Page 52

Cole

“You know we’re going to be in trouble, right?” I ask this about thirty minutes into our silent trek into the desert. I glance down at the compass on my watch, doing the math in my mind to keep us on the correct route to get to the caves. God, but this is going to take forever on foot.

“How can we be in trouble?” Nadia asks, panting a little as she climbs the rise next to me. “You’re a Captain. I was just following your orders!”

She gives me a cheerful, silly salute, and I study her, honestly torn between being angry with her and thinking she’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen in this moonlight.

Damn, but having a mate is…challenging.

“They were your orders, Amir,” I murmur, tearing my eyes away and looking out over the dark landscape with a frown.

“Yeah, but that’s not what we’re going to tell my dad,” she says happily, stretching her arms above her head. “How long till we get there?”

“Four hours,” I say, sighing.

She blanches, staring at me. “What?”

I blink back at her. “Sorry, did you not consult the maps before we left?”

“Oh, I can’t read a military map,” she says, flapping a hand at me. “You should have told me! Why didn’t we take a car?”

“All the jeeps are out, only those big military transports left, which would have been nearly as sneaky as arriving with a spotlight and a siren. Trust me, I considered it. This made the most sense.”

I adjust the backpack on my shoulders, looking down at her, wishing we’d gotten some sleep before this. Another long, sleepless night.

God, but this is a bad idea.

“Look,” I say, turning fully to her and shaking my head. “I’m going to propose something weird. But can you just go along with it?”

She looks up at me, suspicious. “Maybe.”

I smirk. “Okay. You concede that you’re very slow, yes?”

Nadia scoffs at me, insulted. “I am of very normal speed, Cole.”

“For a human,” I concede, shrugging. “But I’m an Alpha.”

“A conceited one.”

I ignore it. “And as an Alpha, this body isn’t even my fastest form.” I gesture down at myself.

“What are you proposing?” she asks, looking me up and down. “That you…run ahead and look and leave me here to be attacked by the child spies?” She points up into the cliffs that border the valley in which we stand.

I smirk at her. “If I thought you would have accepted me leaving you behind, then I’d have gone on this trip alone, Nadia.”

“Well, that would have been stupid,” she says, frowning at me. “Children of Solace girls, from what I’ve learned, fear men. They won’t come out for you.”

“Right,” I say, nodding, understanding the logic behind that – if there even are any girls there. God, why are we on this goose chase? Why is she so convinced that we’re going to find girls? “So…”

I grimace, not knowing how to propose this.

“Cole, will you please just spit it out?” Nadia asks, snapping her hands to her hips.

I start to slip the backpack from my shoulders. “The fastest and most efficient way to do this is if you let me carry you, Nadia. On my back.”

She scoffs. “Cole, I don’t think this is the time for a four-hour piggyback ri…” Her face falls slack, her mouth dropping open as she realizes what I’m actually proposing.

“Don’t be weird about it,” I say, offering the backpack to her. “Just take this.”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious,” I say, nodding to her. She’s still staring at me as she takes the backpack, stumbling under its weight.

She glances at it and then starts to pull it on, backing up a little like she’s worried I’m going to explode.

“Are you ready for this?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. I mean, I know that Nadia saw us shift when we were kids, but…my wolf is bigger now.

“You’re…you’re going to turn into a wolf?”

I nod.

“Right now?”

I nod again.

“And I’m going to…climb up onto your back?”

“My shoulders,” I say, reaching behind my neck to tap on them. “Right above my forepaws, like a horse.”

Her eyes go wide. “Oh my god, above your paws ?”

I smirk at her and nod.

She just exhales slowly, her shoulders slumping a little as she shakes her head to clear it. “This is really weird, Cole.”

“I mean, it’s not,” I murmur, shrugging.

“Will we be able to talk?”

I shake my head. Maybe if she’d accept me as her mate, we’d get a bond so we could mindlink but…I put the thought outside my head, knowing she’s not ready for that conversation yet.

“Don’t worry so much,” I say, smirking at her. “I’m a very nice wolf and my fur is soft – you’ll be perfectly comfortable. There’s nothing to worry about. And you can hold onto my fur as tight as you want so you won’t fall off! It won’t hurt.”

“Oh my god ,” she groans, tilting her head back.

I laugh and take the opportunity to shift, doing it so fast that she doesn’t see. Nadia whips her head up and gives a tiny shriek of fear when she sees me there in my wolf form – which is understandable, as I am a gigantic wolf now with fangs the size of her little finger.

Nadia starts to pant, her eyes moving over my dark brown fur, which is silky and shaggy. I shake, getting used to the feel of my wolf body, stretching my forelegs out before I lay down in front of her, stretching my nose out on top of my paws so she sees that I’m being docile – that it’s still me.

