Chpt. 4 APOV:
"Thank you," I say after a few minutes of silence.
"For?" he asks sharply.
"For not leaving me and just calling 911 or having the driver just drop me off at an emergency room somewhere. He….he would have found me if you had done that."
"Tony?"
"Yeah," I whisper.
"Who is he? Did he do this to you?"
"He's…he's my husband."
"Your husband did that?!"
He's up from the chair he had been sitting in and pacing the floor, the look of shock evident on his face. His fists are balled and he looks…angry isn't even the right word, furious maybe. Which really doesn't make any sense, it's not like he knows me. I watch as he paces the floor in front of the couch, not sure what to say.
"There's so many things I'll never understand about your world," he mumbles as he walks past me.
"It happens everywhere," I shrug.
"Not here," he turns and hisses. "I spoke with my father after Elliot represented a woman who had been…abused by her husband, he said in all the packs history, even across the other packs he has never heard of a case of abuse. It's not in our nature; we protect our families, our wives, our community. We don't take our anger out on others."
"Consider yourself lucky," I sigh. "It happens all too often everywhere else."
"I'll never understand how someone stays…fuck I'm sorry-"
"I was leaving him," I interrupt firmly. "He hit me three times during our mariage; the first time he apologized profusely and told me how horrible he felt. He swore he would never do it again, that it was a one time thing and that I had nothing to worry about. Stupidly I believed him and for a couple of months I thought I would never see that side of him again."
"What happened?" Christian practically growls at me.
"I'm not even sure," I shake my head. "He had come home in a rotten mood that day, which wasn't out of the ordinary but he usually cooled down after a drink or two. But that night, something was different because he remained on edge all night. He stormed into the kitchen, catching me off guard because I thought he was still in his office. I had been washing the dinner dishes and dropped a plate when he startled me…he…he freaked out. I had never seen him that angry before; he….he punched me in the face and pushed me so hard into the island that a couple of ribs ended up cracking."
"Fucking bastard," despite his obvious angry tone, I'm not scared of him. Like somehow I know that he won't hurt me, which is almost funny considering it wasn't that long ago that I was convinced that he would kill me.
"I should have left after that night; he had a look in his eye when he took in the immediate bruising around my eye that I'll never forget," I shiver at the memory of that look.
"Why didn't you?"
"I should have," I sigh. "But by that point I had no one to turn to. He was controlling, something I didn't' recognize at first. It was small things and he would always make an excuse; telling me he was screening my calls, my emails, my text messages for my own safety. He would tell me that there were threats against him because of his business and that he was doing it to keep me safe. What I didn't realize then was that he was slowly cutting me off from anyone outside of his circle. So the next day when he came home with flowers, a bottle of wine and an apology I was torn. I told him that I refused to live like that and that if he hit me one more time that I would leave him."
"That's why you were in the woods that night, you were running from him."
"I warned him, I told him I would leave if he hit me again," I repeat. "I went to his office to tell him dinner was done, like he told me to, but I didn't knock and ended up interrupting a call he was on. He split my lip the moment he walked into the kitchen. It was the last straw."
"He broke your leg and nearly your wrist because you told him you were leaving him?"
"No, that happened when I was leaving. He sat down to eat, as if nothing happened and I went upstairs to grab the bag I had packed after…the last time. I guess he came to see what I was doing because when I turned around he was standing in the bedroom doorway. We argued at the top of the steps and he pushed me."
"He fucking pushed you down the steps?"
"He stood at the top of the stairs and laughed at me; he told me that no one ever leaves him. He was going to do me a favor and give me an hour head start before he sent his guys to look for me. He warned me when they brought me back that he wouldn't go easy on me, his words."
"Fuck Ana."
"I drove for awhile, but I knew he could track my movements by my phone and I'm sure he had something on the car. So I found a rest stop, took cash out of the ATM and tried to grab as much as I could. I knew that I couldn't carry the duffel bag that I had originally packed, my ankle was going to be hard enough to walk on let alone with the added weight of a fully packed duffel bag. So I took a few things and left the rest in the car."
"Where's the phone now?"
"I left it in the car."
