“Here you go.” Jessup handed her a small tablet.
She took it with numb hands and looked at the screen. On it was aerial footage of herself and the men at the starting line.
“This is what the drone is for—to follow the race?”
Jessup smiled. “I admit, this kind of technology is beyond me. It’s what happens when you get to be my age.”
“How old are you?”
“A little over one ten.”
She gaped at him. He didn’t even appear to be middle-aged. “A hundred and ten years old?”
“We age well.” He shrugged.
That didn’t make sense. “But…”
“Is something wrong?”
“Why do you mate with humans, knowing they’ll die so much sooner?’
“Because they won’t,” Jessup said, patting her hand. “Our mate bond extends the life of the women we choose, be they human or some other short-lived Supernatural species.”
“How?” Denise was starting to feel dizzy as she tried to process this information.
He shrugged. “Just a few decades ago, I would have said it’s magic, but now I would say it’s both magic and chemistry. There are things that happen to a woman once we take them to mate—if the bond is true, that is.” He turned to the men. “I believe they are ready to start.”
Denise squeezed her eyes shut, trying to process all that information. “O-kay.”
A gun went off, startling her into dropping the tablet, but Jessup caught it with a lightning-quick move. He handed it back to her.
“You still need this.”
“Right,” she said, taking it and trying to focus on the screen. “I’m surprised there aren’t more of you out here watching.”
Only a few people were with them. There had been at least four times as many in Jessup’s cramped kitchen.
“They are watching, but from various parts of the course or on one of these,” he said, nodding at her tablet, his gaze intent on the tiny moving figures on the screen.
She blinked. The men weren’t men anymore. A pack of six wolves were running pell-mell up a hill that expert hikers would tread with care. As she watched, a black-and-grey mottled one was knocked off his feet by a larger brindled wolf.
Denise gasped as the wolf rolled down the hill.
“Don’t worry. Dave will be fine.”
She shot Jessup a disbelieving look. That fall had been brutal.
“See.” Jessup pointed to the screen. “He’s up and back in it.”
He was right; the black and grey was on his feet and racing to catch up to the pack.
“They’ll go up and down that mountain. At the bottom is a puzzle box with coordinates to the next location—which is across the gorge. Once there, they’ll scale the highest tree to get the final route. There’s a path that runs under the falls and down into the ravine. At the top of it is a flag. The one who brings that flag here is the winner.”
She gave him a wooden smile. Under other circumstances Denise might have been flattered that all those attractive men were vying for a chance to be her host. They didn’t even know she had money, which was the main source of attraction for most of the men she’d dated in the past.
Jessup kept throwing her expectant glances, and she wondered if he expected her to cheer.
Am I supposed to root for one of them? Seriously?
Even if she had been able to recognize the wolf form of any of the men she had just met, there was no way she could pick out an individual in that shifting and snarling mass racing through the forest.
She exhaled with a hiss, the sound blending with the sudden rumble of an engine. Her head jerked left, facing the source of the sound. In the next second, Yogi’s Jeep came screeching to a halt a few yards away.
Denise’s heart nearly stopped as he threw open his door. He flashed past them, shifting in midair with a deep-throated roar. She didn’t see anything but a mahogany-brown streak as he raced up the hill after the pack between one beat of her heart and the next.
“Holy shit,” she breathed.
Jessup clucked his tongue. “And I thought the boy was reasonable.”
She grabbed his arm. “You’re not going to go after his sister and brother for this, are you?”
His look was condescending. “Unlike his father, I don’t punish the child for the sins of the parent. I actually think better of him for trying to get into this race. We’ve all smelled how he feels about you…but he’ll never be able to catch up.”
“How he smells about me?” What the hell did that mean?
Jessup started to answer, but another man came up and hailed him.
“Do you think we should send up another drone to follow Yogi?” the newcomer asked.
“Yes.” Jessup waved the man on. The teens at the starting line scrambled, getting a second propeller drone out of the back of a truck.
“Wait, you didn’t tell me how Yogi smells about me,” she said, trotting after the group.
They paid her no attention as they launched another quadcopter, scrambling to get the feed up and running. The drone zipped away, becoming a dot in the distance.
“I want to see that one,” she said, tapping at the menu of controls that bordered the camera feed in the center of her tablet.
One of the teens took the tablet and fiddled with it before handing it back. The monitor was now divided, showing the images streaming from both cameras. On the first feed, the pack had splintered, separating as the fastest and slowest sorted themselves.
Two wolves, the brindled black and a honey-colored one, were in the lead.
The second half of the screen was much harder to make out. Too many trees were blocking the way.
“Switching to infrared,” someone called out.
The tree-covered image stuttered. She could see a rainbow comet streaking across the blue and purple backdrop of the forest—it was closing in on the running form of another wolf.
“Whoa, wait. He’s much closer now,” she said, holding up her tablet.
Yogi was catching up. He was almost on top of the two wolves straggling at the tail end of the pack.
Someone whistled. “Damn, he’s fast.”
That was an understatement. Yogi was flying. He’d already overtaken half the pack. However, there was a big gap between him and the wolves at the front edge of her screen.
