Magic Side: Wolf Bound Complete Series: Books 1-4, page 13
“And if wolves show up?”
Casey shrugged. “We won’t trip any alarms, so they won’t. But if they do, we get in the truck and go. There’s no way to outrun them on foot.”
“Won’t they just chase down our car? The wolves that attacked me caught up with me on the open road.”
Casey’s eyes got big. “Really? Shit. I didn’t think they could run that fast. I haven’t seen them do that around here, but maybe they’re holding back. They don’t like us to know much about them. Still, that’s freaky fast. Let’s not get caught.”
“Watertight plan, Case.” I sighed.
“Also, if they catch you, no lethal force.” Casey fixed Zara with a stern look, then turned to me. “This is Magic Side, not Chicago. There are rules of engagement. That’s why I’m giving you this.” He pressed a little bottle into my hand. “I know you can’t control your magic worth crap, so if someone looks like they’re going to eat you, just point this at them, close your eyes, and spray.”
“Yeah. I’m familiar with the application.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re not. Only use this in dire emergencies. The wolves will try to scare you because they think it’s fun. They might rough you up. Roll with the punches and get them back later. Only use this if you’re staring down a wolf, it’s out of its mind, and it’s getting ready to bite. That’s some serious weapons-grade shit in your hand.”
I swallowed hard. None of these scenarios sounded great.
Casey paused as he opened the truck door and glanced between Zara and me. “And, uh, don’t tell anyone where you got that if they ask.”
I rolled my eyes. “I won’t.”
“And cousin, really, really, really try not spray yourself in the face.”
I pocketed the bottle of what I assumed to be some kind of mace and stuck out my hip. “Casey, you’re a complete ass.”
He hopped in the passenger side, leaving me the suicide seats in the back. “Strange. A lot of people tell me that.”
Five minutes later, we pulled to a halt a couple blocks from Savage Body.
“Why are we stopping?” I asked.
“Disguises for the cameras,” Casey said as he handed out black gloves and fuzzy masks.
I held one up. “Oh, God, what is this?”
In answer, Casey put his on. They were furry wolf masks.
I groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Zara put hers on, too. “Suit up. Let’s go, rookie.”
I acquiesced as the pickup rumbled down the road. The eye holes in the mask limited my vision. Was trolling the wolves like this really worth it?
Before I could decide if it was better to call things off, the truck stopped right around the corner from Savage Body. Adrenaline surged through my veins as my mind tried to come to grips with this lunacy.
Casey and Zara jumped out and darted up the alley behind the restored brick building, and I followed after. As soon as we got to the back door, Casey began whispering and waving his fingers like an abject madman.
Was this what it meant to be a sorcerer?
My doubts vanished as he formed a little glowing ball of light in his gloved palm. He blew, and the light drifted outward like a feather on the wind. It brushed gently against the door, and in a crackle of power, the whole doorway lit up with glowing magical runes.
My breath caught at the beauty of it.
Then the magic symbols dissolved into sparks and faded into nothingness.
“That should do it,” Casey whispered. “Wolves don’t do magic, so they buy off-the-shelf stuff from mages. Not too hard to crack.”
Zara knelt beside the doorknob, touched it, and closed her eyes. It clicked. She carefully turned the knob and swung the door in, revealing a pitch-black room.
“What did you do?” I whispered.
“I’m part Iron Mage. I control metal.”
“Cool.” I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around what all that entailed, but it sounded awesome.
Casey pulled a tiny flashlight out of his back pocket and flicked it around the room. Within a few seconds, he’d found the lights and switched them on.
My heart seized. My Gran Fury sat on a lift in the middle of the second bay, hood up and totally in pieces.
“What did he do?” I gasped as I dashed over to the car.
The seat back had been removed and lay to the side, along with several parts that I assumed made the car go.
This was bad.
Zara flicked a switch on the wall, and the hydraulic lift roared to life, slowly lowering the car to the ground.
