“Warrik likes to come up here every few decades when he gets tired of kissing boots,” Thane said as he pulled around the back of the cabin and parked. I gave him a look, and he just chuckled. “I meant when he needs a vacation.”
“Sure you did...” I tried to sound casual and relaxed, but somehow my voice came out squeaky. Clearing my throat, I unbuckled myself but didn’t make a move to exit the car. A heaviness stretched out between us. So many things remained unsaid. There were so many things that didn’t make any sense.
“We don’t have to discuss it right now,” he said, not looking at me. He just stared through the windshield, his hands still firmly on the wheel. “I just thought you deserved a heads-up. I’m not expecting you to drop everything and bind your soul to mine just because we’re mates.”
I stopped breathing, hearing the word fall from his lips.Mates…Did I like the sound of that? There was so much I needed to process. My life seemed to be spiraling out of control faster than I could keep up with it. So, I just nodded. He was right. We didn’t have to hash everything out right now, not when there were so many other things happening.
“There’s something else you need to know before we go inside,” he said, his voice pitched lower than before. I met his eyes as he pivoted to face me. He scanned my face, and his fingers twitched as if he wanted to reach out. As if he could feel the way my stomach just dropped.
“Just lay it on me, please. At this point, there's nothing that can really surprise me. You could honestly tell me that Noc City was just swallowed up by a black hole and it would just be another Wednesday.”
He smirked, shaking his head, and some of the tension between us dissolved. Not all, but some of it at least. He took a deep breath, looking like he was dreading what he was about to say next. I braced myself. “It’s about Gareth. He’s not quiterightat the moment.”
“Elaborate.” Sitting up straight in my seat, my eyes were already on a swivel, as if Gareth was about to come jogging out of the woods at any second.
“After you were arrested and Savannah’s death snapped his tether to her soul, he lost his shit. He shifted and ran off. War went after him and managed to coax him into a vehicle. He brought him here to cool off, but he hasn’t shifted back yet.”
“Have you spoken to August about this?” I asked, my stomach twisting in knots. It’s exactly what I was afraid of. Gareth was in pain, and here I was worried about my fucking self.
Thane nodded. “He took Serenity back to the pack house, where she can be protected in case Estelle tries to come after her. I’ve been in contact with him, Atlas, and Bastian. Actually, it was Bastian that got you released today, so you might want to shoot him a thank you text the next time you have cell service.” When I blinked at him, he just said, “He's an old-ass warlock. Older than me. He’s got lawdegrees and doctorates, and I’m pretty sure he’s got a knighthood, too.”
I made a mental note to thank Bastian. I was so relieved to be out of that cell and in the middle of the wide-open wilderness again. In a way, this place reminded me of home back at the packhouse. With all of these tall trees obscuring every direction, I no longer felt like hundreds of eyes were following me, watching my every move.
Taking a deep breath, I stared at the back door entrance to the cabin. On the other side was Warrik and possibly a very wolfy Gareth. On the other side of that door was yet another space meant to confine me. Not a prison; I knew that. Not a cell with cement walls. Not chains, sedatives, or armed guards. None of those things lurked on the other side of that door. Just them. Only them.
3
The cabin wasn’twhat I expected. Maybe I should have taken Thane’s words to heart a little more. From the outside, it resembled any old cabin in the woods. Utterly unremarkable. But inside, it was a different story.
It was spacious and cozy. Dim lighting from a fireplace on the far side of the room, and an open kitchen with a baker’s block island in the middle. The entire inside appeared to be one giant room with a single door on the far wall. The room was divided into a living space and a sleeping space. Two recliners and a sofa in front of the fireplace and TV mounted to the wall, and then a king-sized bed across from that on its own separate half of the room. It was like a rustic studio apartment in the best way.
“Rustic” might not even be the word for it. Everything was clean and kept up, and along the walls were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stacked with not only paperback books but random trinkets and collectibles. The floor was covered in thick, furry carpeting in the living room and, in thekitchen, a sort of aggregate that looked like a bed of small pebbles.
Hands clamped down softly on my shoulders softly, and breath tickled my ear as Thane whispered, “What did I tell you, love?”
I huffed a laugh as I leaned into his touch. I couldn’t help it. There was a magnetic sort of pull between us that I could physically feel, like a buzzing barrier that ran along my skin wherever he made contact. Yeah, we were going to have a serious conversation once I got settled.
A blur of movement had my heart in my throat. It came out of nowhere, blowing my hair back from my shoulders. In the blink of an eye, Warrik was towering over me, shirtless, wearing an old, ratty pair of blue jeans and a scuffed-up set of workboots. I swallowed thickly at the sight of him. So thick and yummy and... Fuck, already I was sweating.
He pulled me toward him, wrapping his tree trunk arms around me, and crushed me to his chest. “Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again,” he forcefully whispered against my hair. He breathed in deeply, letting out a full-body shudder.
“Way to steal a guy’s thunder, mate,” Thane grumbled, passing us both and heading straight for the kitchen.
Warrik’s hold was tight, but I was a wolf and could break free easily, even after so many hours without food or water. I pushed off his chest slowly so that I could meet his eyes. They were blackened, with little veins spreading out through the skin surrounding them. I called it ‘vamping out.’ It happened to Serenity whenever she either got pissed or horny, and I teased her endlessly for it.
“Next time, I’ll just ask the arresting officers to kindly let me go.” I smirked, laying a palm over his heaving chest.
A muscle in his jaw tensed, as did his fingers, still bracedon the small of my back. “There won’t be a next time.” He held my eyes, as serious as I’d ever seen him since we met. “I mean it, Trix. They’re not taking you again. I’ll kill them all before they lay a fucking hand on you. I should have done it. I should have...”
I shook my head. “They would have killed you if you tried, War.” The sentiment had me swallowing thickly with emotion. “We need to do this the right way. I didn’t do what they’re accusing me of. I just need to find a way to prove that.”
Thane scoffed from the kitchen, and I peered around War’s shoulder to see him pouring three glasses of wine. “Like those bastards give a shit about innocence. They just want someone to blame.”
I stepped out of War’s embrace, and surprisingly, he let me. His eyes were still black, so to attempt to tame him a little, I squeezed his hand before lacing our fingers together. We joined Thane in the kitchen, the three of us crowding around the island as he pushed glasses our way. I took a tentative sip of mine, and the burst of flavor on my tongue after so many dry hours nearly had my eyes rolling back in my head.
I sat on the bar stool, pushing my empty glass toward Thane, who refilled it without me asking. “The cops that questioned me were humans,” I said after another beat of tired silence. War and Thane looked at me and then at each other. “They were fucking assholes, too. They slurs and shit because I’m a shifter. Is that normal? I thought Sol was supposed to be this progressive haven or something?”
Thane laughed. “What kind of propaganda are they feeding you Noc City people?” He shook his head. “Every sanctuary city is the same as the bloody next one. The coppers are no different. The human ones like to pretendthey’re on our side, but a lot of them are just in it for a badge, aka'license to hunt down darklings without repercussions.’
