Page 49 of Firedrake Betrayal
“No one leave. Watch the windows and?—”
“Yeah, yeah, we got you, Momma Bear.” Patten waves away my concern.
“Patten.” I meet his gaze steadily, and I’m not sure he’s as serious as he needs to be. “We barely survived Atticus’s last trap, and he could attack at any moment. We need to stay alert.”
“Then is leaving right this second really the best idea?” Dominik asks, still looking at Jade.
“No.” I eye him for a beat. Do I need to warn him away from her? Or will that start an argument I don’t need when I’m on the edge of control?
A small gust of air blows through the room, whipping the scent of Jade’s arousal toward me. I have to fight myself not to tackle her to the floor and sniff between her thighs. My wolf rumbles in response, my muscles contracting as I tighten my hand on the door to keep myself right where I am.
I wouldn’t want to stop at a sniff between her thighs.
I would take her to the floor and I would?—
“Go.” Patten’s order breaks my intense focus on Jade. He’s looking at the hand I’ve wrapped around the door handle. From his raised brow, he can probably guess my state of mind. “Go do your thing.”
I’ve kept my claws in check. For now. But my skin is itchy as hell and my wolf is restless.
Need to run.
Need to get outside.
I pull the door the rest of the way open. “Stay inside. Patten, no killing Dominik. And Dominik, leave Jade alone. She’s standing there for a reason. Give her space.”
I don’t wait for a response before I step outside and push the door closed. A backyard is not ideal. The run I need is hours long, in a forest, preferably somewhere I can really stretch my legs. But the air is fresh, and there’s less chance of anyone seeing me run through backyards than if I ran on the street. This will have to do.
I strip the clothes from my body as I venture deeper into the tangle of shrubs and trees which make up most of the backyard. Each garden connects to the next, with no fence in sight. Still not ideal, but better than running laps in a small square garden until I make myself dizzy.
My wolf rumbles irritably at the thought, almost provoking a smile.
When I’m far enough from Jade’s intoxicating scent that my wolf won’t immediately run back to the house, I drop to my knees. I don’t have to reach for my wolf.
He bursts free.
I shake out my fur and inhale, wrinkling my nose at the acrid stench of piss. Fox. I fight the urge to cover the scent and mark this place as my territory. My wolf is eyeing up a tree, a prelude to lifting a leg.
Not ours, I warn my wolf.No marking.
Ours is Chicago.
I’m not sure how Isaiah would feel if he knew how much of his estate we marked as oursorhow we marked it. But any wolf—any predator—who caught my scent would know it was mine.
Ours, my wolf huffs irritably.
Ours, I repeat, amused at his possessiveness when he’s a mature wolf, old enough to know by now that we share all things.
When my thoughts swing to Jade, I wrench my attention to our surroundings, away from my growing urge to fuck. And bite. Jade isn’t human, but she’s not strong enough to take all the things I want to do to her. Best not touch her at all than hurt her.
I shake my fur, as much the need to feel the air through it as to shake off my humanness and just be a wolf. Lifting my nose, I sniff. No one is in their gardens, but I stick to the darkest parts of each backyard.
I dart from backyard to backyard, always sniffing, exploring. Poison ivy. Mint. A rabbit long since gone, disappointing my wolf, who would’ve liked to have chased it.
Then I realize where my run has taken me.
I hadn’t planned on coming here, but my wolf must have been curious.
A familiar scent. Faintly herby and slightly licorice. I slow and peer through shrubs into a backyard overflowing with potted plants and herbs.
