Chapter 13: : Chapter 13

I gently set Savannah down in the passenger seat and texted Sam as I slipped behind the wheel.

Sam was waiting for me fifteen minutes later when I pulled up out back.

“What’s this about?” she asked as I got out of the truck.

What could I say? I just opened the passenger door and pulled out the exhausted auburn wolf.

“Who is…” Sam sniffed the air out of instinct, and her eyes went wide. “Oh. My. God…that’s…”

“Yes, it is, and don’t say a word. Get the door. I’m taking her up to the penthouse.”

“

penthouse?” she asked as she opened the door and called the freight elevator.

“It’s warded with spells, I can put a dozen guards out front, and nobody will ask questions. You’re going to stay with her tonight.”

Sam lived in the building and served as my eyes and ears in the pack. She was the only one I trusted to handle a sparking stick of dynamite like this.

The elevator binged, and the doors rolled opened. We got on for the long, awkward ride up. Sam’s heartbeat was racing, and I could smell her distress.

I pushed my presence toward her. “This is going to be a shitstorm, but we’ll ride it out, like always.”

She swallowed and nodded. “How could this have happened?”

“I have no fucking idea. It has to be lycanthropy. But Savannah never told me she’d been bitten. Would she have covered that up? Did she say anything to you?”

Sam shook her head. “What about after the battle in the woods? Could Billy have been a carrier? Savannah was pretty beat up and left immediately after. I never checked her wounds…or what about when we were captured? Billy had access—”

“I don’t know.”

Could my brother-in-law have done such a thing? He was a bastard, but this…

Old memories tore at me, and silence lapsed between us.

When the doors opened at my penthouse, the normal guards were gone, waiting for Sam’s word to return. I carried Savannah up to the magically warded door, which unlocked at my command and swung open. Hurrying through the house, I gently laid her on my bed—a beautiful red and grey wolf atop white sheets. She whimpered and set her head on her paws, then closed her eyes.

“She’s still in shock, but I think she’ll shift back sometime tonight. I need you to be here when that happens. If necessary, I’ll help her through, but you’ll need to clean her up. Calm her down. Get her clothes. And if you have to, explain what happened.”

Sam frowned. “I don’t think she’ll be happy.”

Savannah whined faintly.

A morose half laugh escaped my throat. “You think you’ve seen her angry before? She’s going to be livid. Good luck.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Dig into some of our old books of lore and see what I can learn about lycanthropy. And ways to reverse it.”

My wolf strained inside of me, and I felt my claws extend, but I pulled them back.

A flicker of concern crossed Sam’s face, but she gave me a small grin. “Okay. I’ll hang out here and wait for her to go nuclear while you go read a book. Got it, boss.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Sam, this is vital. No one can know about this.”

“What about Regina?”

“Not now. I’ll tell her and Savannah’s guards as soon as possible, but we have to control the information here. That’s your specialty.”

“Okay.”

“And Sam, no sleeping tonight. The sorcerer is hunting for wolves, and none of us can risk it. We’ll take shifts tomorrow during the day if we have to.”

She nodded. “We got the memo. What about Savannah, though?”

I frowned and growled low. It was a situation, but we didn’t have much choice. “She needs her rest. We’ll have to gamble that the sorcerer is trying to capture her and not incapacitate her. If he tries that stunt again and she starts to sleepwalk, we’ll be here to stop her.”

“Got it.” She didn’t sound convinced.

I headed for the door. “Watch her.”

“Of course. I know what she means to you.”

I froze halfway out of the room, but my pulse started running.

There was no way Sam didn’t catch my reaction, but I pitched my voice as calmly as possible. “Savannah is a liability. That’s what she means to me. If we don’t handle this right, everything could go up in flames.”

“Jaxson,” she said with deep incredulity, “I know she’s your mate.”

My gut wrenched with shock, and I spun around. “How? How do you know?”

Her gaze was steady. “I’m a master of information for a reason. Plus, I know the signs of bonded magic. I suspected it when you dashed out of Eclipse like that. But I’m sure this started long before tonight—I’ve seen the way you’re pulled to her. You can’t resist.”

I braced myself against the door.

I’d been a fool to try to hide it from her. Sam’s parents had been fated mates—she’d grown up with it. And she’d known my sister and Billy well. She intimately knew what to look for. And although she’d never spoken of it, I’d always assumed that she hoped to find her mate one day.

Why she would wish to tie herself to another’s fate was beyond understanding, but it was none of my business.

I stepped very close, so my shadow fell across her. My voice was low and laden with warning. “You tell no one—not Regina, not Tony, not the guards. No one can know. We’ll find a way to reverse this, to change her back.”

My wolf tore at my chest, but I growled to rein him in.

Sam glanced over at Savannah and avoided my eyes. “Is that even possible? And if you reverse the lycanthropy, do you think that would solve the mate problem?”

I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I don’t know, but I didn’t feel the bond with her until she started shifting. From everything I know, the mated bond doesn’t just develop. It’s always there, and I would have sensed it the first time we met. This has to be lycanthropy. Or some kind of curse.”

Could this have been a perverse trick by the sorcerer? The thought was too much to even contemplate.

Sam searched my eyes. “You’ve always been drawn to her, Jax. In the bar, in the woods…”

“No,” I growled. “Not like this. Yes, she’s gorgeous, but I don’t want her. She is my mate.”

My wolf began to struggle, demanding to be let loose.

Sam rested her hand on my arm. “This could be a good thing for you.”

I pulled away. “A thing? This is a fucking disaster! The worst possible thing at the worst possible moment.”

She crossed her arms and cocked her head. “Maybe, maybe not. This could be a bridge to the LaSalles.”

I wrapped my hand around the doorframe and let my claws sink into the wall. It took all my restraint not to rip the molding off.

I tried to steady my breathing, but I was on the verge of shifting. “Are you insane? Do you have any idea what Laurel will do when she finds out that Savannah was infected with lycanthropy? On our watch? And potentially by my brother-in-law, who was also plotting to murder her entire family? It’ll be a like we haven’t seen in generations.”

Her eyes dilated as the gruesome reality sunk in.

“There’s no option. We have to find an antidote. And until we do, we cover this—” My fangs erupted, and fur bristled along my skin as my wolf began to tear itself free. He was growing more desperate to get out every second that I was near Savannah. I staggered back.

“Fuck,” I rasped. “He wants to meet her. Now. That can’t happen.”

my wolf growled from deep inside of me.

Sam gripped my shoulder. “I’ll take care of Savannah. Go. Run your wolf, clear your head.”

Barely able to control my wolf any longer, I grabbed my keys and headed to the door. But I turned before I left as the chill of dread trickled through my veins. “Watch over her, Sam. And remember, do fall asleep.”