ChangingPaths (13 page)

“Gareth! For what it’s worth now, I am sorry. I am so sorry.”

Still shaking his head, Gareth started running. He wanted to
shift but didn’t want to stop. This would have to do. Running down the drive
and toward the main road, he felt the cold air stealing his breath and told
himself it was the icy chill that caused his heart to hitch. He kept telling
himself that even as the tears filled his good eye and everything became
blurry. He had lost his sight and his brother all because of some crazy fucking
Alpha’s need to amuse himself. He knew, from Micah and from Micah’s friend
Slade, that Curtis was dead. He wished now that he wasn’t so they could go back
to New Orleans and kill him.

“What just happened?” Kaj looked hard at the younger wolf
standing on the porch with his head hanging. Rion lifted his head and turned to
face both Kaj and Micah.

“We just found out that we’ve been harboring hatred for one
another for the last seven years for no reason. Curtis set us against each
other for his own amusement. If I hadn’t heard he was already dead I’d be on
the next flight to New Orleans to kill him myself.”

Kaj pulled Rion close, patting his back even as he looked
toward Micah. “Will Gareth be all right?”

Micah nodded. “I think so. It will take him some time to
think about all of this. I often wondered about Curtis. I know he wanted me
away from his Pack because he thought I would challenge him at one time. He
stepped down before Slade could challenge him and died soon after. I wonder how
many other lives Curtis ruined for his own amusement. And that bitch Maggie. I
thought Slade and I were the only ones she’d fucked with. I never knew the full
truth about the extent of Gareth’s injuries.”

They went back inside, closing the door against the cold
air. Kaj glanced back at the front door and wondered if he shouldn’t follow
Gareth. A look at his brother’s face set in cold anger decided him. Rion might
need to talk and he probably wouldn’t do so just to Micah. The anger might not
be directed at either of them, but his brother was a scary mother at times.
Time to put the diplomat’s face back on and hear Rion out.

The three men entered the huge living room and Micah went
straight to the bar in the corner. Kaj led Rion toward one of the big leather
couches and they sat down, Rion with a heavy sigh. Kaj looked up as Micah
joined them, handing each of them a short glass with a lovely amber liquid
inside. Kaj smiled as he realized Micah had remembered his fondness for Irish
whiskey.

Saluting both his brother and the dejected Rion next to him,
Kaj drank, enjoying the burn. Setting his nearly empty glass aside, Kaj waited
for Micah to sit then turned to Rion.

Every shifter in their family had a special gift because they
were all shamans in some way. Kaj rarely used his gift, but now might be a good
time for it. He lowered his voice slightly and put all the persuasion at his
command into it. The voice was one reason he acted as messenger between the
shifter communities. He could diffuse some situations or start others with just
the timbre of his voice. “Okay, spill it, brother wolf. Tell me a story. Tell
me
your
story.”

Rion took a deep breath and started talking. He told Kaj and
Micah how he and Gareth had left home as teens, how they’d roamed all over and
ended up in New Orleans. He told them how Gareth had been the one to suggest
they stay in New Orleans, joining that Pack for a while.

“I had my doubts. There was something wrong with Curtis
Melançon, something smelled off about him. But,” Rion paused to take another
sip of the excellent whiskey. “Gareth was ready to stop traveling, so we
stayed.”

Rion took them through the short six-month stay before their
twenty-fifth birthday, including the fight shortly after that. Rion even
removed his shirt at Micah’s request to show them the scars he bore from that
fight. At Micah’s sigh Kaj poured the rest of his alcohol into Rion’s glass
then urged him to drink. Micah did the same as Rion told them how he’d gone
home and how neither he nor his mom had even known that Gareth had been
blinded.

“He never came home. He never even tried. Curtis said he
didn’t want to come home. We respected that. We never went after him. We didn’t
know, how could we have known that he was so badly hurt?”

Kaj had no answer and apparently neither did Micah. Knowing
his brother, Kaj understood that had Curtis still been alive, neither of the
two younger wolves would have to take revenge on him. Kaj also knew that Micah
would have gone to New Orleans, challenged him and killed him. Only then would
he have tried to figure out how in the hell he could be Alpha for two Packs so
far apart geographically.

