by Sadie Moss
“Yes!” The darkness in his eyes faded as he beamed at me. “That’s exactly what I always say! See, we have so much in common.”
I rolled my eyes. Fenris refused to give up on the insane idea that the bond between us was meant to be a mate bond. He’d mostly taken to joking about it or playfully pointing out our compatibility whenever the opportunity arose, but the expression on his face when I caught him gazing at me made it clear he still felt the pull as strongly as I did. But whereas the rest of the guys and I were perfectly content to ignore the bond, pretending it didn’t exist, the wolf shifter seemed determined to embrace it with open arms.
“Yeah, yeah.” I tried to brush him off. “Okay, so now that we’re in the mountains, it’ll be easier for me to shift?”
He grinned. “Actually, I have no idea. I just wanted to have you to myself for a bit. Plus, Akio was being a dick. That couldn’t have been helping your focus.”
I belted out a laugh. “Yeah, surprisingly, being heckled by an incubus doesn’t make doing magic easier.”
“Well, there are no incubi for miles up here. And who knows? Maybe being closer to nature will help.”
“Okay. I’m ready.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the center of the small clearing. Sharp shadows danced on the ground as the afternoon sun cut through the trees around us. The air smelled of pine—just like Fenris always did. I inhaled deeply, loving the scent. After a moment, I kneeled and closed my eyes, finding the spark of magic burning in my center. Movement nearby ruffled my hair, and I felt Fenris crouch down beside me.
“Don’t try to force it,” he whispered, his husky voice raising goosebumps across the back of my neck. “Let it come. Imagine your natural form is a wolf. This form, the human one, that’s the disguise.”
The mountain air was cool on my skin, but I could feel sunlight on my face, warming every place the bright rays touched. I tried to imagine being a wolf in these mountains. Large paws thudding in an even beat against the ground as I raced through the wooded foothills. Tongue lolling and breath puffing in the air as I panted. The sound of other wolves calling to me before I answered them, head thrown back to howl at the sky. Heart racing as I hunted—
I gasped.
The dim light of magic inside me bloomed, expanding and filling my body like a river crashing through a ravine.
My bones shifted. It hurt like hell, but the pain was dampened by the surge of magic pumping through me. I felt my body change, my hands turning into paws, my face elongating into a snout, my tail wagging excitedly.
Holy. Fucking. Gods.
I had a tail!
I blinked, struck immediately by the way the world looked through these new eyes. My wolf eyes were sharper than my human ones, picking up small movements in the surrounding forest I would have missed completely before.
A cold nose pressed into my fur. You did it, killer!
Spinning in a circle, I caught sight of a large wolf. His fur was such a dark gray it was almost black, and he followed my body as I spun, keeping his nose buried in my white and red fur.
Good gods. You smell incredible.
I could hear Fenris’s voice in my head, but more than that, I could clearly read his feelings. His happiness. His pride. His naked attraction.
My spine tingled in response, and I shook my fur out like—well, like a wolf.
I can’t believe it. I did it! I ducked my head, circling around to sniff at Fenris. Oh, good gods. He smelled incredible.
Hey, thanks.
Dammit. I hadn’t meant to think that “out loud.” This mental link thing was going to be big trouble, I could tell.
Before Fenris could ferret out any other thoughts or feelings I didn’t want him to know about, I darted away, dipping my upper body low in a playful stance. He tensed, his amber eyes locked on me. We burst into motion at almost the same instant. I whirled, tearing through the underbrush, dodging over, around, and under fallen logs and bushes. Fenris ran hot on my heels, a howl bursting from his throat as he chased after me.
Even in wolf form, he was bigger than me, and he quickly overtook me, pulling up along my right side. I could barely keep my eyes on the terrain in front of me; they were drawn to the way his muscles shifted as he ran, the dappled sunlight glinting off his dark fur. He was so fucking beautiful.
