When Jordan reached the glade, the only other shifter present was Janelle, who tended a small fire beneath the cauldron. As they weren’t on friendly terms, Jordan kept her distance, pacing along one side of the clearing near the forest’s edge. Janelle looked up and narrowed her eyes as she stood and stirred the pot.
Luckily, the next shifters to arrive were Chase and Lacy. Seeing her friend flooded Jordan with relief and buoyed her spirits. Chase’s eyes lit up with a grin when he saw Jordan, and he headed straight for her. Lacy moved toward Janelle, who waved in greeting.
Jordan walked toward Chase with a spring in her step. “We’ve got meals together,” she said happily.
Chase bumped his shoulder against hers, his cheeks dimpling when he grinned. “Small consolation, though I see you made it through the night—and managed to give your partner the slip.” He chuckled softly.
She followed his gaze into the woods and sighed.
Chase looked her over, grinning all the while. “You beat everyone to breakfast. This must be a first. Either you’re super-hungry or really eager to flee your partner.” Chase cocked one eyebrow.
“Both,” Jordan said. “Why couldn’t I have been assigned to a nice, docile partner like yours?” She tilted her head in Lacy’s direction.
“Because your dad’s a dick,” Chase answered.
Jordan snorted.
“No offense,” Chase added.
“None taken.”
Chase lifted his chin and looked past Jordan’s shoulder.
“There’s Emerson. It’s good to see her back to normal.”
Jordan turned halfway and saw Emmy striding into the glade alone. Always up with the sun—that was Emerson. She combed her hair with her fingers as she walked up to them.
“Good morning, sis; morning, Chase.” She made a show of looking around the glade. “Where’s your partner, Jordan? Raider doesn’t strike me as the type to sleep in.”
Guilt churned inside Jordan’s gut like undigested meat as she recalled the look on Raider’s face as she took off ahead of him. That time, there’d been no hardness between his legs, only irritation between his ears. Disappointment rushed over Jordan like a rash he’d somehow inflicted over her.
Chase’s eyes searched her face, his expression serious—the opposite of Emerson who watched her with an amused half grin.
“I came in ahead of him,” Jordan said.
Emerson pursed her lips. “Obviously.” She turned her head toward the cauldron. “I see Lacy’s already dished up. I suppose that means it’s safe to eat. See you around.” She moved away from them and headed for the cauldron.
Chase watched Emerson and rubbed his chin. “She doesn’t seem concerned about your pairing with Raider,” he observed.
Jordan sighed audibly. “Please don’t tell me bets are still in place after everything that’s happened?”
“They’ve already been made, but we’ll only collect after David returns. Otherwise, the whole thing’s off.”
Jordan scowled. “This stupid game might be the reason my sister was poisoned to begin with, and now Hudson’s mad at me.”
“You made a pretty harsh accusation against his sister.” Chase frowned.
“And she’s been harassing me. She doesn’t like how close we’ve become. Don’t you find it suspicious that right after we bumped bones, I got pushed into the river?”
“You’re sure you were pushed?”
“There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Wrinkles formed across Chase’s forehead.
“Maybe it’s a good thing Hudson and Taryn were assigned to second meal,” he said.
“Yes, I’m sure it will comfort Taryn to know that I now have you all to myself during breakfast and dinner.” Jordan rolled her eyes.
Chase grimaced. “I should probably talk to her at the end of this patrol cycle. I’d hoped she would get the hint.”
“Well, she hasn’t.”
As more patrol partners arrived for the first meal, they glanced at her and took note, she felt certain, of Raider’s absence and of Chase beside her.
“Let’s get food before a line forms,” Jordan said.
Janelle rested the large spoon handle against the cauldron’s edge as Jordan approached and went to the gong, picking up the mallet. After she banged it and sent a shockwave of sound echoing across the clearing, the shifters present started for the cauldron, and more emerged from the woods.
