When I reached him, his eyes dropped. I squatted down and gripped his chin to force him to look at me.
His eyes were a little wild, his cheeks flushed. If we were safe, I would have taken him right there. And I was half thinking of doing it anyway, when he parted those sinful lips and said, “Why didn’t you tell me you had a sister?”
I jerked away and nearly fell on my ass. “What did you say?”
“Rua said you had a sister.”
Fucking pack couldn’t keep their traps shut. I sat down beside Reese and bent my legs in front of me, resting my wrists on my knees. Already Lee’s face swam in my vision, with our mother’s laugh and Bay’s eyes. They’d been twins. “What do you want to know?”
“Uh, I don’t know. Why didn’t you tell me?”
The last question was easy. “I didn’t tell you because it didn’t affect you in any way. She’s gone and there’s no bringing her back.”
He blinked at me.
I ground my teeth together until my jaw ached. “Remember when you asked if I’d ever seen someone turn at the hands of a Nowere?”
Reese’s face collapsed. “No,” he whispered.
“She snuck out with a supply group and got separated from them. By the time they realized what had happened, and they fetched me, she had already been bitten. We watched as her body came back to life as a Nowere. And I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
He was silent for a long moment, face drained of color. “What was her name?”
“Lee.” The one syllable was like a flower petal with an acid chaser on my tongue.
Reese didn’t speak for a long moment. Then the warmth of his body coated my arm, and the soft hair of his head tickled my neck. “I’m sorry,” he said as he rested his head on my shoulder.
I was too. I stayed silent, trying to swallow the bile that always rose when I thought about the sight of my sister, unrecognizable as a Nowere.
A faint breeze wafted over my skin, and as soon as I inhaled, the hair on the back of my neck rose. Reese’s head went up, and I sniffed again. Yep, the breeze was carrying downwind the unmistakable stench of Nowere. I lurched to my feet and hauled a confused Reese with me, growling a danger warning low in my throat. My pack immediately gathered their bags, leaving no trace, and surrounded us. They were becoming alert now, sniffing the air and shifting restlessly. It was hard to fight the immediate instinct to flee at the smell of our predator. But we had to be smart.
I walked to the edge of the cliff and grabbed Reese’s arm. He stifled a yelp as I gripped his wrist and flung him off the edge, swinging him back under the cliff to the small ledge below. He landed with a stumble and glared up at me. I ignored him, because he was safe and that was all that mattered.
From behind us came the sound of Nowere chatter—the bone-chilling clack of gnashing teeth. It spurred me on, the safety of my pack members my primary concern.
G stepped up next to me, and while the stench grew stronger and the sounds drew closer, we dropped the entire group onto the ledge below, where they retreated into the cave. One of my first duties as alpha was to send out pack members to map the nearby land so we always had an escape route from Noweres. This cave was why I’d chosen this spot to rest.
I helped G down, then glanced back, seeing movement among the dense brush about a hundred yards away. Fucking Noweres. Reese shouted my name and when I swung down, he was at the edge of the ledge, peering up at me.
“Get out of sight,” I hissed.
“Well, excuse me. I can barely breathe from Nowere odor, and you hadn’t dropped down yet. Fine, I won’t worry about you.”
He stomped off into the cave, standing at the side with his arms crossed over his chest, pointedly ignoring me. I didn’t give a shit. I was trying to keep my pack alive. I didn’t need to deal with his bullshit. With a sharp growl, I crowded everyone back. G’s body was tense, his jaw locked and nostrils flared. His meaty fists were balled at his sides, and I knew he’d battle one hundred Noweres himself if he had to. Especially because I suspected this rescue mission was very personal because of Jude.
Footsteps sounded above and, despite Reese’s posture, I went right to him, shielding him with my body. He huffed against my chest, then settled his hands tentatively on my hips.
