Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Desire’s easy. Control isn’t. Especially when someone else reaches for what you crave.
The world was ending, and we were having a shifter shindig around a bonfire. I guessed we couldn’t spend all our days crying in the corner or pouring over battle plans. Sometimes, we needed to remind ourselves what we were fighting for.
“This is different,” I muttered as Hudson snaked his arm around my waist and dragged me closer to his side. The fire blazed high against the indigo sky, smoke twisting into the cool night. The scent of charred meat, whiskey, and wet earth was welcoming.
Norbert offered me a plate. “Well done, just like the lady ordered.”
Hudson’s nose wrinkled at my charred meat. “A burger with no taste left.”
I took the plate. “Thank you.”
Norbert winked and sauntered off to dish out more food. Getting my meat looking edible was an accomplishment at a pack social.
“We don’t all have the stomach of an ox,” I grumbled before biting into my perfect burger with a groan. When had I last eaten something warm? Yesterday? No, we had a salad, much to Dave’s dismay. He had an aversion to anything that grew, not breathed.
I paused on my third bite and side-eyed Hudson, who was staring at my mouth. His eyes flashed gold in the moonlight, the embers from the fire sparking behind him.
“What? Did I dribble some juice?” I swiped my chin with my hand.
“No,” he growled.
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
He grinned and leaned down, pressing his lips to my ear. “Later tonight, I want to hear you moan like that when you have my—”
“Hudson,” a sultry voice cut in, interrupting wherever that delightful thought was heading.
I tensed, and Hudson sighed against my neck. Was it too late to pick option C and opt out of the apocalypse to disappear into some secret part of the world? Just the two of us?
“Smile,” he reminded me. “And maybe don’t kill her.”
I huffed. “No promises.” We both turned to see Mercy, the alpha cat shifter who held the belief she was the one and only rightful woman for Hudson. I felt sorry for her. To continue to hold a flame for a guy who never once looked at her the way he looked at me several times an hour? That must hurt.
“Principal and consort,” Hudson snapped.
The titles made my skin itch, even if he was using them to remind a woman with wandering eyes of her place before she incited my inner beast.
Mercy Stephenson stood tall, her long blonde hair gleaming, her dress short enough that I’d be able to see her nether regions if it weren’t for the shadows. Which meant my mate, with his superior eyesight, could see her underwear—if she was wearing any.
“Hudson,” she purred, ignoring me entirely. “We were just discussing the latest warding failures on the northern border. It’s so good you’re finally here. The pack needs you.”
Her hand twitched, and I willed her not to make a move. Indigo lifted her head inside my mind. “You brought snacks.”
Fuck.
Hudson snorted.
Hahaha, real funny. Taunt my dark side with a hankering for souls.
I glared at her fingers as they snaked out. Don’t do it. Don’t touch him.
Her eyes shot to mine, and her lips lifted in a victorious smile. She was doing this publicly, hoping I’d keep myself in check due to the pack’s heavyweights in attendance. It would also make me look weak.
Well played—if she was dealing with sane, elemental Cora. An appalling decision, since Indigo, the beast with no qualms about polishing off a soul for dessert, was more in control right now.
I glanced at Hudson and willed him to stop this car crash before it happened.
Her fingers touched the top of his arm, tracing the muscle in a move designed for the audience as much as the man.
Hudson tensed but didn’t move away, and I gave an inward groan. I hated political restraints.
“Careful. You’re touching what’s mine.” The fire popped, as if the universe was warning me to behave.
Mercy’s smile sharpened. “Forgive me. I was just saying it must be exhausting for him, carrying the burden of all these defenses alone. Perhaps it would be best if someone else—someone trusted—handled the wards next time.”
She parted her legs, and Hudson’s nostrils flared. That would be a hard pass on the underwear then.
I saw red. Not metaphorical red, but literal sparks flickering at the edge of my vision.
My magic flared, hungry and protective, and before I could stop myself, I reached out and caught her wrist. A crack echoed, and Mercy screamed.
Every head snapped toward us as she cradled her hand, her fingers bent at unnatural angles and her tears glistening in the firelight.
I froze, horror crawling through me like ice.
“I restrained myself. I could have torn her heart from her chest and thrown it in the bonfire,” Indigo stated.
“Cora,” Hudson growled under his breath, stepping between us.
Mercy stumbled backward, clutching her ruined hand, eyes wide with a predator’s mix of pain and triumph. “See?” she hissed. “She’s dangerous. I told you she was.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd, confirmation disguised as gossip. Of course, I was dangerous. Were they just figuring that out now?
Dave moved between us, his expression flat but his tone laced with warning. “You touched her mate, and for fuck's sake, Mercy, you’re in heat. Put some panties on before you cause a teenage shifter revolt.”
