I glanced over at Chase. His face was grim, his expression very much matching my own.
“We’re not competing in these events, are we?” I asked him quietly so no one could overhear.
He shook his head. “I wasn’t planning on it. But that was before I had a date.”
“And whose fault is that?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Well, to be fair, I think we’re both to blame. You, for weaving a web, and me, for helping to tangle it. Now, I’m not sure how we can bow out gracefully without people questioning our relationship.”
I snorted. “Please, like anyone is going to care if we compete.”
He tilted his head slightly towards the other end of the table. “I can think of one person who I bet will care quite a bit.”
I glanced casually in the direction he’d indicated. Persephone stared openly at Chase and me from her seat beside Tyler. She made no effort to hide her glare. When I met her gaze, she grinned a wickedly and raised her wine glass to me.
I cursed under my breath. It looked like these wedding games weren’t the only games I would be playing this week. I was determined to stay one step ahead of Persephone when it came to my fake relationship, and she was one hell of an opponent.
6
Chase
Shortly before midnight, I knocked on the door to Holly’s cabin. The door opened, spilling a warm glow out into the dark night. Holly looked as radiant as ever silhouetted in the doorway. The effect was only slightly spoiled by the expression of sheer annoyance on her face.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m here to escort you to The Hunt.”
“I don’t need an escort, thank you,” she said, starting to close the door.
I laid my palm flat against the sturdy wood and held the door open. “I know you don’t need an escort, but it’s going to look awfully strange if we show up to the event separately.”
Her expression soured more. “How the hell did I get myself into this mess?”
“This isn’t a picnic for me, either, I planned on staying as far away from you as—” I stopped short. Those words were getting way too close to the truth. A truth that I couldn’t share with Holly.
Her eyes narrowed in disgust.
I kept my mouth shut. Nothing I could say would make it better. I’d already said too much.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”
We walked together in silence towards the fountain in the center of the gardens. The silence wasn’t awkward, but it wasn’t comfortable either. I risked a side glance at Holly. She wore a tight look on her face, almost as if she was in pain.
I hated to see her like that, and I hated it even more because I felt as though I was mostly to blame. I should have never agreed to come here. And, I should never have gotten in the middle of Holly and Persephone. Sure, Holly had been in a bind, and my intentions had been noble, but my intervention had only served to make things infinitely more complicated for her. For us both.
I felt like this whole ruse might blow up in our faces at any moment. This wasn’t fair to Holly. Our past together should have remained dead and buried for her. Coming together like this had evidently resurrected old feelings.
It was taking a toll on me, too. I’d never stopped loving Holly. Not a day had gone by that I hadn’t ached for her, and being with her like this, my wolf demanded that I win her back. My human side longed for her, but my wolf howled with a baser instinct. He wanted to mate her.
My two halves wanted that old intimacy back. I wanted to make her smile again. To make her laugh. I wanted to lie together with her beneath the twinkling stars, talking until the sun came up. I wanted the days and nights to belong to us again like they did all those years ago. The memories of those times were no longer enough to satisfy me, not when I had the real thing right next to me. Flesh and blood, and fur.
It was selfish and reckless to want her back. It could put her life in danger. Not to mention, it would be impossible to get her to forgive me.
I didn’t deserve forgiveness.
Despite all that, the most dangerous thing about the situation was that if I got the chance to make her mine again, I wasn’t sure I could resist going after her with every fiber of my being. Consequences be damned.
The wedding party gathered at the fountain. Once everyone was present, Colton guided us out into the woods. It was almost midnight, but under the light of the full moon, the grounds of the estate were bathed in a silver blue glow. Its light was so bright, I could see our shadows dancing along the grass as we approached the others.
“The rules of the The Hunt are simple,” Colton gestured as we followed him. “Whichever couple catches the rabbit first wins.”
“How will we know which rabbit is the right one?” Noah asked. “There have to be hundreds of rabbits in these woods.”
“Easy,” Colton replied, a sly grin stretching his lips. “I’m the rabbit.”
Noah laughed. “How much did you have to drink tonight, buddy? You’re a lot of things, my friend, but a sweet, fluffy bunny isn’t one of them.”
“You’ll see,” Colton said.
“Please tell me you’re gonna put on a bunny costume and have us chase you,” a young man teased. That clip on my YouTube channel will go viral for sure.
Colton smiled. “You’re not too far off.”
“Yessss,” another of the attendee’s fist pumped obnoxiously. “Best game ever.”
The crowd continued to banter playfully, but I was no longer listening. I turned to Holly.
“So, what do you think? Are we gonna win this thing?”
She shook her head. “I’m only here for appearances. I don’t give a damn about winning. And I couldn’t give a crap about being crowned queen of the games.”
I was about to respond when a familiar voice interrupted.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Persephone said. “Then you won’t be disappointed when Tyler and I beat the pants off you.”
She elbowed her way between Holly and me so she could pass us. She wasn’t gentle about it. Her catalogue model-slash-lap dog, Tyler, hurried to catch up with her, but at least he had the decency to step around us. Smart man. I’d never hit a woman, even a she-wolf, but I would knock Tyler’s GQ ass to the ground if he disrespected Holly by shoving her aside.
