Chapter 29: : Chapter 29

“What?” I growled into the intercom as shock whipped my thoughts into a frenzy.

The voice on the intercom echoed back. “There’s an aggressive reddish wolf here who wants something, but we can’t get close to her. I don’t recognize her, but the scent’s familiar. You’d better come down.”

I ran my hand through my hair and cursed.

It had to be Savannah. At least that explained why the vixen wasn’t answering her phone. I’d called a dozen times. I’d even considered calling that harebrained cousin of hers.

“Send her to me,” I said, and hung up.

Of all the times to turn into a wolf and march across town.

I glanced at the images on my laptop. Nearly two dozen werewolves, none of whom had woken after last night. Things were fucked.

The elevator binged in the hallway, and moments later, claws scratched on my door.

I swung it open, revealing a beautiful wolf with silken fur and pale blue eyes that sparkled with laughter like sun on a mountain lake.

My muscles stiffened as I caught the aroma of her body wafting through the air. I scented the subtle spark of lust that rose from her, hidden as it was beneath a storm of confusion, fear, and dread.

My own wolf surged in my chest, demanding to be free, to go to her, but I forced him down. I had to stay in control.

“Why the are you a wolf?” I snapped.

She raised her tail and trotted in, broadcasting, “We need to talk. As humans. Did you bring…clothes?”

She shook her fur.

My skin itched as frustration took hold. As Savannah sniffed around my apartment, I texted Sam:

I stalked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel.

If it had been any other wolfborn, I wouldn’t have cared. We respected each other’s natural form, which was part of who and what we were. But Savannah was still new to this, and I knew she wasn’t comfortable in the same way.

Moreover, while I was used to seeing other wolves naked, I already knew there was no way I could see my mate standing nude before me and keep my thoughts straight. And with shit hitting the fan, I needed my mind sharp.

I thrust the towel forward and turned my head. “Shift. We have to talk.”

She hopped up on the couch. Her lips pulled back to show her fangs, and the hair on her back bristled as she growled.

Had she lost her damn mind?

My patience ran out. With a snarl, I let my alpha presence wash over her, holding nothing back. “Shift!”

She staggered backward and whined in protest, but I pushed my power into her and forced the change.

Her body convulsed as her back arched and limbs extended with pops and cracks. She howled in protest as her fur retracted into her skin and bright red hair poured down from her scalp. Her lips curled in a snarl as her muzzle retracted, then relaxed into the familiar curves of Savannah’s face.

Her expression of fury and betrayal faded into one of sheer relief. With a shudder and a cry of triumph, she dropped to her knees, naked on the stone floor—completely human once again.

I turned my head away and held out the towel.

Although my eyes were trained on the windows, the image of her body burned in my mind. The inviting dip of her back and smooth curves of her ass. The vibrant, bittersweet red hair draped across her skin. The way her chest and bare breasts rose and fell as she hung her head, and the exhausted smile of relief on her soft, full lips.

It was far more than I had meant to see but far less than I wanted.

I turned the rest of my body to give her privacy and to conceal my sudden stiffness, though she’d surely smell my arousal all the same. Even with years of practice, it was too much to hide.

I silently cursed.

What was happening? Women shifted around me all the time. It was who we were. Wolfborn. There was no shame in it, and we all understood when others in the pack felt glimmers of desire. It was instinct. Natural.

But I had never, felt like this.

Heat flushed my neck as I imagined Savannah crawling to me across the tile, her pale eyes inviting me to join her on the floor. I was so aroused, it hurt. And worse, I could smell her readiness, a deeply repressed scent of desire that stirred beneath a storm of emotions.

It was not.

The towel jerked out of my hand.

“Well, shit. That was a fucking nightmare,” Savannah said.

“Are you okay? What the hell were you thinking, running across town on four legs?”

She snarled. “

? I was thinking that my wolf is a treacherous bitch! She took control. Finding you was the only thing I could get her to do.”

“You need to get control of yourself,” I growled in return as I spun to face her.

She’d wrapped the towel tightly around her body and tucked it in the front. Savannah was tall, and the towel wasn’t quite as large as it should have been. I followed her legs all the way up to the hem.

She tensed, and heat flooded my neck. A cool wave of her magic filled the room, and shadows swirled around her like a black evening gown.