Noweres smelled like rotting corpses left out in the sun for five days. Even protected by the small ledge above us, the stench surrounded us, and I had to bury my nose in the crook of my arm. All around me, my pack members gasped for breath and blinked through watery eyes while trembling at the sounds of the chatter above us, the roars and growls, all which swirled to deafening levels. I couldn’t hear myself think, couldn’t do anything but press closer to Reese, whose entire body was shaking. He clung to me tighter, pressing his forehead against my chest.
By the sounds of it, the Nowere pack was large, maybe fifty to seventy-five strong, and we’d be no match for them, even if all of us shifted. My little wolf would be overpowered in a second, no matter how much I tried to protect him.
The Nowere brain had one function and that was to detect living things and consume them or turn them. They had a keen sense of smell and poor eyesight. Their frustrated grunts and stomps above, which rained dirt and stones down on our heads, told me they smelled us.
Noweres were dumb, but I wouldn’t put it past them to somehow slip off the cliff and land right on our little ledge. I wasn’t sure how long we were there, huddled together as the Noweres stomped above us. But eventually the chatter began to retreat and the footsteps lessened. I was breathing easier when a fist-sized rock crashed to the ledge floor, then four-foot claws curled over the edge of the cliff right near my head.
I held up my hand to signal silence, never taking my eyes off those claws. The panic was welling up inside me, for Reese, for my pack. For myself. I stuffed it down, calling on every bit of alpha I had in me.
A gust of air blew a cloud of dirt in front of the ledge, a Nowere exhale, which brought with it another cloud of stench, then the chattering started. I glanced at my pack, who were staring at the claws and at me, like do something.
The air heated from the Nowere body and our breaths. Fear swirled in the air like a dust cloud, and I hoped like hell it didn’t tip into panic.
The foot claws uncurled and disappeared. I held my breath for one second, two, and then in a shower of dust and rotting fur, a Nowere crashed to the cliff in front of us.
I shoved Reese back into the cave and shifted immediately to my Were form as the Nowere flailed, trying to gain its balance as it scrambled for purchase on the edge. Its teeth chattered in time with my racing heart as my bones morphed. Just as it regained its footing, I finished my shift.
The Nowere threw his head back on a roar, and we met on the ledge in a clash of claws.
I didn’t think; I didn’t feel. My only mission was to protect my pack and my mate. The Nowere slashed at me, but I evaded his razor-sharp claws with a quick duck of my head. One bite, and I’d be a mindless killing machine like the thing in front of me.
Luckily, I had gravity on my side. With two hands in its sunken chest, I shoved, and the Nowere fell back with a grunt. For a second, he hung suspended on the edge of the cliff before he dropped out of sight with a screech.
I raced to the edge and looked over to see the body slam into the rocks below.
When I turned around, my pack members were shifted and standing in a line, protecting…Reese. Through their bodies, I could see him pacing back and forth in his wolf form, snarling and snorting.
I heaved a sigh of relief and shifted back. My pack followed and parted the line. I touched each one, thanking them and checking on their welfare, before attending to my agitated mate. He hadn’t shifted yet, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he couldn’t or because he didn’t want to.
I kneeled down and placed a hand on his furry head, tensing when I felt his trembles. “Shift,” I said quietly.
He did after a moment, and when he peered up at me from where he kne
lt on the ground, his eyes were wet. “Fuck,” he said, swiping at them furiously. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw him take a swing at you.”
I tugged him to me, and he clung to my shoulders. I glanced back at G. “Let’s rest here for the night. I’m going to head back farther to talk to Reese.”
When G nodded, I dragged Reese deeper into the cave. We went around a bend so we were out of sight, and only a small sliver of light let me spot Reese’s blue eyes. I sat down along the damp wall of the cave and pulled my mate into my lap.
He clung to me, zero hesitation, and huffed into my neck. His fingers flexed on my shoulders. Squeeze. Release. Squeeze. Release.
Then his tongue began to lap at my skin.
“Reese,” I growled.
“Need you,” he said, his voice muffled as he pressed closer to me. “Please. After everything… I know you don’t want me right now, but I need you.”
I grabbed his face. “I never said I didn’t want you.”
