Grayslake: More than Mated: UnBearable Secrets (Kindle Worlds Novella) (5 page)

Chapter Eleven

Olivia

“Olivia? Olivia, it's Lucy.” There was another knock at the door.

Olivia untangled herself from Sam's arms and grabbed her robe as she shuffled over to the door. What time was it? She felt her stomach rumbling; clearly they had missed breakfast. She'd been busy with other things, mostly all the delicious parts that Sam had to offer.

Another knock. Shit, she really hoped that Lucy would wake Sam up. Just getting her bear to agree to get out of bed was hard enough, though as she looked over her shoulder, she realized that waking him up might be harder than waking up the dead. He was out, and snoring loudly.

She swung open the door just as Lucy was raising her hand to knock again. “Yes?” she said, dragging her fingers through her hair. God, her bedhead was awful, and she probably looked like a mess. She smelled like sex too, a great combination for… what time was it? She looked across the hallway at the clock on the wall, almost lunchtime. Excellent, at least there would be something to eat soon.

“Oh, you are in here. I wasn't sure…”

Olivia raised an eyebrow at her. Today she had an apron on with dogs: dogs with clown noses. Yup, this lady really knew how to show off her fashion sense.

“Well, I'm here.”

“Have you seen Sam?”

She took a deep breath. “No.”

“Did you see him last night? I thought perhaps you two might've come in together.”

“Yeah we did…” Olivia pulled the door shut behind her and stood in the hallway with Lucy. “But then I assume he went back to his room for the night.”

Lucy's eyes scanned Olivia's body and she gave her judging glare. “If you say so. Anyway, I'm not here to gossip. But your brother is on the phone.”

Shit. “Which one?”

She wasn't even going to try to be annoyed about the fact that one of them had figured out where she had gone. Her brothers were cunning, and constantly looking out for her. She wasn't the youngest of the group, but they all had this little sister mentality about them.

“I think he said his name was Garrett?”

Well at least he was the easiest one to handle. He was four years younger than Olivia, and she could boss him around and tell him what to do. This conversation would be quick and painless.

“Where can I take the call?”

“There's a telephone at the end of this hall, or you can use the one on the front desk.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow at Lucy. “I'm still in my robe, so the one at the end of the hall sounds great, thanks.” Lucy turned on her heel and Olivia followed her to a sitting room at the end of the hall with a small old timey telephone. “I'll close the door as I go.”

Lucy shut the door behind her and Olivia picked up. “Hi Garrett. So I guess you found me.”

“And it's a good thing I did, Olivia! Mom and Dad are freaking out, Brock and Taylor are a mess, and you were nowhere to be found. What the hell?”

“Listen Garrett, I'm just on a little vacation…”

“Well that’s nice for you, but while you’re vacationing, we’re under attack.”

Olivia practically dropped the phone. “Attack? What are you talking about?”

“Wolverines, Liv. It's a freaking mess here. Some guy came into a bar outside of town and created a huge mess for us. He's ranting and raving about how the Wolverines are coming after us, and it's a nightmare. So if you could cut your little vacation a little short we would all appreciate it.”

“Wait, start over. What the hell is a Wolverine doing on our territory?”

“No idea. He just showed up one night, totally drunk and out of his mind. He swung on a couple of our guys and they ripped him up. Apparently got pretty ugly, and bloody. But this guy is talking about how the Wolverines want our territory, about how they're coming for us.”

She rolled her eyes. “So you’re telling me that I have to come home because a ranting drunk freaked you all out. Really, Garrett? This is some serious crap.”

“It's not, Liv. It's all true, and if you were here you would realize that the situation is a lot more serious. Wolverines have been a mess ever since…” He paused and Olivia waited for him to continue.

“Ever since when?”

“Ever since Bianca.”

Olivia's lip began to tremble immediately. She took a deep breath before responding. “What does Bianca have to do with any of this?”

“Apparently she was seeing one of the Wolverines.”

“What?” She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Bianca was brilliant, the smartest of the bunch. She would never go outside the clan to find a mate. And a Wolverine? Those guys were disgusting pigs. They treated women like crap. There was no way that she had fallen for one of them.

“She didn't want anyone to know, but I heard her talking one night. He's not from our clan, Liv. He's definitely one of theirs.”

“I don't believe you. Maybe she was flirting, sure, but nothing serious.”

“Whatever. But since the incident things have been really temperamental with the Wolverines. They were making a lot of threats, and apparently Dad and Brock just haven't been telling us about them. With this guy making a general declaration in front of a bunch of our clan, we have to react. You know Dad, be proactive, not reactive. They want to send a clear message back to the Wolverines: don’t mess with our territory.”

“So let him. You don't need me for any of that.”

“We do. Mom and Dad are panicked that something is going happen to you while you're gone. You need to be here where everyone can be safe. Olivia, you can't trust anyone.”

She thought back to Sam sleeping in her bed and how she had divulged so much to him the night before. Was he really on her side? Was he really the escape that she had been needing? Or would her freedom be cut short because he was digging for information? Suddenly she felt like she couldn’t believe anything anyone was saying. Her own sister had been hiding secrets from her. This changed everything.

“I'll come back when I'm ready.”

“Oh, you’ll come back in the next couple days, because otherwise, Dad is sending out a search party for you. And you know me, Liv, I'm no good with secrets.”

“You're a pansy who doesn't like to get beat up by Dad when you know something you’re not supposed to.”

“Same thing.”

“Fine, just give me two days. I'll come home.”

“You know we all miss her, right?”

He was talking about Bianca again. She could hardly take it. “I know.”

