Page 51 of Mated in Darkness

He was good with a knife, I remember that, but he was going to have to learn how to fight like a wolf. Not tonight, though, and maybe not tomorrow. When we got to the Redwood Pack. When it was going to be completely changing his life, and I was going to have to figure out how that was going to happen.

“Let’s get back to the others?” Jason asked as he leaned forward, cupping my cheek. “Are you going to tell me what’s got that look in your eyes?”

I bit my lip. “I’m taking you from everything. I know you said you have no family here and you want to go back with me to where I’m from, but everything is changing in a blink, Jason. I wasn’t expecting you. You weren’t expecting me. And yet I’m forcing you to make huge decisions.”

“I’m pretty sure the Moon Goddess is the one that made the original decision, but we finished that choice. You and me.”

Guilt crept up my throat, and Jason shook his head.

“I see that look again. You saved my life, and you saved us. I get that. Now stop. Stop wondering what could have been because that’s not going to be it. This is you and me. Yes, I’m moving, and I’m mated, and it makes no sense, but we’ll have a lifetime, lifetimes for that matter, to figure out what it is.” He ran his hands through his hair, and I did my best to stop watching the way that his muscles bunched and moved. “I have no idea what the fuck I’m going to do, Kaylee. But I know I’m going to do that by your side. I’m going to need you to protect me from all your siblings. And your dad and your father and your mom. And all of your cousins. And your uncles. And every other member of the Packs up there. It’s a little daunting. I have no one, Kaylee. But you have so much.”

I wiped tears from my face, unaware I was even crying until just then. “You’ll have them too. Once we figure out exactly what we’re going to do. I came here to find a rogue, to find Spencer.” I swallowed hard, that familiar sorrow etching its way over my soul. “I found him, but not in the way that I wanted. And now we’re going to find answers. Soon. I can feel it. And then we’ll go home. You and me. And we’ll find a way to make this work. In this new world of ours.”

Jason leaned forward, pressed his lips to mine. “In this new life of ours. I want to continue my work. I can feel it within me, this wolf pushing at me and telling me that I have this power and this strength, but I don’t want to fuck it up. So I’m going to need you to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I think you’re going to get along with my twin.”

He blinked. “What do you mean by that?”

“Connor says that often. About his relationship with his wolf. I think you two will have a lot to talk about.” I patted his cheek. “And I promise you my twin will not maim you. He’ll growl, but he growls at everyone. It’s a sign of love.”

Jason winced. “Good thing you’re warning me. Now I guess we should get back?”

I started to say something before Jason scrunched his nose. “What’s that smell?”

I blinked, my claws sliding out of my fingertips once more. “Get your knife, Jason.”

The acrid scent of death came for us, and I whirled, ducking out of the way of a claw.

Was it a claw? It looked like a hand, with four fingers and a long thumb. There were talons on the ends of them, but the rest of it looked like a man, but with a hunchback, slanted eyes, and hair on its shoulders, neck, and part of its scalp. Its legs bulged, and one knee was backward, the other forward.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how it was even moving.

It growled at me, and I cursed under my breath before I slashed my claws at it.

“I think it’s alone. Go get the others.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Jason growled, getting his knife out of his boots. He swung it forward, slicing at the rogue in front of me, but could I call it a rogue?

It looked like nothing I had seen before. It wasn’t man. It wasn’t wolf. It was something else.

And from the black tar on its teeth, it had to be part of what was killing around us.

The deformed wolf growled at us, snapped its jaws before it howled into the air and jumped.

I didn’t know what its bite or its claws would do to us, so I rammed my shoulder into its side, pushing it out of the way so it wouldn’t get at Jason or me. I tried to get at its flank, slicing my claws along its belly, but it kept moving. Its hide far tougher than a normal wolf’s.

Jason tossed his knife, and it slammed into the wolf’s back. The wolf reared back in howling anger, but it kept going.

I cursed under my breath, shaking my head.

“What was that?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But I’m really glad it didn’t fucking bite you.”

I looked at Jason, and as Riaz and the others ran out of the forest, some in wolf form, some naked in human form, I knew we were in trouble.

Because that wasn’t a rogue.

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