The Mating Heat(11)

Ryder had thoughtfully placed a few of her belongings on the white writing desk. Kara picked up a gilded frame wreathing a woman’s face. The woman smiled softly, as if sharing a deep secret. A single tear trickled down Kara’s cheek. She closely resembled the woman in the picture, which hurt even more as she stared at it.
“Mom. I miss you so much,” she whispered. “When you died, part of us all died, too.”
She set the frame down and wiped her face. Kara wandered over to the mirror and dared to examine her appearance.
Her face had been lovely. Breathtaking, a pack elder once declared.
Emerald eyes still sparkled with life, and her lashes were long and ebony. Her nose was small, with a cute, arrogant perk, her mouth reddened and lush. Her chin was small and slightly pointed, and when she smiled the dimple still pierced her left cheek.
The left cheek remained smooth and creamy.
Alastair had ruined only the right cheek. She touched her hair, a cascade of black silk tumbling down past her shoulders. Ryder had called her hair “sinful” as he’d tunneled his fingers through it as he’d kissed her. Alastair had sheared it off in great hunks until it lay against her scalp, but in the time since she’d left, it had grown back.
Fingers shaking, she touched her right cheek, feeling the rough texture of scar tissue, remembering the hot burn of the iron as Alastair called her a whore as she’d screamed and screamed…
Panic surged. She squeezed her eyes shut. Opened them.
Her face still mirrored back in ugly, stark relief. Lupines healed fast, but Alastair had thrown salt water on the burn to ensure it remained. He’d wanted her to be ugly so Ryder would never kiss her again.
The dream of finding a worthy male to love her had vanished long ago. No one in Aiden’s newfound pack ever gave her a second glance. Hiding in her room offered the only solace, where she could curl up in an armchair and read to her heart’s content.
Her brother’s pack and her small room with its window overlooking the Montana mountains, that was where she belonged. And where she needed to return before a war started.
First, she needed a phone. Kara raced for the door, opened it and peered out.
No one in the hallway.
Hoping Ryder had not redecorated, she stole down the hallway to the third room on the left. Relief filled her as she opened the door. Her older sister’s room was still the same, with its pink ruffled canopy bed and white bedroom set. Too girly for Kara, but right now her focus remained on the pink princess telephone sitting on the desk.
An antique for sure, one she hoped still worked.
Holding her breath, she gently picked up the receiver and heard a dial tone. Her trembling fingers punched the numbers. Clutching the receiver in a white-knuckled grip, she waited for someone to pick up.
A cheerful, deep male voice answered. “Mitchell Ranch.”
“Darius, it’s Kara. I need to talk to Aiden,” she whispered.
“Damn, we were worried about you, kiddo. Aiden called your sister and she said you never made it to Alaska. You didn’t run off to elope with a lover and leave my poor little heart broken, did you?”
“Darius, get me Aiden now!”
His teasing tone became all business. “Hang on.”
Heart banging hard against her chest, she gripped the phone, the minutes seeming to drag by, each stroke of the second hand on the china clock on the desk mocking her efforts…hurry, hurry, hurry…
Finally her older brother came on the line. “Kara! Where the hell are you?”
Wincing at his brusque, loud tone, she whispered, “Calm down. I’m at our old place. Ryder…he caught me.”
Quickly she explained about the gold. Aiden swore.
“I’ll kill that son of a bitch.”
Panic filled her. Aiden was never violent, but Ryder’s letter had pushed all his buttons. “No! Don’t come here. I can take care of myself. But the gold, I still plan to find it.”
“Screw the gold.”
“The bank loan.”
“I’ll worry about that.” He paused, his voice gentler. “You okay?”
“Fine.”
“Did he hurt you?” Aiden’s voice rose again. “Because if he laid a hand on you, if he touched you in any manner…”
A furious flush ignited her cheeks as she remembered the sensual strokes of Ryder’s hands. “I’m fine, Aiden.”
A deep sigh from her brother. “We’re going to come for you, Kara. You hang in there. I’m not letting this go. I promised when I started this damn pack that no female would ever get hurt under my watch, especially you! After what our bastard of a father did to you, I swore to protect every damn person in my pack, male or female. I don’t care if I have to beg, borrow or steal or fuck…”