THE SENSATION OF BEING part of a pack again, even for just a little while, prevented me from complaining as Malachi carried me as easily as if I was a little girl over to his SUV and dumped me inside. So I didn’t attempt to wriggle out of his grasp, nor did I complain about my companion’s high-handedness when he bit out a curt “Buckle up” before circling back around to the driver’s seat.
Still, the moment of physical separation before Malachi reentered the vehicle was enough to clear the seductive allure of pack out of my mind. And as soon as my brain kicked back into gear, a sinking sensation developed in the pit of my gut.
Malachi’s visit isn’t a social call, I realized.
Unfortunately, my hunch was proven correct as soon as Malachi settled his massive bulk into the driver’s seat. Rather than diving into the lengthy reminiscences that my animal half itched to indulge in, my cousin punched a button on the hands-free speaker phone to initiate a call. And the face that filled the screen, while unfamiliar from an individual perspective, was just as instantly recognizable as a member of the class not-so-fondly referred to as “uber-alpha werewolves.”
In person, the male on the other end of the line would have filled the air with electricity due to his very presence alone. Lupine teeth would glint very faintly within his mouth regardless of his otherwise human body. And every wolf in the vicinity would instinctively bow their heads and avert their eyes rather than gazing directly upon the uber-alpha’s face.
Even with the mitigating factor of technology to separate us, I found myself angling away from the screen so as not to accidentally anger the much stronger shifter. Scary Guy, my wolf whispered as we twitched in our seat. And my human half could barely muster the energy to correct her. Tribunal member, I countered after one long beat of silence.
As best I could see from glimpses out the corner of my eye, Malachi appeared to agree with my wolf’s assessment. His already stiff spine straightened yet further under the middle-aged male’s regard while his eyes dropped to the steering wheel. And I shivered as I realized my powerful cousin’s dominance was eclipsed so thoroughly by that of the shifter on the other end of the line that Malachi might as well have been a clawless pup. I wasn’t so sure even Dad could have given this werewolf a run for his money.
“So you were right,” the older male intoned without further greeting, words that should have sounded pleasant instead screeching across my ears like a curse. Beneath my skin, my wolf whimpered and cowered on her belly, wondering if it would be considered an insult to open the door and flee from the SUV. Too dangerous, my human half decided, nonetheless grabbing onto the release latch with a death grip. We wouldn’t run yet, but we’d be ready...just in case.
Unlike me, Malachi was at least able to respond verbally to Scary Guy’s comment. “Yes, sir,” my cousin said promptly. “Ember Wilder-Young is now safely off the streets and under my care. You can remove her file from the Lupanet and call off your dogs.”
Unfortunately, the male’s gaze slid away from Malachi to settle on my face in lieu of an answer. And while I couldn’t actually see the change since my eyes were firmly focused on my toes, I definitely felt it. Felt the cold trickle of dread running up my spine and raising sweat upon my brow. Felt the tingle of the uber-alpha’s interest and the terror of my own wolf. It required every ounce of courage I possessed not to take to my heels and run as far and as fast as I was able.
Only, it appeared that sitting inside Malachi’s SUV was the only factor protecting me from Scary Guy’s guillotine. So I merely sank deeper into the leather seat, wishing I was able to turn invisible at the flick of a switch.
I’m not here, I thought to the world at large. I’m not worth your time. Ignore me.
And almost as if he’d heard me, the male looked away at last and allowed my lungs to heave in the first breathe in nearly a minute. “My dogs are on standby,” the Tribunal member said at last, and I could almost see icicles forming on the interior of the car from the coldness of his tone. “I’ll send them out into the field tomorrow, if necessary, to deal with the problem within my territory.” Scary Guy paused, and if possible, his words grew yet icier. “Extradition agreements,” he finished, “only go so far.”
“Sir,” Malachi acknowledged, his voice faintly strangled now that the other male’s attention had returned to his face and left mine behind. Still, his words were clear enough to be understandable when he continued. “I appreciate your patience and look forward to providing a favorable report in the morning.”
