“Even if he was flirting with me, so what? That’s none of your concern.”
“None of my concern? You’re my mate. You’re mine, and if he can’t respect that—”
“I’m not your property!” I wanted to scream it, but I managed to keep my voice down. “And you need to calm down, Sam.”
He let out a low growl as he loomed over me. I could feel his heat radiating off him. His hands gripped my shoulders, and despite everything, despite my frustration at him, a spark of longing burst into life inside me. With him this near, his rough hands holding me in place in the dimly lit closet, it was easy to imagine all sorts of scenarios. Him pushing me against the wall, pinning me there as one hand gripped my hair to turn my head up toward his. Him pressing his mouth to mine. My heart began thundering in my chest as my mind short-circuited for a second. That bond, that need for him, tugged at me again, and for a brief moment, I didn’t care how furious I was with him.
“I’m not going to calm down while some guy is ogling you,” he said, completely removing any sense of heat or need that I had been trying to fight.
“God, you are impossible,” I said. “You know, maybe if things had turned out differently a few years ago, I would give you a pass on acting this way. You had your chance. You don’t get to suddenly act like I’m yours now.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
I let out a groan of frustration and irritation. Of course he didn’t understand. And if he didn’t get it now, then I wasn’t going to bother trying to explain it to him. It wouldn’t do any good.
“You’re impossible,” I repeated. “Just knock it off. I’m not your property that needs guarding all the time.”
His hands gripped my biceps as he stared down at me. My heart jackhammered as I stared up at him. His mouth was so close to mine, separated by a few inches. I wanted to hide that want and need I constantly felt for him. I doubted I was doing a good job of it.
“I’m not going to stop protecting you, whether you like it or not,” he snarled, then gave a feral grin. “So you’re just going to have to get used to it.”
For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me, and his words washed off me like water on a bird. I couldn’t hear a word. All I could focus on was the heat radiating off him, how close he was, how badly I wanted him, despite myself.
Then his hands slid away from me, and the spell was broken. Before I even knew what was happening, he thrust open the door and stalked off, leaving me alone to figure out what the hell just happened.
Chapter 6 - Sam
We trekked through the desert, following one of the trails that wrapped up and around the rock formations. My paws padded on the desert floor as the sun beat down, but it didn’t bother me. I enjoyed the warmth of the days. Now that fall had spread across the desert, it had cooled slightly, especially during the night, but the days still had the sun beating down.
When we got to the ridge at the top of the mountain, we looked out over all the land that comprised Silver Falls. Off in the distance, we could see the town, radiating around another mountain where we could just make out the oasis. Beyond that and the hint of the town Adobe Creek in the distance, all we saw was the gorgeous red-brown landscape of the Arizona desert, and the shrubbery and succulents that covered the ground.
Oz shifted, turning back into a human and staring out at the land, his eyes squinting as he peered across the horizon. “I can’t see anything amiss from this angle,” Oz said. “Nothing that screams ‘wraith lair,’ at the very least.”
“Well, you said that one of our patrols ran into those demons, right?” I asked. “Where was that?”
Nodding, Oz pointed toward the northwest. A breeze blew in from that direction. “They ran into a small cluster by that river, just inside the border of town,” he explained.
I growled as I stared out. They were brazen enough to go inside our border. If we hadn’t seen their signs, if we hadn’t known they were out there, that patrol would have been completely unprepared. As it were, the patrol was able to fight back the demons with minimal injuries, though not fully unscathed. If the demons came for us when we weren’t ready for them, they could do almost as much damage as the wraith.
“They’ve only been around for a couple of months, and already I’m sick and tired of these nuisances,” I snarled.
Drake stared out in silence, his head tilted as he stared down at the place Oz had indicated. “You and Elias predicted the wraith was likely in the north, right, Sam? I doubt it’s a coincidence that those demons were there,” he mused.
“That’s my thinking,” I replied. “If I had to guess, that’s where the wraith is, but we have no idea where, and there are a hundred places its lair could be that we have to search, which could take a year.”
Drake made a noncommittal grunt as he studied the land, rubbing his chin. I knew him well enough to know he was strategizing.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“What if we used the lesser demons to find the wraith?” Drake suggested. “The lesser demons are vicious, but they’re also opportunists, according to what Oz read. Once they come across a fair fight, or one that is stacked against them, they’re out of there. If we can lure them out, let them think they can attack us, then ambush them, they’ll bolt. Then we should be able to follow them wherever they’re hiding.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I admitted. “But I don’t know if we want to risk our men. Right now, we’ve got lower numbers than normal thanks to the wraith. I don’t like the idea of putting our men in danger.
“Worth a thought,” Oz muttered.
“If we haven’t gotten any headway in the next couple of weeks, we can revisit it,” I said.
I stared back at Silver Falls, looking like a toy from this height. I found myself unconsciously wondering where Rachelwas right now, as if I could find her even from this distance, the way I had always felt when it came to her.
