travel around and try to take control of small towns that don’t have a strong enough Guardian force. The more towns they hold, the stronger their little army becomes because they immediately start recruiting.”

He held out his hand, and Craig placed the binoculars in it. There wasn’t much to see right then. The rogues hadn’t strayed from the house and had been up late partying the night before. So far they’d kept to themselves, but Aiden knew it was only a matter of time before they discovered the vulnerable parts of the town to hit in order to take over. Which is why he was taking a moment to sneak a peek at Brenna. He knew he should stay away from her, but his wolf demanded he watch out for her.

“Aiden, you and I were fostered in the same pack for training.”

Aiden wasn’t certain where Craig was going with this. “Yeah, and you tried to leave every chance you got.” Aiden remembered their time in Nunavut. It had been fucking cold all the time, and Craig’d hated it. The only way out was by a small Cessna, and Craig’d tried to barter a flight every chance he’d gotten.

“They weren’t bad people, Aiden. I couldn’t get past the hate I felt for my shifter nature.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I helped smuggle you on board the plane that day. There was no way you could’ve stay up there.”

“But you did.”

“I did, and I learned what I needed to. It was a perfect place for me to learn some control.” Back then, every time Aiden’d gotten angry he’d shift into his wolf. Having an uncontrolled shifter in a city wasn’t safe for anyone, but up in the Great White North, no one knew or was near enough to be threatened.

“You can’t leave Brenna behind and expect me to pick up the pieces.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t expect that of you.”

“What about when you took off with the Guardians to help out with the border wars out west? Who do you think helped your parents when you were out saving people?”

“I was doing my job.”

“I know, but while you’re off saving the world, life goes on. Bills need to be paid and family gets sick.”

“Don’t you dare throw that in my face.” Aiden thought of his grandfather every day and still regretted not being there to help his grandparents. After the rogues killed his parents, he couldn’t see anything past stopping them all. “I knew you were there. You told me not to worry about it.”

“You’re right, I did. I meant it then as much as I do now. What I’m trying to say is this time I can’t cover for you. Brenna needs you in her life. You have a responsibility to your Mate.”

“I never wanted a fucking Mate,” he snapped at Craig. He had enough responsibility in his life, and a Mate was a liability to a man like him.

“Well, asshole, be thankful Fate disagrees with you, because I think Brenna could be the best thing for you.”

“Why the hell would you say something like that?” If he was a different man, and those rogues hadn’t killed his parents, then he would’ve fallen at Brenna’s feet and worshipped her. But that wasn’t his life, and he was doomed to watch her through a pair of binoculars.

“You need to learn to look beyond the end of your own nose. You have to accept your responsibilities to Brenna and to me.”

“You’re not my Mate, Craig.”

“No, but we share one. Brenna needs us both. I can’t provide everything she needs on my own.”

“What the hell does she need from me?”

“That’s for you to figure out and take care of.” Craig flicked his sunglasses down over his eyes

“I’m only good at protecting people, Craig.”

“If that’s all you can offer her, then why are you trying so hard to leave?”

“You don’t understand. It’s not like that.”

* * * *

“Then make me understand, Aiden, because I’m kicking your ass in a minute.” Craig squeezed his fists and felt his knuckles cracking. The tips of his fingers itched with the need to release his claws and take a round out of his friend. After all this time, he’d thought that this might actually work out, and now Aiden was saying he didn’t want it.

“How sure are you that Brenna is your Ma—”

Craig swung his fist before Aiden finished his sentence. Aiden’s head snapped back, and he took a step back to steady himself.

“You get one, Craig. That’s it.”

“Really?” Craig contemplated whether the next strike would be at Aiden’s face or gut.

“Listen to me, you hard-headed asshole. Stop thinking with your fists and listen to what I have to say to you. I’ve fought every moment of every day to stay away from her for the past ten months. Every day I wake up and remind myself why I can’t go after her. Do you know what kind of liability she would be?” Aiden’s voice rose with every word.