“And I look forward to your complete and utter failure at dawn,” the other male responded as amiably as if he was discussing an 80% chance of rain with a farmer whose crops were parched by drought. “It will be a pleasure wiping Wolf Young’s offspring off the face of the earth...with his freely given blessing no less.”
And that jab was, apparently, one step too far. Aggression and anger filled the cabin of the SUV, the scents so strong I could almost taste them.
Which was when I realized that Scary Guy had been baiting us both. Had been pushing and pushing in hopes of triggering a reaction.
And Malachi was about to oblige with a harangue that would get us both killed. An eventuality that I simply couldn’t allow.
So I did the only thing I could think of. Ignoring the malaise that softened my muscles and bent down my spine, I forced my body to move through Scary Guy’s aura without faltering. Holding my breath and averting my eyes, I reached forward and ended the call.
Chapter 10
“That was unbelievably reckless,” Malachi growled. And he had the right of the matter.
Still, if Scary Guy was a member of this region’s Tribunal and Malachi was allowed in this territory only under the former’s sufferance, then the uber-alpha held all of the power in the duo’s relationship. I wasn’t about to let my cousin lose his temper and his permission to be here due to a simple threat, no matter how much the older male’s dominance made me want to disappear into my safer lupine skin.
As if sensing my attention had turned back in her direction at last, my beast spoke up. Let me out, she begged, pawing gently at the inside of my throat in an effort to gain my attention and get her own way. I’ll protect us.
Subtle she was not.
Unfortunately, now wasn’t a good time for shifting, not when my cousin and I had issues to hash out verbally. So I soothed the beast even as I dropped a hand down to cover the twinge that had sprung to life within my aching gut.
Was that my wolf impacting me in two places at once? The pain didn’t seem familiar, though. Felt instead like a sudden burst of adrenaline followed by an extended dose of teeth-grinding resolve.
Shaking off the unpleasant sensation as irrelevant, I turned to face Malachi once again. “I really appreciate you sticking your neck out for me,” I started. “But I don’t want to get you into trouble. You can let me do my thing, tell Scary Guy that I slipped my leash once I’ve had time to finish up here. No harm, no foul. You’re off the hook.”
“Scary Guy?” For a moment, I detected amusement lurking behind Malachi’s flinty eyes. But then his voice turned resolute. “No, I’m not going to drop you like a hot potato, little cousin. But you’re right about one thing. We can solve this issue right now.”
Except, despite his proactive words, Malachi paused rather than continuing with what had the feel of a prepared speech. My companion cleared his throat, jiggled his leg, and gazed out the window as if he didn’t want to touch his subsequent words with a ten-foot pole.
Aw. My cousin was so cute, treating our upcoming conversation the way he’d responded to his least-favorite food as a child. And just like the wolf pup who had gamely eaten whatever was placed in front of him even if broccoli made him gag, Malachi showcased a similar bravery now.
“Your father told me you’d bonded to a human,” Malachi said at last, faltering over the final word as if he couldn’t quite understand how I’d wandered so far from the path mandated by good sense. “But I did my research be
fore I drove up,” he continued, picking up steam as he pushed past the least palatable part of his statement. “If the one-body hasn’t accepted your offer, then you can still break the tether. All it will take is placing increasing amounts of distance between the two of you until the bond snaps. It will hurt like hell, but the pain will pass. Be brave, little cousin, and let me take you home. Your family will protect you while you heal.”
It was a stirring—if misguided—speech. And as if to impress upon me the importance of the occasion, Malachi’s huge hands now dropped down to encompass my own, his palms sweating from the sweltering interior of the car combined with the intensity of our preceding exchange.
But I was only half listening to my cousin’s words. Because I’d realized at long last why so many emotions were rushing through my body that didn’t truly belong.
