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“You’ve been away from Damon’s Mountains a long time, Lucas. I was hoping you remembered what loyalty felt like.”
“I’m not made to be an Alpha.”
“Protector,” she corrected.
“Look…good luck with whatever trouble Gunner has you in. If I was you? I’d cut him loose.”
“You’re not me. I don’t cut friends loose.”
Every word she’d uttered in that sentence sliced him deep.
For a few seconds, he couldn’t find his voice. Lucas cleared his throat and lowered his eyes to her bare feet. “Tell Jenna I’m sorry. I just…” He shook his head, feeling low about it. “I just didn’t recognize her.”
“Tell her yourself,” Cadence muttered as she turned and walked away.
Cadence didn’t look back. He was averting his gaze to be respectful of her, but he knew she didn’t look back. He could smell the disappointment wafting off her, and the air here felt so heavy.
He was causing the woods to weigh more. The animal inside of him was angry at so much. Angry at the memories of Cadence, angry that he’d wasted his time here, angry at himself that he hadn’t recognized Kellen Brown’s youngest daughter. She was a Saw Bear, born to the Ashe Crew, one of the original Crews of Damon’s Mountains. She was sensitive, if he remembered correctly, and him forgetting her would’ve hurt her.
Cadence was right. He had been away a long time, and for good reason. He hadn’t been running, he’d been looking for…something. Something bigger, or perhaps something smaller, he didn’t know.
“You didn’t recognize me either,” Kru called out, his back to Lucas as he continued to sweep the gravel.
With a deep frown, Lucas asked, “Who are you?”
Kru tossed a look over his shoulder and said, “Figure it out. Come on, Lucas. You don’t need training wheels for this job.”
“Job.”
With a sigh, Kru leaned on the broom handle and frowned at the door that had closed on the trailer next to the replica of the original 1010. “You think if Cadence had a choice, she would ask you for anything? No. She isn’t asking you to step in and be some epic leader. You aren’t that, and we all know it. She isn’t asking you to bond to us, or call us yours.”
“What the fuck does she want then?”
“Help with Gunner. He’s…” Kru shook his head. “He’s on a path.”
“Gunner isn’t my problem,” Lucas growled out. He turned and scooped up his discarded shirt, and shrugged it on as he strode for his car. “He never was.”
If anyone knew what Gunner had really done to him, they wouldn’t dare ask him to help the monster. Loyalty? Ha. He’d known deep loyalty and had been burned. No one had any right to preach about that to him.
He yanked open the door of his truck and got in, slammed the door beside him, and glared at where Kru was sweeping the gravel like a psycho.
The phone in the cupholder rang, and as he peeled out of the trailer park, he connected the call. “I’m not taking the job,” he growled out.
“I don’t care about the job, son,” his dad murmured.
Well, that was unexpected. “I thought you were someone else,” he said. “Hey, Dad.”
“A little birdie told me you are home.”
He bet that little birdie was Jenna. “Not home. I’m on the other side of the mountains but I’m already heading out.”
“Your mom wants to see you. I do, too. Hell, the whole Crew knows you’re here.”
Lucas ran his hand down his beard and huffed a sigh. “Yeah, all right. It’s late tonight. Can I come tomorrow?”
“Of course. Lucas?” Dad asked.
“Yeah?”
