Chapter 27 #2
“I think being escorted by those two worked well,” I replied dryly while jerking my thumb over my shoulder.
Remy’s eyes danced with mischief as he eyed Bastian and Warrick. “No RyRy? Marie is going to be so disappointed.”
“RyRy?” I choked out, and I was fairly certain I heard Bastian laugh behind me.
“Rynn. Ryker.” Remy grinned at me. “RyRy.”
Some of my amusement died. The last time I’d seen Ryker, he had been passed out on my balcony.
The mating bond between us had felt oddly quiet.
There were moments when I felt . . . something.
But it was there and gone too quickly for me to figure out what.
That told me his injuries had been really serious.
Like bad enough that, without the potential bond between us, he might not have survived.
And tonight was going to bring me that much closer to breaking that bond.
Sensing the shift in my mood, Remy stepped closer to me. “You okay?”
Between one breath and the next, Bastian and Warrick were there. “She’s fine,” Bas said lightly, even as he tugged me into his side.
Remy arched an eyebrow at where Bastian slung his arm across my shoulders. “Right,” he drawled. “My Rynn is always fine.”
Tension filled the air, and I wanted to roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. Warrick hated me. Bastian was helping me leave the pack. And Remy was my friend, nothing more.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to say anything because Remy yelped as a barely five-foot woman with long wavy red hair came up next to him and smacked him on the back of the head. “Stop being an ass,” she snapped.
“Marie!” I gaped at her. “Should you be out of bed?”
She glared at me and pointed a finger. “Don’t you start. I’m pregnant, not on my death bed. Remy is just overreacting to what happened and making everyone else worry for no reason.”
“Yes.” My friend rolled his eyes. “How dare I care about my beloved after she passed out on me and didn’t wake up for two days.”
Alarm slammed through me. I hadn’t known those specific details.
“As long as you acknowledge you’re wrong,” Marie said solemnly before giving me a reassuring smile. “I’m fine, I promise.”
“Okay,” I breathed. Marie wasn’t one to bullshit. If she said she was fine, I believed her. “I’ve missed you both!”
“You saw me not that long ago,” Remy said dryly as I threw myself at Marie, carefully hugging her despite her reassurance that she was feeling okay.
“I was just being polite,” I huffed. “We both know I like Marie more than you.”
“Harsh but fair.” Remy chuckled. “My mate is truly extraordinary.”
A sharp pain flickered through me, and I flinched before catching myself. Marie untangled herself from my embrace and studied my face. “You good?”
“Yeah.” I smiled at her, unconvincingly, based on the way her pretty cupid’s bow mouth frowned. “It’s just been a long few months is all.”
Her bright green eyes watched me for another moment before she glanced at Warrick and Bastian behind me. “No doubt. Come sit with me a bit so we can chat.”
I did as I was told, and Remy settled on Marie’s other side while Warrick and Bastian drifted around, conversing with various partygoers but never going too far.
An hour flew by before Marie announced I needed to dance and all but shoved me off the bench before doing the same to Remy. Neither of us were willing to argue with her, so we danced around the bonfire while she hollered after us.
That lasted for about thirty seconds before Bastian yanked me away.
“What are you doing?” I whispered in his ear as he placed his hand firmly against my lower back, pulling me a lot closer to his body than Remy had.
Bastian chuckled, and I tried to ignore the shivers that ran down my spine as his breath tickled my neck. “Dancing with my lovely packmate.” He kissed my neck before quietly saying into my ear, “Dual purpose, remember? You’ll find what you need, but we’ll also show we’re a united pack.”
He spun me away, my hair fanning out around me before I was back in his arms. “And kisses accomplish that?” I asked a little breathlessly.
“They accomplish many things.” He grinned at me.
I rolled my eyes, but the smile that touched my lips was more real than the one that had been there a minute ago.
We swirled around the bonfire while Warrick stood on the sidelines. His expression was bemused as he chatted with some of Dragomir’s scouts, but I didn’t miss the way his eyes sharpened on me—or Bastian.
Bastian’s mask never slipped once. He laughed and spun me around over and over again, only taking breaks to pin me close to him.
His hands lingered on my hips while he kissed my neck or whispered ridiculous things in my ear.
To everyone else, I was sure it looked like we were happy and in love—or at least in lust.
It was a stark contrast to how he’d been the last couple of days, and that bothered me because I thought I’d been getting better at reading his tells.
Just how good of a liar was he?
The Dragomirs made an appearance too. Dagan spoke with Warrick for a while before checking in with Remy and Marie. I spotted Alexis out of the corner of my eye more than once, but he never approached us. It didn’t stop my skin from crawling as I felt his attention on me though.
As the night went on, the crowd got rowdier just as we’d anticipated. Demands were made for Dagan to join the musicians, and he finally agreed, causing everyone to cheer. I didn’t like Dagan, but he did have a surprisingly good voice.
This was the opportunity we’d been waiting for.
Bastian led me in one final spin before pulling me close and kissing me deeply. I’d known it was coming, but the taste of him still halted every thought in my head. He smiled against my lips, and the hand on my hip tightened.
Right. I should probably kiss him back.
I tightened my arms around the back of his neck and parted my lips.
Bastian didn’t hesitate, his tongue sliding in to tease me while he deepened the kiss.
