Chapter 21 Rhys
RHYS
My hand stayed locked around her throat, thumb pressed against a pulse that should have been hammering. Instead, it carried on normally. Not like she was on the cusp of being fucking wiped out.
I leaned closer so I could get a better read of her scent as she cooled under my touch. Her lips glistened. In another fucked-up turn of events, my wolf was consumed by how close her mouth was to mine.
Her scent hit me in waves. The wild honey and rain I’d been obsessing over since day one, yeah. But underneath was a metallic edge that made my wolf’s hackles rise.
“You smell off,” I said, my face inches from her neck.
She didn’t fight my hold. Didn’t demand I let her go or threaten to castrate me with her silver magic. Instead, she tilted her head slightly, giving me better access to her throat.
I grew hard watching her submission. She could’ve been faking it to screw with me again, but my cock didn’t care.
“You’re just not used to my scent,” she said.
My breath ghosted across her skin. This close, I could see the silver flecks in her eyes, could count every freckle on her collarbone. “You mean the Crux scent.”
She bit her bottom lip.
“It’s true. I’m Crux. All your friends back home know it.”
Crux or not Crux, what I scented had nothing to do with wolves. I tightened my grip slightly, feeling the delicate bones of her throat. She should have been trying to get away from the big bad wolf.
Instead, she let out a soft breath that sounded dangerously close to pleasure.
Shit.
Blood rushed south so fast I got lightheaded. This was supposed to be an interrogation, not whatever the hell was happening.
I released her and stepped back before I did something stupid. Like finding out if she made that sound when I pressed my tongue into her mouth.
“We need to move,” I said. “Those vampires weren’t working alone. We’ve got a day’s run ahead of us if we don’t stop,” she said, as I took a tunic and too-tight jeans from one of the vampire ash piles.
“Think you can keep up with me?”
The look she gave me could have withered a flower.
“I’m not the one who was used as a vampire juice box.
” Fair point. I was still healing from the venom and blood loss, even with whatever magical shit she’d pulled to fix me.
My ego wasn’t about to admit weakness. “And we’ll have to go in human form.
If we shift, they’ll be all over us before we reach the border. ”
I gestured with my arm in the most gentlemanly manner I could. “Let’s go then.”
The moon was completely covered by thick clouds. She led the way through the forest, which would have been near impossible for a wolf shifter to navigate in the dark. Blackwood was a maze of deadfalls and twisted trees, the kind of place where people got lost and never came out.
She moved through it like she owned it. And she was doing it in complete darkness, navigating terrain I could barely see.
After an hour of following her through what felt like an obstacle course designed by sadists, I had to ask, “How can you see where we’re going?”
She glanced back. She was silhouetted in the moonlight, but I felt her looking right at me.
“I’ve had to come through here more times than I would have liked when I was tracking lost Crux shifters. I always had good night vision,” she said.
“How good?”
“Good enough.”
Another non-answer. I was starting to see a pattern with her.
We continued moving, and I kept noticing shit that didn’t add up. She never stumbled over roots. I couldn’t see them until they tried to break my ankles. When I needed to rest, she looked like she could go on for another week.
“You’re not even a little tired,” I said when we stopped beside a stream.
“Neither are you.”
“I’m fucking exhausted.” I splashed water onto my face. “You patched me up enough to travel, but I’m not running on full strength.”
She knelt beside me at the water’s edge. “How do you feel? Really?”
I considered it. My ribs ached from where the vampires had worked me over. The silver burns on my wrists throbbed. Overall…
“Better than I should,” I admitted. “That blood thing you did—what was it exactly?”
“Vampire venom weakens shifters. My blood neutralized it.”
“How?”
She had that careful look again. “Crux magic is different.”
I was getting sick of the evasive bullshit. Before I could push her, she went still, head cocked toward something I couldn’t hear.
“What?”
“Company. Three of them. Following our trail.”
I listened hard but got nothing except wind and water. “You sure?”
The look she gave me suggested the question was insulting. “There’s a cave system half-a-mile north. We can lose them underground.”
“Or we could fight.”
“You want to take on a crowd of vampires when you can barely stand?”
My wolf didn’t like the challenge, but she wasn’t wrong. I was in no shape for another fight.
