The Beast Within (5 page)

A
t the look on Scarborough’s face, Liv felt the fear slam into her like a gale-force wind.

“What?” she said stupidly, even as she dropped her feet to the floor.

This wasn’t going to go well.

How could he know about Sebastian? There was obviously a lot she didn’t know about werewolf abilities.

“He’s not dead, is he? He’s not dead, and you fucked him. I can smell him on you!” Scarborough grabbed her arm and shook her. “Answer me.”

She shot up off the couch and stumbled backward, tripping over the coffee table. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You told me Sebastian just skipped town. Why would he be dead?”

“Don’t be cute.” Scarborough stood up slowly, his hands curled into fists. “You know everything, don’t you?”

Though the power of his presence, his height, the strength of his arms, the broadness of his shoulders intimidated her, Liv didn’t want to cower. Now she knew the whole truth, and it wasn’t a pretty one. Scarborough had played her for a total fool, and none of his affection for her had been real.

“Yes. I know that I’m a werewolf too, and you didn’t bother to tell me. I know you lied to me about Sebastian. That you tried to kill him.” She started to back up slowly, wanting distance between them.

“Is that what he told you? Very interesting, and very pathetic on your part.” Scarborough shook his head in disgust. “He just walked back into your life and you fell for his lies, and let him right back into your pants.”

He was the one lying, she knew that. She trusted Sebastian.

But it still hurt when Scarborough said, “You’re blind, Liv. Totally blind. How long are you going to let him keep screwing you? What’s in it for you? I’d bet this house he still didn’t ask you to marry him.”

He hadn’t. But they had talked about a future together. It was implied. She knew that.

But anything she said was going to sound stupid and defensive. So she just tilted her chin up and said, “I’m not going to discuss this with you if you’re going to talk to me like that. I appreciated at the time that you helped me out and were a friend to me when Sebastian disappeared, but the truth is, I never would have needed that if you hadn’t betrayed your own brother. So I owe you nothing. No thanks and no explanations.”

He gave a short laugh. “So you’re going to stand by your piece-of-shit man, is that it? Well, more power to you, honey. Enjoy a miserable life in poverty with an unemployed man who will never commit to you.”

Liv just turned on her heel and headed for the door, not wanting him to see that he knew how to hit on all her worst insecurities. She craved commitment, a permanency, had a neediness about her because she’d lost her parents so young. She knew that. Which was why she was going to be content with whatever Sebastian offered her. If it was genuine and with love, which she knew it was, then her insecurities had no business forcing him into something he didn’t need or want.

“Why are you wearing shoes in the house at eight in the morning?” he asked.

Liv didn’t answer, just kept walking, grateful she did have shoes on. She wouldn’t have to pause when she went through the door and got the hell out.

“I guess I should be glad you fucked him somewhere other than my own bed.”

She couldn’t help it. She reacted, pausing, her shoulders giving an involuntary jerk.

“Oh, you bitch,” he breathed from right behind her, his voice shaking with fury.

Liv walked faster. Scarborough grabbed her arm and drew her up short. Shocked at the rough grip of his hand on her arm as he forced her to turn and face him, Liv yelled, “Let go of me!”

“Not until you give me a piece of the ass you keep letting my brother have so willingly.”

Bile rose in her throat. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, I’m very serious.” Scarborough yanked her purse out of her hand and tossed it fifteen feet back into the family room. “Were your keys in there? Why don’t you bend over and get them?”

Disgust and fear swept over her, turning her skin clammy, and a hot anxiety rose in her mouth. She didn’t know what to do. If she went for her purse, she would be nowhere near a door, and he would have her on the ground in a minute. There was no way she could fend him off if he truly wanted to rape her.

Her fear was amusing him. A sick smile was smeared across his face.

“Not your first choice? You know, you’re right. I’d actually like to see your face when I’m fucking you. Back up against that wall.”

Without further thought beyond the immediate desperate urge to get away from him, Liv backed up, then turned and ran, hurling the door to the garage open and darting through it. She tried to pull it closed behind her, but she just managed to hit him in the shoulder with it. Sprinting across the concrete, she expected to feel him grabbing on to her, but a glance back showed he was just standing in the door.

Maybe he hadn’t been serious. Maybe it had just been a sick mind game.

“Go ahead and run,” he told her, his voice hard and cold. “I like the chase. And you know I always get what I want.”

She did know that about him.

And she also saw that as she left the garage he was shifting to wolf.

Her first thought was to run down the driveway to the main road. A car was bound to pass in a minute or two. But then that car could very well just be Scarborough. A glance at the woods as she ran across the grass showed her a lone wolf standing on the edge of the tree line. It was too far away to see who it was, but she veered towards him. If it was Sebastian, she had to assume that, angry with her or not, he would protect her. If it was one of their cousins, she would pray for the same.

