Go? As in drive off without him? Hell no! Why did he keep thinking I was some girl who ran from trouble?
Two of the wolves attacked him at the same time and I burst from the truck, cocking my gun. One wolf latched on to his arm, but Brayden shook him off quickly.
I couldn’t shoot the wolves without accidently shooting Brayden, and he was in the middle of shifting anyway, so not even a stable target. When the third wolf lunged for Brayden’s throat, something inside of me snapped. Feeling powerless without the use of my weapon, I acted on instinct.
“Stop!” I commanded and threw out my arm. A shockwave of force flew from my palm and slammed into the mess of wolves.
It was like time stopped. Literally. Everyone froze. The wolf was one inch from Brayden’s neck, jaw open and about to bite down, suspended in midair.
What. The. Hell?
Brayden’s head swiveled around to look at me, his eyes as wide as saucers. How come he could move? The three wolves were frozen in time but Brayden was looking at me, chest heaving as he tore the wolves away from him and tossed them to the ground. Pressure built in my head and I winced as Brayden reached me.
“You’re one of them,” he breathed, and then yanked me by the arm and tossed me in the truck. He jumped in and threw the truck into gear. As he peeled out of the parking lot, he stopped at the edge of the sidewalk before pulling out onto the road. His gaze flicked to the rearview mirror and the frozen wolves on the concrete.
“Let them go!” he snapped at me. “Your power will call the Fae Lords.”
I realized he was talking to me. That he thoughtIhad somehow frozen those wolves.
“I’m not doing anything,” I told him as I stared at the frozen wolves on the ground.
His large fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Your head feels tight? Like it’s packed with cotton?”
I gulped. It felt like my brain was being squeezed, but I often got headaches after a shift. It was three a.m. and I was exhausted.
He reached out and grabbed the sides of my face. “Averly, I’m safe now. Let.Go.”
As he saidLet go, it was like I melted into the seat; the pressure in my head eased. Brayden glanced in the rearview mirror and I followed his lead, gasping when the wolves stood and shook themselves as if in a daze.
With that, Brayden gunned it and the tires squealed. He plowed through the streets of downtown and then onto the highway. I didn’t even complain when I realized he wasn’t taking me home. There was no way I wanted to go in and chat with my mom right now.
“I didn’t do that,” I told him more forcefully than I intended. “Maybe Clara did. She’s a witch I work with and—”
Brayden barked out in laughter. “Witches can’t selectively suspend objects in time, Averly.Youdid. I felt the power go out of you and wash over me.”
Absolute terror took me in its grip. I mean, it hadfelt like when I’d screamedstopa power had left me but… freezing people midair! That wasn’t possible.
“No. I’m… that’s not…”
Brayden kept sneaking side glances at me, his jaw clenched as his brain no doubt chewed on something.
“You saidYou’re one of them,” I finally got the nerve to say as he pulled down a wooded road. “What did that mean?”
He sighed, staying quiet for the entire stretch of thickly treed road. He turned into a private drive with a large modern glass cabin and parked in front of it. It was a beautiful home, but I couldn’t appreciate it with my mind on other things.
“A Greywolf,” he finally said, and for some reason the words sent a chill up my spine. Hadn’t Maddy spoken about Greywolves? She’d mentioned my coloring and that there were grey wolves, and then there wereGreywolves.It seemed the latter had tremendous power, but I hadn’t really been paying attention to all that because she’d just dropped the reincarnation-Lena bomb on me.
I waited for him to say more. He knew I couldn’t possibly know what that meant. A series of painful expressions crossed his face as he no doubt relived a raw memory.
“I was the king of the Greywolves, of all the wolves. Or I used to be before the Fae Lords severed my connection to my power.”
It was so foreign to my brain to process that there were kings and queens outside of Europe that I just sat there in shock as he told his story.
“Lena was a Greywolf as well. I have three other brothers who are also Greywolves, and Lena has three sisters who are. Four pairs of soulmates to make up the Greywolf Council.”
And this story just got more romantic. Triple swoon-worthy.
“All of my wolves were driven out of our home when the Fae Lords took over. I haven’t been back in centuries.”
