Territory - Prequel (3 page)

Chloe didn’t speak, she didn’t have to.  She knew there were no words that would offer her mother any solace, so she did the only thing she could.  She sim
ply held her mother as her heart
brok
e into a thousand little
pieces within her chest, as her own warm tears
slid silently down her cheeks.

***

Hidden by the thick foliage of the woodlands behind the
two-story brick
house, Dell watched solemnly as Chloe held her mother. 

He noted how the younger woman
fought to keep from breaking.  Her lip trembled and she seemed angered by the tears that slid free.  But even outside, in the thundering rain yards from the house, he still caught the scent of the anguish within.  The scent so mirrored his own mothers torment that it clenched his belly into one giant knot. 

He hated this,
all of
it
!  Every single second of suffering that had occurred in the past two months had
been the direct result of his family’s lineage.  He gritted his te
eth and seethed at the weakness:
 
D
onnie’s weakness at not being abl
e to control and keep his woman
;
Beverly’s weakness in not being able to deny Mace
;
and Mace’s weakness at not being able to walk away from Beverly.

Ma
ma and Cindy had warned
Dell, Mace, and their younger brother,
Briggs
,
that once they found their true mate that they’d be unable to deny her regardless of circumstance.  Now, Dell growled at the injustice of it al
l
.
  He didn’t want to be bound to someone in such a manner.  It wasn’t fair, and the current circumstances proved that it wasn’t right. 

Never before had he questioned
what he was…until now.  Today he wondered if his family, his kind, weren’t simply beasts after all.

***

Chloe loose
ne
d her grip on her mother, bending to brush her lips against her mother’s temple. 
“Come on mom.  Let me make you some coffee.”

The older woman shook her head, “I just want to
lie
down.”

Chloe followed as her mother headed for the stairs.

“Most have gone to the reception, but if any guests come,”
Bea
halted briefly, “feed them and thank them.”

Chloe nodded wordlessly.  Her mother could always rely on her to
do as asked.  At
twenty-seven,
it wasn’t a matter of obedience, rather a matter of respect. 

Once her mother disappeared at the top of the stairs, Chloe busied herself
picking up her mother’s home. 

Bea’s
typically immaculate home was now cluttered with dirty dishes, wads of dirty clothes, and piles of yet-to-be discarded newspapers from the past several days.  It was a testament to her mother’s suffering.  Even when their father had passed, her mother’s home had remained spotless.  But now, eyeing her surroundings, Chloe could almost feel her mother’s release on the tight reins of control
she had clutched so fiercely.  It was terrifying.  The prospect of her mother succumbing to her misery was a despair that Chloe knew she’d never overcome.  Chloe bit her lip worriedly,
How do I keep mom from going under?

When the doorbell chimed, Chloe raised her eyes to the ceiling hoping her mother wasn’t dis
turbed by the noise.  As she strode quickly to the front
door,
she smoothed her hands over her hair and stopped with her hand on the knob to suck in a reassuring breath. 
Should it hurt this bad just to breath
e
?

Chloe opened the door without bother
ing
to past
e
on a pleasant or non-committed welcoming smile.
 
Instead,
she opted for resigned tolerance, which was exactly what she felt.  She didn’t want visitors and her mother didn’t either, but it was how her community offered condolences.

Pulling the door open, she sucked in another agonized breath as her eyes
locked on
Dell Blackbird.

He stood
in her doorway,
drenched
, his head l
owered as rain
dripped from his lithe frame.  He was
wearing the
same suit he’d worn to the funer
al, only now
instead of looking
sophisticated
and controlled
, he seemed dangerous.
  The lines of his body were taught…rigid.
 
It was
startling, and Chloe realized she should have been frightened, but she was too damn mad to be frightened.

Her
brows knitted in anger as Dell lifted his head, his eyes locking with hers.

When Dell growled fiercely and fell to the floor, Chloe wasn’t quite sure what was happening. 
A wave of nausea crashed over her, followed immediately by a peaceful
serenity
.  It was the first time she’d felt at peace since her brother’s death.  The emotion drew a whimper from her parted lips even as her knees threatened to buckle.

She braced her arms in the doorframe, clutching the wood tightly until she regained her composure.  When Dell
hissed out a long agonized breath, Chloe i
nstinctively bent to offer aid b
efore she
quickly righted herself.

With one hand clamped on her fluttering belly, she mustered up as much hatred as she could. 
“No need to bow to me dog!” 
She
fought to keep the
confusion
from her tone, but she knew she failed miserably.

Dell’s head snapped up, his strong features
contorted
in
fury
and pain.  One hand clutched his belly while he gro
wled through gritted teeth, “I am
no dog!”

