Chapter 4 - Sam
Rachel wanted a small ceremony. That was fine by me.
We hadn’t spoken since the day the Oracle had told us both her plan, using Elias as an intermediary instead.
I was fairly certain that neither of us knew what to say to the other about any of this.
Still, that didn’t stop the day from coming.
And before I knew it, I was in the small chapel near the center of town, standing by the altar with the elders, the Oracle, and Elias as Rachel, guided by her mother, walked down the aisle.
My entire body tensed when I saw her. She had always been beautiful, but this was on another level.
She was more stunning than I could have imagined.
She was in a white gown that clung to her slim figure, and her arms had several symbols that our pack used for good luck drawn on her arms and neck.
Her dark hair fell in a sleek sheet that gleamed in the light, and her blue eyes looked even wider than normal.
She came to stand in front of me, looking me up and down, caution and nervousness in her eyes.
“You look beautiful,” I muttered, softly enough that only she could hear.
Her blush at the compliment made her look even more stunning. “Thank you,” she muttered.
She swallowed, and I could sense the nervousness radiating off her. I wished that I could soothe her, that I could tell her it was going to be all right. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She started for a brief moment, then relaxed, risking giving me a small, timid smile.
The elders began the ceremony. I barely heard any of it, too intent on Rachel, taking in every inch of her that I could.
She was so different from the kid I had known growing up, the kid I had said was too weak to mate.
And though I had promised both her and Elias that our mating would be in name only, my wolf seemed to have other thoughts.
Being this close to her, he took in her scent, a gentle honeysuckle and vanilla that drove him wild.
He didn’t seem to care whether or not she was strong.
He was more preoccupied with how beautiful she was and wondering what the hell she looked like under that dress.
An overwhelming urge to take her right then and there washed over me, and it was all I could do to keep my hands at my sides instead of having them explore her body, onlookers be damned. My fingers flexed as I held myself in place.
I pulled myself from those thoughts when Romulus, one of the elders, told us, “It is now time to exchange marks, to claim one another as your mate.”
Rachel and I turned to one another. I saw her swallow as she stared up at me, and that overwhelming urge to kiss her and carry her to the nearest room to tear off that dress washed over me once more.
Slowly, I brushed her hair back from her neck, the backs of my fingers caressing her neck. She stiffened, sucking in a breath at the touch, as if she was having the same thoughts I had been fighting this entire time.
I bent to her collarbone and bit down.
The instant I did, a surge of emotion raced through me, amplifying everything that I had already been feeling. All that need and desire and craving for her that I had fought for years burst forth, and I had to wonder how the hell I could have been so stupid.
Rachel did the same to me, and with the way she stiffened, her fingers tightening on my shoulder blades, I knew the same thing had happened to her.
She took a step back, breathing heavier than normal, and I saw a burning in her gaze that mirrored my own.
Through the newly formed mating bond, I could sense her emotions.
Could feel that desire she was desperately trying to hold back, same as I was.
This “on paper” thing was going to be harder than I thought.
***
Later, after the small party where Rachel and I avoided one another like the plague, we couldn’t hide from one another any longer, and we went back to my—now our—house.
Rachel glanced around as she entered. She had been in my house before for cookouts and things like that, but this was different for her. It was now her house, too, and I watched as she took it in as if seeing it for the first time.
I walked over to her and placed my hand on her shoulder without realizing I was doing it.
She stiffened slightly at the touch, then relaxed into it.
Her head leaned back, and her eyes opened, those beautiful, wide eyes staring up at me, her lips slightly parted in a way that made me wonder what else she could do with them.
Unconsciously, she pressed against me, shooting a new hunger through me.
“So,” I said.
“So,” she responded.
We both knew what the other wasn’t saying. Normally, this would be the time when the newly mated couple would consummate the bond to solidify it entirely. But we weren’t a normal mated pair.
A dozen unsaid things hung in the air between us.
I would have to be blind not to notice the electricity crackling between us.
I had always thought she was attractive, even if I had also always told myself not to notice it, or the way my wolf stirred whenever he caught a whiff of her scent.
Now, after the mating bond, it all seemed amplified a thousandfold.
Everything about her, the way she walked, the way she looked up at me through her eyelashes, the way she sometimes bit her lower lip when she was thinking, it all made me go wild with hunger.
My hand had gone to her waist without my realizing. Her breath caught, and that slight hitch was enough to drive me wild. All I wanted was to pull her tighter against me, to pull her hair back and press my mouth to hers, to claim every inch of her.
A tug of desire and lust that didn’t feel entirely my own made my head jerk.
I realized after a confused moment that it was Rachel’s.
I turned her around so she was facing me, and she pushed her body against mine, even as I could feel a tremor in her hands.
Her fingers curled into fists as she gripped my shirt.
She held me tight against her, drowning me in her scent.
I didn’t think she meant to do any of it.
She bit her lip, and I could feel her want as strongly as my own.
But this was Elias’s sister. This was Rachel.
I took a step back, despite my wolf howling at me to take her right then and there. It took every ounce of my strength not to give in to his urges, the ones that made me want to tear that dress off her and carry her up to my room, whether she wanted to or not.
“We’re mated. That doesn’t mean that we have to do anything,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Whatever we’re feeling right now is because of the bond. We don’t have to give in to it.”
No matter how badly I want to, I thought to myself.
“Right,” Rachel said, relieved. I might have been imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw some hesitation in her eyes despite her words. And I wondered if I hadn’t imagined that want pulsing through the mating bond. “Because us doing anything is a bad idea.”
