I was surprised that the Cancer pack had come here, but I supposed there wouldn’t be any way for an outsider to trace them except the picture I’d found. I hadn't even noticed all that many boats missing from our harbor. If Brad’s dad really was alpha, at least he was doing a good job of keeping the rest of them alive.
Speaking of that asshole… As we pulled up, a group of shifters gathered at the edge of the dock, and I recognized Brad almost immediately in the illumination from the lighthouse above.
“Great,” I muttered, as I maneuvered us into position and killed the engine. I knew logically he would be here, but I'd hoped to at least talk to his dad before him. Last time I'd seen Brad and his mate, they'd broken my camera and beaten me up, and I couldn't imagine he'd be nicer to me now that his father was alpha.
Brad and a few other Cancer shifters who'd loved taking part in the fun of ‘punch and kick the half-human’ gathered around our boat, stopping Kaden and me from getting off unless we wanted to step into the water.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Brad snarled.
“Visiting old friends,” I shot back. “What, did you think I was dead?”
"We hoped you were," his mate, Lori, said from behind him. Glad to see she's still a total bitch.
Brad crossed his arms. “It would have been better if that Leo asshole had hunted you down and killed you. We heard that’s what happened, anyway."
“You heard wrong,” I snapped. “Step back, I need to speak with the alpha. You’re in my way."
"I don't think so." He didn't budge. "You caused so many deaths already, why don’t you just turn around and leave?”
I raised my eyes to the moon, wishing the goddess would give me the strength to deal with this piece of shit. "I said, I need to speak to the alpha. Or are you still as dumb as a bag of rocks?"
Brad snarled and launched himself at me, but then Kaden was there, stepping in front of me. He grabbed Brad by the throat, holding him mid-air with the kind of strength only an alpha would possess.
A deep growl radiated from Kaden's chest. “If you touch her, I’ll rip you apart with my bare hands. And I will enjoy every second of it."
Brad kicked his feet feebly, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, probably so shocked that someone was bigger and badder than him for once. He looked like he couldn't breathe, and I put my hand on Kaden's arm. As much as I hated Brad, I couldn't let Kaden kill him.
"Put him down," I said with a sigh.
Kaden stared Brad down for a few more moments and then dumped him on the dock. Brad clutched his throat, sucking in a breath, while his mate kneeled over him. The other shifters eyed Kaden warily but didn't move to defend their friend.
“This was obviously a waste of time,” Kaden said, turning back to me.
I felt the old pit of anger flaring up in my stomach. I remembered every single time Brad and his gang had tormented me, and I wanted nothing more than to spit in their faces and turn the boat around. But I had to at least try. I had to be the better person, or I’d be just like them.
“Ayla?” a voice called out.
A voice so familiar it made my heart stop. The sound came from further up the dock, and I turned toward it, holding my breath as if it could keep the hope inside of me. I blinked a few times, trying to see if my eyes were tricking me. That line of shoulders, that carefree lope, that windswept hair—it was all too real.
"Wesley?"
Chapter Twenty
I hopped onto the deck and ran up the wooden planks toward my brother, shoving aside a couple of Cancer shifters in my path. As I got closer, there was no mistaking it—Wesley was alive. My brother was here, in the flesh, and I launched myself at him.
Wesley caught me, and I saw the flash of his teeth in the moonlight as he grinned, just before I flung my arms around him. I buried my head into his shoulder, breathing in deep, and he hugged me tight. I never thought I would see him again, but he was here, and not dead.
My eyes were wet when I finally pulled back, and my throat constricted painfully. I drank in the sight of him for several moments, hardly believing my eyes. The fact that he was standing in front of me seemed so impossible, I wanted to stare at him for several more minutes to make sure he wasn’t an illusion. “How are you alive?”
Wesley’s eyes glimmered with tears of his own, and he let out a strained laugh. “I could ask you the same thing. Last I heard, you disappeared from the forest without a trace after the Convergence. I thought the Leo assholes had gotten to you, and we searched all over for you. But we had to run before the Leos came back and looked for the rest of us.” He looked me over as if seeing if I had any visible wounds. My mind flew to the bite mark that Kaden had given me, but if he saw it under the collar of my shirt, Wesley didn’t say anything. He patted my shoulders with both hands, as if feeling the solid weight of me underneath him, and the grin on his face was the best thing I'd ever seen. Then he pulled me back into a hug. "Thank the moon you're alive. How did you get away?"
"It’s a long story.” That was an understatement. It would probably take me all night to tell him everything that had happened to me over the last few months.
When I pulled back again, Wesley was looking over my shoulder, his eyes fixed on Kaden, who had come down the deck to stand behind me. Wesley's grin disappeared, and I wondered if he remembered Kaden from the Convergence.
Remembering my manners, I gestured toward Kaden. "This is Kaden Shaw, alpha of the Ophiuchus pack. Kaden, this is my brother, Wesley."
Wesley tilted his head, studying Kaden. "I can see we have a lot to discuss." He motioned for us to follow him. “Come with me."
Wesley led us away from the dock and down the road into the main part of the island, where all the houses were located. The island wasn't very large and most of it was beach and forest, but there were a few small shops in one area, plus some vacation homes along the water and on the hills above it. It was the perfect hiding place for a pack looking to get away from other shifters—especially since very few people knew it existed outside of the Cancer pack.
Wesley began talking as we walked, and I kept up beside him, with Kaden lingering just a bit behind, still listening but doing his best to not intrude. “Many of the wealthier Cancer pack members have homes here,” Wesley explained, mostly for Kaden's benefit. "Both for vacation, and for shelter in case of an attack. I never thought we'd need them, but here we are." He flashed me a grin. “Remember how we used to dare each other to sneak inside the other houses?”
I shook my head at the memory, a smile on my lips. "Yes, although I was never brave enough to do it. But you did, almost every time. I can’t remember how many seashells I lost to you during bets.”