Chapter Ten

I made it through the first few months unscathed, surprising no-one so much as myself. Well, unscathed being a relative term, in my case.

"Ow." I picked myself up from the ground with a frown, rubbing my shoulder. "When I said I wanted you to teach me how to make the world burn, it wasn't supposed to hurt me."

"What's the matter, princess?" Cole asked, his voice a low rumble as his eyes roved over me possessively. "Changed your mind about running with monsters?"

"Hardly." I dusted myself down. "Getting put on my ass by them, however…"

He closed the gap between us, concern flickering across his rugged face. "If this is too much, if you're not ready yet, just say."

"I have to be ready. Half the academy has a target on my back, and they're not losing interest."

"And I will protect you from every one of them."

"I know." I reached up and touched my lips to his. "But I don't want to be protected."

He exhaled heavily and shook his head. "Tell me something I don't know."

"This time, I'm going to kick your ass." I flashed him a mischievous smile and swept my leg behind his as the words fell from my mouth.

And then my leg bounced off his.

"Ow! Dammit!"

"Little lower, princess," he rumbled, and then his eyes flashed. "Like this."

…and just like that, I was on my ass on the frozen ground. Again.

"Is there some way we can make the world burn that doesn't involve me getting a bruised ass?"

"I can think of ways of giving you a bruised ass without making the world burn."

"Funny."

"Who said I was joking?"

"I did. Because you are totally not touching my ass until you teach me something cool."

"Trouble in paradise?" The scathing voice came from behind—and above—me, and I spun round to find myself staring up at Thaden. I scrambled to my feet and glared at him.

"There wasn't until you showed up."

"That's not very nice, sweetness."

"What do you want, Thaden?" Cole demanded, moving to stand at my shoulder.

"You know what I want."

"I know you're not touching her without her consent."

Thaden curled his lip in a sneer. "I know a few humans who'll be sorry to hear that."

"Don't you dare try to guilt her into satisfying your cravings," Cole snarled, surging past me to get right in Thaden's face.

I blew out a slow sigh. Much as I loved to see Cole standing up for me, I hated to see the animosity between the two friends. And I hated that I was the cause of it. I touched one hand gently to Cole's arm.

"It's okay. I gave him my word."

"And I gave you mine," he said. "He won't touch you without your permission."

"And I'm giving it." As I had every week for the last three months, despite enduring his cold words and colder looks. I didn't want them to hate each other because of me. I rubbed my hand down Cole's arm and he drew back, turning to search my face.

"You're sure? You don't have to do this."

"Touching," Thaden said cuttingly.

"Why don't you just fuck off, Thaden?"

He jerked back like I'd slapped him—which was all too tempting—before recovering himself.

"You're reneging, then?"

"No," I bit out. "But I'm not writing off my entire Sunday afternoon because you fancy a snack. I'll see you this evening."

"Are you sure that's what you want, sweetness? Being trapped alone with the big bad after dark?"

Cole tensed, but I just smiled at the vampire.

"Fire burns brightest in the dark."

He stared at me for a long moment, like he was trying to puzzle me out, then turned on his heel and stalked away without another word.

"Very impressive," Cole murmured in my ear.

"Being able to put him on his ass would be more impressive."

"You're thinking about Thaden's ass?" Cole arched a brow teasingly—and least, I thought he was teasing—and I scowled.

"I am not thinking about his ass. I'm thinking about punching him in his smug face."

"I don't know," Cole said, a smile ghosting across his lips in a way that made my heart stutter. "Thaden's ass, and now his face…should I be jealous?"

"Thaden who?" I asked, melting against his chest. "Anyway, I didn't see you kicking him out of our dorm when he was watching us last year."

"What happened to ‘Thaden who'?" he teased.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up and kiss me."

"Your wish…"

His lips closed over mine, and everything else faded into the background.

…For about ten seconds.

"Well, well, what do we have here then?"

The sneering voice raised my strictly metaphorical hackles, and I blew out an irritated sigh.

"Fuck sake, should have just stayed in our room," I murmured to Cole, and then louder, "What do you want, Kallan?"

