CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY

Sprawled on Alex’s sofa the following evening, Bree drummed her thumbs on her cell phone, determined to master the level on this annoyingly addictive game. “Private Number” began flashing on the screen. Since she was irked at having her game interrupted, Bree’s greeting was undeniably on the curt side. Maybe Alex’s rude nature was rubbing off on her.

“Hello, little cat.”

For a single moment, she froze. Her cat froze. Hell, time itself seemed to freeze. Then Bree knifed up, her heart pounding in her chest like a drum. Her cat arched her back, hissing and spitting like a trapped feral animal.

“I don’t get a ‘hi’ from my own mate?” asked the caller. “That’s not nice.”

Twisting her body so she could lower her feet to the floor, Bree drew in a long breath through her nose. If Alex hadn’t gone downstairs to return a dish to his parents, she’d have hurried over to him; she’d have asked him to listen to the conversation so he could help her decide just which of the Cage twins was on the other end of the line.

If this was Calvin, it might serve her best to let him believe she thought that she was talking to Paxton, mightn’t it? “Why are you calling?” she asked, keeping her voice flat.

“Maybe I just wanted to talk to my little cat. Maybe I missed you. You know what? I think I really might have. Now isn’t that something?”

“I’d be lying if I said I returned the sentiment. I pulled out the pompoms when you left.”

He laughed and, oh God, it sounded so much like Paxton. His brother’s laugh wasn’t quite as gruff or restrained. “You know why I always enjoyed our conversations? Because you never saw a need for pretense. Even as a young child, you saw me for what I was. Pretending to be normal can be tiring. I don’t think I realized just how hollow I was until you forced emotion into me. I thought … ah, so that’s how life is for others—fascinating.”

Bree’s stomach flipped. She hadn’t told a single soul about the time that she’d pushed positive energy into Paxton. But he could have told someone about it, right? He could have told Calvin. Twins confided in each other. “But you don’t wish you were different, do you?”

“Of course not. Emotion makes a person weak. Why would I want to be weak?”

“A better question would be: why are you back?”

“Who says I was ever really gone? I always made a point of checking on you from time to time. My cat worries about you. Knowing you’re safe and well puts him at ease. Don’t worry, he doesn’t push me to claim you. I suspect he thinks you’re safer without me.”

“He’d be right.”

“Now that’s just insulting. I’d never hurt you.”

Bree’s brows snapped together. “You told me you’d be better off if you killed me.”

“I was having an off day.”

An off day? Unreal. “Where are Drina and Mateo?”

“How would I know? And why would you care? I heard Drina isn’t a fan of yours. And something bad obviously went down between you and Mateo or you wouldn’t have cut him out of your life.”

He hadn’t referred to them in the past tense, she noticed. “What about your family? Where are they?”

“Again, how would I know. And again, why would you care? It’s not like you’re close to them. I got the feeling that my dear brother would have liked to be much closer to you, but he never did make his move.”

“You know an awful lot about what goes on in the pride.”

“Like I said, I make a point of checking on you from time to time. People-watching can be quite entertaining, especially when they have no idea they’re being watched.”

“Why bother to check on me? You don’t want me.”

“It’s not you I don’t want. It’s the bond. I don’t understand why people don’t see what a limitation it truly is. There’s no rational reason to form a link with someone that allows them to prey on your emotional state, steal your physical strength, and even kill you if they die.”

“So, if you don’t want to hurt or claim me, what do you want?”

“There’s something very specific I want right now. I’m sure you can guess what it is.”

“I’m hoping you merely want to give me a heads-up that you intend to crawl out of your hidey hole and deal with the hyenas so that they stop sending loners my way. After all, they wouldn’t be in my life if it wasn’t for you.”

“The hyenas aren’t your real enemy. I’m working on the little mystery of who is—they’ve covered their tracks well. But I believe I’m close to finding their identity.”

She pushed to her feet and, unable to sit still, padded over to the rug in front of the fireplace. Her cat, just as restless, was pacing up and down. “Most of the pride thinks your family was involved.”

“It’s possible. They seemed very unhappy when you made it clear you intended to live a life that was free of me, didn’t they? Like you hadn’t already been doing just that for years. Don’t worry, little cat, I’ll find out who tried to have you taken.”

“And then?”

“And then I’ll deal with it, of course.”

She grabbed hold of the mantlepiece. “Did you really spare the life of Dale Bray’s daughter?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because someone paid me more money to keep her alive than my client paid to have her tortured and killed. Desmond’s Beta wanted the child to be free and fully aware of who orchestrated her kidnapping. He wanted his Alpha dead, and he used Dale Bray to do his dirty work for him.”

