Page 43 of A Twist of Luck (Shifter City Fated Mates #2)
CHAPTER 43
EMME
S heer overload and the sealing of the bond, stole my consciousness for a time, and when the world rightened itself, I was in Hunter’s arms as he walked silently through the forest toward the parking lot. Snow fell heavier now, but against the heat of the alpha, all I felt was a warm contentment.
“Hunter, I can walk,” I murmured, feeling his own contentment deep in my chest.
I pressed my hand to his bite and his chest rumbled lightly in response. “It’s my duty,” he said, the words carrying an odd weight. “More than that, I want to take care of you. Let our bond settle, little mate. You have given me the greatest gift, and I will never be able to repay you.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, and I forced myself not to sniffle and give away my overwhelming emotions. Stupid, really, since Hunter was connected to my feelings now. He leaned down and kissed away the tear, still powering through the forest. He didn’t need to watch the road when he drove, or the path when he walked apparently.
I sighed through our kiss, which was a truly gentle, loving caress. When I parted my mouth and fell all the way into the kiss, my tears soaked our faces. “Your tears destroy me,” Hunter murmured as we parted, a pull of sorrow highlighted on his face in the early morning light. “But this time I feel the happiness behind them. You don’t regret our bond.”
“Not even for a second.”
His arms tightened and his tone turned serious. “What you’ve gifted me is an honor I can never repay. I need you to know, Emme, that trusting me with your soul and your wolf… it’s more than I deserve, but I will work every day to be the alpha you deserve.”
Oh, Hunter Reeves, you secret romantic.
Lifting my hand, I pressed it to his cheek. “You already are, Hurricane Hunter. From that first day in the council chambers, you blew through the room and tore me to pieces. Then you put me back together. Not many would have looked at all of me and my messy life and thought, Yep, I want this mess. That’s my mess. Despite my fears over bonding, I will never ever regret you.”
His grip pulled me higher to his chest. “Why do you still fear this? Now that you’ve felt how perfect it is.”
“You will understand when I explain everything that happened to my mom. Which I will do, as soon as all the pack is together.”
Hunter grumbled. “Maybe you should tell me now before another interruption prevents it. If I don’t know your truth, how can I protect you? It’s my duty, little mate. My duty to keep you safe.”
I felt a surge of hot, dominance rise inside his beast.
“I don’t think I can tell this story more than once,” I admitted, staring out into the snowy forest as we crossed through it. “It’s hard to force the words out when I’ve spent years guarding this secret. A secret that will also explain how I saved Kellan, not that any of you have actually asked me yet.”
That amused Hunter, and I liked it when his energy grew lighter. “None of us wanted to push you for an explanation. We don’t care what you did, all we care is that you did . We can’t lose you, Emme. We just can’t.”
It bothered me that I’d forced them to be so careful of what they said to me. I hoped that some of that damage would be repaired when the truth was revealed. “I’m scared this is all going to come crashing down on me,” I admitted, my emotions raw and vulnerable after our bonding. “That the truth will destroy the good in my life. I’ve never—” My throat tightened, and I took a second to work through it. “I’ve never had good like this before. Losing this pack would?—”
End me .
A deeper, darker sound than he’d ever made rumbled from Hunter’s chest, strong enough to lift my body with its force. There were crashes as every creature in our vicinity took off, until we were most definitely alone. “You will never lose us,” he said, barely understandable. “We will ensure that this good in your life remains, no matter what it takes.”
Hunter had demonstrated possessive and obsessive tendencies from the first moment he’d scented me, but this was next-level. A promise sealed in fate, and with that, the bite on my shoulder tingled.
“The Rogers pack is still out there,” I reminded him. “And the witch who spelled that prison house. She’s powerful, they’re powerful, and we have no fucking idea what they have planned next.”
Hunter’s reply was instant: “The council has fucked around with this long enough. I’m going to demand they act. If they don’t, I will destroy every single one of them. I control this city and they all fucking know it.”
A part of me considered acting as the voice of reason here, reminding him it wasn’t the council’s fault, but I found… I didn’t really care to. We needed the Rogers pack destroyed. They were a threat to not only me, but my entire pack.
“We could just kill them ourselves,” I suggested, regretting the words the moment they left my mouth. I didn’t want to risk my pack by going up against them alone; they’d almost killed Kellan last time.
