Virtue: A Knight World Novel (Fireborn Wolves Book 2) Read online

  Finally, he was at her side. The snow stung her cheeks but it was her shoulder that worried her. It throbbed. She couldn’t move her arm.

  “You’re bleeding,” Jason said.

  “I hit my shoulder.” She tried to sit up, and a wave of pain and nausea forced her back down. “There’s something wrong. I can’t move it.”

  He took a closer look. When he rotated her wrist and tested her range of movement, she cried out. His face paled, and she knew it wasn’t because of the dropping temperature. “I’m not a doctor but it looks dislocated to me.”

  “Or broken.” She frowned toward the setting sun. “No time. Leave me. Find the portal.”

  “No,” he said firmly.

  “It’s sundown. You can come back for me tomorrow.”

  “You’ll be frozen to death by tomorrow.”

  “The shift will protect me. My wolf will be fine in this weather.”

  “And possibly lead you somewhere it’s unsafe to shift back. If she can walk at all.”

  “Come on, Jason,” she yelled, tears streaming now. “Don’t fight me on this! We’ll never make it out together. For once, just do the smart thing and go! I’m giving you permission to take the easy road.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “You spoiled me for that, Selene. I never want to do what’s easy again. Only what’s right. Only what you would do.”

  She leaned her head back against the rock, cursing.

  “I think your shoulder is dislocated. I’m going to try to force it back into the socket.”

  “Do you know how to do that?”

  “No. But how hard could it be?”

  She looked at him worriedly. “Maybe you don’t have to. Maybe it will correct itself when I shift.”

  “Maybe.” Jason frowned. “But if it doesn’t, I won’t be able to correct it in wolf form.”

  “And if I can’t move as a wolf, I’m dead.”

  “We’re dead.”

  “Your wolf won’t necessarily stay. It’ll survive, any way it can.”

  Selene glanced at the mercilessly setting sun.

  “It’s going to work,” Jason said resolutely. Gently, he worked her coat off her injured arm. She was still bleeding due to a nasty gash on the back of her shoulder. Hopefully that would heal when she shifted. And if Jason could knock the joint back into place, there was a shred of hope they’d make it out of here alive. He felt down her arm to the joint. Selene tried not to scream but the pain was nauseating.

  “Just do it, Jason!” She could already feel the shift starting, a bubbling grind under her skin.”

  “I’m sorry about this.” He positioned her arm again and gave a fast, hard thrust. This time Selene screamed, a scream that turned into a howl. The shift was coming. Her shoulder felt oddly warm, although her arm still wasn’t working properly.

  “Is it any better?” Jason pitched forward, the shift turning his green eyes to amber. He unzipped his jacket in the throes of transformation.

  She used her good hand to strip out of the winter clothes, following his lead. “I still can’t move it, but it doesn’t hurt as much.” She pitched forward, her jaw elongating as the snow stung her naked flesh.

  “I love you, Selene,” Jason said suddenly, claws sprouting from his knuckles. His distorted hands landed on the stones near his feet.

  “I didn’t believe you before,” she said, the need to confess gripping her heart. “I thought I was just another passing fancy, temporary entertainment for your vice.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “When you left with Nickelova tonight, I thought you were joining up with her. I thought you couldn’t resist her.”

  He shook his head. “I had to—” He groaned as tawny fur broke out across his inner arms.

  “I said yes before on Rivergate grounds because I wanted you so badly I was willing to lose everything, even if I might have you for only a short time,” she rambled. She had to tell him, had to get it out. “I never thought I could want someone again. I thought I was ruined for love after what happened to me… the things I did. But I believe you now. I love you too, Jason, in a forever way.” White fur climbed her arms, over her shoulders, between her breasts.

  If Jason said anything else, she didn’t hear it. Her last thoughts were that she wasn’t cold anymore. And then the wolf took over and she wasn’t Selene anymore.