I turned, utterly unsurprised to find him flanked by Harvey and Eva. He really was taking the whole safety-in-numbers thing seriously. Probably wise, given that he spent most of his spare time trying to rile Cole. Not to mention certain threats he'd made about wars and kidnapping last year.

"Just thought I'd pop by and say hi," he smirked.

"And I just grew a third leg."

He flicked a glance at my arm and I grimaced. Right. The whole shifting thing. I shook my head irritably.

"Just drop whatever lame threat is on your mind, and leave. I've got better things to do with my afternoon than trade insults with a wannabe."

"Oh, wannabe, is it?" He shared a look with his two smirking sidekicks that sent a trickle of unease down my spine. "Don't worry, we'll be on our way soon enough. I just wanted to see if there was much of a family resemblance. See, Harvey here says you've got the same eyes as your mom, but I think the resemblance is more below the neck…if you know what I mean."

I surged forward, and it was only Cole's quick arm that stopped me slamming into him.

"Leave it," Cole breathed, dropping his arm to wrap it around my waist. "He's just trying to get a reaction."

And I'd given him one. Obviously. But still…

"I think you're both wrong," Eva said. "It's that common as muck mouth they both share."

Kallan laughed. "You're right. But her mom doesn't have nearly as much attitude as her. Maybe the Iron Shadows' doctors put her in her place. Maybe I'll do the same for you, Cali, when we win the war. All bets are off now, after all."

My mouth went dry. They knew where she was. They'd seen her. Spoken to her. The war…

"Get out of here, Kallan," Cole said, aggression and danger rolling off him in waves. "Before I make you."

"Gladly. See you later, Cali."

He blew a mocking kiss, and this time it was me holding Cole back as Kallan sauntered away, laughing.

"Cole," I whispered, and he turned back to me in a heartbeat. My voice was hoarse and raspy, and my throat was so closed it was hard to get the words out.

"We don't know anything yet," he said. "He could be lying."

"But he might not be."

Cole nodded. "I know. We need to find Jax. Can you walk?"

I hardened my eyes, thinking of the thousand things I'd do to Kallan if he'd laid so much as a finger on my mom. Shit. My mom.

"Into hell, if I have to."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Come on."

We found Jax in the shifter common room, and I didn't need shifter hearing to know the whispers flying around the room were about us. Jax met us at the door, his lips set into a hard expression that didn't quite hide the worry lurking in his eyes.

"Is it true?" he asked, before either of us could get a word out.

"I don't know," Cole said. He glanced around the room at the shifters shooting looks in our direction. "We need to talk. But not here."

Jax nodded, and the three of us slipped outside.

"Where are we going?" Jax asked. "Your dorm's that way."

"We're not going to the dorms," Cole said tightly. "We're heading for the wall."

"The wall?" I asked. "What's wrong with the front gates?"

Cole pushed open the door to the grounds and we stepped into the open air, not breaking our stride.

"You're under council orders not to leave the grounds. The gates are out."

I twisted a quick look at Jax to see if he was going to object to breaking council orders, but he just nodded.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised that Cali found a hole in the academy's wards," he said, one half of his mouth curving briefly into a rueful grin.

"Hey!" I objected. "Who said I was the one who found it?"

"You were though, right?"

"Be glad that she did," Cole cut across us. He was right; this wasn't the time. There was no way of knowing what we'd find when we got to the pack. And who we wouldn't…

"She'll be okay," Cole murmured, as a shiver wracked my whole body.

"It's like you said," I brushed off his well-meaning—but meaningless—assurances. "We don't know anything yet."

He only nodded at that, because we both knew my mom's safety wasn't something he could promise, not if Kallan had been telling the truth. If. I clung to that word, my single glimmer of hope that was holding back the panic.

"Someone ahead," Jax grunted, tensing. Cole's attention twisted forward and it took my eyes a second to pick out the figure in the falling dusk, lurking at the base of the wall—right where the hole was.

"Shit." Cole paused. "We'll need to—"

"It's Ling," I blurted.

Cole and Jax both snapped their heads round to stare at me.

"How can you be sure?"

