CHAPTER NINETEEN
I'm standing with my back pressed against the wall beside Angel's room, and when I look down, I see a pool of blood forming under the door.
It's been weeks since I've had this nightmare, and my heart thuds painfully loud because it's one of the worst.
Even though I know what I'll find inside, even though I'm screaming in my head not to reach out and push the handle down, I do.
It's as if my body and my mind have disconnected. All I can do is watch as, in slow motion, my hand reaches for the handle and closes around the metal, and just like always, it's cold.
I swallow hard, just as I always do, right before I squeeze.
Someone calls my name, and the sound is distant, as if coming from a long way off.
It has me frowning because this isn't part of the nightmare. There's never anyone in it but me. No one alive, that is.
Shaking my head because I know I must be hearing things, I turn my attention back to the door I'm desperate not to open. Slowly, I turn the handle and brace myself for what I'll find.
That's when I hear my name again, sounding a little louder this time, but not loud enough, not distinct enough for me to make out who it is.
It's vaguely familiar, and I pause for a second as I try to work out where I've heard it before.
Then I hear it again, only this time it's right against my ear. So close I feel the brush of lips against the shell of my ear. "Savannah." At the same time, a heavy hand presses down on my shoulder, the same shoulder I told Jeremy never to grab.
My reaction is instinctive.
I spin from the door and punch. Hard.
Bone crunches.
An unexpected pain in my hand shocks me, and then I'm blinking as I struggle to understand where I am, why my hand hurts, and why I'm in a room so devoid of light that I can't see a thing.
"Fuck. I think you broke my nose."
Oh.
Right.
The voice in my dream.
"Jeremy?" I whisper, even though I know it can't be him. It just doesn't feel like him.
"No. Jackson. His brother."
I start asking about Jeremy, then I stop. "Jeremy has a brother? Why didn't he tell me?"
"How about we go ask him? Come on, let's go."
I feel the disturbance of air in front of my face as he moves, likely rising to his feet. Not that I see a damn thing.
"Here, grab my hand."
I slap his hand back. "Hey! Watch it. Only two people get to put their hand where you just had it and you aren't one of them."
There's a moment of silence, then a choked laugh. "Uh, sorry about that."
I can feel his embarrassment, which makes it easier to forgive him.
Since I have a better idea about where Jackson is now, I raise my hand toward him. But then a thought occurs to me, and I draw my hand back. "I'm not in danger of putting my hand… you know… somewhere… private, am I?"
"How should I know?" Jackson asks, sounding like he's shrugging.
I stare at where he must be standing or crouching since his voice is coming from slightly above me. "You're both perverts. Aren't you?"
"Probably. Come on, we don't have long to get you out of here."
I reach out and thankfully grab hold of what feels like his thigh instead of something likely to get me into trouble with Jeremy. It's big. A lot bigger than I was expecting.
Jackson promptly takes my hand and places it on an equally muscled arm.
"Wow, you must seriously work out," I murmur, as I slowly get to my feet and follow his confident steps across the basement.
"You thinking you've ended up with the wrong brother?"
"You're both Stones," I whisper back. "I doubt there's a right one."
"Mmm, lucky Jeremy," he says. "Careful, there are stairs. Just take them one at a time."
With Jackson walking ahead of me up the stairs, it's easy for me to tell where the next one is and I follow along, one step at a time.
When we reach the top, Jackson pauses for a second, and I get the sense he's listening with his head cocked, even if I can't see him doing it.
He moves forward a step, and I follow with my hand wrapped around as much of his left arm as I can.
I shut my eyes to a sliver to protect them from the light after being near blinded the last time, but when we step into a dingy and dark hallway, I realize the hallway isn't just dark because there are no lights on, but because it's night-time.
How long was I in the basement?
In front of me is a hulking guy who is… built. Like, hits the gym every single day of the week, even on a Sunday level of built.
And I punched him in the face. Wow.
Without a word, Jeremy leads the way to a door at the end of the hallway, and we step out onto the Merrick house porch.
We creep down the front stairs, and then we're sprinting across the clearing and darting into the forest. I count my lucky blessings that other than a mild discomfort in my belly, sleeping seems to have helped work out the sickness caused by the tranq dart from my system, so I easily keep up with Jackson.
For several minutes I follow Jackson, wanting to know where he's taking me, but not knowing if we need to stay silent until we're further away from the house.
Finally, Jackson slows to a walk and then stops before he drops my hand and deliberately steps away from me.
As I'm turning to ask him why we've stopped, I'm grabbed and hauled against an overly warm body before lips find mine. Instantly, I know who it is.
Jeremy.
