Torrent (Alpha Love - a Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 4) (8 page)

“I take my part of the blame, gladly. It was my mistake, but don’t get up on your high horse with me!” Gus advances slowly on her, looking menacing, but Sofie stands her ground. “You’re the reason Calambor and his band of merry fucking men are here in the first place. You’re the reason that the canyon is being bled dry. Don’t forget that when you start pointing the finger at the rest of us.” Gus’s voice is low and full of menace, but it’s not that which forces Sofie to take a gulp of air, to stem the tears that she can feel already filling her eyes. It’s the fact that she knows he’s right. What was that saying? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, something about glass houses? Whatever it was, Gus was right on the money. She had no right to rub his nose in his guilt when hers was all too evident for everyone to see.

But she refuses to be cowed and she refuses to be silenced. She is willing to stand up and fight for what she believes in. She has made her peace with the fact that there are bound to be a good few knocks along the way.

“We could at least try to contact some of the other packs. If they don’t respond then that’s their prerogative but it’s worth a try! And what about the other supernaturals? Ash, you said that there were more -,” Sofie’s stopped dead by Ashton who seems to have moved at lightning speed to stand in front of her, filling her field of vision and blocking her from the rest of the weres.

“That’s enough, Sofie. Remember what I said about learning to obey orders? Now would be a good time to put that into practice.” He gives her the dressing-down just loudly enough for the assembled weres to hear him. Sofie knows that he’s making a point about allegiance and obedience to the Alpha, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take when all she’s doing is trying to help.

Ashton turns back to his people. “It’s not up for discussion. I’ve decided that this is the best course of action, the only course of action. We’re not going to put our energies and resources into a plan of attack that will never work. We need to use what time we have to plan a tactical retreat. My mission is to get all of you out of this place safely. I have no intention of sacrificing even one member of this pack to try to fight a battle that we have no hope of winning. This meeting is over. Now rest up, you’ll need your strength, we don’t have long.”

Ashton grabs Sofie’s hand and pulls her – or drags her more like - into the house. Once they’re safely inside he points her towards the bedroom. “Get some things together, just make sure you travel light. You leave once night falls.”

The idea of Sofie doing any kind of packing for her trip was almost laughable; she had so little to her name now it didn’t even warrant a list. Ashton had given his orders and left again without anything more. She figured he was going to see Lindsey to give her all the information she would need to take Sofie safely over to the pack in Alaska. She had half a mind to tell him not to waste his time, but she wasn’t quite prepared for that argument yet. She knows that she’s already skating on thin ice with him and as soon as she leaves the house tonight, it was going to get a whole lot thinner.

She looks at the sad little pile of belongings on Ashton’s bed, half of them aren’t even hers. When she sees how little she can make do with she can’t help but think how little she needs to be happy. The truth was that since she met Ashton she didn’t need much more than him, just his presence, his smile, his touch. All the things that she’d had before didn’t even come close to comparing to what he gave her.

She thinks back to her apartment in DC, all the boxes of things – books, lamps, mirrors, cushions – things that she would never get round to unpacking, things that she would most likely never see again. She supposes that she should feel sad about it, to crave that one special photograph of her and her parents in happy times or that one book that meant so much to her or maybe even her college diploma.

But she didn’t feel anything. There were no photographs of her parents that she would want in her new life. They and all the trouble and pain that they had caused were in the past and for all she cared they could stay there. The men that she still owed money too, she wonders if they will seek restitution from her apartment, pawning television sets and anything they could get their hands on that might be worth a buck. They could have it all, she didn’t want it.

Sofie wasn’t even afraid of them anymore, Ash was right; it was pretty unlikely that any of those guys would be coming looking for her after the mysterious disappearance of the man she knew only as The Collector. And besides, it was clear from all the news channels that she was hanging out with werewolves, that she may even be one herself as some of the more excitable reporters had started to suggest. Not many people would come after her knowing that. Well, not unless they’re part of the Humans First Brigade – or HFB as the press had christened them – the anti-Lycan party that seems to have sprung up overnight, she thinks ruefully to herself.

The headache that she’d been fighting all day flares up again, reminding her that she’s not rid of it. She wonders if she ever will be. Perhaps that bump on her head the first night she met Ashton really was worse than she had thought. She pushes the thought away; it didn’t matter anymore anyway. Once she was turned the pain would just be a distant memory. Werewolves healed so quickly, whatever was causing the headache would no doubt disappear.

