Page 60 of Auctioned Mate

He grinned. “We’ll eat once we’ve determined our next steps.”

“Can you magically make a cheeseburger appear?”

“No, but I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Ugh, rude. What was the point of magic if I couldn’t get what I wanted out of it?

Juriah tugged me a little harder, shooting a teasing gaze in my direction that sent heat to places I’d forgotten existed. Nope, that wasn’t fair. We were out on a mission right now. He couldn’t deny me a cheeseburger while also arousing me. That was just plain illegal.

I’ll treat you soon, little wolf, came his voice in my mind.

I stopped in my tracks.

He focused on me, holding onto my hand, ears twitching every so often when he heard a small critter move along the branches.

His eyes widened.Can you hear me?

I nodded.

Galanthia had taken to the sky. I heard her wingsswishabove us, and then felt the impression of her protective energy. My feet continued carrying me forward as though propelled by instinct. With the smell of whiskey guiding me and my understanding of Baneridge as a cohesive unit, I was starting to feel more confident.

I can’t believe it, I projected to Juriah.We’re communicating. I’m not even in my wolf form. How is this possible?

Elderlings are different than wolves, he explained.

Is it because we had sex?I asked. But that didn’t seem right. Because even before we had sex, I’d felt like he was in my mind.

Maybe it was the trauma bonding or something. Maybe it was my pregnancy.

I followed him quietly, trying to think of a good time to drop the news. I should probably have told him before we got jumped, but I was nervous. It all happened so fast. That must have been an Elderling thing too.

Juriah helped me over a log and moved some branches aside. This path wasn’t a typical one. It didn’t seem to have a lot of tracks on it either, but it had the scent of Percy. It had the musky sweat of men. I had to assume that they had gone this way for something at some point. Smells as fresh as this were probably from the past few days.

Drops of water fell from the canopy above, chilling my neck and back. Juriah warmed me with his touch, every so often running his fingers over my shoulders and down my spine. He seemed to intuitively know when I was getting too cold and jumped right into action.

I didn’t know what to think. This Elderling man wanted to protect me. He could have chosen anybody to protect. He could have waited for other women to stumble onto that stage. But he’d chosen me. Because he’d heard the plea from my heart that I needed help.

Was this fate?

Juriah caught me before I could take another step. He pressed his finger to his lips and then pointed ahead through the thick brush, noticing something I had yet to see.

There’s a house, Juriah told me mentally.Don’t panic. They can’t see us while I’m cloaking our position.

I squinted through the brush. Sure enough, the structure came into view with enough concentration, two stories if I was seeing correctly. A chimney sat over the right side with barely any smoke billowing from it. Windows lit up with yellow light. Wolves were posted on the porch with guns.

If we took another step without any cover, we would be shot.

While still clinging to Juriah, I pulled him away, putting enough distance between the house and us so we could talk openly.

“Galanthia spotted it while she was flying,” Juriah informed me. “We should regroup with Raven and try to take them by surprise.”

I stared at my boots. “No, we shouldn’t do that.”

“What?”

“I mean, we should tell Raven that the house is here. We should tell her Percy is probably inside. But we don’t know if they have Izdor and Etta.”

He frowned. “You’re right. But we can’t risk avoiding the house.”

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