Chapter 22

Gavin

I skulked out my cabin door, stripping and abandoning my clothes in a haphazard heap. My wolf bristled with need as I breathed in a deep lungful of air. My bones cracked, and my beast emerged. My facial muscles tightened against the pain until my snout and fangs emerged. On four legs, I pummeled the trail, reveling in the swiftness as my form blurred through the sweeping trees reaching along the path. The ascending track took me beneath the canopy of great pines and furs, their sweeping branches feeling like hands reaching out to me.

The thought of Billie's tender hand on my arm shuddered through me. The memory of my own voice rang harshly. "Don't you understand when you've been dismissed?"

I'm an asshole.

I hadn't meant to be so harsh. But I'd had to deny myself the relief I knew her comforting touch would bring. A primal shiver rippled through my body as I thought of the woman I'd left behind. I pictured Billie's face, her elfin features and flashing emerald eyes.

Billie's kisses played on my mind, too, and the idea of losing myself in her silken, lithe form had been all too tempting. Her gentle touch on my arm earlier had soothed me as surely as the Gunnison's cool currents soothed me after a punishing run. But I'd known I mustn't get distracted. War was coming to Grandbay, and I couldn't afford to be side-tracked by anything or anyone.

I smothered down thoughts about her. It was highly likely my wolf had been overreacting to Billie's closeness because I was pent up. That's what had driven me to kiss her the two times it had happened. That was all. I pushed my wolf on, setting a more grueling pace as we melted into the darkness.

Oslo had scheduled two sentinels around the clock on the borders of Pine Creek, but I told myself that my patrolling the forest was a useful addition.

Besides, I really needed a release. I hadn't been for a run for days. Instead, I'd been pouring over those reports from the night of my parents' deaths and cross-checking them against those of recent dragon sightings. All of which had proved futile, given that I'd learned that the Inkscales were the ones who had killed my parents right from the dragon's mouth. Lothair's face swam in my mind's eye. I wanted to wipe that smug expression off his face and pummel it until I broke his nose … and every other bone in his body.

Yet, with every step I took, the woods worked its magic, giving a little calm to the savageness beating through me. It felt as if the shadowed thoughts that Lothair had conjured in me today were a little more manageable out here. They didn"t disappear, but they became more bearable as they seemed to blend with the gloom of the forest and the night.

Admittedly, getting away from my cabin had a lot to do with the ease moving through me. The room had been thick with the scent of tension and fear after my announcement about the Inkscales and Dalesbloom alliance. My pack's utterances had been faithful and stalwart, "For Bria and Martin." Warmth sang through me for my pack. But, even with the strength of their beasts, they were partly human, and I understood the fear that blanketed them at the thought of war and violence coming. How could I not when the memory of what I had lost in one night was brutally raw again? The inferno that had raged through these woods years ago still flashed in my thoughts. And with each thud of my paws, I tried to banish the scent and taste of smoke and ash choking my throat.

My chest clogged with guilt at the thought of what might happen to my pack. I knew I could count on each and every one of them to stand beside me as their Alpha and defend their pack and lands and avenge my parents' deaths. But anxiety sparked through me at the thought of losing any of them to this fight that was brewing.

A breeze whipped by, hitting my nose with an unexpected musk. My pulse spiked: another shifter. I knew the scent of all the wolves in my pack, including Billie. Her sweet scent, like balsamroot, had burrowed deep into my marrow, and I knew for sure this musk didn't belong to her or any of the pack. Besides, the scent told me it was a male's.

An intruder.

A growl issued out of my throat. Fury thumped through me, matching my frenzied steps as I traced the scent. The fur along my back spiked, and my ears turned to sharp points.

Another low growl gathered in my chest, erupting along my throat as I clapped eyes on the trespasser. A black wolf with his nose to the ground was ahead of me. I pounded the dirt toward him. A red haze enveloped me, and I sprang at him. Recognition juddered through me as his scent filled my nose.

It was Colt. But blinding rage eviscerated me as I pivoted around and swiped at him. He veered away. How dare he trespass into my territory? On the very same day that his allies informed me that they were responsible for the death of my parents.