Anger and revulsion flooded my emotions as I watched the woman strut ahead of us. Persephone had been a thorn in my side ever since I’d first met her, back when we were kids. I don’t know what drove her obsession with me, but she’d gotten it in her head somehow that she and I were meant to be together.
It wasn’t a true mate kind of thing. More like a spoiled little girl thing. She wanted me, and if she couldn’t have me, then no one else could either. The whole thing was strange especially considering that the way I felt about her was, well, let’s just say if there was one person on the Earth that I’d wish to snap my fingers and have disappear, that one person was Persephone. Too bad it never worked.
I looked down at Holly. Her arms were folded over her chest and she was staring daggers at Persephone’s back.
“I take back what I said,” Holly whispered vehemently. “Now I care about these stupid games. Not because I want to win. But because I want to beat her ass.”
Holly and I arrived at the starting point for The Hunt. It was a small clearing deep in the woods. Moonlight streamed through the tree branches to illuminate the gathered shifters. Looks of grave determination painted faces. Apparently, Persephone wasn’t the only one taking this competition seriously.
It was obvious there was a kind of pride in doing well in these games. It was a way to bring honor to the various packs represented by the guests. Of course, that didn’t mean a thing to me. I had no pack.
I’d never really felt as though I’d belonged to a pack. My pack had been annihilated when I was just a pup. Orphaned and lost, the Winters Landing Pack, Holly and Zoe’s pack, took me in, but I had nev
er totally felt a part of them, either. Not really, anyway. So, I didn’t care about winning for pack honor, but I’d fight like hell to win for Holly.
Colton stood in the center of the clearing, holding up a small, gilded cage. Inside was a trembling little rabbit.
“Take a look, everyone,” Colton announced. “Fill your lungs with its scent. This is your prey.”
“Aww, come on,” Noah moaned. “I thought you were gonna dress as a playgirl bunny.”
Colton smiled. “Well, the rabbit will stay in the cage, and he will remain safe. I’m just going to give him a little ride. So, it’s not just him you have to catch. It’s the both of us.”
He placed the cage on the ground and shifted into wolf form. Colton’s wolf was large and majestic, like everything else about the Sky Valley wolves. His fur was a stormy mixture of white and gray.
Zoe stepped up to him and fastened what looked like a specially crafted harness to his torso. Then she strapped the golden cage to his back. When she was finished, Colton nudged her hand with his muzzle and licked her palm. Then he ran off into the trees, disappearing from sight.
“All right, folks,” Zoe announced, “We’re giving our ‘rabbit’ a ten-minute head start. Then, when I say go, The Hunt is on.”
The other shifters stirred anxiously, glancing around at one another, sizing up the competition. So much for a friendly game. Still, I wasn’t worried about those chumps. As far as I was concerned, Holly and I only needed to beat one couple.
As the minutes dragged on and the start time neared, people started to shift into their wolves. The air shimmered like a heat mirage as arms and legs became claws and paws. Colton had staff whose job it was to attend to the discarded shoes and clothing that began to litter the clearing. Uniformed men and women gathered armfuls and deposited them onto carts which, I assumed, would be eventually transported to or final destination.
I nodded at Holly and stripped off my t-shirt. As I toed off my boots, and unbuckled my jeans, I noticed she turned her back to me. I didn’t blame her. Shifters, in general, had very little modesty and were comfortably with nudity for the most part, but I wasn’t sure how seeing Holly naked, even if only for the briefest of seconds before she shifted into her wolf form, would affect me. I no sooner was in the buff than I let the animal spirit inside me rise up and emerge. Energy surged through my veins and my perspective shifted.
I was down on all fours and the world came alive with scents and sounds. I sifted through the myriad of impressions my wolf senses were picking up and bombarding my brain with, searching for the scent of the rabbit. That was the one to focus and hone in on.
I was able to quickly single it out of the scent trails that crisscrossed the clearing. Once I caught it, it stood out like a bright red thread, beckoning me to follow.
Then, Holly stepped beside me, her wolf a sandy brown and strikingly beautiful. Possessive instincts arose within me, and I struggled against the urge to nuzzle up to her and mount her. The scent of her drove me wild, overpowering not only the scent of the rabbit, but every other scent as well and almost causing me to lose the trail altogether.
I had to focus. I had to suppress my instincts and stay rational. It wasn’t easy, though. Fortunately, it was at that moment that Zoe chose to shift into her wolf form. As soon as she was fully shifted, she raised her snout in the air and howled into the night, signaling the start of The Hunt.
Holly and I broke off from the rest of the pack early. Streaked through the night, shoulder to shoulder, we were two creatures moving as one.
It felt like a thousand years since we’d last run together like this. But we fell into a steady pace as if we’d done it only just yesterday—neither one of us leading, but still somehow in sync.
