“That old man has got a hard freaking head,” Jacob hisses as he pulls his pinkie with a crack.
Easton slides the back window open and glances at us as he drives. “What the fuck is with those guys?”
“They think we’re town hicks like them,” Cameron says as he shakes his head. “They don’t realize they’re messing with trained killers.”
“Ex-trained killers,” Jacob says as he glares at his younger brother. “We left that life, remember? We are town hicks now.”
“We’re still not like them,” Cameron says as he turns away. The warm breeze is wafting over us, making his long hair flow in the wind. “And we never will be.”
We sit in silence as the truck barrels down the quiet mountain road. It’s true. As hard as we try, as strong as the desire is, we’ll never be like these small-town country boys.
We’ll always be different. We’ve seen too much. Our hearts have been hardened.
To them, fighting is a pastime. It’s fun. A way to blow off steam at the local pub.
To us, it’s survival. It’s real. It used to be a way of life.
I look up at the stars and take a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. Whenever I look up at the night sky, I start wondering where she is.
I imagine her looking up at these same stars and I feel connected to her. To my mate. I haven’t seen her, but that connection has always been there rooted deep in my core.
I wonder if the violence in my past will start to fade once I find her and am engulfed in her angelic presence. Maybe her light will push out the darkness.
I sigh as I rest on the side of the truck with my bloody t-shirt pressed against my broken nose.
All I can do is hope.
Until she comes…
Chapter Two
Bailey
I’m breathless with excitement as I pass through the last security check and head out of the secured area of the airport.
There are tons of excited people waiting behind the metal guardrails as the passengers walk out. I have my huge backpacking bag on my back as I walk past them, looking for my brother.
I remember when I left ten months ago. My legs were all wobbly under the weight of the pack and I could barely take ten steps without falling over. Now, after traveling through eighteen countries and carrying this bad boy the entire way, my legs are strong and sturdy. It’s easy.
“Matthew!” a woman squeals when she sees the man in front of me. She leaps over the guardrail and lands in his waiting arms.
I smile as I scan the crowd. I’m not expecting my brother to be that happy to see me, although I have missed him a lot.
I laugh when I spot him leaning against a column. He’s holding a sign that says “Bailey! Welcome home from jail!”
He grins. I rush over and let him swallow me up in his big arms. It feels good to be home.
“I want to hear all about it,” he says as he grabs my bag and throws it over his big shoulder. “Every country.”
“You know you could leave Belgrade Springs for once and see them yourself,” I say with a playful grin.
He shakes his head. “Not my style. I don’t think my grizzly bear would react well to being locked up in a metal tube thirty thousand feet in the air.”
“Good point,” I say with a laugh. I guess I forgot that things are always different for my brother. My father passed his bear shifter gene onto him, but it skipped over me. I was bitter about that for a long time, but I guess being human has its perks too.
We chat as we head into the parking lot. I smile when I see his big blue pickup truck. It’s weird what’s comforting after traveling so long—the dried mud on my brother’s car, the sound of English as people walk by, even the shape of the toilets.
I had a great trip, but I’m glad it’s over. I went with a friend I met online from Sweden. She was so much fun to travel with and I was so sad to say goodbye.
I spent another two weeks traveling after she returned home to Karlstad. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I hadn’t found what I had set out to find.
It was like there was a piece of my life missing and I had hoped that traveling around Europe would have filled it, but it didn’t. It feels worse than ever—empty and lacking, like there’s a chunk of my soul missing.
“You can stay with me as long as you want,” my brother says as he tosses my bag into the back of his truck. “I bought a bed for you off Craigslist and set it up in the spare bedroom.”
I don’t know why, but it brings tears to my eyes. My brother has always been the best. I was picked on a lot growing up, but he always came to my rescue, straightening out anyone who tried to mess with me.
“Really?” I ask as I wipe the wetness from my eyes. “You don’t mind? It might be a while, I’m kind of broke.”
He laughs. “Under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“That you take a shower as soon as you get home. You stink.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say as I swat him. He ducks under my hand and heads to his door.
“But seriously,” I say. “Thank you so much, Enzo."
After a warm shower, a hot meal, and a long nap, I’m feeling pretty good.
It’s about four o’clock and Enzo has gone to work at the fire station.
“Yes,” I whisper when I see his note on the table. He got a ride with Brees so that he could leave me the truck.
I haven’t had my favorite conditioner since I ran out in Mykonos, Greece about seven months ago. I’ve been dreaming about this
