The Gathering (7 page)

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Rayna vaguely wondered if the anger she felt
was of her own making or if it was the wolf. She could still feel
the thing inside of her. It was restless. Pacing around like a
caged animal and the feeling was so odd she had to mentally shake
herself just to get the sensation to go away.

Garrett had yet to speak but she wasn’t sure
he even could. He was still angry. The set of his jaw and the look
in his eyes told her that. His fists were clenched and the muscle
in his cheek was twitching. But that wasn’t all. The way he was
looking at her left her feeling cold. It was as if something had
changed between them and she hadn’t been quick enough to see
it.

She glanced at Bryce, watching him stare at
anything but her and felt what little patience she had left slip.
No one was speaking. The room was filled with people; most of the
pack hovered around the doorway, and no one would even look at her.
Even Judith was studying her feet.

Crossing her arms under her breasts, she
looked at Bryce. “Since Garrett has lost the ability to speak, tell
me what I’m missing here.”

Bryce cleared his throat and glanced at
Garrett. “Carmen’s challenged you for right to be Garrett’s
mate.”

“Yeah, I got that part. What the hell does it
mean?”

“It means…” He sighed and leaned against the
arm of the sofa. “She wants you gone, Rayna. Either you fight her
for the right to stay or you walk away.”

“Walk away?”

He nodded. “Leave the mountain.” He glanced
at Garrett again. “Alone. Unless Garrett will go with you.”

The question in Bryce’s voice made Rayna look
to Garrett. He was still staring at her. “Who will protect the pack
if we leave?”

No one answered. The look on everyone’s face
made sense now. If her and Garrett left together, they left the
pack vulnerable. No one would be there to protect them. Carmen
would walk back into the house and make their lives a living hell
again. That only left two options. Fight Carmen or walk away,
alone, just as Bryce said.

The reality of her choices must have shown on
her face. Slowly, everyone in the room turned and left, leaving her
and Garrett to stare at each other. As the noise in the house grew
silent, the realization of what happened sank in.

She’d lost Garrett once and spent eight
months wishing she’d had him back. His hateful remarks and snide
comments to her, just to drive her away, hadn’t worked. She’d still
wanted him and by some twist of fate, they’d found each other
again. Now, two months later, she was right back where she’d
started. He was as untouchable now as he’d been in Bluff’s Point.
Standing right in front of her, within reach, and she couldn’t have
him.

Long minutes passed, both of them staring at
the other before he crossed the room and stopped in front of her.
She stared up at him and didn’t have the strength to open her mouth
and say anything.

Garrett raised his hand, threading his
fingers through her hair. He kissed her forehead, holding his lips
to her skin as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I should
have never followed you to that bar. I knew the moment I first
caught your scent I should leave you alone.” He sighed. “The wolf
wouldn’t let me, though. And when I saw you sitting in that corner
booth, laughing at something Mitch said... I wanted you more than
anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.”

He looked down at her then and Rayna knew
he’d made a decision. She could see it in his eyes. He was going to
let her go. Her heart broke again at the realization. He was going
to send her away just like he’d done in Bluff’s Point. He’d push
her away to protect her regardless of what he wanted. “I’m not
leaving,” she said, cursing her trembling voice when it came out
weak. “You can’t make me.”

“You have to, Rayna.”

Her hurt turned to anger then and she let it
come. It dried the tears burning her eyes and fed the wolf with
rage enough to keep her voice strong. “Do you want her? Is that why
you’re just going to let me go again?”

“Rayna...”

“Did you claim her when you were here twelve
years ago?”

“No. It was an accident.”

“An accident?” She laughed and shook her
head. “How do you accidentally claim someone, Garrett?”

His eyes flashed gold and his hold on her
hair tightened. “I marked her, Rayna, but I didn’t claim her. I
didn’t want her. The wolf didn’t want her. There’s a big difference
in marking someone and claiming them.”

