Violet (The Silver Series Book 4) (13 page)

Jaze rose and disappeared into the kitchen.
He came back a minute later with a small computer in his hands and
Mouse at his side. “There's a plane in a half hour.”

“
I'll be on it,” Kaynan
said firmly. Grace squeezed his hand and he pulled her close. “I'll
get them somewhere safe and come right back, I promise.”

“
We'll
get them somewhere safe.” The thought of being on a plane for
hours and traveling through airport security made my skin crawl,
but I wasn't going to let my parents suffer for what we had
become.

Kaynan's eyebrows rose. “Are you sure?”

“
Positive.” I squeezed
Rafe's hand and I could see the fear in his eyes that he wouldn't
voice, the fear at being left injured surrounded by strangers.
“I'll hurry back,” I reassured him softly.

His jaw tightened. “They're your pack and
they need you.” I nodded and he forced a casual tone. “I'll be
fine.” Meg poked a particularly tender area and he clenched his
teeth as though biting back a growl. “At least, I'll be fine if I'm
left alone.”

Meg's eyes sparked. “You're under my care
and you'll put up with whatever I need to do to keep you alive,
understand?”

Rafe met her glare for a minute, then
dropped his eyes and nodded. “Yes, ma'am.”

Jaze chuckled from the other side of the
couch. “Good choice. You don't want to be on Meg's bad side.”

Something flashed and Jet disarmed Mouse
before anyone could move. He then blinked down at the camera in his
hands.

“
I needed Colleen's picture
for the documents,” Mouse explained, his cheeks red and eyes on the
ground.

Jet handed the camera back to Mouse looking
flustered. “Don't point things at people without warning them
first. Bad things happen.”

Mouse stammered an apology and hurried from
the room. Jaze lifted an eyebrow at Jet. “A camera, really?”

Jet shrugged, a touch of chagrin in his
expression. “You never know.”

“
You're just a bit jumpy,”
Taye said, setting a hand on his arm.

“
Everyone is,” Mrs. Carso
replied. “And it's understandable. Come to the kitchen. I'll make
hot cider and cinnamon rolls.”

I stayed with Rafe and Meg while the others
filed after her. Before long, the scent of cinnamon, flour, and
apples drifted our way.

“
You going to be alright on
your trip?” Meg asked as she worked a needle through Rafe's skin
and pulled it out the other side to close a dripping
gap.

“
I'm not sure,” I said
honestly.

She looked at me for a minute, then smiled.
“You're stronger than you think. You'll be fine.”

Chapter 10

“
I can't believe you did
that.”

Rafe turned over on the cot in Meg's
operating room and gave me a tired smile. “What?”

I glared at him. “You know what. You need to
take better care of yourself.”

His eyebrows knit together. “Are you
referring to the cougar or the government suit?”

I blushed at the thought that I was really
the one who had gotten him into all of this. I dropped my gaze to
my hands. “I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.”

“
Colleen.” He waited until
I looked up at him again. His gaze was serious.
“
I
wouldn't be
here if it wasn't for
you
.”

I blinked at the tears that suddenly pricked
my eyes. The cot squeaked, then Rafe was crouched next to me, one
hand across his stomach and the other hovering just above my
shoulder as though he was afraid to touch me.

“
Are you okay?”

The fact that he was worried about me after
all he had been through made me feel even worse. “You should be in
bed,” I protested.

He shook his head. “I've spent too much time
there already. You're leaving in a few minutes and I don't know
what I'll do with myself when you're gone.” He eased himself down
to the floor and leaned against the wall next to me with an outlet
of breath that was the only sign of pain.

“
You could actually take
care of yourself,” I pointed out.

A smile played about the corners of his
mouth. “Where's the fun in that?”

I rolled my eyes and leaned against him. He
lifted an arm gingerly and put it around my shoulder. “I'm going to
miss you,” I said. I didn't know how to tell him just how much it
was going to destroy me to be apart from him. I kept telling myself
that I was too young to be so in love, and that there was no way I
could feel so strongly about him after such a short time, but my
heart still ached when I thought of the plane ride I would take in
a few minutes and the distance it would put between us.

