Chapter Twenty-Eight: Torin

“She’s gone.” Oaklyn stood at the top of the stairs staring at him as he lay in the early morning light, his head throbbing. He hadn’t felt like this in years, and if he’d had the choice he would have spent the entire day in bed without opening his eyes. It looked like at least one of his house guests was determined to make sure he knew exactly what she thought about everything that had gone down in the last twelve hours. “Two whiskey bottles on the nightstand, Torin? Did you drink both of those after she left last night? No wonder you look like shit.”

Ignoring the question, and the comment about how he looked, Torin pulled the blanket up higher over his shoulders, thankful that his Beast had been silent since the sound of the helicopter’s blades had faded into the distance. Up until that moment it had been a struggle, but after that he’d had only his own thoughts to drink into oblivion.

“She deserves better than me.” He muttered the words and Oaklyn shook her head before casting her eyes out the large picture window that faced the vast wilderness.

“And that’s what you think she’ll find out there, living among humans? By the Goddess, you are one of my best friends Torin but you are also the greatest lump of an idiot that I have met in all my life.”

“Why? Because I understand that getting far away from her pack is the best thing that she can possibly do? It was foolish of me to get as involved as I did. I should have laid her out across the backseat of my SUV that first night and driven to meet Ted, rather than letting things get as complicated and twisted as they did.”

“Torin, if that girl deserves better than you it’s for one reason and one reason only. It isn’t because you can’t protect her. Think of what she’s already been through. She’s a survivor. She escaped her pack. She made it all the way here. And she just picked herself up to go make a new life for herself because she was afraid that she was a burden on you. She doesn’t need you to be her Prince Charming, which is good, because I’m not sure how well you fit that part, Friend.”

Torin narrowed his eyes at Oaklyn’s over the top sarcasm. There were very few people in the world who would dare speak to him the way that she was, and while usually he would appreciate the fact that she felt like she could be candid with him, the pounding in his head was only getting worse and she didn’t seem like she was going to stop anytime soon.

“Can we do this later? I feel like my head is going to split in two?” Torin reached for a pillow and pressed it against his head, at least managing to block out any further light from reaching his eyes.

“No. This can’t wait. The longer you wait, the further away she gets. So back to my point. If Briar deserves better than you, it isn’t because you can’t ‘protect her.’ It’s because you aren’t willing to even get out of this bed and go after her. It’s because when she left, you hid up here like a great oaf, instead of going after the girl and telling her that you love her.”

“I don’t.” He said the words immediately, but they lacked conviction. “I can’t. You can’t love someone you’ve known for less than a week.”

“Really?” Oaklyn stood up. “I mean, it’s unusual. Especially since she still, technically, has a mate. But stranger things have happened. And the Goddess works in mysterious ways. Whatever I said what I said. It’s what I think you needed to hear. I may not be capable of letting myself be happy but I’ll be damned if I don’t at least say something when I see you throwing it all away. Now get your ass out of bed. Ted said something about the two of you going out together to fish or hunt or something and he’s already dressed.”

Torin let out a moan as he heard Oaklyn’s heels click on the steps as she walked back downstairs. He vaguely remembered promising to go out hunting with Ted once this was all over with his house guest. At the time the vaguely alluded to promise had seemed much further off. Wiping his hand over his face he pushed himself up out of bed. The whiskey had definitely been a mistake. It was nearly impossible to make a bear-shifter hung over, but he’d managed it and today he had a feeling he was going to pay for it, fully, especially if his friends had anything to say about it.

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He and Ted hardly spoke for the first hour as they plodded through the woods. They were headed to a lake that they’d both spent a good deal of time fishing at, after agreeing that it was a fishing sort of day. The lakes weren’t yet frozen enough for ice fishing, and this storm that they’d gotten was only the first good snow of the year, since it was still September.

Between the breakfast that he’d managed to keep down, and the fresh air, his body had rapidly managed to process last night’s mistake and he almost felt like himself again, at least physically. Somehow that didn’t make him any more prepared to deal with the question that Ted asked him when his friend slowed the pace that they’d set off at and turned his head, giving Torin a long look before finally speaking.

