Page 29 of Tucker's Strike

Without thinking, I stand and take a step forward. “Come, Lake, join us.”

“Lake,” Tucker roars, his voice sounding farther away than it should.

I look over my shoulder and frown. Why is Tucker running? How did I get so far from the back door?

I yank my hand back from the strands just as Tucker makes it to me and blink up at him, the strands still visible behind him, surrounding us.

“What’s going on?” I ask, confused by the furious expression on his face. “Why do you look mad at me?”

Tucker’s eyes bore into mine, and he looks ready to strangle me. “You serious right now?” he snarls, eyes glowing gold. “You even realize what you were just doing?”

I shake my head. All I was doing was . . .

My face pales as I think about what I’d been doing before I heard him roaring my name.

“Do you have any clue what could have happened had I not felt you? Heard the thoughts going through your mind?” Tucker’s grip on my body doesn’t lessen. In fact, it tightens to the point it’s painful. “I could have fuckin’ lost you. Who the hell knows where you would have ended up.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, lowering my gaze.

I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d been enthralled by the strands, learning of how they work.

“You can’t be doing shit like that without me, Lake. I can’t risk you being taken from me.” There’s no missing the fury in his voice, but he loosens his grip just a bit. “I won’t lose you.”

“I don’t want you to lose me either,” I admit. I haven’t known this man, this shifter, for more than a week, but he’s gotten under my skin. I slump into him and plant my face into his chest. “I’m really sorry. Can we go inside?”

Tucker just stands there holding me for a long moment before shifting us in the direction of the clubhouse. “Come on, little Fae.”

A few steps toward the back of the clubhouse, Tucker stops and scoops me in his arms. “We’re going to have to talk about you doing things like this without me,” he states, carrying me the rest of the way to the clubhouse. The door opens for us, and standing just inside are several of Tucker’s brothers.

Great.

Talk about feeling embarrassed.

To avoid looking at any of them, I curl into Tucker and bury my face in his neck.

“Everything good, brother?”

I hear Corbin ask, but don’t lift my gaze. I don’t need to in order to know he’s pissed. Pissed at me.

“Yeah,” Tucker grunts. “I’m gonna have a talk with Lake, then rejoin y’all in church.”

There’s a long pause before Corbin says anything else. When he does, it’s one simple word. “Right.”

A shiver runs through me, and it’s not because I’m cold, though I feel the chill coming off him, and it’s aimed at me.

Tucker carries me the length of the hall and down another to his room. Once inside, he sets me down on my feet, facing him. Only then does he speak again while reaching up with both hands to palm either side of my face.

“You can’t do things like that without me present, Lake,” he says far too gently.

“I was just sitting there, and then the next, I was reaching for the threads that weave together,” I tell him, being honest. “Did you know those threads are called the strands of time? That they can speak? They have a voice. They’d been telling me how everything works, showing me how I can use them.”

“Fuckin’ hell, Lake, it was stealing you away from me,” Tucker remarks, sliding his hands from either side of my face into my hair. “It wasn’t just showing you.” He dips his head forward and presses his forehead to mine. “You were being takenfrom me, little Fae. I felt it. It was consuming you, into whatever the fuck it was taking you into.”

“It was showing me how I can go through any dimension. I could stay wherever it took me or go to another,” I explain and jerk my head back when I realize the rest it was showing me. “Tucker, I can go to any dimension because of my lineage. I can’t be imprisoned in one or the other. It wasn’t stealing me away from you. It was taking me through to show me that where others can’t, I can. I can control the strands of time, whereas it cannot be done by any other.”

“We can’t know that for sure.” Tucker protests, shaking his head.

“I can,” I tell him. I stretch my arms up to be able to curl my hands around Tucker’s neck to keep him still enough to meet my gaze. “Listen to me. Listen as only you can listen.”

---