Page 3 of Howling With Wolves

“You found me!” I lost myself in the scent of her. She always smelled like sunshine and roses. They were my favorite.

“I’ll always find you, baby. Always.”

Chapter Two

~Emma~

I slumped in the passenger seat of the vehicle while Wallace drove.

“You should be sleeping,” he said, flicking his gaze from me to the rearview mirror then back toward the road ahead of us. “We’ll be there soon. I didn’t call them.”

I knew it was protocol to let the local alpha know when you were in his area, but none of that was my concern. And honestly, I was afraid of being told no. Better to show up and let them see me beaten and broken, hoping they’d at least let me stay long enough to be able to shift and allow my wolf to help me finish healing than to call and have Cyan Richards tell me to piss off.

Cyan Richards. My brother. I had another brother. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Nothing made sense, least of all another brother. Why did our mother love him enough to let him go? Why hadn’t she loved me enough to do the same? All the times I’d begged her to send me away and she’d refused, saying families stuck together. Lies. How much of my life was a lie?

“Emma?”

I glanced at Wallace and saw a frown pull at his lips as he took in my face again. It had healed over the last two days he’d been driving, but not enough to make me look much better than I had when he and my mother had rescued me. The broken pieces of me were slowly healing, but the bruises, even afterdays, were still a deep, dark blackish-purple, showing how far they went under my skin. Wallace had helped me set my nose the first night, still it would never be as straight as it had been before my father slammed it against the cement wall the first night he’d taken me from my bed. I’m sure the other face plants into the wall hadn’t helped.

“Emma?” Wallace barked again when I didn’t answer.

“Just drive, Wallace. We’re going to the address my mother gave you. If my…” I bit the words off. It was hard to refer to a male I’d never met as my brother even to myself much less aloud. “Cyan Richards will have to send me away to my face.”

“Maybe, I should take you somewhere to rest first?” Wallace suggested. “I can stop somewhere outside Rigton County. Give you a few more days to recover. Maybe, be able to shift.”

“We don’t have the luxury of waiting. We don’t know for sure that my father was killed. He could have people following us now.Hecould be following us.”

“The building exploded. There’s no way anyone survived it.”

I didn’t want to think about that. Didn’t want to remember my mother kissing me goodbye before she went back inside. I shut out thoughts of her. I refused to give them airtime in my head.

“If anyone did, it would be the bastard who sired me,” I muttered. “We go to Cyan’s. No stopping.”

Wallace nodded but didn’t say anything else. I rested my head on the back of the seat and closed my eyes. I could do this. No matter what happened. I would handle it. I’d survived my father. Hell, at this point, I could be the last one standing. Jonathan was dead. Sam was missing. Mom was… I swallowed down the sob that wanted to surface. Mom couldn’t have survived. If there were any justice in this world, then Clayton Richards was dead, too.

“We’re here.”

I blinked open my eyes, taking in the driveway we’d pulled into. The men were already spilling onto the front steps.

“Sit tight.”

Wallace stepped out of the car before I could stop him. What the hell was he thinking? The plan was to let me engage with them while Wallace stayed inside the vehicle. They’d be less likely to attack first and ask questions later if they saw I’d already been attacked. At least, that was my hope.

It took me longer than it should have to get my fingers to cooperate and unlatch my seatbelt before releasing the door. Three men faced Wallace.

“Just dropping off,” he growled, holding his arms wide of his body, palms out to indicate a lack of threat. He gestured toward me with his head. I pushed the door wider then held tight to the frame while I hoisted myself out, forcing my shaky legs to hold me upright. Letting the door close behind me, I leaned heavily against it as I took in the men in front of me.

My gaze kept pulling away from the male I knew in my gut was Cyan Richards. He stood on the steps, feet spread wide,arms crossed over his chest as if he were daring me to lay claim to a bond he wouldn’t acknowledge. Or at least, that was my interpretation. Next to him had to be the alpha, Bastion James. I should have bowed my head, dropped to my knees and offered fealty, but I couldn’t keep my gaze from veering toward the third male. Tall with shoulder-length ebony hair. No matter how hard I tried to focus on Cyan or James, I couldn’t. There was something about the other male that called to me.

“She’s your problem now.”

I jerked my head at Wallace’s comment, but he refused to look at me. He was back in the vehicle before I had time to move. Forget kneeling. My grip was torn from the door when he threw the car into drive and peeled out. I hit the ground hard, head bouncing and sending specks of light clouding my vision as pain shot through me, sucking the breath from my lungs, and leaving me hovering at the edge of unconsciousness.

I gasped for air, not wanting to leave myself any more vulnerable than I already was. Ridiculous given the fact any of the three males could easily end my life with very little effort. My lungs refused my command, though, and no matter how I fought, darkness surrounded me, pulling me into oblivion.

“Easy. Easy,” a masculine voice ordered softly as strong arms wrapped around me, hugging me against a broad chest. “I’ve got you.”

It was the dark-haired man I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off earlier. He had bright blue eyes that sparkled like jewels. He was possibly the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. His scent made me want to nuzzle closer, to lick his skin and see if he tasted as good as he smelled.

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