14. Bexley

14

BEXLEY

I listened as Ronyn stormed out of the bath house. I listened as he and Merida talked behind the closed door. I flopped against the copper tub and laid my head back, no longer caring that my breasts were free and dangling for anyone to see. All I wanted to do was stare up at the ceiling while I contemplated every single horrible decision that led me to that point. My body was so tired and exhausted from, well, everything. Everything from the last few weeks. Hell, everything from the last few hours. And as tears silently streaked my cheeks, I couldn’t bring myself to move.

What the hell just happened with Ronyn?

I have to get out of here.

It was the only thought that crossed my mind. If Ronyn already believed that I wasn’t a shifter, then it was only a matter of time before their pack figured out what me and my pack already knew. I had to get out of there before whatever the hell was happening devoured me whole. These men had a grip on my conscious mind. I couldn’t let a single one of them walk past me without watching them until they disappeared. I was entranced by all of them, and as long as my focus was there, then it wasn’t with my pack.

And they depended on me to stay alert so that I could keep them safe.

Maybe I should leave them with Voss.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Voss was the Alpha of his pack. Maybe my pack would be better off with them. With a real Alpha who was a real shifter, and not just some make-believe pretend asshole playing shifter for funsies so that my boss didn’t find me. If anything, I was nothing but a coward. A coward on the run.

And my pack deserved better than that.

No, you can’t leave them.

They’d be safer, though. With Voss leading them.

The vampires aren’t chasing them specifically, Bexley. Just you.

If you keep your boss running away from them, they’ll be safe. Either way, it’s better if you left.

That’s right. My boss was a vampire. Want to know how I found that out? She handed me a drink one day, it damn near knocked me out, and when I fought to come back to reality her fangs were poised over my fucking jugular.

As I sat there, thinking about my last encounter with her, I grew shocked at myself. It was a miracle that I survived, much less scrambled quickly enough to get out of the fucking CIA black site we both worked at.

I ran away from her and never looked back. I didn’t grab my purse. I didn’t grab my go-bag. I just took off, running as quickly as I could to get away from her.

And I didn’t stop until I was five miles deep into the woods around Mt. Rainier.

“Come on,” Merida’s disembodied voice said as a pair of arms scooped themselves beneath mine, “let’s get you back in this bath.”

As she heaved me up and leaned me forward, I watched as the water level slowly rose in the tub once more. I did my best to keep my shock and awe under wraps as I watched the water slowly trickle back up to my breasts before covering them completely. Steam kicked back up, as if the water heated itself, and I wanted more than anything to ask Merida how in the hell she did that.

I had to keep up appearances, though.

So, I simply forced myself to relish the water she sloshed up and down my back as the heated marks of Ronyn’s hands washed themselves away.

She washed my back and my hair once more. She leaned me against the edge and took her time, washing my arms and my legs. I closed my eyes and licked my lips before something cool danced against my chapped skin. And as I parted my mouth, my teeth bit down into the juiciest grape imaginable.

“Mmmm, thank you,” I murmured.

Merida giggled as she washed my feet. “There’s more, if you worked up an appetite.”

I scoffed. “Hardly.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

I watched as she pampered me. Just herself. No one else. And the guilt finally overwhelmed me. Tears crested my eyes, and I did my best to blink them back. But, one by one, they fell helplessly against my cheek.

I didn’t deserve the Alpha treatment she gave me. It wasn’t mine to have. It wasn’t mine to continue having.

“Alpha?” Merida asked.

I tucked my feet back into the water. “Please, just leave me be.”

She slowly stood. “Alpha, if I offended?—”

I snarled at her. “Are you really going to defy the word of an Alpha?”

That’s when Merida straightened her back and locked her sky-blue eyes with my teary stare.

“Are you really going to continue acting like you are, then?”

Her words robbed me of my breath, but only for a millisecond. Two.

There were now two people who saw through my ruse.

Guess my training doesn’t get me as far as I figured. “Just leave me be.”

I turned onto my side as Merida shuffled her way toward the door. “If you’re thinking of leaving, it’ll be best to do it in thirty minutes. The woods will be thick with black, and the men will be too intoxicated to come after you.”

Good.

I didn’t bother answering her. I simply nodded my head before she pulled the bath house door open. A rush of cold air shivered me to my core, puckering my nipples beneath the water as she exited. My eyes wanted to fall closed with sleep, but I had to get away first. I had to get within five miles of this place before I knew they wouldn’t come after me.

“I’m going to miss you guys so much,” I whispered as I heaved myself upright.

With water dripping from my body, I reached for a towel hanging up in the corner. I wrapped it around me and relished its warmth. I rubbed its softness against my face. I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to enjoy such luxuriousness again, so I drank in everything about it. I wrapped the towel tightly around me as I walked over to the plate of fruits and cheeses. I took a few more bites for myself, filling my stomach so that I wouldn’t have to hunt at least until lunchtime tomorrow.

Then, after I was done drip-drying and stuffing my fucking face, I climbed back into my clothes and inched my way silently out of the bath house.

“Going somewhere?” Voss asked.

I whipped around on the porch of the bath house and found him looming in the shadows. Standing there, in his blue jeans and his boots and his t-shirt that looked two sizes too small for him. He unfurled his arms from his chest and stepped into the pale blue moonlight. His brown hair wafted softly in the breeze that kicked up as his wild blue stare studied my face.

Tread carefully. “Just heading to bed.”

He nodded as he gave me another look with his eyes, but he didn’t say anything. Even when illuminated by the light, he still towered over me with a darkness to him. As if darkness itself followed him wherever he went. Despite the clear, crisp color of his eyes, they seemed to blacken right before my very eyes. He seemed to grow in stature as he came closer, and all I knew to do was shake my head.

“Voss, I can’t. I’m sorry,” I said breathlessly.

He licked his lips. “You can’t… what, Bexley?”

I didn’t even realize I backed away from him until my back hit the railing of the porch. And yet, Voss still pursued me. My God, were these men never going to leave me alone?

“Please, I just… I have… I just… need… uh, oh?—”

As if my body took control of my conscious mind, my knees buckled. My vision tanked. Gone was the beautiful hue of the moon, exchanging itself for the darkness of the back of my eyelids. My body simply gave out. Exhaustion overruled everything I wanted to do, and my body just collapsed. I figured I hit the ground. In fact, I expected to. That isn’t what happened, though.

Instead, just before sleep pulled me under without my consent, I felt something firm grab hold of my body.

I felt myself levitating as my dream-state finally usurped my plans.