Eva sighed. “That would be an easy solution, but not necessarily the right one. Kaden hasn’t been happy for a long time, and you’re the reason why we’re together again.”
“So what can I do to earn your trust?”
“I don’t think that’s possible. The only way I’d rest easy is if you were dead.” A wall seemed to fall between them again.
“If I were dead? Sorry, I’m too attached to this body.”
“Look around you, and tell me you don’t feel strange living in the same space as your enemies. You don’t belong here, Cynthia. The moment you realize that, both of us will sleep better.”
Eva got up and continued. “If you touch my children, I will tear you apart. This will be your only warning.” As she walked down the steps, she said, “If you do decide to stay, the day will come when I’ll challenge you to protect what’s mine. And there’s nothing Kaden can do about it.”
***
There was so much to do today now that the full moon had arrived. As Kaden’s pack grew restless, he felt the same. The time had come for Micah’s first transformation.
There also hadn’t been any time to check on the dead hunter attached to the snow cab. If he were a hunter from Cyn’s clan, he’d have even more problems.
From the morning to the early evening, he’d patrolled the perimeter of his territory to check for danger. If they hunted tonight, he didn’t want any unforeseen problems coming up. As he checked every corner and cliff, anticipation built along his skin. The wolf within him stirred, almost pacing like an animal in a cage. He needed to hunt. He needed to mate. The last time he was like this, he’d kept his distance from Cyn. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten or hurt her.
A brief stop at their cabin, before he helped with the preparations, was the best he could do. By the time Kaden approached the door, he practically vibrated with need. Cyn was in the living room on the couch. Her scent had changed, too. His keen nose tonight would make staying away from her much more difficult. She smelled delectable and most likely had no idea. His groin tightened.
She crossed her arms the moment he came inside. She was probably still concerned about going to see her brother.
He joined her on the couch, his long body covering hers.
“Now that was unexpected,” she remarked after a long kiss. “You’re warm.”
“Like always.” Wasn’t this supposed to be a brief visit?
She wrapped her arms around his waist and any thoughts he had about leaving faded for a moment.
“I’d like to make love to you and heal you right now, but I have to help prepare the bonfire,” he managed. “It’s time for Micah’s transition into adulthood.”
“So that’s why I keep seeing pack members carrying wood toward the camp.”
“Yes, they’re building a bonfire for the celebration.” He couldn’t stop looking at her lips. They looked like they needed to be kissed again.
When she parted her lips and her tongue slipped out to wet her lower lip, he growled in frustration. She fumbled with his pants, but he managed to twist his hips out of the way. He chuckled. “Damn it, Cyn... You’re making it hard for me to leave. I just wanted to check on you.”
“And I appreciate that.” She nipped at his neck and he held tight with a firm grip to his resolve. Wasn’t he supposed to be telling her to stay inside tonight? Right now, she was making that far harder. She pulled off his shirt and ran her fingertips over his nipples. Her hands trailed over his stomach and his body quivered from her touch.
She pulled him closer so she could run her tongue from one nipple to another. His body quaked from the warmth of her mouth on him.
“I see all of this as a part of my recovery program.” She leaned upward to kiss his mouth. “The more time we spend together, the more often you can heal me.”
“As much as I’d like you in my bed, I want to know you better. As in talking—”
She unbuttoned his pants and reached inside. With a devilish grin, she grasped his length.
He hissed.
“I can talk now if you like.” She stroked him, working him gently at first until his teeth clenched from the intense pleasure. He was close to taking her right then and there on the couch. She stroked faster, going from the tip down the bottom. Oh, mercy. The wolf writhing under his skin didn’t make his agony any easier, sending him images of Cyn shoved over the side of couch, her ass in the air, his hands on her hips as he thrust into her. Her cries for release would fill the room.
When he spotted hair growing on the back of his hand, he pulled off her and rose. She wouldn’t understand if she saw him lose control.
“Okay. Break’s over.” Of course, his pants fell to the ankles.
“I don’t think every part of you thinks that.” Her gaze was fixed on his lower half. Damn traitor. “Five minutes won’t hurt.”
“It’s gonna take me much longer than that, sweetheart.” At least an hour to do all the things he wanted to do to her tonight.
“I’m a gal who likes to hedge bets. You won’t last five minutes with me.”
He loved when she got cocky like this. “You’d be scared to see what I wanna do to you.” On the couch. On the bed. In the shower… He reached for his jeans.
“One minute,” she boasted.
Someone knocked on the door. This would probably be the only time in Kaden’s life when he’d be grateful for an interruption.
“Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Cyn groaned. “Can we ignore them?”
Naomi whispered a curse on the other side of the door. “Damn bitch.”
“No,” Kaden said as he adjusted his clothes, “we can’t ignore people who can hear everything we say.”
Cyn scooted to the corner of the couch and refused to look at him. “You have a job to do, and I understand that. Just go take care of it.”
Even though her tone didn’t project anger, her body language said otherwise. He’d have to make up for his absence later. He kneeled before her and dared to put his hand on her knee. She didn’t shrink away. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Can you stay inside for the rest of the night? Lock the doors?”
