At least the other four men could move faster than he and Maggie could just because as soon as they were far enough off, they’d shift and be gone. Jonah had also chosen the most difficult path and the one that, while still needing to be checked, kept them the furthest away from the fae and closest to Liam. The dragon wouldn’t like that Maggie was out there, so close to his lair, but even he’d realize there wasn’t much choice.
He tried to focus on the ground in front of him and their surroundings. He was aware of every move Maggie made, every noise her boots made on the dirt, her even breathing. Even her scent was clouding his senses, so he breathed out of his mouth.
Jonah helped her over the more massive boulders as they began their ascent. The terrain wasn’t easy, especially on two legs. Eventually, they managed to get to where the ground evened out a bit more, but by that time both he and Maggie were drenched in sweat and he could see she was beginning to struggle.
“Let’s sit down for a minute and regroup,” he said, sitting down on a fallen log. Maggie all but collapsed on the log beside him and he could hear her stomach growling. He was starting to feel the pangs of hunger as well.
Jonah took a few gulps of water and was about to start digging into his bag for something to eat when he noticed she was beating him to it. A bag of trail mix emerged from her pack and she opened it, digging into the contents.
“Want some?” she asked, thrusting the bag in his direction.
“Thanks.” He dumped some of the nuts and raisins into his palm before tossing them back and handing the bag back to her. The trail mix would take the edge off their hunger, but they couldn’t afford to stop and eat a real meal until they camped down for the night. And the longer they were out there, with no signs of flares and no signs of Heidi, the more apparent it was becoming that they were going to spend the night in the woods.
Jonah already had a plan, but it was much slower going since he was unable to shift in front of her. Finding them something to eat later that night would be infinitely more difficult on two legs as well.
He’d do what he had to.
Maggie’s brows were scrunched in frustration and he didn’t miss her frown as she peered out in the direction they were heading.
“I don’t think she came this way,” she said after a minute.
“You’re probably right, but I don’t want to leave any part of No-Man’s-Land unchecked.”
She nodded. “No-Man’s-Land. You know, I thought you were never allowed down here?”
He chuckled. He’d been young the first time they’d ventured into No-Man’s-Land together. “I’m not. If my parents knew I was out here, they’d be pissed.”
Her laughter made his smile widen. “You were my first kiss,” she said after a moment.
He’d never forget that day. The fear he felt, the first time he’d met Liam and Mordecai. It wasn’t that he’d feared getting into trouble, he had worried for her and her safety. She was human, after all. He’d recognized them as other as soon as he’d met the other males, but Maggie was different. Maggie was human.
Jonah had known the first time he’d seen her dancing around in the woods that there would never be anyone else for him. He’d kissed the girl and stolen her flashlight. He’d lay awake at night after she had left for Cantor, staring at the ceiling and flipped the flashlight on and off while he wondered what she was doing.
“You were mine, as well,” he told her after a long moment.
Sadness filled the space between them. All the could’ve-beens and should’ve-beens were eating him up inside. But no, Maggie came first. Maggie always came first. Even if that meant hiding who and what he was and keeping her at a distance. Even if that meant hurting her back then to ensure her future happiness.
Funny, but she didn’t seem very happy.
He wouldn’t allow himself to dwell on the situation. They needed to keep their focus on finding Heidi.
Jonah sensed her frustration. Maggie was chewing her lip, glancing from him to their surroundings, her brows furrowed.
He stood a moment later and tossed his bag back on his back, waiting for her to get up, but she didn’t move. She tapped her foot and stared up at him.
“We should get going,” he said after a moment.
“Jonah, why don’t you just shift?”
8
Shift?
She knew. But how did she know? How could she possibly know about him when her father…?
And that’s when it hit him like an iron fist in his gut. He’d been young. He’d been gullible, his mind foggy with love and lust. And her father had seen that and lied to him. Had spewed out lies to keep Jonah from pursuing and mating with his daughter. And he’d been naive enough to believe him.
Mother fucker.
“How long have you known?” he asked her once the shock wore off and he had calmed down enough to keep from stomping out of the woods and driving to Cantor where he and Duncan Alfieri could have a little conversation. Maybe it was a recent discovery of hers.
Yeah, right.
She shrugged. “Since I’ve been old enough to keep a secret. Seven, maybe?”
Nope. He was going to kill the old man. He ran his palm over his face, trying to clear the rage clouding his mind. “Wow. You’ve known as long as you’ve known me.”
“Of course,” she said, confusion on her face. “Why is this such a surprise to you? Did you really think my father would keep me in the dark?”
It took him a second to realize the growling he heard was coming from him. “Yes. He told the townsfolk that he was raising you as human, which is why we all kept our distance, especially when you were young.”
She tilted her head. “I am human. I don’t consider myself an Incapace since my mom was human.”
“Of course, you’re human. That’s not what I meant.”
“It wouldn’t’ have been smart of him to not enlighten me to the existence of shifters. After all, he taught me how to hunt in these woods. Shooting the wrong animal would’ve been a big problem, don’t you think?”
