Protect Me (Sawtooth Shifters, #3) (5 page)

“I won’t.” I put my arm around her once she was up. “I’m not going anywhere.”

K
iera

“You should go to the hospital.” Lyssie hovered over me, pouting. Baron had kicked Dallas out for the night and insisted on staying. He’d barged into her room, and reported that while there was some shuffling, he didn’t see much skin. I might have had a head injury, but that didn’t get in the way of me wanting all the gossip.

“She’s got a concussion,” Baron repeated. “I’ve had a bunch of them. They’ll tell her to be careful, no strenuous activity for a couple weeks, then hit her with a massive bill for telling her what she already knows. We can take care of her here without the hassle of going to the ER.”

“I don’t necessarily think this is the time to brag about having a bunch of concussions. Doesn’t add to your credibility.” I laughed, although he was probably right. Besides the dizziness and the ever-present threat of puking, the rest of me was fine. Truth be told, this wasn’t my first rodeo, either. I’d fallen off of horses and found out the hard way I couldn’t fly. But I wasn’t bragging about it.

“It’s just a brain injury. Yeah, we should totally chance it. Why don’t you want anyone to know about this?” Lyssie glared at Baron and he wasn’t backing down. I may have been imagining things in light of my head wound, everyone was swimming in a pool of thick liquid, but I liked this fire in Lyssie. I wondered what she was going to be like when she finally got laid.

I stopped myself from saying that out loud. The concussion blurred the line between thoughts and reality. She’d kill me if I spilled her secret in front of Baron.

“We’re going to shift by the end of the week. Shadow’s gunning for Ryker. I don’t want to make things worse in the meantime. Shit’s already out of control. We don’t need to up the ante.” Baron landed next to me on the couch. I put my legs over his lap. He reached for me immediately, stroking my body under the blanket, trying to soothe me, but he was coming way too close to the scar tissue. It took everything I had not to squirm. “We’ll handle it on our own and keep you girls safe.”

“I’m the only one who hasn’t been targeted.” Lyssie didn’t back down. She came back over to me, touching the lump on my head lightly. “Yet. They keep getting closer. I don’t want to be the direct hit.”

“We’ll stick together.” Their argument made my head pound even more, and I really didn’t want to hurl. “They wait until their target is alone to strike. We know what their pattern is, and we won’t give them another opportunity.”

“Two days until the full moon,” Baron said softly. His hand stilled and he stared straight ahead, picturing whatever he thought would happen. He shook his head to get rid of the image. “Then it’s over.”

“I’m exhausted. I want to go to bed.” I kept the blanket around me when I got up. I couldn’t shake the chill tonight. Baron looked up at me, unsure what to do. “Come with me?”

His face brightened, and I suddenly felt a lot better. He put his hand on the small of my back.

“Should you be sleeping with a concussion?” Lyssie jumped from the chair, blockading my bedroom door. “What if you slip into a coma?”

“It’s safe,” Baron insisted. “I Googled it.”

“Oh, please.” Lyssie didn’t budge. “I could type in the same symptoms and it would say she has cancer.”

“Lys, I wouldn’t do anything that I didn’t think was safe.” That was a stretch, but I wanted to make her move. “And think about it. I’ve dealt with Al-Qaeda. Some werewolf flunky with bad aim isn’t going to be the one to take me down.” I turned back to my werewolf flunky. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Baron’s smile was feral, and Lyssie was about to see another long, hot kiss if she didn’t get out of the way.

She grabbed Baron’s arm before he had a chance to do anything. This was payback for sending Dallas home tonight. It had to be. “If she wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic, speak to her loud and clear. Tell her who you are, and where she is. It takes her a minute to calm down, but she’ll go back to sleep.” Lyssie looked to me, apologetic. “You wouldn’t have known to tell him. I had to figure it out on my own.”

**

“I
can tell it’s a full moon.” Trina said it every month, but this was the first time it had any meaning for me. “Even you two are at each other’s throats today.”

“No, we’re not,” I said quickly before Lyssie had a chance to answer. I’d begged her not to say anything to Trina about my concussion. If she noticed I was off, I’d tell her I wiped out snowboarding. It was somewhat true, I’d just had a lot of help.

