(SHILOH)
There were reasons I didn't spend much ti around Mira. Fucking important reasons.
The security of my position as alpha was at stake. Just keeping her alive was enough to threaten it.
I could kill her now and be done with it. I wouldn't be the first wolf to live without a mate. It would be one of those rare instances where being alone made you stronger.
For three years, I stayed away. When Phineas told she was covered in scars, I said good. When he said she was terrified of everyone and everything, I told him it was justice. And when he told she was taking an interest in the bar, I told him to shut it down.
He didn't. For the first ti ever, Phineas defied . And for the first ti since his mate died, he took an interest in life.
His reports changed in tune. He started berating for ignoring her. When I finally snapped that she was lucky I didn't break her neck, he stopped reporting at all.
Damn it, he hadn't been there when Cora dragged her broken body back to my territory.
He hadn't been there when Kai went half mad when she died.
He wasn't there when we found those children sitting among the corpses.
She'd had a hand in that. She'd fucking admitted it.
I would not forgive her.
Then, Phineas blew his brains out, and now I had to protect her.
My witch was gone, missing for several weeks now, and I had to trust the coldest woman I'd ever t to find her.
"I don't think you've taken a breath in the last ten minutes," Kai said conversationally. "That vein in your forehead is bulging."
It had been a few hours since he'd treated Mira. Since he'd looked into the eyes of the woman responsible for his sister's death.
He was holding up remarkably well.
"Why did you volunteer to co with us?" "Irene is a friend. I am worried about her."
I shot him a dark look, and he smiled sadly. "It was ti, and this was the best opportunity. I am focused. I could not fall apart while I sought answers."
"If she's hurt..."
"I will do my best to save her."
He didn't even hesitate. We walked a few more minutes when Kai started humming.
"You know, the last plea from my twin's mouth before she died was 'you have to help her.' I thought it was a survivor or one of the children."
There were no other survivors at the camp. "Maybe she bonded with one of the children, or maybe Atlas killed soone else before we arrived."
We'd gotten the children back to Amber Wound territory. They were so terrified, they could barely speak. It was Irene who looked after them until I found their families in the Bracken Wraiths.
"Maybe,' Kai murmured. "Why would the Darkwyn coven take Irene?"
I smiled, baring my fangs. "When we get there, I intend to ask."
"We need to make camp soon. She trembles with every step."
"Then she can shift and heal," I snapped. "We still have at least another good hour of daylight. I'm not wasting my ti because she wants to hide her wolf."
"Why do you think she is refusing? She is clearly in pain."
"There were reports of a red wolf partnering with Atlas. They were never ever identified.
It's probably her." "If it is her?"
I'd have to kill her.
Except I hadn't yet. I had her confession. The words had fallen from her lips that night and created a chasm between and my wolf. He'd chosen her, and he had yet to forgive for staying away from her.
At night, when it was quiet, and there were no other distractions, I could feel her in my mating bond. The desperate ache to be near . The urgency to touch .
It fucked with my head. Carnal images rise up, all the goddamn things I want to do to her body, and it has nothing to do with punishnt. I wanted to fuck her so bad and lose myself in a single mont of belief that we could be okay.
"Shiloh?"
At the sound of Rhiannon's voice, I turned to see Mira stumble. With a grunt of pain, she fell. Everyone stopped and watched as she stood. Without a word to anyone, she started limping forward.
Seeing her pain should have brought joy, but instead, it just made my chest ache. We were close enough to the border. "Camp," I said quietly. "Shift and hunt for your dinner and get plenty of sleep. Tomorrow, the real work begins."
We took a few minutes to set up a clearing, and then everyone except Kai, Mira, and shifted. My wolf also yearned to be out, to sidle up to her and comfort her, and for that reason alone, I stayed human.
Kai went to Mira's side and inflated the pillow for her knee. I settled just out of their sight and listened to them talk.
"When Cora first went missing, we had our witch try and track her. Irene is a powerful white witch, and she couldn't track my twin more than twenty feet from our boundary," Kai said quietly.
Mira inhaled sharply, and Kai murmured an apology. After a mont, he continued.
"When Cora did return, she was in so much pain, she could barely speak. The only reason Shiloh found your father was because Cora had a strange map in her pocket. Step counts from a rock formation. It was lucky that Shiloh was familiar with the rock formation."
"Lucky," Mira repeated flatly.
