Page 64 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

Cyrus and Bishop talked about their supplies and the path they were going to take to get to the abandoned village, and I ate my breakfast without saying a word. Just like all the times before, I didn’t have anything to offer to the conversation, so I just stayed out of their way.

When I was done, I gathered up their plates, washed, and dried them, then set them on the counter beside the sink while they talked about returning to Kelna for another night in a bed and resupplying.

Someone had returned my clothes, cleaned of the blood and grime from hiking for seven days and from fighting a grimalkin. They sat in a neat pile on the edge of the couch, right in front of my cleaned boots, and I gathered them, hurried into the bedroom, and changed then turned my attention to my injuries.

I wasn’t sure if the gashes in my calf were fully healed so I didn’t bother unwrapping the bandage to check. The linen was clean without any sign of blood and my pant leg covered it, so I decided not to touch it and to wait until we returned to Kelna just in case. I didn’t want to risk an infection and use up another elixir when it could be easily prevented.

For my feet, I carefully unwrapped them and confirmed that my blisters were healed. They hadn’t been as deep as the gashes, even if they’d been as painful, and I was relieved I was going to be able to walk, and not limp, the rest of the way to the death god’s altar.

I was just finishing rewrapping them and carefully pushing them into my boots when someone knocked on the door.

“You ready to go?” Bishop asked.

“Yep,” I replied, hurrying back into the living room. “And before you ask, yes my feet are healed.”

“What about your calf?” He headed to the front door where our packs waited for us.

“Still a little sore, but a lot better than yesterday,” I said, following him. “I didn’t want to risk unwrapping it, finding there was a chance they could open up, and then doing a crappy job of wrapping it back up again.”

He huffed, picked up my pack, and handed it to me. “I’m sure you wouldn’t have had a problem rewrapping it. You patched Knox up after the jackal fight.”

“Taping gauze over wounds that are going to heal in a few hours is different than securing a bandage that needs to withstand walking for a day or more.”

“It is,” he said picking up his own pack and stepping outside. “And I’m confident you would have been able to do it. You’re more capable than you think you are.”

“You’re just saying that because—” I stopped dead in my tracks.

Knox stood at the bottom of the stairs in his human form. The resemblance to Bishop was uncanny. They had the same brown eyes flecked with green, beautiful sculpted features, identical builds, and even the same haircut. The only difference was Bishop kept his hair braided back from his face and Knox didn’t. Oh, and Knox glowered like he wanted to rip something — probably me — apart.

Except his eyes weren’t dark. His wolf wasn’t fighting to take control. And that, along with the fact that he was actually fully clothed as if he was planning on staying in his human form, shocked me the most.

“You’re human,” I gasped, the idiotic, obvious words jumping out of my mouth before I could stop them.

I’d only seen him in his human form once — my dreams not included — and that had been a few days ago. Hell, I’d barely seen him at all since I’d accidentally mate bonded with him. He’d been avoiding me even while we’d been traveling together.

“I’m not a human. I’m a shifter,” he snarled as he snatched my pack and walked away with it.

What the?—

Why was he carrying my pack? It wasn’t as if he’d suddenly changed his mind about me and wanted to be nice. The icy hollowness from our frozen bond was as strong as ever. He didn’t want me. And I didn’t want him or his help.

“I can carry my own pack,” I called after him, but he just huffed and stormed into the forest.

“Come on.” Cyrus jerked his chin, indicating that we should follow Knox, and not addressing the fact that he’d just walked off with my pack. “It’s already well after dawn and it would be nice to get to this abandoned village before nightfall.”

We walked until late afternoon only stopping for a quick lunch of dried meat and fruit before heading out again. Knox stayed in human form for the entire time, but he didn’t join us for lunch and was always thirty or more feet ahead of us.

He also didn’t return my pack and the only thing I could think of that would explain his behavior was that he didn’t want to risk me slowing him down. He wanted to get to the death god’s altar by noon tomorrow and be free of me, and I was too weak and pathetic to keep up. Which meant he had to carry my pack and as a result had to stay in human form.

And that was fine by me. Really. At least as far as my mind was concerned. I hadn’t asked for the help, so I was still staying out of Cyrus’s way and keeping up without complaint. My heart and soul, however, wept at the icy hollowness of his rejection and the thought that soon our connection would be shattered.

But I knew that grief wasn’t my real emotion. I’d never wanted to be with someone who didn’t want me. Even if it made my life better or easier, I’d never want that.

Besides, I had someone who did want me, and I couldn’t wait to be free so I could be with him. That thought made it impossible to stop thinking about last night or to stop stealing glances at Bishop.

Shivers of remembered pleasure and waves of heated embarrassment rushed from my head to my toes every time our eyes met, and it took everything I had to concentrate on hiking over the uneven terrain and not falling on my face.