She looked at the marks on his neck, her gaze
following the four claw marks she’d given him. “This was an
accident,” she said, reaching up and touching his neck. “Yet you
accepted it as a claim even though I didn’t say that was my
intention. What makes that any different than what Carmen did?”

He stiffened, his eyes flashing from brown to
amber. “The difference is you were already mine. I was never hers
and I never will be.”

“And if I leave? Will she be yours, then?”
His eyes changed back into the soft tawny brown she was used to
seeing. She knew she was being selfish and only thinking of
herself. Her pain was his also. She could see it on his face; the
loss she felt wasn’t for her and her alone.

“She’ll never be in my bed, Rayna. Regardless
of what happens, she’ll never be welcome there.”

The fight left her then. The tears were
burning again and Rayna closed her eyes to keep them from falling.
She leaned against him, laying her head on his chest before
sighing. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“And I don’t want you to leave.”

“But…”

“I don’t know what else to do, Rayna. You
can’t fight her. You’ll never win.”

“I can try to get the wolf to come out. She
almost did once. Surely it won’t be hard if I actually want her
to.”

He shook his head. “It won’t matter if you
do. No one is born an Alpha and only an Alpha will stand a chance
against her in a fight. It takes years to gain the strength you’d
need to fight her. If you shifted today, your wolf would be weak as
a kitten.”

“So that’s it, then?” she asked, lifting her
head to look at him. “I just let her have you and go back to
Bluff’s Point like nothing ever happened?”

“Don’t go back to Bluff’s Point. It’s too
dangerous. You can’t control the wolf. You have to be with the pack
until you have power to control her actions.”

Rayna laughed and stepped away from him.
“Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t go home and I’m sure as
hell not staying here,” she said, her voice rising as the anger
returned. “If I can’t have you I’ll be damned if I stand by and
watch you play house with that bitch.”

“It won’t be like that.”

“No? What will it be like then? Are you going
to ignore her every second of the day? Pretend she isn’t in the
house? Push her away every time she flashes her tits at you?” She
walked across the room and stopped at the doorway when he said her
name. She turned, anger causing the tears she’d kept in check to
slip from her eyes. “I can’t stay here and watch you with her
anymore than you could watch me with someone else, regardless of
the fact they shared my bed or not. She wants you and she’ll do
everything in her power to get you, Garrett. It’s only a matter of
time before she’ll succeed and you’re a fool if you think she won’t
end up in your bed.”

He stared at her and didn’t deny her claims.
Visions of Carmen seducing him flashed before her minds eye and she
felt that entity now taking up residence inside her flesh stretch.
The wolf slinked along her bones and howled so loud inside her head
she was sure the entire house heard it.

“Where will you go?”

“As far from here as I can get.” Wiping
angrily at her face, brushing the tears away, Rayna straightened
her spine. “But don’t worry; I’ll take someone with me when I go.
I’m sure there’s one person in this house who will stand by me
regardless of the cost.”

Bryce waited until Rayna had climbed the
stairs before continuing down the hall. He hadn’t meant to listen
in on their conversation but their voices had grew steadily louder
with each passing second.

He stared down at the cup in his hand. The
blood for the vampire was getting cold. He wasn’t sure if Garrett
even wanted to talk but just walking away seemed wrong. Looking up
the stairs when he heard the slamming of a door, he shook his head
and walked to the living room doorway.

Garrett was standing near the fireplace,
staring at the cold bricks. His back was to him but even from
across the room, Bryce could see how beaten he looked. His head was
lowered, his shoulders drooping.

He cleared his throat. “Is there anything
you’d like me to do?” He waited for long minutes and when no answer
came, he turned and headed for the stairs. The sound of his name
stopped him.

Walking back to the living room, Garrett met
him at the doorway. The look on his face was one he hadn’t seen
since the night of the fight with Malcolm.

“Jacob was with Carmen. I won’t believe for a
minute its by choice.”

Bryce nodded. “I saw him, too.”

