Page 53 of Scapegoat

“We’re gonna work it out together,” I replied. “The way we did at that lookout that night.” Atlas’ arm slid around me and he tucked me into his side. “Away from home, away from our families, away from the whole damn pack.”

“We’ll make our own instead.” I glanced up at Atlas as he said the words and he smiled at the attention. “You’re the only pack I’ve ever needed.”

“So, together…” Jayden nodded slowly at that, his enthusiasm increasing with every second. “Yeah, I can work with that.”

“What does this place actually look out onto?”

Jayden asked the question as we walked now, single file along the track, trees everywhere, right up until we reached the lookout itself. It was a large flat area of rock that gave you a panoramic view of the scrubland beyond.

And the river running in the gully beneath us.

The three of them walked to the edge of the lookout, looking at each other with the same grin when they saw the river, but it was the look they gave me that had me stepping backwards. It was weird to see that same impish look on the faces of these men, not the boys I’d seen it on so often. But when they started pulling off their jeans and yanking off their shirts, I knew that they hadn’t matured all that much.

“No,” I said, stepping backwards. “No.”

Jayden came prowling towards me, tossing his shirt to one side, then pulling his belt free.

“You are not chucking me in that bloody river.”

Atlas came at me from another angle, a small smile crossing his face as he got closer.

“No means no, didn’t you learn that in the human world?” I stammered out. My feet moved faster, but running from wolves? It triggers that deep primal impulse to chase, to hunt. But I wasn’t prey, so I locked my knees, trying to plant my feet deep to stop them from forcing me backwards.

Only for Xavier to swoop in and jerk me up and off my feet.

“No, Xavier! No, no, no.” He just grinned as he carried me towards the edge of the lookout. “I’ll give you kisses, all the kisses—”

“You’ll give them to me anyway,” he said, the shadow of the cocky boy he’d once been rising back up.

“Kisses on the end of your dick!” I promised hurriedly, just as he lifted me higher.

He went very still, his brothers clustering closer, each one of them staring at me with eyes of silver.

“Big, wet ones with extra tongue?” I said.

My case was hopeless but I made it anyway, watching the way each one of them went slack-jawed at the suggestion, right before they moved, shaking off their stupor and getting back to the task at hand.

“You gotta trust us enough to make the jump,” Jayden said, looking at me intently, so I knew that he meant literally at this moment in time, and, more than that, beyond this. My response was to stiffen.

“It’s fucking cold and we don’t even know how deep it is,” I shot back. “You could break my back or yours.”

“Not us,” Xavier said, with the complete arrogance of a fucking alpha, and the only warning I had was his arms tightening around me before he jumped off.

Would I always feel this terrible lurch in my guts when I was with them? Like the rug had been ripped out from beneath my feet, the world turned into a blurry mess, the sound of all of the guys’ whoops twining with my ungainly screech that just got higher as we hit the water. Xavier held me, pulled me down, down, into the river’s depths, my eyes blinking furiously as I held my breath, struggling to rise up. But he swam up, taking me with him until we both burst up above the water, sucking in breaths.

“Fuck!” I yelped, fighting my way free of him, scowling at the wild grin on his face, at the way his eyes glittered. “God, it’s so fucking cold!”

I swam towards the bank, ready to clamber out, but hands grabbed my ankles, dragging me closer until I was settled against Atlas’ chest. He shoved the hoodie off, throwing it up onto the rocks on the banks, rocks that might’ve cracked our heads open like eggs, but I couldn’t focus on that. As my clammy hands went to grip his shoulders, I felt it, the volcanic heat of his chest.

“How’re you doing that?” I asked between chattering teeth. “I’m so fucking cold and I don’t have any clothes to warm up in.”

“I’ve got more clothes,” he told me. “A whole bag full of them, and a swag with lots of warm blankets.”

“Oh my god, that. Gimme that,” I moaned.

“Why?” I turned around to find Jayden at my shoulder.

“Because it’s supposed to be spring, but it still feels like winter and I’m bloody cold…” My complaints trailed away as I felt him plaster his body against mine, sandwiching me between the two men. “Oh.”

---