Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
QUINN
I can hear Abby making her way up the sloping incline. Her footsteps are slow and even, and in them, I hear no distress. Even through our bond, I don’t pick up on the slightest hint of how her talk with Jade went. I just know that she’s alive, and that’s all that matters.
“How’d it go?” I ask when I sense she’s within earshot. I’m sitting on a log by the small fire I’d built for us, adding more wood whenever I feel my newfound fear of darkness creeping up. It’s old and bleached after likely having washed up on shore after traveling who knows how many miles across the sea. How it got up here on this cliff is something I can’t explain, but I’ve learned not to question small blessings when they’re granted. Our camp is simple enough as it is, consisting of only our fire and two cots laid next to each other and topped with whatever blankets we could carry. I’m grateful not to have to sleep in the dirt.
“About as well as you’d expect,” she sighs, sitting down by the fire and shivering lightly in a way that he knows has nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the encroaching darkness. She fears it too, although for very different reasons. “He says he’s trying not to kill me.”
I snort a laugh even though nothing about this is funny. “Well, that’s comforting. Do I have to worry about him showing up tonight?”
“No. He’s gone, but I don’t know where. I don’t think he’ll bother us.”
“Thank the Gods for small blessings,” I mutter. It seems I’m on a roll tonight. Even without the impending threat of a pissed off dragon, it’s still going to be difficult to relax tonight.
“Thank you for not being your usual overprotective self.”
“I’m not that bad, am I?”
“You absolutely are. There was a time you would have slung me over your shoulder and carried me out of there rather than leave me alone with Jade.”
She’s exaggerating, but not by much.
I shrug. “I knew if you needed me, you would call.” I wrap an arm around her, and rub it up and down in an effort to ease her shivers. She’s not cold, but we both need the comfort. Whether we’re willing to admit it to each other or not.
“So do you want to talk about it?” she asks.
“I thought we already were.”
She flashes me a look that says ‘you know exactly what I mean.’ “Imelda is your aunt.”
I blow out a breath. Of course that’s what she wants to talk about. “It certainly seems so.”
“Why do you think she did it?”
I toss another bit of wood onto the fire. We only brought so much and the sky is only beginning to darken, but even just the act brings me comfort. This should be enough to keep the fire going until dawn. And if not, hopefully we’ll be asleep during the dark hours. “You’re going to have to be more specific. Why did she curse me? Curse us ? Steal my sister? Kill your father? I can’t even count all the unspeakable things that woman has done.” And talking about them now isn’t going to help us defeat her.
“Why did she destroy her home?”
Her home? “Lunae attacked Marein.”
“Only after Imelda became queen. You don’t think she was manipulating the king from the start?”
How did I miss that? She’s been playing the game since the very beginning. She’s the reason Marein fell, yet my mother was the one branded a traitor. “Aurelia has some explaining to do,” I growl.
Abby lays a warm hand on my tightly balled fist. “She does.”
Her touch is instantly calming. If things were different, this could have been the perfect time and place. Just the two of us huddled under a blanket of stars. The ring in my pocket feels as if it bears the weight of all of them combined, and it’s equally as precious to me. I will ask her to marry me one day—on a night just like this—but I’ll wait until she feels safe in this world.
“What are you thinking?”
I take her hand in mine and bring it to my lips. “Just how beautiful you look in the moonlight.”
She shifts, and for a moment I wonder if I somehow said the wrong thing. “Do you ever feel like Lunalissa is watching us?”
That was random. I follow her gaze up to the moon now shining brightly above us. It’s just beginning to wane. Tonight is exactly the kind of night my curse would have forced the change and, before I met Abby, would have meant another near-month of roaming the forest on four legs. She broke my curse long before Jade’s sacrifice.
“I used to, but not anymore.” And then an idea hits me. This is as good a time as any and at least here it won’t cause a panic with the sirens. I unbutton my shirt and slide it off.
“What are you doing?” Abby bites at her bottom lip as she lets her eyes trace the lines of my chest—both muscle and scars.
I pinch the lip between my thumb and forefinger and free it from her teeth. “You have no idea what seeing you bite that lip does to me. There’ll be plenty of time for that, but not yet.” I stand and let her watch as I kick off my shoes and pull down my pants. Then, without warning, I shift.
Her gasp isn’t one of fear, but surprise. Her sudden smile is as warm as I feel under the weight of my fur. It feels like it’s been so long since I took this form, and this is probably the most willing I’ve been to do so. I know I’m not the monster I thought I was, but those memories are still there. The less time I spend in this form, the better.