But then as she got to the edge of the woods, ten feet from the wolf, she realized there were three more with the first, none of them recognizable to her in wolf form. She just knew they weren’t Sebastian.

A glance behind her showed Scarborough running effortlessly behind her, keeping pace about twenty feet back.

She didn’t know what the wolves could understand, having no real memory of being one herself, so she just ran past them yelling, “Help me!” hoping they would understand.

Then her dream popped into her head as she leapt over brush and a fallen log, her lungs already straining with the effort of running as fast as she could. The cold and the wind slashed her cheeks as she remembered standing in the woods in her dream, facing down the dark wolf with the angry eyes.

While the others simply watched.

Scarborough was the dark wolf.

She was truly alone. No one was going to help her.

Slowing down, she realized for the first time in her life, that being alone wasn’t the enemy. Fear was.

Liv halted her steps. Whirling on one foot, she turned and confronted Scarborough.

He drew up short, obviously surprised that she had stopped running. Back twenty or thirty feet were the other wolves, moving warily as they watched.

No Sebastian.

“Go ahead,” she told Scar. “Rape me, kill me, do whatever you want. But I’m going to fight you. And I’m going to spit in your face while you do it.”

Scarborough stared at her, his dark eyes flashing, his teeth baring, a low growl deep in his throat causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end.

But she refused to let that stop her. She couldn’t outrun him. At least she was going to have some dignity and go down letting him see the disgust on her face and the hatred in her eyes. She leaned over and picked up a stick and threw it at him.

He jumped out of the way, but it still clipped his back.

“Just do it!” she screamed.

Watching him hunch down low, she knew he was going to spring, that he would be on her in seconds and then it would all be over. Liv narrowed her eyes and focused on his canine teeth to steady herself.

Her own teeth hurt, her fingers tingled, her legs twitched.

And right as Scarborough sailed through the air and landed on her, Liv realized she was in wolf form.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but instinct sent her straight for his throat.

Sebastian knew something was wrong the second he reached the house. Both Scarborough and Liv’s cars were in the garage, and the door was open. He was still in wolf form and he headed for the woods, picking up the scent of the entire pack immediately, including Scar.

He also smelled the sickly sweet smell of Liv’s fear.

Damn it. Why the hell hadn’t she stayed at his condo like he’d meant for her to do?

Of course, he hadn’t really told her that. He’d been so angry, his shift immanent, that he hadn’t communicated anything to Liv at all. She had probably been wondering what he was doing.

And now she was in danger, and if anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.

He got to the woods in time to see Liv shift and meet Scar’s charge head-on.

Jesus.

She could never overpower Scarborough, and Sebastian’s adrenaline pushed him faster. This was not a fight for domination. He could see from his brother’s stance and blows that he intended to kill.

Liv got in a good bite on Scarborough’s throat before he knocked her to the ground. The yelp of pain she gave infuriated Sebastian. He jumped, landing on his brother’s side, shoving him off Liv and tumbling to the ground with him.

He had the element of surprise. His brother didn’t immediately react, and Sebastian pinned him and went for the throat. They locked eyes, brother on brother, and for a split second, Sebastian thought about showing him some kind of mercy. Banishment. Retribution.

But then Scarborough slashed his claws across Sebastian’s face, his own a mask of fury and hatred.

The pain was jarring, but minor compared to the revelation that his brother would try to kill him again. He would keep trying over and over. He hated Sebastian that much, wanted power that perversely, and maybe someday he would succeed.

So without allowing himself time for further hesitation, Sebastian bared his teeth and went in for the kill.

Liv lay on the ground naked and shivering, watching the other wolves tentatively move around Scarborough’s body.

Sebastian had killed Scarborough. He had saved her from certain death.

She had almost died, and then had watched in total fear and panic as the man she loved had been locked in battle. Now it was over, and she had shifted back to human without even being aware of what she was doing.

Sebastian had moved away from the body, to the edge of the river, the very river in which his brother had tossed him six months earlier, and sat on his haunches. He gave a low, mournful howl, the sound wafting over Liv and settling into her bones like the coldest winter wind.

When she glanced back at Scar, she saw that in death his body had shifted back to man. One by one the cousins shifted, and Liv was too shocked to even think about the fact that they were all as naked as she was. But Nick had a duffel bag behind the trees, and he was dressed again in under two minutes, before silently tossing her a long sweatshirt.

She caught it, tugging it on, forcing herself to stand up. Nick was dressing Scarborough’s body with the help of his brother Jackson, and she couldn’t watch. It was too appalling. The remnants of her clothes were scattered over several feet, and her jeans were torn, but she slipped into them anyway. Her boots had holes in the feet, but she put those on too, needing a barrier against the wind, and maybe against what had just happened. She walked gingerly over to where Sebastian was sitting by the water.

The air was crisp and clear, the river gurgling busily along, the smell of the water clean and pure.

Liv sat down next to him, hugging her knees to her chest, searching for the words she needed to say to him. In the end she simply said, “Thank you for saving my life.”