I nodded. “We did what we had to do. That doesn’t mean we have to do anything else. Not if we don’t want to.”
“Great.” Rachel nodded, taking her own step back, as if the more distance between us would curb that need I could sense radiating off her. “I’m glad we agree.” She swallowed, glancing up to the stairs. A blush crept up her face.
“Is there a second bedroom?” she asked. When I nodded, she said, “Okay. I’m going to get changed, then.”
I watched her run up the stairs, chastising myself for just letting her go like that.
I had wanted her all these years, even if I had told her otherwise.
I wanted her right now. I wanted to have my way with her in every single room of the house.
I imagined what she looked like naked, and my wolf growled in longing at the thought.
I gritted my teeth. I hadn’t known what to expect from the mating bond, but I hadn’t anticipated it would be this acute.
It was as though every thought I ever had about Rachel was magnified.
Every time I thought about her, I had to deal with that need for her that I had been stuffing down for years now.
I cared about Rachel. For years, I had noticed her whenever she came into view, sensing her even when I couldn’t see her.
But this new urge was on an entirely different level, one I couldn’t have anticipated.
Growling, trying desperately to ignore my wolf, I went upstairs to take a long, cold shower.
***
I hovered over the map of the area around Silver Falls spread across Elias’s desk. A half-dozen x’s crossed out small swaths dotted around the border, all spots we had checked, only to find nothing.
“I think we should be looking in the north,” Elias said, gesturing to a patch we hadn’t yet explored. “Oz was doing some research, and it looks like we’re most likely to find the wraith’s lairs beneath rock formations. The largest cluster of those is in that area.”
“It’s as good as any other spot at the moment,” I said. “Right now, it feels like we’re searching for a piece of hay in a pile of needles.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?” Elias asked mildly.
“This one is more painful,” I growled, earning a brief chortle from him.
A knock sounded on the door before Oz and Drake waltzed in without waiting for the invitation. Oz was stocky and well-built, with russet hair and a lazy grin. Drake was taller, not quite lanky—he was too muscular for that—but managed to dwarf me by a couple of inches.
“I think we finally have something concrete,” Oz said.
Elias straightened. “You found the lair already?”
Snorting, Drake shook his head. “Hardly,” he growled. “But we do have some interesting information.”
“You remember all of the weird inconsistencies we’d been noticing?
” Oz asked. “Well, I did a bit of research in my spare time, hoping to learn a bit more about wraith lairs so we might be able to find it. It’s how I found out about the rock formations.
I haven’t been able to find anything else on lairs. Instead, what I found was this.”
He laid several printer-copied pages on Elias’s desk. Pictures of grotesque demons with ash-gray skin and pointed, elf-like features leered out at us.
“What are these?” Elias asked.
“Lesser demons,” Oz said. “Specifically, these are imps.”
I pulled the pages toward me and scanned the text, my eyes darting across the page.
Other pages showed other creatures: ones with horns and square faces, ones that looked like gargoyles, all with that same color skin.
All looking as though they would tear any one of us to shreds with a gleeful expression on their ugly faces.
Elias was scanning them as well, frowning. “They create the types of signs we’ve been seeing in the woods,” he said.
“Exactly,” Drake growled as Oz bobbed his head.
“He’s recruited some lesser demons,” Oz explained. “I don’t know how he managed to get them on his side, but it all fits.”
I stared at the image of the imp, and my blood began turning cold. If the wraith had managed to get these creatures on his side…it didn’t bode well for us.
“What can they do?” I asked.
“They aren’t as powerful as the wraith,” Oz said. “But magic won’t hurt them as much as the wraith, either. The best way to fight them is with iron.”
“Not ideal,” I said. “Unless we all want to start carrying around iron bars in our mouths whenever we shift.”
“It also means that Emma won’t be able to go after them the same way she could stand up against the wraith,” Elias murmured. “The wraith is trying to cripple her abilities.”
Oz nodded his head in concession. “Which is why I think the wraith recruited them in the first place. The less of a threat he can make Emma to him, the better. She’s the best chance we have against the wraith, unless someone else has shown up with magic powers in the last couple of months.”
“Even if someone had, I doubted they would come forward,” Drake interjected.
“Most of the pack still sees magic as taboo and doesn’t trust witches.
Emma’s an exception, partially because she saved the town, but more because she’s their luna.
I doubt many pack members would take as kindly to another magic-user. ”
Frowning, Elias slumped back, drumming his fingers on the desk as he studied them. “What’s their goal?” he asked. “How does the wraith plan on using them? We know at least part of the reason why he recruited them, but not what his endgame is.”
Drake shrugged. “Right now, we’re still trying to figure that out. They’re laying low. The only reason we even knew they were here in the first place was that Oz did that research. My guess is they still think they’re going undetected.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way,” Elias said. “Drake, I want you to keep track of the areas where we know the lesser demons are showing up. See if you can find out more about them, and don’t be seen.”
“I’m insulted that you would even think they would be able to notice me if I didn’t want them to,” Drake said with a cocky grin.
The arrogance was deserved. Drake was the best in the pack at stealth and recon.
There was a reason he was the one Elias turned to whenever he needed some form of infiltration.
“Just making sure we’re all on the same page,” Elias said as he gathered the pages Oz had strewn across his desk. “Thanks for this, Oz.”
Oz gave a tip of an imaginary hat. “It’s almost as though it’s my job,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll keep you updated.”
I stared down at the pages, my mouth a thin line as I wondered how these new players were going to change the game.