Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (55 page)

“Please, let
me finish. Even now, as strong as you’ve become, two wolves would
be a good fight. But three? Any other woman would’ve been so
frightened.” She turned her cheek when he lifted her chin to meet
her eyes. “But you fought them. You did what you had to do. You
protected your baby.”

Ayden wrenched
her head out of his grasp and held her stomach, rocking as more
sobs ripped out of her body. “It wasn’t the wolves that killed my
baby. It was Wade. Motherfucker!” She hit her ear with the heel of
her palm. “The shot rings in my ear. And the
silence
. That
silence when I didn’t hear her cry again.” Both hands covered her
ears. “She was … just a baby.”

“God, please
let me hold you, Ayden.” Kane gingerly reached out his arms and
scooped her body against his. He held her like a child, rocking her
and allowing her to cry against his bare chest, as he stroked her
hair and kissed her forehead.

Each cry
pierced his heart, the crushing agony of her hurt. He could kill
because of it—fucking tear his own heart out—but he choked it
back.

Her arms
finally wrapped around him, the sobs dying down to sniffles, and
Kane tightened his grip, entwining his legs around hers, and laid
back with her still tucked into his arms. It only took a minute
before her muscles laxed and her breathing slowed.

***

Kane held Ayden
close to him as she slept, his chest warmed by her breaths, the
tiny spasms of her body vibrating through him.

The way she
curved into his body, so small and delicate against him, felt so
right. He would lay there forever, if he could. Holding her.
Comforting her. Kissing her. Loving her.

***

A black shroud,
brought on by the oncoming night, had claimed the cave by the time
Ayden awoke, yet did nothing to affect his vision. Even with her
eyes, red and blotchy from crying, her hair clinging to her face
from tears, the sight of her made Kane’s heart hammer.

He lifted his
head and marveled when she tilted hers back to look at him. Gray in
her eyes battled the sliver of moonlight filtering in—mesmerizing.
Kane eased back, staring into them, and storms that had torn
through him earlier in the evening calmed to billowing waves of
contentment.

My Ayden.

“Your heart …
it beats so fast,” Ayden said, pressing her hand to it. Her
fingertips traced the ridges between his muscles, coated in a sheen
of sweat from where she had lain against it for hours. “I was so
scared tonight. Scared that I’d never hear it again.” She nuzzled
closer and kissed over his heart.

“You were
scared?”

***

“Yes,” Ayden
whispered.

Kane placed a
kiss to the top of her head and tilted her chin up. Orbs as green
as the new spring grass held such sincerity as she stared up at
them. “As long as there’s a human heart inside my chest, Ayden, it
beats for you. And I will continue to love you, even after death
finally silences it. You are my immortality.”

She kissed his
lips. “I love you.” Wiping at her face, she moved the hair back and
rubbed her finger beneath her eyes, chagrin suddenly consuming her
over her broken composure. “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean
to meltdown.”

“Please, don’t
apologize for crying. Never apologize for feeling something.”

“I just mean,
I didn’t mean to dump all of that onto you.”

“Ayden, you
didn’t dump anything. You shared a very private and painful piece
of yourself with me. At the risk of sounding like a dipshit, I’m
glad I was here for you.”

“You’re not a
dipshit.” She smiled and focused on the cave walls. “For so many
years, I’ve been an empty shell. A mindless machine, designed for
killing. There was never anything for me to give. I didn’t even
know who I was.” Tucking her hand between his chest and her chin,
she looked up at him. “You sealed the hole inside my heart, Kane,
and filled it with love again. I’ve got a tough road with all of
these memories. But you were right. What you said last night.
They’re mine. And, as horrible as some of them are, I don’t want to
forget. They make me feel something again. Thank you for giving
them back to me.”

“Loosely
translated: thank you for biting the shit out of my neck last
night, Kane.”

Ayden
chuckled. “Yes.” She huffed. “So, what are we going to do now?”

“I have to
leave. If I stay, I’ll hurt people. I almost hurt you, tonight. And
I know you’re not the kind of woman who follows. So, I’m not
expecting you to come with me.”

“Kane.” A wave
of desperation washed over her. “You saved my life tonight.
Somewhere inside of you is a beast, but there is more good in you
than you know.”

“Last night,
the anger was outside of my control. It slammed into me. As if
everyone in the world had done me wrong, somehow. If I ever took a
life, a child …” He rubbed a hand down his face.