He thought his friend might echo what Oaklyn had said earlier, when she’d given him that speech up in his bedroom. After all most of his conversations had been with Ted and she probably hadn’t come up with the ideas that she had on her own. Then again, knowing Oaklyn, she was fully capable of reaching her own conclusions, even after only spending a short amount of time with Briar. But the moment Ted began to speak Torin realized that his friend was taking an entirely different approach.

“There’s been something that’s been bothering me since yesterday when the girls were leaving.” His oldest friend shook his head as he drew in a long, slow breath of the crisp morning air. “The first thing that I can’t stop thinking about is that helicopter. I mean if we push aside the issue of them sending out a helicopter at short notice, they’re still sending it all the way out into the middle of nowhere for who? An administrative assistant is what Oaklyn thought Brielle was. I mean even if she works for the boss, it’s still a little odd that they send a Blackhawk with security all the way out here because she sends a text on the spur of the moment. And the speed that they made it out means they were already somewhere close by. And I keep trying to tell myself that Oaklyn and Brielle go way back, so I should trust the girl, because Oaklyn isn’t dumb, but the situation last night made me uncomfortable and I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Ted stopped and faced his friend, running a hand through his dark hair, which was already a mess since he’d done the same thing several times already. “And then there was the whole fact that they were leaving here to fly back to Fairbanks in a helo and they would have been landing long after dark. I asked if they wanted to stay here for the night and Brielle said that it wasn’t a problem because their pilot had superhuman eyesight. I mean wolves and bears have good night vision but not at those sort of distances. It’s not like you or I can see for miles in pitch black darkness and I know wolves can’t either.”

“So what are you thinking?” Torin didn’t like the direction this conversation was headed. He had sent Briar away because he hadn’t thought that Alaska was safe for her, but he had the sudden, distinct impression that he had tossed her out of the frying pan and into the fire.

“Well. I spent last night asking myself which shifters have the best night vision. And not just night vision but long distance night vision.”

“That narrows it down. You’ve got big cats. Not cheetahs because they can’t see worth shit in the dark, but it’s not like there are many of them around anyways. You’ve got owls.” Ted paused and took in a deep breath. “I almost don’t even want to say the last one. It seems unlikely, but if this possibility ended up being correct then I think that you should probably stay out of it. Let her go. At least you’d know she was safe from her mate because he’d never touch her again.”

“Who haven’t you mentioned, Ted?” Torin’s voice was laced with frustration. They’d begun to walk again but now Torin came to a complete stop and turned to face his friend.

“I thought she wasn’t your problem anymore, Torin?” A low throaty growl left the other man’s throat and his eyes darkened. “I thought that you couldn’t protect her? And shit, if I’m right, this would be worse than a dozen wolf packs being after her.” Torin took a deep breath. He knew what his friend was doing. He was trying to get him to admit that he had feelings for the girl and that he absolutely was ready to step up and do whatever it took to make sure that she was safe, regardless of what the threat was.

“Just tell me who you think it is. It’s clear that you have an idea.”

“It’s just a theory. I had a hunch and last night after they left and you drank yourself unconscious, I asked Oaklyn if Brielle had any tattoos. She doesn’t. But she does have a small scar on the inside of her wrist. It’s silvery and the lines are very fine, so it isn’t easy to see, but it’s about an inch by an inch and looks like tiny scales.”

Torin frowned, shaking his head slowly. “Like what you’d weigh something on?”

“No. Like on a fish, or a mermaid, or-”

“Fuck.” Torin’s hands were now balled in fists at his side, the muscle in his jaw flexing.

“We don’t know anything for sure, Torin.”

“Don’t we. Mother fucking don’t we? Fuck. A helicopter picked up Brielle. You know that means she works for Rose. And I sat here on my ass and didn’t even bat an eye and let him take her. Take both of them. She was better off with that bastard mate of hers than where she is now.”

“We don’t know anything for sure, Torin. It’s just a scar. We still need to make sure-”

“Coincidences aren’t a luxury that actually ever occur in our world, are they Ted? You know what this means, don’t you? I just tried to do the right thing, and pushed away my last fucking chance at happiness, because I wanted more for her than all of this,” he stretched out his arms wide, “and inside I sent her to one of the most sadistic bastards on the planet. What the fuck, Ted? We need to make this right, and sooner rather than later. Because I will not survive being ten seconds too late a second time.”