Rising silently, he moved to the bar and grabbed the bottle
of whiskey. Only as he turned to rejoin the others did he see Olivia standing
just outside the door. Apparently she’d heard the majority of Rion’s story
because the tears poured down her face. The look in her eyes told him that she
would help his brother when Micah came to her later.

And he had no doubt that Micah would remember all that was
good in Olivia’s embrace. He only hoped that Rion and Gareth could come to some
understanding, that maybe they could forgive each other and put the blame where
it really lay. On a crazy, sick, uncaring bastard wolf who did not deserve to
even be thought of as an Alpha.

Kaj nodded to Olivia and rejoined the others, pouring Rion
another healthy shot and getting him to talk again. Catching his brother’s eye,
he communicated silently with him.
Micah, go to your wife and babes. I will
stay with Rion and keep him talking. Tomorrow we may need to arrange for the
twins to be together again. But for tonight I think Rion needs to get drunk
enough to forget for a while and sleep on the couch.

Micah responded.
You are right, Brother. Thank you for
taking care of him. I think there will be ample opportunity over the next week
to get them together. Perhaps it might be a good thing for Rion to assist in
teaching the youngsters. That will provide them an opportunity to bond, perhaps
to remember their family ties and the way things were before they even went to
New Orleans.

Good plan. Now go to your mate. You need her.
Kaj
winked at his brother.

Yes, Kaj. I do. And I hope that one day you will need
someone as much as I do my Olivia. Put Rion in the first room on the second
floor or Olivia will have my hide for letting a guest sleep on the couch. You
can take your pick of any of the other rooms, we have no guests right now.

Kaj gave a nod as he reminded his brother,
I would have
to give up my mission as messenger in order to settle down as you have, Micah,
and I have no plans to do that any time soon.

With a nod Micah left the room and Kaj turned his attention
back to Rion. Though shifters rarely got drunk enough to pass out they could
get inebriated enough to forget some of their troubles. Tonight he planned to
see just how far he’d have to go to get Rion to that stage. Sighing, he filled
their glasses and saluted the ceiling knowing his brother would be joining
Olivia in their private apartment on the third floor where, no doubt, Micah
would soon be losing himself in his lovely mate. Kaj tossed back his drink. As
soon as Rion took a sip Kaj filled that shifter’s glass again.

Gareth stood gasping on the side of the road, still
processing everything he’d just learned. Rion had been badly injured in their
fight. Rion had been told that he had lost the fight and that the other Pack
members would keep Gareth from killing him. Gareth had lost his eyesight having
had been told pretty much the same thing. But they’d told him he’d need to
leave to be safe from Rion. They’d been violently separated from each other and
then kept apart. Now he knew why his mother had taken Rion’s side.

When Gareth called her after their fight, she hadn’t given
him much opportunity to say anything, simply berating him for nearly killing
his brother. Now her words took on a whole new meaning. She hadn’t known, Rion
hadn’t known how badly he himself had been hurt. They hadn’t known he was
permanently blinded, permanently scarred. Just as he hadn’t known how bad Rion’s
injuries were. He growled at the memory of those vicious marks on his twin’s
chest.

He’d cut himself off from his remaining family for no reason
other than pride. And, he had to admit, being stupid enough to be so easily
manipulated by Curtis. Walking now, he stopped at the turnoff to his own place.
He weighed his options. Go home, sit in the cold, nearly bare living room and
feel sorry for himself. Turn around and go back to the lodge to face his
brother again. The third choice open to him caused his breath to hitch again.

He could go to Harmony.

He could forget himself in her. At least for now he could
put it all aside while she let him make love to her. Feel her body move against
his. Remember pleasure and not pain, not fear, not anger.

With a heavy heart and slow steps he took the shortcut
through the woods to her place. He wanted, no, he needed her softness, her
warmth.

Tom lowered the rifle and sneered at the back of the man
walking away from him. He could have ended the bastard’s miserable existence
right then, especially since he knew that goddamned shifter had fucked his
wife. Hadn’t he watched the two of them going at it just the other night? He’d
had to wait until the wind shifted but he’d gotten close enough to see that
asshole ramming his hard cock into her. Her!