He blinked glassy eyes. “I lied to you. You’re risking your pack for my brother—”
“I’m angry at you. But I still want you. I’ll always want you.” I didn’t wait for him to respond. My mate needed me, and fuck if I didn’t need him too. With a low growl, I surged forward, flattening Reese on the ground under me as I ground on top of him, plunging my tongue into his mouth. His hard, leaking cock rubbed against mine. He moaned and scrabbled at my back, fingernails scraping my skin.
I flipped him over onto his stomach. He arched his back on a whine as I positioned the tip of my cock at the entrance of his slick hole. With one thrust, I sank into him. He moaned, long and low, his hips working as he fucked himself on my dick.
“Is this what you needed?” I growled in his ear as I pinned him down and took control. He squirmed under me, panting and writhing as I fucked into him.
“Yes,” he panted. “Yes, Dare.”
“You needed to be reminded that I’m your alpha and you belong to me.” My speech was garbled as the orgasm began to build in my spine. “You’re mine to protect. Mine to take care of. You understand?”
“Alpha,” he keened beneath me, his nails scraping the cave floor. “I’m yours.”
My punishing thrusts were moving us across the floor. As my balls drew up tight and my orgasm slammed into me, I yanked his head to the side and sank my teeth into his neck.
He muffled a scream into his arm, and his body shuddered, his inner muscles milking me. After the last of my release pumped into him, I braced myself with one arm, and rolled him over. He was boneless, half-lidded eyes gazing up at me. I lay down beside him, and he immediately burrowed into me, his face pressed into my bare chest, his arms wrapped around my waist.
After several minutes, Reese stirred. “The last time I saw a Nowere, I was a kid and they were killing my entire pack,” he said, his voice muffled against my skin. “I keep thinking about Jude. What if he ran into one of those fuckers?” He shuddered.
“G said he can still smell Jude, that we’re on his trail.”
“Really?” Reese said. “Wow, Weres track scents better than wolves.” He was quiet for a moment. “All I’ve ever wanted was to be safe, happy, and free with my brother and sister, like we were back in Astria. I’ve always had this pain in my chest, this ache that never goes away, because I’m not home.”
Free. I latched onto that word and rolled it over and over in my brain.
He sighed heavily. “I wonder all the time if there are any members of the Whitethroat pack still alive other than us.”
The guilt swamped me. I still hadn’t told him what the scouts reported to me about Astria. I couldn’t imagine my entire pack wiped out. They were my family, my strength, my world. For them to be decimated in one fell swoop was unthinkable. I would always want to know if they still lived, if they needed me, if my pack could be rebuilt.
I glanced down to see Reese fast asleep, his nose pressed into my armpit. Well, there was no telling him now, but he deserved to know. I pulled him on top of me, so his head was pillowed on my chest. Despite the sex, I was restless and unsettled. I’d thought my future and that of my mate’s was determined, but now none of that seemed possible or right. He’d spent his life a prisoner under Xan, and then went directly to being chained in my compound, then chained to me. He had no knowledge of his old pack, his old home. And I wasn’t entirely convinced he considered the Silver Tip pack home either.
Was a life with me what he wanted? He could never be truly happy without his pack, knowing there could be some alive. The mate instinct drew him to me, made him want me. But was that what he wanted out of life? He’d risked his life to get out from under Xan’s thumb, to be free, to go home. And now he was mated to me.
Somewhere along the way, watching Reese’s courage and charm, I’d grown to like him, maybe even love him. What did I do when the best thing for my mate might be to let him go?
Chapter Fifteen
Reese
* * *
When I woke up, my head was on Dare’s lap. He sat with his back against the wall, gnawing on some dried fruit. When he noticed my eyes were open, he held a ring of dried apple to my lips. I opened my mouth so he could drop it inside. The sweet softness hit my tongue, and I chewed as Dare rested his hand on my chest, right over my heart.
His face was impassive, devoid of the soft expression he wore when we were alone. The one I hadn’t seen since before Jude ran away. “Hey,” I said, stretching.
