Loving Lachlyn (Ashland Pride Two) (4 page)

Brio turned back and looked at her.  “Not unless you want your dad storming wherever you are and killing her or you, or both of you.  She’s just been shocked severely.  Her body couldn’t handle it, so she passed out.  Your dad’s a right fucking asshole for torturing an innocent female like this.”

Jericho stroked her forehead with his fingertips.  She looked so fragile.  “I think he was trying to force her to shift, or prove that she couldn’t.”

Brio hummed in his throat.  “So that’s why her parents took her away, huh?  You were torn up something fierce when she left.  Why didn’t you just leave the den then and go with her?”

Jericho sat back on his heels and let out a deep sigh.  “I can’t explain it.  It killed me to see her go, but things just never seemed completely right between us.  Almost like something was missing.  When I heard her grandma died, I decided that I didn’t care about that missing
whatever
anymore, and I was going to ask her to be my mate.”

Brio sat down heavily in a metal kitchen chair with a faded plastic cover.  His gray eyes were thoughtful.  “I suppose you were too young to remember much about your mother?”

“I was five when she was killed by that hunter.  I remember some things about her, but it’s fuzzy, distant.”

“Your mother was in a tri-mating.”

“What?  I never heard that before.”

Brio chuckled mirthlessly.  “Of course not, your dad engineered it that way.  Detroit had a half-brother named Farris.  They both met your mom at the same time, and the tri-bond was formed.  But Farris was older than your dad by a few months, and Detroit knew that when their father stepped down as king, Farris would take over.  If Farris took over, he could dissolve the tri-bond and
ekscluhde
your dad from the den.  So Detroit conspired to have him killed and make it look like an accident.  It was shortly after he died that Detroit’s father stepped down as king and Detroit took over.  He made it clear that if anyone challenged the accidental nature of Farris’ death, they’d be joining him in the grave, so we all looked the other way.  But your mom…she never got over it.  She wanted to leave your dad and take you away, and then she was killed.”

Jericho’s breath froze in his chest.  “Did he kill my mother?”

Brio’s face hardened, his gray eyes turning to steel.  “I never had any proof.  I wanted to avenge her death, but Detroit
ekscluhded
me from the den.”

“But you still helped me.”

“It was what your mom would have wanted.”  He cleared his throat and then said, “I think that the reason things didn’t ever feel right between you and Lachlyn is because you’re meant for a tri-mating.  You’re mates, Jericho, that much is clear to me.  But if the relationship between you never got out of that fuck-buddy stage, then it’s because you haven’t met her other mate.”

Jericho squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.  “Another mate?”

“Two males for one female.  Somewhere out there is the male that is meant to be her mate, the third part of your tri-mating.  When you find him, I’m betting that things will feel right between you all.”

Brio left him and opened a narrow closet, pulling out clothing and bags.  Jericho looked at Lachlyn’s still form, watching the rise and fall of her chest.  Was it possible?  Was the reason that he and Lachlyn had never connected more than they had because she needed two mates?  His bear rumbled in his mind, not caring as long as Lachlyn was his.  Theirs.  He’d never considered sharing a mate before, but looking down at Lachlyn’s beautiful face, he knew that he’d rather share her than never be part of her life.  If it was what she needed to be happy, then he would find a way to be okay with sharing her with another man.

Brio put a duffel bag on the Formica table and began shoving clothing into it.  “I don’t have any girl’s clothes, but some of this stuff should fit her.  Open the pantry and grab some snacks and drinks.”

Unsure of what Brio was doing, Jericho kissed Lachlyn on the forehead and did as requested.  Brio closed the duffel and handed Jericho a cell phone.  “This is prepaid, and no one has the number.  I picked it up awhile back but the damn thing doesn’t get service out here.  So take it and call me on my landline when you get where you’re going.  Take my camper.”  He flipped over an old receipt and scribbled on a piece of paper.  “There’s a campsite called Old Pirate Campgrounds about four hours from here, outside of Cincinnati.  Their office is open twenty-four hours.  I’ll call now and make a reservation.  Stay for the day, rest up, and then get back on the road.”

Jericho looked at the address of the campground in confusion.  “Get back on the road to where?”

Brio smacked him on the side of the head.  “To her uncle’s in Bracks, Indiana.  I’ll keep your truck stashed in the shed, and when the heat dies down, you can come back and get it.”