That bitch is mine.
The thought sang through Tom’s
head. His own dick stiffened at the memory of watching the pair screw like the
animals they were. He could put a bullet in the white wolf shifter’s back right
this minute. But the timing wasn’t right. If he gave in to that desire, he knew
the mangy Alpha would go on high alert. He’d sic his mutt wolves on any
stranger then. No, Tom couldn’t act against that damn shifter who was fucking
his wife. First he had to take Rain and Harmony away from all these fucking
furries.

Tom lost his hard-on. God, he wanted to just lay that
motherfucker out in the path then piss on him. He laughed softly, thinking
about letting loose a stream on the man. Maybe he’d shoot him in the knee first
then wipe his wet dick off on him. Let him know he’d been killed by a better
person. Then he’d kill the shifter in front of both Harmony and Rain. Teach
them a lesson. Show them who was in charge of their household. Who they owed
their loyalty to. That got his dick stiff again.

He thought about his wife moaning under that asshole. How
she made sounds she’d never made in their marriage bed. He let his anger burn
through him as he rubbed his cock. Need rose in him but he shoved it down. It
was crazy to jack off out here where anyone could see him. He kept his hand
over the bulge in his pants though. Soon, he promised himself. Soon he’d have
her where she belonged. Under him with his dick ramming into her while she
screamed his name over and over.

Moving quietly, Tom headed back to the turnout where he’d
left his SUV. He might not be a fucking furry but he knew how to move through
the woods. They wouldn’t find him. The pack wouldn’t even know he’d been there
until he had his family. Then all they would find would be that useless shit of
a white wolf. And Tom would make sure the carcass stank of his piss. “Yeah,
I’ll scent mark that son of a bitch.”

He got to his vehicle with that one thought. As he put the
car into drive he unzipped himself. Easing his cock out, he smiled. He could
enjoy the ride back to his safe house. As he stroked himself, he crooned, “Soon,
my dear wife and daughter. Soon we’ll all be together again the way a family
should be. I can hardly wait.”

Catching sight of flashing lights in the rearview mirror, he
slapped a ball cap on his head with the brim pulled down then shoved his dick
back in. He watched as the sheriff’s car zipped past him.

“Assholes will never catch me.” Smoothly he pulled onto the
road while images of dead wolves danced through his thoughts.

Gareth stopped on the porch. He raised his hand to knock
then lowered it again. Did he really want to bring this load of shit to her
door? It wasn’t as if she didn’t already have enough to deal with.

Still…

He desperately wanted to be with someone who wanted him. She
fit that bill. She saw past the patch—past the scars on his face. Yet she still
wanted him. They’d talked for hours late into the night after they’d made love.
And that was what it was, making love. Not just sex. He’d had plenty of
opportunities to feel the difference.

With that foremost on his mind he knocked softly on the
door. He heard movement inside, then her voice. “Who is it?”

“Gareth.”

The door opened and there Harmony was, a smile on her face
and a cast-iron skillet in her hand. “Come on in.”

“You cooking this late?”

“Nope, haven’t you heard? This is the newest weapon in any
single woman’s arsenal. If she doesn’t have a gun, anyway. Nothing like a good
cast-iron skillet to the head.” She put her “weapon” on the small table just
inside the door and drew him inside. “It’s cold out there.”

“Truer words, babe, have never been spoken.” Wrapping his
arms around her, he put his forehead against hers. Her sweet honeysuckle scent
enveloped him, making his heart shudder even as his cock stirred. “Where’s
Rain?”

“At Willow’s. They had a movie night at the res council
house and some of the other girls were planning a sleepover there. Willow
talked them all into coming to her place instead.” She sighed deeply. “I’m glad
you’re here but are you okay? You look upset.”

“First, why are you here alone? Didn’t we agree that you’d
have someone with you until we find that crazy ex of yours?” Gareth frowned
down at her even though it meant he had to break their connection. And he
wanted to feel her head against his—no, needed to feel that skin-to-skin
contact.