: Chapter 18

Savannah

My heart hammered in my chest as I sprinted between the brick buildings. I’d run track in high school and had a little speed, so maybe I could get a lucky turn and lose him.

I checked over my shoulder. Nope.

Jaxson was almost on me. He was too damned fast.

Not that I was surprised. The wolves that had attacked me had run my car down, and Jaxson was several magnitudes more powerful.

I ran anyway. A part of my soul leapt at the exhilaration, while the rest of my mind rebelled against the sheer insanity of it all.

I gave it everything I had.

Gravel scuffed, and a shadow flew through the air. Jaxson slammed into the side of a building and hung there with his fingers—no, his claws—embedded into the old, crumbling brick.

I darted right down a side street. Jaxson leapt again and landed on the adjacent wall above me, sending mortar raining down.

Holy hell. His hands could dig straight into brick.

He sprang upward and landed on the rooftop. I spun around a corner, but he hurled himself through the air and onto another rooftop right ahead.

He could outrun a car and leap thirty feet.

He’s toying with me.

With that realization, I skidded to a halt, clutched the old radio to my chest, and yanked the bottle of mace out of my back pocket. Arm extended, I pointed it up at the black shadow on the roof. “Stay back, Jaxson!”

He leapt overhead, rebounded off the wall, and landed square in front of me with a low growl.

I pointed the mace directly at his glowing honey eyes. “I mean it, I—’

The bottle flew from my hand. I shook my wrist in shock. He’d struck the mace out of my grip so fast that I’d barely seen his arm move.

Jaxson let out a deep, animalistic growl. His hands were claws, and his body quaked with restrained power. “Don’t you ever bring that stuff onto pack land ever again.”

There was something almost feral in his voice.

I pressed my back against the bricks. My heart pounded so hard in my chest that it was about to rip its way out.

Two other werewolves rushed into the alley, but he stopped them with a flick of his clawed hand as he took another step forward. “How dare you break into my shop, LaSalle? I thought it might take longer before your family corrupted you, but it hasn’t even been a day. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, it seems.”

His signature—I knew it for what it was now—overwhelmed me, like he was letting it all out. Pine and moss and smoke and snow and the sound of running water. I couldn’t resist breathing it in. All of it. It called to me like a drug. The werewolf before me was terrifying and intoxicating, like the urge to jump at the edge of a cliff. But I was too scared to go over. I could barely find my voice. “Please—”

Jaxson met my petrified gaze with his honey-colored eyes. They seemed to be drinking me in, reading every thought in my head. He loomed over me, chest heaving, though I was sure he hadn’t broken a sweat chasing me down.

Finally, he gave me a half smile and brushed the side of my masked cheek with a claw. I didn’t move a millimeter as it dragged over my skin, but my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my body.

When he withdrew his hand, it was human again. I let out a fraction of the breath pent up in my lungs.

“Don’t worry, Savannah. You’re safe.” Then he grabbed my mask by the snout and pulled it up over my head. “And I must say, I quite like you as a wolf.”

The rich, silvery tone of his voice made goosebumps rise on my skin. His amber eyes flicked to my heaving breast and back. I could almost smell…his desire?

Impossible. He hated me. This was so screwed up.

Jaxson was close enough that I could almost taste him. Part of me wanted to, and heat pooled in my belly.

What’s wrong with you, Savy?

My phone rang in my pocket. I squeezed it through my jeans to silence it and fixed Jaxson with my best Don’t screw with me look. “You need to back off.”

Amusement flashed through his eyes, but his features were still hardened. He leaned in and softly whispered. “Why? I caught you. You’re not very fast.”

I bared my teeth, suddenly and inexplicably offended. It wasn’t like I was an Olympian, but I had plenty of giddy-up and high school trophies to prove I was fast enough. He was just stupid fast.

Casey had said I needed to hold my ground, so I raised my chin. “I do not like being toyed with.”

“But you’re such a pretty toy,” he growled, low and rough.

Anger shot through my veins like ice water. I reared back and slapped the Dockside alpha as hard as I could. Electricity cracked through my arm, and my fingers went numb from the cold.

Jaxson staggered back a single step. His pupils dilated, and his claws erupted from his hands. He touched his cheek, where the faint streaks from my nails were beginning to turn pink.

Did I just slap the Dockside alpha?

I looked at his claws. I’d seen ones just like them nearly rip the guts out of a man and hurl him onto the hood of my car. But it was too late. Jaxson was on his back foot, and I couldn’t back down.

So I stepped up, moving so close that we were only an inch apart. He was tall, so I had to crane my neck back to stare him down, but I wasn’t going to let this slide. “I am not a toy, Jaxson. You don’t get to boss me around, and you don’t get to dangle me as bait.”