Several people, one of whom was definitely Remy, hooted and hollered.
A warm chest pressed against my back, and then Warrick’s scent enveloped me.
I’d never been so terrified and turned on at the same time.
The memory of Warrick slamming that sword through my chest was still far too fresh and had my adrenaline pumping. But that didn’t stop the heady feeling of being trapped between two really attractive men.
The only way it could have been better was if Ryker were here.
Nope. I grasped all those thoughts and shoved them into a corner of my mind, wagging a mental finger at them in warning.
Hands trailed down from my hips to grip my ass, and then I was being lifted up. I wrapped my legs around Bastian’s waist, and he walked us away from the bonfire.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Warrick’s deep voice trailed after us. “Keep her warm for me.”
My legs instantly tightened around Bastian, and he nipped my lip in response.
Moments later, Bastian halted, and I unwrapped my legs as he set me down. Both of us were breathing a little hard. Maybe he was just that good of an actor. I definitely wasn’t. I’d let myself get way too caught up in that moment.
He had an odd look on his face I couldn’t quite place.
I straightened my tunic that had risen up during our makeout session. “On to phase two then.”
Bastian didn’t say anything, so I just gave an awkward wave before walking away.
You’re still mad at him, I reminded myself. He’d been an ass to Ryker and was the reason he’d ended up hurt by wraiths. I still didn’t know the specifics of what had happened, but I knew it had something to do with me sleeping in Bastian’s bed. And all the dancing and kissing had been pretend.
With my head mostly back in the game, I mentally mapped out a path to the building I needed to get to. It was on the opposite side of the stronghold and there were still some guards patrolling.
I made it ten steps around the corner before a hand caught my wrist, and then I was back in Bastian’s arms. His lips crashed against mine, hungry and devouring. This was different from the way he’d kissed me while dancing. Those had been playful but controlled.
There was nothing controlled about this.
I greedily kissed him back, my hands winding through his hair the way I’d wanted to do all night as I had held myself back.
Slowly, he broke the kiss and stepped back. There was a tenderness in the way he looked at me, but I could see sadness there too.
“Why?” I breathed.
“What we did around that bonfire?” He tucked a hair behind my ear.
“That was for them. It was pretend. This was for me.” Before I could ask what the fuck he’d meant by that, Bastian spun me around and gently pushed me forward.
“Warrick and I will catch up with you later. Don’t get caught, Princess. ”
I stumbled a few steps before glancing over my shoulder, but Bastian was already gone.
“You are . . . the absolute worst, Bas.” I glared at the spot he’d been before getting a move on. If this was how he always acted, I was beginning to sympathize with Warrick. I would be a cranky asshole too if I’d been dealing with Bastian’s confusing bullshit for decades.
Carefully, I made my way across the stronghold.
There were a few moments it felt like the mating bond was coming back and I got a strange feeling in my chest before it went quiet again.
I hoped that meant Ryker was almost done healing.
He was going to be pissed when he woke up and found I was gone, but Cade could handle him.
Probably.
Or Ryker would find us on our way back to the Alpha stronghold. I’m sure that would go over well.
Finally, the stone building in the corner behind a garden came into view. I was on the edge of a small orchard, half hidden behind a tree. There was no coverage between me and the building, but I could make it there if I timed it correctly.
I had no doubt that if any of the guards spotted someone near this building, they would report it immediately to Alexis. So I waited and watched the guards making their patrols on top of the perimeter wall. Another minute and I’d be golden.
Voices came from a path to the left of the orchard, and I swore internally as I recognized several of Alexis’ friends who often traveled with him.
“She wouldn’t be over here,” one of them complained.
“Alexis said to look everywhere,” a man with dark red hair replied. “Do you want to tell him we half-assed it because you were in a hurry to get back to drink more and find someone to warm your bed?”
“I’d love to see that,” the third one said. “He’s been on a tear lately, and you know how he is about anything concerning Rynn. It’ll be entertaining to watch you get your teeth kicked in.”
“Thanks, asshole,” the one who’d originally spoken shoved his friend. “Don’t act like you’re not anxious to get back.”
“Let’s just check around the building, then we can take a different path back to cover our bases,” the redhead said.
Shit. Alexis hadn’t entirely bought the show Bastian and I had put on. I couldn’t let these assholes spot me, but there was nowhere for me to go. The tree I was behind wasn’t wide enough to fully block me, nor were the shadows that deep. If I moved, they would absolutely see me.
They got closer. Thirty feet. Twenty feet. As fast as ideas flashed through my head, I shot them down. Seconds. I had seconds before they saw me and dragged me to Alexis.
The shadows around me darkened, more creeping along the ground before slowly rising. Dappled darkness appeared between the trees as the shadows swept over me, hiding me from view. My heart skipped a beat because these weren’t the shadows of wraiths, but ones belonging to a Furie.
And I knew of only one Furie who could be in Fervis territory right now.
I held perfectly still as Alexis’ friends strolled by, none of them noticing that the orchard was a little darker than usual. Only when they were well out of range did I spin around and smile at the Furie before me.
“You truly do have excellent timing, Cali.” I cocked my head to the side and arched a brow. “Now tell me what the fuck you’re doing here?”