Shaking his head, Luther stares down into his mug. “She caught me,” he says, a pained expression on his face.
“Caught you?” Tanner asks, a little too intrigued.
Luther groans and buries his face in his palm. “Jerking off with her underwear in my face.”
I nearly spit my coffee out.
Tanner lets out a guffaw and slaps his thigh.
“Yeah, real fucking funny,” Luther says.
“But she didn’t call you a pervert and walk out.” Tanner adds.
“No.” Luther glances toward the bathroom. “She didn’t.”
“Then, for fuck’s sake, talk to her properly.” Tanner thumps Luther on the shoulder.
“Easy for the empath to say.” I raise my eyebrows to lighten the mood. “We’re not all such fluent communicators.”
“You can say that again.” Luther meets my eyes. Before he can say anything else I gesture to his coffee.
“Drink. You might have more luck figuring this out if you’re sober.”
16
SAM
Sitting inside and waiting for Nova to return wasn’t an option. My skin was crawling with nerves. Minutes felt like hours, so I left the guys to it, and escaped outside.
I barely made it down the steps out front before shifting.
Being in the forest is intoxicating enough in human form, but when I shift… holy hell it feels good.
My senses are in overdrive. I race into the darkness and hurtle through the undergrowth like an excited pup. I roll on my back, feel leaves and twigs scrunch beneath me, sniff every fucking thing I can find to sniff, pee on several tree trunks.
On four legs, I make it to the very edge of the mask the guys created in no time and decide to trace the perimeter. I can smell each of them; their scent lingers in the air, the ground, the leaves. Nova’s is strongest. It brings saliva to my mouth and makes me growl protectively. I know Polar Daddy will take care of her, but I also know I’ve lived too much of my life not being by her side.
For so long, I thought I was crazy to believe she was still alive. To feel like she was still out there somewhere waiting for me. The night she appeared in the club, everything slotted into place. I realized I wasn’t simply damaged from being locked up all those years; I was right. She was there all along.
When I reach the lake, I stop and stare into the water at my reflection. Like our clothes, wolves’ scars shift with us. My fur covers some of the marks, but the deeper ones are still visible. If my fur was orange, I’d look more like a tiger than a wolf—jagged lines creating a strange pattern on my back, causing my fur to rest in the wrong direction so I look like I’ve been wet and somehow dried the wrong way up.
I’m taking a drink, lapping cool clear water into my dry throat, when I hear something.
A twig snaps. Not a small snap from a mouse or a rabbit—a loud snap. Something bigger. I sniff the air.Wolf.
Bolting through the trees, I follow the scent. A wolf in the forest can’t be good news. Either Madame’s changed her mind and sent my brothers to bring me back, or H.E.L. has sent its wolfpack after Nova.
I slow my pace as the smell grows stronger, lower my body to the ground, pad quietly through the trees. In front of me, the mask shimmers as moonlight bounces off it. I stay in the shadow and watch.
From the darkness, a black wolf appears. He has piercing eyes, and his frame is large but slender. I tilt my head to the side. The wolf is sniffing the ground. It knows the mask is there, and that it can’t pass through.
Looking up, it stares into the shadows toward me. It can sense me, even though it can’t see me.
Knowing I’m hidden by the mask, I pad toward the black wolf. It sits down on its haunches and doesn’t move. Like it’s waiting for me, it just sits there. Stock still. Staring at me but not seeing me.
Are you Sam?A voice enters my head with such force I almost cry out.
How do you know me?I reply, even though I have no idea how I’m doing it.