“You could have told me that’s what you had in mind,” she chuckles.
‘Where’s the fun in that?’
She gasps again, and a hand flies to her mouth. “I heard you!” ‘ Can you hear me?’
Well, that’s new. We shouldn’t be able to speak to each other like this. Or, at least, we never have before. I’ve heard her voice, though mostly her thoughts came in the form of scattered images. Flashes of whatever she was seeing and experiencing. Being about to hold an actual conversation was something I’d never thought possible. ‘It must be the bond.’
‘Uh, I don’t think that’s it.’ That voice wasn’t Abby’s. I jump so that I’m facing the darkness, and a low growl ripples through me on instinct. The fur on my back stands up straight as my haunches tense, more wolf than man.
“What’s wrong?” Abby asks.
‘You didn’t hear that?’
“Hear what?” She listens, suddenly fearful, as her eyes scan the darkness. Whatever calm we’d found has quickly dissipated.
‘Who are you?’ It wasn’t Jade’s voice, so at least we don’t have to worry about that. But this could be anyone. I know Abby’s heard Void’s voice in her dreams, so if it was him fucking with us, she should have heard it, too.
‘Relax, Quinn. I didn’t mean to scare you. We’re almost there. Just give us a minute.’ That sounded a heck of a lot like Ellis, but how?
Before I can demand an explanation, two wolves sprint into sight. The light of our fire bathes them enough for me to instantly recognize them. There’s movement behind me, and I turn just quickly enough to see Abby reach for my sword.
‘Abby, stop,’ I tell her. ‘It’s Ellis and Seamus.’
“What?” She drops the sword, and it lands with a clank on the hard stone. “I could have killed them!”
Seamus snorts and I shoot him a warning look. ‘Which one of you is going to tell me what’s going on?’
Ellis paws at the ground. ‘We just went for a run when we heard you both.’
‘Wait—both?’ I turn my head to Abby. ‘Say something through the bond.’
Confusion colours her features, but she does as I ask. ‘You like it when I bite my lip.’
Both Ellis and Seamus snort this time, though to human ears I’m sure it sounded more like synchronized sneezes.
‘They can hear you. Both of us.’
Confusion quickly turns to embarrassment. “I can’t hear them. Only you.” I know the wheels in her head are turning as she studies the wolves in front of us and then speaks directly to them. “How far away were you?”
‘A few miles,’ Seamus answers. ‘Give or take. We had to run pretty hard to get here as fast as we did.’
I relay the answer to Abby.
She’s quiet for a long moment before her attention falls entirely on me. “I want to try something.” With no further explanation, she closes her eyes and lets out a slow breath of air. As her lungs expel, I feel the wolf in me quiver. I don’t fight it, because I immediately realize what’s happening and let her change me.
The wolves don’t bother to avert their gazes, and I don’t bother to cover up because we’re used to nudity. After years of turning into wolves by the will of the moon, modesty all but ceased in Rosewood.
‘Can you still hear me?’
I’m about to answer her, but she’s not talking to me. I can no longer hear the wolves, but by the way they both nod their heads, I’m certain they can.
“What are you thinking?” I ask after a too long minute. It wouldn’t make sense if the wolves were privy to our bond. A mating bond is sacred. Private. I don’t want to have to worry about eavesdropping wolves.
She doesn’t answer me right away, but when her eyes fall closed, I know she’s working something out. “There’s something different. It’s like how our bond feels, but it’s more like a window than a door. Maybe I can…” ‘If you can hear me, spin around.’
“Excuse me?” I ask her, incredulous. Of course I can hear her, but I am not about to do tricks.
She laughs. “Not you.”
We watch the wolves, and nothing happens. They look at each other, seemingly confused.
‘If you can hear me, spin around,’ she repeats, and this time they do. At least they’re willing to perform. “I knew it! It works the same way as when I want to keep you out of my head, only easier. I can just turn it on and off with them.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why they can hear you in the first place. They couldn’t before, and the curse breaking shouldn’t have changed that. If anything, we shouldn’t be able to shift at all now.”
She raises a hand out to them, and their bodies quake, just as mine did. Within seconds, the two wolves are now human. At least this time, they do bother to cover themselves. I hand each of them a blanket and they wrap themselves up. “How’d you do that?” Ellis asks.
“And warn us next time,” Seamus adds.
I’d always thought that Abby could only force Jade and I to shift because of the bond we all shared. She lost the ability to control Jade’s form when the bonds snapped, but she can still change me. It can’t be because of the bond, because she can clearly change the other wolves as well.