My blood was boiling through my veins, my wolf storming Colt again and again as he wove away from my snarling, snapping jaws. My claws finally found their mark, tearing into his shoulder.

Colt whined, jerking away. His snarling was laced with pain.

Satisfaction swelled through me as I reveled in having wounded my enemy. My wolf rumbled with the thirst for more blood.

But, apparently foolhardy, Colt shifted back into his human form. He held up his hands and fixed me with wide eyes. "Gavin, please, wait."

Fury vibrated through me, and I only shifted back into my human form so that I could tell him to his face that I was going to destroy him. My gaze was lethal, my voice sounding feral to my own ears. "Any wolf who allies with my parents' killers deserves to die," I threatened.

He stepped back, the snap of twigs beneath his human feet sounding like gunfire in the quiet of the night, and I clenched my fists, fighting back the urge to shift again.

"I didn't want to," Colt blurted out. "I tried to oppose the alliance," he exclaimed, still holding up his hands as if I were holding him at gunpoint. His eyes roved over my vibrating body, and I supposed that in a way I was. I was only a hair's breadth away from transforming and ending him. Each thump of my heart seemed to be egging me on to finish this, pumping my wrath through my blood.

"Ever since Joseph turned up dead," he hurried on, "I knew something wasn't right. A few packmates and I tried to stop the others from allying with the Inkscales."

I cut my eyes at him. I didn't believe a word of this bullshit spewing out of him. But what I did want to know was what he was doing here. I could feel my wolf snarling just beneath the surface, urging me to eliminate this threat to our pack. But wondering what he was doing here held me back.

Making the most of my silence, Colt blurted out desperately, "I only came into Grandbay to see Billie. I need to know that she's okay." For the first time his gaze became clearer, the thought of his adoptive sister clearly soothing his fearful panic as he tried to reason with me.

My mind raced with conflicting emotions. Colt's question was the first thing that cut through the blinding fury hazing my mind. His concern for Billie matched what I knew she felt for him. I knew from Aislin that Billie had tried to phone Colt on multiple occasions over the last week. From what Aislin had described, Colt and Billie were close.

But almost as soon as the thought had allowed an ounce of reason to skitter in, jealousy obliterated it as my wolf rumbled with possessiveness over Billie. He went wild at the thought of her soft gaze and gentle touch being given to someone else. Being given to thisinvader in front of me.

"You have no business with Billie anymore," I growled, my voice sounding scratchy and wild. "You two belong to enemy packs."

It was satisfying as his blue eyes flared with hurt, and I saw my words had found their mark. Vindication wound through me. I wanted to get another rise out of him.

I was reminded how obvious it had been that Colt was into my best friend. Remembering his heated stare on Aislin that night in the clearing, I decided to hammer home that he had no business with anyone in my pack. "And don't come sniffing around Aislin either," I added, staring him down with disgust as if he were an insect that needed crushing.

Colt's face tautened with rage, and I thought for a moment that he was going to shift and come at me. I clenched my fists, silently willing him to come at me, wanting the satisfaction of tearing into him with my claws again. His blood still scented the air from the wound I'd torn in his shoulder, and as rage poured through me, I swore that the blood of this enemy standing opposite me was the only thing that would cool this fire that Lothair had lit in me with his confession earlier. As my body combusted with wrath, I barely saw Colt anymore. All that mattered was that this man had allied with the dragon shifter.

But Colt turned on his heel, his pale, muscled form seeming to dissolve as he morphed into his beast's form. His black wolf disappeared into the darkness. I breathed in, taking the first deep breath in surprise at his retreat, and the clear night air seemed to have a steadying effect. My thundering heartbeat calmed, and I shook out the tension from my fists. For a moment, I'd been about to follow. But as my head cleared, I remained still.

The adrenaline that had been pounding through me faded and … unease settled in the pit of my stomach. My satisfaction ebbed, and I cracked my knuckles as the scent of Colt vanished. As his wolf succeeded in putting an insurmountable distance between us, I wondered whether I hadn't just done the same thing. Had I made a grave error by sending away the only Hexen who could have been on my side?