“Oh, God.” She gasped for breath, feeling like she’d just had a bucket of ice-cold water thrown in her face. Frantically trying to sort out her jeans, she hissed, “I don’t believe this! They’re going to know what we were doing!”
He scowled as he crossed his arms over his wide chest, pinning her with a sharp, penetrating stare. “And what’s so wrong about that?”
“Everything. Everything is wrong!” She covered her face with her hands, trying to get control, her emotions in chaos. “Damn it, I came back here to talk some sense into you. Not to...to...” Lowering her hands, she reached out and fisted them in the front of his shirt. “Please...you can’t do this, Eli. It’s too dangerous.”
His scowl softened, but the look in his eyes remained hard and determined. Taking hold of her wrists, he said, “This is what you brought me here to do, Rey. To make a difference.”
“But I didn’t expect you to go waltzing into the middle of their freaking town! And in broad daylight!”
“I’m not waltzing into the middle of it. Odds are good they’ll never even know we’re there, and if they do, we’ll handle it.”
His calm, even tone just made her want to howl with frustration. “I can’t do this,” she said unsteadily, her throat shaking. “You have me so confused.”
“Don’t,” he growled, sounding like a man who’d just been shoved to the end of his patience. “You don’t get to give me that—what just happened between us—and then rip it away.”
“Eli—”
The next thing she knew, his hands were gripping the sides of her head and he was taking her mouth again, ravaging it, his tongue sliding against hers in an explicit show of hunger that damn near melted her down into an embarrassing puddle of need and lust and tears on the floor.
Lifting his head, he locked his hard, narrowed gaze with hers, and said, “When I get back, we’re finishing that.”
“No. We—”
“It’s happening, Carla.” He opened the door and went into the hallway, then turned his head and cut her a smoldering, devastating look over his shoulder. “So be ready.”
Chapter 9
Hours later, Eli returned to the Alley just in time to change into a clean shirt and head over to the clearing where the ceremony was taking place that night. No way in hell did he want to miss this.
He’d gotten a call from Mason on his way back from Hawkley, letting him know that there’d been a meeting. Given how things were escalating, the Runners had gone ahead and asked Max Doucet and Elliot Connors to take their Bloodrunning vows early, before their official training took place. Max, a human who’d been turned Lycan, was Brody’s brother-in-law, while Elliot was a Silvercrest Lycan who’d been befriended by Max and the Runners after getting caught up in some serious trouble with Stefan’s followers.
Though Eric could have had his own ceremony weeks ago, he’d decided to wait and take his oath at the same time as his friends. Elise had told him that Eric was close to both of the young men, and they’d been honored that he wanted to share their ceremony with them.
And now that ceremony would be taking place in a few minutes, in a clearing not far from the Alley.
Though the Bloodrunning Laws were no longer considered in effect, the Runners had decided that it was important to uphold tradition and mark the occasion with the proper respect, and Eli couldn’t help but agree with their thinking. The Runners’ oath wasn’t about pack law, but about pledging one’s self to the responsibilities of the job and the friends who would always have your back, no matter the circumstances, as they’d proven time and again. Though he’d never had much interaction with the Runners before, the recent days he’d spent there in the Alley had shown him that they were everything Carla had always believed them to be, and while he still hated the danger that came with her job, he was glad that she’d always had this close-knit group to look out for her. To be there for her.
God only knew her mother had never done that.
And as much as it pained him to admit it, neither had he.
As he reached the edge of the clearing, he was glad to see that the area had been lit with torches, making it easier to search for that familiar golden head of hair. Looking out over the crowd, he spotted Carla almost immediately and headed her way, surprised by how many people were there. His men were still back at the Alley, cleaning up before they came over, and he wondered what they were going to make of this. If they’d be as surprised as he was, or if they’d just take it all in stride, same as they’d been doing since their arrival. In a lot of ways, he felt that they were more comfortable there than he was—which was no one’s fault but his own. Instead of the scorn he’d prepared himself to deal with from both the Bloodrunners and his pack, he’d received nothing but friendly acceptance. A fact he was still trying to wrap his head around.
Moving through the crowd, he was stopped by several of the Runners and their wives, who wanted to tell him they were glad to see he’d made it back in one piece. Thankfully, the trip he and his men had taken to Hawkley had been a success. A bloody one, it turned out, but well worth the trouble. With some well-placed explosives, they’d managed to destroy the storage building where the drugs were being kept, and made it out of the town without any injuries to their group, though they’d had to face off against two units of Whiteclaw soldiers as they made their escape.
Once they’d made it back to the Alley, Eli had been so eager to see Carla again, he hadn’t even taken the time to shower. The memory of what they’d done against his bedroom wall before he’d left was burned into his brain like a brand, and he wanted her so badly it was damn near impossible to function. He’d never had such a pathetic lack of control, and he had to choke back a deep rumble of laughter and shake his head at himself, seeing as how she’d managed to make him feel like a randy teenage boy drowning in hormones when he was anything but. Hell, he’d be pushing forty in just a few years.