“Whatever.” Trina held a bunny in her lap. She always picked one of the quiet animals when everything was in an uproar, figuring the rowdy ones would follow the lead of the one getting all the attention. “How was snowboarding last night?”

Lyssie glanced up from the black poodle that she was grooming. She’d become everyone’s hairdresser. I ignored her. Maybe we were at each other’s throats. “We had a great time. Pizza, then—“

“You went to The Pizza Pub without me?” Lyssie sighed and shook her head.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was jealous. “Ask Dallas to take you there. We can all go. As I was saying, pizza then we went over to Baldy. I’d never been on the Black Diamond trails before.”

“Sounds awful!” Trina laughed. “The pizza is a dream come true, but the rest of it? No thank you.” The phone rang and cut the conversation short.

“Why are you so mad at me?” I asked Lyssie once Trina was in the office. “I didn’t mean to get hurt. Dallas is coming back tonight and you can pick up wherever you left off. Think of it as a bonus.”

“I’m not mad, I’m worried.” She shut off the clippers and put them down. With a nudge, the poodle jumped off the table. I’d put a bow around his neck and take his picture later for the website. “I don’t like that you didn’t get checked out last night. What if you’re hurt worse than you think?”

“I hate hospitals.” I’d spent months in one recovering from the bomb blast. Every time I had a setback, that’s where I wound up. Until CAST figured out a way to get me to move forward. “If I don’t feel better, I’ll go. I promise. I can take care of myself, you know.”

“I know.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I said that to Baron last night, about what to do if you have night terrors. It might’ve looked like I was trying to one up you, but you don’t know that it’s happening most of the time. It’s scary.”

“I’m not mad. I appreciated it.” If I was a hugger, I would’ve given Lyssie one.

Her face lit up, apology accepted. “Did anything else happen last night?”

My little Lyssie was blossoming before my eyes. She couldn’t even talk about sex when I’d met her at the beginning of the year, let alone ask for a play by play. “No. I didn’t want to puke in the middle of what will probably be a pretty epic fuck.”

“Kiera!” We weren’t all the way there yet. Her expression sobered. “I didn’t know you were nauseous. Are you feeling better now?”

“Much. Just tired.” I’d slept so well, curled up against Baron with his arms around me. He slept shirtless, and he was just as glorious as I’d imagined. I used one of his broad shoulders as my pillow, running my finger lightly along the length of his rippling abs until we both fell asleep. I couldn’t wait to see, feel, and taste every inch of him. “So what were you up to when we came back last night?”

“Nothing.” Lyssie flushed like a champion. “We were just talking.”

“About what?” I shouldn’t push her, but she was treading on thin ice and didn’t know how to swim. Lyssie avoided eye contact, coaxing a cocker spaniel into her beauty parlor. “Have you told Dallas yet?”

“It’s not exactly the kind of thing you blurt out in casual conversation.” She looked up from the soapy wet dog with defeat in her eyes. “And I think it’s pretty obvious.”

“I know you’re—“ I almost said
embarrassed
. That would’ve set her back into the Stone Age. “—self-conscious about your inexperience. Dallas won’t care. But if you do something he doesn’t expect, he might get confused or hurt. If you keep this a secret you’re setting both of you up for failure.”

“Maybe it’s best that way.” A tear ran down Lyssie’s cheek, but she didn’t stop scrubbing the spaniel in the tub.

“No.” Man, I really wished I was a hugger. I put my hands on the table next to the tub. “Think about when you told Baron about the night terrors last night. You knew it was the right thing to do. Do you want me to tell him?”

She didn’t answer me.

“I think we should do the photo shoot today,” Trina announced when she came out of her office. “Everyone’s off the wall because of the moon, and you know derpy looking pictures work best for adoptions.”

Perfect idea. Although Trina knew a lot more than we did about whatever Shadow had planned. I wondered if she was looking for a distraction for the surprises this full moon was bringing all of us.

B
aron

Nobody ever said no to my mother. After raising four boys with nothing, practically on her own, Angela Channing knew how to get people to do what she wanted. Even before I understood what she’d accomplished, I admired my mother. She could always make something from nothing. She wasn’t afraid of fighting for what was right, but she made sure to provide a safe, comfortable home for anyone who needed it. In a lot of ways, Kiera reminded me of her. They were going to either love each other or hate each other. No middle ground. That’s what I loved about both women. Nothing was ever half way with either of them.

