Page 28 of Shadowed Spirits (Haunted Magic #2)
CHAPTER 28
LUCA
“ H opefully this cave will have something in it, unlike the other eight million ones we’ve combed through,” Izzy grumbles. My lips twitch up at her disgruntled, half-asleep voice. Over the past few days, I’ve learned that my little mate is allergic to early mornings and is adorably grumpy when she has to get up before six.
Yesterday, we crossed off Siberia and Colorado, and today, we’re starting with the mountain location in Chile before moving on to Italy. Thus far, we haven’t found anything useful. We’re all hoping today will be different.
“I’m sure it will, sunshine,” Archer attempts to soothe. All it earns him is a glare from Izzy, whose narrowed storm gray eyes are shaded from the early morning sun by her hood. Since it’s summer here, the mountains aren’t terribly cold. There’s still enough chill at the beginning of the day to warrant at least a jacket.
Our boots crunch across the green grass dotting the mountainside as we trek in relative silence toward the coordinates. We’re all lost in our thoughts, and Izzy’s looking around at the granite peaks, mountain lakes, and vast meadows with awe. I have to admit that the mountain landscape is breathtaking, but I’m too deep in my head to appreciate it fully.
Archer didn’t know, but I could hear his entire conversation with Izzy at the night market. I didn’t realize how much pain he’d been carrying around for the past five years. It makes me a lousy older brother that I never knew he blamed himself for what happened and had been trying to make up for it.
I can only vaguely recall yelling at him for skipping patrol that night, but it was only because I had spent the whole night thinking I lost him. When I saw him alive and well, I should’ve hugged him and told him what he meant to me. Instead, I was a selfish prick and screamed at him because it was easier to have someone to blame other than myself for what happened. I never apologized for and had all but forgotten about it until Archer brought it up to Izzy.
The next couple of years, I wasn’t much of a brother to him. But he was there for everything Cain and I needed, even when we were never there for him. He’s had the thankless task of supporting everyone around him and never once asked for any support in return. I’ve continued to think of him as my lovable but irresponsible younger brother without stopping to really see the man he’s become. Archer has earned a hell of a lot more respect than I’ve given him, and I owe him an apology.
I’m ashamed to say that, in the last five years, I’ve only remembered his birthday once, even though he always makes a big deal out of mine and Cain’s birthdays. But that’s going to change. A lot’s going to change because my little brother deserves more from all of us. Izzy’s known him for the shortest time, yet she’s the only one who’s seen the real Archer that the rest of us have missed behind his easygoing smile.
For the past day, I’ve been trying to find time to talk to him, but we’re constantly moving from one problem to another. The next opening I get, I’m going to begin setting things right with Archer. I know it’s going to take more than one conversation to make it up to him, but I have to start somewhere.
The feeling of failing him sits heavy on my shoulders and leaves a bitter taste in the back of my mouth, but I don’t have time to dwell on it right now. We’ve reached the opening to yet another cave. I’m the first one through. Unlike the other ones, it doesn’t open into a cavern. Instead, it’s a narrow passageway that’s only barely wide enough for me to fit through. Even then, I still have to duck my head to fit.
Gray, roughhewn rock makes up the walls, and black pebbles dot the floor, some of them crushed under semi-regular traffic. I hope animals are the only ones who routinely use this cave because I don’t want to run into anyone else out here. It’s already hard enough to protect my little mate as it is, with everyone under the sun gunning for her. Combined with her stubborn streak, self-sacrificing nature, and unwillingness to accept help, keeping her safe is nearly impossible. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, though. Izzy is worth all the headaches and worrying I do about her.
I stop walking and idly trace the dark green moss that forms a patchy covering on one wall. I’m trying to figure out what the best course of action is. Izzy bumps into my back and lets out a cute little squeak. Spinning around, I grab her arms before she can fall on her ass. “Careful, wildcat.”
“I wouldn’t have to be careful if you didn’t stop suddenly.” She attempts to cross her arms, but I’m still holding on to her so she can’t. I smirk at her, and she sticks her tongue out at me in retaliation.
I chuckle before leaning in close. My breath feathers over her ear, and she shivers. “Careful sticking that tongue at me, Izzy. Do it again, and I’ll find a better use for it.”
She scoffs. “Oh, yeah? And what’s this ‘better use’?”
Tunneling my fingers into her hair, I bend her neck back until she’s forced to look up at me. “Licking my cock as I fuck your mouth.”
