Loving Lachlyn (Ashland Pride Two) (2 page)

Chapter 2

Thursday afternoon Lachlyn Manning parked in front of her grandmother’s house and looked at the impeccable flowerbeds, overflowing with colorful impatiens, pansies, and daylilies.  The house was empty, the windows dark.  Her grandmother had died the week before, and Lachlyn had just come from the lawyer’s office.  As the only living relative, it fell to her to pack up her grandmother’s things and settle the estate.  Her grandmother had lived simply and planned her estate impeccably, so the only thing that Lachlyn needed to do was decide which items she’d like to keep.  Afterward she would hand over the keys to the estate lawyer, who would handle selling the home and remaining belongings.

Lachlyn grew up in a were-bear den in the small town of Dory, Virginia.  When she turned sixteen and had been unable to shift, everyone had assumed that she was just a late bloomer and would come into her bear shift in time.  But one year passed, and then another.  By the time her nineteenth birthday rolled around, it was clear to everyone in her family that she was a shifting dud, unable to transform from her human self into her bear self.

The king of the bear den, Detroit, had a strict policy that bears who could not shift were to be turned away from the den.  Her mother had held hard to the hope that eventually Lachlyn would shift, that she just needed time.  But each month that passed by only further solidified in Lachlyn’s mind that she’d never know the joy that came from shifting.  And staying with the den and lying about her abilities was a sure way of inciting the king’s rage.  Detroit had a nasty temper and ruled with an iron fist.  Bears who went against him found themselves on the business end of his fist, and he was no male to be trifled with.  To protect her, and give her time to shift, her parents sent her away to college in Georgia, moving with her so that they could be together.  But her happiness was short lived, when her parents were killed in a car accident after their vehicle was struck head-on by a semi.

She’d stayed away from the den all these years, but now that her grandmother had died, Lachlyn returned to the den.  It was as good a time as any to formally leave the den, a task she hadn’t done before now.

Lachlyn opened the front door and walked inside.  The scent of her grandmother’s rose perfume nearly bowled her over and brought tears to her eyes.  The keys dropped from her fingers as tears slipped over her cheeks.  She frowned when she realized she hadn’t heard the keys hit the ground.

Turning around, she saw that the reason she hadn’t heard the keys hit the ground was because Jericho had caught them.  Jericho Knight, her friend and sometimes lover, stood behind her on the porch with the keys in his palm.

“Jericho?”  His name caught in her throat as she struggled to stop crying.  She hadn’t seen him in nearly a year, although they kept in touch by phone and email.  Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how much she missed him.

He pulled her into a hug, and she squeezed him back tightly.  He held her silently while she cried, until the wave of sorrow had passed and she could breathe again.  Jericho always made her feel better.  He was a balm for her soul.

His calloused fingertips lifted her chin, and he looked down at her with brown eyes surrounded with thick lashes.  “I’m sorry that Maggie is gone, Sunshine.”

“I’m glad you’re here, Jericho.”

They walked into the small home together, and he shut the door, hanging her keys on the small hook in the kitchen.

“I just got in from a den in Washington.”  He leaned on the laminate counter.  He towered over her five-foot-six frame by eight inches.  He was well built, with thick muscles and broad shoulders.  His dark brown hair was cut short, and stubble covered his jaw.

She leaned her elbows across from him on the counter and looked at him.  “Washington?”

His gaze shifted slightly, and she could tell that he’d been on unofficial business, not den business.  Jericho, Detroit’s only son, was what was referred to among bears as the king’s
hammer —
the bear who carried out the punishments the king doled out.  Detroit had no problem handing out his own punishments within the den, but he also used Jericho in his personal loan business.  Jericho had grown up fighting.  When they were younger, Detroit forced Jericho to fight against other young males in weekly fights.  It hadn’t surprised her when Jericho went to work for his father at his loan business as well as taking the position of
hammer
within the den, but it did frighten her.  She worried that some day he might come across someone who was a better fighter than him and lose.  Glancing at his biceps and big hands, she couldn’t imagine anyone much bigger than him, though.