"Thank fuck for that," he runs his hands through his hair continuing to pace the room. He hasn't stopped moving since we started talking. I have no idea why I'm telling him all of this; I've never told anyone about those two times. I never told anyone about how controlling he was, yet I'm telling Christian everything.
"He's never going to find you," when I look up he's kneeling on the floor next to the couch. "He'll never hurt you again."
"He would have already found me if it wasn't for you," I smile sadly at him. "I wouldn't have been able to go much further and definitely not very fast. I doubt he would have thought I would have hiked into the woods, but when I showed up in the next town and tried to buy supplies someone would have contacted him. I never could have made it this far away from Vegas without you. Hell I might not have made it through the night if it wasn't for you."
"You could go to the police-"
"No, God no," I shake my head adamantly.
"He should pay for what he did to you," he growls at me.
"I can't…they won't help me, hell half of them probably work for him."
"He shouldn't be able to get away with that!" he waves his hand over me clearly referring to my injuries.
"I know, but they won't help me. Please, I just need…just a couple of days and I'll be out of your hair then I'll be out of your hair."
"Where would you go?"
"I…I don't know. I just need to stay as far away from Vegas as possible; I can never go back there. I'll figure it out as I go-"
"No."
"No?"
"You…you'll stay here."
"Just a for a few days, then I'll-"
"Stay."
He's back to pacing the floor, leaving me more confused than I was earlier and that's saying a lot. I want to ask him what he meant by stay because it sure as hell sounded like he was saying I should stay here longer than the few days I was talking about which makes even less sense. Why would he be insisting I stay here longer? I would think he would be glad for me to get out of his hair, for him to not have to worry about me. If I thought I could, I'd walk out his front door right now but even I know I can't do that. I'm hoping once a cast is on my ankle that I'll be able to move around better; I'm probably far enough away from Vegas that I can take a bus somewhere.
"Here, you need to eat," he places a plate with a sandwich on my lap along with a bottle of water.
"Thank you," I wasn't hungry until he put the food in front of me but now I'm suddenly starving.
"I need…I'm going to go out for a little while."
"Oh…okay."
"You'll be safe here; outsiders don't come onto our land."
"Okay."
"Here, take my phone," he places his cell phone on the couch next to me. "If you need me, call Taylor…his number is in the contacts. His wife might answer if we're out running, but tell her you need to talk to me and she'll…get a hold of me."
"Running…so you're going to…"
"Yeah, my wolf….he's…. I can't keep him down for much longer. He's not….I just need to let him run for awhile."
"Oh."
"I'll be back soon, if you need anything call."
"I'll be fine."
I watch as he walks towards the back of the cabin, the back door closes a few minutes later leaving me alone in Christian's home.
CPOV:
Shedding my clothes before the back door slams shut, I quickly stop fighting and let my wolf come out. Keeping him inside while listening to what that bastard did to Ana took all the strength I had; I've never had to fight so hard to keep him at bay. Even when I first learned to shift, it wasn't this hard. Fuck in there, he was begging to come out. He wanted to go after that fucking bastard. Hell he still does, but at least letting him run right now is helping…a little. He wants to kill the fucking bastard and honestly part of me does as well.
"What's with the urgency?" Taylor runs up aside me.
"Fuck man…."
"What's going on? Is Elliot okay? Your mom? Or-"
"They're fine," I quickly assure him. The entire pack would know if something was wrong with my dad; rarely anything happens to the alpha without the pack knowing. "It's Ana-"
"What's wrong? Are her injuries worse than we thought? Was your mom not able to help her?"
"Mom helped her; she's fairly certain her ankle is broken though she needs to wait until the swelling comes down to confirm and her wrist is badly sprained."
"She tell you who did it?"
"Yeah…fuck man….would you believe it was her fucking husband?"
"I had a feeling it might have been."
"Really? I knew she was on the run, that that's the reason she was in the woods last night but…I don't fucking understand their men," I stop and look out over the vast land the pack owns. Small and large cabins are sprawled out but there's still plenty of open space for us to run and hunt.
"I don't either, fuck just the idea of Gail hurting nearly kills me. How could they hurt the woman they love?"
"I…fuck if I know. She won't go to the cops, she says they won't help her. She thinks they might be working for him."
"She tell you anything about him?"
"Just his first name; I didn't ask anything else."
