Wild Wolf (Shifters Unbound, #6)(61)

And then everything stopped. Misty dragged in a long breath that seemed to come from the ends of the atmosphere, and she realized she hadn’t been breathing for the last . . . however long it had been.

As soon as Misty exhaled and blinked, the cubs went into paroxysms of joy, dancing in circles, yipping, tails moving rapidly.

Misty found herself drenched but realized it was with sweat. The sheet was soaked with it, and so was the big T-shirt she was wearing. Not hers.

The runes on Sean’s sword, still in his hand, flashed out once, then went dark. Andrea was up, her hand on Misty’s forehead, her face relaxing. “It’s gone,” Andrea said. “I don’t see the spell anymore.”

Graham unfolded himself like a huge bear coming to life, his eyes silver white and wild. He wrapped his arms around Misty, picking her up away from Andrea, gathered her against him, and buried his face in her neck.

Misty held his shaking body, both of them rocking a little. “It’s all right,” Misty said softly, stroking him. “I’m here.”

Graham lifted his head. The relief in his eyes went a long way down, along with pain and stark terror. He drew a breath.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he roared in his loudest voice. “Going for the sword like that?”

Misty closed her eyes, sinking into exhaustion. “Love you too, Graham,” she murmured, and hugged him.





CHAPTER NINETEEN





The next morning, Sean made everyone pancakes, which he’d assured Graham were famous. Graham never thought he’d see the day he’d let a Feline into his kitchen to cook for him, but times were strange.

But nothing mattered anymore. Misty was alive. That was all he needed. Graham’s heart lightened when she came into the kitchen, looking tired but rested. Bandages bulked up her side under her tank top, but other than that, she moved with a sure step.

The cubs, in little boy form again, were happy to see her too—that is, when they could lift their faces from their plates of pancakes.

Andrea had been explaining that while Misty was healed once again, and she’d closed up Graham’s wound, he was still under Oison’s thrall.

“But you took the magic out of me, right?” Misty said, sliding into the empty place at the table. “Can’t you take it out of him?”

Andrea shook her head as she wrapped her hands around her cup of coffee. Andrea was a Lupine, a gray-eyed wolf who had agreed to mate with Sean, a Feline, in exchange for a safe move to a new Shiftertown. Somewhere along the way, the two had found the mate bond.

“The magic dust my father gave me counteracted whatever Fae magic touched you from the sword,” Andrea said to Misty. “Graham’s a different case. He’s under a complete Fae spell that seeks to control every aspect of him. I knit up his wound, but I couldn’t break the spell. I don’t have that kind of power, and my father doesn’t either. The magic that entered you, Misty, was incidental. The Fae is not after you.”

“Just Graham,” Misty said. She looked across the table at Graham, unhappy.

“Not just me.” Graham rejoiced that Misty was here to look at him at all, even with sadness and worry. Her brown eyes were free of pain, her face pink with health. “All Shifters.”

Sean said from the stove, “Liam told me about the connection between Oison’s sword and your Collar. I agree, we need to get the Collars off if the Fae have a big ‘enslave the Shifters’ plan. But, unfortunately, it's going slowly. The element we need to remove the Collars safely is rare. That’s why the research.”

“Yeah, I know,” Graham growled. “Why do anything when you can think about it for years, have meetings about it, talk about it?” He pinned Misty with a stare. “Too much damned talking.”


“Get over it,” Sean said. “Here you go, Misty.”

Sean flipped a stack of wonderful-smelling pancakes onto a plate and carried it the few steps to the table.

Sean and Andrea’s cub, Kenny, ten months old, sat at the table in a high chair borrowed from the Lupines next door. The cub, who would maintain his human form until about age three or four, had dark hair like Sean, and gray eyes like Andrea.

Matt and Kyle eyed Kenny speculatively. They didn’t like the little Shifter in their territory, even though Graham had explained the concept of guests to them. Kenny watched them, unworried, nonchalant, even. An alpha in the making.

Misty’s eyes lit when she saw the pancakes Sean set before her. She poured a stream of syrup over them and then dug in.

Graham would love it if Misty would look at him in the same eager way she regarded the pancakes. And then reach for syrup and pour it all over Graham’s body.

He tightened. His cock started rising, and Graham cleared his throat, moving in his seat, willing the thing to go down. Not that it mattered; Sean and Andrea would scent the change in his hormones right away. They already did, from the smirk Sean sent Andrea.

Misty didn’t notice, intent on her pancakes, stopping to dribble more syrup onto the stack. A sticky droplet clung to her lips, and it took all Graham’s self-control to keep from going over the table and licking it from her. Graham felt better since Andrea had patched him up—except for the continuing thirst—and his relentless need for Misty had returned, full force. Plus he’d mate-claimed Misty last night, which fanned the spark of his mating frenzy into a raging blaze.