The thought excites her but there’s something a little like fear there as well, something that she’s tried to pretend that she doesn’t feel. She can’t help but think about what Lindsey had said. What if it doesn’t work? What if she doesn’t survive the transformation? What would happen then? What would happen to Ashton? Her fingers trace the stone necklace that still lies on the bed, something she’d discarded during their lovemaking without even noticing.

She still has so many unanswered questions about the necklace that Ashton had given her, the one that belonged to his mother and to the Pack Mother before her and on and on since the first. It was the necklace that Lupo had given his mate, Sofie had seen it in a vision, one of the many things that only a few weeks ago she would have said that she didn’t believe in. Why did the stone protect her when it was only supposed to work on supernaturals? Would this sacred stone keep her safe against what was to come? Could it stop her from dying during the transformation?

“You should put it back on.” Ashton’s voice makes Sofie jump. Damn him for being so light-footed and, well, wolfish. “In fact you should never take it off, from here on out, it stays on your neck 24/7.” He crosses over to her and lifts the necklace over her head, the way he had the first time he gave it to her.

“Don’t you ever get tired of sneaking up on people?” Sofie covers the swirl of emotions in her belly with a joke.

“Not yet.” Ashton’s voice is a low growl and his warm fingers rest against the skin of her neck for just a few seconds too long once he’s replaced the necklace.

Sofie leans in to his touch, but he moves away from her as quickly and silently as he had appeared. “So I guess you’re still made at me then?” She turns around to face him, absently stroking the stone resting on her chest. It was comforting, this solid chunk of rock around her neck; it felt like a cocoon was around her when she wore it.

“I wouldn’t say that mad even came close to covering it, Braun.” Ashton leans against the wall, arms folded, giving her no doubt that he’s thoroughly unimpressed with her right now.

“I came up with an idea that I thought would help, so shoot me. Oh wait, someone already tried that!” She smiles and shrugs in a way that she hopes is charming but Ashton’s tight-lipped expression tells her that she’s way off the mark. “Too soon to joke about that?”

“Way, way too soon.” Ashton’s voice is flat in the manner of a man that has no intention of being distracted.

“Would you at least tell me what it was that I said that was so wrong that you had to drag me in here like a naughty schoolgirl?” Sofie stands up, suddenly not liking the fact that she was having to strain her neck to look up to him. She already knew that he was larger than life; she didn’t need to be reminded of it by a way of an optical illusion.

“Naughty schoolgirl, that sounds pretty good to me,” Ashton drawls in that lazy way of his that she finds almost impossible to resist. He looks at her with a sparkle in his eye.

“Pervert,” she crosses her arms, sticking her tongue out at him like a kid.

“You think that name-calling is going to get you out of this?” Ashton looks at her nonplussed, all trace of amusement erased from his expression.

“Get me out of what? I made a simple suggestion, one that I believe is strategically sound and that, by the way, I still stand by and you frog-marched me in here like I’d just pledged allegiance to the Humans First Brigade!” Sofie doesn’t bother to temper her response and she wonders absently at how quickly they’ve gone from lovemaking to arguing. It was always one extreme or the other with them, hot as fire or cold as ice. There was no in-between, no time to catch your breath just one loop after another, like a rollercoaster. But she knows that it’s the only ride that has ever been on that made her feel this alive and the only one she had no intention of getting off.

“You planted a seed in their heads and now it’s going to make it that much harder to leave. If they think we have a chance if we stay then how the hell am I supposed to persuade them that what we really need to do is get out of here?” Ashton closes the distance between them, his finger pointing at her is shaking he’s so mad.

“Is that so bad? Is planting a seed of hope in their brains really the end of the world? Have you looked at them, Ash? Have you really looked at them? They’re scared and they’re confused and they feel more alone than I can even imagine. They need every little bit of hope they can grab onto with both hands.” Sofie doesn’t bother to lower her voice. She smiles inwardly as she thinks about what a show Lola’s getting from them today.

“No one is coming to save us, Sofie. This is it. We are it.” Ashton opens his hands, encompassing the house, the pack, the people that are his family and so much more than that.

“But why won’t you even try? What harm can it do? What are you so afraid of?” She flings the accusation out at him without thinking and regrets it instantly.

Hurt is plastered all over his features. “Is that what you think? That I’m a coward? You think that the brave thing would be to stay here and fight the people that want to take away our land, the people that want to kill us? How many of us will need to die for me to look brave to you, Sofie? 5? 10? 15? The whole damn pack?” Ashton is so mad he’s shaking.