"Really?"
"Yeah….I was afraid if I asked I wouldn't have been able to control my wolf. He….fuck man, I've never felt him act like that before."
"He wanted to kill him."
"Yeah."
"He's protective of her."
"What the fuck do I do?"
"You keep her safe, let her heal."
"She's talking about leaving in a few days."
"And?"
"And what? Fuck Taylor you saw her she fucking leave! At this point she can't even stand up by herself!"
"You don't want her to leave."
"I want her to be safe and there's no way she can do that on her own with her injuries."
"Have you given any more thought to the possibility that your wolf feels so strongly about her because she's-"
"Shut it."
"Just saying, when I first found Gail my wolf was protective and practically possessive of her. Just another guy looking in her direction had me wanting to rip him from piece to piece."
"The first time you saw her?"
"He knew way before I did; you know I didn't believe in that mate shit."
"Yet here you are."
"Here I am."
Gail and Taylor have been together just a few months now, but the way they are with each other you would think they've been together for much longer. Gail moved into Taylor's cabin about a month or so ago; I'm glad he's happy but still can't believe he jumped on the whole mate bandwagon. Even if I did believe in a mate, how the fuck do you explain that she's a human? As if life as a shifter isn't complicated enough, you have to add in having a human as a mate? Yeah, not going to happen.
"What did your dad say about her?"
"Nothing really," I think back over the conversation we had earlier today. "He was surprised I didn't call 911 for her and let an ambulance pick her up from Kate's grandfather's farm or that I didn't bring her straight to him to deal with when we got back."
"Was he mad?"
"No, surprisingly he wasn't. He said he knew I wouldn't have purposely put the pack in danger, which for whatever reason never even occurred to me when I told Sawyer to bring us back to my place."
"To be honest it only briefly entered my mind when you had Sawyer put her in the van."
"You didn't say anything."
"You saw her….she was obviously not a threat to us and I think needed our help more than anything; that's why I didn't say anything. It's still a risk though, if she leaves here for good…will she keep what she saw and now knows to herself? I think she will but we can't know for certain."
Yeah I don't miss his word choice…saying if she leaves because he's fucking convinced she's my mate which means she won't be leaving the pack no matter what I say.
"She won't say anything."
"You get a little more information on this Tony guy and we can have the team look into him."
"I know; I should have pressed further and gotten his last name but fuck man I've never had to fight shifting so much. I needed to get out of there or I think it would have happened right in front of her and she's not ready to see that."
"No, I'm sure she's not," he chuckles. "I imagine she's just getting her head wrapped around what we are."
"She thought she was hallucinating," I laugh with him needing to lighten the mood a little. "She thought she hallucinated the entire thing."
"Can't say I blame her."
"Me either."
"You said she was married…we can have the team run a background check on her and then-"
"I didn't get her last name either," I shake my head.
"Okay…well find out someone's last name and we can get a search going on him; let's make sure he stays in Vegas."
"She mentioned that he threatened to send his guys after her, so it might not be enough to just keep an eye on him."
"Hmmmm."
"What?"
"She's afraid the police are working for him and he has guys he threatened to send after her; sounds like an interesting character."
"Yeah, I know," I sigh. "I'll see what I can find out; I just….I don't want to push her. I think…I'm pretty sure she barely trusts me right now, which I can't blame her given everything…"
"But you don't want to ruin it."
"Yeah."
"Well, she's safe right now and we'll keep her that way. Having info on who this bastard is would help, but even without it we can keep her safe. We're pretty far from Vegas and we're not a huge tourist spot so I think chances of him coming out here and finding her by chance will be slim but still you might want to suggest she stay within in the pack for awhile."
"Plan on it."
"You good? Gail wanted to go for a quick run tonight before bed, but if you need me to stay-"
"Go, thanks for…running with me tonight."
"Anytime."
I watch as Taylor takes off towards his cabin, running faster than we were obviously eager to get back to Gail. I take a long look over the vast lands before turning around and heading back to my cabin. I let out a sigh of relief when I finally reach the cabin, seeing only the soft light from the living room on and my SUV parked in the driveway. Even though she wouldn't have made it far and I would have heard about it from my dad right away, I couldn't help but worry that she might have tried to leave while I was with Taylor. I don't know that I would blame her; she's suddenly thrust into a world she knows nothing about and is sharing a home with a practical stranger. I quickly shift and grab the clothes I left on the porch, the last thing she needs is to see me walking naked into the living room.
