by KT Strange
Almost.
He didn’t even blink when I kicked him under the table, hard.
“That’s sweet. Well you take care of her. She looks exhausted.” The waitress batted Eli on the shoulder. “You let her sleep, you terrible man. Water for both of you, and coffee, I’m guessing?”
“She takes it with extra sugar,” he said as the waitress bustled away, before turning to look back at me.
“Eli, what the fuck,” I hissed at him. He lifted the menu up, scanning it.
“You should get something with iron,” he said. I growled.
“Eli.”
“You keep making that face, it’s gonna stick like that. How’s a grilled cheese with a spinach salad sound?”
“Eli—” I bit my tongue as the waitress came back with our drinks on a tray.
“You two ready to order? Oh, where’s the ring?” She set our coffees down, one at a time, her eyes glued to my left hand, and my bare ring-finger.
“Couldn’t afford it, if I’m honest. Didn’t want to wait to make her mine, and she was okay with not having a ring, weren’t you, baby?” Eli gave the waitress a devastating smile and she blinked for a moment.
“That’s so sweet,” she said, and then hesitated. “Coffee’s free, with your entree.”
“You gonna have the grilled cheese?” Eli looked at me over the menu, that stupid smile hovering on his lips. What exactly was his game? Robbing people in the middle of nowhere, playing newly-weds with some small-town diner waitress. As soon as we got back in the van he was going to explain.
“The chicken and broccoli cheese casserole,” I said, doing my best not to grit my teeth. “With the cracker-crumb topping.” This adventure we were on was feeling a lot less Bonnie and Clyde and a lot more Bonnie and Snide since I’d woken up.
“Good choice,” the waitress took down Eli’s steak and bacon order without a blink, even when he ordered a side of ham sausage to go along with it.
“PETA must hate you,” I said as she walked away. “You wanna tell me what’s up?” Eli gave me a flat look and sipped his coffee.
“It was a mistake to bring you with me,” he said after a moment. My stomach clenched hard, a painful tightening in my chest along with it.
“What?”
“She’ll take care of you. Just need to get her more amenable to the idea. If she feels bad for you, she’ll help you get back to Seattle and the rest of the pack.” He drank his coffee like it was a done deal.
“What the fuck are you on about?” I stared at him. “I can’t… no, Eli, I need to know you’re safe.”
His gaze lifted from his coffee cup to meet my intense gaze.
“And I need to know you’ll be safe. Taking you into a strange wolf pack’s territory is a death sentence for you, Darcy. You’re a witch. The only reason we didn’t rip out your throat the first time we saw you was—”
“The fact you were standing in the middle of your record label’s office, and murdering an intern was probably a bad idea right then.”
“You think we’re animals, and hell, we are, but there’s some wolves that don’t even like humans. I got the impression, from what Wolfe told me, that the kind we’re going to run into are of that breed. I can’t risk your safety.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, and then went quiet as our dishes were brought out. The waitress set down a third plate, a piece of apple pie, with two dessert forks.
“For you two, on the house, as a little wedding gift,” she said with a smile. “We didn’t have anything when my husband and I got married, and I think it’s just charming you two have only each other and that’s all you need.”
Eli shrugged.
“Oh, we’re not that hard-up—”
“Hon,” she said, stopping him right there. “I saw that death trap you two pulled up in. Take the pie, and then take your sweet girl and go find someplace nice by the river to camp a few days.” The waitress winked at me. “Corner store up the street is still open, unless you two are trying.”
With that she whisked away, and I had to swallow an expletive or two.
Eli’s eyes were hot on my face, and he wore a look that sent fire racing down my stomach to spread warmth between my legs.
“Trying?” The word that escaped the back of my throat was more of a squeak than anything else. The mental image burned into my mind, his naked back arched as he pinned me down by the wrists, the rough chafe of his jeans as he slid his hips between my thighs—
“I’ll ditch you here and she’ll feel awful for you,” he broke through my thoughts once the waitress was out of earshot.
“You are not ditching me here,” I shot back, the warmth of arousal inside me quickly turning to anger. “I’m staying with you. We’re seeing this through, together.”
“Darcy—”
“No. You’re going to vanish into the woods, and then what? What then? The pack can’t lose you, Eli. It’d kill them. It’ll destroy Finn. We just need to lay low for a bit, and then…”
“And then?” he asked, all humor and the twinkling pretend-newly-wed shine disappearing from his expression. “I nearly killed Tupper. I would have killed him.” A hint of regret colored his voice, and for a moment he looked almost hesitant.
“What stopped you?”
Eli stared at me for a long moment before picking up his fork. He shook his head.
“Eat your food, Darcy.”
“Eli—”
“Llewellyn,” he said, his voice rough and low. “Eat your damn food.”
I crossed my arms under my breasts, and tried to ignore the way his eyes dipped down for a second before meeting my gaze again.
“You’re taking me with you,” I said. “Don’t make me order you to.” I shoved all the weight of my power behind that one word.
His fork paused half-way to his mouth, a curl of bacon stabbed on the tines. His eyes burned bright.