He leapt onto a large boulder that rose up in front of us. Without even thinking, I leapt too, landing halfway up the rock and springing forward again almost as soon as my paws made contact. I reached the top, where Fenris waited for me. He tipped his head back and howled again, the sound so free and pure I wanted to laugh with wild joy. I threw my head back too, winding my howl around his in the cool mountain air. A flock of sparrows burst from a tree to our left, their tiny wings beating furiously.
Think you can beat me this time? Fenris’s lolling tongue looked like a grin.
You’re on, old man!
He leapt down the other side of the rock, leaving large paw prints in the earth. I followed as fast as I could, running with four legs as naturally as I’d ever run with two. I never stood a chance at beating him, but as we darted among the trees, I noticed Fenris easing up on his speed.
That fucker was taking it easy on me! Well, I’d show him what happened when he gave up his advantage.
Still slowing his pace, Fenris darted left around a thick pine trunk. I went right, and when we cleared the tree, I leapt for the dark gray wolf next to me, knocking him off his feet. We hit the ground together and rolled in a tangle of limbs and fur. He nipped at my ear when we came to a stop. His hot breath against my fur made my head fuzzy, and before I could think about what I was doing, I licked the side of his face.
Fenris’s gold eyes—rimmed with the same deep brown they had in human form—flashed with heat.
My blood ran cold. Fuck. I had not meant to do that. I was supposed to be distracting him from thoughts like this, not encouraging them.
Not wanting him to read any of the thoughts in my head, I pulled desperately on the magic inside me, willing myself to shift back. Thankfully, it was much easier to return to human form than it had been to shift into a wolf.
Fenris sensed what I was doing and shifted along with me.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t broken apart, so when the magic settled back down inside me, I found my human self straddling Fenris’s much larger form.
Also unfortunately, I wasn’t wearing any clothes.
The man beneath me had somehow managed to shift back fully dressed in his usual jeans, boots, and T-shirt, but I was naked as the day I was born.
A breeze hit parts of my body that should’ve felt no such thing, and I yelped, covering my breasts with both hands. If Fenris’s eyes had been hot before, they were scorching now. He reached up to grasp my hips, the pads of his fingers sending electric shocks racing through my body.
“Holy gods. You’re fucking gorgeous, killer.” His voice was rough and low.
“I’m naked!” I yelled, my voice sending another flock of birds scattering from a nearby tree.
He bit his lip. “Yeah, I noticed.”
I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the feel of his firm abs under my thighs and his grip tightening on the flesh of my hips. “Why am I naked?”
“Oh, uh, sometimes it takes a bit of practice to shift back wearing clothes.”
“And you didn’t think to mention that?” I hissed.
“Well, you’re so powerful I thought maybe you could do it on your first try.”
“Uh huh.” I shook my head skeptically and batted his arms away before realizing what that left exposed. I quickly clamped my hands back on my chest. “Will you stop staring at me like that?”
“That’s a tall order, beautiful,” he murmured huskily.
“Close your eyes!”
Slowly and extremely reluctantly, Fenris dropped his eyelids. I braced my hands on his chest to scramble off his body, and he let out a low growl when I touched him. Wincing as sharp rocks and twigs that I’d
barely felt as a wolf dug into my feet, I darted behind a tall pine tree, keeping a safe distance between its rough bark and my tender flesh. A sudden panic struck me, and I reached up to feel for the small quartz necklace I always wore. Still there, thank the gods.
“Clothes, please!” I called, holding a hand out around the trunk of the tree.
“Uh, sorry to tell you this, killer, but I don’t actually keep a spare set on me.”
I shook my hand adamantly. “Well, you’ll figure something out. The birds and bees are getting quite a show here!”
A rumbling growl met my ears. Was he actually jealous of birds and bees seeing me naked? A moment later, he draped his large black T-shirt over my outstretched arm. I snatched it back and yanked it over my head. It covered everything—barely. The length was more indecent than the dresses the Gifted elite wore to those fancy clubs in the Capital. If I bent over even an inch or two, everything would be on display again.
“Pants!” I stuck my hand around the tree again and heard Fenris sigh in exasperation. “Hey, you dug this grave for yourself, buddy!” I called.