“
You remember the whole
wolves mate for life thing we talked about?” Rafe asked, his tone
funny.

“
Yes,” I said. I held my
breath for his next words.

He fell silent for a minute, then glanced at
me. “Wolves don't do well separated from their chosen mate. Often,
they refuse to eat until they're together again. They won't hunt or
take care of themselves. I saw a wolf let himself starve to death
when his mate was killed in an avalanche. He wouldn't move from the
spot where she died.” He tipped his head against mine. “I'll starve
without you.”

“
Not with Mrs. Carso's
cooking,” I said, forcing a light tone.

He gave a small smile. “There are other ways
to starve. If life loses its purpose, no moment is truly lived. You
have to love to live, and my love is leaving.”

My heart caught in my throat. “I don't know
how you say the things I feel so eloquently. I can't even voice my
thoughts and you define my soul in a sentence.”

He turned his lips to my hair and his warm
breath lightly brushed my face. I inhaled his scent of cedar and
rain and committed it to memory. “I guess I've waited so long to
speak to someone I care about that I have too much to say.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“
What?” he
asked.

“
It's just the right
amount.”

He breathed deeply with his face in my hair
and let out the breath with a satisfied chuckle. “What a pair we
make.”

I smiled at the wonder in his voice as
another tear escaped down my cheek.

***

Jet, Jaze, and Mouse surprised me by joining
us for the flight. “Jet had a bad feeling,” Jaze explained. “We
tend to run with those. The Hunters and werewolves here will keep
the house under twenty-four hour surveillance.”

“
We're grateful for the
company,” Kaynan replied. He tried to reach Mom and Dad by phone
earlier, but neither one had a cell phone and they were away from
the house. I could barely breathe at the thought of our parents in
danger before I even had a chance to see them and thank them for
all of the wonderful things they had done before the
accident.

My thoughts drifted back to Rafe and the
expression on his face when we drove away. In true Rafe fashion, he
had refused to stay in bed and insisted on walking me to the car.
After all he had been through, he could barely stand, let alone
walk, so Kaynan had practically carried him to the Carsos’ porch so
we could say goodbye. I couldn't ignore the feeling of my heart
being ripped in two when I left him there, and by the look on his
face, he felt the same way.

“
Thinking of Rafe?” Kaynan
asked quietly from the seat next to me.

“
Am I that
obvious?”

He gave a small smile. “Your reflection in
the window could make a rock cry.” When I didn't reply, he let out
a small breath. “I didn't think leaving Grace would be this
hard.”

For the first time, I noticed the dark
shadows under his eyes mostly hidden by his sunglasses. His smile
was sad, a former shade of the happiness that had been on his face
whenever he was with Grace.

“
Rafe said most wolves
choose one mate and stay with them for their entire lives.
Werewolves are the same way. I think that's why it's so hard to be
away from them.”

His brow furrowed. “You really love
Rafe?”

I nodded. “With all my heart. I feel empty
being this far away from him.”

He stared past me out the window, his
expression troubled.

“
What?” I
pressed.

He pursed his lips. “I barely know the guy.
All I remember was him as a wild animal. Then you leave with him
and I barely hear from you until you bring him home bleeding and
almost dead.”

“
He saved our lives,” I
pointed out, disturbed by his description.

He nodded. “That's what bothers me. What
motivates someone to put his life at risk by phasing when almost
dead to save a bunch of strangers?”

I fought back a smile. “As I recall, Grace
said you did the same thing for her pack.”

He stared at me and a ghost of a smile
touched his lips. “Huh. Well, I guess I did.” His gaze turned
thoughtful. “Maybe Rafe and I have more in common than I
thought.”

“
I guess so.” I smiled to
think of them as friends. It wouldn't hurt Rafe to have one more
ally in the world.