“No, you say you know but you don't. We all miss her, and we all blame ourselves for that night. I know it's harder on you than the rest of us but you have to know that you're not going through this alone. You have to stop acting like you are.”

“I said I'm coming home, okay? I don't need you to throw me some guilty shade right now.”

“Fine, I'll see you in a couple days.”

“Fine,” she said before hanging up the phone.

She took a deep breath and left the sitting room, shuffling down the old carpet of the hallway. She was going to have to wake up Sam. She was going to have to tell him the truth about who she really was. But first she needed to decide if she could trust him or not.

Chapter Twelve

Sam

Sam's hand clutched his cellphone on the bedside table as it continued to ring. How had his pants gotten over there?

“Hello?” he mumbled into the phone. But in just a minute, he was sitting straight up at full attention as Ty's voice met him at the other end of the line.

“Sam? I need a favor.”

“Sure, what's up?” Sam asked groggily as he wiped the sleep out of his eyes.

“That girl, Olivia. You need to bring her to the den. I need to talk with her, Itan business. Bring her here as soon as possible.”

Sam immediately felt his bear's reaction; the Alpha had given him a direct order. Even though he didn't want to take Olivia to the den, he didn't have another choice. But he could still question why.

“Ty, what's going on? I know you said you knew that Olivia was a shifter, but do you really need to meet her?”

“Do you know what Olivia's last name is, Sam?”

Sam shook his head. Damn, he was now the type of guy who slept with a girl without even knowing her last name. That would be his first question for her whenever she came back into the bedroom. Where was she anyway? “No.”

“It's Bradwick. Like the Bradwick royal family. She is shifter royalty, Sam. And she shows up in my town along with you, who is next in line for the Louisiana territory. Do you really think I don't know what's going on here?”

Sam was dumbfounded. Olivia was a Bradwick girl? Every major shifter family in the country knew about the Bradwicks. Their home base was one of the largest shifter populated towns in the United States. They had connections all the way through North America. What was she doing in Grayslake, after all? Just trying to get away after her sister's death didn't make sense anymore.

“A Bradwick? Ty, if you think I knew that, you're crazy. I had nothing to do with her coming here. It was a freak accident, I promise.”

He heard Ty sigh on the other end of the line. “I want to believe you, Sam, but I need to see for myself. Bring the girl here, immediately.” Sam wanted to protest even more but then he realized that Ty had already hung up the phone.

Shit. This wasn't going to be easy.

Just then Olivia walked back into the room, shutting the door quietly behind her. Clearly she didn't realize that Sam was awake.

“We need to talk.”

She took a deep breath and nodded at him. “Yeah, we do. My brother just called me. There's some issues at home. I have to go, and soon.”

She crossed the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to him. She was still wrapped in that delicious little robe that she wore, and it took every ounce of him not to allow his fingers to creep up under the silky fabric, but he had to focus. He had a job to do.

“You need to go home to the Bradwicks? You kinda failed to mention that you are shifter royalty.”

“So what if I am? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because that's why you think everyone blames you about her sister's death. That you knocked her off to get closer to the top, is that what you believe?”

“People can believe whatever they want. Hell, clearly you can believe whatever you want. But what happened to Bianca had nothing to do with power. Like you said last night, it was an accident. A devastating one that has broken my heart and ruined my world. But at some point, I need to move on, I hoped you’d do that with me. I was hoping you would come home with me.”

“Well, we can't do anything right now.”

She crossed her arms, annoyed. “And why is that?”

“Because the local Itan wants to meet you. He knows who you are. He wants to know why you came to Grayslake, and he wants to know why we’re together.”

“My sex life is none of the clan’s business. It never has been and it never will be. Besides, I don't have to answer to some local clan leader.”

“And that's where you're wrong. You're in his territory, so you have to follow his rules. Your little stunt with freedom here, it's never quite that easy. Trust me, I know.”

She sighed heavily and then fell back on the bed. “Shit. Okay, so we going to meet with him and then what? There's no way he just wants to meet me. He’s probably known that I've been here the whole time. He could've pulled me out of here at any moment, so why didn't he?”

That was his turn for the truth. “He asked me to keep an eye on you.”

She immediately pushed off the bed and sat straight up, staring at him. “What? I don't need a babysitter!”

“I wasn't trying to babysit you. I was looking for an excuse to get close to you.”

She stood up, flailing her arms, “What? So you could get in my pants? Is that what this is all about? Here I am asking you to come with me, and you’re just trying to get information. My brother was right!”

Sam stood so determined to convince her that that wasn't the case. “No. This had nothing to do with getting in your pants. This had everything to do with the fact that I'm pretty sure you're my mate. Not to mention I'm falling in love with you.”

That stopped Olivia in her tracks. She turned around to face him; they were only inches apart now. “What did you say?”

“I'm falling in love with you. I know it's completely crazy. But it's the truth. And here's more of the truth: I left Louisiana because my father is the clan chieftain. He's also one crazy asshole who I can't stand. So if you’re going back home, I will go with you. I can't stay here. And honestly, at this point, if you were leaving I wouldn't want to.”

He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her into him. She reached up on her tiptoes and laid a kiss on his lips. “So I guess we both have our secrets then, huh?”

He nodded, leaning his forehead down to touch hers. “I guess we do.”

“So if we’re together are we considered one of those power couples?”

He laughed at her. “Yeah. I think that's why Ty has a bit of a problem with us.”

“Yeah, I guess I can understand that. So your dad is a chieftain?”

“And you’re Bradwick royalty?”

“Yeah, I guess things just got a lot more interesting.”

“Yeah, they did.”