“I’m not saying a word,” he swore. “Promise me you’ll think about it. There are other ways to be safe.
Your brother, maybe.”
“Until someone comes after him, too.” She didn’t sound scared, just resigned and tired.
“Okay, look—”
“What’s going on?” Abby stood in the doorway, her hair hanging in wet tendrils around her head and shoulders. “Brynn?”
Brynn smiled at her sister and, if he hadn’t seen exhausted misery in her eyes a moment before, he might have believed the expression was real. “I’m fine. Joe played doctor.”
Joe choked on his beer. “Not like that.”
“Oh, for crying out loud.” Brynn closed her eyes and groaned. “Yes, Abby. Joe and I were out here doing dirty, dirty things.”
He opened his mouth to deny it but remained quiet. Abby thinking he was perving on her kid sister was better than Abby knowing said kid sister wanted to become a werewolf. “Want something to eat or drink, Ab?”
“No, thanks.” Abby wrapped her arms around her body. “Gavin and Sam?”
“On their way. They’re going to keep the guy under guard until…”
“Yeah.” She avoided his gaze. “Until.”
Until Keith gets back. The guy was going to wish he’d died. “You want a beer or something, Brynn?”
Brynn acted as though she hadn’t heard him. Her gaze was focused on her sister, and he could see the guilt in her eyes. “I’m okay, Abby. We’re both okay.”
A knock interrupted Abby’s answer, and she hurried toward the door, yanked it open and greeted the alpha pair.
Gavin rested his hands on Abby’s shoulders. “You’re all right? You and Brynn?”
Joe cleared his throat. “They’re both fine. Brynn came to me, and Abby took care of it.”
As Gavin comforted Abby, his wife slipped past them and fixed her gaze on Brynn. After a few
assessing seconds, Sam looked to Joe. “She doesn’t need to see Cindy?”
“A scratch, that’s all. She’s okay.” Her mental state was another matter entirely, but he doubted anything short of an audience with Gavin would make her feel better.
Sam nodded. “We can’t get ahold of Keith. Have you got space for them here, or should they come home with us?”
He tensed. “They can stay here. That was the plan, if anything happened.” Abby he could let go, but she wouldn’t leave without Brynn, and he wasn’t sure how he’d react if she walked out. The protectiveness he’d felt from the moment he’d hauled her out of Matthews’ compound hadn’t faded. If anything, it was stronger than ever.
Gavin steered Abby toward the couch and solved the problem with a short command. “Here will be fine. The ladies can have Joe’s bed, and Joe can take the sofa or the floor.”
Brynn’s gaze found Joe’s, and she smiled at him before rising to follow Abby to the couch. Her earlier annoyance at her sister’s overprotectiveness seemed to be gone—or well hidden. “Thank you, Joe.”
“You’re welcome.” He sat on the edge of the couch as Abby began to talk, relating to the alphas what had happened. He watched Brynn, and only sheer force of will kept him from sliding a comforting hand over hers as she closed her eyes and listened.
Chapter Two
Brynn ground her teeth together and tried to keep Joe’s words at the front of her mind as she watched him prepare breakfast. She can’t help it. She can’t help it.
Maybe Abby couldn’t help being a bossy, overprotective ass, but knowing that didn’t help Brynn deal with it. They’d barely gotten settled back in after Keith’s arrival when the alphas had shown up, and Brynn had been banished like a child, only not to her room. No, they’d sent her back to Joe’s cabin to sit under his watchful eye like a misbehaving kid under house arrest.
The fact that Joe didn’t get to participate in the conversations either was only mildly comforting.
He slid a plate of scrambled eggs and sausage in front of her and dropped into the chair across the table with his own plate. “They’re trying to figure out what to do with you. So you’ll be safe.”
As if that made her feel better. “And that’s not a conversation anyone thinks I should be a part of?”
Joe snorted. “Your solution to the problem is to change your entire life in a way you can’t even begin to understand. You want to dunk a whole house in the ocean to put out a kitchen fire. It’s ridiculous.”
Anger flooded her, and this time she didn’t have to choke it back to avoid upsetting Abby. “A kitchen fire. I was kidnapped out of my home and held hostage for two days while a bunch of creepy f**king werewolves threatened me with just about every disgusting, perverted thing you can imagine. But I’m sorry, I must be overreacting. I must be a hysterical little girl to think that’s more than a minor inconvenience.”
