“That lab has her name all over it,” Wrecker added, looking almost hopeful now that he had a plan to chew on. “I’m gonna bury the fuckers when I get in.”
More voices joined, brief but fierce. Promises to watch their families, to stay close, to move fast. I felt the swell of resolve rise and watched it pass over me, carrying us from the paralysis of fear into the momentum of action.
“We keep moving,” I said, letting my tone ground them the way they needed it to. My eyes didn’t leave theirs until they knew I meant every word. “We’ll find it.”
The meeting closed with the resolve that only desperate men carry. I watched the officers file out, their silence as deliberate as their strides. Outside, the low sun cut the land into pieces, leaving sharp lines of shadow as we walked toward our bikes. Menace stayed close, reading the fight in my eyes.
“We’ll know more soon,” he said as the others started their engines. His confidence rang through the doubt that hung over us.
I nodded, sure of him and nothing else. “Won’t rest till we do.”
It wasn’t a threat, or even a promise. Just the truth I planned to live by until it was done.
Night settled over the cabin like a weight, heavy and uncertain. I found Juliet hunched close to the TV, shadows thrown long across the floor as her eyes tracked news channels, the remote a tight fist in her grip. She didn’t notice me at first. The air buzzed with voices as they filled the space with clipped, senseless words about the financial market back east.
Her tension drew tight around us both; her breath hitched and expectant. When I finally moved toward her, a sharp intake of breath let me know she’d registered I was there. “Bronc,” she said, and the relief and anxiety wound together in her voice, thin threads holding her too-still body.
I dropped down beside her, gathering her in as she began to shake. “Shhh,” I murmured against her hair. “Not gonna find her on there.”
Juliet slumped into my chest, the remote dropping from her fingers and thudding against the hardwood. She smelled like despair and rain, soft notes cutting through the sharper stabs of panic. “She’s my mother,” she said, choked and careful. “I know she failed at so many things, but I still have to try.”
I held her tighter, burying my nose against her skin and breathing her in until the calm I willed through our bond settled enough to take hold. Her warmth and her hurt, her presence at the center of my world. “No, you don’t,” I told her. “Just gotta trust me.”
A quiet rippled through the room as she went still. Her pulse fluttered beneath my lips as I pressed a line of slow, reassuring kisses along her neck and shoulder. Finally, her muscles unlocked, and she shivered against me in surrender.
When her voice came, it was low and uncertain. “What if he’s already—?”
“He hasn’t,” I interrupted, fierce and sure. She would be devastated if Harrison made a move before she could find her mother. “He won’t.”
I felt the fight slip from her as she met my gaze, wet eyes turning dark and wide with both belief and doubt. I took her hand, threading our fingers together. “Come on,” I said, rising and pulling her with me. “Know what you need.”
“Bronc?” she asked, but she followed.
We stepped into the cool night air, our shadows stitched close as I led her across the expansive backyard. The sparse lights around the pool lent a ghostly illumination, each delicate ripple in the water throwing pale reflections that danced beneath the moon.
Juliet trailed behind, silent now, watching me as I came to a stop beyond the deck and turned toward her. Her breath the only sound in the darkness as she crossed her arms, holding tight to the tension she hadn’t yet let go. I didn’t wait for her to ask more questions. Instead, I claimed her lips with mine and let the intent fill her through the long, demanding kiss.
My hands moved from her face to her collar, slowly unbuttoning her flannel shirt. “Shift,” I urged.
Her eyes flashed with uncertainty, her gaze as hesitant as the tremors I felt against my chest as I kissed her again. “Out here?” She asked, so human and unsure. So small against the massive expanse of the night.
“Out here,” I echoed. I shrugged the shirt from her shoulders, leaving it in a puddle around her bare feet. My hands moved to the waistband of her cutoffs, fingers tracing her skin with warmththat beckoned her to trust me more than her own fears. I peeled them from her, one deliberate tug at a time.
She trembled, the question heavy in her eyes and in the quiet night around us. I kissed her again, deeper this time, a promise that anchored as well as provoked. “Shift,” I ordered once more, moving back and away so she had the room to.
For a moment, she looked like she’d break. For a moment, she didn’t know if she could. Then I watched as she closed her eyes, an exhale escaping her like the beginning of a prayer.
Her body convulsed, folding in on itself and then back out as she arched toward the moon, slender arms stretching in defiance and in release. I saw the dark blonde of her fur first, bristling like rebellion from beneath her skin, and then she was on four unsteady legs. Her wolf trembled where Juliet had stood.
She was magnificent.
I let her see how much I wanted this for her, letting my change take me with speed and force. I was black and gray to her honeyed coat, the familiar shape and freedom overtaking my senses. I loped to her side, pressing our bodies together and feeling the sheer, wild energy that poured from her unrestrained.
My touch sent waves of new feeling through her, each nudge and caress charged and electric. She buckled against me at first, uncertain and new, and then—when she felt me there, understood me there—her limbs untangled, sure and strong and alive.
We broke into a run, side by side across the open compound land. Her hesitance turned to joy, and I watched as each step grew bolder and more confident. She was learning this. She was learning herself.
We kept close, the dark and the open space ours alone as we moved. The smells and sounds, the colors and lights—everything bled into a sensory palette unique to our wolves. It filled us with reckless, unapologetic wonder. It filled us with each other.
