Instead, I waited.
He was looking for something. The key? What did he plan to do with it if he found it? Get Grady and take him to Faust? Misa said Faust had left in a hurry, so maybe he’d sent someone back for Grady.
The man strode forward to the small table, same as I had, and while his back was turned, I silently lowered Sasha to the floor and drew an arrow from my quiver. Whether I killed him or not, he'd find out soon enough I was here.
After a moment's study, he swept the pitcher and two glasses from the table, sending them crashing into the wall.
After the final broken piece hailed down, I slammed the door closed behind me and nocked my arrow, aiming at his throat.
He whirled, a scowl carved into his face.
"If you're looking for the key, you won't find it," I said evenly.
"Give it to me." He took a step forward.
But that's as far as he went. At the last moment, I lowered my aim and released the arrow—almost right between his legs. Close enough to make my point.
His eyes widened. He sucked in a loud breath as he blinked downward, and then he released all the air from his lungs in a scream.
As I nocked another arrow, I stormed toward him, my shouts already clawing up my throat. "Sasha, the wolf pup you threw, was one of your pack. Even if you could breed, you don't deserve to after throwing her like that."
He sank to his knees in front of me, in pain, for forgiveness, and screamed again.
I ignored him. "You might be wondering if that's a poisoned arrow. Maybe it isn't. Or maybe I doused it with a poison that kills slowly, but most definitely. I really can't remember."
Lies. I hadn’t poisoned anything. Yet.
I backed out of there, leaving him there bleeding next to the already soiled sheets. Misa, or whoever cleaned this room, would have one hell of a hard time. As I shut the door behind me, his shouts turned to pleas. I hardened my heart even more. He deserved no kindness, not even the slightest, yet I rushed down the hall to get out of here faster so someone might help him. And to get to my favorite moody shifter.
The key fumbled from my fingers, twice. Sasha tried to leap out of my arms, she was so fidgety.
Finally, the unlocked door creaked open.
I hadn't prepared myself. I hadn't prepared for what I might find on the other side, but nothing could've prepared me for this.
Grady, bound to a chair and wearing only pants and one boot—and grinning from ear to ear around the wide strip of chain stuffed in his mouth.
"Oh," was all I could say.
Sasha launched herself into his lap and attacked his face with kisses. He laughed, the sound muffled, until tears sparkled down his cheeks.
I crossed toward them, my movements dreamlike, hardly able to believe he was really here. The muscles in his bare arms strained behind him so much the veins popped out under his skin. The shadows underneath his gunmetal eyes darkened them to coal. His short hair had grown some in the two weeks since I'd seen him, and he looked thinner, sharper. No blood. No wounds or bruises. All of this I saw in an instant, and the relief at seeing him again swelled my heart to near bursting.
"E er oo ummm," he tried to say.
A rush of emotions toppled down on top of me and buckled my knees in front of him.
"I couldn't… We tried…" I shook my head, having no idea what I was trying to say because there was too much.
His smile, rare as it was, never faded as he gazed down at me and nodded. It would all be okay because my grouchy wolf was okay.
Quickly, I fished out the key I'd taken from Faust's room and followed the intricate design of the chains behind the chair that ended in cuffs at his hands and feet. With two turns of the key, I set him free. The chains clanked to the floor as he stood, turned, and swept me off my feet, one arm still cradling Sasha.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my tears in his chest, and I never planned on letting go. He still smelled the same, like almonds, like home.
"I thought—" I choked off. "I thought I would never see you again."
"I'm here," he said softly. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
"We went to Shay's neighbor's cabin, but where were you?"
"We never made it. When we finally outran Faust’s wolves, someone started shooting at us."
"The rogue hunters."
A nod. "We went north, thinking we could get to our old cabin, but Gibby got sick. Violently sick, and then came the fever. We had to stop here." He smoothed his hand down the back of my hair. "I didn't want to, and I swear to you I didn't touch any of the women."
My laugh tripped out. "It never even crossed my mind."