Casey grabbed my shoulder. “Don’t worry, your ride’s probably okay. We’ll just need to take everything with us. Go get your keys from the office.”
Tears swam in the corners of my eyes as I darted for the office. That asshole had ripped apart the one thing that mattered to me.
I tried the office door. “It’s locked!”
“Give me a sec, I’ll get it!” Zara shouted from the lift.
I shook the doorknob as my mind spun with worry. There could be a silent alarm. They could be on their way. Jaxson could be here any second.
My skin began to prickle, and my arm hair stood on end. Then a shock of cold raced down my arm and blasted the doorknob out of my hand. I yelped as the office door blew off its hinges, and the detached doorknob clattered to the floor somewhere in the office.
“Damn,” Zara called from her post. “I thought you didn’t know magic.”
I looked down at my hand in shock. “I don’t.”
A big red light in the interior of the office started blinking.
Well, crap.
As a new layer of panic seeped into my voice, I shouted to Casey, “I think I screwed up!”
“Get the keys,” Zara hissed. “I’ll get the truck. We gotta work fast.”
I flicked on the office lights and found the cabinet with the car keys, which was also locked. Zara was gone, so I tried focusing my mind and doing the magic thing.
Nothing. No explosion, no icy skin, no juice.
With nothing else to do, I rampaged through the desk until I found a key hanging on a hidden hook. I jammed it in the lock and popped the cabinet open. My keys were on a chain with a bunch of tiny silver paint brushes, so they were easy to find. I snagged them and dashed out of the office.
When I emerged, Casey had the car down and the bay door open, and Zara had expertly backed the truck up so the tow dolly was aligned.
We were so close.
Casey waved me over. “Hop in and put her in neutral! Zara and I will push.”
I slid into the driver’s seat, and my heart wrenched. My radio was gone, leaving only a big black hole in the faux wood paneling.
I was going to murder Jaxson Laurent.
But first, we had to get out of here. I threw the car in neutral and gripped the wheel. “Okay!”
Casey grunted and pushed the car with all his might. Zara rolled her eyes and waved her hand, and the car slowly rolled forward. When Casey grunted and fell on his knees, she grinned.
Apparently, mastery over metal meant she could shove half-ton cars around. Cool.
The metal ramps of the trailer grated on the pavement as the Fury’s wheels rolled on up. Then the pickup lurched forward an inch as the car thumped against the end of the dolly and settled down in the wheel sockets.
“Nice! Let’s get the other shit!” Casey shouted.
I scrambled out of the car as Zara secured straps around the wheels, barely believing our luck. Casey was struggling with the loose back of the seat, so I grabbed hold, and we dumped it in the bed of the pickup.
I ran around the pile of car parts. “What is all this stuff? Does it even belong to my car?”
“No idea!” Casey yelled, picking up a few pipe-like objects. “Just grab it and go. You can give it back later if it doesn’t belong!”
“This is insane!” I snatched a few things I thought I recognized, ran back to the truck, and dumped them in the bed.
Zara had finished securing the Fury and climbed up into the cab of the truck. “Let’s go, you two!”
“Wait! There’s more stuff!” I darted back into the garage.
Casey held up a couple of bits and bobs. “I’m not actually sure that any of this is yours.”
“That’s my radio.” I grabbed it and clutched it close to my chest. The open socket in the dashboard had been like a hole in my heart.
Shouts erupted from behind us, and I spun around. At the commotion, the pickup’s tires screeched on the pavement, and it lurched forward. “She’s leaving us!” I shouted in disbelief.
Casey and I raced toward the open garage as the truck peeled away, my Gran Fury in tow. We staggered to a halt as shadows appeared in the street outside. Werewolves.
“Back door! Run!” Casey shouted.
We barreled out the rear into the alley. He slammed the door shut and wove a quick spell, and sparks erupted from the doorknob. “Go! They’ll just run around the outside of the building. Or over the top—they can jump really far!”
