by May Dawson
“I’ll remember that.”
“Going to hold my weaknesses against me?”
I stilled, his cock buried deep inside me. “Well, Jensen, I’m pretty sure I have the exact same weakness, and I hope you’ll hold it against me.”
My clit throbbed against him, swollen so red-hot with desire that I could hardly bear it.
“Deal,” he murmured, and the two of us moved together, and my orgasm shattered around me like the sunlight falling in fragments through the lacy leaves of the trees above. I let my head fall back as the world of green washed to gold.
Then I stilled, as the tension fell away to nothing and he twitched inside me with the aftershock of his own orgasm.
When I fell against his chest, he wrapped me in his arms.
“Maybe you’re right,” he murmured into my ear. “Maybe I can cope with you taking care of me, if you let me take care of you.”
“That’s supposed to be how it works.”
He exhaled into my hair, and for the first time, as his chest relaxed under my fingertips, it felt as though the wolf left him. It seemed as if all his old anger had slipped away.
The two of us kept each other warm as the moon rose above us.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Rafe
“Are you sure about this?” I demanded as Lex and I stood at the edge of a swathe of wilderness.
Lex shrugged, which wasn’t exactly comforting. “Can’t you feel her in there?”
“I feel something. I don’t know that it’s her. What if it’s a trap?”
“It’s her,” he said with conviction. “I can almost…sense her. Smell her. Feel her.”
“That makes sense for you. It doesn’t make sense for me.”
“Maybe you like her more than you realize.”
“I’m not interested in cadets.”
“Come on.” Lex headed into the woods. He tramped through swaying grass that came to our knees as he left our car behind. He called over his shoulder, “And you don’t have to sound so self-righteous. She’s three years younger than you are. It’s not weird.”
“It’s not the three years that bothers me,” I said drily. Fuck. I followed him, because what the hell else was I going to do?
“In May, we graduate.” he reminded me without looking back.
“Lex,” I said in exasperation. “I get that you think this is some kind of mating bond. I don’t have a bond with her.”
He turned back, confusion written across his face. “Do you still have a thing for Dani?”
“I never had a thing for Dani!” Holy shit. Lex was thick.
“Come on. She’s out there. Walk and talk.” Lex inclined his head toward the forest.
I plunged into the woods with him because he was my best friend and I always had his back, but frustration tightened my chest. He wasn’t listening. As usual. “No, I don’t have a thing with Dani. I never did.”
He looked skeptical. “Then why did you want to go to the Hunters’ academy?”
“Jesus. I wanted to go with you. You obviously need to get out of there.”
Even when I said it, Lex didn’t get it.
And I would never tell him.
“Maybe it’s more intense for me because Maddie and I have…”
“Sex isn’t magic, Lex.” My voice came out acerbic.
“I know,” he said. He cocked his head to one side as we headed into the trees. “Are you still a…”
“No. I’m not discussing this.”
I was saved from whatever he was about to say next as the two of us scented other shifters. Not Maddie. I knew her scent too well.
There were strangers in these woods.
His head rose, his gaze meeting mine as his nostrils flared.
“Shift,” I urged. “We’ll get to them faster.”
He strode ahead of me, yanking off his shirt to reveal the powerful lines of his shoulders. I gathered my jeans and my weapons into a bundle, tying the legs together into something I could carry.
He fell to his knees, his broad shoulders heaving, the lean taper of his back fluttering as his muscles shifted. Then my own transformation took me over.
The two of us raced for Maddie. Now that I was in my wolf-form, I felt it more clearly. She was out there somewhere, and her need for me—I mean, for help—throbbed in my chest.
I swallowed up the ground beneath my paws as I wound around trees, the forest a green blur around me.
It was a long run, but I took it at a desperate pace. Lex, transformed into an enormous white wolf, was a flash beside me. His worry and his tension hung in the air. If nothing else, I loved Maddie for his sake. He cared so much about her.
Sometimes I hated her for that, but god if I ever let either of them get hurt… I’d die to protect them both.
Then we stumbled into a small clearing between two trees, and their scent was so strong. Maddie and Jensen. I inhaled the scent of more than their bodies.
An acidic, citrus scent hung in the air, along with wood smoke. Sex and fire.
But where the hell were they?
I shifted back so I could think more clearly, and I dragged on my jeans before I looked to Lex.
“They were just here,” he said. His nostrils flared, and I knew he scented all the same things I did. “Why the hell would they light a fire? Why the hell are they in the woods at all?”
Stupid fucking kids. “I’m going to make them regret their lives.”
Lex paused. “Their life choices?”
“No, their lives.”
“Take it easy.” He clapped my shoulder, and I knew his own anger had been cooled by mine, which did nothing to ease my irritation. He had no perspective when it came to that girl.
“She’s going to get herself killed,” I said, my voice hot. “She does what she wants. She doesn’t listen. She’s supposed to be safe at the academy right now, and where the fuck is she?”
There was no denying that Maddie had been here, very recently. I could smell her maddening scent, with its hint of sweetness mixed with something smoky and dark.
“Not at the academy, that’s for sure,” Lex said, sounding irritatingly level-headed. “Let’s just find out what’s going on. I doubt she and Jensen left the academy on a joy ride.”