I wrap my arms and legs around him and kiss him back.
He backs us against a tree and tangles his hands in my hair. I moan into his mouth as our kiss turns frantic, and then I grab at the hem of his shirt because I need him right now.
"Uh, yeah. Guys, maybe hold off on the tender loving for a second."
The voice, so like Jeremy's, reminds me we're not alone.
Only Jeremy doesn't seem to care.
He continues to kiss me with a thoroughness that has me wishing Jackson would go far, far away, for another minute before breaking away to gaze up at me with a smile in his eyes. "Hey, sweet."
I know I'm wearing a stupid smile as I stare down at him with my arms wrapped around his shoulders. I'm so relieved to see him it's unreal. "Hey," I murmur.
And then we just stand there, staring at each other.
Jackson clears his throat. "Yeah, well. We need to move. You find that other shifter, Jer?"
My smile falls away at Jackson's words, and I turn to him before freezing.
Wow.
He's like a seriously hot, built, shaggy-haired version of Jeremy.
"What do you mean, hot version?" Jeremy snarls.
Which is when I realize I've been thinking out loud.
Oops.
"And close your mouth."
I snap my gaping mouth shut and turn away from the smirking man-beast Jackson to a glowering Jeremy. "I just meant he was hot. You know I think you're hot."
Jeremy narrows his eyes as if he doesn't believe me. Then his expression shifts, and he starts looking a lot less angry.
I glare at him. "No. I am not about to do whatever nasty fantasy popped into your head to prove it."
The glower returns, and Jackson barks out a laugh. "Oh, I like her, Jer. I really do."
To my relief, Jeremy aims his ire at Jackson next. "Shut up. And what happened to your nose? You're bleeding."
"Your mate, that's what," Jackson grumbles.
Jeremy turns back to me, except this time he doesn't look pissed. His eyes are creased with concern. "You had a nightmare."
I blink at him in surprise. "How did you know?"
"Maybe because you damn near took my head off when I tried to wake you before."
At the mention of my nightmares, especially in front of a stranger, even if it is Jeremy's brother, I wriggle and look away. "How about putting me down now?"
Jeremy holds onto me tighter and tugs my head back to him, so we're eye to eye. "You okay?"
"It's no big deal. I'm fine. And when were you planning on telling me you had a brother?" I demand as I shove at his chest to remind him to put me down sometime this century.
Reluctantly, Jeremy lowers me on my feet, though the glower is back, and I don't understand why until he speaks.
"Tonight. I was going to introduce you to the new alpha of Dawley tonight. Only I get back to the hotel for the front desk to tell me they saw my mate leaving with a bag. A bulging one, they said. Running away, in other words. Luckily someone found your bag outside and it was easy to work out something must've happened to you."
I guess I have some explaining to do.
Then the rest of his words hit me. "What do you mean, the new alpha of Dawley?"
Jackson's sigh is full of frustration. "Seriously, have you two had a single conversation? Do you just fuck and argue all day?"
I stare at Jeremy, and he stares back. We turn to Jackson.
"So, what's the plan?" we ask him in unison.
Which turns out to be exactly the wrong thing to say, because suddenly Jeremy and Jackson are glaring at me, and I know they're about to tell me it isn't safe.
"I'm coming," I say, cutting them off before they can say a word.
Although Jackson has a fierce glower on his face, one that matches Jeremy's almost exactly, Jeremy grabs hold of my arm and tugs me away.
"Come on, we need to talk."
"I don't see why you're leading me away. It's not like Jackson won't hear," I mutter.
Jackson's low voice follows us. "She has you there, Jer."
"Fuck off, Jackson," Jeremy says without any heat, in the tone of someone who's said the same thing more times than they could count.
"He's older, isn't he?" I ask Jeremy.
"Yeah, by five years. Was it the wrinkles that gave him away?" Jeremy asks, his lips curving into a grin when Jackson's curse follows us.
"No, just wondered." I go back to wondering as Jeremy leads us further away from Jackson. If Jackson is five years older, that puts him in his early thirties, which is kind of unusual since we shifters mate younger than that, especially alphas.
"Jeremy, why doesn't Jackson have a mate?"
Jeremy halts and swings to face me. "This isn't you volunteering, is it? Because you remember you're taken, right?"
Even though it's night, and we're in a dark forest, I see enough of his expression to guess what he's saying.
I step into his body, sliding my arms around his shoulders before I rise onto my tiptoes and kiss him. In response, Jeremy smooths his hands down my back and grips my ass, grinding his cock against me with a low groan.
Although I don't say a word, I tell him with my kiss that I have a mate, and it's not Jackson.