After lunch, the forest gave way to a barren, rocky wasteland that stretched as far as I could see. Only a few scraggly shrubs and weeds managed to grow, and I wasn’t sure if growing was the right word since they were brown and brittle like it was winter and not the beginning of summer.

By late afternoon, we reached the long-abandoned village which turned out to be the barely standing remains of a dozen structures. All of them had been small, one-story buildings, and had long-ago lost their roofs. More than half had walls left standing, but those walls only reached waist or shoulder high and the rest had fallen over.

Cyrus picked the sturdiest looking house, a one-room building that hadn’t been more than a thirty-by-thirty-foot box. One of the walls had been taken out by a neighboring house — if the rubble taking up half the floor space was any indication. But unlike the other house that didn’t have as much debris, this one’s two walls offered shelter from the wind. And while the wind wasn’t strong at the moment — just enough to make me wish I had a light jacket — that could easily change once the sun had set.

“Bishop,” Cyrus said, dropping his pack and pulling off his shirt. “You and Audrey gather firewood. Knox, see if you can find a well with safe water. I’ll get us dinner.”

He dropped his pants, giving me a front row show to his powerful, stunning body, and a rush of remembered pleasure shuddered through me, momentarily stealing my breath.

I turned away from him as he shifted, my cheeks heating, and listened as he ran away from our shelter on four legs. Beside me, Knox snorted, dropped my pack, grabbed the canteens, and left as well.

“I still can’t believe you blush every time someone gets naked,” Bishop chuckled.

“Yeah, well, you like it when I blush when you get naked.” It wasn’t much of a comeback, but it was the best I could think of while my brain was still short-circuiting on Cyrus’s naked body and what it would feel like to have all that powerful muscle wrapped around me.

“That I do.” He flashed me a heart-stopping smile.

I jerked away, my face suddenly on fire, caught my toe in the rubble, and careened forward.

But Bishop seized my wrist and yanked me tight against him, his arm wrapped protectively around me before I hit the ground.

Need shivered down my spine and my pulse stalled as his scent flooded my nostrils. One night with Bishop hadn’t been nearly enough, and I couldn’t wait to get back to Kelna and some privacy to go again. This time without the pressure of my heat egging me on.

“So, no flirting while you’re trying to walk,” he laughed. “I’ll have to remember that.”

“I can walk just fine. Even if you flirt with me.” I rolled my eyes at myself. I’d just tripped because he’d smiled at me. “Okay, so maybe I’m a little distracted.”

“Just a little?”

I huffed. “Fine. A lot distracted.” I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about last night and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Something good and amazing had finally happened to me and I never wanted to forget it.

“Is it your heat?” he asked as he tightened his embrace and pressed his lips against the top of my head.

I melted against him, letting the warm calm of being held seep into my soul.

Sure, I was a little turned on and yearned for another hot night in bed, but the feeling wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been before, it felt more like a desire to be with Bishop again, not jump the first hot guy I came across.

Which had to mean my heat had broken. Finally. It had gone on for at least seven days and was finally done.

“I don’t think it’s my heat. I don’t feel desperate or needy at all anymore. I just—” Another shiver of pleasure teased through me. “I keep remembering last night.”

“So, you enjoyed it?”

“Do you really have to ask? I’m pretty sure I’ve spent all day with a stupid grin on my face while making moon eyes at you.”

He laughed, the sound rich and welcoming. “Yeah, you have been. I just wanted to check.” Then he released me and stepped back, his hand finding mine and gently squeezing. “Hopefully that was all you needed to tip you over the edge and break your heat.”

“Yeah.” Icy fear flickered through me. Was this where he told me it didn’t mean anything? That he was just helping me out because my heat was driving me crazy?

I tried to push that thought aside. He’d said he was going to court me. He’d promised.

But Royce had made promises as well, and all my life, no one had wanted me.

“Don’t you dare go there,” Bishop said, hooking his finger under my chin and forcing me to meet his gaze.

“I know it’s stupid and it isn’t true.” But I just couldn’t help it. I might have felt steadier since having sex, but the icy hollowness and the soul-deep grief of having my mate bond rejected were still there. I was still afraid that Bishop was going to rip the rug right out from under me, just like Royce had.

“It isn’t stupid,” he said, his voice soft and his expression sad. “You were betrayed in the worst way and nothing has been easy for you. It’s going to take time for you to believe that I’m not going anywhere and that you deserve so much more than what you’d been given.”

“Yeah,” I repeated, uncertain what to say to that.

“I’ll wait for however long it takes, and I will show you every day that you are more than what everyone says you are and that you deserve to be happy.”

Tears burned my eyes and my throat tightened. I wanted so desperately to believe him, wanted to believe that I could be worthy of being loved, but I couldn’t make the tiny voice in the back of my head shut the fuck up.

“I’ll wait for you, Audrey.” He brushed his lips against my forehead and wrapped me in his embrace again. “I’ll always wait for you.”