Jericho finally understood.  Picking up the duffel and the grocery bag, he followed his uncle out to the aging RV.  While Jericho loaded up the bags and carried Lachlyn into the tiny bedroom at the back and got her settled, Brio filled the gas tank with a gas can he kept in the shed for his lawn mower.

Jericho traded keys with Brio, leaving his truck keys there and taking the RV keys.  Pausing at the open driver’s door, he said, “If you can do it safely, Lachlyn had some things set aside from her grandma’s house that she wanted to keep.  The lawyer’s supposed to sell the place soon.  I don’t know what will happen to her things when that happens.”

“You bet.  Now get the hell out of here, Son.”

Jericho hugged his uncle, swamped with emotion.  It was pitch black when Jericho pulled away from his uncle’s home and headed towards the highway.  His mind raced over all that he had learned in a short time.  He’d always known about his dad’s dark side.  Jericho had gone on too many
errands
at his dad’s command that ended in people getting hurt.  But that was business.  Jericho always figured that if people were stupid enough to get involved with a psycho loan shark, then they deserved what they got for defaulting on loans.  But he hadn’t known that his dad’s dark side had touched his own life so dramatically, taking away his mother.

He glanced in the rearview to where Lachlyn was still unconscious, making a vow that he would keep her safe from his father.  That his own life had been so torn apart by his father’s jealousy over his mother’s second mate caused him to make a second promise.  To be accepting of the male who would hold Lachlyn’s heart and safety in his own hands as well.

He just hoped to hell that the male would be willing to share Lachlyn.

Chapter 4

Lachlyn rolled over and pain made her sit up quickly, gripping her throbbing shoulder.  She looked around in surprise.  The last thing she remembered was Detroit’s glee-filled face as he jabbed the cattle prod into her naked thigh.  But she wasn’t naked on the grass in Detroit’s backyard.  She was on a bed in what appeared to be an old camper.  Lifting up the blanket that was draped across her, she peeked at her body.  Yep.  Still naked.

Gingerly, she reached her hand to her aching shoulder and felt the edge of a bandage.  Someone had treated her wounds and taken her away from Detroit.  But who?

“Hello?” she called.  The door to the tiny bedroom was open, but she didn’t see anyone.  Sunlight streamed through the narrow windows in the bedroom and the camper wasn’t moving.

A door creaked and Jericho stepped inside.  “You’re awake!”  He smiled in relief, eating up the distance between them with long strides.  He stopped at the door.  “How do you feel?”

“Confused?”

He chuckled.  “We’re at a campground in Cincinnati.  Brio gave me the RV and helped me get away.”

Lachlyn knew his Uncle Brio and wasn’t surprised that he had helped Jericho.  “Your dad,” she started, unsure of what to say.

“I stopped him from hurting you further and
ekscluhded
us both from the den.  If you’re okay with it, we’re on our way to your uncle’s in Bracks.”

“Uncle Don?”  She looked at him in confusion and then looked at her fingertips.  Her index finger had a scab on it.  Jericho had drawn her blood for the
ekscluhsion.

Nodding, Jericho said, “He can offer us sanctuary until we decide where to go.”

Her heart began to pound in her chest.  “We?”

Jericho sat on the edge of the bed, his big body dwarfing hers.  He scrubbed a hand over his short, dark brown hair and sighed.  “I want you to be my mate, Lachlyn.  We’ve danced around each other for years.  It’s been long enough.”  He was staring straight ahead, not looking at her.  “I know I’m not enough for you, and I’ve accepted that.”

She scooted along the bed, groaning at her aching muscles and clutching the sheet to her body.  “You’re not enough for me?  What are you talking about?”

Her hand rested on his shoulder.  Even through the shirt he wore, she could feel the heat of his skin.  Male bears’ body temperatures were very warm.  His head turned slowly, until his dark brown eyes held hers.

“I think the reason that we’ve never mated before is because we’re part of a tri-mating.”  Before she could get over her surprise at his statement, he told her what Brio had shared about his mother and his thoughts on the reason she and Jericho hadn’t gotten together seriously in the past.

Sitting back on her heels, she exhaled a slow breath.  “I don’t know what to say.”

He shifted slightly, leaning on one hand.  Cupping her face with his large hand, he stroked his thumb over the curve of her upper lip.  “I don’t either.”

“I want you to be mine,” she said, feeling tears sting her eyes.

“I already am.”