When he finally reached her side, he pulled in a hungry breath, just letting her warm scent soak into his system, and deliberately didn’t say anything, hoping she’d be the one to speak first, so that he could gauge her mood. But aside from a slight flaring of her nostrils, she didn’t so much as bat a lash at his arrival. Then someone shoved between him and the person standing on his left, and the little Runner stiffened as he was forced to press up against her side, the touch of her arm against his making him have to fight for control. But her reaction... Shit. He had to choke back a frustrated curse, because it was suddenly obvious as to what she was going to do. That she was going to keep fighting him, doing her best to resist the powerful, make-him-ache-for-her-down-in-his-bones attraction that kept pulling them together.
He could react the way he usually did, and get pissy with her. Or...he could try to play it cool for once, and see if maybe she wasn’t just feeling a bit unsure after what had happened before he’d left.
Leaning down, he put his mouth close to her ear, and murmured, “Stay close to me.”
“What?” She turned her head, and their faces were so close she nearly hit him in the nose. “Why?”
The corner of his mouth kicked up at the sight of her disgruntled expression. God, he really did have it bad when the woman’s scowl started to strike him as adorable. Answering her question, he said, “First, because I like having you there, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. And second, I believe in being cautious.”
She didn’t say anything more as she turned her attention back to the center of the circle that’d been marked in the ground, where Mason was standing with Eric, Max and Elliot. He didn’t know if her silence meant that she’d agreed with him, or if she simply didn’t want to bother with an argument, but he was glad she didn’t try to storm off, and he moved to stand behind her as the crowd pressed in around them, using his body to keep her back protected.
The Lycans who were currently working as scouts with the Runners, as well as those who’d volunteered for training, had been invited tonight, and from the size of the crowd, it l
ooked as though most of them had come. There was also a large group of teenagers there, and he recalled Jeremy explaining to him over a beer the other night that both Max and Elliot had been working with the teens who were left traumatized by the brainwashing bullshit his father had tried to pull.
Running his gaze over the gathering, it was as if he could physically see the bridge between the Alley and Shadow Peak being built right before his eyes. The Runners were no longer regarded as the dirty little secret that the pack needed, but didn’t want to think about. Instead, they were now the soldiers who were going to lead the Silvercrest Lycans to victory or die trying, and the presence of so many pure-bloods tonight was an unmistakable show of respect that Eli was damn glad to witness.
In the face of war, it truly seemed that the pack was starting to heal the wounds that had been caused by so many years of racism, and he almost wished his old man could have been there to see it. That Stefan could have been there to witness how instead of destroying the Runners, his actions had only made them more powerful.
Mason’s deep voice asking everyone for their attention drew his focus back to the circle, and he watched as Eric, Max and Elliot knelt in the grass before the tall Runner. Eli was more than a little curious about what exactly the ceremony would entail, listening with interest as Mason asked the three males to recite their Bloodrunning oaths. There was an almost dreamy, hypnotic feeling to the event, and he swayed forward just as Carla swayed back, their bodies coming together and staying that way as they watched and listened. With each of his slow, deep breaths, he was pulling more of her addictive scent into his lungs, and he couldn’t stop himself from settling his hands on her narrow waist. She jolted a little at the contact, then settled, and he had to force himself not to hold her too tightly, lest he scare her away. She was as skittish as a colt when it came to letting him get close to her, and he was going to be damned before he did anything to ruin this peaceful moment.
He lowered his gaze for a few seconds, his height allowing him a breathtaking view of the front of her body, the tightness of her nipples against the cotton shirt that she wore making his mouth water, while most of the blood in his body started heading south. Knowing damn well that he was playing with fire, he forced himself to look away, shifting his attention back to the ceremony. His eyes shot wide open when he spotted Mason sliding a lethal-looking blade over his palm, blood instantly welling from the wound.
What the hell?
Before he could ask Carla what was happening, she’d pulled away from him and was walking into the circle, toward the others. He was on the verge of going after her, until he realized all the Runners were moving into the circle with her. One by one, they flanked Mason, then cut their palms as the blade was passed between them. He winced in sympathy for her hand, knowing that had to have hurt, though you wouldn’t have known it by looking at her. She stood with her head high and her shoulders back, a proud smile on her beautiful mouth as the knife was passed to Eric. His brother used the crimson blade that’d been stained with each Runner’s blood to slice his own palm, before passing it to Max, who cut his palm and then passed the blade on to Elliot, who did the same.
When the blade was offered back to Mason, he signaled for the three newly appointed Bloodrunners to stand, then announced that the ceremony had been completed. Everyone cheered until the noise could probably be heard all the way up in Shadow Peak, and then the crowd slowly began to disperse. Eli made his way through the crush as quickly as he could, heading toward Carla and his brother, and he couldn’t help but notice that the women were all smiling at him as he passed by them, while the men jerked their chins in greeting, and an unfamiliar sense of rightness swept through him.