His exhale breezed past my cheek, and we held each other tighter, just existing in our reunion for a little longer.
"Who's screaming?" he finally asked.
"He was coming back for you. One of Faust’s shifters, the one who threw Sasha."
He wrenched away from me and stared down at the wolf pup in horror. "What?"
I stiffened. He didn't know about the game of Catch, Kill, Release I'd been backed into. He didn't know about Archer.
"After we separated…" My mouth moved, but no sounds came out. He and Archer were like brothers, and though they often bickered, their protectiveness toward each other was impenetrable. I'd realized that right from the start at the cabin when Archer had been bitten by a wolf, and again when we hadn't been able to rescue Ronin from Old Man's Den. My gut spun in turmoil, and I spat the bitter words off my tongue: "Faust took Archer."
A muscle shuddered in his jaw as he blinked down at Sasha, who gazed back adoringly.
"How long?" he rasped.
"Two weeks. He was the one I chose to be Released."
"Then who did you Kill?"
"Me,” Thomas said from the doorway, and my heart lurched at the sight of him. Blood tracked down one arm from a hole in his coat, completely covered his hand, and streamed to the floor. “With a poison arrow. This woman has as many tricks up her sleeves as Archer does. It wasn't really poison."
"And you're not really dead." Grady’s smile grew wider.
"Good thing you catch on quick," Thomas said, and his powerful gaze flicked to me. “Time to get Shay and Gibby and go."
"Did you see Ronin before?” I asked. “The blood— The blood in Faust's room…"
"I didn't see her, but I saw what was left behind,” he answered. “Faust was long gone after I dealt with the six shifters who shot at us."
It took a moment for my mind to dissect everything he'd just said. "Six? Wait, what was left behind?"
"Ronin must've gone on a warpath." He tilted his head in the direction of the wailing man and lifted his eyebrows. "I found a severed finger with Faust’s ring lying in the room his shifters were hiding in."
Grady chuckled. “Damn. She took a lesson from you, Aika.”
"Thatta girl.” Wolf by wolf, piece by piece, we'd take down all our enemies until there was nothing left but us.
Sasha yipped and licked Grady’s face. He grinned down at her and kissed her on the nose.
“Grady, find your other boot and a shirt,” Thomas ordered. “I know where Gibby and Ribbons are, but no sign of Shay.”
“She’s downstairs keeping the humans at bay. But before we leave, there’s a wine delivery about to head out to Faust and his men.” I pulled out the jar of poison from my pocket. “What do you say we make this disappear first?”
“That’ll wipe some of them out before the others catch on.” Grady strode toward me, cupped my chin, and kissed me roughly. “It’s a good thing you’re one of us. I’d hate to be on your bad side.”
Chapter Ten
"Did you see him?"
As soon as we left Old Man's Den and were in the relative safety of the Slipjoint Forest, that was the first question out of Shay's mouth. We rode in the back of her carriage, with Grady and Thomas driving it. Gibby lay bundled in Shay's arms, still a little feverish but asleep, with Ribbons purring softly on her stomach
. Sasha leaned her head against my chest, watching them through sleepy eyes.
"No." The darkness in the back of the carriage shadowed my face and hopefully hid my lie as well. “We haven't seen him."
I couldn't bear to tell her about seeing Lager smiling at the prospect of selling slaves at Margin’s town hall or that he’d slammed the butt of his gun into Lee’s head. She was so blinded toward him, she wouldn't believe me anyway.
"The worry will eat him up when he sees our cabin and can't find us at the neighbors'." She looked down at her daughter and smoothed her hand over her forehead. Her blonde hair cascaded around her shoulders and shimmered with fresh snowfall. "I wish I could send word to him that we're okay."
"He'll find us." Or we'd find him. Misa had said she hadn’t seen Lager, but the Slipjoint pack had said he’d been heading toward Old Man’s Den. So where was he? He'd come straight for Faust when he found his family gone, my body at his destroyed cabin, and the warning carved into the trees. If we kept tracking Faust, Lager was sure to show up sometime.
