“I heal fast.”
“You said wounds inflicted by Alphas take longer to heal,” I sputtered.
“I’ll make sure to keep away until my skin seals shut. Besides, you saw her. She’s slow and not particularly strong.” He stopped pacing, beelined toward me, and then scooped me up and spun me. “Fuck, Ness, we got this.”
When he set me down, my head spun, but not only from the sudden movement. It spun from dread. There were still so many risks . . . And then, because having a headache wasn’t bad enough, my navel began to burn as though someone were jabbing it with a fiery poker.
August pushed off the wall and shot toward Liam. “You’re a selfish prick, Kolane.”
Liam wrenched his shoulders back and got into August’s face. “A selfish prick?”
“You think you got this, but what if you don’t? You won’t be the only one in that ring tonight.”
“Seconds don’t engage,” Liam spat out.
“Have you fucking met Morgan’s Second?” August snapped.
I squeezed myself between both males and pushed them away from each other. “Stop it. Both of you.”
“August is right, Liam,” Matt said. “Justin’s a sick fuck.”
“We know what their edge is,” Liam exclaimed. “We’re going to beat them at their own game.”
I slid my hands off their battering chests and whirled to face Liam. “Stop calling it a game. It’s not!”
His excitement dimmed. Finally!
“It was a manner of speaking, Ness.”
“Was it? Because if memory serves me, you called it a game the day we signed up.”
His voice lowered, and more light left his eyes. “I hadn’t been referring to the duel then.”
August’s chest brushed up against my shoulder blades.
I stared long and hard at Liam. “None of it was ever a game to me, all right?”
“I’ll take her place,” August said. “I’ll be your Second.”
“No!” I spun around.
“Don’t believe she can hold her own out there, Watt?” Liam asked.
August’s gaze sharpened on Liam. “This has nothing to do with what I think of Ness,” he said in a chillingly low voice, “and everything to do with what I think of Justin.”
“I signed up for this. I’ll see it through.” I turned back around. “If I have to,” I added. “I still think we should call them up on their cheating and chase them off our land.”
“They own the inn and all the Pine territory,” Liam said, eyes locked on August’s, “so chasing them off our land won’t get them out of Boulder.”
Pine territory! “Cole, did you get in touch with Sarah?”
“No, but Liam received a message from Avery.”
“Avery?” I asked.
“The Rivers’ contact,” Cole said.
“I remember who he is,” I said. “I meant, why did he send us a message?”
“Because he heard Alex Morgan talk about having put the two-timing Pine bitch in her place, and he believes Alex is talking about Sarah since he’s seen them together,” Liam said.
Dread curled through me. “In her place?”
“I don’t know what that means,” Liam said. “He doesn’t either, but he’s trying to find out.”
Fear for Sarah superseded everything else in that moment. I pressed a fist against my mouth. “Oh my God.”
Lucas careened toward the door. “I can track her smell.”
“No,” Liam said. “We stay put. Avery’s there. He said he’s working on it, and I trust he is.”
My head jerked back. “He didn’t even want to get involved, yet you trust he’s helping us?”
“People change their minds all the time.” When his eyes lifted to August, I wondered if Liam was talking about Avery or about me.
A thought struck me. However much I wanted to call this duel off, I couldn’t abandon Sarah to the Morgans. But Liam couldn’t turn the Creeks into Boulders without ingesting Cassandra’s heart. “Let’s say we go through with the duel, and you win—”
“I will win.”
His conviction made me purse my lips. It also made August’s pulse spike and hammer my tight spine.
“Have a little faith in me, Ness.”
“Okay. Fine. What happens after you win? How exactly are you planning on eating her heart?”
A corner of his mouth curled. “With my teeth.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be dense. If her blood’s full of silver, then her heart is too.”
“Little Wolf’s right,” Matt said.
“I’ll have it injected with Sillin. Or I’ll inject myself with Sillin. Greg would know. You brought it?”
I pulled the tablets out of my bag just as the front door opened and Greg stepped in.
Liam smirked. “Look at that. I speak his name and he appears. We were just talking about you.”
Surprise crinkled the fine lines around the doctor’s eyes. Or maybe it was concern. “And what were you discussing?”
“We were discussing how you’re going to purge a heart of silver without purging it of blood. You know, so I can eat it.”
47
Greg scrutinized the screen of the portable device in which he’d just inserted a drop of August’s blood. “Down by a little more than a half. You should be Sillin-free by the next full moon.”
Considering the duel was tonight, it was a good thing I hadn’t been the guinea-pig in the experiment.
“Can you shift at all?” Greg asked, putting away the handheld machine.
August, who was sitting at the game table between Cole and the doctor, palmed his cropped hair. “No.”
“Can you get your claws to come out?”
Studying the ball of cotton he held to the puncture wound on the inside of his elbow, he said, “No.”
“Did it affect the mating link?”
August raised his gaze to me. “No.”
I was standing by the windowed wall, alternately watching the males behind me and the ones on the other side of the glass. Ever since Greg told Liam that injecting him with a hefty dose of Sillin at the end of the duel—not as hefty as what he’d given August, because we didn’t have enough pills left for that—would counteract the silver in Cassandra’s blood, Liam was mentally and physically psyching himself up for the duel.
