Page 46 of Mated By the Pack
“Are we that close to Haven North?” Tansy asks, speaking up for the first time since we sat down. “We’ll be home tomorrow?”
“Not that close, I’m afraid,” Vance says kindly. “It’ll take a couple of days. For you. You can’t move as fast as we can.”
“Oh,” Tansy says, some disappointment in her tone. “I-I thought we’d… ride on your back.”
“Ride us?” Vance laughs. “You know…”
“No,” I growl angrily. “We’re not horses. Nobody fucking rides us.”
“It wouldn’t be safe anyway,” Gideon adds. “We run sixty miles an hour at full speed, through trees that can gut you for breathing wrong. You fall off at that speed, you’re not getting up. Best case, you break your neck. Worst case, you wish you were dead while The Tangle finishes you off.”
“But don’t worry,” Vance chimes in, flashing a smile toward the girl who now looks terrified. “We’ll get you home safe and sound. It’ll take about two days, but that means only one more night in The Tangle after tonight. That’s good news, right?”
“Maybe for some,” Brenna sighs. I don’t know what she’s implying, but the other girls seem to.
“It’s really good news,” Fiona says, and Nara nods in agreement. “You hear that, Nurse Calla? In a couple of days, we’ll be home. It’ll be like this never happened.”
Calla’s silence conveys more than her friends pick up on.
Whether she likes it or not…
She’s already home.
CHAPTER 13
Calla
There’s plenty of space in the bunker.
A den for five wolves.
But there’s nowhere to run.
I made a deal with the wolves in order to save the other girls. My friends. It feels strange calling them that. We didn’t know each other before the cage. Still, I consider them as close as the ones I had in Haven North. I’d do anything to protect them, even if it means this is where my path ends.
Or is it just beginning? My fingers trace the vine braided around my wrist. No clasp. No give. Just a constant pulse, matching the rhythm inside me.
My skin is pricked with anticipation. Nervousness. A little fear. A traitorous trickle, threatening my trembling thighs. The bunker is big enough that we all have our own rooms. Sleeping on cots with pelts from kills that make up a thick mattress that lookmore comfortable than the beds in Haven North. Mine, at least. The ones in the Upper District are supposed to be much better.
The one I’m standing in front of is where I’ll sleep tonight, if I get any. The other girls closed their doors before going to bed for the night. I didn’t bother closing mine. Part of me wants to slam it shut. Maybe even block it with the spare cot.
But it wouldn’t matter. Even if I locked it, I’m sure it would be torn off the hinges. Not by the wolves who backed off after the deal was made. Not by Vance. Maybe not by Gideon. But Jace… Jace isn’t letting anything stand between him and what is burning in his intense, hungry, purple-gold stare.
No. I made the deal. I will honor it. The others go home and I… I don’t even know what I am. What I will become. Why this piece of The Tangle that burned Nara’s skin is using me like a conduit. Giving assistance when I need it. But it’s unreliable. I ripped it off when it didn’t respond—yet it came crawling back and did what I asked.
And the tree. It apologized… Things have been so chaotic I haven’t dwelled on that much. Haven’t had time to think it through. If I demanded help now, would The Tangle respond? Save me from… the footsteps echoing behind me?
They’re not hurried. Not aggressive. Just steady. I brace myself. But the voice that slides into the room isn’t Jace’s.
“You left the door open,” Gideon rumbles.
I tense up a little and turn, unable to hide the surprise in my voice. “I thought it would be Jace.”
His hair is damp, curls brushing his jaw. He’s naked now, but he’s calm. Not throbbing, like Jace was. I can see the need in hiseyes, but it’s quieter. More controlled. It still casts a shadow of fear, but I swallow it down.
“It will be,” Gideon says. “It’ll be both of us tonight, tomorrow, and the night after that, until our brothers get your scent.”
I process it with a gasp and swallow hard. I didn’t think through the technical details of how this would work. I guess I thought it would be like the Brides who get two Grooms, when there aren’t enough fertile women. Alternating nights. Different residences. Not—at the same time.
