Page 42

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Sascha

Shortly after leaving Arch Rock, Sascha, Avery, and their pack are escorted off the island by local authorities.

There were no tourists around during the long, brutal fight, but only because the warning howls of the Wilderness pack put the entire island into a state of emergency.

The sheriff tuts as he supervises the seven of them boarding the boat, muttering “Fuckin’ animals” under his breath.

Neither Beryl nor the wolf shifter—Anise—have returned to their biped forms, and with their combined bulk, the rest of the pack barely fits on the vessel.

In addition to Anise and Zuhr, the shy werecreature introduces himself as Sheridan, and Zuhr announces that she has a teenage brother, Charlie, who she’ll need to collect from the pack camp in Wilderness State Park.

While they’re sailing back to the mainland, lucky to have avoided handcuffs and criminal charges due only to the Parahuman Civil Compliance laws accommodating pack conflicts so long as no humans are hurt, Petra does her best to clean Avery’s injuries around the clothes he was fortunately able to climb into before the police arrived.

Both backpacks were retrieved, along with Petra’s medical bag, before their dramatic exit parade.

Sascha winces when Petra picks bits of hair and debris from Avery’s left shoulder, which looks unsettlingly similar to raw hamburger.

While most of Avery’s injuries were repaired when he shifted back, the worst of them didn’t heal fully.

Aside from varying levels of exhaustion, everyone else is intact; it’s only Avery who remains damaged.

“Avery,” Petra says suddenly. “Are you still taking testosterone?”

At first, Avery blinks in surprise, but answers, “No. Haven’t been able to afford any, and there aren’t really endocrinologists who specialize in trans werecreatures.”

Petra blows air past her lips. “No wonder you can’t heal!

Without your reproductive tract, your body isn’t producing estrogen to replace the testosterone, and total sex hormone deficiency like that is destroying your body.

Fucking goddess, Avery. You’re lucky you aren’t in even worse condition than this. ”

“That’s on the list of things to take care of, then,” Sascha says firmly.

Petra’s eyes slide over to Sascha. She watches him intently while spraying disinfectant over Avery’s mangled trapezius, then smiles when Sascha’s hand goes to the same spot on his own arm to ease the sudden sting that erupts there right as Avery hisses.

“What do you know?” Sascha asks, wrinkling his nose at her.

“I was wondering if you two would notice on your own, but you’re idiots,” Petra sniffs.

The three werecreatures watch curiously, while Anise stares over the side of the boat, seemingly ignoring them.

“Notice what?” asks Avery .

Petra smiles wider, then grins, then throws her head back and shakes with laughter.

Before they can interrogate her more, the boat reaches the shore at Mackinac City, and Sascha has to apologize to the officer tasked with supervising their departure as they all deboard. The officer suggests they make themselves scarce, which Sascha agrees with.

There’s only one problem.

“Fuck,” he says quietly. Avery raises his eyebrows. “We have seven people and no car. Beryl, can you shift back, please? We have clothes.” Sascha jostles the backpack over his shoulder; Zuhr has the other one.

Beryl produces a scratchy laugh, then trots off, presumably to find somewhere safe to detransform. Unsure what else to do, Sascha follows them, tailed by the rest of the pack.

“We need a pack name,” Sascha says when they stop in a quiet alley.

Avery laughs. “You dork. Let’s focus on getting back to Bliss first.”

Sascha sends him a helpless grin, then dips to kiss him. It’s only been a few hours since their last one, but he feels like it’s been so much longer. Avery wraps his arms around Sascha and buries his face in the crook of Sascha’s neck.

They disappear into each other, clinging and rocking gently, until Beryl says, “Are you two done?” They’ve shifted back and are fully dressed.

“No,” Avery says, muffled in Sascha’s shirt.

“Yes,” Beryl insists. Sheridan hisses Beryl’s name, and they raise their eyebrows. “What?”

“You can’t—” He flicks his eyes to Sascha and Avery, then back to Beryl.

“Can’t what?” Beryl props their hands on their hips. “What do you think this is, another Wilderness? If either of these guys speak to us like Celeste did, I’ll bite them. ”

Avery bursts into laughter, then cuts off with a pained moan. “Stop being funny,” he whines. “Laughing hurts.”

Beryl peers at the lacerations Petra has only just begun to treat. “Sorry I couldn’t get there sooner.”