“You doubt it? Because nothing could really surprise me,” I shot back.
He grinned, apparently unimpressed my anger.
“This is your fault,” I told him. “You put her in danger. You think you’re helping her, but you’re just being selfish. You keep playing the hero who’s going to fix her problems when you’re the one making them worse.”
Lex stared at me, his jaw setting. I knew that look on his face; he was sorting through his anger, fighting a battle that raged inside. He was determinedly not lashing out. He tried so hard to not be like the pack he grew up with.
Maybe that made him a better man than me.
“Fuck.” I wanted to take back what I’d just said, even if it was true.
Instead, I stalked off through the woods.
There was a soft murmur of a voice in the distance, and I froze, trying to listen. Maddie. Then Jensen answered.
I couldn’t make out the words as they talked quietly, not trying to hide. I frowned at the realization I could hear them, but not scent them.
When I reached the clearing, they stepped out from the woods on the other side. They walked so close together that their fingertips brushed. No; now that I looked again, I realized they held hands. What the hell had happened since I left them alone at the academy?
They both looked exhausted; Maddie’s blond hair fell in tangled waves around her face, and Jensen’s big, powerful body almost seemed to stagger as he walked, but he still stood protectively over her. His eyes were full of challenge when they met mine.
“What the hell are you two doing?” I demanded, my voice gritty.
“How did you find us?” Maddie cocked her head to one side, looking confused…and dismayed. As she should.
&
nbsp; “Hell if I know,” I said tightly. “Did you use some kind of magic on us?”
“You’re in trouble,” Lex said, his voice maddeningly calm, as if he had this all figured out. “There must be some kind of bond between us all.”
“What?” Maddie’s frown dimpled the space between her blond eyebrows. “No, I called my family. My sister’s mates.”
“Where are they?” Lex asked. “I don’t know how, Maddie, but you called us.”
She’d called me? No. She’d used some spell to exert control over us like a witch.
“You’re using magic?” My voice came out low and dangerous. It wasn’t as if we’d discussed that, more than once…
“It’s not really me. It’s my necklace,” she said, resting her fingertips on the pendant that swung between her small breasts. “It’s enchanted. And if I call—”
“Using magic,” I muttered. I’d warned her she’d be expelled if she used magic on academy grounds. We weren’t at the academy right now, but the thought of someone using magic on me made me sick.
It made me think of that day I found my brother, his eyes wide, slumped over in a pool of his own blood. Magic had still shimmered in the air around him.
Her cheeks flushed pink under my gaze, but she met my eyes evenly. “When I use the beacon, my family comes to help me. It’s always worked before.”
“You need to use your distress beacon regularly?” Jensen asked, a worried edge in his voice.
I looked at him sharply. They’d had sex; anyone with shifter senses could tell that. But something else had changed between them. A strange flare of jealousy tightened my chest. It felt as if I’d missed out on something. I shook my head to clear it. Maybe her goddamn spell was fucking with my head.
“A few times,” she admitted.
“And that is why you shouldn’t go off on your own,” I said sharply. God, she could have been killed; the thought made me so furious I could rip someone apart with my bare hands. “No common sense.”
“Rafe,” Lex said, a warning note in his tone. He wanted me to calm down.
Well, some situations didn’t call for calm.
Maddie’s bright blue eyes met mine. There was something certain in her gaze, and fury had my hands tightening into fists even before she demanded, “Why are you here?”
“I came with Lex.” On the verge of boiling over, I turned and walked away. I was so angry I could barely see straight.
“Just for the record,” she called after me, “I used my beacon before to protect other people. When I was fighting witches. Because I was meant to do this, no matter what anyone at that goddamn school thinks.”
I turned, on the verge of telling her to backtalk me one more time and see what happened, but Lex met my gaze.
“If there’s no bond,” he asked quietly, “Why is it her that you’re so pissed off at? Why aren’t you just as angry at Jensen?”
Jensen raised his hands in a placating gesture, his eyes widening like the smart-ass he was. “I’d prefer not to be dragged into this.”
I was on the verge of saying they were both going to suffer for the rest of the year, but Lex was right about one thing: I was so angry I needed to stop talking.
The only other times in my life I’d ever been this angry…
I’d been scared.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Maddie
I didn’t understand how my magic had summoned Rafe and Lex, yet it seemed undeniable that somehow, I had.
“Are you in danger?” Lex demanded. He looked toward Rafe, who was still so tense that the air around him seemed to shimmer with his anger. “We scented other shifters on the way.”
“How many?” Jensen asked grimly. “Yeah, we’re in danger. We’re being chased by shifters from the pack that probably killed Eliza.”
Lex frowned. “Eliza wasn’t killed by witches?”
“There’s some kind of cover-up,” I said. “We haven’t figured it all out yet, Lex, but it’s bad. They killed a man who talked to us, and they tried to kill us—”
“Jensen had a good question,” Rafe interrupted. “How many? Maybe we can get some answers.”
“We’ve got to move,” Lex said urgently. “Rafe, look at them. They’re not ready for another fight.”
