Legacy Found

Chapter Eleven

Shelley sat huddled in one corner of a large sofa. James’s house was rather large for one man. It was built from logs, but there was a rough elegance to the place. A huge fireplace made from natural stone dominated one wall of the living room. A fire crackled and popped in the grate, adding warmth to the space. Several large sofas and chairs were clustered around it, making a cozy seating area she might have appreciated if she weren’t the center of attention.

Alex strode from the kitchen area carrying a tray filled with mugs. Shelley could smell strong, hot coffee and fragrant tea. She shivered and pulled her coat tighter around her.

The men, her brothers—and how weird was it to say that—ranged around the room. The twins sat on the sofa opposite her, Simon sat on the edge of one of the chairs and Joshua was pacing back and forth in front of the hearth. James sat a few feet away from her.

“Here,” Alex set the tray on the wooden coffee table and handed her one of the mugs. “I thought you might like tea better. You’ve had a shock.”

“Thank you.” Shelley accepted the mug and held it between her two hands, thankful for the heat. She sipped the tea. It was sweet, but the warm beverage helped settle her stomach and her nerves.

Joshua stopped pacing and took the mug his wife handed him. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. Shelley noticed he was always watching her, touching her. Her hair, her back, her shoulder. Shelley doubted either of them even noticed. But she did.

Her life had been void of such contact and she was fascinated by the easy way they showed one another affection.

“Shelley?” Joshua sat on the edge of the coffee table, leaving only about a foot of distance between them. Her reprieve was over. “What happened?”

She was tired of answering all the questions. She wanted some answers of her own. “Why don’t you tell me what happened? I don’t remember and I only have one man’s account of what did, and I can’t trust what he told me.”

“Who is he?” Joshua growled.

Shelley held her ground. She raised her mug to her lips and sipped her tea. When Joshua still didn’t answer her, she raised her eyebrow at him in question.

A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. It disappeared as he started to tell his story. “You were only a kid. Fifteen years old.” He took a deep breath and slowly released it. Alex sat next to him on the table and placed her hand on his thigh.

“Isaiah, our older brother, was going for a run in the woods. You couldn’t shift to your wolf yet because you hadn’t reached maturity. But you wanted to go with him. He wanted to go alone. So he told you no and took off. He never knew you followed him.”

Shelley’s head began to throb. What Joshua was telling her sounded like something she’d dreamed years ago. But it obviously hadn’t been a dream, but a memory. “Go on,” she prompted.

Joshua shrugged his massive shoulders. “Not much more to tell. I noticed you weren’t around, but we all assumed you were with Isaiah. The longer you were both gone, the more unlikely that seemed and we started searching for you. When Isaiah returned home and we discovered you weren’t with him, we were all worried sick.”

She swallowed hard as nausea threatened. Her head was pounding. She rubbed her forehead to try to relieve some of the tension tightening around her skull like a vise. “Then what?”

“Then we searched and searched and searched. I thought Isaiah would go mad. He blamed himself for not taking you with him.” Joshua’s hands tightened into fists. “Then we smelled the men. Hunters,” he growled the word like it was foul. “We knew they’d taken you.”

Shelley nodded. The early days of her captivity were a blur, for which she was eternally grateful. She’d been drugged and terrified. And so very young, especially for her species.

At least she knew that her family had cared for her. Had searched for her. That was something.

“Do we have parents?”

Joshua closed his eyes in pain and shook his head. “Our father died years ago, attacked by hunters and rogue werewolves.”

“Dogs,” Levi muttered.

“Our mother died not long after of a broken heart. Losing you and then him was too much for her.”

“I’m sorry.” Shelley really didn’t know what to say. They weren’t real to her. She had no memory of them at all. “That had to have been hard on you.”

Joshua’s head snapped up and he studied her with his bottomless dark eyes. “You don’t remember them, do you?”

She shook her head, unwilling to lie. “No.”

One corner of Joshua’s mouth kicked up in a grin. “You were such a little tomboy, running after all of us. You were closer to Isaiah than you were to our father. He was a busy man. Aloof. That was his way.”

A memory popped into her head of a tall, muscular male with shaggy brown hair and dark brown eyes. He had rugged features that might have been scary except he was smiling at her, teasing her. Was that Isaiah or a figment of her imagination?

At this point, she couldn’t sort out fact from fiction. She was going to assume it was a memory and not imagination.

“Isaiah searched for years. Long after the rest of us had given up. We assumed you were dead.” Joshua hung his head and sighed. When he raised it, she could see the pain shimmering in his eyes. “We should have looked longer and harder.”

Shelley’s throat tightened as Alex leaned against Joshua and rubbed her face against his shoulder. There was such love there. “How long? How long did you look?” She needed to know. It was important if she was ever going to reconcile with her past.

“Years.” Micah leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Decades,” Joshua corrected. “Isaiah never really gave up. Even now, he still searches for information. He always planned on killing your captors if he discovered who they were.”

