Page 111 of Mortal Blood
“There are stranger things to be afraid of than fire. I think her packlands burned when she was a kid. A lot of lives were lost.”
“That’s awful,” I said, sending a sympathetic glance Alina’s way. I guess I knew why she got so freaked out by it now. “But that’s not what I meant. I’m scared of bugs, we get chased by giant bugs. Alina’s scared of fire, and we get chased by some kind of supernatural fire.”
Cole’s brow furrowed. “You think it’s part of the assessment?”
“I think it’s one hell of a coincidence if it’s not.”
“I agree.”
“And not just that. Both of us were carrying the necklace when our fears came after us.”
Cole glanced down. “This necklace?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Well, that’s fun.”
“Think we should tell the others?”
“We already heard,” Jax said from behind me, and I turned to see him fully human and halfway through pulling on his pants. “Shifter hearing, remember?”
“Ugh. You couldn’t havefinishedpulling your pants on before you shared that with us?”
“Nothing you haven’t seen before,” he said with a grin. I felt a possessive rumble in Cole’s chest, and Jax’s grin quickly fell away.
“Fromshifting lessons,” he emphasized. “Chill. Anyway, what are we going to do about the necklace?”
Alina, still wolf, got up and came to sit with us. I guess she felt safer in that form, and I couldn’t blame her. Plus, it was nice to know one of us was still in wolf form, complete with heightened senses, because if we were right about the necklace, things were going to get a lot worse before the end of this assessment.
“We stay alert,” Cole said curtly.
“That’s it? Stay alert?”
Cole shrugged. “The rules of the test dictate we have to carry it with us, and we can’t destroy it. I’ll keep hold of it until the assessment is over.”
I shook my head as his meaning sunk in. “That’s not fair. You shouldn’t have to spend the rest of the assessment facing your worst fears.”
Jax nodded. “It’s a long time until dawn. We should take turns.”
“I’m the alpha. I’ll carry it.”
“But—”
“I’ll carry it,” Cole said flatly, in a tone that brooked no argument.
“You’re the alpha,” Jax agreed. “I’ll follow whatever rules you lay down, you know that. But think about this one, okay?”
“Decision’s made, Jax,” he said. Jax nodded uneasily.
“If everyone’s rested, we should get moving,” Cole said, looking around our small group. “We’ll look for somewhere secure to set up camp, and we’ll need to find a source of water. Food, too—shifting and fighting is going to burn through our energy reserves quickly, and I want us all strong and ready to face whatever this necklace throws at us.”
“Any clues on what that might be?” I asked tentatively.
He shook his head. “My father did his best to beat all my fears out of me when I was a pup, but I’m not naïve enough to think I don’t have any.”
I ground my teeth together at the thought of Cain—a full-grown, powerful alpha—hurting Cole when he was a defenseless kid. If he wasn’t already dead, I’d want to kill him for that. Instead, I nodded.
“We’ll just have to be on our guard for anything out of the ordinary, then.”