  Chapter 26

  The white wolf’s consciousness was one-part instinct, one-part chemistry, and one-part body language. With a soul of total freedom, she sped down the mountain, ignoring the slight ache in her shoulder that gave her a pronounced limp. The dark wolf, her pack, was by her side, smelling of thick fur and hunger. Yes, hunger. It was time to hunt.

  She whimpered and the dark wolf with the tawny belly licked her face before scanning the mountain for movement; a rabbit or bird would be a fine meal. Her leathery nose opened and sniffed the air. There was something on the wind. Exotic. Close. The dark wolf must have smelled it too because his head snapped around.

  The source of the smell came from a bird, a huge bird that flapped its gigantic black wings in the blowing snow. The wolves stalked forward, hunting the black thing that folded and snapped in the wind. All at once the black wings expanded, then settled like a heavy fog around the form of a woman. The white wolf stopped. This was not food. This was danger and power. With jet-black hair and a dress that seemed to hold itself up by magic alone, the woman pinned the wolves with her icy blue stare.

  “My good and faithful daughter,” she said, approaching. “Do not be afraid.” The white wolf bowed to the woman, a deep instinct driving her to revere what she didn’t fully understand. The woman’s hand came to rest on the wolf’s head. “You must follow me now. This place is no longer safe for you.”

  The dark-haired woman turned and strode down the mountain, the wolves heeling at her side. Miles passed. The white wolf’s stomach growled, but she did not stray from the one who led her away. The darker wolf whimpered. He was her alpha and the whine made her nervous, but the pull the mysterious woman had over both of them trumped pack hierarchy. They followed with an instinctual trust.

  And then a ripple cut through the night, constricting quickly as if the darkness was a closing mouth.

  “Come, daughter. Bring your love. I will hold it open for you.” The woman pulled back the corner of the night sky and motioned for the wolves to pass through. The dark wolf leapt through first, disappearing somewhere into the beyond. The white wolf stepped forward and licked the woman’s hand.

  “You are welcome, dear one. Now, you must go. You’ve done me a service. Go reap your reward.”

  The wolf raised her paws to jump through but paused when a man appeared across from the woman, a man with thick twisting horns that grew from the sides of his head.

  “Meddling again in the fate of this world, Hecate? I might think you weren’t taking our agreement seriously,” the horned man said. He was hulking and horrifying. His mere presence made the white wolf shiver.

  The woman’s gaze shifted to the white wolf. “Go. Now!”

  The wolf leapt through the portal, feet leaving snow but landing on bright green grass. When she turned around, the woman’s fingers retracted from the tear in the darkness. The white wolf stared at the place she’d just entered through. There was something she should remember, something important. But a moment later, the portal was gone.

  A moment after that, the memory of the portal grew distant and faded entirely. All there was in the world was the dark wolf, who jogged to her side with a bloody rabbit between his teeth.

  Bright, warm light pierced Jason’s closed eyelids, but he fought the urge to wake up. He was happy. Worn out, muscles sore, he relished the after-shift euphoria, his body flooded with endorphins counteracting the last shift of the month. He stretched hard and lean in the soft grass, rolling onto his side.

  And then, with a start, he remembered. The mountain, the storm, Selene. He opened his eyes and frantically searched for her.
But he needn’t look far. She was right beside him, curled into his side as if she still had a tail. He stroked the short strands of her hair back from her face and ran his hands down her naked body, searching for injuries. The gash on the back of her shoulder was already a pink scar. Everything else looked okay.

  “I like this way of saying good morning,” she whispered, rolling into his embrace.

  “We made it. Oh thank the goddess, we made it.” Jason exhaled. “How’s your shoulder?”

  “It’s fine. You fixed me. And I think the goddess is exactly who we have to thank.”

  “Hmm?” Jason was distracted by the way her body shifted under his as if it was something she’d done every day of her waking life. She rolled him on top of her and wrapped her legs around his hips. He balanced on his elbows so that he wouldn’t crush her.