Ayden sat up,
determined as she stared into those eyes. “You’re not that person.
Even as a lycan.” Her lips formed a hard line. “A week ago, I would
have murdered you without hesitation or remorse—a thought that
scares the shit out of me now and turns my stomach. You changed my
world. In one week, you showed me so much love and tenderness, in
spite of what I did to you in return. You’re different. You’re not
one of them. You’re a good man and you will always be a good man,
no matter what form you take.” Her eyes searched his for some
indication that her words made a difference to him. “You’re right.
I won’t follow you. But I’m asking you, please, just give it a
chance. I won’t trap you. You’ll be free to go whenever you
like.”

“And if I hurt
someone?”

“I won’t let
you.” She grabbed either side of his face. “Please. I need
you.”

“Then, we have
an understanding.”

“Yes. I’ll
take your life before you take someone else’s.” Her words came out
so assuredly, knowing he never would.

“And I’ll take
my own if ever that someone is you.”

Ayden nodded
and settled back down against him. “You’ve denounced your pack and
killed off their numbers. I’m certain you’ll have plenty to keep
you occupied for a while.” Heat radiated from his body, the warmth
soothing against her cheek. “How did you do that? Back at the
compound. The tiger.”

“I don’t know
exactly. I was ready to go, ya know, thinking you’d gotten away.
But then, I heard you scream. So I willed myself to be something
stronger. For you.” Kane folded his arm beneath his head. “I had no
conscious idea of what that was. All I knew was, I had to get to
you.”

“You see?
You’re not a monster, after all.”

“Perhaps not.
But what scares the hell out of me, is thinking what I would have
done once I had you.”

She smiled. “I
think this evening had a pretty good ending, don’t you?”

Kane reached
down and pushed a stray hair behind her ear. “Who said this was the
end?”

“It’s not.”
She grabbed his hand and kissed it. “This is just the
beginning.”

~

Writing a novel
takes time, support and encouragement—all the things I’ve been
blessed to receive from these amazing people:

First, thank
you to my husband, Trent—my biggest, most supportive fan—I’m pretty
sure I would’ve starved to death during edits if you hadn’t brought
me meals. And thank you to my beautiful daughters. For everything
you’ve done and sacrificed to make this possible, I’m forever
grateful. I love you.

To my
family—my beautiful mother, dad, sisters and in-laws—thanks so much
for your love and encouragement.

And my brother
Ryan, who has always been there to grab my arm and pull me up when
I feel like I’m slipping a little--d’akujem.

Enormous
thanks to the best beta readers a girl could ask for: Debb
Fleszar-Kiehler, Marlena Frontera and my very talented writer
friend, Krista Walsh. You guys read this in its roughest form and
for that, I consider you brave souls.

To Miranda
Mascola of Bitten by Paranormal Romance and Lolita Verroen from
K-Books & Lola’s Reviews for beta reading an early draft. You
are two kickass ladies in my book. And thank you for the humbling
reviews you left as well as the pimpage!

Special,
heartfelt thank you to my editor and friend, Julie Belfield. Your
exceptional skills helped make this manuscript better than I
imagined it could be. I don’t know if this book would even be in
the hands of readers without you. Your encouragement and enthusiasm
for the series has meant so much.

A book doesn’t
stand a chance without an eye-catching cover. For that, I am
thankful for my incredibly patient designer, Mel Gannon.

To the very
gifted Narcisse Navarre, for your direction with the cover and the
logo—you rock!

Thanks to a
crew of amazing writers who continue to support and inspire me—N.B.
Charles (for your help with the blurb), Candice Bundy and Terri
Rochenski.

On nights I
didn’t think I had it in me to write, these musicians brought my
muse to life—NIN, Paramore, Muse, Avenged Sevenfold, Blood Red
Shoes, Deftones, Flyleaf and of course, The XX.

And finally to
my readers, thank you so much for reading the crazy stories I put
to paper.

~

Keri Lake is a
married mother of two living in Michigan. She writes paranormal
romance, urban fantasy and loves a good, tragic love story. Though
novels tend to be her focus, she also writes short stories and
flash fiction whenever distraction manages to suck her in to the
Land of Shiny Things.

When she isn’t
toiling away on plots and protagonists, she enjoys reading, music
and travel. If she could create mystical powers for herself, she’d
have the ability to flash to anywhere in the world. And if she
could flash to anywhere in the world at this very moment, she’d be
staring at the ocean from her adirondack chair on the shores of
North Carolina.

Visit her
website:

http://www.KeriLake.com