Chapter Twelve
GARTH
My wolf goes absolutely ballistic at the scent of Frankie’s distress, refusing to watch her in pain for a second longer. My beast claws at the undersides of my ribs, desperate to get out and comfort her. The chains I use to keep him bound rattle, then snap like toothpicks.
Human logic is shoved aside until only animal instincts remain. I lunge across the car, knocking aside the others to reach her. The scent of sunshine and lemons that is uniquely hers fills my senses, and whatever remaining resistance that says this is a terrible idea vanishes.
Without hesitation, I slam my mouth over hers and thrust my tongue deep.
The taste of her explodes through me, and nothing else matters but the need for more.
My dick throbs with my heartbeat, and I grind against the seat, using the pain to keep me from dragging her into my lap and taking what I desperately want.
Frankie groans, leaning into the kiss, and the primal need to claim her for my own consumes my very being. Nothing else matters but making her mine. A hand sinks into my hair…then the fingers viciously twist the strands, yanking my head back and breaking the connection.
I fucking whimper.
My chest heaves as long dormant senses prickle awake and something inside me shifts. I suck in a sharp breath of air, like I’m surfacing from a deep sleep, and I feel more aware of myself than I have in decades.
I feel alive.
My eyes flutter open, and I find her beautiful face only inches away.
Her stunning golden eyes lock onto me in a way that has my blood surging through my veins in anticipation.
Light reflects off the orbs until they glow, tiny starbursts shimmering in their depths, and my beast is completely hypnotized.
Fear snaps me out of my daze.
I’ve been at odds with my beast for so long, I don’t trust him not to harm her.
Desperate to put space between us before my beast regains his senses and takes control again, I gently uncurl my hand from around the long strands of her blonde hair, concentrating on the task like it’s the most important thing in the world.
The long tresses tangle around my fingers, as if to keep her from leaving.
My beast is so calm and docile that I slow my movements to prolong the contact, not wanting to lose the peace just touching her brings.
It should freak me the fuck out, but the blissful quiet is too glorious.
The constant battle to keep my beast in check is gone.
It’s almost like floating in a sea of nothingness, and both my beast and I are enraptured.
The instant I’m untangled from her, the grip in my hair turns brutal, and I find myself wrenched back. Dante snarls in my face, fangs flashing in warning, his slate eyes hard and uncompromising, ready to subdue me if I prove a threat.
He’s the only one strong enough to keep me contained.
Even with all his raw strength, it’s getting harder and harder to subdue me.
Sooner rather than later, he’ll be forced to put me down.
I thought I had more time. I thought I was ready to be done.
I’d made my peace with it…until she burst into my life.
Tyler wiggles out from behind me, the asshole crawling over me to get to Frankie, and I can’t even be mad. “You okay? Are you back with us?”
Her throat moves as she swallows hard, her nod jerky when she answers. “I’m…okay.”
It’s a blatant lie, and a muscle in my jaw twitches when my beast snarls in displeasure. As much as I want to demand the truth, I don’t call her on it. I don’t want to rock the boat and slide back into insanity.
Dante tightens his fist in my hair, no doubt sensing my restlessness.
He’s not an idiot, unwilling to risk letting me go and freaking Frankie out further.
My wolf is wily, but Dante isn’t easily fooled, not after the first time, when I nearly ripped off his face.
He scans my eyes, as if verifying that I’m sane, and I dip my head in acknowledgment that I’m still in full possession of my faculties.
Though my beast doesn’t like being restrained, he doesn’t fight it, content to remain within touching distance of Frankie. After a moment’s pause, Dante reluctantly releases me, and I grimace when my skull aches where it felt like he tried to scalp me.
Drops of rain continue to fall outside the windows, and a glance shows the lake a few yards from the road is only half full.
Water streams back toward it, funneling down the ditches and snaking through the vegetation.
Frankie somehow managed to drag thousands of tons of water into the air without even being aware of it.
Magic hovers around us like a threat, thick and heavy, like it’s waiting to leap back into action at her command—a command that didn’t need words or spells. The magic reacted to her panic.
None of it makes a lick of sense.
Only witches and mages have access to magic.
The minuscule amount shifters have is only enough to allow us to shift. Some argue that alphas have a larger concentration of it, which allows them to rule over others, but that’s never been proven.
Any shifter that tries to touch raw magic dies horribly.
It unravels us from the inside out.
Our insides become our outsides rather violently.
Yet I’m able to smell her creature beneath her silken skin and see the proof of it in her shimmering golden eyes, which means…Frankie can work magic.
If anyone discovers the truth, she will be hunted down. While some might want to slaughter her, others will capture her and study her in hopes of duplicating her abilities. They’ll breed her, forcing her to bend to their will and do their bidding.
My beast growls at the thought of anyone touching what is ours.
Because of us, the local alpha knows the truth.
He will stop at nothing to gain access to her powers, uncaring if he has to mate her against her will, if that’s what it takes to put him on top.
The greedy fucker demands absolute obedience.
Any defiance is quickly eradicated. Small skirmishes have been occurring around the borders, where he’s testing the defenses of neighboring territories, stopping just short of declaring outright war against other alphas.
He won’t risk challenging them, not until victory is guaranteed.
If he’s able to access Frankie’s powers, he would be unstoppable.
Cheating, stealing, killing—none of that matters to him in his quest to rule over the whole country. The fucker is corrupt as hell. If he takes over another territory, I fear no one will be able to stand in his way.
And we just gave him the fucking key to do it.
I lean forward, reaching over the seat to cup Frankie’s face, ignoring the way my heart squeezes painfully when she flinches at the contact. “Are you okay to drive? We need to put as much distance between us and the wolves following as possible.”
She blinks in surprise, possibly thinking I was going to demand answers that she’s not ready to give, but that can wait.
She needs to be alive to be able to answer those questions.
With a jerky nod, she pulls away from my touch and starts the car with shaky fingers.
The vehicle sputters for a few seconds before the engine roughly catches, then she stomps on the gas hard enough that we’re thrown back against our seats.
We grunt as we land in a tangled mess, the car fishtailing slightly on the gravel road before we race off into the middle of the night.
When Tyler opens his mouth to question Frankie, I glare at him in warning and shake my head. He relents with a sigh, unhappy about the decision. The stubborn glint in his eyes warns me that the subject isn’t over, just tabled for now.
Out of all of us, he’s the most stubborn.
If he wants something, he won’t stop until he gets it.
I just hope that we’re prepared for the answers.
Something tells me that whatever secrets Frankie holds are going to shake the foundation of our already troubled existence. I shouldn’t be excited about the prospect, but it feels like I’ve been biding my time, waiting for her to bring me to life.
No matter what happens, I refuse to let her slip through my claws.
I can’t go back to that mindless existence, just waiting to die. I touch the silver bullet in my pocket, the tips of my fingers burning, then I toss it out the window.
Though she might not admit it, Frankie needs us too.
She won’t be able to survive without us.
We need to prove that we can be an asset, tie her to us in a way that she can’t ever leave.
When my wolf remains ominously silent, the hairs on my scruff lift. He’s up to something. At one time, we used to function as a team. Now, it feels like I have a monster living under my skin, waiting for the chance to take over.
I’ve done everything to restrain him, but he won’t be denied forever. He will break free eventually—it’s as inevitable as the tide. For the first time in decades, a tiny kernel of hope blooms in my chest at the thought that he might not be a rabid killing machine…because of her.
Frankie.
No fucking way am I going to allow her to leave and take that hope with her, not without a fight. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe. If I die in the process, then at least my life was worth something in the end.