When Jeremy breaks the kiss and gazes down into my face, he's smiling.
It's a new smile, soft and warm, and one I don't know how to respond to, so I take my hands off him and step back. "I think we're far enough away for you to say what you want to, so I can tell you it's not going to change my mind about going with you, and then we can go back to Jackson."
My words wipe the smile off his face.
When Jeremy presses my back against a tree with a heavy sigh, I guess this isn't going to be the angry tongue lashing I was expecting.
"Savannah, this won't be the same as the Blackshaw fight against the Merrick pack," he starts.
I blink at him in confusion because he shouldn't know anything about that fight unless he's been talking with Dayne. "Jeremy?"
Jeremy shakes his head. "Another time. We'll talk, I promise."
From somewhere behind us, I hear Jackson snort. Jeremy and I ignore it.
"Look, Jackson's slipped into this would-be pack and there are some seriously nasty shifters here."
I think of Loren and Maria and frown. Maria, I didn't trust, but she's a submissive wolf, and although Loren was a bitch, I wouldn't describe her as seriously nasty. The guy who stabbed me, maybe. "But-"
Jeremy shakes his head. "You wouldn't have seen most of them. Jackson has. There's more, and they're coming to the house, tonight. Presumably, they wanted to have some fun with you before they started cutting pieces off you."
His eyes are dark and there's a growl in his voice that tells me how much he's holding back.
"So, they'll be looking for me, then. Specifically." My mouth goes dry at the thought of the guy from the hotel. The one who stabbed me.
"Loren said there was a shifter called Chris who was going to be doing it. Cutting pieces off me." As soon as I say the words, I wish I didn't when Jeremy's eyes turn wolf, and his fingers grip me tighter.
"No one is going to be-"
I lean into him. "I know. But how many are we expecting?"
"Six. Maybe seven. There might be more," Jackson says, emerging from the forest. "It's clear they don't trust me. Jer and I planned on dealing with some of them earlier, but none of them were where they told me they'd be. They probably think I'm interested in the top job once we get rid of the new would-be alpha of Dawley and his mate."
I stare at Jackson as I try to process his words before turning to Jeremy.
"It was all a set-up. You wanted them-you wanted all of them to think you and I were going to lead so Jackson could join their ranks."
He nods. "Yes. What we have here is a mix of some of the nastiest shifters in the country, Savannah. Some have reputations so bad, even I don't want to be anywhere near them."
I think back to grinning Stabby McStabberson back at the hotel and I get the message.
"Savannah?"
I turn to Jackson, and at the apology in his hazel eyes, I shake my head. "Don't you dare apologize for that."
He nudges Jeremy aside, and to my surprise, Jeremy doesn't tell him to fuck off, which makes me think they talked about this before.
Jackson steps closer and places a large hand at the back of my head before leaning in close, sending his shaggy, shoulder-length hair spilling forward. "I was tailing him. I should've seen what he would do, and instead, I was slow. I have plenty to apologize for."
I reach up and cover his hand with mine. "You saved me. That's what matters."
Jackson flashes a quick grin and bends to press a kiss to my brow. "I think we'll have to disagree about that, but thanks," he says, and releases me before retreating.
For a second, I think about all the danger I'll be putting myself into, and even though the idea of seeing Chris sends alarm shooting through me, I know can't walk away.
Going back to the hotel and sitting on my thumbs feels wrong on so many levels that I can't see myself doing it. Maybe it's the alpha part of me, or maybe it's something else, I don't know.
I might be face to face with shifters like Owen. Like Abel. Something in Jeremy's eyes warns me this is a real possibility.
He's trying to protect me from more of the nightmares, more of the ghosts.
I suck in a deep breath before releasing it, then I step out of my boots and reach for my shirt.
"Savannah, what are you doing?" Jeremy asks.
"Getting ready to shift." I pull my shirt over my head.
"Savannah."
I lift my head and meet Jeremy's eyes. "These shifters are dangerous. If we don't stop them, they will hurt someone else, and I refuse to let that happen. So, I'm going to shift, and so are you and Jackson, and we're going to put a stop to all of this, once and for all."
Jeremy stares into my eyes for a long moment, then he hauls me close for a brief hard kiss before he reaches for his shirt.
I unbutton my jeans, start tugging them down my legs.
"Jackson, will you take your fucking eyes off my mate," Jeremy snarls, making me jump.
I turn to find Jackson eyeing me, and I smile brightly at him. "Sorry, I'm Jeremy's, you'll have to get your own."
Jackson's bark of surprised laughter has a smile spreading across my face as he turns his back. "Sure thing, darlin'. Sure thing."
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