“Fine. You lead.”
Her breathing accelerated as we went. I had to remind my wolf to pay attention to the surroundings more than to her, but he growled in reply.
From what I could tell, the vamps she’d sensed weren’t in our surroundings, if they were there at all.
I was still figuring out who this woman was, with her extra senses and abnormally quiet steps.
The cave was hidden behind thorny vines. It opened into a chamber that went back further than I could see.
“You know an awful lot about this territory,” I said, and sat down hard at the entry to the cave, leaning my back against the cold wall. It felt better than I cared to admit.
“We should stay here a while.” She avoided the question, as usual. “You need time to heal.” She gathered wood.
“You know more than someone just passing through on a mission ought to, don’t you think?”
“I’m Crux. We deal with things other packs don’t.”
“Things like vampires?”
“Things like whatever needs dealing with.”
I studied her. “You’re not going to give me a straight answer about anything, are you?”
She carried the wood deep into the cave, where we would be hidden from sight.
I followed her, dropped to the ground and settled against the wall.
Gravity was getting the better of me. She built the fire beyond anything a boy scout could have done and blew the flames to life from a twisting branch. My wolf marveled.
She looked up from the freshly built fire, meeting my eyes for the first time since we’d started this conversation. “Would you believe me if I did?”
That hit harder than it should have. Because after the rejection, the lies, the mindfucks, and the games, I honestly didn’t know what I’d believe from her. And yet a part of me wanted to.
“Try me.”
She was quiet for so long I thought she wouldn’t answer. Then she said, “The Southern Council called an emergency session. All pack leaders have seventy-two hours to show up.”
My blood chilled. “When did this happen?”
“Summons arrived yesterday, just before I headed out. So that gives us about sixty hours left.”
Fuck. Logan would need me back before then. Showing up at a council meeting without his beta would signal weakness to every alpha there.
“Why didn’t you mention this sooner?”
“Because you were bleeding out when I found you.” She poked at the fire. “Priorities.”
“What’s the session about?”
“Officially? Supernatural disturbances threatening regional stability.” She looked up, and her expression made my stomach drop. “Unofficially? Someone’s planning something. The timing’s too convenient.”
“What kind of something?”
“Something that happens when all the alphas are locked in meeting rooms and can’t watch their territories.”
Understanding hit me. “Raids.”
“Raids. Kidnappings. Takeovers. Auctions.” Her voice went flat. “They time them to coincide with political gatherings. More buyers, higher prices, and nobody around to interfere.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Does it matter? The point is, they’re hunting specific types of shifters. The valuable kind.”
Eve was Crux. Sable was Crux. Between them, they probably knew a lot about how wolves were used for their abilities and the packs out there who were only too happy to exploit them.
“That’s why you came after me,” I said. “Not because of the bond. Because you need Orion to be stable for the council meeting.”
She poked the fire, not meeting my eyes. “Logan needs his beta. Without you, he looks weak. Weak alphas make shit allies.”
“And you need allies.”
“Everyone needs allies.”
Right, but somehow it stung. I’d watched her risk her ass to save me, and she was saying it was just politics. She looked up, and firelight caught something in her expression that made me think again.
“That’s not the only reason,” she said quietly.
“No?”
“I couldn’t feel you dying and just walk away. Bond or no bond, rejection or whatever—I couldn’t let you go.”
The admission hung between us. She was giving me truth, finally.
“Why?”
She stared into the flames. When she spoke, her voice was barely audible. “Despite the blackness I see in you…” She sighed. “I’m starting to think you have something more going on in you. You said I have a beautiful soul.”
I blinked. “When?”
“During the blood-sharing. You were half out of your head from blood loss.” She glanced at me, then away.
My chest went tight. This woman, who could tear vampires apart with her bare hands, was telling me that a few words from a delirious wolf had mattered to her.
“You are beautiful.”
She laughed and shook her head. “You don’t know what I am.”
“So tell me.”
“You wouldn’t get it.”
“Try me.”
She looked at me for a long time, weighing something. Then she said, “What if there were things in this world that shouldn’t exist? Things that are wrong on a basic level?”
“I’d say I’ve seen enough weird shit that not much would surprise me anymore.”
“What if I were one of those things?”
