Wolves' Bane (The Order of the Wolf, #3)(80)

Morgan heaved out a breath, then pulled her chin away, turned and headed out the door toward the waiting vehicle. He wanted to chase after her, pull her into his arms and cover her in kisses. But she didn’t want that. She didn’t want him.

He grabbed the cloak from where it hung on the stair banister and followed her out, no longer certain of anything.





Chapter Thirty-Nine





True Intentions


The drive was eerily quiet. No radio playing, no chitchatting. Only four large men crammed into a tight space and me squeezed between two of them. Lance to my left and Cal to my right, both men cradling their massive swords in between their knees, with the blade unsheathed and tips embedded in the soft carpet of the floor. The cloak was draped around me, cocooning me from the touch of either of them.

Ken was driving while Andrew sat in the passenger seat, his finger tracing along the lines of a giant map of my town.

“Can one of you tell me what the layout is of this carnival?” Andrew barked as he shifted to look at each of us in turn.

I stared back at him when his gaze settled on me. “The carnival will be gone by now. It only comes twice a year and stays for a week or so. The grounds are barely used for anything else. There’s an old baseball diamond on the south side—an outhouse building where the washrooms are—northwest of the main gates. There’s a concession stand that will be boarded up right next to the washrooms, and then nothing but open gravel field surrounded by forest.

“Oh that’s just great. Forest? Fucking wonderful.” He turned back to his map, mumbling more obscenities to himself.

I clasped my hands on my lap, squeezing them tightly together to keep my rising panic from overwhelming me. Rachel was surely scared. Doug said that they had tracked a small pack of Lazarus’s wolves to my town earlier in the day but didn’t think to call it in because they were moving away from the mansion. It wasn’t until the wolves captured Rachel as she was checking on my house that they realized their mistake.

Cal slid his hand over my knee, his fingers brushing mine. “Lazarus won’t allow the pack to hurt her. He wants you with him. Part of his seduction will be giving you what you want.”

I shifted my gaze to him. Deep creases furrowed his brow and his eyes shone with worry. “Doug said she didn’t look hurt, just scared,” I told him. “When you’re scared, you do things that you wouldn’t normally do.”

Like bond with a practical stranger. Commit yourself to eternity with a man you hardly know.

My thoughts caught me off guard and I shifted my eyes back to stare at my hands. The few regrets I’d had before now had been short-lived, even the worst of them, when I’d hated the bond that was making me hurt so badly. I’d reveled in my powers, my strength, the feeling of being included in a group. Now that I was on my way to a battle, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d made some stupid choices in my life.

Yeah, like lusting after a man who would just as soon kill you as sleep with you all in his duty to the Order.

But that wasn’t fair. Cal wouldn’t hurt me. He believed in my ability to end this the right way, by killing Lazarus. I was the one with the doubts. What if I failed? I’d been so easily wooed by Cal—what if Lazarus’s ability to seduce me, the magic he held over me, was too strong to break? Wouldn’t it be better to be dead than a puppy mill for Lazarus?

I sighed as I lifted my hand to remove the hood of the cloak.

“You should probably keep that on,” Lance said as he lifted his hand to tug it back in place.

I stopped his hand with mine. “No, I’m stifling in here.”

“But…”

“Let her be,” Cal growled. “What difference does it make now anyway? Lazarus knows that she’ll come to him. It’s probably better that he gets the sense that she’s on her way—it’ll spare Rachel some unnecessary pain.”

I flinched at his words but shifted one hand over and laced it with his, a silent thanks as my frozen heart thudded painfully for him once again. I didn’t want to die. I hadn’t asked for this. But neither had Rachel. I, at least, had a fighting chance. And I knew deep down in my soul that this was what I was born to do. Cal’s bond had awakened something in me, something that had nothing to do with my role as the Huntress.

I’d been dying before. Living a hollow life. No plan, no destiny, no purpose. I had purpose now, even if it was going to be short-lived. The fight could go two ways. I’d fall under Lazarus’s spell and I’d die. Or I would kill Lazarus. Either way, I would be walking away from the Order at the end of it all. I’d be walking away from Cal when all was said and done.

Andrew pulled my attention away from my thoughts as he loudly barked a few more curse words before twisting in his seat to look at Cal. “You need to set up some source of light when we get there.”

Cal stiffened. “I need to be with Morgan.”

Andrew’s eyes shifted to me. “Morgan can take care of herself. Once we get there, you’re not to remove the cloak until we’re in position. He won’t know where to find you if you’re cloaked.”

Cal squeezed my hand. “I’m not leaving Morgan’s side.”

Andrew snorted. “Well, my friend, you’re going to have to. I doubt Lazarus is going to take too kindly to seducing a women who has her Hunter at her side.”