Page 115 of Wolf Cursed
Chapter Twenty-Three
I stood in the open doorway and watched through the rain as Idrissa drove off. She was headed home, to change for her date and the rest of us needed to get to our assigned spots, too. But the rain was relentless. In the end, I simply stepped outside. There was no point in running. The rain soaked me through the moment I cleared the doorway. Kai stepped out beside me. He looked over at me, water running in wide streams onto his hair and down his angled jaw.
“Ready?” I called over the thunder.
“Babe,” he said, reaching over and grabbing me by the waist. He pulled me against him in one smooth move. I gasped as my chest pressed against his, and suddenly the cold rain felt hot between us. My nipples had never been harder. I wondered if Kai’s wolf shifter senses knew that. “You have no idea. Let’s break this curse so I can make you mine.”
He kissed me like this was it, and for a second, my body forgot all about our dangerous mission to befriend a hexerei. All that mattered was Kai’s mouth on mine.
“A-hem.” Behind us, Isaac cleared his throat loudly. “You two wanna save it for the victory lap?”
Kai grinned. “Only because it would be weird if you watched.”
“Not for me,” Isaac shot back.
Kai chuckled and took off at a run for the aging pickup truck parked at the edge of the yard. I glanced over my shoulder to see Isaac staring after him open-mouthed.
“What?” I asked.
“Did your boy toy just make a joke?” he asked incredulously.
I just laughed and ran after Kai.
An hour later, we’d parked off the main road on what Kai explained was an old hunting trail. The pickup was tucked out of sight behind some trees that bordered Silas’ land—not that we needed the cover. The storm made it impossible to see beyond a dozen or so yards ahead. No one would notice us here unless they knew where to look.
Rain came down in sheets against the windshield, and Kai had the heat on to help ward off the chill, thanks to my soaked clothes. In the quiet, Kai’s fingers were drawing patterns against my arm. Even after we’d dropped Isaac off to borrow his mom’s car for recon, I’d kept my spot beside Kai on the truck’s bench seat. He hadn’t let go of my hand the entire drive over. My skin hummed at the contact, but my thoughts wouldn’t quite let me forget what we were here for.
“Shouldn’t Idrissa have called by now?” I asked, turning my phone over and over in my other hand.
“Relax. I’m sure she’s just waiting until we’re all clear.”
He was right.
But I still couldn’t settle. Not until this was done.
“What would Silas do if he knew I was the curse breaker?” I asked.
Kai frowned, thoughtful. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to find out.”
“He’s your best friend,” I said. “Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Is this hard for you? Deceiving him?”
“It might be,” he admitted. “If I wasn’t doing it to protect you.”
“Was he always like this?” I asked. “I mean, growing up together, was he always so . . . cruel?”
“No, Silas was actually one of the nicest guys I knew.”
“Seriously?” I couldn’t picture it. “What happened?”
“He went camping one weekend after graduation. The rest of us were all busy doing our own thing, so he headed out alone. He’d done it plenty of times before, so no big deal, we thought. He was gone for a couple of days, and when he came back, he was just different. Angry. Restless. Always looking for trouble.”
“You think something bad went down on that camping trip?” I asked.
“No idea. He won’t talk about it. But it doesn’t matter, does it? Now, he’s just like the rest of us. The longer we remain untethered to an alpha—unmated—the closer we get to becoming our beast permanently.”