Bree’s eyes fell closed. Calvin wouldn’t have known about Desmond unless Paxton had shared info about his “jobs” with his twin. That didn’t seem whatsoever likely. Which meant that the person on the other end of the line could only be Paxton. Fuck.

Opening her eyes, she put a hand to her roiling stomach. “I see.” She swallowed. “Bray’s under the mistaken impression that you got all sentimental when you realized she was an omega. He believes that she made you think of me.”

“That child was nothing like you. She was weak,” he sneered. “Wept and wailed and pled. You wouldn’t have done any of that. Forget about the hyenas. As I said before, they’re not your enemy. Really, the most dangerous thing around you right now is my cousin,” he added, his voice deepening. “I told you in the woods to stay away from him, didn’t I?”

Her hand clenched the phone tighter. “I’m not really a girl who takes orders.”

“A wolverine’s priority is always themselves.”

“Then you have a lot in common with them.”

He laughed again. “True. And that is why you should not have imprinted on him. Alex is no good for you. He’s cold. Remote. Pitiless. Too much like me, really.”

Anger flared through both her and her cat. “He’s nothing like you.”

“Little cat, you know better than to believe such a thing. People like us are built to be alone. He may care for you in his way, but you’ll never be his main concern. He can’t feel for you what a normal male might. Like me, he’s very familiar with emotional poverty. And so that partial imprint bond you have with him will never grow. Never strengthen. Never fully form. Instead, it will weaken and fray until it eventually snaps.”

She felt her nostrils flare. “You won’t make me doubt him, if that’s your game.”

“You don’t think he loves you, do you?”

She could almost hear the asshole rolling his eyes. She couldn’t say for sure if Alex loved her, but she believed he cared for her. “I think he loves his family, which shows he can feel that emotion. You? You know nothing of it. I almost feel sorry for you.”

“Oh, don’t pity me, little cat. Personally, I can’t see what’s so amazing about that emotion. Love is selfish. People love things that please them, make them happy, or satisfy their needs. But if a person’s needs change, if their expectations become different, they can fall out of love. Many couples do stay together, yes. They proclaim they love each other so much they can’t bear to live without them. Sweet. Until you consider that, basically, they’re saying they’d rather die before their partner does. Is that not selfish, considering it’s the partner who’ll then experience the pain of loss and grief?”

“Now you’re just babbling.”

“No, I’m making a point that you don’t want to admit holds merit. But that doesn’t surprise me. People prefer to believe that love is a magical thing that makes everything worthwhile. It’s no more than a chemical reaction in the brain, but you live with your illusions if it’ll make you feel better. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking Alex is the one for you. He’s not. Never will be. You need to get rid of him.” Again, his voice deepened, thickened with menace. “You need to move back to your home, where you belong.”

“What I need to do is hang up,” she countered.

“I’ll kill him if I have to.” The silken threat slid up her spine. “You’ll leave me no other choice but to end his life if you don’t walk away from him.”

Her cat growled and clawed at air. Bree fisted her free hand, wishing she could smash it into the bastard’s jaw. “You stay away from Alex.”

“No, you stay away from him. He’s not what you need. If you want my cousin to live, get rid of him. And do it fast.” The line went dead.

Bree stared down at the phone, her hand trembling. She’d accepted that there was a very real possibility he was behind the recent goings-on. Still, there was something surreal about that moment; about facing that it was true.

Taking pity on her shaky legs, Bree sat right there on the rug. Her cat wasn’t so shaky. No, she was still pacing, absolutely livid. Livid that his heart still beat, livid that he’d threatened to harm her mate, livid that he thought to control Bree’s choices.

Even though that same anger bubbled in Bree’s veins, she couldn’t find it in her to vent. It was like coming to terms with this fucked up situation had just robbed her of the strength to do anything but sit there like a wet lemon.

Venting wasn’t her thing, anyway. She always made a point of staying in control of her emotions. But part of her longed to rant and rave and scream out her anger just this once.

Dumping the cell on the rug, Bree sank both hands into her hair and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that. It could have been minutes. Hours. But she didn’t lift her head until she heard a key turn in the lock.

The front door swung open. Alex stalked inside and shut the door behind him. Every muscle in his body seemed to tense when he caught sight of her on the rug. And then he made a beeline for her.

“Bree, what’s wrong?” he asked, crouching in front of her. “You’re white as a fucking sheet.”

“Paxton called me. I wasn’t sure if it was him at first, but he knew things that Calvin wouldn’t have known. He even knew that Desmond orchestrated the kidnapping of Bray’s daughter. Unless one of the people at the mediation meeting blabbed about it, no one else within our pride knows—certainly not anyone who could have told Calvin.”