The biggest argument Duncan had made was that she would never be content to live with a shifter. That she would all but abhor him. Apparently, that was the farthest thing from the truth. As pissed off as he was with her father, he couldn’t help the hope that grew in his chest. His relationship with Maggie wasn’t over yet. Her knowing he was a shifter was just the beginning.
His mind cleared, and he took a deep breath which brought something else to the forefront of his mind.
“There’s magic on your skin,” he started. “Explain that?”
Confusion clouded her pretty face. “What? Magic?”
“I smelled it on you last night. It’s not strong, but it’s there.”
She shook her head, her short black hair swishing in her face. And then she stopped abruptly and looked at him, her green eyes surveying his face.
“I have practiced magic, I guess.”
“You guess?”
She threw her hands up, the bag of trail mix on her lap crinkling loudly when she moved. “I didn’t think it was real. I mean, it felt real for a second but then there was nothing. I don’t know, I was half lit at the time. I may not be remembering it correctly.”
“Half lit?” He doubted she would have agreed to cast a spell if she’d had only a few.
“Okay, I was drunk as a skunk. We were having a girl’s night in.”
He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them. At what point could magic not possibly feel like magic? “What do you remember?” he asked, curious.
“I was with some friends of mine and Heidi. We’d been drinking for a couple hours when one of the girls suggested we cast a spell to find our soul mates. It was a stupid idea, but it sounded like fun at the time. We never expected anything from it. It was just something to pass the time.”
Her soul mate? She never had to look far for that. He was standing right in front of her.
When her voice trailed off and she looked toward the
ground, he prodded her to continue. “What happened then?”
“We stood around a table, held hands and mumbled some gibberish. Carey made it a little creepy with the way her voice sounded, and I got a little weirded out but then it was over, and we went right back to drinking and laughing. I left the next morning.”
“It must not have been gibberish you said then.”
A small snort escaped her throat. “Apparently not.”
“This has all been so… enlightening,” he commented. In more ways than one, he thought but kept that part to himself. Regardless of his feelings for her, they still had work to do. They still had to find the missing girl, although now that he knew she probably had magic clinging to her as well, it changed things. And not in a good way.
She stood next to him a second later after she put the half-empty bag of trail mix back into her pack and took a few long gulps of water. Stretching her arms above her head, she turned to him. “Would shifting help?”
“Yes. Since you know, there’s really no reason not to. Would you fasten the bag to me after I shift?”
When she nodded her head, he stripped the bag from his back and leaned it against the fallen log. He pulled off his jacket, followed by his shirt and shoved them into his bag. When he unbuckled his pants, he heard her sharp intake of breath.
Even after all these years he still affected her. Her cheeks were pink, the same pink they had been the night she’d first seen him naked. The night she’d given herself to him.
Her gaze was fixed on him and he loved it.
“Have you ever seen someone shift before?” he asked, unable to suppress a small smile.
“Huh?” Her gaze was fixated on his chest.
“I asked if you’ve ever seen someone shift.”
She closed her eyes for one long moment before opening them again and focusing on his face. “No. Never,” she said, her voice low. “I can turn around.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have to. Unless it makes you uncomfortable.”
She hesitated for a long second and he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d cave and turn her back to him. There was the slightest change in her scent, a sweetness that wasn’t there a moment before. If she turned around now, she would be all but admitting that he got to her.
A resolve washed over her face as she readjusted her footing and seemed to plant her feet into the ground.
“I’m curious,” she explained finally.
Part of Maggie was dying to see what happened when he shifted into an animal form. The other part of her was quivering with anticipation at the prospect of seeing him without his clothes on again.
I’m such a child, she chastised herself.
It would be foolish of her to deny that she was still attracted to him. Which was why she should’ve turned her back to him. But she couldn’t do it. Maybe it was the challenge he had extended, almost as if he expected her to give in and turn around. It would be as bad as admitting defeat on her part. It would be revealing to him right then and there that he still got under her skin. That he still could turn her on.
It was all true, but he didn’t need to know that.
When he unbuttoned the top of his pants, she felt her face flush. “Will you be able to understand me?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the slow way he was pushing the pants from his hips.
“After I shift? Yes.”
The pants hit the ground and he stood before her in nothing but a pair of olive green boxer shorts.
“Will you be able to talk to me?”
“No.”
He pushed the boxers down and she drew a shaky breath.
Her heart quickened in her chest and she forced her eyes to the top of his head. She wouldn’t look, not when looking meant she’d turn a shade of beet red. He seemed to be standing there for an extraordinary length of time without doing anything. Was he waiting for her to look at him? To stare directly at his half erect cock? The smirk that crossed his handsome face left her wondering.
When his body started to shake, she remembered why he was naked in the first place. Dark brown hair sprouted from unnatural places and his muscles bulked. When he fell to his hands, she stumbled back. His chest expanded, and his spine arched at a grotesque angle.