When he draped his pants over my arm, I tugged them on, tightening the belt enough to keep them on my hips. I stepped out from behind the tree and stopped dead.
Ah, fuck.
I’d overlooked the one major flaw in my brilliant plan. Now Fenris was nearly naked. He wore a pair of black boxer briefs, unlaced boots, and… that was it. The smooth planes of his chest and stomach were broken by a slight dusting of hair, and the V of his obliques peeked out from the dark fabric of his briefs.
When he caught sight of me, his full lips spread into a wicked grin.
“You look good in my clothes.”
And you look good out of them.
I almost slapped a hand over my mouth as soon as the thought popped into my head. Thank all the gods he no longer had a direct line into my thoughts.
He quirked a brow. “Like what you see, huh?”
Then again, maybe he didn’t need one.
I wrenched my gaze up from his sculpted abdominal muscles to his laughing eyes. He bent and started pulling off his boots, and I looked away from the delicious new view of his back muscles and impressive lats flexing and stretching.
“Um, what are you doing?”
“You’re not gonna hike down this mountain barefoot, are you?” he asked, as if the answer was obvious.
“Neither are you!”
“Only got one pair of boots, killer. Sorry. Unless you want me to carry you? I do give a mean piggy-back.”
My eyes shot back to him and I pursed my lips. “Do I look like the kind of woman who lets a man carry her around?”
He waggled the boot in his hand back and forth. “Well, that depends on the context.”
“All right, give me that!” I darted forward gingerly and snatched the boot from his hand. He handed me the other, and I yanked them both on. My feet swam in the big shoes, but rocks and twigs no longer dug into my soles. “What are you going to do now, smart guy?”
A golden light spread over him. In another heartbeat, the dark gray wolf stood in front of me again. I hadn’t realized how big he was when I was in wolf form too, but he was nearly as tall as my waist. His intelligent amber eyes gleamed.
This. I’ll shift back when we get to the car.
The mental link between us was different when we weren’t both in wolf form. I could still clearly hear his voice in my head, but I couldn’t read his thoughts and emotions as easily as I had before. Thank the gods. Hopefully that went both ways and he couldn’t peek into any of my uncensored thoughts either.
The gray wolf sniffed the air, then set off through the brush in a direction slightly different from the one we’d come from. I assumed he was taking us on a more direct path back to the car. I clomped after him in my too-big boots, slipping a bit on the twigs and stones that covered the dry ground.
It was surprisingly easy to talk to Fenris while he was in wolf form, and as we hiked down the mountain side by side, I told him about my love of books, my place in the Outskirts, and how I wondered if Ivy would even notice my extended absence as long as the TV still worked. I carefully avoided mentioning anything about my life before I’d come to Denver, or the mercenary work I’d done over the past several years.
He told me stories about growing up with his pack in the Rocky Mountains, and what a troublemaker he’d been as a pup. The happiness in his tone dimmed when he described what it was like living as a shifter kid on the streets of Denver. He’d lived in the Outskirts for several years until he got the job at Sparks, where Christine had found him. She’d kept him there for a while as an undercover operative, gathering information when he could. A lot of the privileged children of Gifted officials drank there, and alcohol loosened their lips.
I was almost sorry when we reached the car a couple hours later. The easy conversation had been nice; the last person I’d had any kind of long talk with was Ivy, and she’d been so distracted by the sitcom she was watching that all of her “uh-huhs” and “oh wows” were inserted in the wrong places.
The sun was low in the sky, and when Fenris shifted back to human form, it bathed his bare chest and scruffy face in a warm golden light. Shoving down the temptation to ogle him, I kept my eyes firmly on the scenery outside as we drove back in comfortable silence.
He pulled the car into Akio’s garage, then hopped out quickly to open my door for me. I hesitated before accepting his hand, still not sure how to handle such chivalry. Who knew wolves had such good manners?
