Chapter 9: Billie

Chapter 9: Billie

The attention of strangers made me uncomfortable, so I was glad it was Muriel in the spotlight instead of me. I stood to the side with the damp, hot washcloth on the back of my neck, soothing the ragged gashes made by dragons’ teeth as I listened to Muriel. My whole body rang with pain.

“I’m from Montana, where I lived with my daughter,” she began. “It was just the two of us. Unicorn shifters no longer live in herds; it’s too dangerous for us to cluster together like that. My daughter and I had been hiding for years before we were found. I don’t know how exactly, but I suspected our whereabouts were leaked from the Mythguard; they’re the only ones who knew about us.”

Aislin looked concerned. “The Mythguard are supposed to protect shifters. Why would they expose you to dragons?”

“It might have been a breach, but I’m only guessing.” Muriel shook her head. “The dragons kidnapped my daughter and I. She escaped shortly after and I haven’t seen her since. Then a couple of months ago, while in transport the van I was in got in an accident. I slipped away and went on the run, but haven’t shaken them off my trail. I don’t know where my daughter is. I don’t know where to go that the dragons won’t find me. I’m sorry for bringing this to you; I just don’t know what else to do.”

A shadow fell across Alpha Gavin’s brow as he processed everything. I expected him to sneer and tell the woman she was on her own, and I was already prepared to beg Alpha David to give her shelter. Gavin grumbled and merely said, “It’s fine, Ms. Vale. You’re safe here. We’re not friends with those dragons.”

“Gavin, we should let her stay,” urged Aislin.

“Yeah,” said Gavin. “Our neighbors in Dalesbloom will clear out the dragons, then we’ll get you back to Montana.”

“Maybe your daughter’s waiting for you at home,” Aislin said optimistically.

I looked up in shock that the Grandbay Alpha so easily offered respite to the unicorn, even going out of his way to help her get back home. It was unlike the Alpha Gavin I knew, who I only ever saw in the manor, but I still didn’t trust him. He’d never shown any kindness to me. He wanted me gone. It made me bitter until I saw Muriel’s expression relax and the tension in her body leave.

“Thank you,” she sighed. “I haven’t had a proper rest in weeks.”

She deserved rest, I thought. I admired the older woman for the kindness she’d shown me when nobody else did. The way she spoke and held herself made me want to savor her company for hours. I wanted to protect her, and even now I wanted to hide her away from Gavin’s inevitable temper, fearing she would anger him or worse, that he would tell her who I really was—an orphan Omega leeching off the Alphas’ family—and she would despise me too. Anything I wanted to say got stuck in my throat, and I only smiled for her, grateful she would be safe.

“Aislin, call Oslo and tell him everything. Niko, I need you to collect some more scouts to lock down the perimeter tonight. I don’t want those dragons fucking breathing in our direction, alright?” Gavin commanded.

His packmates nodded and dispersed, but Aislin glanced at me before she left and said, “That was really brave of you to protect Muriel. Thanks for that.” She patted my arm.

My cheeks reddened. “Sure. Yeah.”

The heat of Gavin’s gaze fell on me. “You, outside with me.”

Oh no. I was hoping to avoid his attention, because a private conversation with Alpha Gavin had no good outcome. He was going to berate me and scold me for disobeying David, put me in my place like a true wolf, and I knew if I so even raised my voice, it would fuel the anger he already possessed for me. I regretted sneaking out for this reason alone. Had I known I’d fall into Alpha Gavin’s hands, I never would have left.

He didn’t spend a second on me, already turning back to Muriel. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll find you some better clothes after I deal with her.”

Muriel reached out to me and touched my hand. “Thank you, Billie. I hope to see you again.”

“Me too,” I said.

After squeezing my fingers, Muriel let me go. I dragged my feet out the door and into the darkness outside the house, overlooking the shadowed driveway in anticipation of a pair of headlights.

Gavin closed the door as he stepped beside me and gripped my arm, unrelentingly tight until he realized and loosened it to comfortably hold me instead. The warmth of his hand was unnatural against my cold, clammy skin, and only made me nauseous. “Why’d you get involved with the dragons? You could’ve been killed,” he said gruffly.

My head buzzed as he spoke, obscuring his question with mystifying feelings wrought from our fated bond. I avoided his eyes in the hope of avoiding the bubbles in my stomach. “I had to. I thought it was a test,” I confessed.

“A test?”

“From the Moon Goddess. To prove myself as a wolf.”

“Huh?” Gavin pulled my arm. “Look at me, Jesper.”

Expecting his anger, I glanced up at him.

“That wasn’t a test, those were dragon shifters. They’re hungry and greedy people. They’ll kill you if you get in their way, no god would test you—you of all people—with that. It was stupid of you to risk your life.” There was anger, however faint in his voice, but it wasn’t the leading sentiment. Gavin sounded more worried than angry. “You think you have something to prove?”