Crimson bloomed on her cheeks, and a calm settled over me.
She was so desperate for him she was willing to embarrass herself.
This wasn’t love; it was infatuation. I gritted my teeth and grasped Hudson’s hand, pulling him back toward me.
“You need to make it clear to her that you aren’t on the market for a mate. ”
“I have.”
“No, you haven’t. You’re letting us fight it out like I’m pack. I’m not, and never will be, not really. The way you keep expecting both me and them to deal with these advances is giving her the right to continue to hold her hopes up.”
Hudson’s arm circled around my waist, and he dragged me into his chest. “Not here,” he growled.
“Yes, here and now. We are waging a war, and I don’t have time to fight petty battles with women who see my position as weak because you won’t deal with it.”
“What do you want me to do? Claim you on the ground, right here, right now?”
Why was everything about sex for men?
“Please don’t,” Dave drawled.
“No. You need to turn around and declare your undying love for me.”
“I’ve been trying to do exactly that with our wedding, which means something in both of our worlds. It’s not me that’s the hold-up, Cora.”
My mouth snapped closed, and my jaw clenched as I stared at Mercy over Hudson’s shoulder. “Fine, no more secrets,” I whispered. “Tonight, we share everything.”
Dave arched a brow. Yep, get ready—I’m about to expose the Serpents to your best friend and boss.
His lips twitched. He was ready for the lies to be over too.
Maybe it was because he’d found someone he wasn’t prepared to lie to in my aunt, or maybe he was tired.
I was less worried about the Serpents and more about the god of darkness I still owed two dates to.
“Unless we’re going to give them a show, the pack’s expecting you to bleed for them. Then, you are all mine.”
Of course they were. They’d get their proof of loyalty in the blood wards that kept their land free from spirits.
Dave and Hudson had gotten used to the ghosts, but I still saw their metaphorical hackles rise when one brushed through them.
The rest of the pack didn’t have the same control, so I bled and gave them protection so they could live in their bubble of safety.
I pushed up my sleeve and stepped closer to the ward lines circling the clearing. Hudson handed me a blade, which flashed silver in the firelight as I drew it across my palm.
Magic sizzled in the air, bright and hot. My blood hit the earth and spread in thin, glowing rivers. The runes carved into the soil flared to life, silver edged in red, and power rose in a wave that silenced the crowd. The wards sealed, stronger than before, humming with my heartbeat.
I rolled my shoulders as I sacrificed a little of myself for their protection.
Dave’s voice was low but not unkind. “They don’t deserve you.”
Mercy hissed from the sidelines, her arm bound in someone’s jacket. “She doesn’t belong here.”
Hudson lifted his gaze to the pack, who waited with bated breath as the promise of violence hovered around us.
“Cora Roberts is my mate. She has shown time and time again that she values us. She has kneeled in pain while clutching the life force of our young to ensure their survival. She bleeds to protect you and never hesitates to put herself between danger and the pack. If you don’t like my choices, then you are free to leave.
No one will stop you. No one will beg you to stay.
Cora is going nowhere. The mating ceremony is but a formality.
She is my forever and the one thing that I can and will put before pack. ”
A knot formed in my throat, and I squeezed my bloody palm. Mercy glared at me, and I tilted my head up, refusing to back down from the hatred swimming in her eyes. After a moment, her shoulders dropped, and she melted into the forest.
Hudson turned to face me. “Ready?” he asked, his expression tight. Maybe the reality of the secrets he promised me was hitting hard. He guided me to the car, and no one stopped to say farewell or offer their thanks for the protection.
My stomach growled as we pulled out of the driveway.
“What was that?” Hudson wondered.
“The worst crime of tonight wasn’t an infatuated wolf or a bleeding mate. It was my half-eaten burger left behind on the dirty ground.”
“I could have resolved a number of those problems with one quick bite,” Indigo lamented.
The drive home was silent, the kind that weighed heavily with the promise of violence.
The rain started, tapping a rhythm on the windshield like impatient fingers.
Hudson’s grip on the wheel tightened until the leather creaked.
Then, without warning, he flicked the blinkers on and veered off the main road.
The forest swallowed us whole, headlights carving narrow paths through mist. I couldn’t tell if the tremor running through me was fear, fury, or something far more dangerous.
I braced my hand on the dash. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere private to have this out. No secrets, no hiding, no interruptions. I want to make sure you’re looking me in the eye when you explain all the reasons you made a deal with a god and hid it from me.”
My pulse quickened. “Oh boy,” I muttered. “That won’t end well.”
“Depends on what you promised, mate. Even death fears what he himself embodies, and I won’t hesitate to remove his heart if he has so much as laid a finger on you.”
“This,” Indigo sighed. “This is why we are soulmates.”
Save me now.