When we entered the house, Akio, Jae, and Corin were gathered around the kitchen bar, deep in conversation. They looked up as we entered, and then all three did a double take. I would’ve found it comical if my cheeks hadn’t been on fire.
Akio glanced at Fenris’s nearly naked form, then at me swimming in his large clothes. The incubus’s lip curled, although I swore I saw a flash of heat enter his eyes.
“I take it you had a good lesson?”
Gods, kill me now.
Chapter 13
Warm light filtered in through the curtains, and I stretched languidly. I should get up, but it was hard to muster the motivation when the bed I lay in was so comfortable. Staying at Akio’s house was like living in a five-star hotel—minus the friendly staff and mints on the pillows.
He had three guest bedrooms, and although I’d worried briefly that one of the guys would try to worm their way into my room, that possibility had never even been discussed. Corin and Fenris shared a room down the hall, while Jae stayed in the room downstairs. Jae had spent a few days in the Capital while I worked with Fenris, but he’d told me last night he had the next few days free. Now that I’d made a breakthrough in shifting, it was time to dive into spell casting.
My stomach roiled with nerves. Learning to shift had been difficult, though ultimately exhilarating, but I was genuinely scared to try performing spells. The few times magic had burst out of me, it hadn’t gone well. And I still had a lingering distrust of magic users; part of my brain rebelled against becoming one of them.
Sighing, I flipped the covers off and rolled out of bed. Padding over to the closet, I perused the contents. I was running out of good options here. Akio had a disturbingly large collection of women’s clothes—items left behind by years’ worth of conquests—and I’d been raiding his “lost and found” bin for clothes since I hadn’t had a chance to go back to my apartment.
I’d gone through most of the practical stuff already, and now I was entering the sluttier, skimpier portion of the wardrobe. I briefly considered asking Fenris if I could borrow more of his clothes, but I didn’t think I could handle smelling like him for an entire day. Though the connection between us seemed to have strengthened during our time on the mountain, my resistance to it had strengthened in equal measure. The pull I felt toward him—toward them all—made me feel weak and vulnerable, and the self-preservation instinct that had kept me alive all these years worked hard to quash that weakness.
/> Pulling on a tight, low-cut black top and a pair of skinny jeans, I smoothed a hand over my wild red waves. Pretty soon I’d be wearing evening gowns around the house, unless I could convince them to let me go home and pack a bag.
I slipped out of my room and walked quietly toward the stairs. Fenris and Corin were probably still sleeping. The two of them were polar opposites of Jae and Akio, who were both ridiculously early risers.
My heart clenched at the thought of Corin. I kept trying to find a moment to talk to him in private, but every time an opportunity arose, he’d find some excuse to leave the room. He had to take a call from Christine, or deal with a Resistance emergency, or… anything but speak to me. And if I was being honest with myself, part of me was relieved. I knew we needed to talk, but the enormity of the things I needed to say froze me in terror.
Akio’s living room was bright and spare, the hardwood floor cool under my bare feet. The only blemish on the pristine sight was the crater in the plaster by the door, which still hadn’t been fixed. Maybe Jae could teach me how to do it with magic—though home repairs were just about the most boring use of spell casting I could think of.
The mage looked up from his seat at the kitchen bar when I entered, his long, graceful fingers lifting a mug of steaming liquid to his mouth. I doubted it was coffee. Jae didn’t have any vices or guilty pleasures as far as I could tell, except maybe the expensive cars thing. As I stepped closer, the vaguely spicy aroma of some kind of tea hit my nose.
“You’re up early,” he noted, intelligent green eyes watching me carefully. They flickered down for just a second toward the annoyingly ample cleavage this top displayed, but his expression remained neutral.
“Early is relative. Compared to those two lazybones down the hall from me, yeah, I’m up early. But I have a feeling you’ve got me beat by at least an hour.” I slipped onto a chair across from him, trying to calm the rapid thrumming of my heart.
It’s just magic, Lana. Not a firing squad.
Jae dipped his head to acknowledge the truth of my words. “Are you ready to get started?”