by Callie Rose
Then a vivid white grin slashes across his handsome, rugged face. It wipes away the danger, replacing his serious expression with a teasing, carefree charm.
He lets out a long, low whistle as he falls into an easy stride across the room. “Look at you. You’re hot. You know that?”
“Malix,” Frost says warningly.
The man named Malix glances back at his friend with an unconcerned shrug. “What? She’s Grade A, prime cut. Bet she’d fall apart in our fucking teeth.”
I clench my jaw and bite out, “She’s also right here. Stop talking about me like I’m a piece of goddamn meat.”
Malix chuckles, and his gaze rakes up and down my restrained body. “Hm. Kitty’s got bite.” He turns to Frost. “You sure those knots are tight enough? I’m too pretty for cat claws.”
Fury makes my blood boil. I see what he’s doing—insulting me by calling me a cat, but playing it off like it’s a game. I snarl and tug against my restraints, catching his strange purple gaze. “I’m more wolf than you could ever dream to be, you asshole.”
Suddenly, the charming grin falls away from his face, and he levels a sharp look on me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that was hurt in his eyes. His next statement loses the casual charm and is more caustic, dismissive. “So this is our mate, then. Charmer.”
“I have no interest in being your mate or anyone else’s,” I retort coolly.
“Great,” Malix says, his teasing grin returning. “It would never work out between us anyway, kitty cat.”
Frost sighs. “Quit taunting her.”
“But it’s so much fun.” Malix smirks at me.
My head is spinning from the wild shifts in his moods. One moment charming and seductive, the next, frigid and serious. Then back to teasing with that devilish grin. It’s enough to drive a girl mad. If my hands were free, I’d gladly wrap them around his throat and squeeze the life out of him with a smile on my face.
Instead, I’m prone on a bed, completely at their mercy. For the moment.
I have every intention of changing that though.
Malix turns away from me to address Frost in a low voice. “She was poisoned too?”
Frost nods. His pale hair shifts with the movement, and I can’t help but imagine that hair like spiderwebs over my stomach. My thighs.
Fuck, I hate this.
Malix lets out a long breath and rubs his hand over his cropped hair. “Shit. She’s never been able to use shadows like that before.”
“No.”
“That’s something else, man. And her timing was impeccable.”
“A little too impeccable,” Frost agrees. His black tattoos do that odd shimmering, wavy thing I saw last night, as if reacting to his inner emotions. Then they settle again on his golden skin.
They’ve both apparently forgotten I’m even still in the room. And I don’t think I’m the person they’re talking about, except for Malix’s reference to me being poisoned. I lean against my restraints, cringing at the raw pain in my burned wrist. “Hello? Who’s she?”
Neither one of them acknowledges me.
Malix sighs and claps a hand to Frost’s shoulder. “We told you not to go.”
“You did.”
“You didn’t listen.”
Exasperated, I snap, “Will someone please fill me in on what’s going on? All this cryptic talk isn’t telling me why I’m here or why I’m poisoned or what the fuck I’m supposed to do about it. Unless you intend for me to just die.”
Malix and Frost turn to look at me at that, their faces expressionless, but it’s neither of them who speaks next.
“Nobody’s dying.”
Heat flashes over me at the familiar voice. Malix and Frost are new to me—my mates, all the same, but not quite on the same level as Kian. I know him intimately. My fingertips know the satin of his skin and my mouth remembers the hard planes of his body. His smooth voice like hot caramel, his whispers in my ear, his body inside mine…
And here they are. All three of them. Just like Gwen said.
Kian stops between the other two, and I’m reminded just how big he is. He’s taller than the others, his muscles brawny. Even his presence is intimidating. Frost is an inch or two shorter and more wiry in his strength, while Malix is a couple inches shorter than that but built like a Greek god.
They’re all insanely beautiful. My heart races at having all three of them here, but I firmly tamp down on my desire. I know they can hear my heartbeat. Sense my emotions. I’ll pretend like hell that I’m angry and afraid and only those things.