The mate bond. Through no effort of my own, the tether between Sebastien and myself had drawn taut, the linkage allowing me to sense what my mate was feeling on the other end of the line. And while I reveled in the increased connection, I very much didn’t like what I saw through the professor’s dilated eyes.
Because my level-headed partner was growing increasingly alarmed. Was tunnel-vision focused on some task I couldn’t quite comprehend as he rushed through his house, opening drawers and fumbling for a pen while some unknown danger battered against his locked front door.
And, despite the fact that I understood my cousin’s reason to advocate breaking this encumbrance so I could return to my home pack, Sebastien’s danger brought only one thought to my pounding head. I need to help him. Now!
“I can’t,” I told Malachi simply, my eyes smarting as contact with my mate abruptly snapped from visible to intangible, leaving behind only a gnawing ache to confirm that something was still very wrong on the professor’s end of the line. “I mean, I won’t,” I clarified when my cousin’s mouth opened to explain once again how I could cast my human partner off. “Family is important, but this is my mate we’re talking about. I have to stay and build our bond.”
Then, before Malachi could further argue the point, I broke eye contact and began typing Sebastien’s address into the SUV’s GPS. The process was agonizingly slow, but the internal computer picked out the spot I was referring to one second before my inner wolf tried to run toward our destination on two fleet feet.
“Ember...” Malachi started, arguments brewing like a thunderstorm on the horizon.
And even though I craved common ground between me and a member of my home pack, I didn’t hash out the issue further. Something has happening to Sebastien and I needed to be there to help him. Debating the issue was merely wasting precious time.
“Will you take me to this address or not?” my wolf demanded between human lips.
And as I’d known he would, my big, burly cousin caved. He closed his eyes, breathed out through his nose, then admitted defeat. “Yes,” Malachi murmured at last.
Before his word of acceptance had fully faded from the air, my wolf was taking control of my skin. Crawling into the back seat, I shed my clothing seconds before the fabric would have been ripped violently apart. Then, at long last, I relaxed into the body of my wolf.
EVERYTHING APPEARED simpler through the eyes of my animal half. We were moving in the proper direction—toward our distressed mate rather than away. And even though Malachi was growling out his displeasure at the idea of driving directly into the heart of unnamed danger, my companion’s scent proved his loyalties lay with me rather than with Scary Guy.
Still, my wolf whined, trying to speed the vehicle along with the force of our mind. And in response, Malachi reached over to rest one soothing hand atop my ruff. “We’re almost there, little cousin,” he told me, his deep rumble soothing the hurry, hurry, hurry that filled my head, if only for a little while.
But it soon became clear that we weren’t getting any closer after all. Because a police barricade blocked off the street we’d been about to turn down. And when Malachi rounded the bend, seeking to approach Sebastien’s residence from the other side instead, we ran into barrier after barrier shutting off access to both entrances along with the alley that ran behind my mate’s home.
Meanwhile, Sebastien’s adrenaline had amped up another notch in the few moments it had taken Malachi to drive through the usually quiet suburban neighborhood. I caught brief flickers of images through my mate’s eyes, saw Man in Black and Mr. Shepard breaking down the door and rushing inside with guns drawn. “FBI!” their lips read, the scene strangely silent as it made its way down the tenuous connection of our mate bond. “Hands in the air!”
To my surprise, Sebastien didn’t respond like an average, terrified human. Instead, he stood calmly, hands obediently raised but lips moving in the form of questions and demands I couldn’t quite make out.
Then the vision popped like a soap bubble, leaving the ending unclear. Had the invaders actually been employed by the FBI, or did they work for a more secret organization than that? Were they even government employees in the first place or merely humans masquerading as agents in an effort to gain access to my unsuspecting mate’s home?
And, most importantly—what was happening to my mate?
My wolf raised her muzzle to the sky and howled out our shared agony as we lost the thread of connection. Meanwhile, my human half was so far gone that I didn’t even scold her for the lapse.