Which can only mean one thing…
“It’s because of Terranous,” Abby says, fully sure of herself. “Whatever power gives me the ability to grow plants also lets me control the wolves. Why, I don’t know, but it probably has something to do with Rosewood. That’s where the Echo was.” She looks to me. “You said yourself that your parents didn’t build Rosewood. It was already there.”
“But Imelda cursed me. That had nothing to do with Rosewood or Terranous.”
“All she did was use Jade’s blood to turn you into a beast. I don’t think she knew what form you would take, though her loyalty to Lunalissa might have impacted it. Wolves are linked to the moon, after all. She couldn’t have known it would spread, though. I think that was because of Terranous.”
“Too bad we can’t just ask him.”
“So what does that mean for us?” Ellis asks. “I mean, you are his Chosen and you’re Quinn’s mate. As far as I’m concerned, that makes you our queen.”
Abby flushes, and I don’t blame her. “Can we leave titles out of it?” I ask, getting annoyed on her behalf. She’s too nice to snap at them even though I know she feels the same as I do when it comes to leadership.
“Titles or not, we’re going to follow you.” Seamus takes a step closer to Abby. “There must be a reason we can hear you. A reason you can control us. Unless you can think of a better one, this is it.”
“I’m not going to do it again,” Abby says after a moment, and her words leave no room for argument. “Speak to you, sure, but I’m not going to force any of you to take a form you didn’t choose.”
“So, does that mean we can stop being naked?” Ellis asks with a laugh. He doesn’t wait for her response before shifting back into his wolf form and shaking off the blanket. Seamus does the same.
“Now, if you two don’t mind, I’d like some time alone with my woman.”
One of them snorts, though I can’t tell which, as they turn on their heels quickly, and disappear into the blackness. I run a hand through my hair and take a seat on the dried log. I regret it the moment my bare skin touches the flaking bark. “Well, that was certainly interesting,” I say with a huff.
Abby joins me on the log and runs warm hands across my chest.
“What are you doing?”
She bites her lower lip in answer, and it’s every bit intentional.
“I don’t want them to hear us.”
‘They won’t.’ She said it through the bond to prove a point.
“They won’t hear you , maybe.”
‘Try it.’ She’s kissing my neck now.
“You’re not making this easy.” I have to collect myself enough to reach out mentally through the only bond I have—Abby’s. ‘Hello?’
Abby laughs softly into my skin. ‘Hello yourself,’ she coos softly. Other than her, there’s nothing. No unwanted voices.
“How?” The word comes out gruff as one of her hands finds a very sensitive place on my body.
‘I shut them out. It’s just you and me, as it should be.’
‘Are you sure?’ I ask through the bond because I can no longer speak under the intensity of her touch. The power this woman has over me still confounds me.
‘Since when do you care if people hear us?’
She’s right. Fuck, there’s been times I wanted the entire word to hear her screaming my name. And with the realization comes the need to hear it now, echoing over the crashing waves fifty feet below this clifftop.
‘You’re playing a dangerous game, Stabby.’
Her lips move to my ear and Gods, she’s so warm against my bare chest, but not as warm as she would be without that shirt. “Are you going to make me scream your name or not?” Her question comes as the faintest of whispers, but the next thing out of her mouth is going to be much, much louder.
I pull her against me and then stand abruptly, scooping her into the air and over to our cot. There’s no time to grab the blankets, because this needs to happen now. We don’t have an extra set of clothing, so the process of carefully removing her clothing is taking far too long. She removes her shirt while I fumble with the buttons on her pants and slide them down her hips. I don’t see where I tossed them, but as long as it wasn’t in the fire or off the cliff, we’re good.
I ignore the agonizing throb in my cock because I want to taste her first. She sucks in a sharp breath as my lips find exactly the right spot. I kiss her there, letting my tongue flick over her clit and loving the way it makes her legs tremble. I clasp a hand over each of her ankles to keep her from moving too much. She needs to know I’m in control. ‘I’m going to make you scream this way. I want to hear the way my name sounds echoing across the ocean.’
She whimpers, but doesn’t utter a single word. So that’s how it’s going to be.
‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way.’
‘Hard way.’ She can barely get the thought out. She wants me to work for it, and work for it I shall.
I slip a finger inside her, and then another without so much as breaking my rhythm on her core. ‘Say my name.’
Another whimper, and with it, a word almost escaped.
She’s so wet that a third finger goes in with ease. The need to fuck her is driving me wild, but I won’t until she says it.
