Page 10 of Shadows of the Soul

His tongue flicked out and embers of desire replaced shame. I sucked in a breath and arched my spine as he kissed the underside of my breast.

“I’m fighting the urge to flip you over my shoulder and have my way with you,” he whispered.

I blinked. I couldn’t do this. Could I? Perhaps, for a day, I could be Cora, and he could be Hudson. Not the elemental he despised and The Principal. Not Cora, the granddaughter of the leader of said hated elementals.

“I ca–” I started.

He grabbed my hands, pulled me up, shoved his shoulder under my stomach, and picked me up. I squeaked, which made him chuckle. My own personal caveman. He took three steps down the hall, when an intense, low, angry growl echoed from behind us. A tsunami of primitive wild magic splashed around us. My head shot up. A snowy wolf straddled the open doorway, her eyes ochre and piercing as they locked stares with me. Hudson spun and froze.

“Wendy, get out of my home,” he stated. His tone was even, but brokered no room for argument. I tapped on his back, reminding him I was here. He pulled me so I slid down his body and landed with a huff. He gripped my arm and yanked me behind him.

I peered around his shoulder as the wolf took another step inside the home, defying the orders of her alpha—thealpha. What the hell was going on?

“Shift now,” he snarled. His voice boomed with power that made my knees shake. Most creatures would sink to the floor, even humans. Good job I wasn’t most creatures.

The wolf dropped to her haunches and pawed at her ears with a whimper. “Shift,” he demanded.

A low whine which I felt in my jaw reverberated in the room. She shook her head and pitched forward, teeth gnashing toward us. Hudson lunged for her and gripped her around the neck, pinning her to the floor.

A figure blocked out the sun in the doorway, and the pack’s chief of security emerged like the prince of shadows. He frowned at the scene, examined the chaos of utensils, then looked me up and down from head to foot. “Why do you have blood on your sneakers?”

“That’s what you took from this situation?” My eyebrows rose, and I folded my arms while glancing at Hudson, who was wrestling a wolf to the ground.

Dangerous Dave ran a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh. “That’s the third today.”

Hudson’s head snapped to him. “That makes fifteen.”

“Fifteen what?” I asked.

“Wildies.”

My jaw dropped. A wildie was a shifter who’d shed their humanity and along with it their mortal skin. They had given over to the wild animal that lay within them and were stuck in that form. A wildie was dangerous, unpredictable, and also rare. There were known reasons someone became a wildie; grief and trauma, to name a few, and more often than not, they needed to be killed before they slaughtered a town full of unsuspecting humans. I had only known of three wildies, ever. Fifteen was insane.

“The holding cells are full,” Dave declared. “I clocked this one as she charged through town, heading directly for you.” He nodded toward Hudson. “Like the others.”

“We need somewhere to store Wendy.”

They both looked at me. I held my hands up. “Why are you looking at me? I don’t have any prison cells.”

“A bed-and-breakfast, mortuary, doctor’s office, and graveyard. It’s hardly a stretch of the imagination,” Dave said.

Wendy struggled beneath Hudson. “I don’t have a prison, but I have meds to knock her out for a few hours while you figure it out.”

Hudson’s eyes narrowed. “Why would you have meds to knock out a shifter?” So I’m good enough to sleep with, but not trust. Glad we sorted that out.

I rolled my eyes as I edged around the room and moved past Dave. His hand snapped out and caught my arm. “Remove your hand,” I gritted out.

A low growl curled around me. Dangerous, possessive, and powerful. I glanced over my shoulder, finding Hudson glaring at Dave. His shirt had torn on his biceps as his muscles bulged with power. He was seconds away from shifting.

“Let go of me,” I whispered to Dave. His gaze darted between me and Hudson, a frown settling on his face. He released my arm, and I set off running toward my house.

It took me less than four minutes to retrieve the syringe, fill it with medication, and return to the stables to find Dave and Hudson locked in some kind of standoff I didn’t understand. I snapped the lid off the syringe with my teeth and approached Wendy. Hudson held her still.

“What’s in it?” he growled, his beast close to the surface. I steadied my gaze and stared into his eyes as they contracted into vertical slits. He was magnificent and utterly terrifying.

“Sedative, strong enough to knock out a shifter, but not harmful.”

He scented the air like he was sniffing out my truth, then nodded once.

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