Page 63 of Ascendant King

Cade’s eyes dropped to my cock, which was perking in interest at his proximity.

“We don’t have time.” He stepped back, and I could see him forcing distance back into our relationship. I’d pushed too hard, and he was trying to remember that he hated me. “Ghost Pack knows we’re here. We need to move.”

I couldn’t stand it. Hishandshad been on me. He’dtouchedme purposefully. I couldn’t let him push me away again.

Without letting myself hesitate, I took two steps forward and grabbed his face in my hands, kissing him hard. He whimpered, his knees giving out, and I didn’t relent.

It was the inevitability ofus. He believed in me when anyone who had two working brain cells would have run. He might hate me, he might need to hate me, but there was something that sparked when we touched.

“You can hate me forever,” I said into his mouth. “But we willalwayshave this.”

No matter how he felt, we would always have the push and pull between us, the echo of something that could have been great.

Cade panted when I released him, then frowned down at his arm. With trembling fingers, he unbuttoned his cuff and drew it back, pulling it up his arm with a frown.

“What is it?” I asked.

“My magic.” Cade looked up at me. “Your wolf, is it still there?”

I didn’t even need to check. I could feel my wolf, myalpha,under my skin, fierce and solid. “Yes.”

“When we kissed right now, I got another burst of power. Magic.” He touched his forearm, and a long line of inky knives flipped under his fingers. “Did it drain you?”

“No.” I shook my head. I hadn’t felt the pull of his magic. Nothing in him had taken power from me. “I didn’t feel anything.”

Cade stared, his fingertips still resting on his own forearm, and I couldn’t help voicing what I’d felt when we kissed.

“We’re still connected. I can feel it, and you can ignore it as much as you want, but we’ll always be linked.” I reached out, waiting for him to pull away, but he didn’t, letting me touch his arm, draw my fingers over the lines of ink. “No matter how much you hate me, we’ll havethis. Forever.”

“I have to hate you,” Cade said, his voice hard as he tried to convince himself. “Ihaveto.”

He closed his eyes, and I wrapped my hand around his forearm, feeling the buzz of his magic against my skin. When he opened his eyes, I was drowning in them. The fierceness of his emotions was going to consume me.

Just being close to him made my wolf come out. I could feel the alpha in me that had to protect my mate, protecthim. Swallowing the saliva in my mouth, I said, “We have to go back.”

Cade nodded, his throat working. His lips fell open, but he didn’t speak. When he raised his hand, I wanted to lean into the touch, but instead, he swept his fingers through the air, black ink surrounding us.

We came back to chaos. Nia and the other ex-House Bartlett wolves were snarling, the voice of a Pineridge Springs wolf rising.

“Hekidnapped your alpha, and you’re acting like that’s totally fine?”

“Not kidnapped,” I said. “Taken to get healed.”

I ignored the way Heather and Gabe raised their eyebrows, their unvoiced skepticism not entirely wrong.

“We need to move. House Bartlett knows we’re here. We don’t have the element of surprise anymore, so we need to take them fast. Anyone who can shift, do it now. Mages, be ready.”

My bones cracked, skin bursting open before healing quickly. When I was back in my wolf form, I howled, the pack around me taking up the call. Then, I was off through the forest, heading straight to the wards.

Chapter

Twenty-One

The dryads cleared the path ahead of us, this time without worrying that we would be heard or that we would alert House Bartlett we were coming. The wolves with me sprinted, and I could feel the warp of magic twisting the air so that by the time we reached the wards, the mages were back with us, slightly breathless, but no one had been left behind.

The only sign of the wards was a slight scent in the air, almost ozone. Still, I pulled up short, something telling me we were too close.

Isaac cleared his throat. “We’re too soon. The holes shift, and the ones in this location aren’t going to be here for another few hours.”