The Heir (31 page)

With every hit, the vault where she hid her
grief opened a little more until she felt like exploding from
within.

Christian closed his eyes, clenched his jaw
and accepted every hit. He didn't raise his hands and try to stop
her. He didn't try to protect himself; he took every blow as his
due.

In reality her soft punches didn't hurt
him.

It was the sight of her tormented face before
she collapsed against him and the heart wracking sobs that hurt him
like no blow ever could. Christian took a tentative breath and
slowly, trying not to startle her, wrapped his arms around her.
Dani grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and he froze thinking she meant
to push him away.

She only held on tighter and her tears undid
him. Thinking of only halting her cries, he pulled back, cupped her
face gently, closed his eyes and lowered his lips to hers.

Blindly, his mouth searched for hers.

He groaned when he found it and groaned again
when she didn't push him away.

She released her hold on his shirt and raised
her hands to bury them in his hair. She kissed him with
desperation, trembling with violent emotion, and held on to him as
if he was the only thing anchoring her to sanity.

Christian’s hands lowered to her rib cage and
they tightened around her for a second; he was rocked by her
reaction to his kiss. His desperation mirroring hers, he kissed
her, nipping at her lips; tasting her tears.

When they finally broke apart, they were both
gasping for air.

Dani hid her face in the crook of his neck;
he buried his face in her hair, reveling in her scent, and
whispered, "I would have stayed if I'd known, I never would have
left. God, Dani, I would have stayed."

Dani stiffened, upon his declaration. "It
doesn't matter anymore," she told him.

His arms tightened around her. "It does
matter. I should have been there."

Dani pushed herself away from him and
Christian reluctantly let her go. She straightened in her seat,
pulled the visor down and repaired, as best she could, the damage
her tears and their kiss had caused. She didn't really care about
her appearance; she only needed those moments to get her emotions
back under control.

"It doesn’t matter," she reinstated. She
looked at him without emotion, as if their kissed had meant no more
than a hello from a passerby, as if he was a total stranger.

A stranger, not her mate.

"I'm moving on with my life," she continued.
"And like I told Nick, so is Jessica. This was all a mistake we all
need to move on. Forget about each other, forget we ever meant
anything to each other and find someone else."

"We mate for life," Christian reminded her.
"You’ll be the only one I will ever want."

His declaration made her heart skip a beat
but she refused to be moved. Once burned twice shy.

"I am not one of your kind." Dani took a deep
breath and, knowing he could sense a lie, added with all the
conviction she could muster, "and I don't want you."

Christian hid his pain behind a smile, it was
an automatic reaction; he couldn't let her see just how much her
words gutted him. "I know how to change your mind if you want to
give it a try." He wagged his eyebrows. "Just say the words."

"You will never change." Dani shook her head.
"It's all a joke to you. But I'm no longer your toy; maybe you
should stop playing games and grow up."

"You were never a game."

Dani let out a sound of frustration. "We are
going in circles again." She buckled up, turned on the ignition
but, and faced forward, her hands on the steering wheel. "Get out.
I have nothing else to say to you."

"Fine, let's not talk about us. Let's talk
about Jessica, we need to find her, she's in danger-"

"Ha!"

Christian bit back a growl and continued
through gritted teeth. "-Nick is out of his mind; please tell me
where to find her."

"Nick deserves everything he is getting. Get
out or I'm calling the cops."

Christian noticed the stubborn tilt of her
chin, the ramrod straightness of her back, and knew it was a lost
cause. Sighing in defeat; he unbuckled himself, opened the door and
got out. He closed the door and leaned down to look at her through
the rolled down window, willing her to look at him but she never
turned.

"I'm leaving tomorrow for a couple of weeks.
I'll come see you when I get back."

Her heart felt as if she was running a
marathon but she didn't answer him. She rolled up the window, put
the car in reverse and backed out on to the street, aware of the
pair of brown eyes that followed her car until she was out of
sight.

Feeling like she'd just been through the
ringer she released a deep breath but didn't relax.

She still had a lot to do before she could
relax. First on the list was losing the wolves tracking her, per
Jessica’s instructions, she'd spent the last couple of weeks
practicing and was sure she'd perfected the art in anticipation of
this day.

Today she would be seeing Jessica for the
first time in months.

Christian watched her go. When she turned off
the street he walked back to the car where Axel sat waiting for
him. He got in the passenger seat without saying a word and told
him to drive. Axel looked at him for a second, his somber outlook
so out of character, then shrugged and started the car.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Axel
peeked at him and trying to lighten the mood commented, "I think
you're losing your touch."

Christians only reply was a glare, where
usually he would have shot back with a smart reply.

As a mood lightener it fell flat but Axel was
disconcerted; Christian’s grave countenance was out of character.
He could count with one hand the times he remembered Christian
being this somber. In fact every time it had to do with the mystery
girl...

Axel did a double take and glanced at
Christian. "Is that her?"

Christian stiffened but didn't turn to look
at him. "Drop it."

It was answer enough.

From previous experience, Axel knew that
prying would get him nowhere and decided to change the subject. "So
what are we going to tell Nick?"

Christian turned to look out the passenger
window and exhaled a deep breath filled with frustration. "The same
thing we keep telling him, no dice."

"He doesn't look good. Do you think it’s
true?" Axel asked. "What they say, that you can die without your
mate?"

"It’s not true." He told him in a dead
tone.

But every breath you take makes you wish it
was, he added to himself.

Chapter 24

Miles away, Nick's thoughts were running
along the same line.

Every breath was torture. He felt like a man
treading water in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight.
His desperation was suffocating him; he couldn't seem to get enough
air into his lungs. Nick took a deep breath and tried to rub away
the ache over his heart.