She closed the distance between them, pressing her lips against his.  She’d kissed him a hundred times before.  A thousand times.  He was her first kiss.  But this kiss was different.  Life had changed now.  They were on the run from his dad.  They had no place to call home.  Their future was up in the air, but at that moment, with his wild, sweet scent filling her nose and the heat of his skin warming her, she didn’t care.  Jericho was hers and she was his.  She didn’t know what to make of his suggestion that they belonged in a tri-mating, but all that mattered at this point in time was that they were together.

Her tongue teased the seam of his mouth, and he groaned, pulling away from her mouth.  “You’re injured, love.  And we’re not sticking around too long.  I want to get back on the road.”  He kissed her once more and stood.  “Hungry?”

Nodding, she watched as he stood and moved back into the main area of the camper.  She scooted to the edge of the bed and stood slowly, muffling a groan through clenched teeth as the tender skin on her shoulder and thigh stretched and burned.

“Love?”

“I’m okay.  I just have to use the bathroom.”

“It’s the door on the right,” he said.

She gripped the doorframe for support and gathered the sheet around herself better and then opened the door to the miniscule bathroom.  The shower was scarcely big enough for one person.  A tiny toilet and sink took up the rest of the room.  She closed the door and dropped the sheet, looking at herself in the mirror.  Her cheek was dark from where Detroit had hit her, and the inside of her mouth felt a little tender.  She did heal quickly thanks to her bear genes, for which she was thankful.  Peeling up the edge of the bandage on her thigh, she looked at the mark.  Two puncture wounds the size of thick needles were in the center of a wide circle of burned skin.  Her stomach rolled as she remembered the agonizing pain of the electricity moving through her.

After pressing down the bandage, she splashed cold water on her face and tried to shove the images from her mind.  She didn’t know how long it would take to heal, and she didn’t know if she might wind up with scarring.  Bears who could shift were fortunate, because they could shift and heal most any wound.

After using the toilet, she covered herself in the sheet again and walked out into the open area of the camper that doubled as a kitchen and living room.  Jericho was digging through a cardboard box.  He said, “There are clothes in the duffel bag.  I’m sorry I didn’t have time to get your things from your grandma’s house.  Brio is going to grab them when the coast is clear and hold them at his place.”

“We could go to my apartment,” she offered, going to the duffel bag he gestured to that was on the couch.

“It wouldn’t be hard for my dad to figure out where you live down there, so it’s not any safer than staying at your grandma’s.  When we get to your uncle’s, you can call and make arrangements for your utilities and things until we figure out the next step.”

Everything was several sizes too big for her, along with being men’s clothing, but she couldn’t meet her uncle for the first time in three years wearing a sheet.  Slipping back into the bedroom, she pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.

She sat at the table while Jericho turned off a burner on the stove and lifted a pot, turning it sideways and filling up two coffee mugs.  He put them down on the table and sat across from her.  The scent of chicken soup filled her nose and she looked at the mug, finding it filled with broth and noodles.

He smiled sheepishly.  “I’m lucky there were mugs in here or we’d have been eating from the pot.”  He opened a box of saltines and handed her a soda, and they began to eat.

“I was outside checking the tires when you woke up.  This camper was built in 1987, so it’s got some years on it.  Brio used to take me out in the summer in it to go camping.”

“That’s sweet.  You’re lucky to have him in your life.”

“How long has it been since you’ve seen your uncle?” he asked, crushing several crackers and dropping them into the mug.

“About three years.  He and my Aunt Gwen came to my parents’ funeral, along with my Aunt Sarah.  Uncle Don told me that I could come up and join the den, but I didn’t want to go back and face your dad.  I was always afraid that he would try to force me to shift.  I guess I was right.”

“I’m sorry for what happened,” Jericho said.  “I should never have left you alone last night.”

She reached across the table and grabbed his hand.  “He was going to kill me and you saved my life.  You were the last thing I thought of before I blacked out.”

They finished eating in silence, and when the dishes were cleaned and put away, she joined him in the front, sitting in the passenger seat.  They started on their journey for her uncle’s, unsure of what lay ahead for them in Bracks.

* * * * *

Lachlyn jumped down from the camper and stretched with a groan.  She definitely wasn’t one for long drives.  Her back was cramping fiercely.  She joined Jericho in front of the camper, and they walked up the sidewalk of her Uncle Don’s house.  It was a sprawling ranch, with a manicured lawn, flowerbeds overflowing with colorful flowers, and a big wreath on the red front door.