“Shadow should be here,” Mom grumbled, setting up her spread. “He doesn’t need an invite. If he’s going to spend every waking minute with that girl, the least he could do is introduce her to me.” We had a tradition, her own version of a Full Moon party. Single adult wolves celebrated the moon in a much wilder way, since none of us had a wife or family to get home to. Mom taught us to be proud of what we were, and to celebrate being both wolf and man. We’d been doing this ever since we were kids. The only thing that had changed was we had beer instead of soda, and my dad and Archer were no longer with us.

My youngest brother was killed in the very last dog fight. The girls from Forever Home almost broke it up in time. He died in Trina’s arms. Everyone thought Archer was weak because he never wanted to fight. I’d thought he was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. He didn’t grow up in a culture where he was encouraged to be who he was. I missed him so much. He’d laugh at all our jokes, and be the go-between with Mom when we needed to cut loose. Guys didn’t talk much, but Archer listened. In business, he handled our books and turned on the charm for any potential clients while we did the heavy lifting.

I couldn’t settle down. Last night played on repeat in my mind: the man who attacked Kiera lying in the snow, ruined and bloody, the branch still heavy in my hand. I sucked down most of my beer, Dallas eyed me as I sat at the table, double-fisted. Mom wasn’t paying attention to us, stirring a giant pot of spaghetti sauce. We’d tried to help, but she swatted us away.

“I’ll bring Kiera to meet you as soon as the shift is over,” I said. Mom turned back to me, her face lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning. “I think you’ll really like her.”

“I can’t wait, Baron.”

“What the fuck happened last night?” Dallas asked, ignoring the glare Mom shot over his shoulder. “I can’t wait to repay you that little favor.”

“Kiera wiped out on the Black Diamond trail.” The second beer popped open without any effort. We shouldn’t shift until the moon was completely full. Strong and healthy, we’d definitely shift this month but after the emotional roller coaster of last night, all bets were off for the timing. Seeing Kiera unconscious. The kill. Then lying in bed with Kiera’s head on my shoulder. Not doing anything but watching her sleep. Anything more would’ve been a mistake. She was wounded, and I was too close to my animal form. “I think she got a concussion.”

Dallas pressed his lips together, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have brought her some place over her head to show off.” He took a long sip of his beer. “It’s bad enough we’re catching shit from Major for hanging around with the Forever Home girls, but if one of them gets hurt under our protection, it’ll prove everything he’s been bitching about. Shadow’s going to lose his mind when he hears about this. If anything happens to Kiera or Lyssie on our watch, he’ll be picking us out from between his teeth.”

“I don’t need to protect her. She’s not a spoiled she-wolf who can’t take care of herself,” I growled but didn’t have a chance to say more before Mom sat down at the table. I stewed in my own juices as she dealt the cards. I considered telling Dallas what I’d done to Ryker’s guy. I was tired of my brothers thinking of me as weak. But then they’d think I condoned the violence we were fighting so hard to stop. I didn’t consider murder strength. Just the opposite. “Shadow’s out for blood this month, wanting to finish off Ryker once and for all. There’s no stopping that or his pissing contest with Major.”

“Baron!” Mom groaned.

I couldn’t live with myself if this was what being in the pack meant now. I wanted peace. I wanted to be able to take my girl out on an adventure and not have to worry about attacks or political repercussions. It was hard to believe in something that didn’t bring me happiness, even if it did lead me to Kiera.

“I didn’t say anything to Shadow,” Dallas muttered. “But don’t fuck up again, Baron.”

“I don’t care how full the moon is, that word is not allowed in my house and you know it. All of you need to be careful tomorrow night.” Mom put her cards down. My brother turned to me, open mouthed. “Don’t think I have no idea what’s going on in the forest. The tension is as thick as pea soup between all of you boys since you’ve been back. Be smart. It’s more important that being strong. Make your family proud.”

She picked her cards back up. There was no arguing with that. I had some big decisions to make, depending on what happened during our shift. Just like last time we became wolves, things would never be the same again. I could barely concentrate on the game, but I was thankful for the distraction. Mom called me out on my weak plays, but it wasn’t unusual that she kicked our asses every hand.