12. Anna

12

Anna

Whether it was exhaustion or lack of blood, I did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep. Just as the sun started to creep over the horizon, we headed out. Like I asked, Jax pulled his power in, and even I was fooled. He wasn't hiding his wolf. That wasn't possible, but when I focused on him, he just seemed like an average wolf shifter.

That would make things easier. My injuries were mostly healed, so I moved faster and easier on foot. Jax was never more than an arm's length away from me, and I liked that even less.

He was also in a chatty mood.

"You didn't respond to my order to shift," he said casually as we walked. "Care to explain how that's possible?"

"Maybe I'm stronger than you."

His growl told me that it was the wrong thing to say. "As I'm sure you've already seen for yourself, my wolf is broken. It doesn't function."

"Since when? Did something happen in my pack?"

I snorted. "Worried that your edict to torment me has backfired? You can rest easy. I haven't shifted since the night you killed my father."

Jax actually stumbled, and I turned my head and frowned, suddenly worried I'd missed a magic trap. We weren't actually in Wisteria Wood yet, but for all I knew, they'd added a few spell traps outside the boundary, just for shits and giggles.

It wasn't that. He was looking at me in horror. "You haven't shifted in three years? What the fuck was Parker doing?"

"Shouting at me until he was hoarse. It didn't do any good."

"Anna…"

"We're in the middle of rogue territory. It's not really the place to have this conversation." And it was none of his fucking business.

"Any wolf worth their salt is going to smell us long before they hear us."

He wasn't wrong. I just didn't want to talk about it. "Look, you saw my wolf. She's submissive. Timid, but she's alive, so there's really nothing else to discuss. I won't try to block her when the need arises, but she's not going to come out and frolic in the woods."

My statement was met with silence, and I adjusted the pack on my back. The flare gun was tucked in my waistband, and I was a little worried I was accidentally going to set myself on fire.

A real gun would come in handy, but they were banned from most pack territories, for obvious reasons. I'd come across one, years ago, at an old human camp settlement, and my father tossed it in the river and grinned at me, as if he knew what I had in mind.

"How can you detect a magical trap?"

"You know the way your skin feels right now, how your wolf feels, surrounded by all this magic?"

"Yes."

"If you look close enough, you can see shimmers in the air. Something that looks almost real but is just a little off. For some, it takes some studying to see it, but I can catch on quicker.

It's almost a different color."

Jax grunted. "And how do you disable it?"

"It's a little early in our courtship for me to be giving away all my secrets."

He grunted again, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Don't worry, if I thought you could do this yourself, I'd be more than happy to divulge my secret. I have no desire to spend any more time with you than necessary. Now that I'm here, trapped with you and facing what is probably my imminent death, why don't you tell me who told you I was here to begin with."

"Emerson Triggs."

Now it was my turn to stumble. Emerson Triggs was a name I knew a little too well.

Alpha of the Blood Moon Pass pack. Irked that my father had kidnapped his niece, Triggs had hunted my father down and nearly ended him six or seven years before Jax did.

Unfortunately, my father offered something a little more desirable to Triggs.

Me.

"Strike a nerve?" Jax asked. "He knew all about your trip, but he didn't know why.

He did insinuate that the two of you were close."

"Jealous?" As soon as the word was out of my mouth, I desperately wished I could take it back. But since I'd come this far, I went ahead and threw my whole weight behind it. Glancing over my shoulder, I shot him a teasing smile. "Don't worry, mate. I'm all yours."

His eyes-tinged gold, and I quickly snapped my head forward. Even teasing him was playing with fire. "If you're going to say something like that, you should wait until you can meet my eyes without shaking in fear," he said sardonically.

"Yeah, well, the person and the wolf aren't always simpatico, and as you've already discovered, my mouth tends to get away from me. When did you speak to Triggs?" More importantly, did he know where I was?

"I joined the supply run two weeks ago."

I read between the lines of his casual delivery. The Blood Moon Pass pack was the closest to human settlement and actual civilization. That was also an errand that was far beneath Jax. He'd gone on purpose.

Looking for information.

"Discover any other deep dark secrets about me while I was there?"

"Why, Anna? Is there something you want to talk about?"

Abruptly, I stopped and pointed to our left. "Do you see that hollow?"

Stopping so closely that I felt his breath on my neck, his hand brushed against my waist.

Instantly, I tensed and stepped away. To his credit, he didn't follow. "I do."

"Anything seem strange about it?"

He looked a little bit longer. "It's a perfect circle. I find that odd. The edges are a little bit blurred."

"Magic, although it's small. As long as no one tries to enter it, we'll be fine."

"It does look like it would make a good shelter," he muttered darkly. "What does it look like to you?"

It lit up in a brilliant pink with vibrant tendrils reaching out. The whole thing pulsed. "It's blurry," I lied. "We're officially in Wisteria Wood, so be on your guard."

"Where were you going when you escaped? Were you trying to get to the coven?"

My thoughts turned back to the night I'd so desperately raced toward my freedom. "I needed to head to a source of water so my father would lose my scent. After that, I only knew that there was an area he avoided. I had no idea there were witches, not until I started to see the traps. Then, I only thought that it was the perfect place to hide. Honestly, I didn't give a damn where I was going. Only that I could get away."

All that work. Everything had been going my way. I'd finally found my freedom. And still, I hadn't been able to keep it. The memory still made me bitter.

"Once he was freed from the trap, how did he get back to you?"

"My father was smart. He went back, gathered enough wolves, and threw their bodies at the spell traps until he reached me."

Jax made a strangled sound in his throat, and I glanced over my shoulder. "Oh, you think I should feel guilty for their sacrifice? Every single one of them had innocent blood on their claws. There wasn't anyone my father ran with that would deserve your respect."

"Yourself, included?"

"I have innocent blood on my claws too, but then, you already knew that." I glanced up at the sky. The sun was reaching its highest point in the sky which meant more rogues were waking up. Hard to know if the closest was miles away or if we were about to pass one napping overhead.

"Keep your power pulled in. We're probably not going to be alone for long. Most rogues don't have a problem with other rogues, but some are territorial, as you've already seen. Every wolf wants to think they have their own land, whether they're in a pack or not."

"And some will challenge me for you," he pointed out.

He wasn't wrong. There were nearly ten times more male rogues than females, and alone on the woods, many rogues tended to be more feral. Consent was not a thing in these woods.

"But I'm sure this is what you're used to," Jax continued.

"It was. Then, for three years, it wasn't," I said quietly, remembering the man who'd sworn nobody would touch me. And somehow, after time, I learned to trust it. Trust him. Not a single wolf touched me when Parker was alive.

Jax stared at me, and when I turned my head, it wasn't because I was scared. It was because a new anger had simmered to the surface. He blamed me for Parker's death.

"Anything else you'd like to share with me about what we're going to face?" His voice was dangerously soft. I shook my head. "I know you're lying to me, Anna. I know every time that you lie to me. You might think I live a cushy life as an alpha, but if I decide that those lies are to betray me or my pack, I will kill you without warning. This mating bond isn't going to save you. Do you understand me?"

A shiver went through me. Bringing up Parker had been a mistake. I felt the truth of his promise in my very core.

I had to be very careful to make sure he didn't realize I was betraying him until the very end.