I carry her all the way to the parked UTV and drop her in the seat. My lips itch to take hers. My teeth feel heavy. They actually ache with venom.
I want to bite her. Bond her to me for life, so I know for certain she can never run away.
Maybe she can see my alpha at the surface. Ready and waiting for her to accept the bond. Her lips part, but she pulls back, only slightly. It's enough. So I close the door, climb in on the driver's side, and show my mate around our town.
Chapter 24: Silas
"Three-ten, three-eleven, three-twelve…" Lily whispers, eyes closed. She tracks the seconds since the last footsteps faded at the top of the stairwell. When she gets to three-fifty, "Okay, go."
I step back and strip down. My wolf claws to the surface, his coat emerging through my skin. My face elongates into a muzzle, my teeth lengthening.
We're a mess. Scars streak our pelt like lashings, patches of fur missing from old and new injuries. But the relief of shifting after so long—it's blinding. Like bathing in a cool stream after walking through fire. Like tasting food when you're starving.
Like scenting my omega, my mate, for the first time, after years of pain and isolation.
The release slams through us. My wolf shudders, lands on all fours, shaking out each limb, as our joints pop in satisfaction. He stretches, spine arching, like he's waking from centuries of sleep.
I couldn't shift even a month ago. I tried and tried for years. But I can now. I'm not sure what's changed. Doesn't matter because I'm almost free.
My wolf surges, raging and eager. His alpha energy pulses, and I have to work to tamp it down, to keep him quiet. The effort is worth it though, to feel the power bubble inside us. We're nearly back to the force we once were.
Not quite. With Lily's help…
"You have ten minutes. I'll keep counting. Don't distract me."
Lily may be a delta, but locked in this cage with me, going through what she has these last few months, she's found a backbone I suspect she never had when addressing an alpha before. Plus, it's not like I've given her much time to adapt.
She was terrified of me at first—rightfully—but we've found our way, carving a path out of this hellhole, and come hell or high fucking water, we're getting out of here.
Lily keeps her eyes closed and concentrates. If I hear someone coming, I'll shift back. But to be on the safe side, I only shift for ten minutes at a time, by Lily's count.
It's like stretching an unused muscle. Feels so fucking good, but it's brutal. Like we're atrophied, a little shaky, on the weak side. But stronger by the minute.
My wolf breathes deeply, sucking in hungry breaths, piecing out particles of information, compiling for a future battle plan. He isolates every scent in this room. The blood, the sweat. Dirt on the floor. Dusty, impenetrable stone walls. Body odor. Lily's dried cum.
Then beyond.
Up the stairs, through the network of halls I once roamed freely. I follow the trail all the way to the kitchen. Pierre and Deidre scheming, Stephen and Caren, a few of the other witches in the coven hovering close.
I catch Mona's name on Pierre's filthy lips. I concentrate and listen carefully, letting his words filter in.
"We'll need to find another way to get to her. Now that she's in Silent Peak, it'll be near impossible to steal her."
"Everyone has a weakness. Even that meathead Grayson," Deidre mutters softly. It's deceptive. I know it, and the other witches know it, too. Deidre is never soft. She's furious I've failed to impregnate Lily. Even more so, that Mona isn't here in her place.
She continues shit-talking in that polished way of hers. Caren coos and praises Deidre's infinite wisdom while Stephen fawns and agrees with every word she says. In the end, it sounds as though they still don't have a solid plan of how to get to Mona.
"I'll keep looking," Pierre sighs. "In the meantime, I have a plan that could get us past their borders."
My wolf takes a deep inhale, exhaling worry like stones falling off our back.
Frustration mingles withrelief.
She made it. She's with my brother.
Her fate has haunted me. There's nothing more I could have done for her, there was no time, no good options. I made the only choice I could back then. I brought her close enough to death to force her wolf out of hiding to save them both.
I know she despises me. The way she looked at me when I stood over her, blood dripping from my teeth—like I was death himself. I can still feel her terror sliver through my skin.
