Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
“Iknow what you’re thinking,” Tauren said the moment we stepped over the outer limits of the village and into the forest. Up until that moment, he’d been dead quiet, grabbing my hand before stoically turning away from the pack. “And no, I’m not taking you back to the Wall.”
I let out a sigh. At least, that’s what I tried to do. But my chest was too tight, my throat too constricted, and the sound that came out was closer to a wheeze. Though with my sky-high anxiety level, I was surprised I could breathe at all.
Half a pack of alphas wanted me dead. The other half were willing to kill in my name. And Tauren’s father sounded like he wanted to be the one to kill me with his bare hands.
And maybe he would be.
After all, Drogan did say he’d pass judgment on the night of the next bonfire—during the full moon.
The night I was destined to die.
With as much as the alpha hated me, it only made sense that he’d be the one chasing me through the forest and ripping out my throat.
But strangely, that wasn’t the part that terrified me.
To be honest, I’d had the better part of a decade to come to terms with my mortality. I didn’t want to die, but there was no denying that after running through a few thousand dress rehearsals, I was more than prepared for the real thing. At this point, dying was my greatest talent.
So no, I wasn’t scared for me. My fear was for Tauren.
For years, I’d wondered why he never showed up in my dreams. Why he was never by my side when I was taken down. Now I was pretty sure I knew the answer.
Because he was probably already dead.
Executed by his father.
It made a horrible kind of sense. Especially now that I knew the only way Tauren would ever leave my side was if someone had put him in the ground.
Which made it even more important that I escape the Wilds before the week was out. It wasn’t just my life I needed to save. It was Tauren’s as well.
“I wasn’t going to ask you to take me back there,” I said.
Tauren slid a glance my way as he kept walking. To say he looked skeptical would be an understatement. “Really?”
“Really,” Answered with a nod.
Why would I bother? I already knew it wouldn’t do any good.
Once Tauren’s mind was made up about something, that was it. You might as well break out the chisel and carve that shit into stone. He was the only person I knew who put my stubbornness to shame.
“So you’re not afraid?” he tested me.
“Are you kidding?” There was no point lying about that. Everyone knew the only thing that wasn’t afraid of an alpha was another alpha. “I’m fucking terrified.”
“Don’t be. I won’t let my father lay a finger on you,” he promised. “The son of a bitch would have to kill me first.”
“I know.” That’s exactly what I was afraid of. “But what I really want to know is what you’re planning to do now.”
And it wasn’t just idle curiosity.
I had to know his plans before I could come up with one of my own. After Drogan’s threats and Lash’s violence, Tauren would be keeping a closer eye on me than usual. He’d stayed close all week, but now I doubted he would even let me out of his sight.
Finding an opportunity to slip away was going to be almost impossible…at least not without help.
“I’m going to fight,” Tauren said firmly.
And it wasn’t just his tone that was determined. His pace was just as confident, his steps growing too quick for me to keep up with.
Without asking, he swooped me up into his arms, carrying me down one steep slope before racing up another.
“I’m not sure that’s the best move,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my body flush against him. “Your father had plenty of allies in the crowd today.”
“I have a lot of friends too,” Tauren argued.
“True, and if you lose, your father will execute every last one of them.”
Mercy just wasn’t in the man’s nature.
“Then we’ll have to make sure we don’t lose,” Tauren said with his usual confidence.
Urg. It was like arguing with a brick wall.
Suddenly, I felt sympathy for my mother, who had always complained about having to deal with my stubborn streak. No wonder she’d gone gray early.
All right. I ground my back teeth and tried a different tack.
If the apex predator side of Tauren didn’t want to consider defeat, then I’d make him see the downside of victory.
“Fine,” I started. “Then have you thought about what you’re going to do if you win?”
A sliver of hope shot through me as he glanced down at me, confusion bunching his brows and pulling down the corners of his mouth. “What do you mean?”
I drew in a deep breath (since being in Tauren’s arms, my anxiety had all but floated away, and I was back to breathing normally).
“Let’s say you win. You kick your father’s ass, and your enemies are all knocked out at your feet,” I said.
“What’s your plan after that? Are you going to just pick up Drogan’s mantle of brutality?
