Page 48 of Clawless

He went so still, I glanced at the window to see if the Denners were on the move. But everything was as normal, except for the tension rippling off Warren. “That’s not possible.”

“You think I don’t know the difference? Even my mom recognized it.”

His hand jerked out across the console and went for my throat so fast, I had to pull on my wolf to block him. And I wasn’t gentle, blasting him back into his seat with alpha power at the same time I raked a claw along his wrist. It wasn’t my blood claw, but the threat was there. The lunatic barely flinched, staring at me with wild eyes. “She can’t shift.”

“She did.”

“Then you’re not putting enough power into the damn collar!”

“Any more power, and it will cut off her air supply!” I glared at him, but retracted my claw. “You told me it wouldn’t hurt her, but she’s fighting it so hard. And if it’s harming her wolf, I have to take it off.”

He finally seemed to realize he was bleeding and grabbing a rag from the glove compartment, wrapped it round his wrist. It was a poor job, especially for a doctor, but he barely seemed to notice as he reached into the back seat for a folder. He dropped it in my lap and said, “Vail’s file. The real one, not the one I loaded into the lab’s records.” He flicked a finger at me and I opened it with a frown. “She’s been tested twice. Once when she was eleven, and again by Klein. Both the tests came back the same way.”

I re-read the summary paragraph at the top of the report a second time. It still didn’t make any fucking sense. “You’re saying she’s a void?”

“There’s no way her wolf is trying to get out.” He stared through the window, but I didn’t think he was seeing the Denners anymore. “I left her with the Chances right after those test results came back. Moved to Huntington, and got the job at the pack lab. Spent the last six years researching everything I could about voids. Tied it into the genetic work I’d done out of college. And I can tell you, keeping that collar on her is the kindest thing you can do.”

“Bullshit!” I didn’t know how he was hiding his lies from me, but the level of his deceit was astounding. Every time I looked at Vail, I remembered how our wolves had purred in unison. “She’s not broken. There’s something there. I’ve felt it.”

His lip curled with enough contempt to make my hackles rise. “And what do you know about voids? I’ve heard how you kids run that school. A pecking order as short as your dicks. Alphas on top, and everyone else beneath you, with the duds kicked to the bottom. Half the time they’re just traumatized wolves, not that you lot care. But there are other things out there in the world than just shifters with hang-ups.”

I tried to scent the truth behind his scorn. Was he calling her a void because she’d never connected with her wolf? Or was he saying he believed Vail was a non-wolf shifter, like the bullshit Wentworth had bought into? That Vail could be a Demon Shadow – that she could be haunted by some twisted imposter of a shifter – made me feel like throwing up. Maybe Warren could tell, because he tapped the file and said, “You don’t want this to come out any more than I do.”

“Maybe I do.” I tried to ignore the way my wolf was pushing at my skin, ready to shred that file to pieces. “Maybe this gives me leverage over Marrow.”

He gave me a nasty smile. “Remember how last time you were here, I slapped you? A little because you were being a punk, but mostly for a skin sample. I analyzed it, and it confirmed you were already part way into a pair bond.” He watched me as the implications sank in. “Are you really prepared to enter into a soul bond with a void? The newly-minted Alpha of the Hunter Moon Clan? Because I can promise you, once it gets out what she is, you’ll face blood challenges every week. That’s assuming Marrow doesn’t take out your whole clan to wipe his genetic slate clean. We have to stop this before it goes any further.”

I’d never felt more like tearing someone’s throat out for being the bearer of bad news. “So what? You yank her out of school again? She goes on the run with you, hiding from Marrow and all his resources?”

He just shrugged, his eyes flicking back to the window. “That’s not your concern.”

“The future of my fated mate isn’t my concern?”

He was silent for a long moment, but then grudgingly replied, “Jonathan isn’t the only Marrow. Vail has a cousin, Lucas Marrow. He’ll take her in.”

“Who the fuck is Lucas Marrow?”

I was really asking my earpiece, which Liam was monitoring, but Warren just shook his head. “Your bloodhound won’t know. Lucas is as deep underground as I was off-the-grid. But he’s the answer.”

“To which fucking riddle? The fact mystery Marrows are popping out of the woodwork? Or how to stop my wolf from ripping your head off for calling his soulmate a void?”

He curled his lip, but instead of answering, took a small leather case from the console and flicked it open. It looked like a typical medical kit, except next to the gauze and plasters were a row of small brown bottles. I recognized them immediately, and rage burned through my veins, but Warren just plucked one free and held it out. “It’s a scent shield. Something I cooked up in the lab. You give it to Vail to take a few days before I come for her, and it’ll cloak her scent.” When I just stared at the vial, he dropped it in the pocket of my shirt. “Relax. It’s completely harmless. Besides, she’s used it before.”

Thirty-Four – Vail

The level of omega pep on Cup Day was a sight to behold.

It began with a hearty breakfast in Omega House, followed by the delivery of bakery baskets to all the senior players. Campus was full of red and green bunting, like Christmas had come a whole month early, and the omega choir was stationed in the foyer from dawn, handing out buttons and flags, and spreading game day cheer. All activities I bowed out of with Reed’s permission, since we had a game plan of our own to go over.

Tonight, after Reed led the Marshalls to victory in the Packball Cup, he would officially claim me as his mate. All I had to do was let him place the claiming mark on my wrist, and convince the onlookers I was both surprised, and over-the-moon giddy, at his spontaneous gesture.

I shivered every time I thought of tonight’s full moon. Reed said the Cup was always held on the Frost Moon, since the snow was deepest and the stakes so high. Packball was always a kind of organized mayhem, but for the final game the shifts between wolf and human form would be fast and frantic, and they’d need every bit of illumination to navigate the field. I’d wanted to pass it off as macho crap until Marnie mentioned it was also the Mourning Moon. It had something to do with the winter solstice, but I hadn’t asked her for details. I was wound up enough without adding that extra layer of anxiety to the night’s proceedings.

Reed and I had shared a bed every night since our practice make-out session and first date. The dinner at the Huntington hotel had ended without any more surprise run-ins, but we’d both been quiet on the drive home. I’d zonked out from the heavy meal and drifted through the next day’s classes without absorbing a thing. I couldn’t get Sin’s words out of my head, or forget the way she’d looked at Jasper’s collar with a mixture of fury and fear. I also didn’t know what to do with the information about my supposed cousin, or the idea of him being a champion of freaks and outcasts. Everything I’d heard about the Marrow family seemed to suggest the opposite. And even if there was some magical refuge for unhappy wolves, I knew it wouldn’t apply to me as soon as I was wearing Reed’s claiming mark.

We hadn’t talked much about the actual act of claiming. I didn’t want to dredge up painfully memories about Jasper, and Reed said there were a few factors he had to take into consideration. It all sounded nice and business-like, but things weren’t exactly relaxed between us. My jitters were now a constant thing, and even his careful kisses couldn’t soothe the pain in my belly.

I didn’t want to believe it was because my wolf was missing Jasper. We hadn’t spoken since the locker room, and I didn’t see him in the halls. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling he was watching me. When I mentioned it to Marnie, she’d said it was probably the tracker, or some kind of stalker vibe from the containment collar. Which was the fastest way to remind me what I’d become to Jasper – a little green dot that couldn’t be trusted, and nothing more.

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