Anything else is unacceptable.
Kian levels his gold-ringed brown gaze on me. “You should have stayed away. I warned you to stop following me.”
I jab a finger at Frost. “Your boy here showed up in my motel room last night. That wasn’t on me.”
Kian shoots a pointed glance at Frost, but then looks back at me. “I knew when I met you last night that you’d be trouble. I just didn’t know how much.”
I blink at him. Met me… last night?
He hasn’t told them about Montana.
A sudden certainty rushes through me. The way he phrased his statement is subtle but clear, obviously meant to make it sound like we met for the first time last night. I know that’s not true, and so does Kian, which means his phrasing can only be for Frost and Malix’s benefit.
The two of them have no idea that Kian and I met before. That we fucked. That we forged a bond connection.
Interesting. I’m too intrigued by why he would keep such a thing secret to call him out on it. Instead, I fall back on my usual tactic for dealing with stressful situations—shit talk.
“You don’t know trouble yet, you son of a bitch,” I say, letting a vicious smile curve my lips. “But untie me, and I promise I’ll show you.”
Malix chuckles but covers his mouth with a hand and pretends to cough as Kian glares at him. Frost ducks his head, his face hiding behind his hair. No smile, though. I’m starting to think he doesn’t know how.
Kian takes a single step closer to the bed, eyes narrowing. “You ruined my bike.”
“Oh, so you know about that, huh?” I lean back against the headboard, trying to channel my best don’t-give-a-damn expression. “I was worried you wouldn’t see my handiwork.”
“I watched you do it,” Kian says, his voice more like a growl.
“With your magical vanishing scent skills?” I rotate my bare feet in front of me with a shrug. “You took my shoes and tied me to a bed. Forgive me if I’m not sorry.”
“Your shoes are on the floor next to the bed,” Kian snaps, clearly irritated by my snark. “You can have them when we’ve concluded our business.”
My interest piques. “Business?”
Frost cuts in before Kian can speak again, his voice low. “The poison. The shadow was after me, but it attacked you too. We’ve been poisoned.”
“As you’ve already told me,” I say impatiently. “But I feel fine.”
“That’s how it works,” Frost tells me. “You’ll feel fine until you don’t. The pain will come and go as the poison destroys you from the inside. Eventually, we will both die without the antidote.”
I draw in a deep breath and study their serious faces for several long moments. Death isn’t all that frightening to me. Clearly, I don’t want to die—no healthy person does. But when the time comes, I’ll be content with shifting, going into the wilderness, and giving myself back to the earth as she gave to me. It’s the ultimate gift, a return to the wild that can never be taken away. When the time comes.
Unfortunately, that time cannot be now. I have a duty still to fulfill. If both Kian and Malix were poisoned as well, I’d be happy to stand back and let the poison do its work. All of us die, the world is saved, huzzah. As it stands, however, if Frost and I die, my other two mates will be free to do whatever they please.
My being alive is the only thing that stands between them and total destruction.
I nod. “Okay
. Do you have the antidote?”
Kian shakes his head. “We can obtain it, but it won’t be easy.”
Malix grins. “That’s why we brought you here, kitty. We can work together to get the antidote.”
I ignore his irritating use of that nickname and roll my eyes. “You have got to be kidding me. You want me to work with you? You know why I’ve been following you, right?”
Frost steps in front of Malix, shooting him a warning glance before he can taunt me further. “It’s the only way we will both survive.”
Kian speaks up again. “A temporary truce. Long enough for us to find the antidote and save Frost.”
“And me,” I point out, an edge to my voice.
Kian’s lips quirk, and the little half-smile on his face does dangerous things to the area between my legs. “And you. As long as you’re on your best behavior.”
I study them, weighing my options. Try to kill them before the poison kills me? Too much room for failure. I have no way of knowing how long the poison will work. Hell, I could die tomorrow, still tied to this fucking bed. I can’t die while they still live.