I snapped my eyes up to hers. They were burning with hatred, which instantly killed my rising desire. But it wasn’t my roving eyes she was angry at.

Her lips peeled back in a wolfish gesture “Damn it, Jax, I can’t control. It’s like my wolf has a mind of her own. She locked me out!”

“You’ll learn. I’ll help.”

“How is it that can command my wolf when she won’t even listen to me? I should have control over my own body. Not you. Not any man,” she muttered.

“I do because I’m alpha.”

“Well, I hate all your alpha bullshit,” she snapped.

My muscles tightened as rage burned across my neck. I bared my teeth in warning. “It’s who I am, so get used to it.”

Her lip quivered, and she twisted away and stared out the window. “I hate that you have control and I don’t. It’s fucked up. She should obey me, not you.”

I wanted to go to her, but my feet were frozen to the stone tiles. “You and your wolf are the same, Savannah. You need to stop treating her as something different or her feral instincts will have power over you. Accept that she’s a part of you, and then you’ll get control.”

“She’s a part of me. This is something someone did to me.” Savannah snapped her head around. “I fucking hate being a werewolf.”

A knife twisted in my chest as bile tinged my mouth.

I let the silence hang in the air, softly inhaling the scent of her body and her emotions. Resentment. Bitterness. Loathing.

Savannah despised my power over her, despised being a werewolf, and despised everything I was and stood for. How much more would she hate me if she found out that we were fated mates? That she had no choice in the matter?

More than anything, Savannah Caine despised being told what to do. Her anger would be apocalyptic.

I gave a low, bitter growl. The fates rarely chose people who were good for each other. The three sisters generally made the cruelest pairings, then sat back to watch the world burn.

Billy and my sister had fed off each other. They’d fought and squabbled just as much as they’d fucked, and they’d pushed each other to drink and danger. But the thing that they’d bonded over more than anything else was their hatred of the LaSalles. Ultimately, that hatred had ended my sister, and then Billy.

I didn’t want to be bound up in some twisted, ironic knot of fate with a woman turned werewolf who hated everything we were.

I had to fix this.

“We’ll fix it,” I growled.

“What?” Savannah asked, suddenly shaken from her own silent stare.

I’d been talking to my wolf, but it could have just as well been her. “We’ll fix your situation, Savannah. But first, we’ve got bigger problems.”

“Fuck. What now?”

“Kahanov.” I turned the laptop toward her. “He retaliated last night while we were sleeping. He has more power than any of us suspected. Twenty-one more members of my pack didn’t wake up this morning.”

Darkness settled over my soul. I wanted to hunt. To kill. To protect my pack.

Savannah’s eyes widened, and she braced against the counter. “Twenty-one…”

“They’re sleeping, not dead. We need to find a way to wake them and stop him.”

Her voice broke with half a sob. “Oh, my God, this is all my fault. Why? Why do I bring an avalanche of shit down on everyone around me?”

Rage and protectiveness flared within me, and I steadied her as she swayed. “It’s not your fault. He’s a monster, and we’re going to stop him.”

She nodded, and I sucked in a deep breath. There was no good way to explain the next part. I let some of my alpha presence wash over her to calm and steady her before I spoke.

“There’s something else you need to know. Kahanov sent dream messages to many, and rumors are flying. He wants you in exchange for the lives of the sleepers.”

She clutched her towel, and her fear filled the room. “Your pack hates me. Someone will—”

“You’re safe. My pack obeys me, and none of my men or women would ever do anything to harm you. Yes, they may resent you, but they’ll protect you while we find a way to stop him.”

Savannah shoved away from the counter and placed both hands against her temples. Despair tore into her breaking voice. “He’s going to do this night. It’s not going to be twenty people, Jaxson. It’s going to be forty. Sixty. A hundred.

hundred. How many are in your pack? How many are you willing to lose for a LaSalle? You’re going to to hand me over sooner or later.”

Her body quaked with tremors of anguish and betrayal, and my soul couldn’t take it. My wolf howled in my mind and clawed at my heart.

With a lightning-fast motion, I seized Savannah’s raised arms and pulled her to me. She gasped in horror and shock as she looked up into my eyes.

My fangs erupted, and I growled, “I am never going to hand you over to him.

.”