Chapter 14 #2
“Not officially,” Harkin shouted back. “But it sure as shit ain’t happening tonight.”
Despite Harkin’s hold on the shifter, he continued to look at me behind him. I bared my fangs at the shifter, but it did little more than rile him up further. The shifter writhed in Harkin’s grasp, the alpha wolf effortlessly holding him off the ground as he walked.
“Where are we taking him?” I asked.
“My hunting cabin.”
“Your hunting cabin? Why the hells do you need a—”
Harkin tossed me a look that read, “Really? Already?”
Straightening, I pressed a hand over my mouth.
We trudged through the woods for several more minutes before a tiny, dilapidated building, which looked far more like a shed than a cabin, came into view.
Harkin rammed his shoulder into the door, pushing the shifter against the wall.
Inside, my spine stiffened. Carving utensils lay scattered on one of two slab tables, and many hooks hung from the ceiling.
Mixed fragrances of various animal blood still lingered in the atmosphere from previous hunts.
A glob of white fur stuck to the floorboards near my boot had me nonchalantly kicking it away.
When I said we didn’t intend to torture…
“Why are you trying to bite her?” Harkin kept one hand on the shifter and with the other, pointed at me in case there were any sarcastic quips about who her was.
The shifter licked his lips, fighting against Harkin’s hold like a crazed fiend. “Can’t you smell her? Why wouldn’t I?”
Nonchalantly, I lifted my shoulder to sniff it. Aside from scents of pine, a faint hint of blood, and morning breeze detergent, I detected nothing unusual.
“That isn’t an answer, falcon shifter, now tell me.” Harkin’s words were all alpha, gritty, and ferociously impatient.
Veins were bulging in Harkin’s neck, my fangs creeping out of their own free will.
“She’s both,” the falcon shifter croaked, Harkin’s grip tightening around his throat.
The warm blood in my veins from earlier turned ice cold.
I’m both? Since when? How could he grasp that? How could he sense that?
Lurching forward, my fangs bared, I started to ask my line of questions.
Harkin pressed a finger to my chest without looking back at me. “You promised, Rory.”
Sobering from that one damn name, I stayed where I stood. He didn’t even have to use his alpha voice, chose not to use it. That meant more than he’d realize.
“What do you mean she’s both?” Harkin asked, despite knowing my secret.
The falcon shifter licked his canines, his eyes two lifeless black pools obsessively focused on me, his fight against Harkin’s hold intensifying. “Shifter and vampire. To claim her, to become like her, must have her.”
Harkin shoved his forearm at the shifter’s collarbones, pinning him so fiercely against the wall that the wood panels groaned.
What in the name of the gods and the moons?
Out of the pure instinct to defend myself, to survive, I bared my fangs fully and hissed at him, pushing against Harkin’s hand. My boots slid and I didn’t move a fucking inch.
“Aurora, go outside,” Harkin said.
Blinking at him, I took a step back. “Outside? Away from you? Are you sure?”
“No,” he ground out between his clenched molars. “Need to test something. It’ll be quick.”
As per his wishes, I strolled toward the exit, maintaining my gaze on them. Once outside, I watched through the cracks in the wooden shutters.
The shifter in Harkin’s grasp seemed to relax, his pupils going back to normal. He sniffed the air, his eyes closing as he inhaled deeper. “She’s still here.”
Harkin backhanded the shifter across the face. “You listen to me. You’re gonna forget about her. You’re gonna shift and fly back to your pack, or flock, or whatever the hells you falcons call yourselves.”
“How can you expect us to ignore her? She’s so unique. She’s—” The shifter smiled wickedly at Harkin. The fucking balls on this one. “—unmarked.”
Harkin let out a monstrous growl at that word, grabbing the shifter by his collar. He lifted him from the ground and slammed him into the wall. The impact rattled the hanging hooks. Two of them clanked to the ground. “Leave. Now.”
Something in Harkin’s expression had the shifter’s eyes bulging wide. He instantly shifted into a falcon, flying through the window I’d been spying through, and nearly hitting me in the head.
Harkin stood with both hands propped on the wall, his breaths short, deep, and still growly. His head hung between his shoulders.
“Harkin?” I asked cautiously, approaching him. “Are you alright?”
“There’s something about you bein’ closer to me that intensifies your scent to shifters.” Harkin huffed before turning to face me, his eyes unlike what I’ve seen before. They were the same amber, but the irises had taken on a quartz-like border to them. “Which means we’re in some deep water here.”
“I don’t understand. Why would they be able to scent the shifter part of me at all?”
Harkin dragged a hand over his face. “I don’t know, Aurora. I don’t have the fuckin’ answers for everything.”
Ouch. But I got it. This was just as confusing for him as it was for me.
“Harkin, I didn’t expect you to answer that.”
Harkin’s breathing still hadn’t slowed down. “You bein’ closer to me means they won’t stop.” He pointed out the door. “You being away from me means I won’t stop.”
The reality of our situation, the irony of us, had the world zeroing in on me like a darkening train tunnel.