“You did great,” Avery says, flapping his hand dismissively, before wincing. “Don’t worry about it. I’d be fully dead without you.”

“Both of you would,” they snort. “Let’s go find somewhere to sit down for a bit while the healer puts you back together.”

Lacking any other options for transportation—especially after Zuhr explains that Anise, shifted back, will be too big for any of Sascha’s clothes—their pack walks.

Most of them walk, anyway. Avery staggers.

Sascha comes close to insisting on carrying him, but Petra says it’ll likely hurt even more, which Sascha doesn’t like but reluctantly accepts after receiving a stern look.

Just over twenty minutes away is a two-star hotel, where Sascha books an overnight stay for a room they’ll only get to use for a few hours, but they need the bathroom and the privacy.

Not to mention food. Sascha bustles around, negotiating shower use and taking food orders, while Petra parks Avery on a chair in the corner, once again with nothing but a blanket to protect his modesty.

It takes longer than they’d hoped to patch Avery up.

After showering, Beryl reluctantly submits to Petra’s examination.

They grumble, but consent to a few short bursts of healing energy.

Sheridan was not ordered into the fight, Zuhr’s magic use typically keeps her out of the central clash, and Anise only shakes his head when Petra asks if he needs medical attention.

Sascha leaves the hotel, tailed by a quiet but insistent Zuhr, to retrieve food and buy clothes big enough to fit Anise.

They return to find Avery unconscious on the bed, and an exhausted-looking Petra slumped in the chair he’d occupied, watching over him. Sascha rubs his chest absently as he crosses the room, bending to brush a kiss over Avery’s temple.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Petra asks.

Sascha groans. “Just tell me.”

“You sure? I’m genuinely disappointed in your upbringing, you know. I thought someone would’ve taught you better than this.”

“Oh my god, Petra.”

“Fine.” She smooths the long, thick braid she’d had pinned up during the fight, now draped over her shoulder. “Did you notice anything strange between yourself and Avery? Any sensations…?”

Frowning, Sascha asks, “What kind of sensations?” But it brings to mind the insistent tugging that led him and Avery together when they had no means of contact, the way he felt starving despite being well-fed, and the echo of pain whenever Avery took a hit during the fight.

Petra raises her eyebrows, noting the realizations as they creep across Sascha’s face. “Why… What happened?”

Beryl figures it out first. “Did you guys actually mate already?”

Sascha’s head snaps around to look at them, the way their head is cocked and the amused smile playing on their lips, curled like those of a particularly smug cat. “No? I mean… No, we didn’t.” Laughter at his back makes Sascha stiffen.

“Somehow, you idiots managed to form a mate bond during Avery’s…”

Sascha eyes Petra over his shoulder, blushing hot at the gesture she makes.

“But there was none of the… what you have to do to form a mate bond. I’m not that ignorant.

I know how a unification ritual works.” He looks back to Avery, deep asleep on top of the sheets, body curved like a half-moon. His heart pounds.

“Avery is a werecreature, and it’s not as if much exploration has been done into how shifter magic interacts with werecreature magic,” Petra says. “Over the course of however long you spent being intimate…”

“Like, a day and a half.”

Beryl snorts. Sascha shoots them a glare, but not a truly angry one. Mostly, he feels stupid, but also there is a sudden spinning in his gut. More vertigo? No, this is?—

Elation .

Sascha has to curl his fingers, nails biting his palms as he tenses to keep from bouncing on his toes.

“You must have created some magical process that served as a binding while you were taking care of him. You worked tirelessly, Sascha. I had to practically knock you out before you’d leave his side.

” There’s a smile in Petra’s voice; Sascha hears it, even though he can’t manage to pry his eyes away from Avery again.

“The bond didn’t need shifter rituals to establish itself.

Seems the magic just decided for you guys. ”

A slow smile spreads across Sascha’s lips when Avery snuffles in his sleep.

“When’re you gonna tell him?” Beryl wonders.

Sascha opens his mouth to say they should let him sleep a bit longer—he looks so fucking tiny and vulnerable, his pale skin strung together by multiple rows of black stitches—when Zuhr pushes away from the wall, frowning at her phone.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we need to hurry to the Wilderness camp. Charlie’s not safe there. The other pack members have started trashing our tents.”

“How far away is it?” Sascha asks, and when Zuhr grimaces, worry pools in his stomach.