Stalking the Pharmacist (16 page)

“Of course I did, but…”

Jack waited, his belly clenching with fear
and anger. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to plant his brother right into the wall.

“
But what
?”

He waited again, biting his cheek until he
tasted blood. He struggled to stay still as he swallowed the vile, metallic
tasting liquid down.

Scott straightened his shoulders and looked
directly at him, all warmth gone from his green eyes.

“But we aren’t meant to be together, Jack.
It’s too
hard,
too much water has gone under the
bridge. Maybe you and Ash can work something out, but I can’t.”

Jack grabbed the closest thing to him,
which was something heavy and metal, and threw it as hard as he could across
the room, roaring as he released it and it slammed into the wall with a loud
crack.

“Fuck, Scott! No!” He roared again, hot
anger spilling over into every cell of his body. He felt his skin vibrate, and
fur began to push through…

He couldn’t shift here. He forced the
animal
down,
focusing in his mind on Ash’s smiling
face, her tender kisses, her warm hands on his skin.

His humanity returned and he panted hard,
twisting to glare at his brother once more.

“This is on you, brother mine. You broke
this, you fix it! But know this. I will never forgive you if you don’t at least
try. She is our destiny, do you understand?
Ours
!
And if you let her go over this stupid bullshit, I’ll…”

Jack panted, running out of words as his
anger peaked once again.

“You’ll what, Jack?”

Scott’s words were soft in the room, and
Jack marched over to the exit and wrenched open the steel door.

He turned around so he could leave his
parting shot, angry snarls punctuating the words.

“I’ll slit my own fucking throat and leave
you alone in your misery.”

He slammed the door behind him and clenched
his fists as he stormed out of the large building and into the sunshine. Jack
cried out and closed his eyes, letting the heat and light filter through his
skin and inside his soul.

He always tried to put his best face first.
He got the most out of every situation because he wanted to, and found it easy
to smile even in the worst situations.

But this was fucked up!

“
Gah
!”
He started running, pumping his arms as
fast as he could by his side. He desperately needed to shift into his animal
form. His heart pumped as he weaved through the car park and made his way to
the forest a few blocks away.

He hated that he had to count on not just one
person but two for his happiness. It left him powerless and totally out of
control. Which were two things he swore he’d never allow himself to
be.

****

Scott lifted his trembling hand, mentally
fighting the intense urge he had to run. He knocked on the intricately carved
wooden door, hard.

Oh
fuck, oh fuck.

His heart was thundering in his chest, and
his brain was tearing him apart. There were so many different thoughts and
emotions running through him that he felt like a ping pong ball in an Olympic
match. His base instincts wanted him to turn and run, yet a stronger, more
primal force made him stay planted firmly in place.

He had to do this for his brother.

The door swung open and his younger cousin
greeted him with a smile.

“Hey, Scott, how you
doing?”

Scott nodded and waited, but Tyler didn’t
invite him in. Instead he crossed his arms over his chest and raised his
eyebrows.

Great,
so I’ve
gotta
go through you too? Like this isn’t
hard enough.

“Pretty good, Ty, how are you?”

Tyler
laughed,
the
sound so vibrant it almost brought tears to Scott’s eyes. He wanted to feel
that way. To be able to make a sound that was so strong and carefree.

“Bloody awesome,
actually.
Married life
definitely suits us.”

He grinned and again Scott felt a stab to
the heart. Was this really possible for them? He cleared his throat and
indicated inside Tyler and Brandon’s house.

“Is Ashleigh here?”

Tyler cocked his head, studying him for a
moment before nodding. “Yeah, she is.”

Good, then Jack had been right.

Scott waited for the invitation to come
inside, but his cousin just stared at him.

His belly jumped and his heart beat a
little faster. It’d been so long since he fought for something,
anything, that
actually mattered. And no matter what he
tried to tell himself and the rest of the world, Ashleigh mattered.

“I need to see her, Ty. Can I come in?”

Tyler stepped back and made a waving
motion.

“Of course.
Come on in.”

Scott stepped through and gave his cousin a
playful shove. “What’s with the bodyguard treatment?”

Tyler punched him back and chuckled. “I’m
the easy one. You have to get past my wife next.”

Scott stopped and looked down the hall with
a nervous smile. “Are you serious?”

Tyler pushed at him. “Yep, and you think
we’re the lions? Ha! You haven’t seen a mate protecting her family yet.”

“Oh shit.” Scott’s heart fell as he trudged
along the hallway. His mother had always been pretty fierce when it came to her
husband and children; would Laura be the same? The answer to that was in the
slightly evil sounding chuckle he heard behind him.

He stepped into the modern kitchen and saw
Ash sitting with her cousin, drinking something from a mug. His spine
straightened as he stared at her. A wave of something quite primitive, similar
to possession, passed over him.

Would Ash be like Laura, and his mother?
Would she attack to protect those she loved? Like a true woman and alpha female
would. That would mean she was the complete opposite of his ex-wife, who chose
to tear him down any time she was able.

Both women turned toward him and he stopped
walking, pinned by the pain in the depths of Ash’s blue eyes.

“Hi.”

A smile trembled on her lips. “Hey there,
Mr. I-turn-into-a-lion
.”

Scott’s mouth turned up into a grin, unable
to stifle it when he heard the teasing tone behind her words. Whatever he’d
prepared himself for, this wasn’t
it.

“I came over to check on you and explain.
I’m so sorry we didn’t tell you earlier, and you were forced to find out like
that.”

