Page 41 of Mated
“Keep it sensical and on point. We may be on borrowed time.” Ruin’s words slice through me, but I shove that down with the rest of my emotions into the little box in my head. The one that holds my parents, their divorce, Chuck, and everything else I am trying to forget.
Some of it wants to bubble up. To spill out. But I know I can’t let it.
“Get here fast,” I say instead and end the call.
Running headlong across the open field, my sneakers are soundless, light. A few tendrils of mist surrounds my body out of my peripheral. I ignore them. Or try to.
There will be time enough later to sort through my marvel and my fear. To beg Tanner to help me understand this new change.
But right now I just need him to stay alive long enough for the cavalry to arrive.
It takes minutes to get across the open field. I barrel into the long rec hall and slide over the tile. “Callus!” I scream.
A dark head peers out of an office off the hall. Callus’ sunglasses fall to the floor with the rapid movement, but he barely acknowledges them. His brows knit as he takes in my appearance. “Nisha—”
“Attack on Silver Rock,” I say fast. His eyes bug at my words. “Daisy and Tanner went after the cat down by theciorcal.”
“Shit.” He takes off at a dead run toward me, already ripping at his shirt to pull it off. His body is velvet covered muscle. Not as sculpted at Tanner and not as tan. But no one could ever call Callus weak or unattractive.
He dissolves misstep, just like T. Man one minute, large black cat the next. Where Tanner’s fur is sleek midnight, like oil, Callus sports soft ebony rosettes amidst the charcoal hue of his flanks. His dark mouth opens on a roar. The sound spears through my veins, calling, just like Tanner’s does. Beckoning me to join him. To hunt.
I shiver as something soft and warm rolls through the center of my body.
Callus sprints past, and keeps going out into the afternoon with another deep throated howl.
All around me doors fly wide and people scramble.
I dive back out the door and watch as the pack flows from human to beast. Some transitions take minutes. Others are done and over within a matter of a few heartbeats. But they all stream down toward the ravine, trailing Callus as his hair raising calls continue to fill the warm afternoon.
Several of the young children crowd nearby, not an ounce of worry on their features.
I miss the blind faith of that age. Miss the concept that the adults will deliver you from every bad thing. That they can keep you safe. Now I know better.
The beast has come back to Silver Rock twice in twenty-four hours. In flagrant disregard to the pack, Callus, and even Tanner.
Whoever is under that deadly set of claws has no regard for life. Be it human, shifter, or otherwise. And now Tanner and Daisy are out there taking the thing on on their own.
Another rub of something almost warm rolls through my insides. I would call it fur, but the sensation is alien. Odd. It sends shivers down my spine and I huddle over. My arms wind around my body, holding tight as the wind picks up high in the trees.
“Stay safe, you idiots,” I breathe, eyes fixed on the distant horizon. “You and I still have a lot to talk about.”
Chapter 19
Tanner
I dive through the trees, uncaring as the thin branches and pointed brambles dig into my flanks. A low lying bunch of thorned vines scrapes over my snout until I drop lower and slink through the narrow opening they make.
Every thundering beat of my heart echoes in the power of my paws on the Earth. The full moon is near and with every minute that it draws closer, the magick of the land calls me like a siren’s song. I can feel every animal, every shifter now acres behind me.
In the air above, the rich almost sickening scent of brimstone tells me that Caine is fucking keeping pace despite my telling him to remain with Nisha.
My heart skips in my chest.
Did she follow us?
No.
If I strain hard enough, I can pick her out from the small dots of life far behind me. My relief is profound, and not something I understand. So I shove it down to ignore some more later.
