In Her Heat - Ainsley's Story

In Her Heat - Chapter Thirty

THE BIG 3-0!!! ENJOY! :)

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The first few weeks of mated life were bliss. Cade hadn’t changed in attitude – he was still an arrogant, domineering bastard, but I realized that I loved him anyways and he always showed a deep tenderness and care towards me. We stayed in bed most of the day most days and Lord, let me tell you I was not complaining. The man had some magic running through his veins.

But the honeymoon stage never lasts long enough, does it.

Unfortunately there were some big issues that needed to be dealt with. Promptly.

The first one was Damon. Nobody had seen or heard from in months, since that fateful day when Ashton pushed him out the window in an attempt to gain the Alpha title. It worried me that nobody had any clue as to where Damon was. Even more disconcerting was that Ashton had managed to escape in the gunfight. Cameron had said he was working with Red Howl. To my understanding their pack and ours had some sort of misunderstanding. Of course they did, my life wouldn’t be mine if I wasn’t involved in some kind of conflict. I made a note to ask Cade if Cameron had come up with any other information on what was going on at Red Howl. If they caught us off guard things could be disastrous.

Then there was the war. The Big Alpha had died more than three months ago, in mid-June. August was now almost done. When Ashton and Reese had told me about the war I’d expected it to start with a clash, a bang.  However, things were quiet. Too quiet, my cheesy mind added. It wasn’t untrue though. This was most definitely the calm before the storm, or maybe even the hurricane. I just knew it was going to be bad, bad, bad.

Things were going to get complicated at Black Paw, that was for sure.

On a crisp autumn morning I decided to go and see Connie. It’d been a very long time since I’d seen her and I wanted to thank her for being so straight with me. Plus, she was the only family I had around here.

I got dressed, slipping on jeans and a long sleeved white shirt. I let my long black hair flow down over my shoulders.

As I stepped outside a light breeze picked up strands of my hair and tossed them around my face. The sun was out and shining on leaves the color of burnt oranges, reds and yellows. The roads were mostly clear, but I could see people moving around indoors and in their backyards. I took a deep breath. This really was my home.

I rounded the curve that would lead me to Connie’s home. The wrap-around porch was empty. I jogged up the steps and knocked on the door, once, twice, three times. No answer.

“Connie, it’s me!” Still no answer. What was going on here? I tried the doorknob. It was unlocked, but that didn’t really surprise. Weres would be able to tell if someone entered their house and if they were from the reserve they would know who it was. I still didn’t dare go inside. I’d seen the horror movies. The foolish girl goes inside to investigate and the only part of her that comes out is her decapitated head. Oh no, I was not setting foot in that house. I heard a creaking noise around the side of the porch.

Cautiously, I took one step to the side and stretched my head. I couldn’t really see much, but I was too scared to venture. So sue me.

A strange and chilling breeze swept up, lifting my hair and whipping around my face. Strands flew across my eyes, temporarily blinding me. Panicked,  I smacked at the strands, ripping them away from my face. My vision restored, I turned in a slow circle, my eyes sharp and alert looking for some sign.

My eyes fell on a piece of paper placed on the bottom step. That hadn’t been there when I arrived. The wind could have blown it there, my mind reasoned. But my gut slapped my mind and yelled at it to stop fooling itself.

Looking around once more, I stepped down the steps and picked up the paper. It was actually a card, made of very stiff and rough cream-colored paper. As I opened it, I my fingers rubbed against the material and I was shocked to find it abraded my skin and cut one of my fingers. One perfect drop of my blood fell and stained the bottom corner of the cards inside. Printed in the middle of the bottom flap were four word printed in capital letters.

WE’RE COMING FOR YOU.

A chill ran down my spine and my eyes widened. As I looked around hoping to spot the card deliverer every tree suddenly looked like a hiding spot, every bush a place to spy.

The card gripped in my hand, the corners cutting my palm I ran for the headquarters where I knew Cade would be. My hair flying, my heart pounding I raced for the safety of that building.

People called my name, but I ignored them, running, running, running. When arms snaked around my waist, I screamed, whirling towards my attacker, beating him with my free hand.

“Ainsley, stop! It’s me!” Strong arms pinned my hands to my side.

“Gabriel?” I asked, panting. “What the hell are you doing grabbing me like that?! Get off me!” I shrugged his hands and started running again to headquarters.

“AINSLEY!”

Damn, why did I always have guys chasing after me? Like I knew I was pretty, but sheesh! Haha, that was a joke.

I willed my feet to move faster, my legs to pump harder. I reached the doors of headquarters and flung them open, racing inside.

“CADE!” I ran down the hallway screaming his name. He’d told me he would be in the conference room, but there was one on each floor and I couldn’t remember which floor he was on.

                When I reached the end of the hallway with no Cade in sight, I backtracked, heading for the elevator, still yelling his name at the top of my lungs. At the elevator, I pushed the up button repeatedly.

“WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING SO DAMN LONG?!” I screamed.

Clearly my nerves were getting the best of me.

“Ainsley?” I spun in the direction of the voice. Cade stood a few doors down from me looking sexy as hell in black jeans and a gray shirt. A shirt that covered wicked abs and pants that covered a sinfully talented…

 Trust me to lose focus when it mattered.

Clearing my mind, I ran towards Cade, flinging myself into his arms.

“Cade…Oh Cade, it’s bad.”

“Ainsley, what happened?” He pushed me away just enough so he could look at my face. He frowned at what I guess what panic streaked across my face.

Breathless, I recounted what happened. Halfway through the story, I switched the card to my free hand so I could push my hair off my face. When I said a sticky liquid on my face, I frowned before realizing I still had blood on my hands. I shrugged and continued in telling my story.

Cade, however, was not pleased.

“Why are you bleeding.” It wasn’t so much a question as it was a demand for information. My voice was low and I could he was barely keeping himself from growling.

“It’s nothing, the card cut me.”

“Ainsley..” There was a warning note in his tone.

“What?! It’s true! Geez, that doesn’t even matter, look at what the card says.” I handed it to him, rolling my eyes as his frown deepened seeing all the blood that had flowing from my palm to the card. His eye scanned the outside and back of the card. “Oh for goodness’ sake, read it!” The way this man tried my patience and I was already on edge.

His entire body tensed. His gray eyes flicked to mine. His eyes showed concern for me and a whole lot of steel determination.

He grabbed his cell phone from his holster and pressed a button. “Shane, I need you to tighten and increase security and make the lockdown room available. Ainsley’s in danger.”

I kid you not, in less than two minutes our headquarters looked like the Pentagon. There were numerous guards outside carrying massive weaponry, bolts were engaged on the doors, blinds were drawn and then over that steel covered the windows. Lights engaged to compensate for the lack of natural light. There was a tense air all around and everybody was on edge, alert.

Dear Lord, what had I done?