Heading into the cabin, I'm greeted with complete silence. I rush into the living room, my wolf eager to lay eyes on Ana, not putting faith in the obvious signs that she's still here. We both let out a sigh of relief when we finally enter the room and find her. Sound asleep, in nearly the same position she was when I left is Ana on my living room couch. The wheelchair is closer to the couch than it was earlier, which is the only sign that she moved at all since I left. I quickly run upstairs and turn a couple of the lights on so I don't bring Ana up here in the complete darkness. I pull back the blankets on the bed and grab one of my T-shirts and a pair of shorts from my bedroom for her to sleep in. I should have thought about it before, her clothes are dirty from the night spent in the woods. I should have offered her clean clothes and a shower, but all I could think about was getting her to my mother to get checked out. At least tonight she can be in clean clothes, I'll have to ask my mom tomorrow the best way for her to take a bath.
I head back downstairs, taking a few minutes to lock up and turn off the lights, the stairwell light provides enough light to ensure I don't fall over anything. I decide to bring the chair up to the bedroom before Ana, this way if she wakes up and needs to use the restroom or something the chair is already there. Within a few minutes I'm back downstairs, in front of the couch where she's remained sound asleep. However that changes the moment I slip my arms under her legs and back.
"No! Don't touch me!" she screams out and immediately I step back, putting my hands up so she can see them. Her eyes are frantic as she searches the room, though I'm not sure what she's looking for since it's only the two of us here.
"Ana? It's Christian….I just wanted to bring you upstairs to bed."
"Christian," she sounds relieved to see me.
"You okay?" I slowly step back towards her.
"Yeah…I guess it was just a nightmare."
"Want to talk about it."
"I think it's just a sign I'm overtired," she giggles. "I was back at…his house, we were arguing at the top of the stairs but this time when he pushed me, the bears were at the bottom of them waiting for me. They kept circling me; they looked like they wanted to eat me alive."
"There's no one here but you and me; no one, not the bears and not the fucker who did this to you, will get close to you. You're safe here."
"I know."
"You ready to head upstairs to bed?"
"Upstairs?"
"All the bedrooms are up there, plus two full bathrooms. I moved your chair up there and have the room ready for you."
"It would probably be easier if I just slept here-"
"You'd be uncomfortable as hell sleeping on the couch," I quickly interrupt. "My mom said you need rest and lots of it; you're not going to get that on a couch."
"But-"
"No," without giving her any warning, which I probably should have given, I slip my arms back under her and quickly lift her until she's leaning against my chest.
"Oh!"
Her uninjured hand grasps my shirt in a fist but otherwise she doesn't move as I carry her upstairs to the guest bedroom. When I first moved into the cabin, I was in no hurry to set up the extra bedrooms; I didn't see the point in having guest bedrooms. Who the hell would come and stay here? Even if shifters from other packs came for a visit they would all stay at my parent's house; that's one of the alpha's responsibilities and they have more than enough space for it. But my mom insisted that I should have at least one bedroom set up for guests, just in case. Right now, I'm grateful she insisted on that, otherwise Ana would be in my bed and I would be the one sleeping on the couch.
"I brought you a change of clothes to sleep in," I gesture towards the end of the bed as I sit her down on it. "I should have offered you something to wear earlier, and a shower-"
"You've done more than enough, thank you," it's her turn to interrupt.
"I'll talk to my mom tomorrow and find out if we need to do anything special for you to take a bath."
"Thanks."
"The bathroom is right across the hall, you should be able to get the chair in and out of there without a problem. My bedroom is just next door, if you need anything just yell."
"Thank you."
"Good night Ana."
"Good night Christian."
Kiss her, take her into your bed.
I close my eyes as I walk out of the room, urging my wolf back down. I don't understand him, he's never like this with women. Even when I would meet someone at a club in town and got close to them, he never came to the surface. Most of the time, he didn't seem like he cared if I went home with the woman or by myself so him wanting to kiss Ana and take her to bed makes no fucking sense. None at all.