“Ouch!” He presses a hand to his chest as his face contorts with mock pain. “As if you could ever resist me!”
“Shut up!” I slam my palms into his shoulders, almost knocking him off his feet. He's always been a flirt, and the banter isn't unusual, but I curl my fists and threaten to punch his pretty face if he's not careful.
It's not until the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickle at attention that I suddenly feel strangely uncomfortable, my spine going ramrod-straight just as Dominic beams, eyes twinkling as he leaves Cecelia's side.
“Hunter Black…I'll be damned!” Dominic exclaims delightedly, and the wind is punched right out of my gut the moment I hear that name.
Hunter Black.
Why didn't I foresee the near future in which Hunter Black would arrive with our friends from Silverfang? It would have given me the upper hand, a chance to escape before meeting this dreadful consequence of my past.
A shiver passes through me as I turn, desperately sucking in air as if I need it for what's to come.
I thought a little air would prepare me for the inevitable, but when my eyes land on the man with familiar boyish charm, my breath is stolen all over again. It only takes a second for our eyes to meet, as if muscle memory controls their movement, locking with perfect precision that rips away reality like a rug from under my feet. I'm sprung into a series of flashing memories so vivid that I would have mistaken them for a vision if I hadn't already lived through them.
My visions are only meant to show me the future. What I see now as I stare into Hunter's darkly penetrative eyes is everything I've ever experienced with him in the past, from our easy rapport and harmless flirting to that one night that turned to so much more when a dangerous mission led us into each other's arms.
Unlike the friendships I forged with the other guys, Hunter was always different, and I'm reminded of why when I recall everything that led to his voice, recorded to memory likea playback tape that I should have chucked away when I retired from black ops, saying,“I think we should stop hooking up, Delilah. It's for the best.”
His voice is crystal clear in my mind, even if his lips don't move to say a word now. I quickly tear my eyes away, not wanting him to notice how affected I am by his sudden, unexpected appearance. I refuse to show any sign of weakness, and that's why I'm grateful for a pair of delicate arms wrapping around me warmly just as Hunter chuckles and explains that he'd arrived a little later with Sean and Emily and watched the ceremony from a bench in the back of Tyler’s hall.
“Delilah! It's so lovely to see you again!” the sprightly voice chirps, the familiarity touching my heart and warming the ice particles that were forming like shards of broken glass at Hunter's appearance. Softened by my friend's embrace, I sigh into her hug and hold her for as long as it takes to regain my composure.
“Emily…” I whisper as I draw back just enough to meet her forest-green eyes. Lively, vibrant blonde curls with pink highlights frame her face, amplifying the coolness of her pale flesh as she smiles. “It's so good to see you again, babe!”
My relief isn't just from being united with one of my closest friends; it also came from having a distraction, my attention pulled away from the squad member who'd joined Sean and Emily.
I heard he'd been staying with them in Stowe, among the Silverfang Pack, after losing the alpha trials in Bloodclaw and abandoning his pack to live as a loner.
A flicker of empathy almost forces me to meet his eyes again, but I keep myself steady, focusing on the group as acollective rather than a singular wolf whose presence threatens to shake my world.
It's none of my business what he does with his life, or if he's decided to leave his pack. No one else seems too worried about his decision, and no one in the group brings it up, the conversation light as I stand between Cecelia and Emily.
“Well, it did take Tyler's mating ceremony to bring us together again,” Emily smirks. “Something Dominic failed to achieve.”
As she turns with a mischievous grin toward Dominic, he rolls his eyes just as he pats Sean playfully on the shoulder.
“It's notmyfault you losers were too busy to attend my mating ceremony! At least Ty and Nick were there.”
“Yeah, well, trust the overachiever to be the first of us to get hitched,” Sean teases as he sticks out a tongue at Dominic, turning just as Arianna approaches our group.
More warm greetings are exchanged as everyone congratulates Arianna just before her mate, Alpha Tyler Whitlock of the Moonshine Pack, arrives. Seeing him inseparable from his mate, it's nearly impossible to believe that a few short weeks ago, he was trying to avoid their fated mate bond.
Men!I think disdainfully, rolling my eyes and forcing myself not to give Hunter a single glance. It's not just to keep my world from crumbling with every memory resurfacing, it's also because of how awkward the tension is.
Surely, he notices it, too.
I have to keep my chin up, tight and stoic while he's around. It's hard to imagine that there was a time when Hunter and I would bicker playfully and act as if we didn't spendthe previous nights tussling in the sheets in passionate trysts. To keep appearances and maintain the bonds we'd formed as friends in the squad, Hunter and I never revealed that we were being physical.
Sneaking around with him was thrilling until it wasn't, when a vision showed me that I wasn't just attracted to him physically, but an etheric cord kept our souls bound.
The fated mate bond.
It's a blessing when it's honored, like when Tyler claimed Arianna as his mate in tonight's ceremony.
It's a curse when one party rejects the bond, claiming that the intensity we shared was simply “fun.” The kind of fun that needed to come to an end after he returned from a stealth mission I wasn't involved in, as if it meant nothing to him.
As if he couldn't feel those etheric cords that drew us together in the first place.