Jessup snorted. “Gus and Levi are still leading, but he’s determined, isn’t he? One has to admire that tenacity.”
Tenacity? It was fucking insanity. Animals had run themselves to death at lower speeds. Yogi could kill himself trying to overtake the others.
He’s doing it for you. Not only was he risking his life and health by acting like a maniac, but he was also potentially risking the safety of his brother and sister for her—no matter what Jessup said.
A few days ago, she hadn’t even met Yogi. Less than two days ago, she would have happily brained him with a baseball bat and left him in a ditch. But things were different now.
After more than a decade of being on her own, someone had taken care of her when she was down. He nursed her back to health, worried over her. He’d even sent that beefcake photo of himself to her douchebag ex so she could save face.
Denise didn’t want Yogi to give up the chance to bury his family feud. Not if keeping it going would hurt him or his siblings in the long run. It was too much.
Please let Jessup be telling the truth. The Avery patriarch had said the right things about not punishing kids for the sins of their parents, but it could just be talk.
“Wow, he’s almost there!”
The two halves of the screen were overlapping images now. The one on the right displayed the normal aerial view. On the left, the same area was shown in the shifting blues and greens of the infrared spectrum. She could tell which wolf was Yogi because he was glowing like a bright red coal, such was his level of exertion compared to the others.
The two wolves in the lead were running down a ravine, only a few hund
red yards away, but the path was so narrow she didn’t see how Yogi could overtake them.
Except…he didn’t try. At a fork in the road, he ran in the other direction—not down but up.
“Where is he going?” Even Jessup was confused.
The glowing coal ran up the ridge to the top of the waterfall. For a second, he paced there, as if eyeing the distance from the top of the falls to other side of the gorge.
“No way! He can’t jump that. It’s more than twenty meters!” Jessup and the others crowded around her tablet, each wearing expressions ranging from shock to disbelief.
“Oh my God,” she squeaked, shaking her head. Don’t do it. Don’t.
Denise held her breath, clapping her hand over her mouth to muffle her involuntary scream when Yogi backed up to get a running start. He bounded over the short space at the top of the falls—only a few meters—before launching himself into space.
The blood in her veins ran ice cold. She shuddered as Yogi flew in a wide arc, his body an arrow shooting for the rocky outcropping on the other side of the gorge…a foothold that seemed miles away to her horrified eyes.
It could have been the exhilarating climax of a werewolf movie, but this was real life.
At the last second, she squeezed her eyes shut, tears stinging behind closed lids. There was no way Yogi would make it to the other side. She couldn’t watch him plunge to his death.
“Hot damn! He did it.”
Her eyes flew open, but she couldn’t see. The image was too blurry. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she blinked to clear them until she could see and confirm for herself that he was on the other side.
Yogi was now well ahead of the other wolves—far enough to safely shift and scale a tree. Jessup touched the image to zoom in.
“He’s got it. He’s got the flag.”
Un-fucking-believable! She couldn’t believe he’d made it. That he was still alive.
“I’m going to kill him!” The minute he crossed the finish line, she would wring his neck for scaring the crap out of her.
Instead of backtracking as she expected, Yogi shifted back into wolf form and veered left, now leading the pack around the falls in what she presumed was another route back—one that didn’t have him trip over the contestants trailing behind him.
“How did he even know where the flag was?” she asked, brow creased.
“He could smell it,” one of the teens chimed. Out of the corner of her eye, Jessup glanced at her as if to gauge her reaction.
Puzzled, she frowned at the screen. She could see a bit of cloth in Yogi’s jaws. It was bright purple. She squinted and hit the zoom button Jessup had used earlier.
“Hey! Not okay,” she snapped, glaring at the group around her.
Jessup had the grace to look slightly abashed.
“We needed something with your scent so we borrowed some clothing from your bag.”
She bit her lip to keep from bitching him out, drawing the tablet closer to her chest.
Yogi was almost there. The path back must be much shorter than the one to the falls. With that Hail Mary leap, he’d ensured victory—taking years off her life in the process.
Any minute now, he’d cross the finish line carrying the flag in his jaws—the purple bra she’d probably never be able to wear again. Not unless she wanted to sport the peekaboo look courtesy of fang-shaped holes.
Chapter 17
His muscles were screaming when he finally saw Denise and the others waiting at the finish line.
A few more steps and he was there, collapsing at her feet with her brassiere in his jaws.
Yogi had driven a little over a mile before swearing and turning the car around. He couldn’t let anyone else claim Denise. And regardless of what Jessup claimed, that was what the ‘hosting’ was—a thinly veiled attempt to snake his mate out from under him.
Trying to let her go had ripped his heart out. He’d nearly wrecked his Jeep getting back, then had run until every cell in his body throbbed and begged him to stop.
Now he was shutting down.
Denise hovered anxiously before she got on her knees and wrapped her arms around him.
Oh, that’s nice. Shifting to his two-legged form, he took a deep breath and settled in her embrace, too spent to move.
“He cheated,” Levi called out. Yogi cracked his lids, fixing a baleful glare on the Avery wolves just now crossing the finish line.