Her eyes widen, and a flush creeps up her cheeks. She stares at me with her pupils blown but doesn’t say anything. Her obvious arousal at my threat makes me rock hard. My wolf is trying to take control so we can fuck her here and now and prove to her we’re a worthy mate. I grit my teeth as I hold him back, but I’m pretty sure my eyes are pure amber at this point.
“What’s the holdup?” Bishop calls from the back of the line, breaking the moment between us.
I close my eyes briefly to gather myself. “The opening to the cave must be farther down,” I holler back. “If we want to try to find the meeting spot, we have to go down the narrow passage single file.”
Bishop frowns as he scoots past Levi and Cain to get a better look at the cave entrance. “I… don’t like anything about that.”
Izzy snorts. “You don’t like anything about this whole thing, because I’m here instead of safe and sound at home.”
“Your point?” Bishop asks with an arched brow.
She shakes her head at him and opens her mouth to needle him further. I would’ve thought completing the mate bond would’ve settled the tension between the two of them. While it’s taken the edge off it, Bishop and Izzy are still butting heads as often as Izzy and I do.
Ever since smelling the bond and him all over her, my wolf has been constantly growling, howling, and snarling at me to make her ours too. But that’s not going to happen until she’s one hundred percent ready, which pisses him off to no end. He thinks she’s ready now, but I disagree. While she might’ve let me come down her throat, I’m still not sure she’s ready for the rough fucking I know my wolf, and if I’m honest, I, want.
“All right, you two,” Archer says through a smile. “How ’bout we figure out what we want to do, then argue later?”
“We weren’t arguing,” Bishop and Izzy both say at the same time.
They look at each other for a moment before grinning. He leans down to plant a lingering kiss on her forehead, and it feels like someone’s crushing my heart in a vise grip. I want that casual intimacy with her, so goddamn bad it physically hurts. But we’re not there yet. I know it just takes time, but it can be hard to watch her with Bishop. Not that I’d ever tell her that. Izzy’s already struggling with how to handle five mates, and I’m not going to add to that by piling my feelings on her shoulders.
“What’s the plan, bossman?” Archer asks when he can finally tear his gaze away from Izzy’s smiling face. More often than not, her gray eyes are haunted with sorrow, her delicate blonde brows drawn in worry, and her plush pink lips flattened in steely determination. To see her normally serious face light up with joy or happiness or laughter is the best gift in the world. I just wish I could find a way to make that her normal.
Scrubbing a hand over my face, I try to focus on the most immediate problem. “I think at least some of us need to see where the cave leads.” I’m the pack alpha, so I’m always expected to have a plan and know the right course of action. In reality, I’m just making it up as I go along.
Normally, alphas have guidance from the previous alpha and betas when they’re starting out. Because my parents died suddenly, I was thrown into this role without any direction, in the midst of the biggest crisis my pack had ever faced. I was angry and scared and so fucking alone in the beginning. I made more mistakes than I care to admit, and there’s a lot I would change if I could go back. But I eventually figured it out well enough to keep our pack from collapsing.
After five years, the pack now trusts me to lead them and comes to me with every single small issue they have. Cain, Archer, and Prue help handle a lot of the day-to-day squabbles, but I’m still expected to know everything and have all the answers. I rarely do, but I’ve gotten good at pretending otherwise.
“I’m good with that, wolf boy. But we should stick together. We don’t know what we’ll find farther down, and we don’t know who or what could come wandering into the cave.” Izzy juts her chin out, daring me to argue with her.
I shove my hair out of my eyes as I think on what she said. As much as I hate Izzy following us into an unknown situation, I hate leaving her here unprotected more. “You’re right,” I concede, much to her surprise, if her eyebrows shooting up is any indication. “We should all see where this cave leads.”
Waiting a beat for any objections, I take off when no one says anything. As a wolf shifter, my eyes adjust to the darkness just fine as we wander deeper. I hear Izzy bump into something behind me before she swears and mutters a spell under her breath. Soft blue light illuminates the narrow passage, which should make it easier for her and Bishop to see.
We walk in tense silence, none of us sure what we’re going to find. We trek for about ten minutes, mostly on a downhill slope, before I can see a hint of light at the end of the tunnel. Picking up my pace, I reach the end in no time and step into a huge open space with the same rough gray rock walls.
I groan at what I see. The cavern isn’t empty. Far from it. Fifteen heavily armed shifters of some kind have their weapons trained on us.
“Halt!” one of the men demands as four red laser dots appear on my chest. I grind my teeth but stop where I am as I try to find some way out of this latest mess.