  “I have a memory, a wolf memory. It’s a slippery thing, like a forgotten dream, but I seem to remember the goddess, Hecate, showing us the way out. Do you remember that?”

  Jason shook his head. “No. I think I remember catching a rabbit.”

  She laughed beneath him and the jiggle of her body did all sorts of things to his libido. His erection kicked against her lower belly. “Selene… I love you.”

  “I love you too.” She looked into his eyes. They were nose to nose and chest to chest, but it was the connection between them that made it the most intimate position he’d ever been in with a woman.

  “You once told me that the only way to conquer a vice is to discover the need it’s trying to fill and fill it with something else.”

  She nodded. “An anchor, a feeling or experience that fills you with light and keeps you from the darkness. We found yours. The memory of your family when you were all together.”

  “The thing is…” He stroked her hair back, taking his time to choose his words carefully. “I don’t think that memory is strong enough to anchor me anymore.”

  “No?”

  “No. That memory is marred with darkness, with loss, with regret,” he said. “But I have one that is strong enough. A new memory.”

  He met her gaze, that violet blue as intense as he’d ever seen it. “When I was in that room with Nickelova, there was a moment when I felt my vice fighting for control. I needed an anchor, and when I closed my eyes, all I saw was you. You are a light to my soul. Our love is bright enough to stave off the darkness, pure enough to be the only anchor I’ll ever need.”

  “It’s okay if you hold the memory of your parents above me. It’s not a competition. They loved you first,” she said seriously.

  “Yes. Yes. I’ll never forget them or that perfect day you reminded me of. But an anchor, an anchor should be powerful enough to root your soul. You are that thing for me now. I may be able to exist without you, Selene, but I can’t live, not really.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t just want you to move out of Sanctuary, I want you to move in with me. I want to wine you and dine you and fly you around the world and dance with you in my kitchen every night. I want to give you all the experiences you never had growing up. And in time, when you are sick of dating me, I want to marry you.”

  Selene’s mouth dropped open, a confused smile flashing briefly. “What?”

  “Say yes, Selene. Say you’ll be mine and only mine, for always.”

  Her mouth worked but no sound came out. Jason started to wonder if her answer was no. He pulled back slightly, unsure if he should remove his hand from where it rested on her ribs. But her expression didn’t say no. It lifted and lighted from within.

  “Yes. Yes, Jason.” Her voice was thready. “I’ll be your anchor. I’ll be your anchor because you’ve become mine.” She grabbed his face and pulled it to hers, her lips parting to let his kiss in.

  Jason wanted their first time to be special. Dinner, flowers, candlelight, hours of worshiping every inch of her creamy flesh. Not in the forest after a near-death experience. But Selene had other plans. He thought she’d be hesitant, maybe scared, considering her history. He was wrong. She grabbed his hips and demanded his full and undivided attention.

  “Are you… sure…?” he stuttered. “Oh. Game on.”

  He’d been with women before, hundreds of women actually, but as he connected with her, he realized he’d been deceived. All the sex he’d had in the past had been plastic imitations of the real thing. The intimate connection he held in his arms blew every other experience away.

  Working his arm under the small of her back, he lifted her, supporting her beneath him as he worked a better angle. She hooked her ankles behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him. The scent of mango and vanilla wafted from her skin. He buried his face in what remained of her hair.

  She thrust up against him. “Harder. I won’t break.”

  He lifted her, guiding her until he was balanced on his knees with her straddling his hips. Deeper this way, he held nothing back, reveling in the tiny moans she produced with each targeted thrust. Selene’s violet eyes sparked with passion as she came crashing down on him in a wave of flawless skin and delicate bones. He moved inside her, allowing her to wash over him, to draw him higher, to the peak, to the place he was tempted to tumble over.

  “Oh no, not yet,” she said, slowing her movements. “I want more.”

