Tears welled in Annalise’s eyes, and she shook her head. She’d blocked out this memory for so long. She didn’t want to see it again, but something inside of her said she must.
Pain. She screamed for help. He bit her hard, and then it wasn’t her screaming anymore. It was the panther. And then there was silver fur and long, sharp claws, but they weren’t hers. Blood. Brody staring with dead, vacant eyes at the ceiling as she cowered in the corner, watching in terror as the huge silver grizzly bear avenged her.
She hadn’t killed Brody after all.
Beaston had.
“You got hurt, but I thought about it. I could see what was going to happen. I dreamed of you. I could see you would be Jax’s, and so I’m not angry at me anymore. Fate was right to hurt you. She broke you into the exact right shape to fit Jaxon. Like she did to my Ana. Like she did to me.” Beaston swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he arced his gaze to Jax. “Your mother will miss you.”
“What do you mean,” Jax asked, his voice tainted with confusion.
“Always a rogue until you found your Anna.”
Jax shook his head and seemed utterly baffled. “I’m still rogue. I want to roam now. Nothing’s changed.”
“Where were you for the last two weeks?” Beaston asked, lifting his chin and looking smug, as if he knew the answer already.
Beside Annalise, Jax went quiet and still.
“Where?” Beaston demanded, voice crackling with power.
“Red Havoc territory.”
A feral smile took Beaston’s face for just a moment before it slipped off again. “You are a rogue here but not with the panthers. You picked your Anna. Titan will be with her like glue. She picked your home. You don’t belong in Damon’s Mountains anymore, Jax.” He turned and strode off into the woods. “Follow me, Jax’s Anna. I made you a present to say I’m sorry for being too late that night.”
Shocked, Annalise looked up at Jax, who was still frozen like a river in an Alaskan winter, eyes stuck to where Beaston was disappearing into the woods.
“Jax?” she asked, slipping her hand into his. “I think Beaston saved me that night.”
Jax inhaled sharply and ran his hand down his beard. “Come on,” he urged, pulling her after Beaston.
It seemed like they walked for hours, but maybe it was only minutes. Her head was spinning with the memories from that night. She-Devil had helped hide them from her all this time because she’d been so scared. So angry. She wanted to hurt everyone because she’d been hurt.
They followed the man with the deep limp through the dark woods as the raven on his arm watched them with soft brown eyes.
And as they came to a clearing, Jax slowed and stared in awe at the cream colored singlewide mobile home with a red door and forest green shutters. It was hooked to an eighteen-wheeler. The house numbers were shiny and new, but had been nailed on strangely. The last zero was dangling upside down.
1010.
“Holy shit,” Jax whispered, his chest heaving. “Beaston, is this what I think it is?”
“I made a replica of the old trailer because I can see how hard it will be for Red Havoc to become what they need to become. They are like the Ashe Crew, like the Gray Backs, like the Boarlanders, but there’s no magic up in those mountains. Not yet. I made this with pieces of the original. Light fixtures, the cabinets, the bathroom sinks. Things I saved when ten-ten fell apart.” Beaston turned to her. “Jax’s Anna.” He ducked his chin, and such sincerity pooled in his inhuman eyes when he said, “This is my ‘I’m sorry.’”
Annalise didn’t understand why he would give her a mobile home. Or how he knew so much. How he’d known to be there that night, or about She-Devil. But inside of her, She-Devil was breaking apart. Her anger was evaporating, and she was in mourning. The armor was gone from her animal, and some bone-deep instinct said it was time to start healing, for both Annalise and for She-Devil.
She didn’t understand the gift, but she knew from the moisture that rimmed Jax’s and Beaston’s eyes, that it was huge and meaningful.
“You never had anything to say I’m sorry for,” she said, warm tears streaming down her cheeks. Her bottom lip trembled, so she bit it and drew in a shaky breath before she stepped forward and hugged Beaston up tight. He went rigid in her arms, but that was okay. “Thank you for being there that night, Beaston. Thank you for protecting me and for not letting me be alone.”
Slowly, Beaston lifted his free arm and patted her back gently. And then he eased away and glanced at her, then Jax, then the trailer. Without another word, he gave her a slight smile, which still looked feral as hell, and then turned on his heel and disappeared into the woods with his Ana on his arm.
Jax wrapped his arms around Annalise from behind, and together they stood staring at the trailer, his cheek resting on hers.
“Jax?” she asked at last.
“Yeah?”
“I think maybe I’m ready to go home.”
She could feel his smile against her cheek. Jax pressed a kiss right over the claiming mark on her neck and murmured, “Me, too.”
Chapter Sixteen
“No,” Anson said, looking grumpy with his arms over his chest. “This ain’t a trailer park. It’s a nice, respectable—”
“Moonshine distillery?” Annalise dead-panned. “Also, there is a pile of car parts over there that’ve probably been there for years,” she said, pointing. “And all your No Trespassing signs have bullet holes in them. I’ve been sleeping in a cabin that is missing its entire front half, which is covered with rope and a blue tarp. I woke up to a mouse eating my cereal last week.” She scrunched up her face. “Its testicles were huge.”
“The trailer is growing on me,” Ben said, nodding at 1010, where Jax and Greyson were unhooking it from the eighteen-wheeler.
“Why can’t we just fix the damn cabin?” Barret asked.
“Well, we’re going to, but until then, Annalise can sleep in the trailer,” Ben murmured.
“About that,” Jax called. “I’m staying in it, too.”
“No,” all of the panthers in Red Havoc yelled at once.
“As Almost Alpha, I feel like my vote should count extra,” Annalise said with a grin.
Ben narrowed his eyes in annoyance. “It’s not Almost Alpha. It’s called Second, and for that shit to be official, you have to pledge to my crew.”
“Cool. Me and Jax are ready whenever you are. Hey, Jenny!” she called, waving to the alpha’s mate who was standing on their porch, leaned on the railing, grinning.
Jenny gave an easy wave. “Hey, Almost Alpha, you back to kick Barret’s ass some more?”
“Ha!” Barret blasted out. “Ha, ha, ha. I hate you and you and you,” he said, pointing to each of the crew in turn. And then he flipped off the trailer and marched over to a water hose on the side of the nearest cabin, turned it on, and pointed the end at them. Then waited. And waited.
“Dear dumbass,” Anson drawled, “that faucet doesn’t work.”
Barret yelled and threw the dry hose down, then stomped off into the woods. A panther scream sounded a couple of seconds later, and Anson and Greyson snorted in amusement.