“You don’t want to start that game, Darcy,” he said, before taking a bite. I still refused to pick up my own fork, waiting in silence as he ate.
“Why not?” I asked after a few moments of quiet between us.
“You’ll lose,” he said simply. “Now eat your food. It’s getting cold.”
I reached for my fork, then hesitated, my arm stiff on the table.
“I’m going with you,” I said again, my power wavering in my voice, not enough to fully command him, but threatening it.
Lightning-fast, his hand darted out, his fingers wrapping around my wrist so hard it almost hurt. He pinned my hand down to the tabletop, his eyes dark as I froze in his grip, my heart in my throat.
“So that’s how you wanna play it?” he asked. His chest heaved once, and I swallowed hard.
“You’re hurting me,” I whispered. His gaze flickered to my hand for a moment. His fingers unwrapped from my skin, the flesh white where he’d grabbed me.
I picked up my fork and chased a piece of chicken around my plate. He watched me until I took a bite, then another. We were quiet, but there was an energy humming between us, so tangible I could almost see it, taste it at the back of my mouth, feel it tingling on my skin.
I’d crossed a line with him.
But he’d blown through all of my boundaries too.
“You can come with me, but you listen to whatever I say, and you do exactly what I tell you to do,” he said after I’d eaten halfway through my entree. The food was good, but our little showdown had sapped me of energy after everything else that had gone down that night.
“Yessir,” I said dully. Eli stiffened, his eyes narrowing before he got to his feet.
“Finish up. I’ll get a box for the pie,” he said, before stalking down to the other end of the diner. I did my best not to roll my eyes, and finished as much of my dinner as my stomach would allow. The portions were huge, the sauce was rich and creamy, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood for some good ol’ fashioned comfort binge-eating.
I didn’t fee
l bad about telling him he wasn’t getting rid of me that easy, though.
The sound of an engine starting up made me jump to my feet.
No fucking way.
Outside the van’s headlights flickered on as Eli backed it out of its parking spot.
Four
Darcy
Without a thought, I darted out the fire exit, running like hell until I stumbled right in front of the van as he lurched forward.
The nose of the van dipped down as he slammed hard on the brakes.
I glared at him through the windshield, my look echoing the fury on his face.
After several moments, I edged around the van and grabbed the door, bolting inside it before he could take off.
“The fuck were you thinking?” My voice was ragged and high-pitched. He glanced over his shoulder and I followed his gaze. The waitress was staring out at us, her lips parted. “Well you just blew your stupid lovebird cover-story, asshole, so congratulations. Now she’s definitely going to remember you.” I slapped his shoulder hard.
“Seatbelt,” he growled and punched the gas. I rocked back into my seat and grabbed at my seatbelt as we took off, my breathing huffed and hard in the back of my throat.
“You are an asshole. And a dick. All those nasty things I was thinking back in the woods tonight? I was right about all of them.”
He was quiet for a second.
“You were thinking nasty things about me?” he asked, and when I turned to look at him, a smile had curled up the corner of his mouth. The cement sprawled out in front of the van as we drove out of town, and back onto the two-lane highway.
“Did you at least pay for our dinner?”
“Of course. I even tipped.”
“Well since you’re making a habit of felonious behavior—”
“That’s a big word for a little witch.” His sense of humor seemed to have returned since I’d ordered him around in the diner and he’d tried to take off on me. The flip-flopping of his emotions was doing me in.
I made a face at him, which he didn’t see because he was driving.
“Call me little witch again, and I’ll fry your balls,” I said, my heartbeat slowing to something resembling normal. Eli snorted. “Don’t believe me?”
“No, I do.” He shifted in his seat. “You ever seen the way Finn looks at you?”
I swallowed, mouth dry.
“What—”
“Cash too. Charlie? Ace? They’re sunk. Every one of them. We walked into that meeting room at the label, and they were done. One look at you, the curl of your scent on the air, and it was over. Fighting our better instincts was useless,” he stopped talking for a moment as we merged onto a larger highway. A sign flickered by the window. I-5, North. The knot in my stomach tightened.
“Where are you going with this?” I asked, my voice soft and small. “Trying to make me feel bad—”
“Darcy, no,” he cut me off, sounding pained. He reached out, his fingers brushing over the back of my hand. He clasped it gently in his grip. His skin was warm, setting that shaky spot inside of me at ease. “Doing what I’m doing, taking you to some strange wolf pack, it’s dangerous. If something happens to you, if I can’t protect you, I don’t know what it’d do to the pack.”
His eyes dropped from the road for a moment, and I watched him, barely able to breathe. Eli was always so closed up, his feelings wrapped tight beneath layers of heavy looks and neutral expressions that had driven me crazy.
“I’m risking our future by taking you with me,” he continued. He swallowed hard. My eyes followed the dip of his Adam’s apple, my own throat echoing the tight feeling he must have been experiencing.
“I can keep myself safe,” I promised. “Nothing is going to happen to me. You wouldn’t let it, even if I couldn’t protect myself.”
He huffed out a laugh, more of a low rumble than anything else. He squeezed my fingers and let go of my hand.