  He held himself back, circling his hips to keep from going over the edge. Cupping her under the thighs, he lifted, standing from the soft grass and supporting her against his chest. The trunk of the tree they’d woken under made a fine brace for one foot, his hand resting on the trunk. In this position, he was so deep inside her, he feared he’d hurt her. But she only gripped him tighter, scoring his back with her nails. He didn’t hold back.

  She moaned in his ear, pulling on his shoulders to ride the rhythm. He lost himself in her, in the connection that was everything he always wanted and never knew he was missing.

  Selene met Jason thrust for thrust, her arms straining to draw him closer, her abs working to build the momentum, her mouth melding with his until she’d explored every inch of his mouth and neck. And still she wanted more.

  For all the times she could remember having sex, it was never like this. Never filled her both emotionally and physically. Her body could not contain the love he poured into her. She was a bowl overflowing with light, a light that shone in all her dark corners, smoothed her jagged edges, and made her feel like all the pain of the past served a purpose—to bring her to this point of total ecstasy.

  His body pounded into her, but it was the way he looked at her that sent her over the edge. There was nothing short of reverence in his eyes. She leaned her head back and came apart, shattering in his arms with his mouth to her neck and his hot skin against hers, his arms the only thing holding her up.

  She felt his orgasm like a rush within her and the effect was intense. Her body clenched around him, spilling over with pleasure once more until she clung to him through the aftershocks. They came together in a way that made her lose where she ended and he began, and she clung to him as he stroked the sparks that flared within her.

  After a long time, she slid off his body and onto her own feet. “By the goddess,” she whispered.

  Jason rested his forehead against hers. “By the goddess, indeed.”

  They were still recovering when a sound came on the wind.

  “Jason!” A man’s voice called from a distance. Selene looked around the tree in the direction of the noise. Silas, Laina, and Gerty were headed toward them.

  “Hmm.” He smiled down at her. “Looks like we’ve been rescued.”

  Chapter 27

  “He has her heart?” Laina cried.

  Jason placed a finger over his lips when the patrons of the coffee shop where they’d chosen to meet turned to stare at their table. Dressed and rested, he and Selene had met with Silas and Laina to fill them in on what had happened.

  “What were you thinking, Jason? How could you hand over the amulet like that?” Silas kept his voice lo
w, but Jason had no trouble hearing the venom in it.

  “He had no choice, Silas. Jason couldn’t use the amulet. It takes some kind of… additional magic or experience,” Selene said. “We were naked, trapped in a dragon’s lair on the side of a mountain in Siberia. If Jason had let Nickelova fry Alex, we would have been next.”

  “And believe me,” Jason said, “I thought about falling on my sword for the pack. But once Nickie killed us, she’d have the amulet back. It was only a matter of time before she’d find another werewolf to take Alex’s place.”

  “But, she’s dead, right?” Laina asked.

  Jason ran a hand over his face. “No. Not exactly.”

  Selene wrapped her fingers around Jason’s forearm and squeezed. “Nickelova didn’t die when Alex removed her heart; she became mortal. We could have killed her… but we thought we needed her to get back through the portal. By the time we realized what she was doing, it was too late.”

  Silas rubbed his temples and sighed deeply. “What was she doing?”

  “During the fight,” Jason said, “I dislodged a scale from her dragon form. She used it to form some kind of cocoon around herself.”

  Silas growled. “So not only is Alex still at large, but Nickelova is a ticking time bomb in a mountain somewhere.”

  “How much do you want to bet that Alex returns her heart to her at some point and wakes her up? I imagine a girl will do a lot for a heart,” Laina said.

  “I’m sorry.” Jason glanced at Selene.

  She squeezed his hand in support, narrowing a hard stare on his brother and sister. The look she gave Silas alone could solder iron. “I don’t have any family. But if I did, I think I’d be a lot happier to have them home safely.” Selene shifted her gaze, pointing a finger at Laina’s nose. “Your brother almost died last night.”

  Silas sighed. “We’re happy to have you back. Both of you. But this changes everything. As alpha, I’m just a little nervous about what this means for the pack. We may need to go into hiding again.”