“I meant what I said yesterday.” I speak low, just for her ears. I don’t want the other alphas to fully wake up yet and her attention to be divided between us. I don’t mind sharing with them anymore, but still, I want this moment with her all to myself—the two of us touching, skin to skin anywhere my pants aren’t covering me.
“Which thing?” she murmurs, nuzzling my neck. The movement is unconscious and affectionate, but it heightens my need as if she set fire to me.
“Don’t ever run away again,” I say, ignoring the fact I’ve gone rock hard in my pants, although I’m sure she can feel my cock pressing against her ass. I’m not sure I can ever be around a naked Sable without wanting to bury myself between her legs.
And now is not the time for that. I need her to know how much she hurt me, how terrified I was to lose her.
“I promise.” Sable lifts her head, her gaze darting up to meet mine. Her brows draw together a little, a little line appearing between them. “I promised you yesterday. Did you not believe me?”
“Just reiterating the point.” My grip on her tightens a little, my jaw clenching at the memory of our frantic race through the woods. “I was… I was afraid, okay? We’re lucky we found you before you got too far ahead. You could’ve been hurt without us.”
“I’m a big girl.” I can hear the note of steel in her voice, the determination and pride. “I’m not weak.”
“No.” I chuckle quietly, because I’ve seen firsthand how much backbone my mate has. “You’re not. And none of us think you are. But you’re also a part of a pack now. A team. You, me, those fuckers over there.” I jerk my chin toward the sleeping wolves. “We’re all in this together. And sometimes, doing what you want isn’t what’s right for the team. You taught me about putting the team ahead of myself. I think you need to remember it too.”
Sable straightens a little, reaching up to run her fingers through my hair. “You’re pretty wise sometimes, you know that?”
I snatch her hands out of my hair and shift her on my lap so that she’s facing me more fully, her legs straddling my waist. Her palms brace against my chest as I look down into her eyes. “Well, I don’t know about that. But I know what it’s like to be stubborn and think you know what’s right.”
“Yeah, you’re pretty good at that too,” she teases, one corner of her lips tilting up.
I give her ass a light slap like I did after we found her in the woods, loving the way her blue eyes widen and darken, and the faintest hint of her arousal teases my nostrils. I rub the sting away, massaging the perfect curve of her ass as I pull her a little closer to me.
“You need to accept help and trust us, sweetheart,” I murmur, leaning down to brush my lips over hers. “Just like I’m learning to do too. What do you say? We’ll practice together?”
She leans up, pressing her lips harder to mine, our kiss a slow burn like the sunrise. “Deal.”
Before I can say anything else, she slides farther up my body and deepens the kiss, and talking becomes the last thing I want to do.
We cross the Two-Tone River later that afternoon, and in the process get a biology lesson on why it's called that. Dirt and sediment settles along the edges, giving the outer rim of the river a brownish color, while the center of the river flows with an abnormal turquoise blue that Dare tells us originates from limestone deposits carved deep beneath the central part of the water.
I’ve never been one to care about shit like that, but Sable’s excitement over learning it—and seeing it in action in the river—is contagious.
The Two-Tone is slow moving and easy to cross, except for the fact that Sable has never gone swimming in her wolf form before. So Ridge and I precede her while Archer and Dare follow close behind her, ready to leap into action if something goes wrong. But doggy paddling is one of those things that comes naturally to pretty much all wolves, and despite her nerves, Sable’s on the opposite bank before she even realizes she’s back on solid ground. The subsequent celebration as she shakes off water and then bounds around the rocky ground yipping like a puppy is so fucking cute I can barely stand it.
Once across the river, we enter the northern mountain range and work our way through all the peaks and valleys. It’s hard work that makes my legs ache, and we have to pause often to give Sable a break. A light rainstorm cools us off in the late afternoon, and by nightfall, we see Wolfsbane Mountain for the first time. It does, in fact, look like a giant, howling wolf’s head, and we make camp in its shadow.
The next morning, we continue past Wolfsbane and deeper into the mountains where the peaks become higher and more craggy, which slows our pace. We spend three days in the mountains, following wispy traces of humanity—a scent in the undergrowth, dusty footprints left in the dirt, tiny things that show someone has been through here.
We can’t be entirely sure we’re tracking the witch. Some of the scents are so faint, we aren’t even entirely certain we’re tracking the same person. But it’s all we have to work with.
On the third day, we catch our first taste of magic.
My skin prickles with the alien sensation of it. I stop walking and glance at my companions to see if they feel it too. Ridge looks around us, confused, but Dare and Archer are tensed as if ready to run.
That’s how I know for sure it’s witch magic. No shifter likes witches, but out of all