‘You’re…going to have…to do better…than that.’
If she wants to be difficult, then fine. I bring down all the walls and open myself to her completely. Every bit of my burning desire courses through her. The more intense my need gets, the more hers will. And just seeing what this is doing to her is already accomplishing that.
“Fuck,” she gasps aloud.
‘That’s not my name, Stabby.’
“Not. Going. To. Happen.” She can only get the words out one at a time, and fuck, is she ever stubborn. I guess desperate times really do call for desperate measures. I don’t know if this will work—and if it doesn’t, I might just have to admit defeat. Not that I’d tell her that.
‘Are you sure about that?’ I ask as I release my grip on her other leg and reach between my own, gripping my length and stroking slowly. This is so weird, but damn, does it feel good.
“Not…fair,” her entire body quivers with the words as her breathing quickens. She’s feeling it all now. My mouth on her clit, my fingers deep within her, and the building need in my throbbing cock.
I stroke harder, but keep as much of my concentration on her as I can. If she wanted to make me work for it, mission fucking accomplished. ‘What a waste…it would be…if we both…came like this.’ Now I’m the one having trouble forming words.
For a long moment, or quite possibly half a second, she doesn’t answer and I’m just about ready to hand her the victory. But then her breath catches and her legs jerk. She’s far too close, and with her pleasure, I feel her desperation.
“You win,” she says, though it’s barely audible through her rapid breathing.
I’m inside her before she can even say my name, thrusting hard and fast in the way we both need. What started as a silly game became torture, and with it finally finished, our orgasms come quick. “Gods, Abby!” I say her name loud enough that, if anyone was within a mile, they could probably hear it.
I collapse beside her, breathing harder than I ever have for any workout. I pull her against me so that her head rests on my chest. I want her to hear what she does to me.
“I win,” I say as soon as I’m able, an impossibly wide grin spreading across my face.
“Actually,” she pants, sounding just as exhausted as I am. “I’m pretty sure you were the one screaming my name.”
My eyes fly open and meet only darkness. The fire must have gone out, but I can sense in the air that the sunrise is not far off. I just need to keep calm until then. There’s nothing out here. No wraiths, no enemies. Just Abby and I.
I must have rolled away from her in the night, so I reach out to her. My hand finds the empty space where her body should be, and I shoot straight up, whipping my head in every direction in search of her. I can see well enough in the dark, but even with my enhanced vision, there’s no trace of her.
I’m on my feet in a heartbeat and rushing to the edge of the cliff. We slept far enough away from it, but Gods, what if she woke up in the night and fell? There’s no sign of her on the rock below, and if something happened to her, surely I would feel it.
“Abby?!” I call out to her, but by only answer is the crashing of waves below. ‘Abby?!’ Even through the bond, no answer comes.
The panic in me grows as I pace along the cliff-side, muttering to myself like insanity has finally found me. “You’d know if she was dead. She’s alive. She’s fine. She’ll be back.”
A muffled thud sounds from behind me and I spin around to face the source. Anger flares as my eyes fall upon Jade. His once black wings are veined with molten red just as the rest of his body, and the scales on his arms seemed to have changed colour to match the new markings on his human skin. “Where the fuck is she?” I say, throttling the words at him.
“What makes you think I know?”
“Abby disappears and you just happen to show up? I don’t buy it.”
“I heard you shouting and was in the mood for some entertainment. The look on your face when you realize she’s left you is going to be priceless.”
I take a swing for his face, but he just manages to dodge the blow.
“Unless you want to lose a limb, I suggest keeping your hands to yourself.”
“Is that a threat?” I ask, not in the mood to play this game with him. Not while Abby could be in trouble. Why can’t I sense anything?
“It’s a warning. As much as I’d like to see you go up in flames, I’m trying very hard to keep that from happening.”
I sigh and rub the lingering sleep from an eye. “Just tell me the truth. Did you take her?”
“No.” He doesn’t so much as blink, and despite the very real threat he poses to her, I believe him.
“Do you know where she is?”
“No, but I saw her walking that way.” He points away from the water. The only thing in that direction is the forest and the thought of her going there makes the blood in my veins turn to ice.
“Was she alone?” I have to work extra hard to keep the panic from invading my words.
“She was. She seemed perfectly content too, as if she were relieved to be able to get away from you.”
I bite my tongue to keep my anger in check as I stride off in the direction he pointed out.
“How about a thank you?” he says when I pass him.
“She should have just let you die,” I growl under my breath before stripping off my clothes and becoming the form I still hate so much.