Cursed of moon

Chapter 14

We arrived in Portland, just outside of his base. Kaillen didn’t say a word before throwing my bags through his man cave’s ward, threading his fingers through mine, and then tugging me through the perimeter.

It was only after we were safely encased inside his studio apartment, that I sputtered, “Why are we here and not in Montana?”

“Klebus may try to track me. I don’t want her to know where I live.” His brow furrowed as he stepped closer to me. “What’s going on?”

“I know where Jakub is.”

His eyes widened for the briefest second before his mouth set into a hard line. “Where?”

“The fae lands. As of thirty minutes ago, he was on his way to Culasberee. The Supernatural Forces can’t pursue him because of fae lands and earthly politics. That may change, but if it doesn’t, he’s going to get away. The SF is worried that if he gets to the sea, they won’t be able to effectively track him. But you could still find him, couldn’t you? Since you know his scent?”

“I could,” he replied, the groove between his eyes deepening.

“There’s more.” I explained in a rush that Klebus now knew the extent of my powers. That she’d seen it when I’d broken the cuffs. “She now knows that I’m as powerful and as rare as you. She wants to recruit me to the SF.” I showed him the business card she gave me.

His nostrils flared. “Fuck, she’s clever.”

“No shit. The only good thing that came out of it, is that I’m now immune to those cuffs.” I crossed my arms as I peered up at him, some of my ire returning despite my excitement at seeing him again. “She had a pair of Jakub’s blue cuffs, courtesy of you apparently.”

A veiled look descended over his face.

Even though my wolf was begging me to touch the hunter, to join with and be with him, the human side of me pulled back. “Why didn’t you tell me you had them?”

He broke eye contact. “I don’t know. It slipped my mind, I guess.”

“Slipped your mind?” I repeated, my voice rising.

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” He tore a hand through his hair. “A lot’s been going on the past few days.”

“But you gave those cuffs to Klebus. When?”

“After I retrieved them. I went to Philadelphia first because I knew Jakub had dropped them. I got them before I retrieved the ax and came back to you in Montana. I knew we needed those cuffs if we were ever going to learn what they were and how to break them. That’s the one thing the SF is good for, so I gave them to Klebus.”

I scoffed. “Well, you certainly got a lot done in a short amount of time.”

He gave me a cocky smile. “I’m efficient.”

Despite his teasing comment, I saw the worry in his eyes, even more so when he inhaled and no doubt caught the hurt in my scent.

My brow furrowed. “Why do you hide so much from me? Why don’t you let me in?”

He studied me for a moment, that pineapple and sunshine fragrance begi

“But that’s because—” I let out a frustrated sigh. “Ugh. Why is nothing normal between us?”

“Because it’s not, and it never will be, but if you want me to let you in, I’m willing to do that. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“But you haven’t so far,” I countered. “If you had, you would have told me about the cuffs and how you suspected that I could be a werewolf.” That icy hurt slid through me again.

An aggrieved expression overtook his face.

And in his scent, I knew that he was sorry. He was truly remorseful. I stared up at him as my tone turned pleading. “Why aren’t you more honest with me? More open?”

He shook his head, then frowned, as though really considering my words. After a moment, he said, “I think it’s because I’ve spent my entire life on my own. Until you, I—” He let out a harsh sigh. “This is new to me, okay? I’m not used to sharing information with people. I work alone. I function alone. I’ve always been alone. Until you, I didn’t want it any other way.”

My heart tripped. Until me. And I knew that he meant that, because his entire childhood and working career, Kaillen had functioned solo. He’d learned from an early age to be self-reliant. He’d had to or he wouldn’t have survived.

I brushed my hands next to his. “But I’m your mate.” A lump formed in my throat, because as much as this werewolf crap was messed up, I was his mate, and Tessa’s comment back in her bungalow had hit a nerve in me. She’d been right. A lot of mated werewolf couples were very happy. Who was I to judge those relationships and say they weren’t real? They were very real for all of those supernaturals. Even though they were different to anything I’d ever experienced, it didn’t mean they weren’t genuine, which meant it didn’t mean that Kaillen and I weren’t genuine.

Kaillen stilled, as though he’d sensed the shift in me just as I was coming to grips with it myself. “Yes. You are my mate. Mine.”