He didn’t continue insulting me. His question hung in the air as he waited for my answer, his eyes firmly on mine, peeling me open.

“I want to be strong enough,” I said nonsensically.

Gavin grimaced. “Strong enough to who?”

Myself? Everyone? “David,” I said.

“Did someone put you up to this?”

I staggered over the thought. As if David would encourage me to endanger myself. That sounded more like something Catrina would do. “No, I snuck out.”

“You just decided to screw David over by sneaking out and getting killed?” Gavin’s grimace became a sneer.

“I didn’t expect dragons.” I said calmly.

“Yeah, well, they don’t belong in Dalesbloom territory. They’ll be chased out soon and you can piss David off without getting torn to shreds.” He let go of my arm and stepped back, sounding vexed, this time being the first to look away.

My arm still felt warm. The same warmth spread across my chest as Gavin expressed something like concern over me. “I don’t mean to piss him off.”

“You don’t mean to do anything wrong, do you?” he drawled, stoking my warmth into angry embers.

“Is it so wrong for me to want to go outside every once in a while?”

“Going for a walk isn’t on the same level as picking fights with dragons,” Gavin fired back.

“I just wanted to go outside,” I argued desperately.

Gavin paused. “He doesn’t let you outside?”

“Not by myself.”

“Why?”

Despite all the hours spent wondering this myself, I didn’t have an answer beyond, “David doesn’t want me to get hurt.” Which was exactly what I had done by sneaking out.

“It’s not like there are dragons all the time.” Gavin seemed to not understand why David locked me up either. “You’ll never learn anything if you’re stuck in the manor.”

I stared at Gavin, imagining how much of an impact it would have if someone other than me said that to David. What if Gavin himself said it to David, would it be enough to convince my adoptive father to give me some freedom? Wouldn’t the fact that it came from Gavin, another Alpha, hold enough weight? I wished I could express this, but knowing he’d probably just laugh in my face kept me silent.

Gavin caught my eye and stared back at me, each of us undergoing a realization.

Twin lights formed between the foliage lining the driveway. A rumbling engine broke the silence and gradually grew louder until David’s truck materialized behind the headlights. Gavin looked back and forth between the truck and me, like there was more he might have wanted to say, but stayed silent as David’s ominous presence imposed on us from the truck.

I had made it through a conversation with Alpha Gavin only to confront my disobedience of David face-to-face. The t-shirt suddenly felt too small on me and I tugged it down to my knees, shivering with nervousness as the truck pulled up to the house and braked. The engine shut off, but the headlights were blindingly bright and cold on me and Gavin.

Both doors opened, revealing Alpha David emerging from the driver’s seat and Colt from the passenger’s. With an armful of my clothes, Colt ran to me and pushed the clothes into my hands, shielding me from Gavin. “You’re hurt,” he said about the wound on my neck and lowered his voice. “He didn’t do that, did he?”

Relieved though I was to see Colt, I glimpsed David looming behind him. Our brief eye contact left me feeling cold. “No. It was the dragons,” I murmured.

Colt sighed and rubbed my arms. “Let’s go inside and get you out of that nasty shirt.”

Curious, I glanced at Gavin. He looked annoyed at Colt, reminding me of their clash before, when Colt took charge and defended me. It was reflex for me to latch onto Colt, but after talking to Gavin, having a conversation where I felt like a person instead of an outlet for his anger, I almost wished I had more time to talk to him. But reluctantly, I trailed after Colt as he led me back inside the pack house, leaving Gavin to handle David alone.

In the kitchen, Aislin had just hung up the phone. She peered with disinterest at Colt. “You’re here already. Cat here too?”

“Just David,” Colt said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can Billie use the washroom?”

Instead of answering Colt, Aislin looked at me and gestured down the hall. “It’s that way.”

I left Colt standing awkwardly with Aislin while I flitted off to the bathroom. Had circumstances been better, I would have encouraged Colt to flirt with the Grandbay Beta’s daughter, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood for him. There was disdain in her voice when she acknowledged him and Catrina.

In the bathroom, I stripped off Gavin’s shirt and found it difficult to put down. His smell lingered on my skin. The bond forged by our shared Moondream made his smell attractive to me; blood and sweat, I remembered its pheromonal appeal distinctly. Now it bathed me, almost as if I was a wolf of Grandbay—like I was one of his packmates, not David’s. I pushed my nose into the shirt and breathed in our shared smell, welcoming a sense of peace from it. It wasn’t destined to last, but Gavin was my fated mate. I couldn’t be faulted for yearning over what fate intended for me.

Standing there, I realized that I didn’t want to return to Hexen Manor. I wanted to explore a friendship with Muriel. I wanted to get to know Aislin and why she disliked the Hexens. I wanted to understand how Gavin could snarl at me in Hexen Manor and yet treat me like a person when we were alone. But David and Colt were out there waiting for me, and… I couldn’t hide from my actions forever.