He didn’t answer, continuing to chew his fruit.
Voices echoed from the front of the cave. I turned my head and glimpsed some shadows in the morning light. “Everyone up?”
“Yes,” he said, holding another piece of fruit to my lips, then a canteen of water.
I drank greedily. “Never thought I’d sleep so well on the floor of a cave.”
“You slept on me.”
“Oh.”
Something was off. I sat up and kneeled at his side. “What’s going on?”
His eyes were in shadow, so I couldn’t see much of them. Only his tight jaw. “Once we rescue Jude, you’re free to go.”
I blinked as my stomach twisted painfully. “Free to go?”
He leaned forward, so the green of his eyes shown neon in the dim light of the cave. “I’ve thought a lot about why you kept this from me. I think it’s because you always wanted the option to escape and go home to Astria. Am I wrong?”
I dug my nails into my legs. Did I? Did I want the freedom to take my brother and sister home?
“You spent your life with no freedom. I don’t want to keep you from it when it’s something you wanted so badly that you risked your life for it. You can return home and help to rebuild your pack.”
“Dare.” I grabbed his arm, but he didn’t move. I didn’t know what to say. The idea of freedom, of choosing where I wanted to live, how I wanted to live, definitely had its appeal but I’d be leaving my mate. I couldn’t imagine him not touching me again, or gorging ourselves on food in his bed, or playing with Mav. Then there were the consequences for Dare to think about. “What about the Mate Pain? I can’t leave you like that.”
That must have been the wrong thing to say, because Dare’s eyes narrowed, and a muscle in his jaw ticked. “I’ll be fine.” He stood up quickly, shaking off my grip on his arm like I was a fly.
“What do you mean you’ll be fine? You’ll be pain, and vulnerable, and—”
“Then I’ll challenge Gage as soon as get home. Problem solved. I can live with the pain after that.”
I stared at him. “But you said you didn’t want to challenge him unprovoked, that you didn’t want to be like your father—”
“It’s for the good of the pack. My pack.” He blew out a harsh breath. “The pack I now see you never saw as yours, even though I saw you as a part of it. A crucial part.”
His words were a physical blow. “Can’t you understand how torn I’ve been? She’s my sister, Dare. I spent my whole life protecting t
hem. I couldn’t just leave her.”
“You had options, Reese,” he said firmly. “It’s telling which one you chose.” He rolled his shoulders and glanced away. “We need to get going.”
I scrambled to stand as he began to walk toward the front of the cave. “Dare, hold on. Can’t we talk about this?”
He turned around. “Can you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t dream of being free?”
I clamped my jaw shut, and I wished like hell I could lie to him. But I couldn’t. Not again. So I shook my head.
He nodded. “Right. So when we get back, you’re free.”
He walked away, leaving me standing in the middle of the cave wondering what the hell happened. I was so tired of shit being decided for me. When would I get to decide how my life went?
* * *
By the time we had shifted and were once again on the route to find Jude, my anger toward Dare had built to critical levels. I didn’t want to cause problems with his pack, so I ran at his flank, but I did so while shooting eye-daggers at him. He seemed unfazed, back to the Dare who had calmly stalked me while I’d crawled away from him in chains.
How dare he decide my life?
So fine, I’d rescue Jude and my sister and we’d leave. We’d find a new home and a new life, and he could sit in his compound with a sore body and think about what he’d done.
I was acting like an immature novus but I didn’t even care. Freedom was within my reach now, and while that ache was still in my gut, I was one step closer to home. To peace.
If Dare didn’t want me, if he decided that I’d broken his trust in an irrevocable way, then fine. Screw him.
We ran for hours, until my paws were sore, and my tongue lolled out of my mouth. There was no sign of Jude except a faint whiff of his scent on the breeze.
Dare pulled us to a stop out of sight of Xan’s compound and we shifted. We were so close I could smell the pack, but we were downwind so they shouldn’t have scented us yet.
Daring Fate: Silver Tip Pack series Page 16