A tingle ran through my belly at that possessive claim, but I shoved it down, so I wouldn’t get distracted. “Which means that you shouldn’t hide things from me. Nothing should be hidden between us.” And with a hard swallow, I realized that I meant that and wanted that. I couldn’t fight this bond any more than he could. Now, more than ever, I realized that. So if we were going to jump into this head first, then I needed to know that I could trust him. Because true trust meant no secrets. “Knowing you’re not going to hide things from me anymore is the only way this will ever work for me.”

His hand drifted to my waist, as a low possessive rumble came from his chest.

My wolf yelped excitedly.

A predatory smile lifted his lips. “You’re willing to be my mate now?”

“If you promise to work on that.”

His face transformed into an all-out grin. “I’ll work on it. But this whole sharing thing? It’s new to me. Can you forgive me if I fuck up a few more times?”

I gave a small smile as the glow in his eyes grew. “Maybe. It depends how many times.”

A chuckle escaped him at my teasing tone, then his chest rose when he took a deep breath. A musky fragrance wove into his scent as he drank me in. “You just admitted to being my mate.”

“I did.”

“And that we’re going to be together.”

“Yes, that too.”

His nostrils flared as heat smoldered in his eyes and the musk in his scent grew so potent I was swimming in it.

It took everything in me to back up and put distance between us. “But right now, Jakub is getting away, and there’s something I need to tell you too. In the spirit of not having any more secrets, there’s one thing I’ve never told you, and I think it’s important.” I proceeded to tell him about the Bone Eaters, and what my mother had warned me of. It was the only thing I’d always kept from him. The one secret I’d kept as mine. But not anymore.

When I finished, he cocked his head. “The Bone Eaters?”

“Have you ever heard of them?”

“No.”

“Me either, but I can’t help but think that they’re somehow co

He let out an agitated sigh, then raked a hand through his hair. “Right. Jakub.”

He strode to his closet and whipped it open, as if wanting to catch Jakub as quickly as possible so we could get onto more interesting things. The familiar array of weapons and potions lay before him. He pulled out one of his chest harnesses and began layering himself with so many weapons and lethal potions that he became literal death on feet.

“Take what you want,” he called to me. “Don’t touch the ax.”

I joined him and grabbed another chest harness. It swallowed me since it was so huge, but he cinched the straps down until it fit snugly, his fingers lingering on my skin.

My nostrils flared, detecting the thick aromas lifting from him. Anticipation had joined his arousal, and I had a feeling his demon was looking forward to coming out to play.

“Has she been behaving?” he asked.

As if knowing that he was talking about her, my wolf thumped her tail inside me.

“For the most part. Without you around, she ignored me a lot. She wasn’t happy that I left.”

“That makes two of us.” He finished with the straps, then began securing the weapons I’d chosen to the various cinches. “Did she try to shift last night?”

“No. It went okay.”

“And now?”

I frowned, tentatively feeling inward for her, but she was so damned happy to be in the hunter’s presence again that she seemed to be minding her ma

“Good. Maybe it was for the best that you left. It helped you establish dominance. She learned that if she pushes too far, you’ll take away the one thing she wants most.”

“Her mate?”

A smile curved his lips. “Yes.”

I cocked my head at him. “Does it bother you at all that we have no choice in this?”

“What makes you think we have no choice?”

“Because of these feelings. This pull. This need to be with you. It all comes from them, not us.”

He gazed down at me. “That’s what being a werewolf entails. When you find your mate, that’s it. They’re the only one you’ll ever want.”

“You’re saying that I’m the only one you’ll want now?” My heart skipped, but then Carlos’s warning came back to me—the warning he’d told me weeks ago. Can’t be a normal mate instinct. But I had a feeling that Carlos was wrong about the hunter. I was begi

Kaillen’s brow furrowed as he gazed down at me, as though perplexed that I could even question him. “Of course it will only be you.”

My heart tripped again, and any past worry I’d had about him being unable to be monogamous faded away. And that urge to weld myself to him, to wrap my legs around him, to claim him as mine . . . it was growing again.

“How do you wolves live like this?” I had the strongest urge to rub my thighs together. Fuck, I wanted him.

“It’ll get easier.” He took a step closer to me. “If you let me claim you, our wolves will calm down.”

Claim you.

An image of the hunter and me in his bed formed in my mind. Naked. Writhing. Climaxing together as he bit into my neck and sealed our magic.

I peered up at him. “Could I claim you too? Since I can shift?” Because the bond was sealed by elongating one’s canines, it was always the male who did the claiming bite, as female werewolves couldn’t shift. But since I was the first that could . . .

An intrigued smile lifted his lips, and the musky aroma in his scent increased. “I don’t know. I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”