We tore down the alley. I looked back as a dark shadow leapt onto the roof of the garage, then sprung high into the air. With the obscured vision of the mask, I couldn’t see where it landed. I could barely see where we were going.
“Are they going to kill us?” I screamed.
“Probably not! Don’t use any hocus-pocus unless absolutely necessary. We’re on their turf, and that would be bad,” Casey panted, surprisingly out of shape.
“I don’t have any goddamned hocus-pocus left to use!” I yelled back as we rounded a corner.
“You’ll be fine!” he replied, but then the shadowy form of a woman slammed into his chest, and he flew into the wall.
Sam. Jaxson’s bartender.
I skidded to a halt.
Jaxson stood at the far end of the alley, silhouetted against the streetlights. My breath caught, and my knees locked.
“Run, Savannah!” Casey screamed as he scrambled up from the ground.
Sam swept his feet out from under him, which knocked him on his ass and knocked me to my senses. I bolted back down the alley with Jaxson on my heels.
18
Savannah
My heart hammered in my chest as I sprinted between the brick buildings. I’d run track in high school and had a little speed, so maybe I could get a lucky turn and lose him.
I checked over my shoulder. Nope.
Jaxson was almost on me. He was too damned fast.
Not that I was surprised. The wolves that had attacked me had run my car down, and Jaxson was several magnitudes more powerful.
I ran anyway. A part of my soul leapt at the exhilaration, while the rest of my mind rebelled against the sheer insanity of it all.
I gave it everything I had.
Gravel scuffed, and a shadow flew through the air. Jaxson slammed into the side of a building and hung there with his fingers—no, his claws—embedded into the old, crumbling brick.
I darted right down a side street. Jaxson leapt again and landed on the adjacent wall above me, sending mortar raining down.
Holy hell. His hands could dig straight into brick.
He sprang upward and landed on the rooftop. I spun around a corner, but he hurled himself through the air and onto another rooftop right ahead.
He could outrun a car and leap thirty feet.
He’s toying with me.
With that realization, I skidded to a halt, clutched the old radio to my chest, and yanked the bottle of mace out of my back pocket. Arm extended, I pointed it up at the black shadow on the roof. “Stay back, Jaxson!”
He leapt overhead, rebounded off the wall, and landed square in front of me with a low growl.
I pointed the mace directly at his glowing honey eyes. “I mean it, I—"
The bottle flew from my hand. I shook my wrist in shock. He’d struck the mace out of my grip so fast that I’d barely seen his arm move.
Jaxson let out a deep, animalistic growl. His hands were claws, and his body quaked with restrained power. “Don’t you ever bring that stuff onto pack land ever again.”
There was something almost feral in his voice.
I pressed my back against the bricks. My heart pounded so hard in my chest that it was about to rip its way out.
Two other werewolves rushed into the alley, but he stopped them with a flick of his clawed hand as he took another step forward. “How dare you break into my shop, LaSalle? I thought it might take longer before your family corrupted you, but it hasn’t even been a day. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, it seems.”
His signature—I knew it for what it was now—overwhelmed me, like he was letting it all out. Pine and moss and smoke and snow and the sound of running water. I couldn’t resist breathing it in. All of it. It called to me like a drug. The werewolf before me was terrifying and intoxicating, like the urge to jump at the edge of a cliff. But I was too scared to go over. I could barely find my voice. “Please—”
Jaxson met my petrified gaze with his honey-colored eyes. They seemed to be drinking me in, reading every thought in my head. He loomed over me, chest heaving, though I was sure he hadn’t broken a sweat chasing me down.
Finally, he gave me a half smile and brushed the side of my masked cheek with a claw. I didn’t move a millimeter as it dragged over my skin, but my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my body.
When he withdrew his hand, it was human again. I let out a fraction of the breath pent up in my lungs.
“Don’t worry, Savannah. You’re safe.” Then he grabbed my mask by the snout and pulled it up over my head. “And I must say, I quite like you as a wolf.”