Shay sighed heavily. “I'm not sure I want him to find us. It's not safe."
"Not safe from you, you mean," I said, not so subtly pivoting from Lager. “Where did you learn to be so scary and shoot like that?"
She laughed, a light, carefree sound I hadn’t realized I missed. "My dad taught me with that gun hanging over your head when I was younger. He told me to strike faster than black moaner snakes did so we could eat them. But it was Grady's crankiness that really rubbed off on me over the last two weeks and made me irritated. Slamming doors, stomping around loud enough to crack the world open…" She lowered her voice. "How do you stand him?"
I chuckled, my heart swelling for my favorite cranky wolf shifter. "You get used to him."
"Hm, well, I can tell his heart's in the right place. He hated being without you all."
"It's not been easy for any of us."
“No, it hasn’t,” she said, stroking her daughter’s cheek. "Will Archer be meeting us at the cabin? Gibby would love to see him."
I shook my head, my heart clenching. "We're not quite as all together as we'd like yet."
She sighed, a sound so dejected and lost that it slumped my shoulders. "I know how you feel."
She loved Lager. Really, truly loved him. His death would devastate her and Gibby, and even though I thought they'd be better off without him, that wasn't for me to say, was it?
"I'm really glad I met you, Shay." A half-truth since I blamed myself for ruining her life, and that would be a burden I'd carry for the rest of mine.
Her grin was so warm I could feel it before it tinged her voice. "I am too. You're an extraordinary woman. Gibby sure thinks so, and Sasha, and so do the three men who look at you like you're the center of their world."
I wrapped my arms tighter around Sasha, feeling my warmth build off of hers. The amount of love I felt for my wolves and my family threatened to overwhelm me sometimes. I had nearly all of them back, but I wasn’t finished. Not yet. But something I hadn't felt in a long time, something that relieved the tension screwing into my back relaxed my mouth into a smile—hope.
* * *
Grady and Thomas walked through and around our cabin first to make sure it was safe, and once they deemed it was, it felt like I was stepping inside my home. I had so many memories about this place—some good, some bad, all life-changing. The books we’d left behind were still in the bookshelf next to the door, and the place still smelled the same, like caramel and wood smoke and almonds. Like Archer and Grady.
Thomas and Grady got busy starting fires in the living room and two bedrooms while I helped Shay settle Gibby and Ribbons into the room across the hall from my old one.
Later, Grady’s loud limp sounded from the living room. “I don’t know where the medkit is, but I’m sure I can find something to sew you up with so you stop bleeding everywhere.”
Shit. In all the excitement, I’d almost forgotten Thomas had been shot. Quietly as I could, I stood from the rocking chair in the corner and tiptoed toward the crib, Sasha asleep and nestled into my side. With my free hand outstretched, I found the edge of the crib and laid her down inside.
Thomas grunted. “Messing up your cozy cabin, aren’t I. How long were you here.”
“Nearly two years while I tried to find you. Where were you, Thomas?”
Shay turned over on the bed against the wall, her soft snores blending with Gibby’s right next to her. I didn’t want to stay in here and disturb them, but maybe going to the living room to help wasn’t the best idea since those two had a lot to talk about. I strode to the door, slipped out, and my first step toward my old bedroom creaked right in the middle of Thomas’s answer.
“I was— Come here, Aika.”
“So you’re not going to tell me,” Grady ground out.
“I was going to ask Aika to make us both some opiate tea so you’ll calm the fuck down while you sew me up,” Thomas growled right back. “Look at yourself, Grady. You think I’m hiding something.”
“Are you?” Grady demanded.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I hurried down the hallway toward them. “Both of you.” I snapped my fingers toward the couch. “Sit.”
They did, and I bustled around the kitchen to collect cups and herbs we hadn’t taken with us. With water already heating over the fire, I set three steaming cups on the coffee table and settled myself between them on the couch.
“What I told you at the church was true,” Thomas said. “I did leave the caves we were all holed up in the morning after Archer…killed Brennan. Faust was coming again, and I did lead him away from you. I gave myself over to him, and he handed me over to Gabriel.”