He didn’t know why he felt at home here, but he was starting to realize that he did. He’d never been friendly with the Runners. Hell, his old man would have died before allowing it. But Eli had always held a respect for the half-breeds that he kept carefully hidden. Just as he’d done with almost every other real emotion he’d ever felt when he’d been forced to live under Stefan Drake’s thumb. Which, when he thought about it, just made him a pathetic jackass who hadn’t been able to make the hard choice and off the sick bastard when he’d had the chance, the way he should have done.
Instead, he’d run when given the opening, and he hadn’t looked back. Not even when he realized that without him there, his father would be left to wreak havoc over the pack, and there would be no one to stop him. Eric had never truly been allowed into that inner circle of evil, so he hadn’t known just how twisted Stefan had become, and Elise had simply avoided their father as much as possible. And as awful as it sounded, in the beginning, it hadn’t bothered him. Hell, for the first time in his life, he’d been able to take a deep breath without feeling as if he was sucking in his father’s foul spirit with every inhalation. But the feeling hadn’t lasted long. As the days flowed into weeks, he’d felt more than just his abandonment of Reyes. He’d felt the pain of being cut off from his brother and sister...and yeah, even his pack. Had felt the separation from the land that had rooted its way into his blood and sweat and bones as he’d grown into a man. And yet, despite all the years he’d lived in Shadow Peak, he could honestly say that he’d never felt as connected to the town as he did to the Alley and the men and women who lived there.
Though he was as pure-blooded as a Lycan could be, he’d never truly made a place for himself in the pack. He’d been an insider on the innermost circle of pack power, thanks to his father—but an outsider all the same. Maybe that was why he fit here, with the rest of his rough group of friends. They were each outcasts, and yet, he would have bet anything on the fact that Kyle and the guys felt a draw to this place that was similar to his own.
Reaching the Runners, he immediately pulled Eric into a bone-crushing hug that made everyone around them laugh, including Carla, who was wrapping a strip of cloth around her wounded hand. “Congratulations, little brother. I’m damn proud of you.”
“Thanks,” Eric grunted, hugging him back just as hard. “That means a lot to me.”
They slapped each other on the back, then stepped apart. He turned to congratulate Max and Elliot, who were both all smiles and excitement, and found Carla standing with his brother and sister when he turned back around. Pushing his hands in his pockets, he stayed back and watched her talk with his siblings, and realized that while he was gaining perspective about his place in the pack, when it came to the sexy little Runner, he was still...lost. But he wasn’t going to let it hold him back.
He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Eric that he loved her, and he knew it was a goddamn miracle that she hadn’t found anyone to replace him in the last three years—that the bond had tied her to him even when he wasn’t there to fight for his place by her side. If she didn’t still feel something for him, he didn’t think it would have worked out like this. But it had, and she was still his for the taking if he could only convince her to give him another chance.
Christ, it would probably be the most difficult, painful thing he’d ever done. But he was determined to do whatever it took.
Even if it means baring my soul to her.
Looking around this close-knit group, he could see the intimacy of the connections between the Runners and their mates. These men were rough and rugged and ruthless, and probably at one point as opposed to making themselves vulnerable as Eli was. But they’d done it. They’d been brave enough to be honest with their women, and by God, he was determined to do the same.
If the choices were between having a shot at her and losing her forever, then he’d tell her whatever she wanted to know. The good, the bad, and the ugly—though the good would definitely be in short supply. And the sooner he did it, the better, because he’d already wasted too many years. Too many damn nights spent cold and alone, when she should have been in his arms, where she belonged. Now he didn’t want to lose another minute of the time they had with each other.
Moving to stand beside her again, he looked down int
o her beautiful eyes and asked, “Walk back with me?”
To his surprise, she nodded, and he grabbed her uninjured hand before she could pull it away, his tight hold letting her know that he wasn’t going to just let her go. She sighed, but didn’t drag her feet as he set off through the moonlit woods.
“I see you made it back in one piece,” she murmured.
Moving a low hanging branch out of their way, he said, “We ran into a few foot soldiers on our way out, after destroying the storage facility, but they were easy to deal with.” He squeezed her hand, sliding her a playful wink when she looked his way. “I promise all your favorite pieces are still in good working order.”
She gave a feminine snort as she shook her head. “Nice one.”
“It made you smile. That’s all I was after.”
“Well, then, you’re an easy man to please.”
He shot her a wicked look. “When it comes to you I am.”
She responded with something under her breath that was lost in the wind as it swept through the trees, rustling the leaves on their branches. It was a warm night, the stars glittering in the velvety blackness of the skies like diamonds that’d been scattered across its surface, while crickets chirped in the underbrush. With each breath that he took, Eli could scent the surrounding forest, a melting blend of pine and loam and musk, and it settled him enough that he trusted himself to walk beside her without taking her to the fertile ground and claiming her then and there.
But he’d have been lying through his teeth if he’d said he wasn’t thinking about it.
Coughing to clear the knot of lust in his throat, he asked, “Do you want to hit the celebration?”
“I was actually planning on just heading back to Wyatt and El’s. I’m pretty beat after today.”
Hearing the tiredness in her soft voice, he gave her hand another gentle squeeze. “Then I’ll walk you over.”
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