She looked into herself and concentrated on the mating bond she had with each of her guys. It was difficult to do, but when she found the tether connecting her to Jay and Jordan she pushed them aside for now and picked up the last thread. Jenson was still in the house, but he was alone. The only place she suspected he could be was his own bedroom. She ignored the combined juices of Jay, Jordan, and herself weeping from her pussy and coating her inner thighs as she walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. Ignoring the first two bedrooms she came to, her eyes locked onto the third one, the closed door.
She sucked in a fortifying breath as she turned the door handle and entered the room, quietly closing the door behind her. He wasn't in the room but since there was another closed door across the way, she hurried toward it. She stood outside of the bathroom door, indecision warring in her mind when she heard the shower running, but she quickly pushed her hesitancy away. Kenzie needed to be with Jenson, too. Her body was clamoring with hunger, her mind and soul craving to be connected with him the way she was connected with his brothers.
Kenzie pushed all doubt and thoughts from her mind and she opened the door and entered the bathroom. Her gaze immediately zeroing in on Jenson's back. His muscles were bulging with tension with his hands braced on the tile wall, the warm water streaming over his large, brawny body.
She had a feeling he knew she was there, but he kept his back toward her. Kenzie huffed out an exasperated breath as she tiptoed over to the shower. There was no door on the large tiled, glassed-in cubicle, and she as glad about that. If Jenson didn't know she was in the room with him, she wouldn't alert him since she didn't have to open a door. There would be no breeze to tell him she was there.
His next words confirmed that he had known she was present. "You need to leave."
Painful rejection surged into her heart nearly taking her to her knees. She rubbed at the ache between her breasts, but it didn't help. Tears burned her eyes, but she wasn't about to let him see or know how much his words had hurt her in case he turned around, so she ruthlessly shoved them aside.
"Why?" she managed to ask in a strong voice. How she'd done that when her insides felt as if they were being ripped apart, she had no idea.
"I don't fucking want you here," Jenson said in a growly voice. "You need to go away right now and don't fucking come back."
Kenzie covered her mouth to stifle the sob bubbling up her throat from her chest, and spun toward the door. She built walls in her mind and heart layer by layer, hoping against all odds that she was blocking Jay and Jordan from feeling her emotions.
She closed the bathroom door behind her and raced out of Jenson's bedroom, back into the other room and into the en-suite. After turning the water on, she stepped under the spray, uncaring that it was still warming, and quickly washed her body. A few tears rolled down her cheeks, but she ruthlessly swept them away as she locked down all emotion. She was shivering as she dried off, but was too hurt to care that she was cold.
Kenzie needed to get away. She wasn't about to stay somewhere she wasn't wanted. Agony seared into her chest gripping her heart in a painful fist, but she couldn't let the hurt take over. She didn't want them to know she was falling apart.
After brushing her hair and pulling her damp hair up into a ponytail, she walked back into the bedroom and started opening and closing, closets and drawers. She wasn't about to walk out of this house with anything that wasn't hers. She didn't care that she only had the clothes she'd been wearing. In her mind, if she wore anything that they'd paid for, she would be prostituting herself.
When she found her clean clothes she almost gasped with relief. There on the top of her folded jeans was her credit card. She hadn't even known she'd had it with her when her stepfather had sold her to the highest bidder … or should that be lowest bidder? There wasn't a high limit on the card, but hopefully, it would be enough to get her away from Jenson, Jayson, and Jordan. Away from Ambrose, North Dakota. Maybe she would catch a cab to the closest airport and book a flight to the other side of the country. Somewhere warm instead of ice-cold frozen bleakness. Somewhere she could lick her wounds in private and try to get her life back together.
Kenzie glanced toward the bedroom door and decided that leaving by the front door wasn't an option. If Jay or Jordan caught her, they were going to demand an explanation. Guilt assailed her heart and soul and while she realized she was being irrational and reactionary, she couldn't stay. If Jenson didn't want or need her, the brothers would end up fighting. She didn't want to be the cause of a rift between the siblings.
All she'd ever wanted was to be loved for who she was. She even began to hope that the brothers were starting to fall in love with her, but she figured she'd just been fooling herself.
Kenzie felt as if her whole world was crashing down around her and the strain to keep the load from burying her was astronomical. She quietly closed and locked the bedroom door and turned toward the windows. It was easy to push the fly screen out and then she climbed out into the cold wet snow. Her sneakered feet sank in the low drift and she shivered as she hurried away from the house. Maybe when she got to town, she could borrow some dry clothes from one of the other women. Until then, she was just going to have to suck it up and pray that she didn't get hypothermia in her attempt to get into Ambrose.
She sniffed as the tears she'd been keeping at bay wouldn't be held back any longer. They froze on her cheeks before they had rolled halfway down. When she passed through the high fence that surrounded their property, she glanced back one last time. Sadness permeated her heart and soul as she began to walk. Taking one step after the other, her mind circled with turmoil. She was so lost in grief, she didn't even realize she'd stopped walking or had sunk to her knees until her hands dipped into the snow.
Great heaving sobs tore from her chest as she cried her heart out. She was so cold inside she wondered if she'd ever be able to feel again, and yet she was feeling so much, the emotions were tearing her apart.
She'd given her body to two of the Cannon men and when she'd offered it to the third, he sent her away. Maybe her stepfather had been right to sell her to a pimp after all. Maybe she was just a slut like he'd accused her and her mother of being.
Kenzie fell to her side into the snow and quivered with cold. She'd never been so cold in her life and it had nothing to do with the icy flakes she was lying in. She closed her eyes as she tried to purge the pain from her heart and soul, the tears a continuous flow over her ice-cold skin. Despondent weariness settled into her chest as the tears finally ceased. She was no longer shivering and as she started to drift to sleep, the shields she'd held true and strong faded away.
"Where's Kenzie?" Jenson asked his brothers as he entered the kitchen. He felt like a real asshole for sending his mate away from him, but he'd had tenuous control over his panther and he'd been terrified of hurting her.
He couldn't count how many times he'd had fur sprouting from the pores of his skin or claws erupting from the tips of his fingers. He never felt terror before, but the thought of accidentally hurting his mate by scratching her soft, creamy flesh with his talons, or digging them into her skin, had terrified him.
"What do you mean where's Kenzie?" Jay frowned. "I thought she was with you."
"No, I-" Jenson spun on his heels and ran through the house. He stopped at the closed bedroom door and knocked. When she didn't come to open the door, he turned the handle, but she'd engaged the lock. He glanced toward his brothers as the came up behind him.
"She's nowhere else in the house," Jordan said.
"She's locked the door and won't answer my knock." Jenson turned away from his brothers, contrite with remorse. He lifted his hand to knock again, but spun on his heels when he heard both his brothers gasp at the same time.
"Fuck!" Jordan and Jay shouted at the same time. They spun away and raced toward the front door. Jenson felt his heart lurch with pain, but then there was nothing. He hurried after his brothers as they sprinted along the driveway and out onto the road. Panic had him panting for breath. When he saw his mate lying in the middle of the icy road curled up into a ball with her eyes closed, he gasped.