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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ZURI

The next day, I stood somewhere in the forest that surrounded Durnbone with Maxine, Sina, Carve, and Stone. The guys chatted tensely with each other a ways away from us, Carve juggling his knives.

“I’m still so confused,” I whispered. “Are Stone and Carve really brothers?”

Sina furrowed her brow and glanced over at me. “Who said that?”

“Stone called Carve his brother the other day,” I said, watching Stone and Carve have the most intense conversation that I had seen.

Stone clenched his sharp jaw and shook his head, hands balled into fists.

“As far as I know, they aren’t brothers,” Maxine said. “Warriors who train and fight in battle together sometimes call each other that around here. And I think Carve fought alongside Stone in battle years ago.”

“Yeah,” Sina agreed. “I don’t know Stone well, but I thought he only had one brother.”

“Derrit?”

Maxine grimaced. “Derrit. Dirt. Same thing. Same person.”

“You both don’t like him either?” I asked.

“I used to work at the tavern downtown, and he would … visit a couple of years ago.” She shivered and looked toward the guys. “More than once, I had to close while he was still at the bar, drinking.”

Sina frowned. “From what I gathered, my mates don’t like him either. Especially Darius.”

“Darius?” Maxine questioned. “But he’s so nice. What did Derrit do to him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He seemed pissed when Carve was talking to them last night about the coming war …” She glanced over at me. “And about what happened yesterday. That must’ve been so terrifying for you.”

My lips curled into a frown. “Stone was more shaken up about killing his own packmate than I was about seeing Derrit. I used to work at a restaurant, and Derrit would come in throughout the week.” My stomach turned. “He always gave me the creeps too.”

More than the creeps, but I didn’t want to admit that to Maxine and Sina yet.

“All right,” Carve said, walking over to us while flipping a knife. “Ready?”

“Ready for what?” I asked, peering at Stone, who leaned against a tree.

“To train,” Stone said.

Eyes widening, I snapped my gaze between the two war buddies. “Here? Now?”

“Yes,” Stone said. “I already told you that you’d be training.”

“Don’t worry,” Maxine said with a smile, backing up. “You’ll have fun.”

A knife whizzed by me, barely grazing my ear. I screamed and ducked, holding my arms over my head to protect myself and squeezing my eyes closed. I would much prefer to fight as a wolf than have knives thrown at me!

“Fun?!” I exclaimed, dodging another knife that nicked my finger.

“Catch it,” Stone ordered, heading toward me.

I picked the blade up from the dirt and gripped it in my non-wounded hand.

“Apologies that I’m not a psychopath like you!” I snarled at him, licking the blood off my finger. It might’ve been just a graze, but I didn’t heal as quickly as Stone’s ass did. My wounds sometimes took hours to heal.

Stone grabbed my finger and drew his tongue across my wound, his dark gaze never leaving mine once. When he pulled my finger from his mouth, he smirked, that dark hunger in his eyes, like the first night we had met.

“There,” he hummed as if it wasn’t anything.

When I peered down at my finger, my eyes widened. The wound was completely closed.

“Do you have magic too?” I asked, brow furrowing. “Like your brother?”

“No, I heal quickly because?—”

Carve nearly snorted. “Because he made a pact with a devil.”

“Carve,” Stone growled.

“A deal with a devil?” I repeated. Looking at Maxine, I asked, “Someone like your mate?”

“No,” Stone answered. “Xorgor is an incubus. The devil that I made a pact with was a demon, skilled in fire. He’s long dead now, but some of his abilities still run through my veins. They come in handy.”

My eyes widened slightly, and I tried to remember why Derrit had told me that he had magic. If they both came from a family of warlocks, then Stone should have magic too—or at least some magic—right?

“And your brother?” I asked. “How’d he get his?”

Carve and Stone glanced at each other, and then Carve cleared his throat. Another blade whizzed through the air.

“Stone?!” I leaped back and stared at Stone in horror. “You’re really going to let him do this to me?”

“Time to train, babe,” he purred.

So, for the next three hours—yes, three!—I ran away from Carve’s knives, Maxine’s demon attacks, and Sina’s … well, I wasn’t quite sure what kind of species she was or what her attacks were, but she was so strong.

And then I ended up attempting to fight my mate once they all left.

“Get up,” Stone ordered, his hips pinning mine to the ground.

I placed both hands on the dirt and attempted to push him off me, but my arms gave out, and I landed on my chest. He pressed his backside against mine once more and took a fistful of hair in his left hand.

“Up.”

Using all my strength, I pushed myself to my hands and knees.

But within a second, he scooped his arms underneath mine and collapsed them, flipped me over onto my back, and then slipped between my legs. He dipped his head so his lips grazed mine, his warm breath fanning my face.

“I said to get up, mate,” he murmured, drawing the prick of his claws up my side and to my breast. He squeezed my tit and grunted, “Can’t let an alpha like me take advantage of the vulnerable position that I’ve put you in.”