Page 35 of Heartless

He punctuated the statement with a pointed finger in Jasper’s direction, who was being carried into the cave by Charlie. He was still out cold, and I knew that was a very bad thing by the way they were hustling to get him inside. But when I paused next to Trey, Liam gave me a heavy look, like he didn’t doubt for a moment I was part of the problem. “Maybe. But you’re still not welcome. Come back in a week and you might get a different answer.”

“You’re fucking kidding me! I saved his ass on that mountain!”

Liam was suddenly in Trey’s face, a fistful of claws an inch from his throat. “And if you breathe a word of it to anyone, I’ll send you back there in pieces.”

I blinked a little, and even Trey gave a sharp dip of his chin. But as soon as the enforcer disappeared into the cave, Trey grabbed my arm. I could feel the frustration pouring off him, but Liam wasn’t wrong. Helping us on the mountain didn’t make him pack. The fact my own allegiances were a tangled mess wasn’t something I was prepared to face right now. “Just do what Liam said, Trey. Jasper’s the priority now. I’ll give you a call in a few days.”

“You’ll give me a call?” He repeated, incredulous, then yanked me forward by the neck of my hoodie. He wasn’t as rough as Liam, but I still flinched at the violence I could feel under his skin. I expected him to shake me like a disobedient kitten, but all he did was bare my neck to the chilly air. A whole other kind of shiver went through me as he pressed a thumb into the raw skin of his bite. “This mark isn’t going anywhere, little V. Like I said, it’s destiny. And if that doesn’t work for you, tell me this. Who on the Horn has ever wriggled out of a deal with me?”

I tried to hide my gulp, because this was definitely the Devil staring at me right now. I knew it was stupid to provoke him, but the simple fact was, I didn’t have time for his threats. Jasper was inside, maybe getting worse. So I carefully peeled his fingers away from the neck of my hoodie. “I know you’re pissed, but I didn’t make that deal, Trey. And you can’t expect me to feel happy about it. I’m with Jasper. He’s the only mate I want.”

He gritted his teeth, but let me pull myself free. “That’s not really up to you, little V. And remember, when I bit you, your cat didn’t fight it. In fact, I’m pretty sure I heard her purr when she rolled onto her back to me.”

Well, crap.

I didn’t know what to say about that, except I was thoroughly done with being held hostage by the temperamental animals inside me. “I have to go,” I muttered instead, and when he didn’t grab me again, hurried inside. The front chamber was a massive, shadowy pit, but I could see light dancing on the distant wall and hurried to join the others.

I knew very little about the layout of the caves, or even how deep they ran. My last time here, we’d mostly hung out in a few of the front chambers. With Pearl as my guide, I’d been happy to keep the sight-seeing to a minimum, and nothing I saw now made me regret it. We bypassed the waterfall chamber, but as we moved deeper into the cave, the tunnels took on an alarming similarity. There were also enough twists and turns to get me completely lost. The air was thick in my throat, sweat trickling down my spine as I became aware of all that rock hanging over my head.

“You alright?”

After so much stifling silence, Liam’s voice made me jump, but I just nodded. I wasn’t about to tell him I’d just discovered my claustrophobe gene.

Although my fears settled a little when the first light bulb appeared over our heads. There was one every twenty feet or so, and when we turned into the next tunnel, Liam led us through a heavy security door bolted into the rock. The air tasted fresher on the other side and the further in we went, the more it started to look like a place you could live, albeit one that resembled a military barracks in some dusty desert.

We finally passed into a round chamber with a low roof. The air was clammy, but since it was coming from nature’s version of a hot tub, I didn’t complain. It smelled like hot rocks, with a bit of an eggy aftertaste that I assumed was sulfur. “Is this like the mineral pool at school?” I asked as they lowered Jasper into the water, and backed up until he was facing me.

“There’s a system of thermal springs under here.” Liam said as they maneuvered Jasper around a bit. “Go on a little further, there are dorms enough for the whole Clan, and other basic facilities. We keep it ready, just in case we have to use it for an extended stay.”