The rich, silvery tone of his voice made goosebumps rise on my skin. His amber eyes flicked to my heaving breast and back. I could almost smell…his desire?
Impossible. He hated me. This was so screwed up.
Jaxson was close enough that I could almost taste him. Part of me wanted to, and heat pooled in my belly.
What’s wrong with you, Savy?
My phone rang in my pocket. I squeezed it through my jeans to silence it and fixed Jaxson with my best Don’t screw with me look. “You need to back off.”
Amusement flashed through his eyes, but his features were still hardened. He leaned in and softly whispered. “Why? I caught you. You’re not very fast.”
I bared my teeth, suddenly and inexplicably offended. It wasn’t like I was an Olympian, but I had plenty of giddy-up and high school trophies to prove I was fast enough. He was just stupid fast.
Casey had said I needed to hold my ground, so I raised my chin. “I do not like being toyed with.”
“But you’re such a pretty toy,” he growled, low and rough.
Anger shot through my veins like ice water. I reared back and slapped the Dockside alpha as hard as I could. Electricity cracked through my arm, and my fingers went numb from the cold.
Jaxson staggered back a single step. His pupils dilated, and his claws erupted from his hands. He touched his cheek, where the faint streaks from my nails were beginning to turn pink.
Did I just slap the Dockside alpha?
I looked at his claws. I’d seen ones just like them nearly rip the guts out of a man and hurl him onto the hood of my car. But it was too late. Jaxson was on his back foot, and I couldn’t back down.
So I stepped up, moving so close that we were only an inch apart. He was tall, so I had to crane my neck back to stare him down, but I wasn’t going to let this slide. “I am not a toy, Jaxson. You don’t get to boss me around, and you don’t get to dangle me as bait.”
Jaxson
Savannah Caine was an inch from my chest and as close to meeting my wolf as she had ever been. He fought to be released, but I held him down with difficulty.
Her aromas intoxicated my senses. A cocktail of terror and anger, and hidden beneath it all, a faint whisp of arousal.
Her nails had left scratches where her hand had hit, and my skin was tender.
The taste of cold spring water mixed with a trace of blood in my mouth, and I could smell the scent of tangerines. Her magic?
While her touch stung like frostbite, fire burned in her eyes. Everything about her in this moment made me feel alive.
“I’m the Dockside Boss, and you’re in my territory, causing trouble. That means I get to boss you around.”
“Get over yourself!” Savannah almost snarled, and my wolf liked it.
“You broke into my shop. I expect an apology.”
“No way am I apologizing. You screwed with my car—after holding it for ransom! Why was it in pieces?” Her eyes flicked to the two werewolves hanging back down the alley. As if they would be any threat, compared to me.
“It was a wreck. Your tranny is shot. Your radiator hoses are cracked. Your upholstery is disintegrating, and your radio is over thirty years old. I was installing upgrades.”
“Never, ever touch my shit without my permission. Or me.” She smacked my chest with the heel of her palm, to no effect. No magic this time.
“Says the woman who broke into my property and slapped me with her magic.”
Her eyes widened. “Your scratches are gone!”
“We heal quickly. How else do you think your attacker got up again after you ran him over? He only stayed down after you snapped his neck.”
She trembled with shock, surprise, and simmering fury, but she wouldn’t be put off the warpath. “I have half a mind to run you over. You’re using me as bait to catch the psychos behind the abductions!” She looked so furious, I wondered if claws would rip out of her hands.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snarled, but she wasn’t entirely wrong.
“You paraded me through Eclipse on purpose, you plastered signs all over Belmont to point the wolves my way, and you’ve tried to keep me on lockdown. You knew they would come back, and you’re using me to catch them. Deny it.”
“I knew that they were coming for you, and I told you as much. I’m trying to protect you as best I can. The moment they show their faces, I’ll drop a hammer on them. But you keep running straight into danger.”