I didn’t have a smart reply to give. But looking at her—firelight playing across her face, vulnerability in every line of her body—I knew my answer.
“I’d say I don’t give a damn what you are. Who you are is more interesting.”
Her breath caught. For a second, she looked younger. Innocent.
Footsteps echoed from the cave mouth.
“Trail leads right here,” a voice called. Male, with an old-world accent. “Both of them.”
“Good,” another replied. “Master wants them breathing, but he didn’t say unbroken.”
I froze trying to read their signals, but Sable was already moving, getting to her feet in one fluid motion. “Fucking Blackwood crawling with vamps. Stay put,” she whispered. “Keep quiet.”
“Like hell.” I started to get up, but she pushed me back with surprising strength.
“You’re still weak. I’ve got this.”
“Three against one isn’t good odds.”
“It’s three against me,” she said, and something shifted in her expression. Something that made my wolf sit up and pay attention. “That’s not the same thing.”
Before I could argue, she was heading for the entrance, moving as silently as death across the cave floor.
That’s when I heard the first scream.
It cut off fast, followed by wet tearing. The cracking of bone. Another scream, higher-pitched.
Then nothing.
She came back a few minutes later, moving just as quietly as before. Something was different. She carried herself like a predator, every step controlled and deadly. As the fire flickered in front of her, she looked gloriously triumphant.
“Done,” she said.
“How many?”
“Three, as suspected.”
“All dead?”
“Yeah.”
I stared at her, trying to reconcile the woman who’d noticed I’d called her beautiful with whoever had slaughtered three vampires without breaking a sweat.
“How?”
She hesitated. “I shifted. A wolf form’s faster in some situations, and they were too close for full silver magic not to backfire.”
“That’s all?”
She moved toward me, that predatory grace still there. “That’s all.”
I could sense the lie. Whatever she’d done was more than shifting. More than any normal wolf could manage.
Suddenly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what she really was.
But I was damn sure I still wanted her.
The realization knocked the wind out of me. Despite the secrets, despite not knowing what she was, despite every rational thought telling me to run—I wanted her. It wasn’t just the physical attraction, though that was there, getting stronger every minute we spent together.
It was all of her. The deadly grace, the hidden softness, the way she’d risked everything for one stupid word.
Fuck.
“Sable. I meant what I said. I don’t care what you did out there, or what you’re hiding.” I reached out and grabbed her hand.
The moment our skin touched, something electric shot up my arm. Her hand was cool but soft, fitting perfectly in mine. I pulled her and she came willingly, her knees hitting the ground in front of me.
Her shirt shifted, and that’s when I saw the fabric was torn from the fight outside, a long rip down one side that exposed the pale skin of her waist, her ribs, and her breast. In the light of the fire, her nipple moved up and down with her breaths, and it was getting faster.
My free hand moved without conscious thought, fingers tracing the edges of the torn shirt. Her skin was smooth under my touch, and she shivered at the contact despite her supernatural composure.
I couldn’t stop myself. My hand slid up her side, thumb brushing the underside of her breast. She sucked in a sharp breath, her back arching slightly into the touch.
Her hair had come loose during the fight, wild strands framing her face. I tangled my fingers in it, silk against my palm, and used my grip to tilt her head back. Her lips parted, and I could see her pulse jumping in her throat.
The scent of her wrapped around me—that wild honey and rain—but underneath was the primal aroma I lived for. Arousal. My wolf was going crazy, demanding I claim what was mine, mark her, make sure she could never leave again.
The man in me wanted to savor this. The way she trembled under my hands, the soft sounds she made when I touched her, the fact that she was letting me see her like this—vulnerable and wanting.
Her careful mask had completely slipped, showing me a raw and hungry woman underneath.
“Rhys,” she whispered, but she didn’t move away.
“I’m telling you, I don’t care.”
“You should care,” she said. Her voice was breathless. “I should run away from you. And you should do the same from me.”
Even as she said it, she was leaning into my touch, her body betraying her words.
“Should I?”
She moved between my legs, close enough that I could feel new heat radiating from her skin. Her hands came up to rest on my chest, and through my shirt, I could feel how they trembled.
“Yeah, you should,” she said.
“Too late.”
And then I was done talking.