I shrugged. "I just am. Can't you tell from your wolfy senses or whatever?"

"At this distance, with no wind?" Jax shook his head.

"It's her," I insisted. "And we're wasting time we don't have."

I started forward and heard the pair of them hurry a couple of steps to catch up and then fall into step beside me.

"Huh," Jax said after a couple of dozen strides. "What do you know?"

I ignored the distinctly unflattering amount of surprise in his voice and lengthened my stride.

"Ling, what are you doing here?" I asked as we reached the wall.

She shook her head, looking puzzled. "I…don't know. I just felt like I needed to come here."

Jax and Cole shared an uneasy look.

"Do you think Astor might have planted a seed?" Cole asked.

"I don't think so," Ling said, her voice uncertain. "It didn't feel like that, but…"

"It doesn't matter," I said, and as all three turned to look at me, added, "We have to get to the pack, and whether Astor knows about it or not doesn't change that."

Jax shrugged one shoulder. "She's not wrong."

"Gee, thanks. I mean it, we don't have time to waste. We need to get going."

"Going where?" Ling asked, and before I could answer, added, "I'm coming with you."

"Bad idea," Jax said. "Taking her into the pack, when we don't know what's going on there…"

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Wolves and uncertainty. We get it. And you need to get over it. Did you miss the part where we don't have time to stand around talking? She's coming."

Jax turned to Cole for support, but Cole was too busy looking awed by me taking charge. I preened for a moment before remembering we were in a hurry.

"Er, right, let's go. Give me a leg up?" I smiled sweetly at Cole who interlocked his hands and gave me a boost over the high wall. I could have jumped it myself with a run up, but I couldn't resist any opportunity to be close with Cole. I blamed the mate bond. And my raging libido.

I landed neatly on the far side of the wall and a moment later, Ling landed beside me, and then the guys came over, landing smoothly in crouches that seemed far more elegant than was fair for guys their size, though I couldn't help admiring the powerful grace underscoring Cole's easy movements.

Ling cleared her throat and I shrugged unrepentantly. "What? I said we were in a hurry, not that I couldn't enjoy the view along the way."

"Feel free to do the same," Jax said to her with a grin, flexing one bicep. Ling rolled her eyes, but not before a flush of pink stole across her cheeks. Huh. So much for my friend having better taste than that.

She twisted away a little too quickly as Jax stripped off his shirt.

"No need to be shy," he said with a wink that was wasted on her back. "You're going to be getting up close and personal with all this soon."

Her eyes widened in panic as she twisted round to me.

"Yup, sorry," I said. "Unless you've got a better way of getting through miles of woodland at high speed, we're going to have to ride them in their shifted forms—and Cole's already taken. Do you, um, have a better way?"

I worded it as tactfully as I could, knowing that Ling was super sensitive about whatever it was she actually was, but she just shook her head, the red in her cheeks deepening.

"Don't worry." I sent a dark look Jax's way. "He'll be on his best behavior."

Jax feigned a hurt look. "Am I ever not?"

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Ling. "And if he's not, you can always give him a kick."

Jokes aside, Jax would take good care of her, and if I'd thought for one moment she wouldn't be safe with him, I'd have insisted she stayed behind.

The guys stripped off and shifted, and I quickly gathered up their clothes and scrambled onto Cole's back. He rose carefully from his crouch and I settled into place, their clothes pinned carefully under one leg. Cole would not thank me if we got to where we were going and discovered we'd lost his pants somewhere on the run. I'd already learned that lesson…

Ling exhaled in a sharp huff and then carefully climbed onto Jax's broad back. I gave him one last death glare for good measure, but he rose steadily to his feet, taking care to keep his passenger from losing her balance. And then we were off and running, and everything except me, Cole, and the wind and trees whipping around us was banished from my mind. Running with him like this was so freeing, so incredibly liberating that I couldn't not be absorbed in it wholly. The only thing I could imagine being better would be running on four legs beside him, like some part of me yearned to be able to do. But wishes didn't come true, not in my world, and I wasn't going to let that steal the joy of my closeness to Cole in this moment.

