Her brow knitted together as she smeared jam on her toast. “What do you mean?”
“We’re going to be mated,” I said. “Typically, that means sharing a bedroom.”
She knew what I was suggesting. Her knife paused halfway across the bread. Her eyes rose to meet mine. Our gazes lingered on one another for a long moment. I had never admitted just how attractive I found Liv. I’d always found her attractive, but she had matured into someone who was absolutely stunning. It wasn’t the first time I had pictured what she would look like, undressed, lying on my bed. Something flickered in her gaze, and I wondered if she had ever had similar thoughts, and if she was having them right now.
Once the mating bond clicked into place, it would only get worse. The bond intensified that physical attraction, making itall but impossible for newly mated pairs to keep their hands off one another.
She finally shrugged. “I like my bedroom.”
And that was that. I gave a brusque nod, and she returned to her breakfast.
I stared at her for a long moment, watching as she nibbled at the toast. None of this seemed real. Liv was my mate. The mating ceremony was in a handful of days, and she was living in my house because I had refused to let her leave.
Whatever happened next, I had royally fucked up by dragging her here and making her go through with the ceremony. I hadn’t been able to help myself. The thought of her leaving and running from it—from me—had sent my wolf into a frenzy, and I knew that no matter what, I couldn’t let her go.
I would just have to accept the consequences.
***
On top of being mated to someone who hated me, I was also having to contend with a psychotic monster terrorizing the town, which was why I was in a cramped, overpacked room, looking at a map.
“We’ve gotten whispers of sandstorms to the west of town,” Oz said. “Some pretty nasty ones, if reports are to be believed.”
A blanket of tension draped over everyone in the room. Since our last fight with the wraith, things had been relatively quiet. We hadn’t seen any sign of it. We had raided its lair a few weeks after that encounter, only to find nothing but sand-covered taverns. We had tried to track the wraith ever since, butso far our search had been fruitless. It had hidden to lick its wounds and get back to health. Apparently, it was back in action.
“Great,” I muttered.
“Well, we knew this was going to happen sooner or later,” Elias, the pack alpha, murmured. “Though I was hoping for later. Still, it isn’t as though we’re unprepared.”
“What about the demons?” I asked. At some point, the wraith had enlisted the help of lesser demons: imps and other creatures like that. We had yet to figure out how the wraith had managed to convince them to join its cause, but demons were agents of chaos and had no qualms about sowing discord all over the desert. Even without the wraith, we’d come across swatches of desolate land, rotten brush, and cacti; rivers that normally flowed freely, barely a trickle in massive basins—the types of things that could never happen normally. Humans in Adobe Creek had explained it away with global warming, but the pack here in Silver Falls knew better.
“Still the obnoxious, pesky menaces they always are,” Oz said. “Though carrying around iron weapons helps.”
I nodded. Rachel and Emma, who were both witches, could use magic against the wraith. Although some magic still deterred the imps and other demons, it wasn’t nearly as effective against them. So far, iron knives and other similar weapons had made the most impact whenever they attacked.
Sam frowned, rubbing his mouth as he stared down at the pages. “If the wraith is making itself known again, that means it’s going to come after the town soon.”
“Yup,” Elias agreed. “Rachel and Emma have been working on setting up wards for the town, so we should have some protection.”
“We know it’s strategies, at least,” Sam muttered. “So we have things we can do that might work.”
“That isn’t everything, though,” I said.
The others’ eyes turned toward me.
“Please tell me it isn’t as bad or as ominous as you just made it sound,” Oz said.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s some murmurings. Just a few reports from patrols about some unexplained desolation, and I’ve heard of some humans in Adobe Creek who have been seeing some strange things going on. Things that the wraith couldn’t do, and the imps aren’t strong enough to do.”
“So there’s a new player in town,” Elias muttered.
“Looks like that might be the case,” I agreed.
“Great,” Oz grumbled. “I really felt like one psychotic and malevolent creature wasn’t enough. It really felt like we needed a second one.”
Elias let out a long, low breath as he ran his fingers through his hair, scowling down at the pages strewn across the table. “Just what we need,” he said. He turned to look back up at me. “Any idea what it is or what its game plan might be?”
I shook my head. “Again, just murmurings, and a few strange things the guys have noticed. Could be anything. Could be the wraith managing to sow some confusion for all I know.”