A single tear escaped and rolled down her face. Shelley swiped it away. Her chest ached and her heart pounded against her ribs. She hadn’t been thrown away. Abandoned, as Tom had claimed. She had a family who’d searched for her. Who’d never forgotten her.

“Thank you.”

All four of her brothers looked pained. “Don’t thank us,” Joshua told her. “We failed you.” He reached out and took her hand, gently rubbing his fingers over hers. “You obviously rescued yourself.”

Shelley tensed. She knew what was coming.

“How did you get away? After all those years.”

She stared at her brother and knew she owed him the truth. Owed it to all of them. Especially to James after he’d insisted she come home with him. Without James, she might never have discovered the truth.

It felt strange to know she had family. She felt no true connection to them. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Only time would tell. Maybe she wasn’t capable of such a connection. The years of captivity had damaged her in many ways.

“Tell us what you remember, Shelley.” James shifted closer, offering his support.

She ignored the pain in her head and slowly withdrew her hand from her brother’s. She took a sip of her tea, letting the warmth slide down her throat and calm her stomach. She offered Alex and the rest of them a strained smile.

“I honestly don’t remember much about that day or those first few months of captivity. I think I was kept drugged.”

Joshua frowned. “But human drugs don’t affect us.”

“I don’t think they were human drugs. More like animal tranquilizers. Heavy doses.” Shelley strained to remember things she’d spent decades trying to forget. “I overheard a lot over the years. And I know he kept a supply on hand in case I escaped.”

She frowned. “I was kept caged for the most part during the early years. At least during the night.”

Joshua growled, a low, deadly sound. Levi and Micah reached toward him, putting their hands on his shoulders. She envied the easy camaraderie between them.

“His name, Shelley. What’s his name?” Simon, the youngest of her brothers, sat forward, his gaze intent.

She swallowed, not wanting to say the name aloud. “Tom,” she whispered.

Shelley looked down at her hands, fully expecting to see Tom’s blood there. She set her mug down and rubbed her palms over her jeans. “I kept his house, cooked his food and did his laundry.” No way did she want to talk about what else had happened.

James touched her shoulder and she leaned into his hand. Of all of them, he was the one who was most familiar to her. The one she trusted. She swallowed hard and forced herself to continue. “The years went on and eventually he’d lock me in a closet at night.” Her ankles bore the scars of all those years of being wrapped in silver-coated manacles every night.

“But you’ve changed into your wolf form, haven’t you?” Joshua frowned.

Shelley nodded.

“How?” This from Micah.

She shook her head. She wasn’t talking about that. She’d told James. She didn’t want to relive it again.

“Shelley?” Joshua prompted.

“No.” She straightened her shoulders. “There are some things you don’t need to know.” Before he could protest, she hurried on. “Anyway, I got away and ran. I found a job about a month later and that’s where James found me.” That was all she was telling them, all they needed to know.

Steve Macmillan pulled his SUV off the road and onto a rutted path. From here, it couldn’t be seen from the road. And even if it was, who cared? It was just a bunch of good ol’ boys out hunting. Why, they were practically performing a public service, keeping the world safe for the human sheep who were unaware that monsters really existed. The fact it happened to be fun was a bonus.

He killed the ignition and climbed out. Jessup was waiting right where he said he’d be. Quinn angled his truck off the road and quickly joined him.

“What have you got?” Steve was impatient to get moving. He hated these fucking wolves with his entire being. They were nothing but animals. Hadn’t that she-bitch killed his father?

Jessup held up his cell phone. “Got a couple of pictures. They’re not the greatest because I couldn’t get close, but they’re better than nothing.”

Steve took the phone and started scanning the photos. He recognized the big male from the gas station. But it was the photo of the woman that stopped him cold. It was grainy and a little blurry, but that didn’t matter. He might not have seen her in a few years, but he’d recognize that bitch anywhere. Shelley.

The fates had smiled on him. What were the odds of her falling right into his lap? After the debacle of the past few months it looked like the gods were smiling on him.

“Well, well, well.” Quinn and Jessup both tensed. “Look what we have here.” He tossed the phone to Quinn, who looked at the picture.

“A woman?”

“Not just any woman.” Steve rubbed his hands together. He couldn’t wait to recapture that bitch and make her pay for his father’s death. “That’s Shelley.”

Quinn took a second look at the photo while Jessup whistled almost soundlessly between his teeth. “You’ve been looking for her for months, boss.”

“That I have, Jessup.” Only a handful of men knew about Shelley’s existence and he planned to keep it that way. For the time being anyway. He clapped the man on the shoulder. “Red and the boys will be here soon. Then we’ll do some recon.”

Steve walked a few feet away from the other two and pulled out his cell phone.

Red answered on the first ring. “We’ll be there in a couple of hours.”

“That’s good.” He glanced over at Jessup and Quinn but they were quietly talking. “Who else knows where we’re going?”

“No one. You said you wanted to keep things quiet. Why?”

“It’s her, Red.”

“You sure?”

“Jessup has a picture.” Steve still couldn’t quite believe his luck. “I’m gonna tranq the bitch and take her to your cabin for a spell.”

