Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(27)

Faith shook her head, her heart contracting. "I can't be what Hawke wants me to be."

"You don't have to be anything to him," Delaney assured her. "But having you around has been good for him. It's gotten his juices flowing again."

Olivia snorted. "His juices?"

Skye and Kara giggled. Faith laughed.

Delaney hooted. "God, you have a gutter mind, Olivia. I didn't mean literally." Still grinning, Delaney turned back to Faith. "All I was trying to say is, don't take all this too seriously, or too personally. If there is one thing shape-shifters love to do, it's draw claws and fight. They'll take any excuse, and a woman is the most obvious of all. Males have been fighting over females since the dawn of time."

"It'll work out, Faith," Kara said earnestly. "You'll see."

"And if for some reason it doesn't," Delaney added, "you've got us. We'll help you in any way we can."

Faith's eyes burned, her chest swelling with a sharp longing to stay, to be a part of this rare friendship. "Thank you," she said softly.

"How about some wine?" Kara asked, hopping off the bed. "I've got a new red I'm dying to try. Sorry, Delaney."

"No problem. I brought fudge. Enough to share." Delaney grinned at Faith. "I'm pregnant. No one thinks a little wine can hurt a Therian baby, but I'm not taking any chances. I'd rather have the fudge anyway."

When the glasses were filled, and a plate of fudge sat on the bed in the middle of the circle, Skye lifted her glass. "To friendship."

"To sisterhood," Kara added.

Delaney lifted her water bottle. "To the best friends I've ever had."

Olivia nodded. "Me, too. And to Faith. May she find happiness, as we have." Her gaze met Faith's. "Selfishly, I hope you find that happiness in Feral House. You fit in nicely." Her smile was warm and genuine and bloomed inside Faith.

As she sipped her wine, as the discussion turned to the celebration feast being planned for after Maxim's first shift, the longing to stay sharpened until it was an ache inside her. But Hawke's face rose in her mind, the way he'd looked at her in the hallway, the fierce need in his eyes. The tenderness. And she feared there was no good solution but one. She had to leave. For all three of their sakes.

Maybe after he'd settled down, Maxim would seek her out again. Maybe they'd have another chance. By then, Hawke might have found a mate of his own. The rivalry would be over. Perhaps then she could return and be part of this sisterhood once more.

And perhaps some things were simply never meant to be.

Chapter Five

An hour before sunrise, Hawke stood in the foyer among his brothers. Like the others, he'd stripped to the waist and left his boots in his room. To a man, each wore nothing but a pair of pants or jeans and the golden armband adorned with the head of his animal.

This morning, Maxim would get his own armband during the ritual - the Renascence - that would bring him into his animal. The band would appear during his first shift, allowing him to channel the Earth's energies, to become a full-fledged Feral Warrior.

Bully for Maxim, Hawke thought sourly.

The only good news was that the Ferals would once more be nine.

They milled about, waiting for Tighe.

"Tighe! Get your ass down here," Jag shouted, ever the diplomat.

Kara, the only one of the women who would accompany them, stood beside Lyon in a flowing blue ritual gown and a pink hoodie zipped against the morning chill. The other women sat on the stairs, looking sleepy. Olivia and Skye.

And Faith.

Hawke tried to ignore her, knowing any attention he paid her was a mistake. But he was helpless to keep his eyes turned away. Dressed much as she had been yesterday, in a pair of jeans white from wear, a hole in one knee the size of his fist, and a sweater with sleeves that fell past her fingertips, she looked young. There was a strength about her, a resiliency he'd sensed from the start. But also a vulnerability that tugged at him. A hint of sadness that even her quicksilver smiles couldn't entirely hide.

Olivia said something he didn't catch, and Faith grinned, igniting that warm, tight place in his chest that he hadn't known existed until she came along.

Lyon stepped into his line of sight, blocking her from him. But when Hawke would have moved, Lyon caught his gaze, his own pointed.

"Right," Hawke muttered. Quit staring.

He glanced toward the door where Maxim stood boring a hole in Hawke's chest with his glare, his mouth set in a hard, angry line. Obviously, Lyon wasn't the only one who'd noticed the direction of Hawke's gaze. Retribution gleamed in Maxim's eyes, and Hawke welcomed the battle. He only hoped he could keep from shifting long enough to beat Maxim's ass a second time.

But there would be no fight in the foyer. Paenther and Wulfe had been glued to Maxim's side since they came upstairs a few minutes ago, all three dripping with sweat from training in the basement all night. But the fight was coming, Hawke had no doubt. He wouldn't put it past Maxim to attack him in his fox even though attacking one another in their full animal forms was strictly forbidden. Hell, if any one of them tried to strike at him when he was a bird, he was a dead shifter. But Maxim had proved over and over again he couldn't be trusted, and Hawke was ready for anything. In his pockets, he carried switchblades. Strapped to his calves, he wore a pair of hunting knives. Fighting might not be his hawk's strength, but in his human body he was very, very good with his fists. And his knives.