by Eva Chase
Nate rolled his eyes at the jaguar shifter. “Not helpful, Marco.” He glanced at Aaron. “Maybe we could find her a weapon she can get comfortable with, for the time being.”
“And break shifter law?” West shook his head. “Are you out of your mind? I thought the whole point of bringing her back into the fold was to settle everyone down, not rile them up even more.”
“There’s a law against us using weapons?” I said.
Aaron nodded. “The kin-groups decided together that no shifter should attack another with anything but their own strength. Our strength we inherit and earn; winning that kind of fight is a fair measure of victory. It also means most of the time no one has to die over a scuffle.”
“But she can’t use all of her strength yet,” Nate said. “If there’s ever been a time to make an exception—”
“No,” I said quickly. I didn’t want any more exceptions made for me. “I’ve got to learn to do this the shifter way. Come on. Who’s going to try me?”
Marco stepped forward with his crooked grin. I waved a finger at him. “No funny business this time.”
“I don’t know if I’d have called what we were getting up to yesterday funny,” he drawled. Amusement and heat mixed in his gaze. The memory of our kiss stirred the embers of desire inside me. I swallowed and raised my hands defensively.
That desire had worked in my favor yesterday. If there was some way I could combine that with Aaron’s clear-headedness and my anger at last night’s attackers...
Marco came at me with a quick feint and a swing of his fist. I dodged to the side and managed to land a kick to his knee. “Oh, you’re not getting away with that,” he said, his indigo eyes gleaming, and caught me around the waist. I managed to yank out of his arms, spinning around, my heart beating faster.
As he circled me, I reached back to last night’s assault. The searing of the rogue wolf’s teeth and claws slashing into my flesh. They couldn’t have sliced into scales. I could have towered over him, set him aflame.
Next time I would. Next time.
I held onto that thought, whipping a fist toward Marco and darting out of his reach. Tension started to tighten my chest, but I breathed into it, willing it to release. I wasn’t going to force my dragon. I was going to let it come over me naturally. Because it was who I was. Because those beasts had threatened me and the people I cared about, and I was not going to let that stand.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Aaron motion to Nate. “Let’s mix things up a bit.” Nate shucked off his clothes in a couple of smooth movements. Before I’d quite processed what was happening, he was loping toward me in bear form. Marco veered to the side, chuckling under his breath.
Nate bared his teeth at me, but his grizzly face managed to look apologetic at the same time. “It’s fine,” I said to him. “Come and get me.”
He bounded closer and loomed over me on his rear legs. One enormous paw swung at my head.
I ducked under it, my pulse racing through my veins. The gleam of claws and the massive animalistic presence brought back more flashes of last night. And more of last night’s terror. The sealed cuts on my arms and torso prickled.
I was stronger than that. I was. I threw myself at Nate’s furred legs, trying to tip him off-balance. He swayed and dropped down over me, but I rolled to the side just in time. My feet seemed to bite into the ground as I shoved myself upright. Power coiled through my thighs. An ashen taste crept up my throat.
Yes. He lunged at me, and I leapt to the side, faster than before. My haunches were bunching and expanding, unused muscles unfurling their strength. The armor of scales tingled over my skin from knees to waist. An itch formed in the middle of my back where my wings should form.
Let it come. Let it come. But as the sensation swept higher, my lungs expanding, a jolt of panic shot through me.
What was I doing? I couldn’t control it, couldn’t feel where it would stop.
I’d lost so goddamn much. I couldn’t lose myself too.
The thoughts didn’t make much sense, but they jarred against my shift. I stumbled and fell to my knees. Knees that were pale and human, peeking through the tears in my sweatpants.
I had started to shift. My pants were hanging right off me where my legs had swelled to closer to dragon size. I grasped the tatters, peering at the skin beneath as if I could will the scales to return.
I’d gotten closer. So close I could still taste the fire in the back of my mouth.
“You know, Sparks, I’m starting to think you want this to work less than anyone,” West said from the edge of the clearing. My head jerked up, my cheeks flaming.