Chloe sneered down at him
.  She’d heard the stories.  It was a small town after all, and everyone knew the story.  Blackbirds were supposedly descendants of skin walkers, shape shifters
, wolves
.  It was a joke at first, bu
t over the years the rumor had
garnered the Blackbird family first mockery, then respect,
and
then fear.
  Now the
town’s
folk regarded them with what Chloe could only compare to some semblance of reverence. 

“You’re all dogs.  Filthy beasts.”  She lowered her head to deepen her sneer
.  She hated him, and she wanted him to hurt like she was hurting.
“Someone should put you down.”

Dell struggled to his feet, drawing in a ragged breath.  “Keep it up and I’ll show
you
how beastly I can be.”

Chloe’s
sneer faltered
and she flushed angrily at the telling catch in her voice, “You already have.” 

“CHLOE!”

Chloe’s head snapped round to discover her mother frowning disapprovingly at her daughter from the top of the stairs. 
She eyed her mother for several tense moments and w
hen
she
turned back to Dell, he was gone.

“
That
was uncalled for,” her mother admonished.

Chloe ignored her mother’s comment
as she gulped in several breath
s of fresh air.  Her belly felt queasy and her muscles shook as they fought to keep her upright. 

“What did you do to that young man?”

Chloe’s frown eased into
innocence
, “Nothing.”  She turned then to eye her mother, “I didn’t touch him he just…fell.”

“You know who he was?” her mother accused.

Closing the door, Chloe rubbed a hand
gingerly over her belly, “Yeah m
a.”
  She looked up to
eye
her mother as she raised her chin in a show of superiority.

“We’ll not be at war with the Blackbirds Chloe.  I forbid it!”

Chloe stood frowning silently up at her mother. 
You may not be at war mother, but I sure as hell am!

Without a word, her mother turned and returned to her room leaving Chloe to
try
to
figure out what
had
just happened.  She crossed to the sofa
, dropping onto
the cushion as she wrapped her arms around herself. 
What in the hell was that?
  She rocked herself back and
forth,
as she replayed the incident in her mind. 
Maybe he
tripped.
  She shook her head.  Dell had been standing motionless until his eyes
had
met hers.

She closed her eyes when she replayed the memory.  Dell’s dark eyes had erupted into a flame of blazing
amber
before
his pupils had dilated to engulf his eye
s
moments before
he’d dropped.  She hadn’t imagined it.  Someth
ing had affected him.

Li
c
king her
lips,
she stilled as she reme
mbered the serenity that had wa
s
h
ed over her.  She’d felt so warm, so safe, so
loved.  It was like being whole. 
Like
being home.
  God she wanted to feel it again, if only for a moment.

Chloe forced her eyes open as she gnashed her teeth.  She refused to believe the emotion had
anything
to do with Dell Blackbird. 
He can burn in hell!
 

She forced herself to her feet
.  She knew her mother had gone back to bed, so she extinguished every light in the house
before returning to the sofa to sit alone in the dark.

Chapter
3

Dell shifted once he hit the tree line.  He had to get home, something was seriously wrong.  The sudden attack that had disabled him at Chloe’s door still
had tremors coursing
through his body
.  It had been her eyes.  Something had happened when they locked
eyes;
he just had no idea what it was.
 

He half trott
ed, half limped through the dark
forest, noting that the pain grew more intense the further from her
he traveled
.

Witch?
  He couldn’t help but wonder
if she and her family
were some form of
medicine people,
magic makers.  What else could explain what she’d done to him, because she had definitely
done
something
.

Dell fell against the nearest tree and summoned his
younger
brother through pack ties that allowed them to communicate telepathically.

When Briggs confirmed that he was on his way, Dell pushed off the tree and forced himself onward.  As much as it hurt and as much as he wanted to curl into a tight ball and wait for rescue, Dell was the Alpha now.  With his brother’s demise, he’d inherited the title as the eldest male sibling
, and as Alpha he was expected to act as such.  No cowering in the forest from a chance meeting with the sister of his brother’s enemy.

Dell groaned as he forced himself forward. 
If I
cou
ld just stop thinking about her
.
  It seemed the pain lessened when he could force himself from thinking of her eyes.  Those deep chocolate, almond shaped eyes that sparked with agony and anger.  The memory had him doubling over. 
Christ!  Stop thinking about her!

Curled into a ball of agony was how Briggs and Cindy found him minutes later.

“Dell, what’s wrong?”  Briggs shifted mid-stride and dropped to his brother’s side.

Behind him Cindy shifted, but didn’t approach. 

“Not sure.” Dell panted, trying to force more control than he actually
possessed
. 

“You went to see
her
didn’t you,” Cindy
accused
from behind the brothers. 

Briggs glanced over his shoulder, “Who?”  He shifted his gaze from his sister back to his brother, “
Someone
did this to you?”
  Briggs rose to his full height, scanning the forest around them as he balled large hands into
white knuckled
fists.  “Tell me who
brother
and I’ll tear them apart!”