“Shh.” Alex smoothed his hands up and down her upper arms. “Slow down, baby girl. Tell me everything. Start from the beginning.”

Bree took a deep breath and then gave him a quick rundown of the conversation.

“You should have called me.” He sat down and placed one bent leg on either side of her. “I would have come to you straight away.”

“I guess I needed a chance to process it all. What do we do?”

“Well, we’re sure as shit not giving him what he wants. I told you when we first imprinted, I’m not going anywhere.”

“He said he’ll kill you if I don’t leave you.”

“I figured he would. The guy hasn’t contacted you once in all the time he’s been away. For him to suddenly pick up the phone and call, something had to be bugging him in a major way. Your imprinting on another male … yeah, that would do it.”

“I didn’t think you’d so easily believe it was him.”

Alex curled his hands around her calves. “I had a call from Sergei. My uncles found evidence that someone has been using the tree directly behind your house as a hangout.”

She stilled. “Someone was spying on me?”

“Looks like it.” He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times with his thumb. “The watcher carved this symbol into a thick branch. It’s barely noticeable, really. But Sergei spotted it and sent me a picture of it.”

Taking his cell from him, she looked down at the photo on the screen. Her stomach sank. “Totenkopf,” she whispered. It was an old international symbol for death or danger or even the defiance of death. “Paxton had this tattooed on the back of his right shoulder.”

“Yeah, I remember it. If the mark on the tree was bigger and more visible, I’d have said that Calvin could easily have done it in the hope that someone would see it; that he did it to add credence to his ‘Paxton’s alive’ argument. But it’s small and inconspicuous.”

She handed the cell back to Alex. “Paxton was branding the tree as his, in a sense, wasn’t he?”

Alex nodded. “There’s more, Bree. On a hunch, I asked my uncles to check if the symbol had been carved anywhere else.”

“Don’t tell me he marked all the damn trees.”

“Not trees. Your planters. Your front porch. Your back deck. The fence of your backyard. The brands are small and hidden well, but very much there.”

The breath gusted out of her lungs. “Did they check the interior of the house?”

“Yes. He didn’t mark the inside. As if he acknowledged that that was your space, not a space that belonged to both of you.”

“Because he doesn’t want to be a real part of my life.”

“Exactly. But he marked the outdoors. Almost like he was warning others to stay away.” It made Alex’s blood boil. His beast was infuriated that another male would leave his mark on her territory. Infuriated that Paxton believed he had the right to mark it.

She rubbed her upper arms. “It makes me feel sick to think he might have ogled me while I was undressing. He probably even saw us having sex—which he’ll have hated, if the way he just talked about you was anything to go by. Yet, he never did anything. Never went after you or found a way to warn you off. I don’t get it.”

“He never went after me because it’s not so much me he’s pissed at. It’s you. He only really sees you, Bree. Everyone else … we’re interchangeable. Haven’t you ever seen a swarm of ants? They all look the same, none stand out, none make us feel threatened. They can be a general annoyance at times. The rest of the time? We’re mostly indifferent to them. Right?”

She slowly nodded. “Right.”

“That’s how Paxton views everyone except you. He does not like that I’m in your life, but he won’t feel jealous that I am. He won’t see me as a threat to whatever significance he feels he has to you—I’m just a mere annoyance who is not whatsoever important. He truly believes that. In his mind, you just don’t see the situation clearly.”

“But he’s threatening to kill you.”

“Because you and I have imprinted on each other. He can’t dismiss me as irrelevant to you anymore. But he didn’t call me, did he? He called you. He issued the threat to you. I’m not important to him; he just wants me gone. He will try to kill me if he believes it’s the only way to get me out of the picture. But he wouldn’t derive any pleasure from the act, because it would be no different to him than squashing a bug. Like I said, you’re all he sees.”

“He doesn’t want me for himself, though. So why do all this?”

“Because, whether you believe it or not, you do matter to him. Not in the way you matter to me, no. But you’re … significant to him in some sense. He believes he has a rightful place in your life. He doesn’t want to take it, but he doesn’t want anyone else to take it, because then they’d be replacing him. It’s all about how he feels and what he wants.”

Alex gently tugged her hand, pulling her onto her knees. “Come here.” Gripping her hips, he slid her toward him and curled his arms around her. His beast would have rubbed up against her, hoping to soothe her, if he wasn’t too exponentially pissed to do anything but snarl and lash out with his claws. “This shook you up, didn’t it?”