Tiny fish hurried through the water with a vast sense of purpose and she focused on them, unable to look at Sebastian. She knew he was shifting back to human, felt the movement, sensed…something. The wolf that clearly lived in her had instincts she’d never even been aware of before. Didn’t know how to use.

But even after she could see Sebastian’s feet out of the corner of her eye, he still didn’t speak. Liv took a deep breath, tried to quiet her mind, slow down her racing heart, stop the trembling in her fingers.

Then suddenly his hand was in hers, warm and strong and comforting.

The tears sprang up and she looked at him. “I’m sorry about the wedding. I understand if you don’t want to be with me. I do. And I’ll be fine, honestly. I think for the first time in my life I have come to terms with being alone. I’m just asking for you or Nick or somebody to help me understand how to handle the change…what to expect.”

She would be okay. She actually believed that.

But Sebastian took their entwined hands and kissed her fingers one by one. “You don’t have to be alone. Liv, I was never angry at you. I was angry at Scarborough, at the situation, at the thought of you sharing a life with another man, a life that should have been mine. I was angry with myself for not being the one to ask you to be my wife.”

The tears she’d managed to contain spilled over, trailing down her cheeks. “Maybe it’s time to just let some of that anger go, for all of us.”

“I agree. And I hope that you’ll be willing to come home with me.”

She wanted to be with him more than anything, wanted the chance to pick up the pieces of their lives, together. She nodded. “Of course.”

“Then let’s deal with this and be on our way.” Sebastian leaned forward and kissed her hard. “God, Liv, when I saw the two of you fighting like that…I would have died if something had happened to you.”

Liv felt him shudder and she slid her hands around him and lightly caressed his back. “But it didn’t. It’s fine. Everything is going to be fine.”

He gave a hard nod. “It is. Because I love you and always will.”

“I love you too.” More than there could ever be words to express.

T
he bride stepped out of the building into the moonlight, a smile of happiness on her face. She was a few years older, her gown one of greater sophistication than what she’d worn at her first wedding. Her groom was dark-haired and handsome, his hand tenderly on the small of her back, his expression one of adoration.

The evening air smelled like spring, dewy and fresh, with a damp chill in it. The grass was soggy, but the bride merely laughed and fell into the groom’s arms as he danced with her in wide sweeping circles. The guests watched and clapped and laughed and chatted, until one by one they wandered off, leaving the bride and her groom alone.

When he kissed her, man to wife, the howling rose up in the distance.

It didn’t bring the fear it had on her first wedding night.

It brought the comfort of being in the arms of the man she loved while family, their pack, expressed their approval to the moon in the woods around them.

Liv woke up slowly, the contentment of the dream lingering, making her sigh in pleasure as she rolled over and reached for Sebastian. The bride, Liv’s great-grandmother, had been happy with her groom, her new life, and that was reassuring to see.

It was Liv’s wedding day now.

It was spring, just like it was for the bride’s special day in her dream.

A new beginning for both of them.

Sebastian stirred a little, reaching to wrap his arm around her, his eyes still closed. “Happy wedding day,” he murmured.

Liv snuggled against his warm chest. Sebastian had proposed right after Scarborough had died, after they had dealt with all the logistics of telling the police they had all been fishing and Scarborough had been attacked by a wolf. That had been six months earlier, and while life as a werewolf has taken some adjustment, Liv was truly and blissfully happy.

“It’s going to be a beautiful day.” The timing was right. It felt like everything had come full circle. A year earlier she had been mourning his disappearance, now she had Sebastian forever.

“And you’re a beautiful bride.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t have spent the night apart last night?” Liv asked, even as she dropped a little kiss on his shoulder. “It seems weird to wake up together on our wedding day.”

His eyes opened and he pulled her on top of him, giving her a deep, long, satisfying kiss. “If we’d spent the night apart, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

A little shift of her hips, and he was deep inside her.

Liv sighed in pleasure, still relaxed and sleepy, his body hard and solid beneath her. “That’s very true,” she breathed.

They moved together in a lazy, slow rhythm, her nipples brushing against his chest. Everything felt warm and snuggly and sexy, her heart filled with love, her body responding instantly to him as it always did.

When she had a delicious and long orgasm, her hips spread wide over him, Liv stared into Sebastian’s eyes.

“I can’t wait until you’re my wife,” he said, pumping a little more frantically inside her.

“Me, either. Just a few more hours.” She clenched her muscles around him. “So I guess that was my last single-lady orgasm. It was a good one.”

His eyebrows shot up. “We still have a whole hour until we have to be anywhere. I think you have another orgasm or two in you.”

She laughed. “I wasn’t trying to challenge you.”

But he got serious. “I’ll always do whatever I can to make you happy.”

Her heart swelled at his sincere expression. “I am happy.”

She was. Every minute with him.

As happy as a bride on her wedding day.