Page 12 of Bloodline Unbound

“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 head, 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.

“Lo, 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 asleep.

Alarm bells screamed in my head.

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

Caden growled as we barrelled 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. I knew Caden knew I could hear them. It had been torture. Her scent was intoxicating—rich and earthy, like a deep forest. I’d been left discreetly fucking my own fist on her living room couch like a loser as I’d listened to her desperate little 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. Was this the first time she’d actually dealt with shifter shit? I’d have thought hanging around Caden would have attracted something, but maybe she was ridiculously lucky. Either way, neither of them would thank me for asking right now, so I kept quiet.

The omelet I’d eaten for breakfast sat like hot lead in my gut.

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 backseat, 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.

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