“That’s not what I meant, I’m sorry.” Sofie shakes her head, wishing that she had learned to engage her brain to mouth filter. “I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about,” she sighs as she sits back down on the bed, her head in her hands. Normally, Ashton would come to her, hold her and comfort her, but he remains where he is. When she raises her head again she’s pulled herself together.

“Will you at least tell me why the other supernaturals won’t help?” She holds up her hands when she sees he’s about to launch off on another tirade. “I’m not arguing with you. I get what Gus said, about the other packs not wanting to get involved after we yanked them out of the closet. But there’s no talk of any other supernaturals, what else is out there and why don’t you think they would help us?”

Ashton looks up, asking for patience from whatever God he believes in and sighs deeply as he prepares to tell her. After all, with everything that’s going on there’s no reason to keep it a secret. “Because not all the supers are as warm and fuzzy as we are.” He takes up his pacing again as he tells Sofie what she’s asked to know.

“So werewolves are warm and fuzzy in comparison to what else is out there?” Sofie tries not to gulp in fear. The pack only hunted animals. They had never hurt her, but she knew what they were capable of, they meted out justice to criminal humans, she’d seen them kill.

“Remember when I told you that the monsters hiding under your bed are real? Well, I wasn’t kidding.” Ashton flicks a glance at her and sees that she’s ashen under her tan.

But no matter how frightening the thought of what’s out there might be, Sofie’s scientific mind will not let her rest until she knows everything there is to know. “So what are we talking about here? Vampires? Fairies? Witches?” She smiles, expecting Ashton to laugh at her but he doesn’t, he doesn’t look like he thinks it’s funny at all.

“Yes, yes and yes.” He crosses his arms, watching her guardedly, but not offering any further information.

“Ghosts? Mermaids? Zombies?” Sofie frantically tries to think of other mythical creatures that she could name, but can’t come up with anymore. Being a scientist probably wasn’t conducive to being a fan of bedtime stories. Sofie comes from a world where something must be proven in order for her to believe that it exists. But all that was changing now, she couldn’t be sure of anything anymore. Now she lived in a world where myths and legends were suddenly real and she was still trying to find her feet.

“Ghosts yes, mermaids actually prefer to be called sirens and no there’s no such thing as zombies they’re a human invention, good for horror movies but not much else.” Ashton explains it all so matter of factly it’s hard to believe that he’s talking about creatures that no-one would believe are real.

“Is that it?” Sofie looks around, almost as if she’s expecting one of said creatures to jump out of the closet.

Ashton looks at her indulgently and shakes his head. “Not even close. There are as many different kinds of supernaturals as there are nationalities. You missed out a few choice ones.”

“Like what?” Sofie looks at him, her mouth hanging open like a goldfish.

“Sofie, I’m not going to sit here all night writing a list for you, but suffice it to say that there are a lot, okay?” Ashton’s expression tells her that he’s losing his patience and wants to wrap things up.

“Okay, fine, three questions and then I’ll shut up about it!” she promises before she’s actually managed to whittle her mental note of questions down to anything less than a hundred.

“Three questions and then we’re done with this conversation. We still have to go over the route for your trip. It’s going to be a long journey, and you need to know what to expect.” Ashton’s voice softens at the thought of her going away, leaving him.

She avoids his gaze, not wanting him to have the slightest inkling that her journey isn’t going to be nearly as long as he thinks if she has anything to do with it. “Alright, deal.” Sofie sticks her hand out automatically to shake on it and Ashton smiles, amused at her yet again.

“Deal,” he echoes her in a deep, sexy way that is all his own. He clasps her hand, the contact sending a buzz through her, just like it always does. She wonders if there will ever be a time when she won’t feel like she wants to jump him every time they touch. She can’t help but hope not. They lock eyes and all rational thought leaves Sofie’s mind. All she can think about are the blue eyes in front of her and the heat of Ashton’s body, flowing through their clasped hands.

“You had some questions, Dr. Braun?” Ashton’s amused voice breaks the trance that she’s fallen into and Sofie gives herself a little internal shake.

“Right, my questions.” Sofie’s voice is husky, as if she’s just woken up. It’s the same tone that Ashton recognizes from their lovemaking and he raises his eyebrow slightly in a way that just drives her completely crazy. “If you keep looking at me that way, I’m not going to be able to ask anything.” She nudges him with her elbow, playfully.

“Well that doesn’t sound so bad to me…” Ashton leans in towards her breathing the words against her ear.

“Except I want some answers.” Sofie springs up, putting some distance between them to allow her brain to start working again.

Ashton sighs heavily but leans back on the bed on his elbows, surveying her. “I was afraid you might say that. Go on, Dr. Braun, knock yourself out.”