“ S hit. Hey, Lo, are you okay?” I managed to wrangle Logan onto her back, her head in my lap while Caden tackled the roads of Syracuse with reckless abandon.

She was still breathing fine, and she shied away when I poked her cheek, so that was a good sign.

“Who the fuck designed an evil entity that could travel during the day? That’s just plain fucking rude. ”

“How is she?” Caden asked.

“Uh, not great, but definitely alive.”

“Fucking hell. I thought this thing was targeting shifters. Why did it touch her? I couldn’t even fucking see it.”

The look my brother leveled on me in the rearview mirror when he saw Logan sprawled over me could have melted steel.

“I don’t know why it went for her when we were both there. I know you didn’t want me to come, but Logan is squishy. She could do with another bodyguard. I don’t want her hurt.”

“Since when do you care about the well-being of my mate?”

“To be fair, I always cared, just…maybe not in the correct way.”

“If you set so much as one fucking toe out of line on this trip, I’m going to find some ancient forest god and shove you up its ass.”

Well, that was a rather visceral image. “I’ll be good.”

The roll of his eyes told me he didn’t believe that for a second. I’d missed him. His cranky ass was fun to have around. Or at least he had been when he’d used to willingly acknowledge my existence.

“Lo, can you wake up for me?” I cradled her, tapping her cheek.

Her eyelids fluttered open and she stared up at me with the softest smile before glancing around like she’d forgotten what had happened, and maybe she had. Who knew what that thing had done to her?

“How many fingers?” I held up three.

“Three.”

“You okay to sit up?”

“Gimme a minute.” She closed her eyes, her fingers curling around the seatbelt at my hip.

Logan rolled onto her side, face in my lap, and instantly fell asleep.

Alarm bells screamed in my head.

Fuck. I shifted my jeans against my tenting dick and tried to angle her away. What I wouldn’t give for a throw pillow.

Caden growled as we barreled down I-81.

“Slow down. The last thing we need is to get eaten while we’re pulled over for a ticket.”

Tension radiated off Caden, but he did slow down to the speed limit at least. I didn’t blame him for hating me. Or for not trusting me around his mate—technically Logan wasn’t officially his mate since they hadn’t bonded, but she was pretty close—since I’d fucked up majorly with his last one.

But I’d grown since then. I was older, maybe only a tiny bit wiser, but definitely willing to use this opportunity to try making things up to him. It sucked having your brother hate you. For good reason. But still.

The soft noise Logan made as she adjusted had my brain whiplashing to last night.

Caden knew I could hear them. It had been torture .

Her scent was intoxicating—rich and earthy, like a deep forest, and it smelled even sweeter now with hints of jasmine.

I’d been left discreetly fucking my own fist on her living room couch like a loser as I’d listened to her desperate sounds.

While I was contemplating going house cat to preserve my sanity, Logan burst awake with a cry and I locked my arms around her.

“It’s okay. We’re okay,” I soothed.

Neither statement was true.

Logan buried her face in her hands and I held her close.

We drove for an hour before Logan finally chilled out and Caden’s shoulders stopped being stuck to his ears.

“Where are we going?” I eventually asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Caden snapped. “Right now the only goal is far away.”

I couldn’t fault that. I-81 blurred beneath us as Caden left Syracuse behind. He didn’t stop until we hit Scranton. By then Logan was more relaxed, sitting up on the other side of the back seat, but she hadn’t made a peep.

Peepless seemed bad.

Caden stopped for gas and I poked Logan’s shoulder. “Get out and stretch.”

She looked at me with freakishly blank eyes, but nodded and climbed out of the car.

Okay, that was unnerving.

Caden looked about ready to chuck the gas pump down and follow her, but we needed to fuel up.

“I’ve got her,” I said, hopping out to follow Logan. I stood outside the bathroom like a dutiful soldier. She took so long that I knocked on the door. “Lo, you okay in there?”

The door swung open and I jumped. Her eyes were red-rimmed. “Yeah, sorry.”

I walked her to Caden and made sure she was safely in the front seat before I went about my business.

After relieving myself, I slipped inside the gas station to grab a bunch of candy—chocolate, gummies, some sour monstrosity that would pucker my lips right off my face—as well as some drinks and chips before booking it back to the car.

I held a selection between the front seats.

“Snack?”

Logan grabbed one of the chocolate bars full of peanuts and caramel. I knew she had good taste.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

I missed her snappiness.

Sad Logan was freaking me out.

I held out two bottles—iced tea and water.

She took the water, but just stared at it, along with the chocolate bar.

I nudged Caden when he sat in his seat and he opened both for Logan, waiting until she’d consumed a bit of each.

He took her hand, and while I couldn’t tell what he was saying in her head, she nodded and nibbled some more at the chocolate. Good. Maybe some sugar would help.

Caden flashed me a grateful smile—at least I assumed it was grateful—and got the car running again.

“I’ve got a buddy in Carlisle we could crash with,” I offered.

“Too dangerous for them. Also, not far enough.”

“Where is far enough?”

Caden shrugged. “I dunno. The fucking moon?”

I snorted and opened the map app on my phone.

Maybe I could find us a decent hotel in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

I scrolled down the I-81 on the map, swerving off to some more remote locations.

I found exactly what I was looking for and checked the vacancies.

They had an assortment of cabins, set away from the rest and with a view of the mountains.

Booked.

I grabbed Caden’s phone and input the address.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I booked us a place for the night. Sweet cabin in good old West Virginia. Nice and deep in the woods and it’s over seven hours from Syracuse.”

Caden looked at me in the mirror like he was surprised I’d even thought of it.

Rude.

I have good ideas.

Sometimes.

We took the I-81 all the way to Hagerstown, Maryland, where we diverged west and followed the Potomac River for a while. We stopped for more snacks along the way, but it was hard to eat when you were worried about an unknowable entity on your tail.

Almost three hours after Hagerstown, we pulled in to our stop. I let Caden and Logan stay in the car and went to check in.

We’d traveled so far and presumably we’d be safe for a while. After I got the key, Caden drove to the one we’d be staying in. You couldn’t tell any other cabins were nearby from where we were. The Appalachians cocooned us like some giant mountain mama.

It was nice.

If you didn’t listen to the stories.

Hopefully Logan didn’t know too many of them.