We ran for minutes that felt like seconds to me, and probably hours to Ling, and then the two wolves slowed to a halt. I leapt nimbly from Cole's back, and then steadied Ling as she slid down from Jax. She gave me a grateful smile and I squeezed her hand in solidarity and quickly brought her up to speed on everything we knew—which admittedly wasn't much—while the guys shifted back and got dressed.

The four of us emerged from the woods and a few minutes later a small town came into sight. My eyes immediately caught on the welcoming lights of a quaint inn on its outskirts, with a pretty sign swaying gently beneath a thatched roof declaring it as the Wandering Willow Inn.

I blew out an irritated sigh, twisted my head away, and looked at it through the corners of my eyes.

The grimy inn with peeling paint squatted beside the road with an air of menace was about as far from the idyllic image of the quaint inn as it was possible to be. But then, why bother maintaining the place when you could just use an enchantment to turn it into a Venus flytrap for unsuspecting travelers?

"Don't eat the pie," I warned Ling from the corner of my mouth as we approached.

"Greetings, wary travelers," a warm voice greeted us as stepped through the door. I turned to the short, ruddy-faced man and his smile dropped at once. "Oh, it's you."

His eyes slid past us to Ling.

"She doesn't want your pie and ale, Aodh," I said firmly, before he could even try it.

"No, I should imagine she does not," Aodh agreed, his eyes narrowing as his gaze swept over Ling. "Though perhaps we'll have a conversation soon."

"There's nothing she wants to say to you," I told him.

"If you change your mind…" he said to Ling, his eyes entirely too calculating for my liking. Ling looked away—to disguise the fact that he was making her want to vomit, I hoped. But after her blushing at Jax's attention earlier, I was having serious doubts about my friend's judgement.

"We need a portal to my packlands," Cole said abruptly, and if anything, the look in the fae's eyes grew even more calculating. "Usual price."

Aodh shook his head and sucked in a regretful breath. "You're an old friend, Cole, but there are four of you this time."

"You don't have any friends, you wily old fucker," Cole retorted, "and your portal magic isn't affected by how many go through. Usual price."

"The girl can go through for free, but the other shifter pays full price." He folded his arms across his chest. "That's the best deal you'll get around here tonight."

"Fine, done."

Aodh held out a hand and Cole dropped three tiny crystals into his palm. The fae held them up to the light, examining them closely, then nodded in satisfaction and slipped them into his pocket before leading us to an empty spot in the middle of the inn. I frowned, looking around.

"Business been slow?" I asked.

"Nothing for you to worry about," he said brusquely, but from the corner of my eye I could see a couple of smashed tables shoved into the corner of the room.

"Oh, I wasn't worried. Just glad to see less people falling for your tricks."

"Tricks?" He pressed one hand to his chest. "You wound me. I accept only the payment deemed fair for the services I render."

"And these people think the price is fair, do they?"

"Leave it, Cali," Cole said, his voice dropping an octave in warning. I opened my mouth, and then snapped it shut again. He was right; these people were beyond my help, and right now we needed Aodh. Didn't mean I had to like it, though.

Aodh grunted in satisfaction, then raised a hand and muttered a few words, summoning a portal into existence.

Cole gave it only a cursory glance—Aodh might not be trustworthy, but he wouldn't violate the explicitly stated terms of a deal—before nodding.

"See you around, Aodh," Cole said, not doing anything as amateurish as thanking him, like I'd almost done the first time we came here.

"Looking forward to it already," the fae answered, his eyes glittering with greed and anticipation. He flicked a glance at Ling. "Some of you more than others."

I saw the shudder work its way through her frame, and then his gaze snapped to me, and I couldn't miss his meaning. He hadn't forgotten about our deal—but then, it wasn't like I'd thought for a moment he would. But over my dead body would I let him use my deal to get close to Ling.

I glanced Cole's way, but he missed the look, stepping through the portal with Jax on his heels. I ushered Ling through behind him, and as she vanished from sight, Aodh gave a low chuckle.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I don't need to use your deal to get close to that one. I have other things in mind for you."

I lifted my chin and stepped through the portal before I could show him how much that scared the hell out of me.