Not a word from Grady. Just a slip in his anger vibrating across the room.
“For almost two years, Gabriel tortured me, but finally I got free. That very day, I heard a gunshot. That happened to be Lager shooting Aika’s dad.
“Gabriel came after me, and I captured him. It was that night he came to me that I smelled smoke, not from Margin’s Row that had already burned but from Old Man’s Den. There for the slightest second, I thought I also smelled what was left of my wolf pack.”
“You howled,” I said softly. “You brought us to you.”
“And now, Gabriel has Archer.” Grady picked up his cup, gulped down all of his steaming hot tea, and crashed the cup back down on the coffee table. Then he rose and limped down the hallway, every other step a thunderous boom.
I winced at his volume and twined my fingers with Thomas’s. “He took that well.”
“Better than I expected.”
When Grady came back, he slumped down on the other side of Thomas. “We don’t have any antiseptic, but we do have fire and thread. That’ll have to do.”
I stayed where I was holding Thomas’s hand, and he never squeezed or hissed in pain. Maybe he really didn’t feel anything. Or, after everything he’d been through, he’d simply mastered it.
After a while, I dozed and then woke between two warm, hard bodies. The one I was pressed up against the most smelled like almonds and was sweeping kisses across my temple. Sighing, I splayed my hand across his chest, right over his heart, and buried my face into his neck.
“You realize who you’re waking up to this time?” he murmured.
“Do you?” I whispered. “I’m not the one who drank his opiate tea in one swallow. I made it strong too.”
“Let’s see…” He sank his hand down my back to my ass and squeezed. “I’m about sixty percent sure I know who this belongs to.”
I snorted into his neck and then wrapped him up closer. “Shay said you nearly drove her crazy.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, rubbing circles into my back. “I don’t do well when I’m separated from my pack and my girl, or my alpha when I’d just found him again. I was driving myself crazy.”
“Me too. We’ll get Archer back though. Ronin too.”
“I know. It helps that you’re here. More than you know.” He lifted my
head from his shoulder and kissed me deeply, snagging several breaths and charging my pulse. His tongue stirred me completely awake, and I held to him for more, sliding my right thigh over into his lap. I couldn’t control my body. I didn’t want to either.
He rolled me on top of him without breaking the kiss, and he squeezed my ass again as I rubbed myself against him. Warm pressure built between my thighs, building with each of my thrusts. He lowered his seeking fingers below the waistband of my pants, one hand in back to press me into him, the other in front. The feel of his rough palms on my skin made me gasp. The glide of his fingers inside me made me moan.
“Fuck, Aika,” he growled.
“Please…” I breathed.
He kissed me silent and stood with my legs still wrapped around his hips. His fingers pumped a slow, delicious rhythm inside of me, and my whole body rode it as I clung to him. He walked me down the hallway toward my bedroom, away from Thomas’s snores, somehow not knocking me into the wall while he made my body twitch and crave him even more.
Outside the door, he put me down, our breaths loud and ragged. Need blazed through me, and my head spun as he opened the door for me. Inside, silence charged the air around us, crackling with energy and anticipation.
In the next instant, his lips covered mine as he shoved me toward the bed. We toppled down on it together. His tongue plundered and stroked my mouth open wider, and he moved it in the same rhythm he drove his hips into me.
I panted into his next kiss and the next even louder. Even though his body pressed into mine, I needed him closer still. I arched up to meet him and ran my fingers over his broad shoulders, through his short hair. Still kissing me, he threaded his fingers through my hair with one hand and yanked it to deepen our kiss. I lost myself in him, in the feel of his other hand hiking up my flannel. With one pull, he tore the shirt from my body, the buttons spilling everywhere. He sank his kisses down the column of my neck and lower, dragging my pants down my hips as he did.
“Yes. Grady, please.” I could hardly get the words out. The things he was doing with his mouth on my breast scrambled my mind to near nonsense.
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