“That’s plan B,” Hunter assured me, and I choked down my concern. “It would be cleaner all around if the council dealt with the issue, but if they delay any longer, not only will I rain hell down on all of them, but I’ll also take matters into our pack’s hands. Now that Kellan’s safe, we can give our enemies the focus they deserve.”
Experience and instinct told me that being the sole focus of a pissed-off Hunter Reeves was not good for your health.
He reached the edge of the forest, the cityscape coming into view on the horizon. There was a tugging sensation in my chest, followed by a tingle along Kellan’s bite, a moment before his Bugatti roared into view.
“Well, well,” he said as he opened his door and popped his head out. “Aren’t you two a sight. What happened? Did you get dragged backwards through the forest?”
Hunter set me on my feet in a patch cleared of snow, and Kellan leapt from the car to sweep me into his arms. “I’m genuinely worried,” I said around a burst of semi-hysterical laughter, “that I might forget how to walk. You two barely let my feet touch the ground.”
“What sort of mates would we be if we let your feet get cold?” Kellan appeared aghast at the very thought. “I’ve already got the heater blasting for you, pretty mate. Let’s get you warm.”
He walked to the passenger side, and when I expected him to place me in the chair, he slid in and took a few seconds to adjust me onto his lap. When the door closed, the warmth surrounded us, and I sank bonelessly against Kellan.
A few minutes later, Hunter slid into the driver’s side, and I realized why I was in Kellan’s lap: this was the only way the three of us would fit in here.
Hunter dropped our clothes into the back and closed the door, sealing us in the warm interior.
He reversed out fast, and Kellan wrapped his arms tighter around me. The fact that two out of the three of us were completely naked, not to mention covered in mud and other bodily fluids , should have felt weird, but it was all serenity as the powerful car ate up the road.
The Bugatti’s power was almost as good as sex . Now that I’d been with these alphas, I knew there was nothing that could compare to sex, not any longer. Not even the sweet sound of a powerful engine.
When Hunter pulled into the garage, I was able to walk on my own two feet all the way up to my room, where Kellan and Hunter ensured I was thoroughly clean before the three of us crawled into bed for some much-needed reprieve from our exhaustion. Getting hunted, and then fucked and claimed against a tree, really took it out of a shifter.
Goddess be damned, what a fucking great night.
Sleep took me under fast, nestled between two naked alphas. It was hard to believe how comfortable I now felt with them. I could barely remember my life before they came into it, and the parts I could remember… I didn’t want to.
It felt like I’d been asleep for two seconds when a heavy hand landed on my shoulder. With a gasp, I jerked up in the bed, knocking Hunter’s arm off my stomach. Blinking to clear my vision, the heavy fatigue passed as I panicked, but my racing pulse eased when I noticed Slade at the end of the bed. He took me in fully, and until his eyes darkened, I’d forgotten I was naked.
“Get dressed,” he told me shortly. “We have training.”
“We have training?” I repeated mindlessly. “Wait, we have?—?”
“Training, yes,” he shot back. “You have five minutes to get ready, or you’ll be tested wearing what you have on.”
His expression remained neutral as he strode from the room, and I let out a long sigh.
Hunter ran his hand down my spine and murmured. “You want me to interfere?”
“No, it’s okay,” I replied, shaking my head as I leaned down to kiss his cheek. “You go back to sleep; I’ll see what this training is all about.”
Kellan rolled closer and ran his hand over my side. “I’ll be there in a couple of hours, Shortcake,” he mumbled, voice filled with a delicious rasp. “But Slade’s got you first.”
Great . What could possibly go wrong with that scenario?
Kissing them both, and feeling a little annoyed at leaving two rumpled, gorgeous alphas in my bed, I rolled over the top of Hunter and dragged myself into my wardrobe. Grabbing the first workout gear I could find, I was relieved to see it was all black. Saved me trying to co-ordinate colors when half asleep.
In the bathroom I peed, brushed my teeth, and washed my face, before tying my long hair back in a braid. Whatever this training entailed, keeping my hair off my face felt like the right move.
No doubt Slade was going to kick my ass and make no apologies for it.
He had seemed extra short with me as he growled over the end of my bed— Wait…
A few more cylinders of my brain came online, and I was reminded of what else had happened yesterday. Before the club and the mating. The prank . I’d left Slade’s gifts to be discovered last night, and now he was here demanding I train with him. Oh. Shit .
Could training be code for taking me back out to the woods for another hunt ?
One that would end in an entirely different, far less pleasurable way…