Page 24 of The Warrior's Captive

Chapter 10

Castor

After he was dressed, he barked out a command to stay in the room and be vigilant while he got them some wheels, then left.

What had happened over the last few hours had shaken him to the core—the sooner he got this woman back to her pack the better. He didn’t do tender or gentle. His world was pain and darkness, yet something about her seemed to draw feelings out of him that had been buried deep inside. He couldn’t afford to let down those barriers, because it was those barriers that kept him safe. He’d seen how his mother’s death had destroyed his father, turning him into a cold, bitter man.

Sex to him was like eating or sleeping, something the body needed, and he’d chased his release as unemotionally as he ate his meals. He didn’t care where his burger came from and neither had he cared much about the women who serviced him. Yet he’d spent hours learning and loving Briar May’s body.

He had to get back to himself quickly, so he’d been cold and distant as he headed out. He felt like an asshole all seven blocks until he was far enough away from the hotel that he could catch a cab without having to worry about being seen. He’d gone out the hotel’s underground parking, sneaking furtively out the back from there. If anyone was watching, he didn’t want to lead them straight to Briar May, especially when he wasn’t there to protect her.

The look on her face as he’d left the room haunted him in the back of the cab. He stopped at a rental place, fake ID at the ready. He didn’t like that he’d leave a footprint, even with one of those many burnable identities. He rented a non-descript domestic sedan with the promise to return it in a few days. That wouldn’t happen and he was sorry for the trouble that the company would have to go to in order to get it back, but he’d make sure he left it somewhere it was sure to be identified and returned. He’d paid in cash and left them the required damage deposit and insurance fees they charged him. He hoped it would be enough to make up for their trouble.

On the way back to the hotel, he forced himself to obey the speed limit so he wouldn’t be noticed even though he wanted to do fifty in a thirty and seventy in a fifty. His heart beat hard, like there was an entire army of demons sent straight from hell to drag him back trailing behind him.

At least his damn wound was finally healing, which meant he could fight if need be. He still felt the occasional twitch, but other than an angry looking scar and the raggedy black stitches, he was almost as good as new.

After parking the car a few blocks away, once back at the hotel, he went in through the underground parking lot again. Much to his relief he found Briar May in the room, dressed and looking like she was ready to go to work in some office building. After the way she’d run off at the farmhouse, part of him had feared that she’d try to escape again, even though he was taking her back home. She was packed and had everything ready. She’d straightened up the room, tidying it even though the maid would come after them and take everything apart to wash it.

She noticed him looking and shrugged. “I had to do something. I was going crazy in here.”

He understood what she meant. He wouldn’t have liked to be the one left behind either, but he didn’t want to chance taking her out with him just in case. He couldn’t run proper intel on the hotel, and if someone was lying out there in wait, it was better that it was just him they took out.

“Is everything okay?” She looked beautiful, but her eyes shone even brighter when she was afraid, and it struck him that she was worried about him. Not herself.

Nothing was okay. She knew that. He knew that.

He knew better than to lie to her. His heart wouldn’t be in it. He needed her to be wary and aware, more than he needed to try to offer her platitudes. She’d been through hell and then some. He still couldn’t believe the night they’d had. He never should have done that.

She stalked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders like she could hold onto him. They both knew that their time was running out. Even after they reached her pack, what was he supposed to do? Stay with her? Take up fucking farming or whatever they did there? Live a life of peace when all he’d known since he was a child was bloodshed? All he’d set out to do was take Briar May for revenge, but now he wished he could steal time. He’d always been realistic because he had to be. He couldn’t start thinking this was something it wasn’t.

“We should get going. I have the car a few blocks away.”

She was hurt, he knew, but he had no soft words. Nothing he wanted to tell her could be put into proper language anyway.

They didn’t say another word while he grabbed their bags. They walked down the hallway and rode the elevator in stony, loaded silence. It prickled through him while he checked out and while they walked towards the car.

When they reached their rental, he didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. He knew they had a long way to go yet.

Briar May slid into the car and looked up at him. Her eyes were huge and wet. It was like she was offering her heart in those eyes, extending it out for him, a gift that he had no right to take. He wouldn’t treat it properly. He’d stolen her and he’d terrified her. He’d hurt her when he should have been gentle. She was only trying to prove something to herself that morning. Physical passion didn’t amount to feelings. It didn’t amount to a lifetime commitment. In their case, it couldn’t.

He forced himself to look away even though it felt like tearing a hole in his lung. He couldn’t breathe. The moment that had been suspended around them all night dropped to the road and shattered like fragile glass.

He got in the car and forced his hands to the wheel. He did all the right things, his body going through the motions, but it felt like the opposite of how he’d been trained and how he normally functioned. He usually tried to shut off what was on the inside, but now it was like he was doing that with the outside. Pretending it wasn’t there.

He was going to get them killed. He fucking knew better. Briar May’s safety depended on his ability to get them the fuck back to her pack lands. Nothing else could matter.

All the way through the city, Briar May stayed rigid in her seat. She looked straight ahead. She was so quiet that he swept his eyes to her more than once, concerned that she wasn’t even breathing. She’d blanked out. Gone inside herself. She was a warrior too, in her own right. A tiny, beautiful, fragile, loving, kind warrior who held his battle-scarred soul in the palm of her hand.

It was quite a feat considering that he’d doubted for a very long time that there was anything left of it at all.

***

Hours later, once they’d crossed the state line into Wyoming, Briar May still hadn’t said anything. She still sat perfectly rigid. She barely even blinked.

A few hours after that, they passed Sheridan. It was only then, when he allowed himself a sigh of near relief, that the icy surface cracked over.

“I’m sorry about your brother.”

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