If I join forces with them, I could theoretically learn more about them. Figure out their weaknesses and strengths, formulate a fool-proof plan to get rid of them once and for all. And if we get the antidote in the process… win/win. I’d love to go back home. Be with Ridge and Sable and the kids. Be settled. Have peace.
I’ll never have any of it as long as these assholes are still alive.
This could be the answer.
“Fine,” I say.
Kian nods, his golden brown eyes unreadable. “So it’s decided then. A truce.”
Chapter 10
A truce.
The asshole looks almost… victorious as he says the words. His lips tilt up, and a gleam lights in them. As if my agreement is some kind of unspoken contract that he’ll use to control me.
I resist the urge to change my mind immediately and tell him to go fuck himself instead.
It’s a strong urge, but it would run counter to what needs to be done. I have half a dozen reasons that prove this is the best way to complete my mission, as long as I can play my part well.
So I don’t give in to the anger boiling through my veins.
Clenching my jaw, I nod, then add, “A temporary truce.”
Without a word, Frost crosses the room and leans over me as he begins to untie my knots. Up close, his warm, spicy scent wraps around me until I can’t smell anything else. It’s like a drug that sends every one of my senses into overdrive. I lean into him, unbidden, and sniff the air, desire pooling through my body.
He pauses, his long fingers stilling on the purple ropes, and I know he’s scented me, too.
I stare up at him, fascinated. The sun from the window glares behind him, turning his pale hair to a halo, but there’s nothing angelic about his cool, remote expression. He’s a venomous snake—beautiful, but only because he’s deadly.
Which is why it’s so hard to be this close to him.
Frost doesn’t look at me, but I can sense he’s as acutely aware of me as I am of him. He returns to his untying as if nothing happened.
My wolf beats against my soul in an effort to reach him. She’s furious that she’s calling for him and he isn’t responding, and I really hate the bitch right now. Her lust rises inside me, making my own body react. I don’t typically care about keeping a distinct line between me and my wolf, because we’re one and the same. But right now, I need her to back the fuck off.
I force the feelings away by reminding myself he’s deadly.
More than deadly.
He’s a monster wrapped in a beautiful package.
I’m here to kill him. And there’s nothing that will stand in the way of me carrying out my mission.
My timeline just has to be adjusted.
Finally, the ropes fall away from my wrists. Frost backs away from me, his pale gaze meeting mine for only half a second before he returns to Kian’s side.
I sit up and scoot to the edge of the bed, glancing around for my shoes. I don’t like being the only person seated, and there’s something about being barefoot that makes me feel a little too vulnerable. In this situation, anyway. Shoving my feet into my shoes, I stand and step out onto the hardwood floor to stare them down.
We face off over the empty expanse of the room. I eye them warily, still not entirely certain this isn’t some kind of trap, and they all regard me with expressions that are almost impossible to read. Kian glares, his face hard, though that seems to be his permanent look. Frost’s face is eerily blank, and I’m reminded of how I thought he looked like a statue last night in my motel room. He has the same dead, inhuman emptiness as stone. Malix eyes me like he’s measuring me up, and I ease down on the urge to bare my teeth at him.
When the silence stretches on entirely too long, I ask, “How long do we have?”
Kian answers. “A few weeks, if we’re lucky. Less, if we’re not.”
A few weeks? A tingle of fear snakes up my spine. That’s not long at all. I mean, better than a matter of days, I guess. But what if we fail?
Then I’ll be dead. Kian and Malix will be free to do whatever the hell they want.
And the world will be in danger.
“Right,” I say, as if my blood isn’t running cold in my veins. “And how do we go about getting the antidote?”
“A witch,” Malix replies, flashing me that crooked grin. It reminds me of the Cheshire Cat—a creature smiling who knows much more than I do. I don’t know if I find it charming or if I want to cut it off his face with my knife.