Her face fell and she glared at him, that
strength and fire he loved about her returning. “You mean before your bitch of
a daughter came in ranting and raving and got so mad she made all three of you
shift?”

Scott’s cheeks heated and he clenched his
teeth as he struggled not to jump on Ash for calling his daughter a bitch. She
deserved it for how she’d behaved. Meaghan was a manipulative miniature version
of her mother, but it still cut him deep to have someone insult his daughter.

“Ah, yes. We should have explained it
before any of that.”

Laura stood up and glared at him. “You both
handled the whole thing badly, Scott. I expected better from you and Jack.”

Scott raised his eyebrows. She barely knew
him. Who was she to judge him? He ignored her comment and continued to address
Ashleigh.

“And I’m very sorry, but children, teenage
daughters especially, are very temperamental.”

Both Laura and Ash grumbled and he took a
deep breath in through his nose. That wasn’t the important point here.

“Ash, can we go somewhere private and talk,
or can I take you out for dinner?”

Laura’s hand slid over to Ash’s and she
glared at him. “No, she’s staying here until we’re sure she’s safe with you
guys. I know you’ve had your fair share of shit, Scott, but Ash isn’t strong
enough to deal with it at the moment.”

Ash interrupted her cousin. “Stop, Laura,
it’s
okay…”

“No!” Laura used that stern expression to
make Ash stop talking before returning her hard gaze to him.

“Ash just escaped a poisonous environment
with her ex-husband, and I won’t let you subject her to an even worse one. If
you can’t be honest, or control that family of yours, then perfect pair or not,
you need to back off until you can.”

Oh
fuck. This is so much worse than I first thought.

He was so used to ignoring Meaghan’s
teenage
tantrums,
he hadn’t even considered the effect
her outburst would have had on Ashleigh. He’d hoped it would be as simple as
apologizing about the shifter thing, then taking her home to Jack.

Ash finally lifted her eyes to his and for
the first time he saw the fragility of his mate. He hadn’t asked much about her
past, and guilt hit him like a punch to the gut. He’d been so focused on his
own
scars,
he hadn’t even considered that she’d have
some of her own.

“I’m ready to be completely honest with
you, Ash. Please give me a chance to explain everything to you.”

He held out his hand and waited, his arm
trembling with fear as adrenaline pumped through his system.

Ash stood and moved over to him. Relief
flowed over him like a warm shower.

“Ashleigh, you know you don’t have to talk
to him alone. You can take Brandon if you want. He’s in the garage.”

Brandon?
Seriously?
He was insulted! As if he was going to hurt his mate.

He growled a little at Laura, and Ash
squeezed his hand. “It’s all cool, Laura. You told me they wouldn’t hurt me
even in lion form, yeah?”

Laura nodded with a begrudging look on her
face.

“Well, you can use the backyard if you
want. There’s a table and chairs out there.”

Scott inhaled through his nose and nodded
sharply at his cousin’s wife. He wasn’t sure he should speak at the moment. His
tone would give away his feeling toward Laura a little too obviously.

“Come on, Scott.”

Ash tugged his hand and they were soon out
in the warm air.

Scott took a deep breath and let his
shoulders slump.

“I can’t believe she was going to send
Brandon out to chaperon us, for fuck’s sake!”

Ash chuckled and dropped into one of the
padded outdoor chairs.

“What’s wrong? Couldn’t take him in a
fight?”

Scott growled again, his lion ready for
anything.

“At the moment, I think I could.”

She laughed again and patted the seat next
to her. “But he’s the brawn of his pair and you’re the brains of yours. I’d
expect you to work out a way to get out of it without using your fists.”

Scott bent over and grabbed Ash’s face,
kissing her hard and fast.

“We have lots of similarities too.”

He fell into the chair next to her, his
hormones raging, his breathing fast and erratic. He still felt so confused. One
moment he’d convinced himself he was just getting her back for Jack,
then
he couldn’t help grabbing her and acting possessive and
needy.

“You okay?” Ash’s gentle voice and soft
hand on his arm cleared his mind, and he automatically focused on her.

“I really am sorry about Meaghan, Ash. Her
mother uses her like a puppet to do her dirty work. It’s a horrible situation.”

Ash nodded and smiled gently. “Yes, I can
imagine it is, and it’s a situation I’m not sure I want to be forced into the
middle of.”

Pardon?

Scott cocked his head to the side, his
belly jumping as she spoke. “What do you mean?”

Ash withdrew her hand from his, and he
almost cried out as he felt a wall come down between them. What the fuck was
happening here?

“I think I can handle the shifting thing.
Laura’s explained it, and it doesn’t seem like such a big deal now that I’ve
had time to get over the initial shock of it.”

So what was the problem, then?

Ash bit her lip and looked away, her
generous mouth pulling down on one side.

“But this blended family thing is going to
be so hard to live with.”

She sounded so defeated. His heart, which
had just begun to settle down, surged up into a higher gear once again. She
couldn’t break their connection due to his children, surely? She hadn’t even
met them all yet!

“We don’t have to blend anything, really.
Jack and I will look after our children when we have to, and we’ll focus on you
the rest of the time.”

Now that he thought about
it, that
would be the perfect solution. With him and Jack,
one of them would always be with Ash. He could still have everything he needed.
Maybe it really was possible to make it work, and he wouldn’t necessarily have
to live with her and Jack. He could just visit, or maybe build something
nearby. They could work out a balance for everyone to be happy, surely?