by C. R. Jane
I was on my feet as he reached my side, smiling. “Hey, gorgeous. I was hoping to find you here. I want you to come with me,” he stated without pause.
“Where to?”
“I want to take you to a lookout nearby before we have to be at Miyu’s wedding. It’s the best place to watch the sunset around here.” His fingers reached over and curled around my hand, my fierce infatuation with him consuming me.
He tugged me closer to him, and I stumbled on my feet, savoring the way his breath washed over my face.
“Well lucky for you, my shift ends in about ten minutes…if you’re willing to wait.”
“Do your stuff, and I’ll wait out front.” With a nod of his head, he strolled back out, and only then did I notice that every single person in the diner had been watching us. At seeing me, most quickly turned away as if busy. I belatedly realized that a lot of them had seen me all over Wilder. And then I’d just done the same with Daxon.
Whoops.
I was ready for this shift to end. I had a customer waving at me, and then I’d close out the cash register for my shift, change my clothes, and leave. Wilder would have to get a raincheck for his dessert plans.
Thirty minutes later, I emerged from the diner, exhausted but excited to find Daxon leaning against the wall near the door, hands deep in the pockets of his jacket, and with the breeze blowing through his hair, he was the epitome of the poster image of James Dean. All that was missing was a cigarette hanging out from the corner of his mouth.
“So where is this gorgeous view you promised me?” I asked, reaching his side.
His arm slid around my waist, and he looped me to swing around so we were face to face, both of us pressed together. My breath caught in my chest, my palms flat against his rock-hard chest.
“Everyone in there watches your every move.”
I glanced back through the glass door to where I noticed a woman staring our way. She quickly jerked her attention away when she spotted me looking.
“Yeah, it seems that way. I guess they have nothing exciting going on in their lives.” I didn’t want to bring up the whole bet thing or any comparison between what I had with the alphas and what Arcadia did. I wanted nothing to do with her. “Come on, let’s get out of here, I’m tired of being watched.”
“Agreed.” But before he let me go, his mouth found mine and he kissed me with a slow passion, one that was all lips and no tongue, where he sucked on my lips. His strong fingers pressed into my lower back with the urgency to do so much more with him. “I love the way you taste.”
I buzzed from my head down to my toes at his words.
With a final quick peck on my lips, he guided me to join him as he took my hand into his, and we headed down the road. I took a quick side-glance into the diner, where I could have sworn every single eye was on us.
“You kissed me so they would all look, didn’t you?”
“It worked, right? The people in this town are so predictable.” He held me close, and I didn’t miss the patronizing tone in his voice.
His arm held me tight as we strolled down the slight slope the sidewalk followed. “I haven’t seen any cliffs near town,” I admitted.
“That’s why we’re riding there. We’re just going to pick up my bike from the shop.”
“Oh.” A light trepidation wormed up my spine. “I’ve never been on a motorcycle before.”
“My girl’s a Ducati, and she’ll purr between your legs, babe. All you need to do is wrap yourself around me and hold on. I’ll do the rest.”
“As long as you promise I won’t fall off, I’m game.”
“Promise,” he said with a chuckle before giving me a quick look, the glow of the descending sun blinking in his eyes.
Upon our arrival at the shop, a loud crash boomed. It took me moments to make out the shadows inside the garage, spotting North, the large guy who worked there, stumbling backward. I’d met him after arriving in Amarok, and he looked just as pissed and growly then as he did now. As before, he wore grease streaked grey overalls, his white tee underneath just as filthy. Shaggy brown hair lined with grey hair feathered around his face, making him look more like a wild man who’d just found civilization.
“Stay here,” Daxon said, pushing me to stand just outside the open roller doors. He then proceeded to march inside.
“Everything all right, North?” he asked, his shoulders broad and unafraid.
North murmured something I couldn’t decipher, then he lurched forward, vanishing behind a car sitting partially up on the hoist.
All I could see were two pairs of legs moving about on the other side of the car, and growls echoed against the walls. What the hell was going on?
I moved to stand to the side of the entrance, hoping for a better view, when North came teetering out, a heavy snarl in his throat. And when his head snapped in my direction, piercing yellow eyes stared at me…eyes that weren’t human but wolf.
Daxon was at his side in seconds, wrenched an arm around his throat and dragged him backward. “It’s for your own good, buddy, now don’t fight me.” He dragged the man into the main office where I lost sight of them. But I could hear the crashing sound of things falling over and snarls echoing out to where I stood. There were a few more bangs, and then it fell silent.
I chewed on a fingernail, peering in closer, not that I could see anything, but I was worried. “Daxon, everything all right?” I called out.
Fear skittered down my back, and I could only hazard a guess that somehow North had lost control of his wolf. I’d seen it happen once before back in Alistair’s pack, when a new young member lost control under the full moon. It shouldn’t have, but I’d heard others say it took a while to tame your wolf. Except North looked like he might be in his sixties, so it couldn’t be that.
When no response came, I glanced behind me to the empty street, where the nearby stores were shut. Sweat slicked my palms, and I rubbed them down my pants. “Daxon?”