“Is approaching a witch coven smart?” I ask. The war my pack waged with the witches in Montana has stuck with me longer than I’d like to admit. Though I know that they were our enemy because of one sociopathic coven mistress, the bitter memories still remain.
“A covenless witch,” Kian adds. “Very powerful, but the four of us together will be safe.”
“Is he here? In New Mexico?”
“He is,” Kian says, “but not near Oscura, so we need to get a move on.”
With that, he turns and leaves the room. Frost and Malix file out after him.
I have no choice but to follow.
The hallway outside the bedroom is a little more run down. Paint peels from the walls, and the wooden floorboards are scratched and covered in years of sticky dirt and grime. We pass a ridiculously small kitchen that’s empty of appliances, and a living room with two ancient couches spilling stuffing onto the floor. The floor’s covered in takeout boxes and cups, and there are three sleeping nests of blankets.
I lengthen my stride to catch up with Malix. “You live here?”
Malix shrugs. “It’s where we’re living today.”
Well that clears that up. I roll my eyes, but don’t ask him to clarify. Clearly, they’re as nomadic as I am.
We reach the front door, and Kian opens it, spilling sunlight into the dim interior. The cabin has a shallow front porch with three narrow steps that lead down to a dusty lawn. Trees surround us on all sides and I can’t hear any hint of traffic, indicating we’re well off the beaten path.
As we cross the lawn, I speak to Malix again. “What are you?”
Before he can answer, Kian snorts under his breath. “Always asking that question, aren’t you?”
“I figure at some point, someone will actually give me a straight answer,” I retort.
He whirls on me suddenly, looming over me like a mountain. “You don’t even know what we are, and yet you’ve been hunting us.”
“I don’t actually give a fuck what you are,” I shoot back, my heart pounding at his proximity. Whiskey and woodsmoke surrounds me, drowns me, and all I can think about is his body on mine and the final moments of happiness I once knew before life fucked me up. “You could be my own damn mother, and I’d still hunt you because I know how dangerous you are.”
Frost and Malix exchange glances, but Kian’s glare remains fixed on me
. “If you know how dangerous I am, why didn’t you kill me last night?”
“Oh, we’re just going to pretend I didn’t try?” I snap. “Or did you forget the fight in the woods? I seem to recall hitting you with a literal tree branch.”
Malix chokes on a laugh, and when Kian shoots him a glare, he slips behind Frost like that statue of a man will protect him.
Frost doesn’t react to Malix’s amusement or Kian’s anger, but he puts a hand on Kian’s arm. Their gazes meet, and something silent passes between them.
Kian’s agitation fades just a little. He growls, then stomps off across the grass.
Frost inclines his head for me to follow.
“We are wolves,” he says, falling into step beside me—close, but not close enough for my wolf to lose her mind.
“But not normal wolves,” I clarify.
Malix laughs from Frost’s other side. “What the hell is a ‘normal’ wolf?”
“Canis lupus,” Frost replies evenly. “Commonly known as the gray wolf, or the timber wolf. A member of the Canidae family that occupies much of the northern hemisphere.”
“Oh you’ve done it now,” Malix says, leaning around Frost to grin at me. “Turned on his encyclopedia brain.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re the one who asked the question, idiot.”
Malix’s violet eyes sparkle. “There’s kitty’s claws.”
“I will end you,” I shoot back in a falsely pleasant voice, and I’m legit bothered by how much I’m starting to like the asshole. I cannot—and will not—become friends with these men. Temporary truce, find the antidote, then kill them. My plan is stone.
Kian whirls around, interrupting our banter. “This show of bonding is very touching, but we are on a time limit.”
I turn my back on him to give Frost and Malix my attention. The way I directly ignore him sends Kian into a fury I can feel raging at my back.
Good. Let him seethe.
“So no one’s going to answer the question I so patiently keep asking?” I say. “What. Are. You? And don’t tell me ‘wolves,’ or so help me—”
Frost speaks up, interrupting me before I can ramp up into a full tirade. “Have you heard of the shadow realm?”