“Yup,” Nadia whispers, staring unblinking and nodding a little. “Weird. It’s weird.”

I growl lightly and then give a little yip, hoping she understands my urge to get a move on.

She takes a deep breath and then slowly starts to walk around me, leaning forward to run her hand over my fur. I shiver, letting my eyes fall slightly shut. That is…very nice, isn’t it?

“So, I just…climb on?”

I give an encouraging yip, staying still.

I glance over my shoulder to see her hesitating and I laugh, just a little huffing sound in this wolf form, though my shoulders shake with it.

She whips her head to me, glaring, and then rolls her eyes.

Spurred forward by my laughter, Nadia swings her right leg over my back, settling herself astride my shoulders.

I wait until I feel her hands slide into my fur, wrapping it around her fingers. Then, quite carefully, I start to stand.

She shrieks in surprise, but the sound quickly turns to laughter as I get to my feet, balancing her carefully on my back. I huff a little bark, asking if she’s ready to go, which just makes her laugh harder.

I glance behind me again, turning in a circle to let her get used to the feel of me moving, and she grins at me, shaking her head.

“All right, my shaggy little pony,” she says, still laughing, clearly thinking that this is bizarre .

She’s not quite as high up as she would be if she was on a horse – my legs aren’t that long – but still, she gives me a nudge with her heels like she’s riding. “Let’s go!”

I grumble my agreement, turning forward towards the desert and setting out, balancing my mate carefully on my back.

My heart sings with happiness to feel her close, to be able to show her this side of me.

I don’t have a ton of time to do it these days, but I love shifting into my wolf – just a whole extra level of freedom, all my human worries slipping away.

I take a little time to let Nadia adjust to the way I move, padding softly through the desert, but within a few minutes I feel her hands loosen in my fur, her body starting to shift with mine as I move.

“Okay,” she says, pitching her voice louder so I can hear her, though she doesn’t need to. “I’ll tug on your…hair. If I need you to go slower.”

I growl to let her know I’ve heard.

“All right, then let’s pick up the pace!” she says, tapping me again with her heels, making me laugh. We’re going to have to have a chat about that – I am not a horse. “Come on, pony!”

I laugh harder and bound forward, making her laugh as she jolts backward a bit.

But Nadia easily regains her seat as I start to run.

And whether it’s because she has some experience riding – maybe on Shayne’s farm?

– or because she’s my mate and was made for me, Nadia easily adapts to my pace.

She bends down low over my neck, holding tight as I sprint through the desert.

And even if I can’t see it, I can nearly feel her wild grin as the wind whips through her hair.

Nadia

I’m almost sorry as Cole starts to slow.

I’ve been on his back for about an hour now and it’s been incredible , watching the landscape pass as we fly through it.

The night sky above, the ground streaming by beneath his feet, seeing all the desert colors at night as we approached the line of mountains ahead, the wind rushing over me…

Incredible. Every piece of it was wonderful, a memory I’ll never forget.

But he slows to a jog, and then to a walk. And then, as the broad craggy cliffs of a mountain’s base come into view, he stops. His sides heave with his breath, though I can tell he’s not winded. No, Cole’s wolf was built for this.

Intuiting that we’re stopping for a reason, I tilt myself to the side and allow myself to slide off Cole’s back, my feet hitting the ground hard. I groan a bit, stumbling back a step. There’s a flash and suddenly he’s there, his hand snapping out to catch my arm, steadying me.

“Are you all right?”

“Are you ?” I ask, looking up at him, a little incredulous. Then I laugh again, shaking my head at him. “You did all the work!”

He smirks at me, stepping closer, lifting a hand to brush his thumb over my cheek. “You’re all flushed.”

“It’s cold,” I murmur, shrugging. It’s true – my face and head are chilly, though any place my body was close to his is perfectly warm. Maybe next time I’ll need a hat –

Suddenly, I blush, realizing that I’m absurdly making plans for the next time I ride on the Prince’s back when he runs through the desert.

Heavens. I’m getting a little ahead of myself, aren’t I?

“Are you stiff?” he asks, looking me over.

“A little,” I say, shrugging and standing straight. He drops his hand from my arm as I stretch, turning towards the cliff face. “Are we here?”

“This is what the maps said,” Cole says, shrugging. He points to a shadowy part right at the base of the mountain. “That’s the entrance, there.”

I nod, determined, somehow sure that I’m right. “Okay, let’s go!”

I start eagerly forward, but Cole reaches out, snatching my hand and pulling me back. “A couple of ground rules first, Amir.”

My eyes basically roll themselves. “All right, Kincaid. What’ve you got?”