Chapter 17

Sara

Sara curled her hands into fists and followed Barron out of the hotel room he planned on sharing with that woman. Molly. Sara repeated the name in her head, trying to make it stick. There was a Molly with them now. A woman who had fell into Barron's lap and shook Sara's life to the core.

"Which one are you in?" he asked gesturing towards the doors surrounding them.

Walking passed him, she drew her keycard from her pocket and swiped it in the door. When the light flashed green, she pushed the door open and walked in without turning the lights on. "Ward the room?"

"Yeah."

She looked towards him as the light flashed on. His eyes held the dead look he normally sported. That look hadn't been in his eyes earlier. Earlier, when Molly had been in the room, a light had filled Barron's eyes that she'd only briefly saw before. Her heart clenched as the reality of the situation hit her hard. The man who she was in love with loved someone else.

"You don't love me," Barron growled harshly. "You can't even stand getting close enough to touch me, Sara. Not after that day. You saw what I was and instead of accepting it, you pushed me away."

Her teeth ground together. "You were shooting fire at everyone. You let your magic take over."

"I'm tired of this shit," he said, his voice completely void of emotion. "I've never told you what happened that day because I didn't want to hurt someone I cared about, but Sara, it was your fault." He said the words in that monotone she had become to familiarize herself with. This was how he was with everyone. Everyone except Ally, her kids, and now Molly.

"How was it my fault?" she asked with a growl. "You were the one I was protecting them from."

He shook his head. "You went in too early. My sister had to pop in to grab you before you got hurt and instead of coming back to help, you ran."

"I ran for cover because of the fire," she denied. "You almost killed all the people we were trying to protect."

"I killed all the people who were firing at us," he hissed. "I can't have this conversation with you if you won't listen. My sister was a fox, yes, and she jumped in to save you because she thought I'd kill me if you died. Back then, maybe I would have been hurt. Back before you killed every piece of love I have for you."

"I didn't kill her," she denied, feeling her world swirl around her.

"No," Barron said with a sigh. "You're right. She made her own choices. Neither of us did anything to get her killed. She chose to go in there, and she wouldn't want either of us to feel the blame of her death." He paused. "But Sara, I won't have you harming Molly."

"She's a witch!"

"I don't care. And she's a healer. She would never harm someone else. Whatever hang up you have with them, you need to let it go. I'd like you to be here for this mission because Ally wanted it so, but you need to be an adult."

"An adult," she said with humor lacing her voice. Could he not hear how condescending he sounded? "I'm sorry if I'm being irrational, but your life isn't the only one that changed last night."

A hand touched her shoulder and she immediately jerked away. Barron shook his head at her. "I know things are going to be hard for you, and I'll try my best to keep things from getting uncomfortable, but nothing is going to change. She's my mate. I don't know if she even knows what that means yet, but she's it for me. She has been since Bryn hit her with the SUV."

Her eyes filled with tears as she nodded. "Namir is right, you canine are romantic as hell."

Relief relaxed Barron's shoulders, but he didn't smile. "Are we going to be alright?"

"Yeah," she mumbled, not knowing if the answer was true. "We'll be fine."

He nodded as he walked towards the hotel room door, pausing with his hand on the doorknob, Barron looked over his shoulder. "I realized earlier that I had thought I needed you in order to find redemption for the things that I've done in the past. I was wrong. The only thing I needed was to forgive myself. Do the same, Sara. Forgive yourself for not being able to feel what you thought you should. Forgive yourself for the choices you made that day."

With those words, he stepped out of the room. As soon as it clicked shut behind him, Sara let the tears fall freely down her face. Falling onto the bed behind her, she curled into a ball. How she had acted earlier wasn't her. She wasn't the jealous ex. She wasn't the woman who fought someone weaker than her. She was the person who fought for the weak, who held them up when they couldn't hold themselves.

Unclenching her fists, she let out a deep breath and wiped her tears. She needed to admit to herself that she hadn't loved Barron the way she should have. If she had, she wouldn't have balked when he showed her his magic. She wouldn't cringe away when he reached for her. No, she had wanted to love him, if only to receive the love she knew he would give unconditionally. That wasn't her anymore though, that was Molly. Molly would be on the receiving end of those feelings. She'd be the one to brighten Barron's dark world.

She sat up, letting the last of her tears dry. She would finish this mission. She would help Owen find the people looked for, but once this was over, she was doing what she had always done best. She was running back to her mountain, where her emotions were safe. She'd go back to her family, to the one place she knew without doubt that she was loved. Until then, though, she would push her hurt to the back of her mind.

Nodding with resolve, she stood from the bed and walked from her hotel room. Reaching the one that the rest of the crew was in, she took a deep breath, opened the door, and faced her new reality.

***

Molly

"You think he'll be alright?"

Someone snorted at her question, but Molly couldn't look away from the door to glare at whoever had laughed at her.

"Molly," Namir said, humor lacing his voice. "The only one stupid enough to try to fight Barron is in this room."

"Like you'd do anything to him," Bryn said with a laugh.

"I was talking about you."

Molly shook her head as she turned towards the both of them. "I'm not talking about physically. I mean is he going to be okay?"

Bryn's eyes brightened, but she didn't say a word. Namir stood there looking shocked by the question. Owen swung his feet off the bed and smiled at her. "Yeah. I have a feeling he'll be fine from now on."

"Good," she mumbled with a relieved breath before brightening when she saw the fast food bag in Owen's hands. "You going to eat that?" With a chuckle, he tossed it in her direction before disappearing into the bathroom. "Thanks!"

She tore into her fourth burger of the night just as the hotel room door swung open. Something inside of her instantly perked up and then proceeded to fall in disappointment when only Sara was at the door. Mouth full of food, Molly jumped to her feet. "Where's Barron?"

