Page 18 of Wanted by the Wolves (The Last Shifters #2)

Chapter 17

Nova

“ W hat are you doing here?” Gage asks.

He’s lying in bed, shrouded by shadows and an air of mystery. With his inky hair and tattooed runes, he looks as if he’s made of darkness.

It’s fitting.

Gage’s pain clings to him like an ill-fitted jacket. A storm rages inside him, as angry and loud as the storm outside. It’s what made my wolf give back my skin. The need to find him pushed me from the comfort of the two alphas in my cozy nest and led me straight to his door.

Because the storm that lives inside Gage? It lives in me too.

“Why are you so sad?” The question spills from my lips before I can filter my words. Maybe I should be embarrassed by how much my wolf has been clinging to Gage or how desperate I look showing up at his door, but I can’t muster it. I’m driven by the pounding desire to know him.

“Why are you ?” he mockingly thrusts the question back at me, daring me to answer.

I take the bait, the truth blurting out in a rush. “Because I’m trying my best to be strong, but it feels like it’s never enough.”

He sucks in a breath, seeming surprised by my honesty.

I’m right there with him. Why did I give him something real when he lives behind a sardonic mask?

I did though, and I can’t take it back. I don’t even know if I want to. Behind that sarcastic, indifferent front is a scent that can’t lie. That’s the Gage I want to know.

Those nights in his greenhouse garden, just the quiet while he worked, were a balm to my soul—his too. The sharp, biting stench of grief eased into his mellow, sunshine-infused garden. When we’re together, I feel less lonely—and I think he does too.

So, I give him another reason. “And I’m tired of losing people. Myself most of all.”

It’s scary how far gone I was in my wolf after seeing the ferals at the wards. I was handling everything relatively okay all things considered, then they triggered an avalanche. It was as if I disappeared into a corner of my mind and couldn’t find a way out. Everything—the king, my heat, the ferals, this fucked world—came crashing down, reminding me that nowhere and nothing is safe. I’m tired, so damn tired of fighting all the time, and I just gave up.

Briggs brought light into the dark corners of my mind. He lured me back into myself with his relentless voice and never-ending banter until I was sharing my wolf’s eyes again. Even that wasn’t enough to push me into human skin, not completely. But tonight, when I awoke, I felt a desperate urge to go to Gage, and my wolf didn’t fight me. She receded into the recesses of my mind, giving me back my human skin, and urged me to go to him.

I don’t ever want to be that lost again. I don’t want Gage to be lost either.

Those haunting eyes of his spear me in place. I can see the conflict within him as he studies me, looking for something. After a moment, he seems to make a decision, and the scorn he wears slips off. “Same, little star. Same.”

“Why do you call me that? You said the same to my wolf.” He’s said it many times, but each time makes my stomach swoop.

He raises himself onto his side, resting his head in his palm. The move causes the white sheet to dip to his hip, exposing more of his fascinating tattoos. I have an overwhelming urge to lick them.

“I don’t know your name, but your wolf has a little swirl of white right in the center above your eyes. It looks like a little star.” He says the last part with a softness that makes me shiver.

I lick my lips, my throat dry. “My name is Nova.”

“How very fitting.” He chuckles, but it’s a melancholy sound. “Nova—a little star that burns brightly for a short time.” The way Gage looks at me as he says it—as if that knowledge is a kind of torture—makes my chest ache.

I want to go to him, but I pull the sheet tighter around me instead. It’s clear he doesn’t want me to join him, and I’m not as bold as my wolf. I settle for asking my question again. “Why are you sad? The truth.”

“I told you the truth,” he grumbles, looking away.

Bullshit.

I may not be willing to crawl into his lap like my wolf, but I gave him the truth, and I want the same. I raise my brow. “You didn’t tell me anything. You agreed with me.”

He sits up, gritting out the words through a half growl, chest practically heaving. “I want you in this bed, and I want you to leave and never come back.” His nostrils flare, and his fists clench. “Is that what you wanted to hear? How much I hate that I want you?”

The rejection hits my chest like a crack of rolling thunder. I force myself to breathe through the whine building in my throat at the harshness of his words. Instead, I look at the man my wolf is so sure is one of her mates.

He looks as wrecked as I feel, his alpha barely contained and his face hard lines of bitterness and pain. When our eyes meet, the air sparks with the connection between us. Those silver eyes of his hold anger but heat too—so much that it feels as if all the air has been sucked from the room. Beneath that is a loneliness that tugs me to him despite all his gnashing teeth.

I let that truth settle me and help me see past the sting of his statement. Couldn’t his words be my truth too?

Ever since I woke up here after the full moon, a part of me has wanted to flee and never look back. At first, it was the terror of an omega on the run, but these alphas aren’t like the men in the tents or the king. Being with them feels like a fairy tale. Even with the ferals lurking at the border, I feel more peace than I have in a long time. I’m scared that if I let myself become too comfortable here, I’ll be devastated when I lose it.

I’ve lost everything else. It’s stupid to think I could keep them or this place.

I think my wolf refused to give back my skin even after I found my way back because she wanted to give me time to settle and realize I could make something here.She’s right—these men could be my pack and this place my home.

Is it worth having if it can’t last?

My wolf nudges me toward Gage, making her answer clear.

I bridge the distance between us and sit on the edge of the bed. Gage gave me a truth. Even though his truth was a response to one I’d already given him, I’ll give him another.

“I’m afraid this is too good to be true. That if you pinch me or kiss me, I’ll wake up and realize I’m back with the king and this was all a dream,” I admit.

“No, this nightmare is very real.” He leans closer, his thumb brushing along my cheek.

“Nightmare?” I wince.

“Do you want me to kiss you and prove it?”

I look away from the intensity of his gaze, all my boldness having already been spent.

“Is that a yes?” He grabs my neck, cupping my chin until all I can see is his devastatingly handsome face.

His small touch makes my entire body come alive in anticipation. It makes my skin hot, and at the same time, it sends a grounding burst of calm through my body.

“Tell me, beautiful.” His thumb brushes along my jaw.

My head lifts in a jerky nod.

That one gesture releases his alpha. His herb-and-sunshine scent floods the space between us, then he’s on me. My stomach fills with butterflies, but the kiss I’m expecting doesn’t come.

Instead, he whispers in my ear, his breath feathering along my neck, “Do you know why this is a nightmare, little star?”

His lips land at the spot right beneath my ear, making my heart race. I can’t answer him or think of anything but his scent and warm weight.

“Your beauty is going to be the death of me. One taste will never be enough.” His words are a gritted-out truth so raw that I swear I stop breathing.

Gage plants kisses along my neck until his soft lips find mine. The kiss is intoxicatingly slow, as though I’m discovering my body for the first time. I don’t know what to do, but Gage takes over and lets me sink into the sensation until I’m opening for him.His hand curls around my hip, and he pulls me closer until I’m straddling his lap. Every part of my body feels alive, and my core aches.

He pulls back when I’m so breathless I’m drowning in him. “This nightmare is our reality, and yet I can’t say no to you.”

He growls, taking my lips again in a bruising kiss that I feel down to my toes.

“I don’t want you to,” I pant into his mouth. My body is on fire, desperately chasing a need I don’t fully understand. It hurts, but it feels good, and I can’t stop rubbing against him.

“Easy, star. I've got you,” he promises.

What’s wild is that I believe him.