11. Jax

11

Jax

Anna slept until nightfall, and when she rose, there was more color in her cheeks. I watched carefully as she rose and stretched. Her steps were steady and confident, and her own relief was evident in her small smile.

"Do you think we're far enough from the boundary to shift and hunt?" I asked. I wasn't stupid enough to blindly trust her again, but after that last attack, I knew I needed her input. I'd only been to Wisteria Wood once when I was a kid. We barely survived the first two days before we had to turn back and take the long way around.

"Probably. I don't really know where we are, but I don't feel…I don't think we'll find trouble as long as we don't get any closer while it's still dark."

Feel? Why would she stumble over that word?

"We?" I asked as I stood. "You're not coming unless you shift."

I hadn't meant to snarl at her. I'd never planned to leave her. Not because I thought she would run, but because she was a magnet for trouble. Still, giving her a challenge seemed to help, and as expected, she narrowed her eyes.

"I wasn't planning on going as a human. She's going to be a little rusty, but I'll be back at a hundred percent if I let her out again. I don't want to be weak another night."

She looked at me expectantly, and I knew she was waiting on me. Apparently, she trusted my wolf more than me.

I understood the feeling well.

Stripping, I stood, flashed her a cocky smile, and let my wolf out. Her features softened as she studied him, and my wolf preened under her attention. Then he turned and bounded out of the thicket to give her some privacy.

It was another few minutes before she cautiously crept out. I knew it hadn't taken her that long to shift. She was just as fast as me. At full strength, or maybe at full confidence, she might even be faster. It was purely Anna's hesitation holding her back.

Parker had told me that she wasn't shifting. Until I saw her hobbling out on that fucked up knee, I assumed she'd been shifting in her room and not going out to run or hunt. That alone seemed unnatural to me, but then she hadn't even shifted to heal herself for this trip. Now I knew her terror for her wolf was even greater than her terror of my wolves.

And she'd been pretty fucking terrified of them.

What the hell had been done to her wolf to make Anna so paralyzed with fear?

She said we had to save her.

Saul thought Cora had been talking about Anna. Maybe he wasn't wrong.

My wolf growled at me and bowed low at Anna. She immediately flopped down, exposed her throat and belly, and whined.

So submissive, but it wasn't her natural state. Anna and her wolf were too close for that, and Anna was anything but submissive. No, this was the result of conditioning.

Dirk had done this. To his own daughter.

Goddammit, it didn't change anything. It couldn't. My pack would kill her before they accepted her as my mate, and I still couldn't trust her.

Fuck. Too late, I realized I wasn't paying attention to my wolf. He'd laid down next to her and was nuzzling her.

Annoyed, I surfaced. We're here to hunt , I said sternly. Leave her be.

He snarled at me, but he rose. His frustration coursed through me. This was his first chance to impress his mate. He wanted more freedom.

I would never be able to get him to understand that she could never be ours. That once this was done, she would leave me, and we would never see her again.

I couldn't focus on that, so I focused on the hunt. My attention was split. I was keeping an eye out for danger and keeping an eye on her. Her movements were timid, so I slowed so she could actually keep up. Every now and then, I saw a glimpse of joy on her face. When she spotted a rabbit, I let her take the lead. When she trotted back, rabbit in mouth, her eyes were wild with excitement.

Pride swelled inside me, but I squashed it down. It wasn't just my wolf that was happy for her. It was also me.

We were in dangerous territory, and it had nothing to do with rogue wolves.

I caught my own prey quickly and headed back to our camp. Clearly also uncomfortable, Anna immediately shifted back. I let my wolf do a quick perimeter check and joined her. By the time I was human again, she was already dressed.

"Feel better?" I asked gruffly.

"Yes. Tomorrow morning, we can head toward Wisteria Wood. If you can, you'll want to pull in your power. Try to make yourself seem even smaller. It'll be better to try and stay as human as possible. Your wolf makes it hard to not immediately feel an alpha in the vicinity," she said dryly. "Let me take the lead. I'll spot the magical traps before you."

After taking a swig of her canteen, she settled back on her sleeping bag.

"You know, I have been there once. It's not a safe place, but you aren't scared at all. You almost died last night."

"Because you didn't listen to me. We do it my way, we might be okay."

I studied her closely. "I was told you let your father through, but you said he retrieved you. Which is it?"

"Both," she said as she lay down and stared at the overhanging branches. "He followed me in, step-by-step, to avoid the traps that he couldn't see. I was halfway in when I discovered it.

So I guess you could say I lead him in."

"And?" I prompted.

"And I let him get a little further. I wanted his guard down, wanted him to think that I was none the wiser. Then I led him straight into a trap and left him to what I'd hoped was a slow and torturous death," she said coldly.

I stared at her, but she still wouldn't look at me. "Obviously, it didn't work. Not all the traps are lethal."

Only then did she turn her head and smile at me. "Don't worry, mate. Now that we're alone, I certainly am not planning on doing the same to you. You should get some sleep. You're going to need it."