He chewed his eggs and shook his head. “You seem to think none of that would happen, if only you were a wolf. But you don’t get it.”
She shoved her plate away and glared. “I don’t think anything stupid like that. I think it very well may happen to me. Three people have chased us into the middle of your sacred little sanctuary. If they snatch me again, I want to have a chance of fighting back.”
“If you could get away,” he argued, “you wouldn’t have to fight back at all. You wouldn’t have to deal with this shit anymore.”
“Until someone else gets mad enough at Keith or Abby and decides to find some leverage. Or am I supposed to hide, too?”
He stared at her, a muscle in his jaw jumping, and shrugged again. “It’s none of my business. You want to go back while they talk about you? Go.”
For a few seconds she considered doing just that, but her anger faded as his resistance did. It left nothing in its place but bone-deep weariness and a sick fear that had gnawed at her since she’d been kidnapped. She covered her face with her hands and tried to push away the fear. “I’m sorry, Joe. You’ve been really great. You’ve risked your life for me, for us…and I shouldn’t be yelling at you.”
He dropped his fork to his plate with a clatter. “What are you really afraid of, Brynn? Of having to be protected?”
The words escaped before she could stop them. “Of not being protected. Of being helpless.”
Her admission seemed to pain him. “I can teach you how to take care of yourself. Hell, I could show you a ton of things that wouldn’t turn your life upside down.” He hesitated. “There’s no going back from it. Even if you regret it.”
She dropped her hands and opened her eyes, focusing on Joe’s face to fight the rising panic. “Abby stabbed Alan Matthews in the throat and shot him, like, five times in the chest. He’s still alive. What the hell can I do to protect myself?”
“It only takes one shot, if you do it right.”
He sounded so sure, so confident. Then again, she supposed he should. Her memories of the rescue were blessedly vague, but she would never forget the look on Joe’s face as he killed her captor with three efficient shots, two to the chest and one that blew off half the man’s head. At first she’d been almost as afraid of him as she had been her kidnappers, but his gentle protectiveness had soothed her terror.
Joe knew how to kill, but she trusted him anyway. That made it easier to nod. “Okay. I want to learn, then. But I’ve only shot a gun once.”
“I taught Abby how to fire without blowing her foot off. If I’d had more time, I’d have turned her into a crack shot.”
The confidence was what did her in. The rigid wall she’d erected cracked, and the terror she’d tried so hard to shove aside bubbled up, bringing tears with it. A year ago she’d been interning under a state senator, doing research to help strengthen gun laws. Now she was going to learn to kill, because if she didn’t—
She was going to hyperventilate. She shoved her chair back blindly and rose to her feet. “I—I need to g-go—” A sob ripped free, and not even shame could keep the misery inside this time.
Her chair crashed against the floor, and Joe moved with unbelievable speed. He folded his arms around her and whispered against her hair. “Shh. You’re all right.”
Brynn gripped his shirt and struggled to bring herself under control, but the words tumbled out without her permission. “I’m not all right, I’m not. But I have to pretend so hard because of Abby— because she can’t handle it—”
“She can handle it better than you think, sweetie. Because she has to.”
She shook her head, kept shaking her head as she clutched at his shoulders and soaked his shirt with the tears she hadn’t been able to shed in the three long weeks since her rescue. Joe held her and whispered soothing words until her sobs gave way to soft sniffles. Finally, he pulled away and smoothed her hair back from her face. “Better?”
Her eyes hurt and she felt foolish, but the painful, choking press of emotions had eased. “I guess, a little. Only now I have to go wash my face before Abby shows up. She’ll freak if she finds out I was crying.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I’d better change my shirt, then.”
She glanced down and found his shirt wet and creased where her fists had bunched the fabric. Warmth filled her cheeks as she tried to stroke out the wrinkles with her fingertips. “Sorry.”
Joe caught her hands and smiled. “It’s okay. Go wash your face.”
For a brief, heart-pounding moment, all she wanted to do was sink into his embrace again. Joe was strong. Hard and dangerous, but gentle with her. He wasn’t the sort of man she’d been attracted to before, but he offered her something no one else could now. A chance to feel safe.
And it doesn’t hurt that he’s handsome as hell. Any woman would be distracted by the hard chest under her hands, or the leashed strength in those fingers. Biological reaction. No one can blame me.