Nate growled, shifting back into human form as he strode toward West. “Could you shut up for once?” he snapped. “I’d like to see how well you handled the shift if you’d gone sixteen years without the chance to try.”
“Nate,” Aaron said, and the bigger guy halted. The eagle-shifter turned to West. “I agree with him, though. If you’re going to just stand there griping, we don’t need you here.”
West scowled. The tension in the air wrenched at me. This was my fault too, the clashing between the alphas. Because I couldn’t do the thing I’d been born to do. Damn it!
Marco cocked his head. “Company arriving,” he said. “Come here, princess.”
He offered his hand to help me up. I clutched at my ruined pants, holding the larger scraps of fabric over my crotch. Marco smirked, leaning in for a second as I stood. “Nothing I won’t see soon enough.” His sly voice sent a shiver of anticipation through me despite my churning emotions.
A squad of shifters appeared at the edge of the clearing. West’s people—I was learning to read the signs. Canine shifters tended toward the lean and lanky, cool and wary. The red-headed one who looked like she was barely twenty-one herself I’d bet was a fox.
West stalked over to meet them. “Report?” he said.
“No sign of the rogues in a twenty-mile radius,” the man at the fore of the group said. “We didn’t even scent them. However they got here, they’re gone now.”
“Not too far gone, I’m sure,” West muttered. He turned back toward the rest of us. “If we’re going, we should get out of here while we know the immediate area is clear. Less chance that they’ll be watching closely enough to see where we’re headed. I want to hear the details, and then I’ll be ready to go. Sparks, get some new pants in the meantime.”
My bag packed and my legs re-covered by pants I hadn’t mangled, I went in to see Kylie alone.
She was sitting up on the bed, her back propped against a pillow, skimming her thumb over her phone’s screen. Thick bandages lay across her neck and her right arm, and those were only the ones I could see. A purple bruise marked her forehead. Our shifter hosts had washed the blood from her hair, but the pink tufts still lay more limply than usual. But she smiled when she saw me and set down the phone.
“Time to go?” she said.
“Yeah.” I hesitated. “I don’t want to just leave you here with a bunch of strangers, but we don’t know if the rogues will attack again when we’re—”
“Oh, Ren.” She held out her arms, beckoning me over. I walked into her embrace. I hugged her carefully, worried about her injuries, but she squeezed me with all her strength. “Don’t worry about me. These people are looking after me just fine. You’ve got your stuff to do. I’ll hang out a while longer, and Aaron said it should be okay for me to go back to the city by the time I’m all fixed up. You just have to promise you’ll come visit me even if you get all busy with shifter queen business, you hear?”
A pained smile tugged at my lips. “Of course. You’re still my best friend.”
“That’s right. Besties for life.” She let go of me to raise her hand, and we tapped knuckles. “Don’t get too distracted by all those yummy men either, okay? But you’d better indulge at least a little.”
A blush tickled up the back of my neck. “I think I’ve already got that covered.”
“Oh ho! Som
ething else I’m going to need to hear all about.” She gave my arm one last pat and waved me off. “Focus on finding your mom. I want to hear all about the end of that mystery too.”
“I hope it’s a good one,” I said with total honesty. What was waiting for us in Sunridge, Wyoming? Another clue to another branch of this weird scavenger hunt Mom had sent us on, or some actual answers this time?
Was Mom waiting there? I didn’t know what I’d say if I finally saw her again, but God, I wanted to so badly.
“Go,” Kylie said, outright shooing me now. “Don’t let me hold you back.”
The guys were standing around the eight-seater SUV West had commandeered, as I guessed you could do when you were an alpha. The idea was that we could sleep in it overnight rather than going through the hassle of finding a hotel. And I suspected the guys liked having the extra space rather than being squashed into a regular car.
I tossed my bag in the trunk, and Nate yanked the hatch shut. Without any debate—or maybe I’d missed one—West climbed into the driver’s seat. Aaron got in beside him. He’d been studying the maps.