“Why?” She finally looked at him with suspicion, then glanced away. “What will you be doing outside?”
“All the adults will change tonight, including me.”
“I know.” She stiffened a bit.
“I want you to be safe.” He paused for a moment as a thought came to mind. “Someday I’d like for us to run together,” he admitted.
A part of him wished that the next words she’d say would be, “Of course,” or “In time.”
She sighed instead. “It’s not that simple, Kaden. You know that.”
“So you still plan to help Zach? If you leave, even for a few weeks, you’ll begin to die again.” He sucked in a breath. He didn’t want to think about the symptoms returning—the organ failure, the weakness, the shortness of breath. That was what leukemia did to people. As a physician, he often had to separate himself from what was happening with his patients, but Cynthia was different. She had a terminal disease he could cure. He wanted her by his side, but the choice to become a werewolf had to be hers.
“Your brother made me promise to save you,” he added.
“And you did.”
“I’m merely keeping you alive. That’s different.”
Naomi knocked again. Now she was bothersome, and she damn well knew it.
It was time for him to handle pack duties, even though handling the problem he had with Cyn was far more important to him. But as the pack leader, it was his duty to attend the ceremony and run with Micah during his first night, which meant he couldn’t watch over her and make sure she didn’t bolt. Damn it.
“C’mon, Kaden, the others are waiting,” Naomi shouted. “Not everyone has time to screw around here.” He was really getting tired of reprimanding Naomi. He was grateful to his sire for teaching him patience above all things when it came to guiding pack members. Any other man would’ve
lost what little patience he had left.
Once he composed himself, he said goodbye. “I expect to see you when I return.”
“I’ll be here.” She still wouldn’t look him in the eye. He didn’t know if she were lying or telling the truth.
Chapter 5
Kaden joined the others gathered around the bonfire. Smiling faces greeted him. Rhys and Bastian kept the fire going while Eva roasted marshmallows for s’mores with her younger boys.
Seeing everyone here took away a bit of the ache in his heart after talking to Cyn. He missed feeling the pulse of his pack, the power of their very presence.
Not far from everyone, Sinister sat on the steps of a nearby cabin. The small cabin seemed to suit him just fine and he looked on with a beer bottle in one hand and a rifle in the other. Even though they celebrated, someone had to be on guard duty. Sinister never seemed to get off it.
Micah stood near the fire, his coat discarded. All the young man wore was a pair of jeans and worn tennis shoes. Just seeing Micah reminded him of his first night experiencing the change. Boy, what a night! It was as if he’d seen the world through a glass door since birth and now that the door opened, every secret had been revealed. Sadly, after his parents died he never had a ceremony like this one.
Rhys’s eldest son trembled and his scent flared like bitter sweat. The time had come.
Kaden raised his hands and the conversation around him ended. “The time has come for our brother Micah to join us in the forest.”
The adults around him nodded. “This is a solemn occasion that happens only once in a lifetime. He will experience pain and then joy.” He approached Micah and laid a hand on his shoulder. The young man jerked away and stared hard at him. The dark flash in Micah’s eyes made Kaden pause. It seemed almost as if Micah would snap at any moment.
“Micah?” he asked with authority this time.
The boy didn’t answer.
What the hell is going on here?
Micah vibrated and the heat from his skin seared Kaden’s hand. The time was coming. The change would happen whether something was wrong with Micah or not.
He nodded to Rhys who quickly stepped forward and pressed his hand to Micah’s chest. Bastian came next.
Suddenly, Micah bent over, his face turning into a grimace. He didn’t cry out though.
Naomi, the highest-ranking female, approached.
From the corner of his eye, Kaden spotted a figure in the shadows near his cabin. So Cyn decided to witness this event, after all. Did that mean she wanted to watch or that she had something else in mind?
A trail of pack members walked up to Micah and touched him. By the time the last member walked by, the boy was on his knees, his back bent toward the cloudless, dark sky.
Kaden continued to rest his hand on the young man’s shoulders. When Micah’s shoulder blade popped and the young man screamed, Kaden remained to offer support. “Ride through it,” he advised. “What comes next is the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Micah spasmed and jerked, his nose elongating into a snout. A sheen of sweat covered his brow as jet-black hair sprouted along his back. Everyone remained close, but Kaden could smell their anticipation, feel their need to join Micah.
By the time a wolf stood where a young man once had been, over ten minutes had passed.
The newest shifting pack member was ready to run with them.
“Took you long enough,” Bastian said with a snort.
Micah huffed.
“It took you half an hour,” Rhys said to Bastian.
“Who the hell is in a hurry to get broken down and rebuilt again? If I had my way, I would’ve been drunk off my ass.” He downed the last of the beer can in his hand as if to make a point.
Kaden shook his head. A drunken werewolf? Now that wasn’t something he wanted to witness. In the past, he’d seen others do all sorts of things to dull the pain, but for him, the pain was a necessity. Life had painful moments, and he had to be ready for them. For him to deny the process was to turn a blind eye and assume nothing bad would ever happen. Those in denial wouldn’t survive too long in his world.
