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He shakes his head. “Only me. I told him I needed a place to chill for an hour.”
Nathan’s spoken of his brother before. They’re still on good terms, but I’m sure that wouldn’t transfer to harboring a shifter that wasn’t his true mate. Guilty by association.
“I needed to decompress before I went after Sean and killed him.”
His words, the way he acts, it’s the possession of a male wolf over his female. “Why do you think you feel that way?”
“I made my own path. Screw fate. I made it lead to you, and my wolf is one hundred percent on board. We want you. No one else.”
“Then Sean got off easy,” I breathe out.
“You’re fucking right he did,” he growls. “I should’ve done more than scare the shit out of him.”
“But then what?” I ask. “If something happens to him, I’m going to get implicated. I’m obviously the only one who has anything to gain if he got hurt.”
The corner of his mouth tilts up. “I was kind of hoping they’d both miraculously get hit by a train or something equally as traumatic.”
I chuckle. “That might work. Or trip and fall on their own stupidity and stab themselves in the chest.”
“We couldn’t be so lucky.” He bites at his lip as he watches me. “While you were asleep, I went back and searched for your phone. I couldn’t find it.”
I sit up, mouth dropping. “I recorded us. Sean and me. As soon as we set off for the woods, I turned on the app that you downloaded onto my phone. I thought he might say something.”
Nathan sits forward. “Did he?”
I close my eyes, trying to replay everything as best I can, but it’s all super fuzzy. “I don’t think so. From what I can remember, he never once mentioned Gayle. He just said he was sick of the bond, and he wanted to get out of it.”
“Fuck,” he grits out. “If only we had that recording. That’s evidence right there.”
I reach over, placing my hand on his. “We’ll keep searching. It has to be somewhere.”
“He took you nearly a mile away. Who knows where it fell out of your pocket? Hell, he could’ve stolen it.”
I fall back onto the bed, hopes dashed within a few words. “How am I supposed to play this with him now? I’m running out of options. He’s desperate. He drugged me, kidnapped me, and hired a witch to sever our bond. What kind of fucking moron does that?”
“He’s sloppy,” Nathan agrees. “I’ve never ever heard of severing the bond. The way I see it, I carved a new one. The year plus of neglect and rejection eroded the old and made a new course to you. A much better course.”
His words make sense, shedding light on the feelings inside me. My wolf doesn’t think of Sean that way anymore. We’re perfectly happy with the man still tracing designs onto my skin, making my heart pound faster and faster. “You saved me,” I tell him. “If it hadn’t worked, who knows what he would’ve resorted to. Maybe his next attempt is taking me out.”
“He won’t get the fucking chance.” His dark words send a shiver through me, but they also harden me. Nathan and I are in this for real. We can fight this together.
I sit up, moving closer to him so I can put my head on his shoulder. “What are you going to do about Gayle?”
“She fucking knew what Sean was going to do. I know it. She could be wanting to try the same thing with me. Since we’re here, close to them, we need to make the best of it.”
“They have all the power,” I remind him. “We’re the ones who were rejected, so we’re second-class citizens. It’s like walking a tightrope, except ours has way too much slack in it.”
He reaches out and places his hand on my cheek. “We’re not giving up yet. But we have to be as careful as we can around the backstabbing bastards.”
We stay curled up with one another until the world around us starts to lighten. Daybreak…fitting. “We have to go to the cabin,” I tell him. “People will wonder where we are and start talking.”
He leans over, kissing me softly on the forehead, and before I can protest, he sweeps me off my feet. I glower at him, but he only shrugs in response. “Just until we get outside. I like playing the hero.”
“You don’t just play one.”
When we’re outside, he sets me on my feet and moves in—cupping my face and pressing his lips against mine in a scorcher that makes me forget space and time.
He steps away with a smirk. “Undress, baby. You wouldn’t want to ruin your clothes.”