As Marco nabbed a spot in the middle row, Nate closed his solid, warm hand around mine. It was funny: Even though I’d seen him in his animal form more often than any of the other guys, and even though that form was the most menacing of the four, his presence wasn’t anything but comforting. Well, and maybe a little exciting. My gaze lingered on the muscles that filled out his thin tee, and a headier warmth pooled low in my belly.
He tugged me with him toward the backseat, and I came without argument. When we sat down on the soft leather, he wrapped his arm around me and tipped me against his brawny torso. I breathed in the musky, peppery smell of him. So fucking delicious. There were a lot of things screwed up about the situation I’d found myself in, but having these four guys by my side... at least, the three of them who definitely wanted to be there... might make up for the rest.
The car’s engine rumbled. Its vibration hummed faintly through the seats as West turned us toward the road out of town. I let my head lean against Nate’s broad shoulder.
I didn’t want to think right now—not about Kylie’s injuries or having to leave her behind, not about the rogues who’d tracked me down to kill me just two days after I’d found out who I really was, not about the quest my mother had sent me on. Drowning in Nate’s scent and the feel of his body sounded like heaven. If I lifted my face just a couple inches, I could have pressed my lips to the base of his collarbone just above the neck of his shirt and tasted him too.
But I held myself back. The other guys were right there. Obviously they had to know I felt this connection to all of them, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of PDAs. And anyway, I wasn’t sure I deserved to indulge after yet another failure this morning.
Nate’s hand rubbed up and down my arm. “You’re tense,” he murmured. “Is there anything you want to talk about?”
“No,” I said automatically, but maybe there was. “I just—I hate that I seem to have that block when it comes to shifting. If I could have shifted last night, I’d have destroyed those rogue shifters.”
He smiled. “You absolutely would have, Ren. But you don’t have to worry about that. You’ve got all of us. We’re not going to let anyone get that close to you again. We should have been more careful to begin with—I didn’t realize they’d be brazen enough to attack you that close to a kin settlement.”
Shit, he’d better not be feeling guilty. “It’s not your fault,” I said. “And I know you all want to protect me. But I want to be able to defend myself, like I should be able to.”
“And you will.” He brushed his lips against the top of my head. The contact sent a tingle over my scalp. “You’re comparing yourself to the four of us, and we’ve had decades to grow into our powers. I’m impressed by how quickly you’re discovering yourself.”
“Oh.” He sounded like he meant it. Was I being too hard on myself? I found it difficult to believe, but the knot of guilt inside me loosened just a little.
I nestled closer to him. He lifted my legs onto his lap so I was completely cuddled against him. My great teddy bear of a man. His other hand kept up its caresses up and down my arm—and reached a little farther to graze the side of my breast. I swallowed a gasp, arching into the contact instinctively. Correction, my great hot bear of a man.
Nate ducked his head to nip my earlobe. My heart skipped giddily. “I think you deserve a reward for all your hard work,” he said under his breath, a playful note slipping into his voice.
“What do you have in mind?” I whispered back.
“You seem to be enjoying this.” He traced his fingertips over the curve of my breast again, catching the peak this time. I clamped my mouth shut against a whimper.
“The other guys...”
“Won’t mind at all. We belong to you, Ren. Whatever you need. Whatever you want.”
His answer brought back Kylie’s comment in the subway tunnel, about being with the guys at the same time. Nate kissed the side of my neck with a teasing swipe of tongue, and suddenly I was wondering what it would be like to have one of my other alpha’s hands on me at the same time. Stirring up even more of these heady sensations. Driving me wild.
The thought dampened my panties. Nate cupped my breast, his thumb easing back and forth over my hardened nipple. Shivers of pleasure raced through me. There wasn’t anything in the world I wanted more in that moment than to keep feeling what I was feeling right now. One last hesitation held me from completely giving in.
“I don’t think I’m ready yet. I mean, to—”
“Ren,” Nate murmured. My name in his low, longing baritone sent a flush over my skin. “You don’t need to do anything. Let me just do this for you.”