Are you okay being the kind of man who kills his own father for his crown?
And what about the other alphas, like Lash and his friends?
Even if you manage to make them swear fealty, you know it would be a lie.
You’d spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wondering when your enemies were going to rise up and overthrow you. ”
Somewhere in the middle of all those questions, Tauren had slowed, and we were back to traveling at a speed that didn’t cause all the trees in my periphery to blur together.
“Are you asking me to surrender?”
I shook my head. “No.”
I knew better than that.
Surrender wasn’t in Tauren’s nature any more than it was in mine. The force that pushed him to fight was the same one that had compelled me to get in my car nearly two weeks ago and drive all the way across the state without a plan or a clue what I was getting myself into.
If only someone had been there to slap me across the face and demand I spend half a second thinking about the consequences of my actions, then this whole life-or-death situation could have been avoided.
“Then what are you saying?”
“Just that there has to be a better option.” I shrugged. “One that won’t end in tragedy.”
Of course, I already knew what that better plan was. And a part of me hoped that once Tauren calmed down and listened to reason, he would see it too.
But I doubted it.
An alpha that believed in fated love would never willingly let it go.
He’d rather die.
And I cared about him too much to let that happen.
Hell, I couldn’t even stand to see the worry on his face. I would have done anything to make it disappear.
“But we don’t have to come up with a plan right now,” I said when his pained expression became too much to bear. “Your father gave us a week. That gives us plenty of time to figure out what to do. And we will. I know it.”
Tauren glanced down at me. He didn’t look convinced. Not even close.
Damn. I wished I were a better liar.
Even though my words were technically true, they were built on a foundation of deception. And Tauren could tell.
He was no fool. He couldn’t be consoled by lies…which was going to make everything I had to do next a thousand times harder.
I’d been so absorbed by our conversation and Tauren’s reaction to it that I hadn’t been paying attention to our surroundings. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I looked up and realized that we weren’t on the path back to the cabin. We were in a different part of the woods altogether.
“I thought we were going home,” I said as we started up an unfamiliar hill.
“Not yet.” His voice was tight, his tone clipped. “I need to go somewhere I can think.”
Right. That made sense. And honestly, I was glad I didn’t have to be stuck wallowing in my guilt while an anxious alpha paced the floorboards in front of me.
“Then where are we going?”
“There,” he said, motioning with his chin to the scene ahead as we crested the summit.
The sound of crashing water made it to my ears before I was able to turn my head and take in the sight.
The waterfall—the same one that he’d taken me to before. The one where I’d taken that magnificent picture of him.
We’d just come at it from another angle. Hiking in from the village, the hills were steeper, the tree cover denser. The setting was obscured until the very last second.
But this time, Tauren didn’t waste any time taking in the view. Instead, he swept us down sharp banks and into the valley below. He didn’t put me down on my feet until we were on the pool’s rocky shore.
“Thank you,” I said, craning my head back so I could keep looking into his dark eyes.
Dear God, what had happened to me?
It hadn’t even been two weeks, and here I was so enamored with a ferus that I couldn’t break eye contact with him. So filled with desire that I couldn’t stand to be out of his arms for more than a few seconds. So emotionally attached that I was willing to risk my life to save his.
This was madness.
A beautiful, aching kind of madness. One I never wanted to come out of.
Especially when he grabbed hold of the bottom of his shirt and lifted it up, peeling the garment off his body and exposing his broad, bare chest. His pants went next.
Throwing open the buttons of his fly with a quick flick of his wrist, they were on the ground, and he was standing there—stark naked.
Holy shit. Would I ever get used to the sight of his body? I hoped not.
Every time, my heart hammered. My pulse raced. Every time, I couldn’t resist the urge to lift my hands and touch him.
So hard. So taut. So warm.
Every inch of him crackled with vibrancy and strength. Every muscle, every swatch of skin called out to me. It was almost as if I couldn’t control myself.
And it wasn’t just his body. It was all of him. Every part—physical, mental, spiritual.
He was everything I wanted. The only thing I wanted.
He was my compulsion. My addiction. There was no point denying it.
A sharp stab of pain pierced my heart as visions of the future flew into my head.