Page 11 of Gone Hunting

Liam grins. “Has she seen enough of yours?”

Heat flushes across my skin. I’m not embarrassed by my body. I’m embarrassed that Celia’s embarrassed, if that makes sense. “Yes, Liam,” I bite out.

Liam laughs, his blond hair flinging away from his face from the force he uses to throw back his head. “Aric’s got a girlfriend,” he sings, ignoring the dirty look I shoot his way.

“What?” he asks Koda when Koda tells him to shut it. “It could happen. Nothing says awerecan’t like a, ah, well, whatever she is.”

“But there are expectations that purebloods keep their lineage clean and unmarred,” Gemini says.

My chin jerks in his direction and I have to squash back a growl. It’s not that he’s making things up. But he doesn’t have to rub Celia’s face in it.

I open my mouth to argue, to tell him those rules aren’t as stringent as they once were. Except then I realize I’m opening a can of worms that Celia isn’t aware of . . . and that Gemini’s full attention is on Celia, his deep fascination with her growing more pronounced. Maybe her tigress has caught his wolf’s interest. Maybe I shouldn’t care. She had the same effect on me.

It’s what I tell myself. That doesn’t stop me from narrowing my gaze and edging to her side.

I crouch beside her, wiping my mouth to hide my amusement when she does her best to keep her eyes on the valley and not on me.

“See that river down there?” I ask, pointing east. I pause when it occurs to me that maybe she doesn’t possess the keen senses we do. If so, maybe she can’t see the sliver of water cutting through the thick forest, or hear the gentle beat of whitewater soaking boulders as old as time. She nods. It gives me hope that maybe we’re not so different. “It’s three times as wide as the river where I found you and every bit as long. So long as you follow it, you won’t get lost. It leads to the main highway and home.”

Her eyes shimmer with hope and she starts to rise. “Not your home,” I quickly add. “Mine. For you, we’ll have to find a different way.”

Celia’s head droops. Just enough to demonstrate her disappointment, but not enough for my friends to catch a glimpse of her vulnerability. I stroke her back, although maybe I shouldn’t.

If my friends were upset, I wouldn’t demonstrate compassion like this. I’d listen. I’d offer my perspective. And if things were really bad, we’d hug like bros. Except Celia is a girl and, well, as much as Dad always told me females are our equals, he stressed I need to treat them differently. “Be gentle and respectful and mainly careful.” I’m not sure this is what he had mind, but here I am.

My fingers glide between Celia’s shoulder blades, over muscle lethal enough to kill, yet emanating enough warmth to soothe a treacherous beast like me. “I’ll help you find your way back,” I promise.

When her eyes meet mine, I swear I stop moving. The shimmer of green across her irises bespells me. It’s not magic, not like Gemini claims. Nor is it evil disguised as kindness, like Koda inferred. It’s just . . . Celia.

The thump of quick and agile feet approach. Gem’s twin has returned and still I don’t look away. Celia is the first to break eye contact, appearing startled by her reaction.

I drag my hand through my hair and mutter a curse. We’re not exactly alone and we just met. The others are watching and judging and who knows what else. I’ll deal with them later. Right now, it’s about Celia and making her feel safe.

The wolf’s heavy paws crunch the dried pine needles and bits of bark scattered along the plateau. Gemini’s twin is usually ghostlike, blending into the environment as easily as our primal ancestors. My guess is that his loud steps are intended to not alarm Celia. He’s cautious around her and he appears as fascinated by Celia as I am.

He lowers my pack at my feet, carefully backing away as if intruding on something intimate.

“Thank you,” I tell him, kneeling and bowing my head so he doesn’t notice my unease.

I position the pack so I can open it like a suitcase, wondering if I have anything Celia can actually use. The wolf edges away, his keen sight bouncing from me to Celia.

I jerk my head, trying get the wolf to give us more space. As much as he’s a part of Gemini, he’s more a twin to Gemini’s wolf than twin to Gemini himself.

Gemini’s mother was pregnant with twins. She didn’t know, until she lost one and the Omega wolf who treated her told her she was still pregnant. They didn’t expect the wolf spirit of the twin to survive. He did and joined the other who inhabits Gemini’s soul. Like many strongweres, Geminichangedat six months. But instead of one wolf, he became two.

“Go,” I mouth, when he sits just a few feet away. I’m doing my best to look cool in front of Celia, but the wolf is making it hard. He wags his tail, his full attention on Celia.

I unzip the pack and rustle through it. Aside from the jeans and black T-shirt I wore here, I have a pair of sweatpants shoved beneath my sneakers. The sweats will work fine. Celia can roll them and tie them or something. I shove my hand down to the bottom to retrieve the gray shirt I’ve likely had since our last excursion. I pause. Instead of offering Celia the gray shirt, the clean one, I hand her the black one I wore here, reasoning my scent will comfort her.

Maybe I shouldn’t. It’s like I’m marking her as mine, or something equally as crazy.

I clear my throat and offer her the sweatpants and shirt. “We can turn our backs if you want. Or, if it’s better for you, get dressed behind those trees over there.”

It takes a moment for Celia to lift the clothes from my grip, her powerful jaws careful as they clench the soft fabric. I start to say something more in the hopes to calm her fear about us, but the words lodge in my throat when I catch my friends’ slacking jaws. Even the wolf is gaping at me.

“Problem?” I ask.

“Aric,” Liam says. “What did you just do?”

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