Jericho knocked.  She hadn’t known her uncle’s phone number by memory, and her cell phone was back in her grandma’s house.  She hoped that someone was home.

The door swung open, and her Aunt Gwen gasped in surprise.  “Lach?  Is that you?”

Without waiting for a reply, her aunt pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her forehead.  Lachlyn winced as her aunt’s hand made contact with the wound on her back.

“Come in, come in!  What are you doing here?”

She introduced Jericho to her aunt and then said, “I’m in trouble.  I wanted to talk to you and Uncle Don.”

The front door shut, and her aunt tsked.  “He’s at work.  I’ll give him a call, and he can come home.”

“Oh, it can wait,” she protested, following her aunt into the homey kitchen decked out in red gingham.

“Nonsense!  He’s the fire chief, and he can do what he wants.  It’s one of the perks of being the boss.”  She winked, and picked up her cell, calling Don.  After a quick conversation, she set the phone back down and said, “He’ll be home in about ten minutes.  Now, I have to say, honey, that you look like you’ve been through the wringer.  Are you hungry?”

She definitely was and she knew that Jericho was as well.  The few things he’d been able to gather from Brio’s cupboards hadn’t lasted them long, and he didn’t have much cash on him after having to pay for the campsite for the day.

By the time Don got home, she and Jericho were eating homemade mac and cheese with ham and Swiss sandwiches.  Lachlyn stood when Don walked in.  He really was a bear, even in his human form.  All bear males tended to be large in their human form, and Don was tall and broad.  Most bear females were fairly large as well, taller than her own five feet six, and more generously curved than her own curvy body.

He drew her into his big arms.  She had many fond memories of him from when her parents would take her to visit Don and his den during summer vacations.  Emotion bubbled up inside her and she started to cry.  He held her, turning to Jericho for answers when she was unable to provide them.  Jericho told them what had happened.

Don snarled angrily and released his hold on her, pushing her gently to the chair.  He looked at Gwen.  “Call Sarah and ask her to bring her bag and come check her wounds.”

“They’re fine, Uncle Don,” she protested, but he wouldn’t hear it.

“You don’t heal as well as we do because you can’t shift, honey.  There’s nothing wrong with having a professional look at things.  I don’t have a medical bag with me, and I’m sure you don’t want me looking at your bare leg anyway.  Sarah will handle properly tending to your wounds.”  Turning to Jericho he said, “Your dad is a crazy fuck.  We need to keep him from finding out that you guys are here.  That means no credit cards and no phone calls home. How are you fixed for money?”

“I have a couple of accounts that he doesn’t know about. I just need a computer.”

Don nodded.  “Obviously, you’ll stay here as long as you need to.  Gwen can make up the spare room for you two.”  He cleared his throat and looked between them.  “You two are mated, correct?”

Lachlyn blushed.  “Not officially.  He just asked me.”

“And you said yes?” Don prodded.

Lachlyn nodded.

“Alright then,” Don said.

Gwen asked, “Do you have clothes of your own, Lachlyn?”

She shook her head.  Gwen smiled reassuringly, “I have some old things of Sarah’s upstairs, and I’m sure something will fit.  I can take you out shopping in a few days for your own clothes.”

Breathing in a sigh of relief at Don not batting so much as an eyelash at her troubles, she joined Gwen as she walked upstairs, leaving Jericho to speak with her uncle.

Gwen opened the closet in the spare bedroom and pulled the string on a light that illuminated the interior.  Clothes were packed tightly from one side to the other.  Gwen began to pull out items, shoving and tugging until a small pile of clothes sat on the bed.  Gwen sorted through what she’d pulled from the closet.  Tucking a strand of graying blonde hair behind her ear, Gwen said, “I remember Jericho from your parents’ funeral.  He was very attentive to you.  I was surprised that you weren’t mated back then.  What happened?”

Lachlyn sat down on the bed, her heart constricting slightly.  After a brief pause to gather her thoughts, she told her how they’d always seemed to get pulled away from each other.  She’d loved him forever, but her lack of shifting had always made her feel like less of a woman.

“If he did ever talk about a future between us, I always figured he was just being nice.  He was meant to be king, Aunt Gwen.  I never expected that what we shared would be more than…what it was.”

She nodded.  “But you wanted it to be more, right?”

Lachlyn chuckled.  “Of course.  Have you seen him?  He’s sex on a stick.  He knows me better than anyone and still wants to be with me.”  She explained his thought that they were destined to be in a tri-mating.