“That I’m even willing to risk losing you says more about me than I ever wanted to know.” He went quiet, the dark trees streaking past the window as I shifted my focus outside the car. It was too painful to look at him. We were always dancing around whatever it was between us rather than staring right at it. It was like looking at the sun.
“You think you’re some kind of monster, dragging me along like this?” I asked, not willing to let the door he’d opened close on me. I had one foot wedged in the way, and I went after him, determined to make him lay his feelings bare once and for all.
“Sweetheart,” he paused, the pain lacing through his words, “I’ve never been anything but.”
The breath rushed out of me.
Was that how he saw himself? As a monster?
I waited a moment too long, because he chuckled.
“You’ve known it from the minute you met me.” He shook his head. “Go to sleep Darcy.”
“Eli—”
“Go to sleep,” the second time he said it was harsh, grating over my skin. “I’m done talking.”
Anger flashed inside me, helplessness and irritation mixing together into a toxic sludge.
“It can’t always be on your terms, Elias,” I snapped, before turning in my seat, hunching down and staring out the window with my back mostly to him. I closed my eyes, trying not to wish he’d left me at the diner.
Because deep down I knew he needed me, that there was something in him that was broken that only I could help him fix. Maybe I was the only one who’d ever seen it, the real Eli, aching and desperate for help.
The car slowing down made me sit up, that and the soft sound of the radio fading into my consciousness. I blinked out into the darkness, our headlights barely cutting through it.
“Where are we?”
“At the edge of regret, past the point of no return,” Eli said without humor. “Last chance to get out was a few hours ago, but you slept through it.”
“I notice you didn’t try to wake me, so I’ll take that as a sign you actually want me here,” I snipped at him. He rolled his eyes and killed the engine, the headlights dying into the blackness. I took a breath and leaned forward to stare out the windshield.
The sky had the hint of gray in it, fading out into the inky black. Stars were picked out across it, oblivious to the darkness that was threatening to devour them.
“Stay in the van,” Eli said.
“You really need to stop that,” I shot back. “At least say ‘please.’” Eli gave me a steady look and I had to brace myself so I wouldn’t shrink back into my seat.
“Do I tell you what to do when we’re touring?” His voice was low. “Do I ever, ever contradict you, cut you down in front of others, in situations where you know better than me?”
My mind pinwheeled as I scrambled to come up with something to defend myself with.
My silence was deafening and he gave me a grim, flat smile.
“This is your life and death, Darcy. These are wolves, wolves that don’t have an office building full of mundanes to worry about seeing your bloodied, lifeless body. Do I need to continue pointing out the obvious?”
He was right.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured. His gaze softened and he reached out for me, his hand brushing over my cheek for a second before he pulled away.
“Stay in the van, please,” he said. I nodded, sinking into my seat. He left, the door clicking shut behind him.
I’m an idiot. A stubborn, headstrong idiot.
I watched him stalk the perimeter of the clearing we were in. He was a shadow, slipping through the dark, his blond hair cast in shades of gray. In the quiet my heart beat loud in my ears, pulsing in my throat and making me feel like I was going to be sick.
The starlight traced a line of silver along his profile as he stopped, muscles in his back tense. The moment stretched, as he waited, the slow rise and fall of his shoulders, until I wanted to throw the door open and ask him what was wrong.
His head tipped back, his back arching, and he let out a noise that made my blood ru
n cold, even muffled through the shelter of the car.
It was a cry that echoed into the trees, raised the hair on my arms, my breath stopping dead in my chest—
A wolf’s howl.
The sound died in the dark.
Eli didn’t move, as I sat, shivering in my seat.
When he did it again, this time longer, somehow louder, the sound filling the air, my fingers were on the door handle before I could stop myself.
Eli whipped around as I stumbled out into the cold air. I needed to be close to him—
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. His frown melted into something else, confusion, maybe. He moved toward me.
“Darcy?”
“I can’t,” I whispered, trying to find the words for the feeling boiling inside me. I needed to be close to him. I pressed up into his space, my arms wrapping around his waist.
“Hey. Hey what’s wrong?”
I closed my eyes and hid my face in his chest, shaking.
“Shhh,” he soothed me, hands rubbing over my back before he held me tight.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” I mumbled into the shirt he was wearing, the cotton soft and worn on my face. “You just sounded… it was so desperate, I don’t know, I’m feeling everything at once and—” I bit my words off before I made myself sound even stupider than I already had.
“Makes sense,” Eli said after a moment to think. “You’re affected more than a mundane when we sing, so maybe when we howl it’s the same.”
“I just needed to get to you.”
“Well, I was calling for help,” he said with a shrug that moved me against his chest. The firm muscles of his back twitched as I dug my fingers in to cling to him.
“Is that what that noise was?” I looked up at him in the dark. This close, his eyes almost glittered. A wry smile played on his lips.
“It works better if I’m shifted, but that’s not an option right now, so that’s the best I could do.”
“Worked pretty good on me,” I said, hiding my face in his shirt again, trying not to breathe in his scent too deeply. My head was spinning, my whole body feeling off-kilter. It was embarrassing to cling to him like this, but there was nowhere else I wanted to be, or could imagine myself, other than pressed against him.