Page 56 of Broken

Chapter 23

Ireland’s first week or so at Outlaw Ridge was better than she expected—in most ways. She’d never been part of a community before—her Protectors had kept her isolated, whether they were in the Fae world, or here on earth.

But now she was finding out what Cole said was true—if she was a shifter, than she was one of them. Gunn had told her that since she was a new shifter, never having learned how to handle her Changes, then by law Cole—since he’d found her—and Gunn, as his alpha, were responsible for her until she learned to control her wolf and only Change when she wanted.

Which they hadn’t even really started working on yet.

What was even more unexpected, though, was that they welcomed her. Boomer jumped in with both feet, him and Karisma—more for Cole’s sake than hers, but she still appreciated it. And Boomer had friends. Switch and Breanna, Sanchez and Madison the bunny shifter, Sanchez’s cousins Cisco and Mateo, Dealer the former con man and thief.

“Not so former, really,” Breanna told her. “If you have any valuables, hide them, or he’ll steal them just for practice. Every now and then we have to go over to his cabin and take all our stuff back.”

They were a tight group, always having TV watch parties or barbecues, or gathering for a meal in the mess hall when they didn’t feel like cooking, or hanging out in the Rec Center in the evening, or trooping up to the testing field to watch Boomer set off some crazy explosives experiment.

The women were especially nice to her. There were so few of them at the Ridge, they tended to stick together, and they pulled Ireland into their group. Breanna, a former fashion model, was talking about hosting a mani-pedi day in her cabin, and Michelangela, a licensed tattoo artist, offered to give Ireland a tattoo.

An offer she accepted, like a crazy person. Thinking wickedly of Cole, she picked a sexy Tinkerbell design, where Tinkerbell had huge boobs with lots of cleavage, and her skirt was waaaay too revealing.

Mikey was halfway through putting it on when she said casually, “I can make it magical, if you want.”

“What?” Ireland didn’t even know why you’d want a tattoo to be magical. “What would it do?”

“Well, a really complicated one could actually be protective, or contain a certain kind of spell. But I don’t do those without a dragon to help me. I was thinking about something more fun.”

“Like this,” Madison said. She pulled up her sleeve to show the tattoo on her arm—a cartoon rabbit, with the words, “Liberated Forever. Domesticated Never.” As Ireland watched, the harmless-looking rabbit face popped out of her skin and turned to a wicked snarl.

Ireland jumped. Luckily Mikey had pulled the needle away before she did.

The tattoo went back to being a harmless bunny.

“Oh my gods that’s awesome!” Ireland said. “What can you make mine do?”

Mikey thought a minute, and then whispered something in her ear that made her crack up.

A few hours later, the guys arrived, having been at the Rec Center watching a hockey game—well within the bracelets’ circle of safety. “So?” Cole said, indicating her bandaged arm. “Let’s see it.”

Ireland peeled back the bandage. When he saw Tinkerbell, he grinned. “Sexy,” he said, with a little growl. “I like it.”

She gave the magic a little juice. Tinkerbell flashed her boobs, and the words, “Show me your magic wand” appeared underneath.

Cole laughed his ass off—the first time she’d ever seen him full on break into laughter. It made her feel warm all the way through. Then he wrapped his arm around her. “You can see my wand any time.”

He proved that later that night.

The only part of her life that wasn’t working was the most crucial one—the magic.

She could feel Cole resisting when they tried to work together. The connection between them would be strong, the magic flowing—and then he’d pull back, and it would all come crashing down.

She knew why. He was a lone wolf—he didn’t want anyone close to him. Even though he cared about her, even though they were sleeping together, they didn’t have what the other couples had with their mates.

He didn’t care about her that way, and he didn’t want to bond with her.

And she didn’t know if they could ever make the magic work without it.

She got so frustrated, she finally talked to Karisma about it. Karisma knew Cole better than anyone else at the Ridge besides Boomer. She knew what the brothers had been through.

“I try to talk to him about it,” Ireland said. They were walking along one of the trails that ran around the rim of the main compound, making sure they didn’t go out of bracelet range from Cole, who was sitting on the front porch of their cabin. “But he just shuts down and I can’t get anything out of him. It’s like talking to a stone wall.”

“He’s always been that way,” Karisma said, her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. “Worse. He’d go all silent and deadly. And then he’d turn wolf and go run in the woods.”