Felix nods, rocking back onto his heels. “I’ll give you five just to be safe. Assuming it works at all. Not sure if there’s a distance thing to all of this.”
“Only one way to find out,” Nolan comments, his hand hovering over Felix’s shoulder.
“Yeah, well, if I don’t show up, you’ll know why,” he says, his mouth screwing to one side.
“I can summon you,” a deep voice offers, causing me to nearly leap out of my skin.
Glancing over my shoulder, I witness Kaleb and Donovan approach, half naked, with their flesh damp from the overcast clouds they clearly flew through, and duffle bags slung across their chests.
Look at their faces not the muscles. Now is not the time to get all hormone crazy.I swallow heavily, my eyes ignoring my thoughts to do their own perusal.Damn, I’m a mess, and I swear I have the worst sense of priorities lately. Puberty sucks!
As Kaleb and Donovan approach, Wolf Connor huffs, Felix looks relieved, and Nolan states, “It’s been a while. Glad to see you changed your minds.”
“I’m still not sure how I feel,” Kaleb admits, giving me a significant look that has butterflies doing a heated interpretive dance low in my belly. “Regardless, my place is here with you. Yourfaexis ourfaex, right?”
While hooking his hands around the strap across his chest, Donovan groans, “Sometimes your inability to curse in English is fucking painful.”
Shows what he knows. I’ve heard Kaleb drop the f-bomb twice!
“Call it even,” Kaleb quips, dropping his duffle to the ground so he can pull out a small towel and clean shirt. “Sometimes just being around you pains me.”
“Yeah, how’s that fat bruise doing? Still walking funny? You should really watch your defense while sparring. Might end up getting something worse than a nasty kick to the thigh, “ Donovan comments smugly, choosing not to put on a shirt.
Kaleb ignores him, instead focusing on looking presentable. Apparently, Donovan and Kaleb spent their time apart from us beating the crap out of each other. Boys. So weird.
“Gang’s all here,” Nolan chimes in, then motions toward the plane. “Let’s go.”
“Just a sec,” Donovan grumbles, his arms flexing as his hands twist around the duffle’s strap. “I want to make one thing fucking clear. If Felix…if he’s corrupted somehow because of this bullshit, and I have to…I willneverfucking forgive you. Do you get me?”
“I won’t let that happen,” I promise, finally understanding his true fear. It’s not the principle of possession that he has a problem with, he’s worried that Felix’s soul will change. Degrade into something Donovan will eventually have to vanquish.
Everyone stands in a kind of stunned silence while Donovan approaches me, getting so close Connor growls at him.
“This is between her and me,” he snarls down at Connor, before meeting my eyes with a harsh stare. “You’re sure you can stop it from happening?”
It didn’t occur to me that this could even be a possibility, but I refuse to allow anything to happen other than Felix gaining a full, untainted life. From the depths of all that I am, I vow, “You know what I’m capable of. I will use everything I have to make sure that won’t happen.”
A pained expression flashes across his features before he grumbles, “I’m counting on it.”
Finding his voice, Felix jokes, “Aw, D, I didn’t know how much you cared.”
“Shut up,” he grunts, then turns to head toward the plane.
“I’m choosing to interpret that as Donovan speak for ‘I love you,’” Felix chirps with a grin.
There’s an awkward chuckle from everyone, and we follow Donovan’s grumpy stride. I try not to notice Nolan stealing contemplative looks my way, which probably doesn’t bode well for the secrets I’m keeping. Not that I really want to keep them anyway. Honestly, at this point, I want to lock us all in a room and demand that we all come clean about everything. All this trying to remember who knows what is exhausting.
I’m the last on the plane, following Connor up the stairs, with both of my hands white-knuckling the handrails. When I reach the top, my aunt sees me, and asks for the final time, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Squaring my shoulders and lining my spine with sheer stubbornness, I repeat, “I’m sure.”
Chapter 15
Connor
Standing in the foyer of the place Callie once called home, I feel her emotions flowing into me like water, mixing with my own until I can no longer tell what is hers and what is mine. Ever since I selfishly had her complete the mating bond, anytime I’m in her presence, I’m dragged along the sweeping current of her feelings.
I had every intention of keeping the mating bond one-sided. Hold myself back until the day she might feel the same way I did, but with every concession I made to the gnawing need inside me, the more I tempted fate. At first, I only wanted to be close to her. The bond was so new and it was too painful to be separated from her. Then she looked through me, grabbed the wounded person inside, and refused to let go. She invited me into her arms. Into her touch, and I…didn’t want to resist.
