Kindred Fate

Chapter Nine

The loud banging on my door in the middle of the night made me jump and the sound of the twins crying seared fear so deep inside me I could hardly breathe. I jumped out of bed and stood next to the bed, regretting why I didn’t carry my g*n.

“Lee, open the door! Wake up we need to leave!” Ben’s alarmed voice came from the other side of the door.

“What’s going on?” I yelled back searching the room for some kind of weapon. I didn’t run from my home, away from werewolves who wanted a taste of my blood to come here and get killed by a human being. That was not happening!

“I’m coming in,” Ben announced before the doorknob fell to the floor after a loud snap. “We need to leave,” he demanded picking up my bag. His voice was stern and steady but I could still hear the urgency in it.

“Would you tell me what the hell is going on?” I demanded stopping him as he matched out of my bathroom.

He stared at me, his gaze making me shiver in fear, “Do you trust me?”

 “That’s not a fair question, I’ve only know you three weeks!” I huffed, my whole body itching in agonizing fear.

He grabbed my shoulders hard and shook me once. “Lee do you trust me, yes or no!”

I didn’t have long to debate this. He seemed to disappear in his head for a few seconds before he was back out, the urgency in his eyes even more. “Okay, okay let’s go.”

“Put them in their seats please, I’ll go warm up the car.” He ordered walking out the door as he spoke. Hurriedly I placed each baby in their seat and placed a blanket over them to shield them from the cold wind. Then I quickly put on a pair of jeans, a jacket and sneakers just in time as Ben sauntered back into the room. “Can you handle the bag?” he asked picking it up from the floor and handing it to me.

“Yes, but I should carry one, baby. Those seats are kind of heavy.” He answered my concern with one swift move. He picked up the two baby seats by their handles like they weighed nothing.

“Let’s go,” he ordered rushing out the room first. I had to run to keep up with him. When we got to the main door, he stopped for two seconds before he walked out into what looked like a blizzard.

I felt the cold wind go through my jacket and into my bones. I ran into my jeep closing the door quickly behind me but it was still cold inside. “We can’t drive in this!” I turned up the heat as he got into the car. “I can’t see a thing!”

“I can,” he said pushing the car forward like I would a racecar. I was glad my jeep was capable of taking the force; it did win me a race a few months ago. But then, I was invincible and my kids were safely inside me.

I moaned in a panic when he took a hard right, “Ben, my kids.” I questioned if he was avoiding something or was there a curve in the road I didn’t see. I couldn’t see a damn thing, so how could he! I shifted my gaze between the back seat where my babies were- quiet but very wide awake- and the load of snow the wipers were pushing off the windscreen.

“I won’t let anything happen to them, I promise.” He said, shifting his hand from the steering wheel and placing it on mine. I slapped it away.

“If you are going to drive like a maniac keep both hands on the wheel!” I yelled. At that moment, he reminded me of Ash. He would have been more than capable to drive through this blizzard I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash but Ben was-

I stared at him in horror. The answer had been dancing in my face all this time. I mean, the guy walked around in winter with a thin sweater on. While I worked in a thick sweater, he pranced around, gliding gracefully between tables in his t-shirt like a ballerina. His hands were so warm like he’d being holding them over a fire the whole day. He kept spacing out time and time again and each time, depending on his thoughts, he came out of it with a different state of emotion. And he could see through a blizzard, my vision was perfect but not Ash perfect.

“You’ve figured it out haven’t you,” he whispered. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just sat there quietly wondering if he was a creature I should be afraid of. “I’m not sure what my eyes look like right now, but please don’t freak out,” he warned then he slowly turned to me. I gasped shifting on my chair and leaning against the door. “Please I’m not going to hurt you,” he begged his face twisted in distress. “I just want to help you.”

I inhaled deeply a few times trying to recover from the shock but I had no idea how to come back from this. His reddish bronze eyes stared at me like he was about to cry. He didn’t scare me; he just startled me. I had seen gold and I had silver but bronze was a first. What the hell was he?

“Please keep your eyes on the road,” I said in one breath. He turned away so quick I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I felt a little at ease when his eyes weren’t on me.

“They disgust you?” His voice echoed the hurt he felt.

“No, it’s not that, you just caught me off guard.” I quickly answered, “Where are we going?”

 “I’m taking you to Josh Colton. You seem to hold him in very high regard.” He answered bluntly.

“Wait, my Josh.... how did you know...?” I asked half the question, the other half was stuck in my constricting throat.

“I would take you to Ashat but he’s too far and I have a feeling he’ll kill me immediately he senses what I am.”

Ash! I felt the panic rise in me. Of course every wolf out there knew who Ash was but how did he know where he lived, how did Ben find out where Josh lived? “Wait,” I started exhaustedly, “Could we please start from the beginning, because you are freaking me out.”

“I’d prefer to explain myself once we get to our destination. It’s not a conversation to have in a moving car.” He answered coolly like I’d asked him about the b****y weather, which pissed me off!

“Ben, give me some answers or I swear I’ll push you out of this car!” I threatened.

He laughed then turned back to me his reddish bronze eyes flashing, “You live up to your reputation.”

“I’m glad to hear I’m such a celebrity but that doesn’t answer my question?” I circled my finger at him, signaling him to turn his head back on to the road.

“Josh is in Boston University. He transferred from Strayer in the beginning of October, I figured because Ashat came back. Staying in Florida was kind of a decision made by hormones. Boston was always his first choice.”

“How do you know that?” Ben knew more about Josh than I did.

He hesitated for a minute before he answered me. “I went to Strayer too for a while, that is before you left. Josh and I were kind of friends.”

“What?” His story was making me dizzy.

“We have half an hour left till we get to his place, could we please hold this off until then?”

I stared at him still in a daze. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. The only thing I could hope for was that we really were going to Josh’s place and he wasn’t taking me to Baku. I jumped when he hissed but I didn’t say a word and he didn’t offer any explanations. We drove in silence and all I could do was wish I had called Ash before I left.