It looked painful. The grimace on his face contorted as his nose and jaw grew and darkened. Groans turned into growls as bones snapped and realigned. The entire process was fast. One second he had been a man standing in front of her and now he was over a thousand pounds of pure muscle. An animal. A bear.
A Grizzly bear?
He huffed, the leaves beneath his feet scattering from the force of his exhalation. The color of his eyes hadn’t changed, the grey color surveyed her as if gauging her reaction to him. If he had told her the truth – and she was sure that he had – then he was still the same Jonah she had just been speaking with a few moments ago. It was strange to see him as something else.
The ordinarily dominant trait had skipped her father for some unknown reason and Maggie understood for the first time the sadness that seemed to permeate him. When everyone else around him was able to do this, she could understand why he chose not to remain permanently in New Freedom. He had been genetically excluded.
“Of all things, why did you choose a Grizzly bear? They’re not even indigenous to this region. A black bear would have been more fitting.” He would stick out like a sore thumb if anyone caught a glimpse of him. But then again, her walking next to a bear – any bear – would stick out even more.
In response, he stood on his hind legs. He towered over her, his paws tipped with four-inch-long razor-sharp claws in front of him. His mouth opened, showing the four long canines along with numerous lethal sharp teeth and a roar erupted. Her ears rang as a flock of birds rose from a nearby tree, taking flight into the air.
When he fell back on all fours, the ground shook beneath her feet. If he was trying to tell her that he had chosen that form for sheer size, power, and strength, then he had succeeded. That and perhaps the bear’s amazing sense of smell which was stranger than any bloodhound’s.
“I get it,” she told him. “You don’t have to repeat yourself.” She didn’t know if her ears could take it if he did. Going over to where he had left his pack, she bent down. She shoved his pants and boxers inside and lifted the heavy bag from the ground.
Seventy-five pounds of equipment on her back would slow her down faster than she wanted.
She hadn’t realized he was so close to her until she felt a hot blast of air at her back. When she turned around his warm nose was at her shoulders, prodding her through the fabric of her clothing.
“What?”
Teeth gripped the strap of his bag, pulling it from her shoulder. She let it fall to the ground in front of her feet and stared at him. Apparently, he didn’t want her to carry his things. Shrugging, she looked from him to the bag.
“You want to carry it?”
The wave of his head told her that was his intention. It was good to know that he could answer yes or no questions. That may come in handy later if she needed to know something and he didn’t want to shift back to tell her. The process had looked excruciating and she didn’t want him to have to go through it again just to answer a simple question that could be rephrased in a way that he could give a yes or no answer.
“Are you going to carry it in your mouth?”
His massive head shook back and forth. Sighing, she put her hands up in the air.
“I don’t know how to tie you. You’re too big for the straps.”
He nudged the bag. Wishing he had told her exactly what he wanted her to do before he had shifted, she squatted in front of the pack and opened the zipper. He had said something about tying it to him, but how the hell was she supposed to do that?
“What do you want me to find?” she asked, more to herself than him.
His face was next to her shoulder, peering down into the bag. His clothes were on top and she pushed them to the side. Food, gun, tent. She
didn’t know what he wanted. When she groaned, his nose brushed her arm and so she continued to dig in the bag.
When she was nearing the bottom, she found what he wanted. There, coiled tight, was a nylon rope.
“Here we go,” she said, pulling the rope from the bag.
With a small nod from him as confirmation, she zipped the bag back up and rose to her feet. Now how was she supposed to strap the bag to him with a single rope and make it stay? Going over the options in her head, she glanced between his back and the bag.
He was waiting patiently, staring at her as she made up her mind.
“Sit down.” Happy when he complied, she lifted the bag and walked behind him. He was too big for her to strap anything to him while standing, but when he sat on his hindquarters, she was able to reach the top of his back much easier.
Unwinding the rope, she laced it through the straps of the pack before lifting it from the ground. His head slunk down, making it easier for her to balance the bag on his shoulders. She carefully tossed the rope under his legs and had to walk around him to pick it up on the other side.
The knots were easy enough for her but when the bag started to slide, she tossed the rope around him again, weaving it between his front legs this time. Making the second set of knots seemed to do the trick and the bag remained secure on his shoulders.
“Feel alright?” she asked, stepping back to survey her handiwork. It looked like it would stay. She hoped so, anyway.
He stood up and took a couple steps on four legs. When everything stayed in place, he nodded. Hoisting her own bag onto her back, she let him take the lead and followed him as they made their way down an incline.
He was using his nose. He’d snort against the ground and then weave off in a different direction. She followed behind him, remaining quiet as she watched him work. She prayed that the nose of a bear would help them find Heidi that much sooner. She cursed herself for not saying anything to him about shifting the night before. Time wasted.
She hadn’t known he’d been in the dark about her knowledge of shifters. Of course, he wouldn’t shift in front of her if he believed that. Maggie chewed her lip and focused on the bear as he moved in front of her. Could that belief have had anything to do with what had happened with their relationship before?
When Sparks Fly (Netherworld Series Book 3) Page 11