Micah circled the camp, first sniffing the ground along the campfire. Peter tossed him a s’more, and he gulped it in one bite.
Kaden checked and Cyn was still rooted to the same spot. Their gazes locked. Did she have unease? He couldn’t tell from so far away. Maybe she was curious. Was this her first time seeing a transition?
He took a step toward her but stopped when he spotted Rhys taking off his shirt. Bastian followed. The wolf churning in his stomach nipped at him to change. The moon had her sway over him, but his control exceeded the others who discarded their clothing.
Cyn emerged from the shadows and half her profile was revealed. As the others transformed around him, he wished she were coming with him. He wished he could expose the world to her as he saw it. He wished she could see and believe how truly beautiful she was to him both inside and out.
Eva’s children continued to play as their mother transformed. After she was done, her youngest even wrapped his arms around her massive neck and hugged her. She pushed him over and proceeded to lick his face. He giggled madly.
Kaden took a step toward Cyn. She took a step back. His control was as thin as a thread now. The change was coming. The nerve-endings in the muscles along his legs were firing again and again, registering as pain. Claws bit his fingertips and sprang forth first. His pulse raced. His incisors lengthened in his mouth. Many wolves circled him now. Bastian ran after Micah past Cyn into the woods. The others trailed after them.
Sinister had disappeared from his perch.
Only Eva was left now. She herded her children toward their cabin. The children would remain inside for the night.
Now it was just him and Cyn.
Would she watch what came next? She’d never seen him do it before. Would she watch his face and hear him grunt from the pain that always came? By the time the wolf stood where the man had once been, he looked up to see she was gone.
Chapter 6
After a long night of hunting, Kaden wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with Cyn and wrap his arms around her. Maybe for a moment, he could forget about her desire to return to Vancouver and the dead hunter in his camp.
Not long after he walked in the door, he heard a knock. No rest for the weary. He was surprised to see Rhys and Eva.
“I found you.” His brother appeared alarmed and a bit breathless. Eva resembled stone, but she smelled like fear.
“What’s wrong?” Was there something else now for him to deal with?
“Micah hasn’t returned yet,” Rhys said.
“Have you checked your cabin?” Kaden asked.
“We went there first,” Eva said, “but he’s not there.”
“So what happened last night?” He beckoned them to come inside and sit down at the kitchen table, but his brother refused and waited near the door. His mate did the same.
“After you had separated from the pack to hunt, I followed Micah and Bastian,” Rhys said. “Not long after midnight, I lost track of them. When I got back to camp, only Bastian was here.”
“What was Bastian doing?” Cyn asked. Kaden turned around to see her standing in the bedroom doorway. Her hair was a mess and she wore nothing more than a T-shirt and shorts.
“Nothing special,” Rhys said with a bit of exasperation. “He talked about getting some sleep.”
Kaden stood. There’d be no sleep for him today. Finding Micah was more important. “Let’s go find him.”
He put on boots. By the time he stood, Cyn was dressed and putting on a coat.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I can help.”
Eva made a rude noise. As expected.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” It was Rhys who spoke. He stared Cynthia down.
Cyn rolled her eyes. “Enough with the drama. Looking for people is what I do. It’s what I’m good at. Let me earn your trust an
d help you find Micah.”
“There’s no way I’d let you—” Eva began.
“She will be with me the whole time, Eva. I will find your boy,” Kaden added.
“Fine.” Rhys left the house, but Kaden didn’t miss the stiff way his brother replied to Cyn. Rhys didn’t trust her at all.
Eva continued to stand in the doorway. “Remember what I said, Cynthia. I meant it.”
She quietly closed the door, leaving him alone with Cyn.
“Do I have to ask what that was about?” he asked. “Should I talk to her?”
“No,” Cyn said firmly as she put on gloves. “She’s just protecting her family, and she has a right to do it.”
As hard as he was trying to bring everyone together, he’d just have to be persistent and force everyone to lay their grievances on the table and talk it out. The time was coming soon for that to happen.
By the time Kaden and Cyn walked outside, they’d formed a simple plan. They’d take one of the snow cabs to the last place Kaden had seen Micah, and, from there, they’d try to track him on foot.
Their plan took a sudden detour when Kaden walked up to the first snow cab and noticed something was missing. He froze and stared hard at the back of the cab.
Damn it all to hell.
“What’s wrong?” Cyn asked.
“It’s nothing,” he murmured.
When he tried to walk away, she pushed against his chest. “Wait a second here,” she said. “You’re surprised and angry about something. I can tell.”
She searched his face, and he tried to hide any feelings that surfaced.
“The pack brought a dead man with them,” he finally said.
Her mouth dropped. “What?”
“They encountered a drifter on the road, ran into trouble, and the human ended up dead.” Now wasn’t a good time for the whole truth. If he told her, she’d be angry and most likely leave. Especially, if the hunter were from her clan.
If she left him, she’d die.
He managed to continue. “I told Bastian to leave the corpse alone until I had a chance to investigate the matter.”
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