“We have to get him back.”

“How do you want to go about doing that?”

“I’d personally like to rip every member of
Carmen’s little pack into shreds but I don’t know how many of them
are in the same situation Jacob is. We can’t assume they’re all
there by choice.”

Bryce had never thought of that. Just because
Caleb had created a small pack of werewolves didn’t mean they all
wanted the same things Caleb did. Or the same things Carmen did,
for that matter. Just because they were there didn’t automatically
lump them into the bad-guy camp. “You’re right. I have Gavin and
Ethan patrolling the edge of the forest. Do you want me to have
them go in further to see where they’re camped?”

Garrett was quiet for long moments before
slowly shaking his head. “No. Bring everyone back to the house,
even those watching the town and the main road. I’ll meet you, and
the others, back here in an hour.” He walked away then, taking the
stairs two at a time.

Bryce followed a few minutes later, making
his way to the third floor where the vampire’s room was. He knocked
before opening the door and walking in. She was standing by the
window. Her hair was brushed; a riot of brown curls falling down
her back. She’d showered, he noticed. She didn’t smell like a
rotting corpse now. The scent of shampoo and soap filled the room
and he had to admit it lifted his mood a bit. Having to face her at
all was a daunting task but her smelling like walking death just
reminded him of what she was.

He stopped when she turned to face him. They
stared at one another for endless moments and if someone were to
ask him later what it was that caused his feelings toward her to
shift, he wouldn’t be able to answer. It may have been the look in
her eyes. Fear was something he’d never seen in a vampire before
but this girl looked at him as if he were about to execute her.
Yesterday, he would have without a second thought. He wasn’t so
sure now.

She was wearing a nightgown. The white
material swallowed her whole and she looked like a child playing
dress up. Moonlight from the windows shined through the material
and gave him a glimpse of what lay beneath. There was nothing
girlish about what he saw, then. Long limbs and full breasts caused
his wolf to stir. It prowled just beneath the surface and he had to
swallow to keep his chest from rumbling as a growl worked its way
up his throat. She was pretty, he thought, with surprise. Her
features were delicate looking. High cheekbones, large eyes in a
dark shade of green and her lips were full.

He blinked and looked at the cup he held.
Seeing it reminded him why he was there. “I brought you something
to eat. It’s not exactly warm. Do you want me to heat it back up
for you?”

A barely noticeable shake of her head was all
he got in return. He watched her stare back at him before he
cleared his throat and crossed the room, sitting the cup down on
the dresser. She never moved and her gaze didn’t stray. A tingle
raced up his spine and he backed away from the dresser, edging
closer to the door. “I’m Bryce.” He felt like an idiot the moment
the words were out of his mouth. He’d told her his name in the
mine. He was sure she remembered it.

He wondered how many people in the house knew
her name. Lydia. He tested the sound of it in his head. It suited
her for some reason. He wasn’t about to examine why he even cared
but he repeated the name a few times before looking away from her.
He could hear the sound of voices and remembered what he was
supposed to be doing.

Nodding to the cup, he said, “Someone will
bring you something else in the morning. Do you need anything?”

She shook her head again, a long curl falling
over her shoulder as she did. He stared at it draped over her left
breast. The urge to run his fingers through those tightly woven
curls made his fingers twitchy. He cleared his throat again. “Well,
goodnight, then.”

He turned and practically ran from the room.
When the door clicked into place, he exhaled a long, noisy breath.
He stared at the floor, replaying the entire encounter again in his
minds eye. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Looking back at the door, he imagined her
there, the cup he’d brought her clasped in her hands as she drank
the contents. He glanced at his wrist, irritation taking hold as he
spotted the bandage there. Tugging at his shirtsleeve to cover the
wound, he shook his head and walked away from her door. He reminded
himself of why he hated vampires with a mental list of every
disgusting, annoying trait he could think of about the species. The
mantra worked. Or at least he told himself it did.

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