Craig punched him in the gut for that one. “A Mate isn’t a liability. They’re a treasure to be earned.”

Pain erupted along Craig’s jaw, and his head snapped with the force of Aiden’s punch.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Aiden snarled, “Brenna is fiercely independent, strong willed, and loyal to a fault. She would never betray someone she loves, but what if someone used her to get to me? They’d hurt her over and over, and she would never break.”

Aiden was right, and the thought of it made Craig’s stomach cramp up. “That’s why she has two Mates. Between the two of us we could keep her safe, but not if you insist on fucking off.”

“I can’t take that risk, Craig. These assholes I’m hunting don’t care about Mates or sanctuary. They’ve come to Ecstasy Lake thinking it’s easy pickings, and it might be. There isn’t any obvious Guardian presence here.”

“There’s a reason for that, boy.” Gordon stepped out of the forest behind him and approached them.

Oh, shit.
As if being caught fighting with a friend wasn’t bad enough, but having your Mate’s father walk into the middle of a dominance battle wouldn’t help. Aiden stood his ground against Brenna’s father. Gordon Roberts was a force to be reckoned with. The man was as easygoing as they came unless you threatened someone he cared about. If he felt the need to step into this, both he and Aiden were in trouble.

“You can play all the dominance games you want, Mr. O’Reilly, but unless you’re willing to go clawed in front of me, then they mean nothing.”

Craig glanced down at his friend’s hands. Sure enough, Aiden’s fingers were completely human.

Aiden dropped his gaze off to the side and broke the staring match he was having with the town’s Alpha. Gordon looked up at him as if he were waiting for Craig to challenge him. Craig nodded at him and then looked down in respect. He didn’t feel the need to get into a pissing contest with his Mate’s father.

“Aiden’s used to packs that rely on their Guardians for protection.”

Gordon glanced back and forth between them and shrugged. “That works for lots of packs, but that isn’t what I want for this town.”

“Gordon, you’re Alpha, but no one follows protocols around here,” Aiden said.

“And I don’t want them to. I’m not some god or supreme ruler that needs to have omegas shivering at my heels in order to feel strong. I want this community to be strong on its own. I lead by example.”

“And if something were to happen to you?”

“Then the town would survive. How many times have you seen a pack fall into anarchy when the Alpha is killed? There are more deaths as everyone squabbles for position. I didn’t want to live that kind of life. Here my family is safe because everyone watches out for everyone else. If I were to be killed, then the town would carry on.”

“But what about security?”

“I have Guardians here, and they know who they are. I’m not stupid. I’ve learn from my mistakes. A little over a year ago, a Hungarian pack waltzed into this town and attempted to murder the Mate of two citizens. I won’t have that happen again, but I don’t want this to become a police state. Ecstasy Lake is a sanctuary. Those who need to be here will always find their way, and I don’t want any militant protocols scaring them away.”

“I think that you’re inviting danger into this town being so lax about the rules.”

Gordon stepped up to Aiden again, squaring off. He growled low in his throat, a vicious sound that made Craig uneasy. Craig knew that Gordon was much stronger than the image he portrayed to the world around them. “Boy, if we followed proper protocol, I’d have killed you for laying hands on my daughter.” The Alpha’s anger drained away, and Gordon patted both Aiden and Craig on the back. “Trust me, I’m not entirely certain I’m making the right decision by choosing not to kick your ass. If either of my wives find out, you best watch your back. There’s only one thing more dangerous than a pissed-off Alpha around here. And that’s the Alpha’s wives.”

Gordon nodded at them both and then sauntered past them and into the trees. Leaping into the bush, he shifted into a wolf in a blink.

“Fuck, for a moment I thought he planned to tear me a new one.”

Craig chuckled. “Yeah, he would’ve if it weren’t for the fact that you’re Brenna’s Mate.”