He pulled a jacket over her shoulders and zipped it up to her chin before turning her in a new direction. “The smell is coming from that way. It might be the woman who visited you. If we follow it, we might find where they’re hiding Becca and Theo.”
Sydney nodded. She wrapped her holster around her hips, positioning it so that she could grab it with her free hand while she held onto Jax.
The hurt the hunters had inflicted would stop here.
***
They walked through the open mountain spaces for a while, crossing roads and narrow paths in search of the hunters’ scent. The sun was descending toward the horizon, but he didn’t feel any closer to the finish line than when they’d started. It was frustrating, and he wondered if the trail wasn’t a trick of their cursed soul magic.
What if the woman had woven the false trail to lead them astray? It bought them more time to move their operations and the stolen shifters. It gave them more time to kill the shifters, because why transport them if your goal is to kill them anyway?
What did his kind ever do to them anyway? He understood the evils of his kind, what they were capable of, more than anyone probably did. At the same time, he knew they used that kind of power to hurt each other most of the time. Killian had hurt a few humans while he lived in Stonefall, but he’d taken real pleasure in inflicting pain Joanna and her pack.
For the most part, shifters tried to live simple lives. They worked blue-collar jobs and scraped to get by in rural areas just so their animals had space to run. They did not hunt humans the way these hunters doggedly pursued shifters.
The injustice of it boiled through his veins. The whole mountain trek felt useless aside from the time they’d shared in the cabin. It’d been the solitude of that cabin that allowed Sydney to let him in, and for that, he was grateful. This was his mate, the woman destined for him by the universe.
He watched the sway of her ass, the way her hips rocked back and forth as she walked. He wanted to lose himself in the lushness of her body, in the sweet taste of her mouth. He wanted all of her, again and again. It distracted him from their mission.
But not enough to put his wolf’s guard down.
He saw her before Sydney did. The wolf raced down the mountainside, her teeth bared and violence in her muscles. His heart flipped. Fear washed over him, cold and startling. His feet stuck to the ground. Becca was running right toward Sydney.
“Becca!” Jax screamed her name. It echoed through the mountains, but the creature racing toward them didn’t seem to recognize it.
“Veronica!” he tried, knowing that was what she’d gone by here.
Sydney’s head snapped up just as the furred body slammed into hers. Jax lurched into motion. He ran toward Becca and Sydney. The human body fought with a red wolf. Teeth snapped above Sydney’s face. Sydney jammed her arm beneath Becca’s jaw. She pressed it into the creature’s throat as saliva dripped onto her face. Anger rose to burn away the fear that’s been holding him back.
Jax howled. The world shuddered.
His wolf tore free of his human skin. It was a black blur that slammed into Becca’s side. They flipped through the air. He heard a human grunt. Becca’s teeth ripped into human skin. The blonde woman, his mate, slammed into the ground and rolled away from them. Becca snarled and struck.
Her claws tore into his stomach. She was a feral creature, no longer the sweet girl he’d known. Gone was the wolf that had been his packmate. This was a monster. His heart wept, and his wolf wanted to howl in grief, but Becca didn’t let up. She snapped at his throat, going for the kill.
“Becca!” Sydney groaned out. Out of the corner of his eye he watched his human struggle to stand. She clutched her shoulder to her body and managed to lift herself to one knee. She grimaced but kept her eyes on the monster fighting against him. “Becca, it’s Jax. He came to help you!”
Her words fell on deaf ears. The eyes he looked into were dead. Sorrow struck him. It was heavy and pulled him back. He wanted to give up once he saw the soul-less state of her being. There was no longer a girl inside the wolf. Gone were the soft smiles and sporadic, cheerful dancing.
“Becca!” Sydney screamed. Her voice grew ragged. She fumbled and staggered toward them as if she could help the soul-less creature atop him.
