She placed it on Hadriel’s tongue.
“There you go, good boy,” she said with a laugh, patting him on the head.
He growled a little, making her laugh harder, before eating the tab. I shed my clothes, tossing them away and noticing that Aurelia did not turn around this time. Instead, her eyes slowly drifted down my body, stopping on my cock. It twitched with the notice but I didn’t wait for the results of my rush of desire. I shifted as the others backed away, dwarfing Hadriel’s wolf with my own.
The bonds of the pack were all there, waiting. A quick check-in regarding the perimeter showed all clear. No sightings, no scents, nothing to cause alarm. All good news—for the moment.
Hadriel’s connection to the bond dimmed, turning elusive. My wolf reached for it, feeling it try to slither away fromour touch. Nova was right, it was like running your fingers through water. My wolf tried again, mustering our power and determination, getting ahold of that bond and reeling it in tighter.
“He’s got it,” Dante said, reading my wolf’s cues.
“Ain’t no hiding from our alpha,” Sixten said with a smug grin.
“Should we try another tab?” Aurelia asked. “He can have up to five before he might throw it all back up. Five was my limit.”
“You tried five of those things at once?” Tanix asked her.
“Six, actually. I needed to see how my body would react if I took more than the recommended dose. I have been on some truly nightmare journeys with the hallucinogenic product, let me tell you. It’s what inspired me to learn that trick of shrugging off the drug’s effects. I didn’t want to keep subjecting myself to multiple doses without an ‘out.’”
Hadriel stuck out his tongue, ready for more.
My wolf rose his hackles but we let it happen, watching as she placed the tab on Hadriel’s tongue. He consumed it and we waited, our hold consistent but tenuous. In a handful of minutes everyone looked at me, then back to him. Nothing had changed. More minutes trickled by and still nothing changed.
“It should’ve happened by now. Another, or are we done?” Aurelia looked at my wolf. “If there was any sort of change, I’d suggest trying another. If there was zero change, I doubt you need to try more. Either the effect will be compounded or not at all. I’m guessing, obviously, but that stands to reason.”
She was so confident when she spoke about her product, so authoritative. So fucking sexy. I could tell she took pride in her work and knew every detail. I trusted her when she administered it and believed her when she spoke about its properties. The problem was, her small world view didn’t line up with the larger picture. There were some things I’d seen in person, and she hadnot. Not yet, anyway. We’d see what she had to say for herself when she did.
I made ready to take over, expecting my wolf to shift out of his form and hand back control. Instead, he looked at her, at her beauty, savoring her tantalizing scent and feeling that deep pulse within her calling out to him. Her wolf waited for him, and would ache to be with him once she was allowed out of the darkness. We both knew it. It’s how these things went, I’d heard.
His need to meet his true mate rose. He leaned a little harder toward that pulse within her and yanked, bringing it forward.
“What are you doing?” I hollered at him. “We talked about this!”
She gasped, grabbing at her middle. Her power throbbed, pulling everyone’s attention. Hadriel’s wolf stiffened, feeling another alpha in the vicinity.
“No!” I scolded my wolf. “She’s already unnaturally quick and vicious. If you let out her wolf, there’ll be no stopping her if she runs when we’re not looking. We can’t do this here. We have to wait until we get to the castle. You fucking know this! Stop thinking of yourself and think of her.”
“If she runs, we’ll be able to chase her.”I could hear his excitement and matching desire.
“Not if the enemy grabs her first. If she runs, we could lose her forever.”
It was only that which backed him down, I knew—the threat of losing her. I wouldn’t be able to shift when the dragons made their verdict. He would never let them hurt her. Despite his agreement that he’d do our duty, I knew when it came down to it he wouldn’t be able to. He’d sacrifice everything for her. Before being with her and getting to know her, there was a chance he could have resisted. But now—after smelling her, tasting her, burying inside her—the primal urge was too strong. I’d need tohandle this situation with pure, rational thought. There could be no other way.
My wolf gave up control and I resumed my human form, straightening up slowly, watching her warily. Her power still throbbed within her, bleeding into the space around us. The others stood rigid, wary, probably ready to defend themselves if she reacted.
Seconds ticked by. Aurelia’s brow had pinched tight and then lowered, her hand tight to her chest. Her head cocked to the side and her eyes found mine. An accusation burned within them, and then slowly the power drifted away, her wolf plunged back into the abyss.
My wolf whined within me, hating that we had to do this to her. There was nothing worse than the feeling of your animal, your power, slipping away until only a void stood in its place... except maybe trying to use it without training.
“That was all on you,” I told him angrily. “I don’t want to hear one more lecture about hurting her. You can only hope she hasn’t realized what that was. Otherwise, she’s going to know we kept it from her. More importantly, she’s going to know Granny did. Talk about ripping her life apart little by little. She’s going to think we’re monsters by not going through with freeing her animal. If she knows, there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Well then,” she said slowly, her gaze piercing into mine. It looked like she wanted to peel back my forehead and have a look inside. “I guess that’s us done.” She bent and retrieved a tab as Hadriel shifted into his human form. “Maybe I’ll partake.”
She quirked an eyebrow at me as though daring me to argue before slowly slipping it into her mouth.
“I’m in.” Hadriel struck out his hand. “I didn’t feel a damn thing in wolf form except a sort of disconnect from the pack. I’ll tell you, Alpha, I didn’t much like that. It felt like my lifeline was disintegrating and I was left hung out to dry. Even whenyou managed to hold on, communication through the bond was hindered. Did you feel that? It felt like you were barely holding on.”
“That’s exactly what was happening.” I watched Aurelia, watching me back. “That drug is dangerous to a pack.”