“You sure that’s wise?”

“I’m not my father, Red. I won’t make the mistake of treating her like a pet, forgetting what she really is. But she has to pay for what she’s done.”

“It’s your call.”

“Yes, it is. See you when you get here.” Steve closed his phone and tucked it away.

The house was quiet now. The wind pushed at the windows and the wood creaked as the structure cooled. Shelley lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling.

Her brothers had asked more questions, but she hadn’t given any answers. Her pounding headache had gotten too bad to ignore. She couldn’t tell if it was from all the tension or from her suppressed memories. Either way, her head hurt and her stomach churned. James had sensed her discomfort and called a halt to the questions.

It surprised her that her brothers had obeyed him. But then she remembered that James was alpha of this pack. And from the little she did know about wolves, she knew that meant what he said was law.

Then had come the debate over her accommodations. Joshua had assumed she’d be going home with him and Alex. James had told her it was her choice. She’d chosen to stay with him.

She’d hurt Joshua and the others even though she hadn’t meant to. But he was a stranger to her. They all were. As much as she wanted to, she felt no attachment to them. Had no real memories.

She actually experienced pangs of guilt for not feeling something more for them. Obviously, they’d loved their sister. But she wasn’t that young girl.

She needed some space, time to think. The past two days had been crazy.

A long, hot bath had eased some of her aches. A simple meal of soup and fresh bread had done the rest. Her headache was down to a manageable level and her stomach was settled.

A good night’s sleep was exactly what she needed.

Problem was, her mind wouldn’t stop working. She kept replaying the conversation with her brothers over and over in her head and matching what they’d told her to faint memories of her own.

Her body also ached. Her skin was so sensitive she hadn’t been able to bring herself to pull on her old dress as a nightgown. Instead, she decided to sleep naked. But even the sheets were proving too much for her to bear.

Sighing, she rolled over onto her side and stared out the window. She liked that the windows were low enough for her to see the woods beyond. She’d spent too many years unable to see anything at night, locked in a windowless room and shackled to the floor.

The mattress was firm, but comfortable. The sheets fresh. She didn’t take those things for granted. Not after decades of sleeping on a thin pallet on the floor. She should have been asleep two seconds after her head hit the pillow.

Instead, she was lying here thinking. Maybe she should count sheep.

There was no sound, more of a stirring in the air. She didn’t hear him, but she could smell him. Shelley turned onto her back and stared at the door, willing it to open.

The handle turned and James was there. “Can’t sleep?”

She sat up in bed, tugging the covers around her. “No.”

Without hesitation, James closed the door, walked to the bed and sat on the corner of the mattress. His nearness set her on edge, made every cell in her body sit up and take notice.

“Want to talk about it?”

Did she want to talk? No. She was tired of talking. Tired of thinking. What she wanted was something to take her mind off everything that had happened. She knew she couldn’t run from her problems. That she would have to deal with them in the morning. But she wanted a break. God knows she deserved one.

“No.”

James placed his hand on her leg. Granted, the blankets covered her, but she could still feel his touch through them, and it branded her.

“What do you want?” His voice was low, seductive. He ran his hand up and down her leg, the action both soothing and arousing.

Her body was responding to his nearness. It remembered the pleasure he’d given her last night and longed for a repeat performance. Her breasts felt swollen and tight and she knew her nipples were puckered. Her belly quivered and she was wet between her thighs.

Shelley pressed her legs together to try to ease the throbbing ache in her sex. It didn’t work.

James’s nostrils quivered and she knew he could smell her arousal. She couldn’t hide her reaction to him. Yet, he made no move to press her for more. His hand continued to stroke up and down her leg from thigh to calf.

“Shelley?”

She closed her eyes briefly and gathered her courage. If life had taught her one thing, it was to take advantage of the good things that came her way because they were fleeting. James was one of those good things. She’d never met a male she’d wanted before. She wasn’t in heat, wasn’t being forced. She simply wanted him.

What a treasure it would be to be able to touch him the way he’d touched her last night. To feel his hard muscles beneath her hand. To discover what gave him pleasure and what made him gasp.

She still had no idea where her future might lead her. But she knew she couldn’t stay here. She might not know her brothers, but there was no way she was going to remain here and perhaps bring the wrath of the hunters down on them.

Seeing Steve Macmillan had been a sharp reminder that her life was not her own. She’d spend the rest of her years looking over her shoulder.

No, she couldn’t stay. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t take some good memories with her. Ones that would have to last a lifetime.

Shelley might not have much experience with life, but she knew she’d never meet another male like James. Never feel the way he made her feel. What was between them was special. She’d never forgive herself if she didn’t reach out and experience the magic between them.

She licked her lips. “I don’t know if I’m ready to go all the way.” She felt stupid saying it, but knew James understood.

His hand paused on her leg. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” He stood and she was afraid he was leaving.

She held out her hand. “No, you don’t understand.”

James took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing her palm. “What do you want, Shelley? Tell me, and if I can do it, it’s yours.”

Taking the final plunge, she blurted, “I want to touch you.”