***

Mom's voice stopped me on the porch before I
could knock. She was talking to Dad about her flowers out back, the
sunflowers that grew twice as tall as me when we were little;
Kaynan and I would pick the seeds and eat them while we helped Dad
gather the oranges from his fruit trees along the back fence. She
loved her flowers. Listening to her talk about them after all we
had been through felt surreal. The scent of warm bread wafted from
the screen door.

“
Go on,” Kaynan urged, an
expectant expression on his face. “Give them their little girl
back.”

Jaze, Jet, and Mouse waited on the sidewalk.
I glanced back at them and Jaze grinned. Jet gave a short nod, a
hint of a smile on his face, and Mouse met my gaze, smiled, then
stared at the sidewalk.

I took a deep breath and pushed the small,
white doorbell button, remembering a time when I had to tiptoe to
reach it. Dad used to scold me for pushing it all the time, but I
loved the chimes because they always reminded me of little
birds.

“
Just a minute,” Mom called
from the kitchen.

My heart pounded in time with her footsteps.
She came down the hall, turned at the small entryway, then stared
at me through the screen. At first I thought she didn't recognize
me with my black and purple hair and violet eyes, but then her
mouth opened and she whispered my name.

“
Colleen?”

“
It's me, Mom.”

She put a hand to her mouth, then fell to
her knees. I pulled open the screen door and threw my arms around
her. We knelt on the ground laughing and crying at the same
time.

“
Honey? Is something the
matter?” Dad hurried in from the kitchen, his reading glasses still
perched on his nose. I looked up at him and he froze in the hall.
He looked from me to Kaynan, then tears filled his eyes and he
threw his arms around both Mom and I. Kaynan's feet shuffled
uncertainly behind me. I reached back without looking, grabbed his
shirt, and pulled him down with us. He joined in the hug, his face
as wet as the rest of ours.

“
I'm not even going to ask
how,” Dad said, his voice thick with emotion. “I'm just grateful
that whatever they did worked.”

I nodded into his shoulder, relishing the
strength of his arms and the way I always felt safe with him. When
I was younger, I had believed my dad was super strong and no one
could ever hurt us if he was around. Now, that same belief filled
my chest with peace.

Kaynan shattered it. “We have to get you
both out of here. There are government officials looking for us,
and you're not safe.”

Mom sniffed and sat back. “What do you
mean?”

Kaynan gestured toward me. “Colleen's a
werewolf like me. That's how they brought her back. But the
government's afraid that they'll make more of us, so they want us
destroyed.”

“
They want to kill you?”
Dad bristled. “They won't get anywhere near my kids. I've got my
rifle-”

“
Dad,” Kaynan tried to
interrupt.

“
And I've got my pistol. If
we need more weapons, we can buy them at Joe's hardware store. He
knows me and we can-”

“
Dad,” Kaynan's voice
rose.

Dad shook his head. “Now son, no one is
going to come into my house and threaten my children, especially
since I just got them back.”

Jaze opened the screen door behind us and
stepped into the hall. “If I may, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson?” Both of
my parents stared at him and the two boys waiting at the door, no
doubt wondering why we brought strangers with us. When they kept
silent, Jaze continued, “I'm Jaze Carso, Kaynan and Colleen have
been staying at my house and the home of my friends.”

Mom immediately stood up and wrapped him in
a tight hug. “Thank you so very much for taking care of my
children,” she said, fresh tears in her eyes. “And please thank
your mother. She's been so kind.”

Jaze smiled, a hint of red in his cheeks.
“I'll tell her. She was more than happy to help.” He waited another
second, then said, “But we really do need to get both of you to a
safe location.”

Mom stepped back and took Dad's hand. Dad
took off his glasses, put them in his shirt pocket, then rubbed his
eyes. “These men are pretty bad?”

Jaze nodded without elaborating.

Dad sighed. “The safety of my family comes
before bravado. Where do you want us to go?”