Page 68 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

AUDREY

I strode out of the temple, an enormous, shapeless, windowless mound in the middle of flat, barren nothingness as far as the eye could see.

Knox paced about fifty feet away, his movement jerky, anger radiating off him. It shocked me that he was still in human form. I would have thought he’d have shifted before even getting out of the temple’s dark passageway given that he preferred his wolf form over his human one.

Without a word, Cyrus handed one of the packs to Bishop and started marching south. Knox took that as permission to leave — I wasn’t sure why he’d even stuck around — and, with a jerk of Cyrus’s chin, Bishop hurried to catch up with his twin.

Swell. Just what I needed. Left with the brother who thought I couldn’t do anything and that I was going to be a burden to his family and pack for the rest of my life.

I’d been trying to prove this whole walk here that I wouldn’t hold him or anyone back. I might not know anything, but I’d been, and still was, determined to not complain and keep up.

I’d thought from our conversation last night where he seemed to have respected my desire to live independently that he was softening up to me. But now, from the tension in his shoulders and back, I guess I’d been wrong.

“I can carry my own pack,” I said, even as the ache in my body grew, complaining about our current pace.

His gaze slid to mine, his moss green eyes edged with his wolf’s darkness, his expression hard and unreadable even as it sent a shiver of desire teasing down my spine. Was he furious like Knox?

I huffed at myself. Of course he was.

He’d been angry at me since we’d left Stonehaven and now all hope of getting rid of the weakling was gone. Even plan B meant I was still part of the family… of course, if Bishop intended to court me regardless of the spell’s outcome, I’d still end up part of the family.

My toe caught on an uneven crack in the almost completely flat ground, and I staggered two steps before catching my balance.

Cyrus raised one eyebrow as if he couldn’t believe I’d actually found something to trip on.

“Walk for an hour without tripping. Then you can get your pack back.” He jerked his attention back to Knox and Bishop, who were now at least a hundred feet ahead of us.

Fine. I could do that.

“We all knew the spell was a long shot,” he said a few minutes later, his gaze still straight ahead. “Bishop’s plan B has even worse odds.”

“It might be possible,” I insisted even though I knew Cyrus was right.

Still, the fae sorcerers that had helped the Angelic Defense defeat Michael had been incredibly powerful. Whil had said she wasn’t magically strong, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to do it. I had no idea what was considered a “weak” sorcerer. She probably had more power in her baby finger than I did in my entire body.

“Anything is possible.” Cyrus glanced at me, his expression soft and sad.

God, he was just as beautiful as his brothers except in a more rugged, edgy way, and seeing him look at me like that, like he actually cared, made my pulse stutter.

Had I been wrong about him? I’d assumed everything I did pissed him off, but maybe that wasn’t true and he just wasn’t great at showing his feelings.

Then his expression hardened, his walls returning, and he faced forward again. “But you’re smart enough to know moving a mating bond isn’t probable,” he added.

“I don’t have any other option. Knox doesn’t want me.” The icy hollowness in my chest surged and I fought to push it back.

“Both of you are going to have to accept the reality of your situation,” he said, the angry edge returning to his voice. “The sooner you do, the better for Knox.”

And there it was. The reminder that Knox was, and always would be, Cyrus’s first priority.

“So, I just have to accept that I’m going to spend the rest of my life in a loveless mating because that’s what’s best for Knox, for the pack? You’re just as bad as my old pack.”

My toe caught on another crack and I stumbled again.

This time I couldn’t catch my balance and careened forward, but Cyrus caught me before I could smash my knees on the hard ground and yanked me against his body.

My hands slid across his broad, sculpted chest, and his powerful arms surrounded me. His deep earthy scent wrapped around me like a blanket, comforting and warm until the warmth began to grow.

The last time I’d been this close to Cyrus, we’d been in Stonehaven and he’d been yelling at me for risking my life. And he’d been naked.

My breath hitched. I knew what all that bulky muscle looked like, and now I was getting a moment to know what it felt like to be wrapped in it.

The heat dropped to my core and turned the soft, achy memory of having sex with Bishop into something deeper and stronger.

“Are you saying you’re not open to multiple mates?” he asked, his voice gruff. “Will you refuse Bishop? If Whil can’t transfer the bond, you and Knox are stuck together, but that doesn’t mean that has to be everything in your life.”

I tipped my head to look up at him, and his gaze flickered to my lips before jumping back to my eyes.

“And you’d accept that?” I breathed, my lips tingling with the need for him to kiss me. “The weakest shifter in existence mated to both of your brothers?”

He cupped my cheek with his large palm. “I think we’ve already established that you’re not the weakest. You’ve killed a grimalkin?—”

“By accident,” I reminded him.

“You’ve stood your ground against them twice, and you’ve walked until your feet bled on the chance you could set my brother free. Those are not the actions of a weak shifter.” He huffed a soft laugh. “A foolish one, maybe, but not weak.”

I dropped my gaze, unable to keep looking him in the eyes. I didn’t know what to do with words like that. I’d never been good enough or strong enough or anything enough, and just hearing that maybe I was, that maybe Cyrus saw me as something more than a weakling, made my insides squirm.