Jordan reached the cauldron ahead of everyone, with Chase right behind her. They slopped porridge into their bowls and went to their usual log to eat.
Jordan tilted her bowl back and gulped down her porridge as though it were water on an arid day. She set her bowl in her lap and ran her tongue over her teeth.
“Good, you’re finished. We can start our morning patrol.”
Raider’s gruff voice from behind made her pitch forward, unable to catch her bowl in time as it clunked to the ground, luckily not breaking.
Jordan swung around, facing the now-clothed Raider, who stood behind the log, muscles straining so hard they looked ready to rip through his snug cotton shirt. “First to arrive, first to leave. Wouldn’t you agree?” Raider asked, one brow cocked.
“I’ll take that,” Janelle said, smiling sweetly.
How had the she-wolf reached her side so swiftly? Jordan wasn’t the most alert in the early morning, and Raider’s confusing presence only hindered her senses further.
Groaning, Jordan picked her bowl off the ground and handed it to Janelle, who smiled brightly. Jordan could swear she read the shifter’s gleeful thoughts: Go. Get away from Chase. Obey your partner’s summons, and don’t leave his sight again.
Jordan ground her teeth. “See you at dinner,” she said to Chase, not able to look at him through the aggravation clouding her vision.
Raider fell into step beside her when she headed for the woods. Jordan glowered at the shifters who looked up to watch them. Even with David missing, she could see them still clinging to their bets.
“Shouldn’t you stay and dish up?” She kept her eyes forward.
Raider didn’t respond until they entered the forest and the path to the grassy knoll. “I caught my breakfast after you took off—a tasty bunny that wasn’t fast enough.”
A shiver tingled over Jordan. Her breath felt short and her breasts heavy. She pushed her hair back, lifting her chest. “Couldn’t stop me, so you had to go after a tiny rabbit.” Killing the creature probably had as much to do with male ego as hunger.
“Oh, but I could have caught you if I wanted to.”
His husky reply stole her breath for the remainder of their walk. With steady, measured strides, Raider seemed perfectly comfortable not speaking. His pupils were in constant motion, moving from one side of the trail to the other. Good thing he could remain alert, because the last words he’d spoken caressed Jordan’s mind with confusion and excitement. She couldn’t figure out if they were arguing or, stars above forbid, flirting.
If he could wind her up this tightly after only one full night of patrol duty, she was in trouble.
Jordan absolutely could not succumb to Raider. If she slept with him, he might take it as an invitation to claim her. She was certain he hadn’t bedded any of her sisters, and to be the first would undoubtedly ensure his decision. It would be easiest, after all, to make a claim on the one with whom he mated. Then, Jordan would have to turn him down and would never hear the end of it from her father and Francine; it might damage her friendship with Hudson and Chase in the process. How would the boys feel if she bent over for Raider after months of mocking the hulking shifter behind his back?
A knot formed in Jordan’s gut, but her guilt wasn’t on her friends’ or family’s behalf.
Looking sideways, her eyes ran over Raider’s large, muscular arm—inches from her own—following it past his elbow to the sl
eeve covering his powerful shoulder, which sloped up his smooth, tanned neck. His irises swept from his side of the trail, moving toward her. Before he could catch her staring, Jordan shifted her attention to the path in front of them, determined to get her desires under control before they reached the grassy knoll and had to strip off their clothes.
chapter twelve
The days crawled along on ant legs and the nights flew by on owl wings. Raider slept more peacefully than he had since the vulhena attack on Kallie. Days were another matter entirely.
Jordan was always wetting her lips when she thought he wasn’t looking and running her eyes over him like a hungry predator. Her desire for him was painfully obvious, which made her stubborn resistance all the more exasperating. Until shifters made a claim, they were generally open with their sexuality. Jordan and her sisters happened to be among the most unrestrained she-wolves, and that made her avoidance hard not to take personally.
They kept mostly to wolf form with Raider keeping back to allow Jordan to lead the way around a never-ending patrol of their assigned territory.