The wolf snarled and snapped Sydney’s hand. The scream his mate let out propelled him into action. Jax twisted, using her moment of distraction against her, and clamped his teeth around Becca’s throat. Blood rushed into his mouth. It was sickening, knowing who he was hurting.
He spun, putting her body beneath him. He held onto her, pinning her to the ground while she fought helplessly. The wolf whimpered. Over and over, he told himself it was not the cries of the girl he’d known. This was an animal and nothing more.
He was going to destroy the hunters. But, his wolf reminded him there were other problems. Jax dropped the dead body and darted toward his mate. Sydney had collapsed to the ground. Her forehead was pressed into the rocky dirt, and he could smell the thin layer of sweat coating her skin. He whined, laying beside her.
Blood leaked from her shoulder, running in rivulets through the fingers she held around it. There were more wounds in her hand. His heart did flips.
She’d been bitten several times.
The change was rippling through her. Jax screamed inside his wolf’s body. He begged the creature to let him forward. His clothes were laying in shreds a few feet away, but he didn’t care. All he could think about was Sydney’s pain. No matter what they were to each other, mate or not, he never would have asked his upon her.
The magic was firing through her body. It burned through a system that had never known it’s touch before. He couldn’t imagine the agony she must have been enduring, yet she stayed coherent. He could hear the sound of her teeth grinding together, her small groans. Sydney shook, but still tried to force herself into a standing position.
The wolf agreed and pulled back. Human hands reached for her. She groaned and reeled back when his skin touched hers.
Chapter Sixteen
Her body was made of fire. She couldn’t see through the haze over her vision to see if it was true, but that was all she could feel. When Jax touched her, the pain tripled. She couldn’t stand the feel of her clothes against her skin.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to die.
This was her punishment. Pain. She had to live in eternal pain for what she’d done, for the life she’d sacrificed in her foolishness. It made sense, even if she wanted to fight against it. Her body rebelled. Her mind screamed to survive.
Something reared up inside her. It fought to become real, the edges of it wispy and immaterial as it thrashed from side to side. Sydney’s breath caught, pain flooding her body all over again. It throbbed, pulsing with the fury of the creature’s fight. It wanted to become real, but something held it back.
The fire burning through her devoured her. It burned away her senses until the creature disappeared in a haze of white.
She had a reason to live. A dark figure stood beside her, hesitant and strong. Jax. She could smell him. His scent grew stronger. It enveloped her until her heart steadied. The pain still burned through her, but her heart told her everything would be alright.
Even when the pain grew to be too much, and darkness rose to whisk her away, her heart whispered that everything would be fine.
Chapter Seventeen
Jax drove back to the Lodge with his heart in overdrive. His hands shook on the wheel. Behind him, Sydney let out small groans of pain. He angled the rearview mirror of the SUV to see into the backseat and saw her convulse. Her body writhed, a new creature trying to fight its way out of her body.
He’d let this happen. Her humanity was lost, and her life might be, too. All because he’d been incompetent. Was there no making amends for his sins? Would he forever be doomed to ruin the lives of all he touched? He couldn’t allow himself to believe that. Sydney meant everything to him.
; But, he was afraid her body would refuse the magic. It happened. Not every person bitten was so easily changed. Gage’s mate, Kaylee had been an ethereal creature, and the magic most likely wove through her like second nature. Sydney was down to earth and a woman of logic and rationality.
Magic was not in her nature. Her mind might fight against it, refusing what it was trying to di. If she fought it, the magic would devour her and take her life. It left Jax lost. He didn’t know how to help her through this. He could tell her everything, tell her to accept the change, that magic was good and that she needed it, but she couldn’t hear a thing. His word would be useless.
He felt as helpless as he had the night Killian destroyed his Pack.
No, it was worse than that. He felt a small part of himself dying with her. If she couldn’t survive Becca’s bite, then he didn’t know what he would do.
The SUV spun out as he turned into the Lodge lot. Dust and rocks sprayed through the air. Tires squealed, and the SUV spun into a parking spot before he jammed it into park. He poured out the side and went to grab his mate.