She rested her forehead against his. “I’m not shocked that he’s alive. I just … It was nice to have room for doubts; to be able to tell myself that he could be dead. I can’t do that anymore. And I’m scared of what he’ll do to you.”

Alex rubbed her back. “Don’t let him rattle you. He wants you to be afraid, because he thinks it will make it easier for him to manipulate and control you.”

Bree lifted her head and rubbed her chest to ease the ache there. “I know. And I know you’re stronger and bigger than him. Just like I know you could take down a pallas cat easy. But he won’t come at you fairly, Alex. He’s a guy who’ll come at you from behind or—”

“Hear me, Bree, he’s not going to kill me. He won’t come at me straight away. He’ll want you to be the one to get rid of me; he’ll want that control over you. It won’t be until he realizes you’re not going to dance to his tune that he acts. I don’t care that he’s gunning for me. I want him to come at me. I want to get my hands on the little shit. When I do, I’ll rip him apart limb from fucking limb. He’ll be gone from your life, and you’ll know for sure he’s dead. You’ll never have to worry about him ever again. Doesn’t that sound good?”

“Aside for the part where he comes at you, yeah, it sounds good.” No one would be going after Alex at all if she wasn’t part of his life. Guilt pricked at her and her cat. Neither of them wanted him to have to deal with this crap—he should be able to leave his apartment without worrying about watching his back.

“I hate that I’ve brought this mess to your life,” she said. “I hate that you were pumped with six bullets. Hate that you had to deal with Bernadette, Ruben, and Moira causing a scene in Pot of Gold. Hate that you’ll have to watch your back because some twisted asshole thinks he can fuck with our lives. Sometimes, I wonder if you’ll decide I’m not worth all this drama and just walk away. I know how much you loathe drama.”

He frowned. “Why would I walk away from something I need? Seriously, you worry about the stupidest shit.” He caught her face with his hands. “None of what is happening is on you. None of it. You didn’t fire that gun. You didn’t ask the Cages to cause that scene. You didn’t sic Paxton on me. Do I loathe drama? Yeah. In a big way. But when a man finds a woman who means everything to him, he’ll wade through any amount of shit for her. Got it?”

It killed Bree when he said stuff like that. He always spoke so matter-of-factly. Like he hadn’t just squeezed her heart with his words. She swallowed. “Got it.”

“Good. Now stop being dumb—it’s pissing me off.”

She could only snort.

He grabbed her hand, stood upright, and then pulled her to her feet. “Come on, we need to update Vinnie.”

He kept possession of her hand as they left his complex and walked down the street to the antique store. She’d bet that anyone who saw the spectacle would be surprised. Alex wasn’t exactly a “let’s hold hands” guy.

After saying a quick hello to Ingrid—well, Bree said hello; Alex just gave his grandmother an awkward hug—they headed to the upstairs apartment. Sitting opposite their Alpha at the kitchen table, they brought him and his eldest sons up to speed.

Luke cursed and dumped his empty coffee mug in the sink. “I wanted so badly for the piece of shit to be dead. I guess there’s no such luck.”

Vinnie sank deeper into his chair. “If what he said is true, he’s never really left your life, Bree. He hasn’t made himself a part of it, true, but he’s certainly hung on the periphery of it.”

“I don’t think he’d have surfaced at all if you hadn’t renounced your claim on him,” Tate said, leaning against the doorjamb. “And I strongly doubt he’d have called you if you weren’t partially imprinted on Alex.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered who you imprinted on,” said Vinnie. “Paxton would have insisted on you getting rid of them. He probably intends to drop off the radar after he has what he wants. Of course, we know he won’t get what he wants—there’s no way you’d leave Alex. But Paxton doesn’t know that yet. He’ll think he can scare you into doing his bidding.”

“Well, he’s wrong,” said Bree.

Luke scraped his hand over his jaw. “For him to know so much about what’s going on in our pride, he’s definitely watching you very closely, Bree.”

“From a goddamn tree.” She fisted her hands. “And that’s just creepy.”

Vinnie’s gaze sliced to Alex. “He’ll try to get to you for sure. Be careful.”

Alex raised his chin slightly. “I’ll be ready. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“It would be a mistake to underestimate him,” the Alpha warned.

“I won’t,” said Alex. “But he’ll overestimate himself. Paxton always thought he was so much stronger, tougher, and smarter than he was. It won’t occur to him that he might fail to kill me. I’m counting on that. Because I intend to give him the beating of his fucking life.”

“And then you’ll kill him?” asked Vinnie.

“Then I’ll kill him. And I’ll damn well enjoy it.”