Malachi, on the other hand, took our desperation in stride. “Be patient, little cousin,” he admonished, pulling into a parking space a full block away from our goal and turning to rummage behind the seat rather than making any immediate move to disembark. An eternity passed during which my wolf panted and whined while my human half tried—and failed—to gain the upper hand. Unfortunately, my beast had planted her paws for the second time that day and refused to shift, suggesting none of us were going to be rushing to the rescue anytime soon.
But then Malachi exclaimed triumphantly as he snagged a collar and leash out of the supply stash filling the back seat of the SUV. Clicking the restraint shut around my neck—and layering a much-needed illusion of dogliness atop my distraught wolf at the same time—he finally deigned to open the door and allow us both to emerge into the open air.
Only we were too late. Because when Malachi and I jogged around the corner together, we were stopped not so much by a policeman guarding the intersection as by the sight of Sebastien being frog-marched out of his house like a common criminal. My mate stood tall and undefeated, but his feet still moved unerringly away from his den and toward the waiting vehicles that would carry him beyond our ability to assist.
Meanwhile, the corner cop wasn’t any more willing to allow foot passengers down the street than he had been to wave civilian vehicles on through. “Do you live here, sir?” the supposed policeman asked. And, vaguely, I noted an array of characteristics out of place for a simple city cop.
The male had multiple firearms secreted about his body rather than simply one belted to his hip. He stood more erect and alert than the bored policemen I’d seen ambling around campus over the last few days. And the male’s scent exuded suspicion as he barred our entrance to Sebastien’s tree-lined neighborhood.
Malachi, for his part, proved himself more of a pro at the art of subterfuge than even this government-agent-turned-policeman. “Yeah, that’s my house down there,” my cousin answered, seeming to lose thirty pounds of muscle in an instant as he transitioned from Menacing Black Guy to Good Old Boy at the drop of a hat. “Just taking the pup out for a walk.”
Unfortunately, the agent wasn’t so easily hoodwinked. “I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to wait here for a moment,” he countered, laying one restraining hand upon Malachi’s arm.
And while I would have expected my dominant cousin to snap at the uninvited contact, my wolf was the one to break under pressure. Ours! Hurry! Rescue! she moaned as Sebastien was guided into the back seat of a waiting car by a none-too-gentle hand atop the prisoner’s bowed head.
Our m
ate was being taken away from us. Spirited off to who-knew-where before we’d even found the time to solidify our nascent mating bond.
Together, my wolf and I strained against the leash, intent upon rushing to Sebastien’s aid. But we couldn’t yank free of Malachi’s grip. Weren’t even close enough to hear the words Mr. Shepard whispered into my mate’s ear before thumping on the vehicle’s roof with one clenched fist.
All we could do was watch in horror as a closing door blocked Sebastien off from view. The vehicle roared to life beneath him and Mr. Shepard stepped back away from the wheels. Then our mate was carried irrevocably away and out of our life.
Chapter 11
I didn’t want to move, but Malachi was relentless. As soon as the supposed cop sounded the all-clear, my cousin led me down the rapidly emptying street and into a vacant garage. There, I hopped up onto a workbench so I could peer out the lone, dirt-encrusted window and watch the final agent retreat into his vehicle and drive off.
The serenity of the neighborhood returned as quickly as it had initially fled, but solitude wasn’t enough to soothe my wolf. She and I were both inconsolable by this point, our legs prancing and our ears pinned as we struggled against the urge to burst through the window and run down the street after our disappearing mate. Wasting time on subterfuge seemed like the worst possible solution when Sebastien was being drawn further and further away by the minute.
Luckily, Malachi understood the single-mindedness of the beast. Stepping up to the counter, he gathered our furry body into two strong arms and soothed us with his presence alone. “Ember, listen to me,” he said gently.
But my cousin’s words merely streamed in one ear and out the other. The wolf was in sole command of our shared body at the present moment. And to her, Malachi’s mutterings were sounds only, giving her no reason to sniff out meaning underneath.
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