Her skin was feverish, mottled red beneath the layer of sweat. He could feel the rising creature inside her writhing, but it didn’t feel complete. She clenched her hands at her sides and gritted her teeth, fighting every step of the way.
Stop fighting, he wanted to say. For once in your life don’t fight!
The other shifter poured out of his room, as if he could feel the pain Sydney fought against. His eyes were wide and he directed Jax inside. Jax laid her on the mattress, and let himself fall to his knees. He couldn’t lose her.
He wouldn’t.
“Syd, you need to accept it. It will hurt, but you need to accept the animal.”
“She’ll survive,” the man said. “It’s a shit process, but with us here, it should be better.”
Jax’s head snapped up. For the first time, he saw the scars on the man’s neck. They climbed out of the collar of his shirt like jagged fingers, the skin shining and raised.
“You’re changed, too?” His voice threatened to disappear, caught behind the lump in his throat.
The man nodded. He said nothing more before falling to his knees on the other side of the mattress. He gripped Sydney’s hand with both of his own. Jax did the same, one hand on his mate’s cheek. The dark color of the bruise, yellowing around the edges, seemed to ripple. The color shifted, as if she was already healing, before flooding back.
“I need you,” he whispered. “I need you no matter what.”
Sydney stirred and groaned. The breath in her chest rattled, and his heart stopped.
No, you can’t die. I won’t allow it. I couldn’t bear it.
Jax’s wolf rose. It shoved forward and slid through his body toward their mate. The power, the magic of it flooded his fingers and cascaded over Sydney. He held his breath, caught in awe at what was happening.
Across from him, the other shifter had a look of concentration on his face. His brows laid flat over his eyes, and Jax thought he could see the same power rippling over Sydney. It’d been a while since he’d last felt something like this, but he recognized it after a long moment.
Pack.
The bond rose through them, their animals moving to comfort another shifter through the transition. He watched Sydney’s brows unfurrow, her face soften as the pain receded. His heart shuddered, and tears fell down his cheeks as he let out a breath of relief. There was a chance she would survive.
It was a price he wasn’t sure he could pay, becoming bonded to a new Pack, but at that moment, he would do anything to make sure she lived.
***
It rose, a ghost that shuddered and shook through her. She couldn’t tell what it was, the shape shifting as she breathed, as her body trembled with the pain that burned through her.
At first, the pain had been unbearable. It’d been worse than the time she’d been Tazered during the training session. It’s been worse than the time she’d broken her ankle while hiking. It’d burned her alive, frying her nerves until she felt nothing.
But, she felt it receding. The pain settled into a sparkling electric dance that jumped from nerve to nerve. She felt it weave itself through her body, through her being. Distantly, she became aware of two shapes pressing against her body. Thick fur and warm bodies sheltered her from the outside while she dealt with whatever was happening inside.
The smell of Jax filled her nose. Her soul rose and leaned into it, her hands following and finding his skin. She rubbed her thumb against his skin, smiling at the sensation before she sank back into the darkness of her mind again.
The figure still writhed, but its shape was becoming clearer. It was as if a filter had been removed. She could see clear for the first time. A familiar shape sat in the center of her. It was her. It was a wolf.
Honey gold eyes lifted and met her prying gaze. The darkness cleared and revealed a wolf made of honey blond and white fur. She was a creature of beauty, her risen tail the color of butterscotch. She yipped with joy and pranced around Sydney’s mind before leaping toward her.
Sydney gasped as the creature hit her. It burst into a thousand, no, a million dancing sparks. Her skin rippled. It was strange. She was aware of the change, but she was removed from it. Sydney sat back and watched her body morph into something new. The shape she’d seen inside herself became real.
Her breath caught, her being irrevocably changed, and her world shattered. It was okay. This was meant to be. It was how it was supposed to end.