“How long are you staying for, Sunshine?”

His voice brought her out of her lusty thoughts.  “Just for the night.  I’m allowed to pack up whatever is important to me that belonged to my grandma, and then the lawyer is going to sell the contents and house in a den-only auction. I hope it will sell.”

“I’m sure it will.  Are you sure —” Jericho stopped speaking when his cell beeped.  Giving her an apologetic look, he answered the call, stepping out onto the back porch.

She turned to the kitchen to look for her grandmother’s favorite coffee mug, leaving Jericho to his call.  She stole a few glances at him through the sliding backdoor, admiring the way his jeans hugged his ass.  His skin was tanned from the sun, giving him the appearance of a golden god.

They’d danced around each other for years.  They’d been joined at the hip as youngsters, came back to each other again and again in high school, and then he’d started disappearing on jobs for Detroit, and she saw less and less of him.  The times they were together had been wonderful, but things never seemed to gel quite right.  It always felt to her that something was missing, but she couldn’t imagine what it might be.  And at any rate, it had been a pipe dream to think that she might wind up mated to him.  He was next in line to be king.  His mate needed to be a she-bear who could rule with him, not a freak who couldn’t shift.

She found the mug on a low shelf in the cabinet next to the ancient coffee pot and held it in both hands.  A black outline of a bear and forest was emblazoned on the sand-colored mug.  Jericho came into the house as she shut the cabinet.

“Bad news?” she asked, judging from the look on his face.

“Yes and no.  My dad has asked me to run an errand for him now, and I won’t be back until tomorrow night.”

Her face fell.  She’d been disappointed when she arrived that morning to find he wasn’t around, and now to know he was leaving already filled her with sadness.  His big hands cupped her face.  “Don’t leave tomorrow until I come back, okay?  We need to talk.”

Her heart sped up.  “About what?”

She tried to squash the hope that bloomed inside her, but it was fruitless.  The part of herself that was a bear, however lacking in shifting ability she was, roared in approval.

“The future,” he said, his eyes darkening slightly.  “Promise.”

“I promise.”

He dropped a quick kiss to her mouth, stroked his thumb down her jaw, and abruptly left.  Her mind raced as she stood in the kitchen alone.  Did she dare to hope that the future Jericho wanted to speak with her about was a future involving her?  Although her heart desperately wanted to believe that Jericho could be with someone like her, she knew that Detroit would never allow it.  Jericho would be forced to choose between his family and her, and she could never ask him to do that.  No matter how much she really wanted it.  She would stay until he came back tomorrow night, and if he wanted to broach the subject of a mating between them, she would tell him that she couldn’t do it.  He deserved to be king bear.  He’d more than earned it.

Clutching the mug, she drifted back to her grandma’s bedroom and found the other items she wanted to keep:  a figurine of a bear, an embroidered pillow, and her grandma’s wedding ring.  Lachlyn slipped the simple gold band on her ring finger, and it was too big, so she tried it on her middle finger and it fit.  All her grandma had ever wanted for Lachlyn was for her to be happy.  Closing this last chapter of her past, Lachlyn could move on completely now.  She would rescind her membership of the bear den and return to her life in Georgia.  The only bright spot about her life in Georgia was her job as a library assistant at Fremont Junior High.  During her time at community college, she’d worked in the library part-time and had adored it.  She switched her major from business to library science and received her associate’s degree.

Her phone beeped, signaling an email, and she pulled it from her back pocket and opened the program.  It was a message from Leonitis, beta of the bear den, stating that the den was holding a celebration in her grandma’s honor, and she was expected to attend at seven p.m. that night at Detroit’s home.

She hadn’t expected a celebration for her grandma, but it would be a good opportunity to speak to Detroit about leaving.  She knew he had never really liked her friendship with Jericho.