A twinge of pain rose through my chest, reminding me of the ache I felt the other night by the river. Except that was just a dream, nothing else. Even my research showed nothing.
Suddenly, Daxon emerged from the office and shut the door behind him. He was dusting off his hands. I could see there were three tears down the front of his jeans, with a bit of blood tainting the fabric.
“What the hell just happened with North? Are you okay?”
The corner of his mouth tugged upward in a smoking hot smirk. “Nothing to fear. North is a Fenrir wolf. Not many of them around, and well, he sometimes has a problem in the week of the full moon.”
Wilder had told me that there were four wolf shifter breeds in the world, so I knew this, but I was still mesmerized listening to Daxon.
“I still can’t believe I’ve never heard of them,” I answered.
Daxon moved into the darker shadows of the garage, and in moments, he was rolling out a motorbike, black as the night… The thing was sleek and beautiful. It glinted in the light, and I watched him bring the bike outside the shop and park it in the driveway.
“The thing about Fenrirs is that their origins come from the berserkers, their heritage from the Vikings. They are aggressive and cunning bastards, but don’t fully transform, just their eyes. Their animal dominates them more than the human side, and sometimes, the full moon will influence them and transform them without their control. Luckily, we were here just in time. We’ve got a holding cell in the back, seeing that his animal side dominates when he changes, and well, he didn’t quite make it there in time.”
“That sounds scary.”
He turned back to the garage, and using a thick chain at the side of the entrance, he started hauling on it, bringing down the metal garage door.
“So North will be okay?”
Daxon shut the shop, locking up the roller door, and came back to me. “I’ll let him out in the morning and he’ll be fine.” He handed me one of the helmets hanging off the side of the bike.
He threw a leg over
the bike, kicked back the parking lever, and tapped the seat behind him. My stomach fluttered, as I couldn’t wait to go for a ride, maybe get out of town, and with Daxon…well, I felt completely safe.
With my helmet on and secured, I placed a hand on his shoulder and climbed onto the bike behind him. The spot didn’t offer much space, and it forced me to be plastered to him.
“Wrap yourself around me. Let me feel the heat of your gorgeous pussy.”
Well, all right then.
My legs straddled around his ass, and I pressed up against him, my arms coiled around his middle. He placed his hand on mine, his touch fiery hot.
Then he started the bike, and the motor roared to life. It hummed and vibrated beneath me like a living beast.
We started rolling down the driveway. Once on the road, he accelerated, and we really took off. I lurched backward from the momentum, and I frantically tightened my grasp around his body, pushing myself even closer to him. My heart hammered in my chest at how fast we moved, how the wind beat against us, how the world was a beautiful blur.
There was no pause through the town, just us speeding with the grunt of the motorbike in our wake.
Daxon took the corners smoothly, racing us up the slope that led out of town, and he only came to a halt at the T-intersection at the main road. The same place I had crashed my car, and I couldn’t fathom how long ago that felt, how much had changed since I stumbled into this town blindly.
The spot reminded me that we’d just been at the shop and I hadn’t even bothered to look for my car or ask about it.
Things really had changed.
“You okay?” he called out, turning his head toward me, lifting his visor.
“This is amazing,” I responded, to which he laughed.
“Good. Now hold on.”
We started moving again, and this time, the speed we drove left me slightly terrified. I held him with a death grip while taking in the scenery. The stunning greenery around us, the thick woods on either side, the sun bleeding through the gaps, giving everything an eerie glow. Absolutely gorgeous.
When we finally came out into a clearing, I glanced over to where the mountain range had my mouth dropping open with awe, and in the afternoon sky, the pale ghostly moon hung, waiting to steal away daylight.
We rode faster, and I held on tighter, loving this escape from reality more than Daxon would ever imagine. To be taken out and treated this way was doing something to me, as Alistair rarely took me outside the house, let alone anything special like this.
Why was I even thinking about him?
My life was changing for the better, if only I could get to the stage where I could put the past behind me for good.
When we finally turned off the main road, the ground grew bumpy, and we slowed down. It didn’t take long for us to come out onto a clearing that led to a gorgeous cliff that dropped off into the abyss in the distance. The path between the edge and us had been impassable with a bike, so Daxon parked near a tree, and we climbed off.
My legs wobbled, and it almost felt like I was walking on air. Daxon unzipped his leather jacket and laid it over the bike’s seat. When I glanced out over the horizon, where the sun shone brightly, I sighed. The afternoon shadows lengthened over the land, and it was magnificent.
In that moment, an unexpected sting flared from deep in my chest, bringing with it a panic that something was wrong with me. My heart pounded like a desperate drum leading up to a tragic ending.
I couldn’t breathe suddenly as I kept picturing losing control, passing out.
Gravel crunched behind me, and Daxon pressed against my back. “You okay? What’s going on?” His hands gripped my waist and twisted me around to face him.
A whimper came from my mouth when I tried to speak, and a frighting expression flared over his face.
“Talk to me, what’s going on?”
But my response was stolen by the heavy crunch of tires on gravel from the direction we’d arrived. We both twisted around to find a black Mercedes pulling up at least twenty feet from the Ducati.
Who was that?