“I can’t shift,” I murmured. “My children might have the same curse I have.” And they might have the same problem. Unlike the rest of my pack whose wolf had awoken on the summer solstice after their eighteenth birthday, mine was still asleep and probably always would be… if I even had a wolf half to my soul.

“Bishop doesn’t care.” Cyrus brushed a stray lock of my dirty blond hair away from my eyes then hooked his thumb under my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze again. “He’s never courted a woman before?—”

“I find that hard to believe.” From everything I’d seen, Bishop had left a trail of broken hearts behind him.

“Oh, he’s dated and flirted, but his wolf was never interested. Not until you.” His eyes dipped back to my mouth, and my pulse picked up, my body yearning for his lips on mine.

I leaned into him and breathed in his scent, my pulse pounding in my ears. Cyrus had never shown any interest in me before, and while a tiny voice in the back of my mind was screaming that this was wrong, this was how my body responded when I was in heat, the rest of me didn’t care. He was stunning and powerful, and he’d never be mine, but oh how my body wanted a taste of what it would be like.

Then the muscles in his jaw flexed, and he slid both hands to my shoulders and took a large step back.

The sudden separation sent chills rushing over me, and not just because I’d lost his body heat. He was rejecting me. He’d had a moment of weakness, a moment my now throbbing core desperately wanted, and realized it was a mistake.

“You’re not without options, Audrey,” he said, his voice gruff. “Just remember that when Whil can’t free you from Knox.” He turned back toward Knox and Bishop, who were even farther ahead of us. “Come on. We’re falling behind.”

“Right.” I fought to swallow my disappointment, confused about why I’d reacted so strongly to him, and hurried to catch up.

He set an even faster pace than before and I struggled to keep up. I was already achy — sore and turned on — and the longer I walked, the achier I became. I wasn’t walking off the side effects of the spell, and now I couldn’t stop staring at Cyrus’s ass or his broad, powerful shoulders easily carrying the packs… one of which I should have been carrying.

On top of that, the chill in the air that had deepened the closer we’d gotten to the temple didn’t warm up the farther we went away. Even with the sun still sitting high in the sky and blazing down on us, I shivered, which didn’t help with the achy muscles.

The path grew rockier and scraggly weeds and bushes started to dot the landscape. Cyrus was hot enough that I could see sweat darkening the back of his shirt every time one of the packs shifted, which made me think of my hands sliding over his slick skin, those bulky muscles flexing as he drove into me.

Fuck. I squeezed my eyes shut. What was wrong with me? Why was I thinking about sex with Cyrus when I could be remembering sex with Bishop?

My thoughts lurched to the previous night and how Bishop’s sleeker body had looked as he pushed oh-so-carefully inside me?—

I stumbled over the uneven ground, the ache in my body sinking deep into my hips and back, making each step harder and harder.

A whisper of a breeze swept over us, rattling the dead stalks of grass, catching in strands that had fallen out of Cyrus’s braid, and making my teeth chatter.

Hugging myself, I fought to control my trembling, but that upset my balance and I stumbled again, bashing my knee against a rocky outcropping.

Shit.

I swallowed back my curse, not wanting to alert Cyrus that I still couldn’t walk a straight line without a pack, and limped forward. The injury wasn’t bad, but the impact had jarred up my entire body, pointing out every achy muscle and joint.

Rocky landscape meant we were getting closer to the abandoned village where we were going to spend the night.

I just needed to push a little farther, and then I could take a break because I wholeheartedly agreed with Cyrus. I didn’t want to be caught on the death god’s lands after dark.

The guys had warned me about this realm’s spirits that were manifestations of a god or goddess’s power, and I didn’t want to encounter any that belonged to a death god.

But as I raised my gaze to see where we were — and how far ahead Cyrus was — the world lurched to the side, and I bumped my hip against another outcropping.

Staggering, I clutched at the rib-high protrusion to catch my balance. The rock beneath my hand swam in and out of focus, darkening and lightening as if clouds were rapidly passing overhead even though there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky.

The world lurched again despite not even looking up, and my knees trembled, threatening to drop me to the ground.

Something wasn’t right and I wasn’t going to be able to tough it out until we made camp. And even if I could tough it out, Cyrus had been pissed because I hadn’t told him that my feet had been sore, bleeding messes for days. He hadn’t yelled at me during our conversation about accepting my bond and I really wanted to keep it that way.

I looked up, gritting my teeth against my lurching, darkening vision. He was even farther away than before, but I didn’t know if he really was or if that was tunnel vision.

“Cyrus,” I gasped, my voice ringing in my ears. “I?—”

My core clenched hard and a wave of clawing, desperate need stole my breath along with my vision. I sagged to the ground, my legs unable to hold me, the world so dim it felt like the dead of night. Shivers wracked my body. The trembling exacerbated my feverish aching and the painful throbbing in my core.

I needed sex.

I needed I needed I needed.

I couldn’t think of anything else and my need was going to consume me if I didn’t satisfy it.