"What?" Sara said, a disgusted frown on her face.

Molly could feel her face flame red, but she wouldn't back down. Nope. Her mom taught her fight for what she wanted. She also taught her not to talk with her mouth full. Swallowing the chunk of burger, she smiled at Sara, ignoring the tension in the room. "Where's Barron?"

"I don't know. I thought he'd be in here after we talked."

She glanced towards the other people in the room only to receive their shrugs as answers. "I'm going to go look for him."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Namir mumbled.

Sara sighed. "Just let her go. It's not like Barron would let anything happen to her anyway."

Namir still hesitated, but Molly didn't give them enough time to try stopping her. With her half-eaten cheeseburger in hand, she walked out of the hotel room. She didn't know exactly where she was going, but she knew the general direction. Just like Owen and his radar, Molly could feel that Barron was close. She'd just follow the pull until it brought her to him.

Walking down the hall and towards the lobby, Molly let her mind wander. So, apparently, she was a fox now. A smile flew onto her face when she imagined her mom's reaction. She'd flip out. There hadn't even been a shifter in their town in ten years, and that guy had taken a step in, saw which family lived there and took a big step back.

It wasn't that she came from a powerful family. No, the Greens' were just known to be a little eccentric, maybe a little too open. Everyone in town knew what they were. It had been like that for generations. Back when a great aunt something had found out how to ward the border. Anyone who walked in instantly knew. Anyone who walked out completely forgot. It made for some confusing times if anyone was to see them outside of town, but they'd learn to get around that.

Except for the one time Molly had left town on her own and gotten kidnapped. Wincing, she remembered one important thing. She needed to call her mom. Shaking the dread off, she glanced around her, noticing she was standing outside in the dark, with no one around her. Strangely enough, she wasn't scared, which meant only one thing.

"Barron?"

"I'm up here."

She glanced up, eyes widening. "How'd you get on the roof? Do you really think that's safe?"

He let out a surprised laugh as he motioned towards a ladder on the side of the building. "Cats land on their feet."

Crumbling up the empty burger wrapper, she stuffed it in her pocket before walking towards the ladder. "Yeah, but you're not a cat right now. What happens if you slip?"

"It takes more than a thirty foot drop off an empty office building roof to kill a shifter."

She paused halfway up the ladder. "So, if I said that I just remembered falling to my death was a fear of mine?"

"You want me to come down?"

"Nah," she said with a bright smile. "I just won't glance down or think about falling off a roof. My grandma would just tell me to suck it up. Life isn't worth living if it's easy. Speaking of my grandma, do you happen to have a phone I can borrow or maybe some quarters? Wait, do they even have payphones here? Oh, and where is here?"

By the time she finished her tirade, she was at the top of the ladder. Glancing over, she noticed the amused look in Barron's eyes as he reached towards her, and she sighed in relief as he helped her settle beside him. "We have a couple phones. Not all of us do on the compound. There really isn't much of a point when we can all talk to each other in our heads, but we brought some with us on this trip. And were in Colorado."

"Damn," she mumbled under her breath. They were further away from her home than she realized. "Wait, what compound?"

"Hmm?" he asked as she shifted closer to him. "Oh, it's where we all live. It's a building full of rooms, a training facility, kitchen, common room, and some other things. It's where all the shifters without families live."

"Where do the ones with families live?"

"Some on the land, just further away. Some live in town, but we all stay close." He paused for a minute. "We're not required to stay there. We don't live in that kind of group. Ally was never allowed to be near the shifters who led. They didn't teach her the old ways."

She had heard the way shifters had lived. It was why her family didn't want anything to do with them. They came from a place that only allowed shifters of their own kind. If people wanted to leave, they were punished. If they tried mating outside of the group, they were punished. It was a hierarchy, and whatever the leader said went. She couldn't live somewhere like that.

"What if you wanted to move away?"

He shrugged. "Then I'd move away." He turned towards her. "You might as well ask everything that you want to right now before we go back to the room. As soon as we get there, they're going to want to know everything. We can't have someone out there knowing how to create shifters. We've kept ourselves secret for this long; we can't risk them finding out about us now."

She had a ton of questions, but at the moment, with him sitting so close, she didn't know how to ask a single one without sounding like a stalker. Why did she feel the moment he left the room, and why did it feel like he was taking half of her with him when he did go? She opened her mouth, but chickened out. She couldn't put him on the spot like that.

"Why am I so hungry all the time?" she asked as her stomach growled. "I could eat another four burgers."

He chuckled. "Your first shift always burns a lot of calories. Your body isn't used to the process yet, and it fights it. After a couple, you'll only want a rabbit or so afterwards."

Her nose crunched up. "How about I stick to burgers after I'm human?"

"Deal," he said amusement clear in his voice. "You ready to head back down?"

"No," she admitted, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'll need to call my parents. Let them know that I'm okay. They're used to seeing me almost every day. They had to have known something went wrong."

"But?"

"But, they're going to try to talk me into coming home." She paused, feeling something akin to panic. He shifted, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his side. Her body relaxed. "You won't be able to come with me yet, will you?"

"No. I can't until I bring Owen to where he's supposed to be. I can't let anything happen to the kid. He's too important. After though, I'll take you wherever you want to go."

The conviction in his voice brought a large smile to her face. "So, this weird thing that I'm feeling, you're feeling it too?"

"Yep. It's a fox thing."

"I think it might just be a Molly and Barron thing."

He was silent for a moment, but she could feel his body relax into hers and knew that they would be okay. "You ready now?"

She eased to her feet on the roof and held her hand out to him. With a smile, he let her hold his hand as he pulled himself up. "Yeah. I'm ready."