"The only thing is that the map was not written in Cora's hand."
I stiffened. Kai had never said that to .
"You want to admit that I wrote the map and sent your sister out in hopes that she'd see soone who might care before she died?" Mira asked lightly. "Is that going to help you find closure, sohow?"
"Closure. That's an odd term. Do you feel closure now that your father is dead?"
My mate snorted. "Fine. I get your point."
And what exactly was the point that Kai was trying to make?
"Were there any other females taken with Cora? Any other females other than the children at the camp?"
"No. Just . Why?"
"And the children. Did she know that they were there?"
Mira was quiet for a mont. "I think so. I don't really rember, but I probably told her to motivate her. Why?"
"So she never saw them."
"No. She never got that far. She'd spent less than twelve hours at the camp, and she spent all of that with . Do you want to know what we talked about?"
"Yes."
"I don't rember," Mira said, and my gut tightened. Normally, it was easy to tell when one of my wolves was lying, but with Mira, it was always hard. It wasn't my bond to tell that she'd lied just then, but I heard a tell in her voice. A slightly higher pitch. The words spoken a little too quickly.
So far, she'd told Kai everything that he wanted to know. Why would she lie now?
"I see," Kai said quietly. "Thank you for the information you did provide. I know that you didn't know Cora when she was at her best, but you were right. She was strong. A fighter.
She was born seventeen minutes before , and she never let forget it." "Why are you telling this?"
"I thought you might want to know sothing about the woman who saved your life."
"Since your alpha won't listen to , and I'm probably going to die on this trip with the rest of you, I would argue that your sister did not save my life."
Kai chuckled softly. "We both know that is not true. I've spent a long ti thinking that you had the heart of a killer."
"You agreed not too long ago that I was responsible for the death of your sister."
"The hand of a killer is not the sa as the heart of one."
Enough of this bullshit. I didn't know what Kai was doing, but I moved into the clearing.
"Shift and hunt. I'll keep an eye on her," I said stiffly.
With a nod, Kai stood and walked away. I grabbed a pack and walked closer to her and tossed it to her feet. The light of day had dimd, and she was lit up by the orange glow of the fire. I could see every line of exhaustion on her face and the pain still lingering in her gaze.
There was no point in bringing it up. She was stubborn. If she didn't want to shift, if she just wanted to be in pain, that wasn't my fault. I didn't give a damn.
"I have so dry packets for soup. If you refuse to shift and hunt, that is what you'll have to eat."
She didn't say anything, didn't even look at .
"There's a pot and so water in the pack. You can make it yourself." Still nothing.
"I won't be ignored, Mira."
"I'm sorry, I was waiting for permission to speak. Thank you so much for the soup, alpha. It sounds delicious."
At the flatness of her voice, I jerked. She still didn't look at but dutifully reached for the pack. I watched as she assembled the items and hobbled closer to the fire. All of Kai's hard work would be destroyed, but she didn't ask for help. Just silently focused on her task.
Swearing silently to myself, I picked up the log she'd been resting on and dragged it closer to the fire. "Sit," I ordered. "Then make your damn dinner. And I'm not your damn father. You can speak around ."
She looked up at , and sothing strange glittered in her eyes. "No. You are definitely not my father."
Unsure of how I was supposed to take that, I watched until she ate every bit of her soup.
The other wolves had returned by then, so I left to hunt on my own. When I returned, my shifters had ford a protective ring around Mira. It wasn't, I knew, by choice.
She was still awake, staring up at the night sky with her leg elevated.
My wolf's own pain was too strong to ignore. For the first ti in a long ti, I gave him the reins, and he approached her cautiously and sniffed at her knee. Her whole body had gone stiff, and she'd paled.
She was afraid of him. Good.
No.
My wolf growled internally at and nudged at her arm. After a mont of hesitation, she moved it slightly and placed it on top of his head.
Contact.
He shivered in pleasure and collapsed next to her. Feeling her body against his nearly undid . She was so small. So frail. So goddamn broken. How was she even still alive?
I wanted to take pleasure in this mont. To soak it in. It was easy to hide behind my wolf. We were each half of the sa spirit. To deny one half too long was dangerous. I could give him this.
He sensed them before I did. This contented wolf who only wanted to be by mate. I was distracted. Torn between him and myself, and by the ti I realized there were other wolves nearby, there were already two on , fangs sinking into my skin.
Mira scread.
Reviews
All reviews (0)