Wolfish eyes opened, learning to move for the first time. Sharp ears cringed at the sound of a male gasp.
Mate. The wolf knew that sound. It would know that scent anywhere. It looked up at the dark man standing beside them, his soft brown eyes glistening with fallen tears. The salty droplets had left stains down his cheek.
Hesitantly, she lifted herself to lap at the stains on his cheek. She cleaned them away, washing away whatever sadness he’d felt He laughed and grasped her tight, wrapping his arms around her body. She yelped, her skin still burning. His touch hurt.
It was so new. Everything was so new. It all ached, a sharp pain that made her acutely aware of the world.
She was alive. She was alive and changed. That was all that mattered.
Sydney thought back to the fight. It seemed so small, the sounds so insignificant, but the consequences had sapped every ounce of strength she had. A small bite had led to that pain, to the change that bent her body to its will.
Becca, she remembered. Jax had screamed the woman’s name. The wolf, a crazed and deranged beast, that attacked them had been Becca. Sydney vaguely remembered an unmoving shape on the ground. The woman and the wolf were dead.
She’d failed all over again.
The wolf whimpered at Sydney’s distress. She felt the sting of failure, the grief at the loss of life. The wolf was grateful, for if it hadn’t been for the woman, she would not exist. The wolf only wished she could have repaid the favor and saved her, too.
Jax gripped either side of her face, his fingers lost in her blonde fur. His lips quivered as if he might cry all over again, even though they curled into something similar to a smile.
“I thought I’d lost you.” Hos voice was hoarse with strain. She could see the effort it took to speak, the effort it took to push back the tears he’d shed.
Despite her pain, she nestled into him, trying to comfort her mate and tell him everything would be alright. It might not be alright, this would certainly be a set back that she had to deal with quickly, but she would tell him that anyway. All she wanted at that moment was to calm the storm inside her mate.
She could feel it as if it were her own. The storm had raged through him, left him raw and bare. There was no apology she could offer him, no way to make it up to him. She could tell there was something different. She felt it like another thread that wound around them.
For the first time since she’d woken, she became aware of the other presence. She twisted to peer at the shif
ter on the other side of the bed. He knelt on the floor with a sheepish smile on his face. As she watched him, he stood and brushed himself off, moving as if to grant them privacy.
As if he didn’t belong there.
But, his scent wrapped around her and screamed of home. It screamed of family in a way she couldn’t define. It was comforting and ever so slightly alarming all at once. What had happened while she was changing? What deal had Jax wrought to save her life?
Without thinking too hard, she flew from Jax’s grasp and tackled the man to the floor. He dropped with a thud, all of her feet on his chest. He let out an oomph sound as she licked his face in thanks. He had something to do with her survival. She knew it, but not how.
Her instincts were sharper now. When she’d been human, she’d leaned on the gut feeling for her job. It’d given her a few leads that other detectives hadn’t been able to find. Now it felt like a second voice in her head that whispered secrets. It knew things she didn’t, read the weave of the world or something just as magical.
“She’s energetic for someone who just woke up from a change,” the man said as he brought his arm between them and gently pried her off. Despite pushing her away, there was a smile on his face.
Sydney leapt off, but her feet were unsteady. She didn’t quite understand how to walk with them yet. It meant she wobbled to the left and listed to the right before her feet tangled beneath her.
“If I remember, Kaylee had the same issue. She was a lot smaller than you as a coyote, but the principle is the same.” Jax’s voice grew closer.
She looked up to see him standing over her. He was larger than anything she’d ever seen. His skin glistened with flecks of gold, beautiful in her eyes. She leaned into him for support and tried to untangle her feet. Paws on the floor, she looked down.
So much had changed. This was what she thought she’d wanted, and it nearly killed her. Sydney Was suddenly thankful she hadn’t been an idiot and tried this on her own. The fact that it happened all the same told her that it was inevitable. This was the way things were meant to be.
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