Now, the logs that made the walls had faded to gray and splintered. The thick grout between the lumber had cracked and chipped. The roof sagged, and on the north side, moss had grown over the wooden shingles, giving it the look of a fairy cottage. Some of the wooden floor boards were missing and split on the front porch, and the railing was broken and sagging off the side, but that didn’t bother her as much as what had happened to the inside.
Leaks and rot had ruined all of the furniture her family had left behind. The plumbing didn’t work anymore, and her parents’ bed was nothing but soft wooden shards in a pile on their bedroom floor. The place smelled musty and dank, and the lack of electricity made staying in this place rough. The windows had been broken, and seeing it like this now, the cozy home from her childhood memories wavered.
As a child, she’d felt safe here.
As an adult, she felt vulnerable and exposed.
She wouldn’t be here long, though. Just another night, and she’d go back to Rapid City and give Caden her answer. She’d kept her suitor waiting for a year. Longer than she had any right to make any man wait. She wasn’t plain, but she was no beauty. Her jokes made her people uncomfortable. Her human friends at the school she’d worked at had laughed, but she was inept at deciphering between pity laughs and genuine amusement. Caden was a good man, and she was lucky he’d offered to give her a home.
Maybe if she just kept telling herself that, it would feel true.
Aviana took a drag of the musty air inside the door and shook her head. This place had gone to ruin without someone here to keep it alive.
It reminded her of Easton.
Another wave of disappointment clogged her throat as she opened her laptop. Thirty percent battery left, but it was enough to say goodbye to Easton in her own silly way.
She made her cell phone into a hot spot and pulled up Cora Wright’s pro-shifter Web site. This was where this whole adventure had started. There was a link to a list of registered bear shifters in the country.
This was where she’d found Easton. How could it not be him? She’d never met anyone else with the unique name, and he was a bear shifter to boot, registered with a crew of notoriously violent, aggressive, unsavory bears called the Gray Backs.
She skimmed through his registration information again. Six-two, lean build, green eyes, dark hair. Silver bear. Surname: Novak. She hadn’t known that from before.
Aviana Novak.
Stop it.
She was destined to be paired with Caden. She would be his perfect match. Everyone said so.
From there, she clicked over to Jason Trager’s social media page. None of the other Gray Backs had one she could find.
A jolt of shock zinged through her as a picture of Easton showed up at the top of his feed. In it, Easton stood in between Jason and a woman with medium-length red hair, obviously dyed and straightened so thoroughly, it spiked out of a high ponytail. They were all smiling, even Easton. His was smaller than the other two, and a little bewildered, but it was there.
Aviana frowned and tried to connect this face with the ferocious one he’d worn when she’d seen him.
Underneath the picture, Jason had typed hashtag sammysbar, hashtag cteamcocaptains, hashtag willawonka, hashtag releasethebeast, hashtag beastonbromance.
Beaston?
The nickname certainly fit the monster who’d cut her with a knife today.
He seemed to have friends if this picture was anything to go by. Aviana leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. She squinted at his smile. He was very handsome with his face relaxed like this—more like the boy she’d known. So why did he live in a trailer separate from his crew? She’d done her spying on them, and the Gray Backs lived a good three hundred yards away. And it was plain as day the man was fighting some mighty big demons the way he was chopping that wood so relentlessly. A terrifying growl had been constant in his throat.
But then again, she’d seen what happened to him. She’d come here hoping he turned out okay after everything, but he hadn’t. The circumstances of his life had turned him into a monster.
She was disappointed.
There it was. Okay, she was disappointed that he hadn’t been strong enough to find happiness. The Easton she’d known was invincible.
She’d come here in hopes she could convince herself he had turned out all right despite all that shit that had happened to him, but he hadn’t. And now she would have to go back and live this empty life with Caden, and all the while she’d wonder what if?
What if she’d been able to stick around for him when they were kids?
What if she’d come back to find him earlier before he’d turned dark?
What if she’d ever revealed herself as a person—a real flesh and bone friend—instead of just an attentive raven?