I nodded, but my only interest was in this room. And Jasper, who was lying between them in a floating position, his hair slicked to his forehead and his naked chest beaded with steam. The water was so dark it looked almost black against his pale skin. “What can I do to help?”

“You can stay with him while I make some calls,” Liam replied, and handing Jasper off to Charlie, hauled himself out of the pool. Water dripped off his jeans, wafting more of that eggy smell my way, but I was already climbing in to take his place. The heat made my breath catch, but I waded across the pool and slipped behind Jasper’s back. Charlie watched as I tried to settle. The problem was getting a good grip without dragging us both under. But eventually I found a kind of bench seat I could jam my butt on and Jasper floated naturally into my arms. Liam had toweled off and his phone was already in his hand, but he gave me a cautious look. “You good to help Charlie out until I get someone else to take a turn?”

I instantly bristled at the idea of anyone being near Jasper when he was like this. I wrapped my arms protectively around his chest. “Who?”

Liam cocked a brow at my hostile tone. “His alphasons. Maybe his lieutenants.”

“No,” I said quickly. “We keep this to just us three. If you need others here to defend the cave, then fine. But no one else sees him like this.”

A long look passed between Liam and his guard before he asked, “You have reason to think they can’t be trusted?”

Given our tricky past, I wasn’t sure about Baron or Felix, but Callum was getting in here over my dead body. And while Jasper seemed to have forgiven Reed for the Wolf Fire, he was his father’s son. If it wasn’t safe for Alpha Marshall to be here, then his son wasn’t getting a pass, either. “Just us,” I said again, holding Jasper tighter. I looked at Charlie. “You can go if you need to. I’ve got him.”

The distrust on Liam’s face made me want to scream. He had to be naturally suspicious in his job, but other than Trey hanging around me like a sulfur cloud, did he really have reason to question my motives? Before I could stop and think about it too hard, I swept my hair back and tugged down the side of my hoodie to show them my neck. I wasn’t sure if it was much different to a wolf’s bite, but I was hoping Trey wasn’t going to screw me over once again. “You can trust me,” I told him. “I want him to get better as much as you do.”

Charlie swore under his breath, but Liam demanded, “What are you saying? You’re the Clan Luna?”

I thrust my chin out and forced a smile, with a little teeth thrown in for good measure. “I’m saying he’s mine and I’m his. I’m not big on labels, so call it what you want.”

***

Which left me back swimming in my own pool of secrets and lies. Although the fact the clan enforcer didn’t immediately try to drown me suggested I was telling the truth, at least to my way of thinking. But I needed to remember the wolves’ ability to smell bullshit, especially since it wouldn’t take much for Liam to toss me out of the cave. He dropped in now and then to fix me with a beady look, and even though I could hold Jasper on my own, Charlie still came to swap places every hour. I had to admit the hot water was making me light-headed, and I happily used the break to grab a drink and cool off.

I wasn’t sure if time moved a little differently in the cave, but I was floating in a half daze when they both appeared and Liam motioned me to get out. When Charlie waded in, I let Jasper go with reluctance, but my butt wasn’t sorry to say goodbye to the ledge. I tried pulling myself over the lip of the rock pool a couple of times before Liam extended a hand. He hauled me out with a grimace I took personally until he muttered, “Sorry. I should have come earlier. You look beat.”

I definitely felt waterlogged, but the healing waters must have had some kick. Or at least, that’s what I fervently hoped, since Jasper’s life literally depended on it. “I’m okay. Did you make your calls?”

He nodded and led me out of the chamber and through another maze of tunnels. We eventually came to a large, airy room with long tables on one side, and comfy couches and bean bags on the other. I’d been too worried about Jasper to really think beyond the healing pool, and it was kind of bizarre to see there really was a whole world under all this rock. “This is one of the communal areas. Everywhere there’s a reasonably sized space, it’s used for something like this. The bed and bathroom chambers are spread around them.” He pointed across the room to a shadowy alcove I took as a door. “The kitchen is through there, and we’d normally eat in here, but I thought you might want to settle in for a bit and I could bring you a tray. Nothing fancy, but we’re always stocked with the basics.”

---