“How was that cheating?” Denise’s tone was incredulous. “He caught up to you despite being like miles behind and then he flew—fucking flew—like a goddamn psycho kamikaze over that gorge!”
Levi began to argue, but Jessup interrupted with a raised hand.
“Enough, boys. It’s obvious she’s made her choice.”
The Avery alpha’s tone wasn’t exactly enthusiastic, more like resigned and even slightly amused.
Levi scoffed and shook his head. “She just doesn’t know any better. He’s the first werewolf she met. It’s classic imprinting.”
Yogi raised a hand and flipped him off.
Levi started for them, but Denise scowled at him. She crawled around Yogi to put herself right between the two men.
Jessup laughed and walked over to join her. “It’s clear these two have formed a bond. While we are disappointed Denise won’t be joining our family, even temporarily, we should thank both her and Yogi for what they did for Oliver.”
Levi and the other Were, Gus, shuffled and looked away.
“Thank you, Denise,” Gus finally said after a beat too long. “We do owe you for that—big time.”
He cocked his head and smiled flirtatiously. “And if you change your mind and decide to ditch this loser, we’ll be waiting.”
Yogi was within his rights to rearrange Gus’ face for that comment, but he was still too tired.
“Anyone would have done the same in my place. Well, anyone decent…” Denise said.
Jessup’s tone was wry. “I really don’t think that’s true. Most people would have left a lost cub in the woods, thinking it was his rightful place. For a real wolf cub, that is true, but Weres require more care. We can survive like that, orphaned so young, but we would never learn to control our dual nature without guidance.”
Distracted, Denise tore her gaze away from the others. “Wait, what do you mean by in the woods?”
“When you rescued him, I mean. You did do that, correct?” Jessup asked, a note of puzzled condescension creeping into his voice.
Her lips parted. “Yes, I did, but not in the woods.” She looked down at Yogi, brow creased. “Did you think I found him in the woods, too?”
Frowning, he nodded. “Of course,” he said, voice fraying a little in his exhaustion. “At least that’s what I assumed. Are you saying that’s not what happened?”
“No!” She held up her hands.
Jessup frowned. “Wait, so you didn’t save him?”
“I did, but he wasn’t in the woods. He was in a lab—a place called Reliance Research. It does illegal animal research. That’s why I was there. I…I rescue animals from places like those.”
“Fuck me to the seven hells,” Yogi swore as he grabbed her hand and tried to stand.
When he looked at Denise, she was nervously glancing between him and Jessup, panic on her features.
One minute, Jessup’s face was mildly annoyed. The next, he was a beast. His face contorted with rage, he whipped around and howled.
Denise gripped Yogi’s hand tightly as every wolf in Lunar Springs poured out of their houses, shifting as they ran. Even the men who’d raced against him shifted back despite being nearly as tired as he was.
Yogi held Denise close as they were surrounded—the center of a snarling mass of wolves. Only he and Jessup maintained their human forms.
“We have a major problem,” Jessup announced to the group. “Get the chief.”
Chapter 18
Denise’s eyes flitted nervously from werewolf to werewolf.
When Jessup had said, ‘G
et the chief,’ she’d assumed the man would come out to the Averys, but that wasn’t how things worked apparently.
She’d been hustled into an SUV and driven to yet another cabin in the woods. Only this one was more like a log mansion.
Now she was sitting at the wide oak table at wolf central, also known as Douglas Maitland’s house.
It was a smaller group than the crowd of near-rabid wolves she’d left at Lunar Springs. Jessup and Levi were here, in addition to a few other members of the Avery clan.
The chief’s daughter was also in attendance. She was an intimidatingly beautiful woman named Mara.
“Yogi,” Mara called, holding out her hand.
Denise ignored the little pang in her chest when Yogi and Mara hugged warmly. The two had a whispered conversation, their familiarity obvious. How close were they? Was Yogi interested in the gorgeous lady wolf?
Of course he is, stupid. Look at her.
Yogi had only competed in the fortitudo to help her out. She’d made it clear she didn’t want to be thrown with a stranger, so he’d raced to spare her that. It was the sort of thing the stupidly noble did.
Except he’d almost killed himself to win. She peeked at Yogi and Mara from underneath her lashes. He wouldn’t have done that if he was interested in someone else, would he?
Mara’s almost-luminescent green eyes turned to her and Denise looked away.
Hoo-daddy. Despite being model sleek, Mara looked like she could take Levi and Gus with one hand tied behind her back. Denise had never met a more physically intimidating woman.
If only she’d found someone like that for her team, then she could have left Max at home. Snorting, Denise transferred her attention to Mara’s even more intimidating father.
And I didn’t think they made them in sizes bigger than Yogi. Good thing she hadn’t put money on that, because Douglas Maitland, the chief, was a stunning mountain of a man. She couldn’t even tell how tall he was because it hurt her neck to look all the way up at his face.
Feeling like Gimli the dwarf surrounded by elves on steroids, she hunched down at the table. But as two final stragglers trudged into the room, Douglas turned to her.
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