Both he and Matt had shed their clothes and morphed into fur. For the past half hour, they’d been battling relentlessly. Liam wasn’t immune to Matt’s blows—he tumbled and winced—but he’d hop back on his paws and give as good as he got.
Better.
But then, they were play-acting.
However violent the fight, it wasn’t real.
I lifted my gaze to the miles of swaying pines that separated Liam’s property from the Inn, wondering what the Creeks were doing at this exact moment. Vandalizing more of our homes, burying Aidan’s ashes, or preparing to face-off with us?
As Lucas came to stand next to me, I hugged my torso. “Sarah got with Alex to help us. She hates him.”
He watched Matt catch Liam’s hind leg and flip him onto his back.
“How do you feel, by the way?” I asked.
“Fucking relieved.”
I couldn’t help smiling a little at his answer. “Not about Sarah.”
“Oh.” A blush streaked his cheeks.
“I meant, since you ran into Alex Morgan’s fist.”
“Murderous, but otherwise, good.”
“For what he did to you or what he might’ve done to her?”
His eyebrows slanted behind his shaggy, black hair. “Both.”
We went back to our silent but companionable observation of Liam and Matt.
At some point, Lucas said, “I know you’re worried, but Liam’s skilled and quick. Have you ever noticed how fast he moves? Like those vampires in the shows chicks love to watch.”
I side-eyed him. “I’m not sure I’m familiar with those shows. Why don’t you tell me more about them?”
He started to walk me through the plot of one, but then he caught my dimples excavating my cheeks and stopped.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Sarah about your secret obsession with vampires.”
A brighter blush slashed his cheeks. “You’re a real pain in my furry ass.”
“But surprisingly endearing, right?”
He shot me a look, which was probably supposed to be scathing, if it weren’t for his crooked smile. “Surprisingly so.”
I knocked my shoulder into his, and his mouth curved a little more.
“You know what’s crazy?” I asked after a while.
“I think you should rephrase your question to: do you know what isn’t crazy?”
“Probably.” I bobbed my head. “Anyway, if we win tonight, I’ll go from being the only female in my pack to being one of many females.”
“Oh, the horror.”
I shoved him again. “Watch it, Mason.”
He chuckled quietly.
Ness, get out here and shift.
I jumped at Liam’s command.
And no getting naked behind closed doors. When I still hadn’t moved, he pawed the ground. Now.
Heat spiraled through my body.
“What?” Lucas asked.
“Liam wants me to”—I uncrossed my arms, because coupled with the hoodie and Liam’s order, I was getting hot—“join them.”
Lucas frowned. “Can’t hurt to train a little more.”
“That’s not—um . . .” I pulled on the collar of the hoodie but still couldn’t get myself to peel it off.
The black wolf barked, which made me jump, and then he pawed the earth again.
“Go on,” Lucas said.
Pressing my palms, which were thankfully a little cold, against my neck, I unglued my soles from the hardwood floors and stalked out the front door. “I said I’d do it tonight, and I will.”
Now.
My body felt as though it were impaled on a spit hung over an open fire. “Why?”
The shimmering blue rope that connected me to August tightened as he stepped out of the house, Lucas at his side. At least Cole and Greg hadn’t come to watch, not that they couldn’t see me through the window.
“Please, Liam—”
You’re a werewolf, Ness. Act like one.
I bristled. “Fine.” I pulled off the hoodie and tossed it on the ground, then unlaced my boots and kicked them off.
When I reached for the hem of my tank top, August trampled the grass until he stood in front of me. “What are you doing?”
“Acting like a werewolf, apparently,” I gritted out, yanking off the top, exposing my bare chest.
August’s nostrils flared, and he snapped his head toward Liam. “If I want to stand in front of her, I’ll stand in front of her.” I guessed Liam had told August to move through the mind-link. “I get that tonight she’ll be on her own.” He returned his attention to me, his chest all but squashing my bare breasts.
I’d rather have been waxed from muzzle to paw than strip in front of an audience, but Liam was right, I was a shifter, and nudity wasn’t taboo in our circle. It was a way of life.
I sighed and splayed my palms on August’s pecs to press him away, but it was like trying to displace a block of cement.
“I can do this,” I told him.
The green around his irises seemed to glow brighter, as though his wolf was somehow rising to the surface in spite of the Sillin.
I took a step back as I popped the button of my shorts and dropped them. When my thumbs hooked into my underwear, August turned his attention to the others and stared them all down until they looked away.
I shut my eyes, willing the transformation to come quick, realizing full well that tonight I would be expected to stand out there—wherever out there was—in the buff way longer than mere seconds.
It was silly, but when I dropped onto my paws, I felt a little braver by what I’d just accomplished.
A little more ready to face off against Justin.
I trotted toward August and rubbed my cheek on his stiff thigh before glancing into his human face, finding that his features had softened. His fingers slid through my white fur. Once I sensed he was calm, I darted toward my Alpha.
“Nice ass,” Lucas said, tossing me a wink. “A little on the skinny side for my taste, but—”
August cast Lucas such a barbed glare that he shut up and raised his palms.