A wave of nostalgia transported me back to the old days. Back before everything between Holly and me had gotten so screwed up—before I’d ruined everything and fate had forced us to part. For a moment, the intervening years slipped away and I imagined that Holly and I were still a couple, loving each other as much as two people possibly could. Our whole lives stretching out ahead of us, brimming with possibilities. Back then, the only sure thing—the thing we both knew beyond a shadow of a doubt—was that we’d spend the rest of our lives together.
As quickly as it started, the memory ceased, and I was back in the present. The Holly that loved me and trusted me was ten years in the past, separated by a chasm of time and resentment that was impossible to traverse. There was no going back to change what I’d done. The past was set in stone.
But, the future was not, my wolf insisted. He tried to convince me that the story of us had not yet been concluded, and that meant there was still a chance for a happy ending.
I didn’t see how that could be, but running wild under a full moon alongside the woman who always had, and always would, hold my heart in the palm of her hand, I promised myself something. Then and there, I promised myself that if there was ever a chance to make things right with Holly, to ease her pain, I would do it.
Even if it meant telling her the truth.
7
Holly
The jet-black wolf raced next to me like a silken shadow come to life. His glowing silvery-green eyes were the only speck of color to him. They twinkled like two stars plucked out of the night sky. I’d forgotten how beautiful Chase’s wolf was. How powerful.
His muscles rippled as he ran. His wolf was a darker reflection of the strength and power his muscular physique possessed in human form. My own wolf watched him with far too much excitement. Primal instincts that had been buried for a decade flared to life in me, urging me to couple with this amazing creature—to have him as my mate. There had been a time when the human side of me fully agreed with that sentiment. Not anymore. Chase had severed any chance of a future mating with me.
Even though I would never allow the old flame to rekindle, I still couldn’t take my eyes off him as he ran, and I still felt the pull. He was just as magnetic to me in wolf form as he was in human form. There was no denying Chase was my kryptonite. He was sexy as hell, and on a purely physical level, my body screamed for him.
I was reminded of the last time we’d run through the woods like this. We hadn’t been chasing a rabbit then. Our minds had been set on a much more personal goal. We’d been running away, escaping from the rest of the world, roaming far out into the untamed wilds to be alone, where no one could bother us. Or, more specifically, where my father couldn’t bother us.
My father had never approved of the relationship between Chase and me. Chase had been orphaned at an early age. I didn’t know all the specifics, but according to the story I was told, his pack had been wiped out when an ages-old feud came to a head. It was rare for packs to go to war like that. We lived in a much more civilized age for shifters. The old ways of fighting and savagery had given over to diplomacy and politics.
The annihilation of the Stone Mountain Pack by the Blood Fang Pack was, as far as I knew, the last time any such savagery had happened in the shifter community. And, it left young Chase, the only survivor, completely alone and kinless. My father was the Alpha of the Winters Landing Wolves and my family had taken Chase into our home and our pack. But, apparently, my father’s acceptance of Chase only went so far. Having him as a pack mate and underling was one thing, but dating his daughter was something altogether different.
Chase and I had been forced to keep our relationship a secret because, despite my father’s wishes, we weren’t able to quit one another. We made the most of our time together, hiding out in the woods. Stolen kisses under the full moon turned to deeper expressions of our passion for each other. By the time we were old enough to run away together for good, there was no doubt in my mind that we would spend the rest of our lives together.
Until that one day when, out of the blue, something between us changed, and Chase was gone. He’d left. Abandoned me, and I had no idea why. In some ways, that had been the worst part. Not knowing why. Had I done something wrong? Had he just
changed his mind? Had he found someone else? Or, was it something even worse?
It was hard to reconcile the Chase I thought I knew with the one who had up and left without so much as a goodbye. A million times over since then, I’d asked myself questions. Were all those nights we lay entwined in one another’s arms just a lie? Had he simply been telling what he thought I wanted to hear? Had it all been a con just so he could get in my pants?
When he first disappeared, every possible scenario ran through my head. I didn’t want to believe that our entire relationship had been a complete lie, because to me it had felt more real than anything else in my life. But it was possible. Maybe I had just been a fling to him. While I fell head over heels for him, he’d just wanted to get his rocks off. Or, maybe it was his way of saying, “Fuck you,” to my father, Mason, the man who thought Chase wasn’t good enough for me. Maybe banging his daughter and dumping her had been Chase’s form of warped revenge.
Yes, the not knowing was the hardest. I had no idea what had made Chase leave me. All I remember was that my father sat me down and told me that Chase had gone and had revealed to him that he planned never to return. Because of that, any of these wild possibilities could be the truth. There was no way to know. Because of that, I’d been asking myself these questions over and over since he left, driving myself crazy.
As much as I wanted to know the truth about what happened, I was afraid to hear it, too. Knowing wouldn’t change the past. Nothing could. And, learning the truth wouldn’t necessarily make me feel better. It would stop me from wondering, sure, but what if the answer was worse than the questions?
The only sensible thing to do was put it all behind me. Zoe had been right about that. Of course, that would be a hell of a lot easier if Chase wasn’t running beside me, breaking open all these old scars as though they were fresh wounds and forcing all these old, difficult feelings back to the surface.
Rogue Wolf Page 4