They’d just completed another full sweep of the area when howls broke the silence. Raider sat on his hind legs and waited for Zackary and Jack to reach them at the base of the grassy knoll. Zackary and Jack’s border-patrol area included Skyler Falls. They had arranged to stand in for Jordan and Raider every other day to give them a chance to bathe.
Jack appeared first and shook his body as though he’d recently taken a dip. As a mated male, he didn’t usually join regular patrols, but the council had decided that part of Zackary’s probation would mean pairings with males from the den. It was a precaution they all felt good about, even if it wasn’t exactly fair that the real tyrant—Garrick—was free to roam in and out of the hollow. Raider hoped his father successfully located David. It didn’t matter who found him, as long as they got their pack member back safe.
Zackary slunk in behind Jack with his tail so low that it practically dragged on the ground. At least Zackary had shown remorse for his actions, unlike Garrick.
Jack blinked. Raider did the same. All was clear in both territories. This time, he led the way out of the grassy knoll with Jordan on his heels, likely as eager as he was for a change of scenery.
Cutting across the dense forest at a run, Raider took the most direct route to the falls. Jordan flew past trees about ten feet from his side, keeping pace as they streaked through the woods until they reached the narrow trail to the falls. They would have to walk the final path single file, and Raider leapt ahead, smiling when he caught Jordan’s snarl. He picked up speed, running for the rush of water cascading from a rocky ledge overhead. Clean, clear water filled a large pool rimmed with long, wide, smooth rocks that dipped into the crystalline pool.
Raider’s nails clipped the flattened rock. He wasted no time shifting then jumped into the water with a satisfying splash. Water surrounded his body, now cool and weightless—thoroughly refreshing. Raider held his breath until his body jerked then shot up to the surface and crashed through with a splash that filled his lungs with sweet air. Lifting his eyelids slowly, his next breath caught when he saw Jordan wading into the water naked. Water slid over her bare skin inch by inch, reaching her thighs, lapping between her legs, and slipping over her breasts until only half-moons floated above the surface.
Ignoring his hungry stare, Jordan dunked her head under, reemerging with her long, brown hair slicked back and her lips moist and rosy. She walked toward shore, stopping when the waters reached her hips to run first one hand then the other over each arm.
If it had been Emerson, Raider would have averted his gaze, knowing she was taunting him, but Jordan’s mind looked miles away from the spot he’d sunk into, his groin rising along with the tiny air bubbles from the shallows. He grabbed himself and stroked—it was either that or crash across the water and come down on her like a tidal wave. The pressure built in his cock as he pumped, straining for release.
Jordan turned her back to him, taking careful steps toward shore. Sweet mother of moonshine, she looked as alluring as a water nymph with water dripping down her back and sliding between her lean legs. She gathered all her hair to one side and squeezed water out, all the while moving away from him. She reached the flat rocks lining the pond and walked over them at the same steady pace, soon reaching the narrow trail with its overgrown ferns that brushed against her lean legs as she passed, turning a bend, out of sight.
Groaning with frustration, Raider waded out of the water to the nearest tree and dug his nails into the bark with one hand while the other pumped faster and faster. Images of Jordan dripping wet flashed through Raider’s mind. His fist tightened and he pitched forward on a shout, emptying onto the earth. Bark bit into his right palm, scraping his roughened skin.
He returned to the water for a quick rinse. There was no reason to rush back, but once again Jordan had taken off without him. She was the most frustrating female he’d ever been paired with and the first one who made him hard every damn day.
Once Raider shifted, he took off running and caught up to Jordan, snarling his irritation at her for not waiting to return to the grassy knoll together. She made no sound other than the patter of her paws against the earthen trail.
As they neared the knoll, Raider howled their approach, and they were soon met by Zackary and Jack, who sniffed at them briefly before passing by to return to their own territory.