It was pointless

Nothing took the pain away; he found solace
in nothing, not even in sleep. The nights were unbearable; in his
sleep, his worst fears came to life. The vivid nightmares, of a
life without Jessica or finding her too late, kept him from seeking
his bed until he was overtaken with fatigue.

And every day that went by, he found it
harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning.

Suddenly, he heard a noise and snapped
around, his hackles raised and lips curled up, to face the
intruder.

"I knew I'd find you here."

Matt spoke in a calm voice, with his eyes
lowered to the ground, as he stepped in to view. Upon noticing the
submissive stance Nick stifled back a growl. He fisted his hands,
hung his head back and took a deep, calming, breath of the forest
air.

Of the woods that surrounded his home, this
was his favorite spot; the boulder where he had shared his first
meal with Jessica. Most days, he spent his free time here.
Reminiscing of that long ago day and the many other ones he had
spent with her. Those were the memories that kept him going;
reminiscing always brought a smile to his face.

"Just talked to Christian," Matt told
him.

Matt's tone of voice clued him in on what was
coming and Nick began to pace back and forth feeling like a caged
animal. Most days he acted like one too. His despair was causing
him to lose the tight grip he had on his wolf. Little by little his
wolf was taking over.

Matt noticed when he looked into his eyes and
told him in a soft voice lazed with a hint of authority, "calm down
Nick."

Nick snapped around and growled. "Calm down?
You ask me to calm down when you don’t even know what it feels
like-"

"Yes I do," Matt told him softly.

The soft admission took the wind out of his
sails and Nick slumped down on the ground.

"I hate this," he whispered hoarsely. "I hate
feeling useless. I feel like we are back at square one."

A few years back when he learned that the
phoenix pack wasn't completely extinct and that Cade had an heir, a
female daughter, Nick's plan began to form in his mind but first he
had to find the heir.

It had not been easy.`

He'd still been under his father’s rule and
as the apparent heir of the pacific pack he'd been unable to go
anywhere without raising suspicion. He'd had to rely on his best
friends to find the Robertson’s and when he found out that they'd
switched their baby daughter with another baby girl, he'd sent
Christian to keep an eye on them knowing that the true Heir would
have to show up at some point.

He'd sent Christian because he was the
youngest of them. He could pose as a high school student and get
close to Danielle. He could come and go without raising suspicion,
something Nick could not do, then or now.

Nick punched the boulder with all his might
in frustration. It left his hand red and pulsing with pain but Nick
welcomed the pain, it let him know that he was still alive. Curling
and uncurling his hand, he cursed the boulder and his
stupidity.

He cursed Jessica for leaving without letting
him explain. He cursed himself for his inability to speak about
what was in his heart. And he cursed the council most of all;
cursed them for not trusting him.

He couldn't actively search for Jessica
because he was too busy leading those who wished her harm on a wild
goose chase. Instead he had to send his most trusted people out to
look for her and each time they returned it was with the same
result.

"Now what do I do?" Nick asked Matt. "It
looks like they bought a plane ticket for every plane leaving every
airport in the country and it looks like they are all dead ends."
Nick shook his head imagining the amount of money they must have
spent to get her away from him. "It's been so long, the trails are
getting cold, and where do I look now?" He whispered, sounding
lost, looking at the ground.

Matt sat down next to him without a word and
gave Nick a couple of seconds to compose himself because Matt was
sure that what he was about to say was going to rattle him even
more. "We need to start checking hospitals," he told him
softly.

"Hospitals?" Nick looked at him and shook his
head. "She is a shifter she has no need for doctors. Unless she is
dyi-" The afterthought had him going pale.

"Or pregnant," Matt added quickly and
softly.

Nick looked at Matt dazedly and parroted,
"Pregnant?"

Matt nodded, "thought so."

"Thought what?"

"That you were oblivious to the change in her
scent."

"What?" Nick felt like a broken record,
saying the same thing over and over again, but he'd lost the
ability to string together a coherent sentence when Matt dropped
the bomb.

"I noticed that her scent had changed
but-"

"Damn you!" Nick pushed Matt to the ground,
he landed on top of him grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and
pulled him up until they were nose to nose and growled. “Damn you!
Why didn't you tell me this four months ago?!"

"At first I thought you knew," Matt explained
as calmly as he could, "then as time passed and you didn't say
anything I realized that you didn't know-"

"And that's when you should have clued me
in!" He emphasized his frustration by shaking Matt like a rag doll.
"I did notice the change in her scent but I thought it was due to
the serum weakening and the unleashing of her power." Nick
explained, “You should have told me!" He growled again and gave
Matt a shake to emphasize his frustration.

Using his elbows to support himself, Matt
took a deep breath and told him softly, "I didn't think it would
take as this long to find her. I didn't tell you because I wanted
to save you from yourself-I've noticed," Matt confided. "I've
noticed that it’s getting harder and harder for you to control your
wolf I didn't want to give you something more to worry about but
it’s been five months."

Five months.

The reminder of the time that had passed was
like another kick in the solar plexus. In a daze, Nick slacked his
hold on Matt’s shirt and allowed him to scoot out from underneath
him. He sat back down on the ground unceremoniously and ran both of
his hands through his hair. Deep in his subconscious mind, Nick had
known that Jessica could be pregnant but just like Matt he'd locked
away the possibility from himself in an attempt to protect his
sanity.

"Oh god Matt, she doesn't know that-"

Suddenly Nick was interrupted by his sister,
"Nick! I have to talk to you!"

Nick and Matt shot up off the ground and
turned towards the sound of Sarah’s cries.

"Nick!"

"What the hell is she doing here?" Matt
growled as he took a step forward, "I made it clear to her that she
was no longer allowed here. I'll handle this."

Nick shot his hand out and stopped him,
"Don't, let the guards handle it."