Page 9 of Cold Foot Curse

“Watch what?” she snapped quietly.

And at that moment, something happened that froze the blood in her veins.

The man with the big shoulders twisted and looked right at her. His glowing frost blue eyes snapped realization right through her. She knew those eyes.

Kade.

It was a knowing glance, as if he had known exactly where she was, and then dragged his attention back to the others.

With a gasp, Jess sank down, hand gripping her hoodie right over her heart.

Can you feel him?

The animal had known Kade was here.

Chills rippled up her entire body.

How? How was he here? Kade was locked deep inside the maximum-security shifter prison in Alaska. He would never see the light of day again. He’d been sentenced to life, but he was here, looking even bigger than she remembered.

Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She wanted to ease up and look again, but he’d only glanced at her. It was an I-know-you’re-there acknowledgement, but he wasn’t trying to draw too much attention to her. The heaviness she’d felt in her chest was pulsing. It was reaching inside of Derek’s house. It was reaching for Kade.

Kade the stranger.

She couldn’t breathe. Short gasps took her lungs, but they wouldn’t fill with oxygen.

“What are we looking at?” someone asked from right beside her.

Jess whispered a curse and pitched herself to the side, away from him. A man with dark hair and gold eyes was kneeling beside her, eating…sunflower seeds.

“Wh-who are you?” she whispered under her breath.

“Name’s Cash.” He held out his hand for a shake, but she just stared at him in horror. He wasn’t a part of the Sister’s Edge Crew. “Oh, I’m best friends with Kade. Although,” he said a little louder to be heard over the yelling inside, “I’m pretty sure he will be mad at me for being here, and also for telling our Alpha about this. Shall we go? Do you need to pack anything?”

“Pack…anything?” she repeated dumbly.

“Well, I don’t know Kade’s plan, but if I was abducting someone, I would want to be nice about it and let her pack some clothes and tampons and stuff.”

What. The fuck. Was happening?

“I should go,” she murmured, and struggled to her feet clumsily.

“Right, lead the way.”

“Alone,” she whisper-screamed.

“Okay, so I’ll just follow you with ten feet of space between us, so that you’re comfortable. Raynah says I make people uncomfortable.”

“If you’re Kade’s friend, maybe you should go in there and save his life.”

“Oh, he’d be really mad at me if I did that,” he said as they penetrated the tree line. “He can probably handle them in there, and if not, he’ll die doing something he loves.”

“What could he love about going against Sister’s Edge?”

The man shrugged beside her and shoveled another handful of sunflower seeds into his mouth. Around the bite, he said, “Kade always came off as a man who wants to go out fighting.” He frowned. “No wait, I think that’s me I’m thinking about. You know, I actually don’t know Kade that well. He’s a bit of a mystery.”

“Please stop following me,” she murmured a little louder now that they were farther away from the house-of-confusion.

“Do you want some of these?” he offered, holding out the package of sunflower seeds. She read the label. “Ew, no. Who eats pickle flavored sunflower seeds?”

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