Page 4 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

Skye

I couldn’t breathe.

Fox Ramsey’s arms were wrapped around me, holding me as tight as he ever had. His gray eyes were wide, reflecting a shock that knotted in my gut. My brain couldn’t process it. As I looked up into his face, I was suddenly eighteen.

He was just as I remembered, and wholly different.

Slight lines crinkled on his forehead. His jaw was stronger and covered in a dark stubble, like he hadn’t shaved in weeks. His body had filled out in a way that made him look all man and none of the boy I had left behind all those years ago.

I sucked in a sharp breath, his scent hitting me with full force. That was different, too. More cedarwood and pine with a hint of that clean laundry smell.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to run.

Most of all, I wanted him to hold me tighter. I wasn’t even sure why .

I blinked once, and that shock melted into raw, unfiltered hurt. My heart squeezed so tight I thought it might crumple under the weight of that look on Fox’s face.

“Skye?” Emersyn’s voice from behind me shattered the silence of our moment.

Fox’s expression shifted, the hurt quickly turning into something colder. His grip on me loosened and he looked away.

Emersyn had followed me out outside. She stood next to August, his arm draped over her shoulders. She looked between Fox and me, her brows drawn tight together.

“Do you two…know each other?” she asked.

I glanced again at Fox. He didn’t look at me, though. The expression on his face was as hard as steel.

“You could say that,” August said. His voice was flat, a far cry from the easygoing tone I remembered. “Fox and Skye go way back.”

Fox’s jaw clenched as he pulled back from me, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

My stomach twisted. This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen. Not here on the street. Not when I wasn’t prepared.

His silence was deafening.

I didn’t know what to do. The four of us stood there, as if in a daze. My skin tingled from where Fox’s hand had been, steadying me.

When no other solution came to my mind, I did the only thing I knew how to do…I moved forward.

Swallowing down the nausea, the fear, the guilt that was chiseling away at my heart, I straightened my spine. Pasting a fake, forced smile on my face, I turned to Emersyn.

She looked concerned, her gaze focused on Fox .

“I’m sorry about all this.” My voice sounded nothing like my own. As if my lungs were being strangled. “This wasn’t a part of the plan.”

Emersyn’s gaze flicked to me. “Is…everything okay?”

I nodded stiffly. “Sure. We just—we knew each other when we were teens. It’s been, um, awhile since we’ve seen each other.”

I felt him leave before I looked. Fox turned on his heel and walked away, shoulders tense and body rigid. No words. Nothing.

The fleeting feeling of wanting to go after him flooded me. I wanted to explain myself. I wanted to comfort him.

But I couldn’t. I had made my choice a long time ago.

My feet rooted themselves to the pavement. I shouldn’t want to go after him. I didn’t deserve to.

August mumbled a curse under his breath.

We glanced at each other briefly. August’s cold expression lacked the steel in his brother’s. He almost looked like he might feel bad for me. He shouldn’t. I deserved this feeling of shame coursing like glass through my veins.

“It was…interesting seeing you, Skye.” He pulled his arm from around Emersyn’s shoulders and took her hand instead. “But I have to go take care of my brother.”

Then he was gone, too. Emersyn trailed behind him, looking at me like she was totally dumbfounded.

I stared after them, lost and stunned. I had known returning home would reopen old wounds—but nothing could have prepared me for how deeply they still bled.

I told myself I was ready for this. Ready to be back. Ready to face the past like it was some old ghost I could banish with enough determination.

But one look at Fox Ramsey had shattered all of that.

I stared out the windshield, blindly following the directions on my phone to the rental I’d secured.

It hadn’t been easy finding a place close to Ember Hollow that was available for short-term rental. There weren’t any hotels around, and the one bed-and-breakfast in the area was owned by the Ramseys.

And I wasn’t setting foot near their family if I could help it. I loved them—always have—but they probably hated me. I wouldn’t burden them with my presence.

My pointer finger scratched at the raw skin around my thumbnail as the look on Fox’s face replayed over in my mind.

Recognition had shifted so quickly into pain and then…hate. He had never looked at me like that before, like a man built from anger. The soft edges I remembered—that quiet steadiness of him—had disappeared entirely.

And I had no one to blame but myself.

I bit the side of my thumb, not even noticing what I was doing until the sting of torn skin snapped me out of my thoughts.

I slammed my hand back onto the steering wheel, gripping it tight. A drop of blood welled on my skin, making me grimace. I hated the nervous picking habit, but it overwhelmed me when I was stressed.

There was no point in drowning in Fox’s reaction right now. I had work to do.

My foot eased on the brakes as the drive I was looking for popped into view between the autumn foliage. I’d almost missed it, as it was obscured in a dense wooded area. The only sign it was there were two wooden posts with green reflectors.

The place was about ten minutes outside of town.

Gravel crunched beneath the tires of my car as I rolled down the winding gravel path.

Some unease crept up my spine at how dense the woods were.

I was beginning to wonder whether I’d made a mistake or had gotten the address wrong, when the cabin finally popped into view a few minutes later.

Relieved, I parked and climbed out of my vehicle. The cabin itself seemed solid enough. The weathered cedar planks of the exterior gave it a rugged, rustic feel. Once, it was an old hunting cabin. The man who owned it was too elderly to use it, and his children rented it out on occasion.

I turned in a slow circle, checking out the area. This truly was in the middle of nowhere. It was so…quiet. The yellow, orange, and brown leaves rustled in the breeze. Birds called out to one another and squirrels scampered up the tree trunks and leapt among the branches.

It was beautiful, in many ways. I’d lived for so long in the city that I’d forgotten how peaceful the world could be.

It should be relaxing.

But as another gust of wind tossed the dead leaves around my feet, cold apprehension pricked at the back of my neck. I shivered, trying to ignore the feeling that someone was watching me through the gaps in the trees.

I wrapped my arms around my chest. No one was there, I reminded myself. I just wasn’t used to feeling this alone. This isolated. Despite my assertions, I hurried behind my vehicle and opened the hatch, anxious to get my luggage inside and lock the door .

It took me three trips to get all the tech equipment inside.

The network offered to send a team with me to film, but I had declined.

It was conspicuous enough that I was here; if I had brought a whole team with me, it would’ve caused a spectacle.

I was hoping to fly low under the radar for as long as possible.

Possibly I’d hire some local help with filming and sound if I needed it, but I’d always been interested in film.

Besides, the town had been through so much already, I wanted there to be as little disruption as possible.

It wasn’t until I dragged the last bags from my trunk, that I finally noticed it.

As the boughs of the nearest oak swayed, a peek of sunlight glinted off broken glass in the grass near the left side of the cabin. My heart sank as I dropped my bags by the door. The window to the one bedroom was shattered.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grumbled, noticing the large hunk of dead branch that laid on the ground near it.

I gave a disgruntled glare at the giant trees that surrounded the cabin. But I supposed it could’ve been worse. The branch could’ve fallen on the cabin and damaged the roof or something. That had to have been what broke the window.

I sighed, trying not to let yet another thing get to me. I’d have to call to get it fixed, but it would be fine. Everything was going to be fine. I was going to do my work, and then leave Ember Hollow behind me once again.

I tried to shake off the lingering unease, but as I carried the last of my things inside, I couldn’t stop from glancing one last time at the broken glass.

A sudden chill dripped down my spine. Before my thoughts ran rampant, I scampered inside and slammed the door, locking it behind me with a firm click .