Page 15 of Bloodline Unbound

Go ahead. I’ve got his eyes covered.

Seth squirmed. I laughed and stripped off my outer layer, going to rinse off with the patio shower next before slipping into the blissfully warm water.

The forest was quiet around us. It was twilight, with pale colors painting the tips of the mountains as the sun slid out of sight. In a perfect world Caden could de-stress me with some ropes and so many orgasms that I turned delirious, but the hot tub would have to do.

I sighed and sank deeper, letting the water brush my chin. “You can both come sit if you want. It’s a big tub.”

Seth hopped up onto the edge of the tub and sniffed the bubbling water. Caden slid in next to me, back in his human form, and pulled me against his chest. I curled to the side, draping my legs over his lap and let him gather me close.

I know there’s nothing I can say that will make everything okay, but I’m here. I love you.

I kissed him, tangling my fingers in his hair and let myself forget for a moment that my entire life had been torn to shreds.

Seth’s cold nose booped my shoulder and I turned to him. I fucked up coming to you guys. I’m sorry. I’ll fix it...somehow.

It was difficult to be mad at him when his eyes were like saucers and his ears were tucked back.

“You were in trouble. If you can’t run to your family, where can you?”

Seth nodded, but stayed quiet, getting into a loaf on the edge of the hot tub.

I’d been on little vacations to the Appalachians at least a dozen times through my childhood. Those memories were full of tromping through the woods, cannonballing into lakes, and eating s’mores around campfires. The forest had been thrumming with life in those memories. Now, it lay eerily quiet. The usually screaming cicadas and rustling squirrels were silent.

Something was wrong in the forest. I could only assume the thing hunting us was making its way through. The trees had always been a refuge for me, and while I knew they weren’t always safe, they’d never felt wrong to me. Nature could be loved, respected, and feared at the same time, and that had always been the relationship I’d forged with the expansive woods that stretched from New York to Georgia. It was a second home to me, and whatever was in there was defiling it with its presence.

What the hell was it? Why did it want Seth? The brief glimpse of it that I’d caught as we fled didn’t make sense. I’d never seen anything quite like the writhing mass of black smoke fighting with shards of sunlight.

I sighed and nestled tighter against Caden. I couldn’t look at the woods anymore.

We soaked until my fingers pruned and my stomach growled. I hadn’t noticed any restaurants on the way in, but we had a stash of food in the trunk from the pantry.

Seth’s head perked up. Pizza?

I had no idea what time it was or if anyone would even deliver to where we were, but it didn’t hurt to check. Caden found a place on his phone and called in the order. Luckily, with the promise of a large tip, they agreed to bring us food.

I fell upon the pizzas when they arrived. I was ravenous, desperate for the calories now that I’d finally relaxed and let my body descend from fight or flight mode. We took a break from the hot tub and watched some staticky TV while we ate, Seth curled in my lap as he chomped on a slice of pepperoni.

It was unfair how cute the little fucker was. Even though it was his fault we were in this mess, I couldn’t stop touching him. I couldn’t have a cat near me without petting it. It was like a cosmic rule.

I leaned into Caden and desire rushed through me. That was another cosmic rule I’d discovered since first taking him to bed. I always wanted more. If he was touching me, even when I was upset, the undercurrent was there.

We both knew if he’d pushed in the car I’d have let him fuck me and happily drowned in the sensation. He didn’t, though. He was never shy about letting me know he was down to fuck, but if I didn’t light up the beacons he wasn’t coming to my aid.

I looped a finger in the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss. Seth dramatically gagged and I broke away with a laugh.

Caden scooped his brother up by his scruff. “Go guard outside.”

Seth eyed the windows warily and puffed up his fur. It’s creepy out there.

“And it’s about to get freaky in here, so scoot.”

Seth huffed and marched his fluffy butt out onto the wraparound porch, hopping onto the now-covered hot tub, facing away from us.

Caden turned back to me and my blood turned to liquid fire from the look in his eyes. I lay back and let him climb over me on the couch, adoring being sandwiched between him and the leather. He dropped his mouth to my throat and sucked at the pulse point. I wanted him to bite me. He never agreed, insisting that I wouldn’t survive if he let himself claim me.

The words intoxicated me.

Claim.

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