The remainder of the afternoon marched on at the same slow pace until the gong signaled the first dinner hour. Jordan and Raider shifted and dressed in silence then walked to the glade where they parted ways to eat their meals. Chase was already waiting there as though Jordan were in need of comfort, and it pissed Raider off to no end. He ate his meal alone, standing as was his habit, moving around the glade, ever watchful. No threat was beneath his notice—even if it turned out to be pesky quarrels between shifters who needed someone bigger and stronger to pacify or intervene.
With wry amusement, Raider noticed that Jordan had started eating her meals slower to drag out their breakfast and dinner breaks. Good. She usually ate way too fast. Raider understood a hearty appetite, but it was important to chew and savor the food the hollow provided. Den mates had cultivated a flourishing garden, while patrol partners assigned to hunting grounds brought back meat. Combined, they were able to provide hearty dinner stews and warm morning grains to every shifter in the hollow.
After Jordan had prolonged her meal as long as she dared, she got up, set her bowl in a basket of dirty plates, and started for the woods.
Raider followed after her until reaching her side for the walk back to their territory, which had become their routine. Once they reached the knoll, they would do one last patrol of the area before settling in for the night. It would have been a lot cozier to press against one another, but Raider hadn’t bothered trying after her unfriendly snarl the first time.
Garrick stood leaning against a boulder when they reached the knoll. His arms were folded over his bare chest, but luckily he had on pants. Raider didn’t need to see his old man’s prick dangling out in the open, and he knew Jordan wouldn’t want to, either.
“Son,” Garrick said, lifting his head. “We need to talk—alone.” Garrick’s eyes shifted pointedly at Jordan, and his lips formed a tight frown.
Jordan, who was usually happy to leave Raider’s sight, held her ground, her eyes narrowed on Garrick suspiciously.
Raider couldn’t blame her. He didn’t trust his father, either, and doubted anyone other than Ford, and perhaps Jager and Palmer, ever would unless Garrick proved otherwise in a spectacular way. Finding David and bringing him back home would be a significant start, but with each passing day, the likelihood of that diminished.
“What is it?” Raider asked impatiently.
Garrick pushed away from the rock with his back and zeroed in on Jordan. “Why don’t you go for a run, sweetheart?”
“This is a family matter, so unless the two of you plan on making a claim, I’d like a private word with my son.”
Scowling, Jordan stormed away.
“You don’t have to go,” Raider said, but she ignored him, shoving a low-hanging branch aside before dissolving into the forest.
When Raider faced his father, Garrick nodded thoughtfully. “Too much trouble, that one. You’re smart not to claim her. I’d concentrate on the blonde. She seems to have made a full recovery.”
Raider gritted his teeth. “What do you want?”
“Your help.” Garrick’s unruly eyebrows slashed across his forehead. “While searching the wastelands last night, I smelled smoke and roasted game from deep within the suburbs. There are humans camped there, and I think they might have David.”
Raider jerked his head toward his father. “It might be a different group.”
“It’s the only sign of humans I’ve come across,” Garrick said. “We have to check it out.”
Raider squinted. “What do you mean we?”
Garrick’s smile widened as he answered, “You, me, and Ford. This will be a big win for our family.”
Or a death sentence. Raider wanted to get David back as much as anyone—as long as it didn’t mean losing more pack members in the process. His personal safety was of little concern, as his size and strength went a long way in a fight, but Ford had a mate and pups. “We don’t know how many of them there are or what kind of weapons they have.”
Garrick huffed. “You sound like Wolfrik.”
Raider cocked his head. “You consulted Wolfrik?”
“Invited him to be part of the rescue, but he won’t have any part in it. You’d think he would want a bit of payback.” Garrick shrugged and sniffed dismissively. “His loss.”
Raider glowered at his father. When Jager said they needed to reintegrate Wolfrik into the pack, he sure as hell didn’t mean send him outside the borders to face his demons after so recently escaping. “It’s worth checking out,” Raider acknowledged.
Mating Games Page 14