The air suddenly thickened, and a fiery heat came from Daxon, a threatening growl rising from him at the newcomers.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered as he stepped in front of me. The tone of his voice told me he believed the person pulling up wasn’t a friend, but it could just be humans wanting to see the view, right?
The bang of a car door grabbed my attention, followed by several more, and I looked out past Daxon to four huge men coming toward us.
Nope, this was not a happy family coming for the view, not with the way they stared at us with a dark intensity.
My skin crawled, and my throat tightened.
“You’ve taken the wrong turn,” Daxon mocked them, his voice loud and deep, his shoulders squared. I noticed he was gripping a blade behind his back. Where did he get that from?
“Get the fuck out of our way,” the man with a bald head barked, his chest sticking out. Like the rest of his crew, he was rippling with muscles.
My thoughts flew to Sterling’s recent arrival, but none of these men looked familiar to me.
The shortest one at the back started twitching, then two others followed suit, their bodies stretching, elongating, and I gasped at the sight.
I backed away as my insides crumbled at the sight of the shifters transforming.
They were wolves.
Coming for us…for me.
All doubt dissolved about these men being anything but danger.
They definitely belonged to Alistair.
Fear pounded into me. Obviously, there was no safety in Amarok from that monster. Not anymore, if more of these men were coming for me.
The ache in my chest returned, coming at me in waves, and I rubbed the pain with my fist, dark thoughts flooding my head as I stared at the transformation happening in front of me. Ones where I’d be dragged back to Alistair, where he’d torture me for the rest of my life. Anger burst forward, and I curled my hands into fists because I’d throw myself off the cliff before I’d ever return to him. Death was a welcome friend compared to being with him.
“They’re here from my ex,” I cried, my throat raspy.
“Don’t be scared,” Daxon said casually.
“There’s four of them,” I murmured, staring at the three men now rising from the ground in their wolf form. All of them wore gray fur, while only Mr. Baldy remained in his human form to approach us.
“You’re going to die today, my friend,” he warned Daxon. “How that goes down depends on you. Put up a fight, and it will hurt. Give up now, and we’ll make it fast.”
Daxon laughed. “Am I supposed to be scared?” he purred.
“It’s four against one.”
“Well, friend. Your first mistake was daring to follow us here. Your second was underestimating me. My face is going to be the last thing you remember.”
I blinked and tried to swallow, but my body wasn’t listening. Between the growing pain spearing through my body and the predators approaching, I felt trapped.
My ears rang with each thumping heartbeat.
Then in a flash, chaos broke out so fast, it ripped away my world. It all happened too quick. A cry broke from my lips as the three wolves viciously attacked Daxon. They all hit the ground in a great heap, and all I saw were fur and teeth, their terrifying growls piercing the earlier silence.
The bald man charged at me. Fire singed my insides as I staggered backward, searching the ground frantically for a weapon, but what chance did I stand? So I did the only thing possible… I turned and ran.
Suddenly, a huge weight collided with my back, and next thing I knew, I flew face first to the ground. The ugly feelings surfacing inside me brought back all the times Alistair had punished me in just this position. I had to push back the fear…and the vomit, threatening to erupt.
“He misses you,” the man muttered, his putrid breath on the back of my head. “And you know what he said? We can bring
you back in any state, as long as you are still fucking alive.” He reached down and shoved me onto my back. “I’ve always wanted to fuck an alpha’s bitch.”
A chill wrapped around me. “Don’t touch me,” I cried back, and a snarl unleashed from deep inside me, leaving me shaking.
He laughed, but really, could I expect anything less from someone willing to work for Alistair?
“Fuck you!” I said, turning my head to spit in his face.
The flat of his hand connected with the side of my face so fast, I only saw stars.
With it, a crack of electricity pricked my skin as I moaned and shoved against him to escape.
“Have you been spreading your legs for that wolf, whore?”
“Get off me!” I hurled my fists into his face, thrust my body, and kicked. Desperation owned me, and I didn’t hear the rest of what he said. Between him and my body shaking violently, I just needed air.
I lashed out and scratched the side of his face, my fingernails tearing through skin. His eyes widened, his twisted expression horrified.
“You fucking bitch.” He got to his feet, snatched me by my hair, and wrenched me to my knees.
I lurched after him, my scalp screaming with pain, and without thought, I threw my fist directly at his groin, putting all my weight behind my punch.
He squealed, his grip softening, and I fell backward. I scrambled to my feet, the feral battle with Daxon and the wolves calling to me. My head felt fuzzy all of a sudden, and a thunderous gasp rolled from my lips as my legs gave out from under me. I clutched the grass, swaying as the pain slashed over my chest, swallowing me. My body suddenly jerked, my back arching, a loud crack of bones sounding.
Fear throttled me.
I shook ferociously as an inferno seized my body, and a half-scream, half-howl tore past my throat.
I drowned in terror as my limbs jerked just the same, extending, snapping, my skin popping as it split open, replaced by white fur that burst over my body. My clothes shredded around me, and I screamed from the acid-like pain. My cries soon morphed into a guttural growl that didn’t sound like me, but it definitely had come from me.