Chapter 30
Declan
The wind coming off the cliffs cut straight through my jacket, and the tang of the sea clung to the back of my throat.
The four of us moved in a tight line along the ridge, boots grinding on loose rock, eyes on the coastline as we looked for anything that might give us a hint as to where we might break into the Watch’s base and find our mate.
We’d been walking for hours, up switchbacks slick with spray, through gullies where the sea roared below, over old, rusted rails half-swallowed by stone. Every step felt like we were circling a beast’s den, and the beast was polite enough not to show itself.
Aidan stopped short, one hand lifted. “There.”
We all followed his line of sight to a patch of shadow halfway up the cliff side where there was a steel door set into the rock maybe fifty feet away, paint flaked away.
It was just… open.
Edward’s voice was flat. “Well, that feels wrong.”
“Understatement of the year,” Aidan muttered. “A Watch base doesn’t leave a door hanging open unless they want someone to walk through it.”
“Which means it’s a trap,” Edward said.
My gut agreed. My wolf did not. The thing in me that had been pacing restlessly since she left stirred and lifted its head.
Logan crouched, scanning the approach. “No guards. No cameras we can see. If it’s bait, they’re not trying to conceal it even a little bit.”
“Why would they?” Aidan asked. “If she’s there, we’ll take it.”
I should have been thinking the same thing, calculating angles, looking for sightlines, checking for the telltale glint of glass in the shadows. Instead… something warm, powerful, and primal punched through the air like a physical impact.
Her scent.
I stopped dead in my tracks, every thought falling away but one: mine.
The world narrowed to it. Heat and spice and a certain tang that hit the back of my tongue and made my pulse hammer.
It was her, but not the way she’d smelled before.
This was richer, more potent, winding through my head until I couldn’t hear the sea anymore, couldn’t feel the cold.
My hands balled into fists, nails biting my palms.
“Declan?” Aidan’s voice was close, and more than a little cautious.
I barely heard him. “She’s here.”
Edward stepped into my line of sight. “You don’t know that.”
I bared my teeth. “I do.”
Aidan lifted his nose up into the air and swore under his breath. “I smell her too. Pheromones. That’s not just her normal scent—she’s gone into heat.”
I took a step toward the open door.
“Declan.” Logan’s voice snapped like a whip.
Edward moved to block me, rifle angled down, but ready. “This is a trap. You know it.”
“Trap or not, she’s inside,” I growled. My voice was already rough, the wolf too close to the surface.
Aidan’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not charging in there like idiots. The Watch leaves a door open, it’s because they want us to walk right through it. They’ll have firing lanes, guns, traps of their own—”
“I don’t care.” The words came out dangerously quiet. “She’s mine.”
Edward’s jaw tightened. “You think the Watch didn’t factor that into their plan? They’re counting on us losing our heads.”
“She’s not a plan,” I snapped, taking another step. The air pouring out of that doorway was thick with her scent, stronger now, almost dizzying. My skin itched with it and my dick was getting harder by the second.
Logan’s gaze locked on mine, unflinching. “You go in like this, you’ll get us all killed.”
I laughed once, humorlessly. “Then stay out here.”
Aidan swore under his breath. “You’re not thinking straight. This is exactly what they want.”
I was barely listening now. The open door yawned ahead, metal frame cold and wet with condensation. Beyond it, I caught a flicker of movement.
Her.
I knew it was her without seeing her face. Just the tilt of her head, the dark spill of hair against pale skin. And she was bound. My pulse went into overdrive.
“She’s right there,” I bit out, the words scraping my throat.
Edward glanced past me and swore softly. “Damn it. He’s got her in a holding cell, plain as day. This is a trap, Declan.”
“Then I’m springing it.”
Logan’s hand clamped down on my arm, but the wolf was already clawing to get out. My skin burned, muscles bunching tight under the pull of the change. I could feel my control peeling away in strips.
Aidan’s voice was strained. “Declan—look at me. You go in without thinking, you won’t make it two steps before they drop you.”
“Two steps is all I need.”
The scent was a living thing now, wrapping around my throat, my chest. Every instinct screamed to break the distance, to get to her before someone else did. I wasn’t thinking about the Watch’s rifles. I wasn’t thinking about anything except her heartbeat, so close I could almost hear it.
And I wasn’t the only one. The others had caught it too.
Aidan’s jaw was locked tight, his shoulders rigid as if he were holding himself back by sheer force of will.
Edward shifted on his feet, claws sliding in and out, the low rumble in his chest betraying the struggle under his calm face.
Even Logan, always so composed, was having a hard time.
The air vibrated with the sound of our collective restraint, every one of us a single breath away from losing it.
Edward muttered something to Logan, too low for me to catch. Logan’s reply was grim: “We can’t hold him much longer.”
They were right. The thin thread keeping me tethered to reason was fraying fast. All I saw was the door. All I wanted was her.
And then I moved. The first step was mine.
The second was my wolf’s.
It ripped through me like a wildfire—bones wrenching, muscles tearing and reshaping, heat flooding my veins. My boots burst at the seams, claws shredding through leather, the sleeves of my jacket splitting like wet paper.
I hit the threshold in full shift, claws gouging the steel floor, and the scent of her was a tidal wave that drowned everything else.
“Declan!” Logan’s shout was distant thunder. Behind me, I heard Aidan swear and the snap-crack of bones as he gave in to the change too. Edward followed a heartbeat later.
They didn’t have a choice. If I went in alone, they’d be dragging my corpse back out.
She was bound upright on a steel frame, arms spread, dark hair spilling over one shoulder, head tilted in a way that made my chest twist. Her eyes found mine, and the wolf in me howled.
I went bounding through the door at full speed.
Somewhere in the walls, alarms began to wail.
The four of us spilled into the room, claws skittering on the slick floor.
The sterile tang of antiseptic clung to the air, but her scent was stronger, heavier, winding through my head until the world narrowed to just her.
I shifted back without thinking, the change tearing at me and leaving me naked and unguarded in the cold. I didn’t care. I was already crossing the distance, closing the gap between us like nothing else existed.
Aidan had shifted back as well, and his growl was low and tense. “This is too clean. No guards yet? They want us in here.”
“Trap later,” I snarled. “Her first.”
Her eyes were locked on mine, wide, panicked, pupils blown, and that was enough to make the wolf shove everything else away. The rest of the world could fucking burn.
Right now, it was her that mattered.