His free hand traveled up my thigh. He eased it up and down, still caressing my breast while he did, until the heat building inside me had me ready to melt. I flexed my hips, and he dipped his fingers between my legs to meet the spot so desperate for contact.
My whole body caught fire as he stroked my core. He teased his fingers over every sensitive part of me as if he knew exactly what I was hungry to feel. Pleasure sparked through my veins. I gripped his shirt, my breath growing shaky. I was melting together and coming apart all at once.
Nate flicked his thumb over my clit. I barely managed to bite back a moan. My hips moved to match his rhythm. “That’s right,” he said softly. “I’ve got you.”
Oh, he did. He angled his mouth to capture mine, drinking in my whimper as his hand slid up to delve right under my clothes. He slicked a finger over my opening. The heel of his hand swiveled against my clit. A wave of bliss swelled inside me, tingling through my body from head to toe. I kissed him back as if I were starving for it, my fingers curling tighter into his shirt.
He pumped his hand gently. Then his rhythm started to speed up. I shuddered against him, so close to the edge, and he hooked his finger right up inside me.
The damn broke. Pleasure rushed through me like a flash fire, consuming my bones and leaving my muscles quivering.
Nate kept stroking me until the last waves of my orgasm had faded. He kissed me again, sweet but demanding, and tucked me against him as if I was meant to fit right there in his arms. I held onto him, momentarily sated.
Wondering how on earth I could possibly deserve this much devotion.
Chapter 18
West
One deer’s trail smelled a little fresher than the others. That one had fallen behind the herd. From its scent, it was full-grown but young. Probably injured then. Some stumble that had lamed it and made it easier prey.
I stalked after it, the leaves of the forest underbrush rippling over my fur. Everything I needed for hunting was sharper in my wolf form: my nose, my claws, my teeth. It felt good to flex those muscles after all that time cooped up in the car. No living thing should spend an entire day on the road in one of those metal boxes.
As I wove through the forest, I tasted the air for other scents
. The world was full of pungent sap and loamy moss. But what I was really watching for was the cloying sugary sweetness of the fae.
I hadn’t caught a trace of it so far, but you couldn’t be too careful when you ventured into the wilderness. The untamed stretches of countryside were as much fae territory as the human cities belonged to the bloodsuckers. The magic-burned scar on my upper chest prickled at the thought.
The only sweetness in the air now was a faint wisp from back at our camp. The tart honeyed scent that belonged to Ren. It tugged at me, even from that distance. Reminding me I was meant to be there with her. As if hunting for dinner wasn’t a suitably mately duty. But that tug wouldn’t ease off until I claimed her.
Or disowned her.
That thought brought back the expression on her face yesterday morning, when I’d told her how easily I could cast aside our bond if I decided to. It’d hurt her, hearing that, if just for a moment. But she’d still been able to tell me she respected my position. She hadn’t pleaded or argued. She’d believed that I would do what I felt to be right, and that it was my right to do so.
Maybe I’d been too harsh with her, the last few days. She hadn’t really run. And it definitely hadn’t been her choice to hide. If I was going to be angry with anyone for the situation we found ourselves in, it should be her mother.
I didn’t enjoy causing Ren pain. And when I remembered her agonized breath as she’d lain bloody in the grass last night—
My chest tightened. That was exactly why she needed someone to be harsh. She had to learn to withstand whatever got thrown at her. Because our enemies were going to be so much harsher than I’d ever stoop to.
The deer’s scent grew thicker. I was almost on it. I slowed to a prowl, my ears perked. Hooves pattered in the brush. Unevenly, one leg holding it back with a limp. Just as I’d guessed.
My muscles bunched. I bolted forward and sprang. My jaws clamped around the deer’s sleek neck.
With one snap, I severed its throat. A hot gush of fresh blood filled my mouth. The deer squealed, but its body was already sagging. By the time its head hit the ground, the poor beast had slumped completely, all the life gone from it.