“Calm down there, Watt. No one’s stealing your girl. I mean, with that temper . . . yeesh. She’s all yours.”
I smiled on the inside because my rubbery lupine lips weren’t engineered for smiles. But then I gasped as I was knocked onto my ass.
Hey, I growled at Liam. Was that really necessary?
The minute you’re in fur, your attention needs to be on me, Justin, and Morgan. Not on your mate.
My attention wasn’t on my mate. It was on Lucas.
Get up, Liam barked.
Huffing, I stood. You want me to attack you? Or—
My body skidded sideways as though my black pads had sprouted tiny wheels.
What the hell? Matt yelped, sliding right past me. How’d you do that, Little Wolf?
For a moment, both wolves observed me in silence, and then Matt craned his long neck and peered over his shoulder at August who was still planted on the lawn, fingers tapping his thighs.
Fuck . . . Matt said at the same time as Liam asked, Can one of you please enlighten me as to what just happened?
As Matt filled Liam in on the mysterious mechanism of mating links, August tugged on the tether again, but not to move my body, just to remind me he was there, watching over me.
That he had my back.
The shimmery blue rope tautened between us. I wrapped an invisible hand around it and prepared to pull back to prove to August it went both ways, but then Liam barked.
I jumped, losing sight of the elusive rope.
How far is his reach? he asked.
Far.
How far?
As long as I’m in his line of sight.
Good. Although his massive body was coiled tight, he sounded genuinely pleased by what he’d just learned.
He must’ve spoken through the mind-link, because August nodded before returning to the open front door and sidling in next to Lucas.
He’s not going to help you out until tonight, Liam said. In case anyone’s watching . . .
Heart skidding to a halt, my gaze swept over the wooded expanse surrounding us, seeking lambent eyes in the shadows of the great evergreens. I saw none, but did it mean they weren’t watching?
Where will the fight take place? I asked Liam, skirting his lunge.
On the lawn of the former Pines’ headquarters.
In the maze?
Not in the maze, but next to it.
I didn’t like the idea of fighting next to a maze. There was no telling what could leap from the dense shrubs.
Liam pounced on top of my back. Concentrate, Ness.
I shoved him off.
As he circled me, surely calculating at which angle to come at me, he added through the mind-link: Don’t ever rely on another person to keep you safe.
Was he insinuating that I wouldn’t be able to keep him safe or that August wouldn’t be able to keep me safe?
I’ll try to keep track of you the entire time, but I might not be able to.
His words stilled me. I was supposed to keep track of him, not the other way around.
Of course, Matt took advantage of my lapse of attention to barrel straight into me, and none too gently. He apologized, but the impact still stung.
As I straightened and wrung myself out, I pinned Liam with an inflexible stare. Don’t you dare take your eyes off Morgan tonight. Not for a second.
His yellow irises seemed to ignite at my concern, but then he chuffed and wheeled around. Matt, again!
48
We spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting around Liam’s house, discussing everything
but the duel. Even Greg stayed. Under Matt’s curious gaze, the pack doctor distilled Sillin into three little vials, then aligned and realigned them in his cooler.
After I’d shifted back into skin, Liam made me take a shower in his house, and then he told me to stay away from August. “In case the Creeks aren’t aware he’s your mate.”
When he suggested August leave and meet us at the former Pine HQ, my mate glared and muttered, “Like hell.”
So he’d stayed too, alternately clutching the armrest of the couch, glowering at the woods outside, and pacing the lawn while barking on his phone.
About an hour before we had to leave, Liam got a message that made him speak my name very loudly even though I was sitting a couple feet away from him. “Avery.”
He pushed his phone into my hands.
AVERY: Sarah just arrived at her family’s former HQ with Alex Morgan. I haven’t been able to get her alone, but thought you’d want to know she was here. She looks a little spooked. Hope Alex hasn’t hurt her.
Spooked? Sarah wasn’t the type of girl who spooked easily, so Avery stating this had my hackles rising. “She’s alive,” I said, handing the phone to Lucas who’d stiffened at the mention of Avery’s name, “but if you don’t kill Alex Morgan tonight, I will.”
Either Lucas read the message slowly, or he read it a few times, because he scrutinized the screen a long time.
My hatred fueled my mounting adrenaline. By the time Liam rose from the couch and announced that it was time, I was extremely ready to get out there.
“Ready when you are, boss,” Lucas said, jingling Liam’s car keys.
Liam nodded to his black SUV. “Ness, you ride with us.”
I didn’t care who I rode with as long as they got me there fast so I could ascertain that my friend was truly all right. I opened the door to the backseat and got in. Instead of getting in the front, Liam climbed in the back with me.
When August opened the passenger side door, Liam said, “Not a good idea, Watt.”
“I won’t touch her.”
Liam narrowed his eyes. “Do you want the Creeks to make you leave the dueling ring?”
Heat erupted behind my navel as August’s gaze found mine. Even though it seemed to take everything within him to back away, he heeded Liam’s words and headed to Cole’s car with Greg.
A Pack of Love and Hate Page 26