Jaxson

Savannah Caine was an inch from my chest and as close to meeting my wolf as she had ever been. He fought to be released, but I held him down with difficulty.

Her aromas intoxicated my senses. A cocktail of terror and anger, and hidden beneath it all, a faint whisp of arousal.

Her nails had left scratches where her hand had hit, and my skin was tender.

The taste of cold spring water mixed with a trace of blood in my mouth, and I could smell the scent of tangerines. Her magic?

While her touch stung like frostbite, fire burned in her eyes. Everything about her in this moment made me feel alive.

“I’m the Dockside Boss, and you’re in my territory, causing trouble. That means I get to boss you around.”

“Get over yourself!” Savannah almost snarled, and my wolf liked it.

“You broke into my shop. I expect an apology.”

“No way am I apologizing. You screwed with my car—after holding it for ransom! Why was it in pieces?” Her eyes flicked to the two werewolves hanging back down the alley. As if they would be any threat, compared to me.

“It was a wreck. Your tranny is shot. Your radiator hoses are cracked. Your upholstery is disintegrating, and your radio is over thirty years old. I was installing upgrades.”

“Never, ever touch my shit without my permission. Or me.” She smacked my chest with the heel of her palm, to no effect. No magic this time.

“Says the woman who broke into my property and slapped me with her magic.”

Her eyes widened. “Your scratches are gone!”

“We heal quickly. How else do you think your attacker got up again after you ran him over? He only stayed down after you snapped his neck.”

She trembled with shock, surprise, and simmering fury, but she wouldn’t be put off the warpath. “I have half a mind to run you over. You’re using me as bait to catch the psychos behind the abductions!” She looked so furious, I wondered if claws would rip out of her hands.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snarled, but she wasn’t entirely wrong.

“You paraded me through Eclipse on purpose, you plastered signs all over Belmont to point the wolves my way, and you’ve tried to keep me on lockdown. You knew they would come back, and you’re using me to catch them. Deny it.”

“I knew that they were coming for you, and I told you as much. I’m trying to protect you as best I can. The moment they show their faces, I’ll drop a hammer on them. But you keep running straight into danger.”

“Those are justifications, not denials!”

I considered her words. She’d caught my lies before, but since wolves could smell lies, I was used to word play. “Look, Savannah, I’m not going to use you as bait.”

That plan was dead, anyway.

“I don’t trust you,” she hissed.

“I don’t care. But know this: I will protect you. You are important to me, and I’m not going to let you fall into their hands.”

Every word was true.

Her eyes burned into me, and she gritted her teeth. She didn’t believe me, but she finally relaxed.

“You might think that, Jaxson, but you’re still going to get me killed.”

I stiffened as the seer’s prophecy burned in my mind. Your adversaries hunt her, too. If you do not stop them, she will be dead before the full moon rises, and with her, the future of your pack.

I looked up at the moon. Three nights left.

“I need you to work with me,” I told her.

“I don’t give a shit about you or your needs. Is that clear?” She pushed on my chest with her free hand, but it didn’t budge me a millimeter.

I grabbed her wrist. “You need to stop playing games, LaSalle. People are disappearing. Three have been murdered, and you’re next on their list.”

She struggled in my grip. “I want to figure this out as much as you do. More so because I’m trying to live through it. But you gotta back off, or you get nothing.”

When I pulled her to my chest, she resisted, but it was nothing for me to hold her close. Her warmth pressed against my body, and I could smell her hate and desire. I spoke low in words for her ears alone. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll let you go. I’ll let your idiotic cousin go. And I’ll let the car go. You’re going to help me, and you’re going to do what I say. And you’re going to stop running around, getting into fucking trouble.”

“Or what?” she snapped, voice held at a whisper.

Why. Is. She. So. Damned. Obstinate?

I lowered my head to her ear. “You killed a werewolf. That means you’re subject to werewolf law. Many of my wolves want to make you stand trial before the pack, and the consequences could be dire.”

Savannah jerked back, and I could feel the anger radiating off her. “Stand trial? Where do you get off? For the wolf I ran down? I was freaking attacked! That’s self-defense.”

“We don’t take the killing of our members lightly—even if they’re exiled, they’re still wolves, and the Old Laws call for an eye for an eye. Maybe in another case, the pack elders would be fair, but every single one of them hates your family and will want to see you bleed. So far, I’ve intervened on your behalf and will continue to do so as long as you’re an asset. But if you don’t help me, I won’t help you.”

She shook with rage.

I stepped away and issued one final command. “My men will escort you out of pack territory for tonight. You have my permission to return tomorrow. Your cousin doesn’t. Meet me at Eclipse at one.”