I tried not to look at Rafe, who paced in the corner of my vision. His anger—directed toward me—tightened my stomach until it ached. “Jensen’s hurt.”
“I can keep up.” Jensen rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed as he looked down at me. “Promise.”
“Shift.” Rafe ordered. “We’ll move faster that way, and we’ll be ready for a fight.”
“Give us one second first,” Lex said.
“We definitely have time for you to talk,” Rafe muttered as Lex grabbed my hand and pulled me away from them. Rafe threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “Feelings are the top priority, I guess. Fuck survival.”
“One second,” Lex said harshly to his friend, a note of steel in his voice I rarely heard. Rafe’s jaw tightened, but he jerked his head in a nod.
“Can you do it?” Lex asked, his voice soft. “Don’t be proud. Just tell me.”
Shifting wasn’t my strength. I could shift, but I was slow to learn the skills that seemed to come easily to other shifters, like being able to think as a human in wolf-form. That was scary when there were murderous thugs on our tails. But maybe the other shifters in the woods weren’t coming after us…
“The other shifters in the woods might be my sister’s mates,” I said. “I don’t know why you guys came.”
“Well, that would be the best case scenario,” he said.
“You don’t seem surprised at all to be here,” I said, perplexed by how even-keeled he seemed.
Meanwhile, a few yards away, Rafe vibrated with rage.
“I’m not happy you’re in danger,” he said. “And I have a lot of questions about what happened. I want answers when we get to safety.”
“Me too,” I said.
He hesitated, then admitted, “I’m glad you called me, though. When you needed help.”
My lips parted, but he hurried on. “For now, let’s move. We can stay human if it’s easier for you.”
“I can do this,” I promised him. I hoped it was my sister’s mates, but we had to be ready for another attack on our lives. Traveling as wolves gave us the best chance to run—or fight.
“All right,” he said, confidence in his eyes. His gaze warmed my chest with sudden pride. “Let’s do this.”
I was about to step into the woods to undress for the shift when I scented another wolf on the air. It was just a wisp of a scent, and my nostrils flared, trying to breathe deeper.
A stranger. Somewhere out there in the woods.
“We’ve got trouble on the way,” I said urgently.
Rafe and Jensen both whirled toward me, and I could’ve sworn they wore twin expressions of protective fury.
“Shift now,” Lex commanded.
Without hesitating, the four of us transformed. My jeans tightened on my swelling muscles, then they burst off. I dropped to my knees as agony laced through my body, and I tasted copper and bile in the back of my throat.
Then adrenaline flooded my body. The moment of weakness was over.
I shook my head as I climbed to my feet again. An enormous white wolf—Lex—pushed his head against mine, as if checking that I was okay, and I bumped him back. A gray-and-black wolf with glowing golden eyes brushed his shoulder against mine, and I nuzzled him, saying hello in our wolf form.
Across from us, a white-and-gray wolf with dramatic black markings rimming his intense eyes snarled at us. I bobbed my head at Rafe. Ready.
Rafe took the lead, setting a quick pace as the four of us ran through the woods. Lex fell in right behind us, as if watching over Jensen and me. As we bounded through the woods as fast as we could, the trees blurred around us.
The cool air carried the scent of that other shifter, as if he was chasing us, and then it was
gone as we left him behind.
Rafe suddenly stopped. Fueled by momentum, I bounded past him. Jensen got a few steps past him too as we both tried to skid to a stop.
Rafe jumped into me, knocking me down. I slammed my shoulder into the ground, hard enough to bruise, and I snarled up at him. His eyes narrowed at me warningly, even in wolf form, as his paw pinned my neck to the rough forest ground.
Lex growled questioningly then nudged Rafe’s shoulder to push him away.
Rafe snarled something I couldn’t understand fully, something about scents being wrong. Jensen and Lex seemed to understand, and frustration tightened my chest as Rafe backed off. I got to my feet, still glaring at him.
Then Rafe led us back the way we’d come for a quarter mile. His pace was slower, his paws picking soundlessly through the underbrush, and we followed in a line. We climbed another ridge that paralleled the one we’d raced along.
We’d made it back as far as we’d been before when I caught a flicker of movement on the opposite ridge. I made a soft sound at the back of my throat, but even so, Lex moved quickly beside me. His gaze followed mine.
Rafe and Jensen came to a stop too. The four of us were silent on the ridge. The quiet sounds of nature surrounded us—birds somewhere distant, the constant hum of the autumn breeze through the trees as they dropped their leaves—and my heart pounded loud enough for me to hear it too.
Slowly, I picked out more and more shifters on the ridge. If we’d kept going, they would have ambushed us. There were at least a dozen of them. More than we could fight on our own.
None of us had scented them—maybe it been the absence of any odor that caught Rafe’s suspicion—so they must have been using some kind of magic, despite the pack ban.
Rafe bumped my shoulder with his head. When our eyes met, there was something in his expression I couldn’t quite read, but it was more than anger, at least.
Rafe turned and led on, and the three of us followed. We slipped down the other side of the ridge so they couldn’t see us and went on running. Rafe kept us near the top of the ridge, though, occasionally breaking above the ridgeline so he could see them.