Because she hadn’t planned to go to a party, she didn’t have anything dressy to wear.  Instead she changed into a pair of nice jeans and a short sleeved top.  She applied some makeup and brushed her long auburn hair until it shone.

When she opened the front door to leave for the celebration, she was surprised to see Leonitis and another bear, Klaymar, waiting in the driveway.  “Is something wrong?”

“Not at all, Lachlyn.  Detroit wanted us to bring you so that you didn’t have to drive by yourself,” Leonitis said.

Frowning, she wondered why he had chosen to do that.  It was strange.  But she knew that if she turned down the gesture from the king, then she ran the risk of pissing him off.

“Thanks,” she said as she smiled at the two men and closed the front door behind her.  Unease settled on her, but she shoved it aside, sitting in the backseat of a dark blue sedan while the two men sat in the front.  They didn’t say anything to her as they drove her to Detroit’s home.  The sky was darkening as the sun set, and when Klaymar opened her door, she could smell smoke and knew that a bonfire was burning nearby.  She might not be able to shift, but she had heightened senses of smell, sight, and hearing.

She followed the men around the house and into the backyard.  She froze when she saw that the only ones in the backyard around the bonfire were Detroit and two more male bears.  Klaymar’s and Leonitis’ hands latched onto her upper arms and pulled her forward, dragging her easily through the grass despite her struggles.  Something was definitely wrong here.  This was no celebration in her grandmother’s honor.

Klaymar and Leonitis shoved her down by her shoulders until she knelt at Detroit’s feet.  She tried to rise and run, but their hands remained clamped firmly on her flesh.

Detroit looked at her with narrowed eyes.  “My son told me the most disappointing thing today, Miss Manning.”

Lachlyn’s heart dropped into her stomach.  Had Jericho said something to him about her?  About them?

“It seems that he plans to leave the den.  Don’t think for a moment that I believe it has nothing to do with you.  In spite of my orders to the contrary, he seems intent on making you his mate.”  He squatted in front of her.  “I know all about you, Lachlyn, you worthless piece of trash.”

“Detroit, I —” she started, and he backhanded her so hard that her head snapped back and her teeth clacked together.  Whimpering at the taste of blood in her mouth, she struggled not to cry or throw up, both of which she very much wanted to do.

“You’ll do well to remember who you speak to,” Detroit growled.  He leaned forward and sniffed loudly and then he licked the corner of her mouth where she knew blood was seeping.  She jerked away, revolted, and he chuckled, rubbing her blood along his teeth and then licking it away.  “Bring me the prod.”

One of the men behind him handed him a long silver object that reminded her of a fluorescent tube, complete with prongs sticking out of one end.  Then her brain put together the object with the word
prod
and she knew she was looking at a cattle prod.

Detroit stood and took the object, testing its weight in his hand.  “Shift.”

“Wh-what?”  Lachlyn stuttered.

“I won’t repeat myself again.  Shift into your bear form.  Show me that I’m mistaken in believing that your parents hid you away from me all these years because you can’t shift.”

Her mind raced as she scrambled to come up with a reason not to shift.  “I won’t strip in front of you.  Let me go and I’ll pack my things and leave now.”  She would just contact Jericho and tell him what happened.  He was the only one who knew for certain that she couldn’t shift.  At least she
thought
he was the only one.

Leonitis pressed his mouth to her ear.  She cringed as his hot breath washed over her skin.  “You’ll do as the king commands, bitch.”

“No.”  Her voice sounded stronger than she felt.  This time it wasn’t Detroit’s hand that struck her, but Klaymar’s fingers that grabbed her throat and squeezed tightly.  She gasped for air, her hands flailing uselessly.  Her vision began to darken, and her lungs burned with the need for oxygen.  Just as she thought she might pass out, Klaymar’s hand loosened, and she fell onto her hands and knees on the grass, gasping for breath.

She felt a sharp jab in her shoulder, and electricity coursed through her body.  She screamed in pain and terror as her muscles spasmed.