Magic Side: Wolf Bound Complete Series: Books 1-4, page 41
It didn’t matter. I just needed to get to her, and then I’d deal with the rest.
I could feel her agony with every fiber of my being. Her mind was on the verge of shattering. Whatever was happening was fucking bad.
Hearing her screams in my mind had made me want to kill. But now there was only ominous silence. It was a mercy, but dread filled the quiet void. I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles white, as I fought the urge to rage.
The burning tightness under my ribs intensified as I drew near West Shore Park, the largest wooded park in Magic Side.
Why had Savannah come here in the middle of the night?
Murderous thoughts flashed through my mind, and I cursed. Tires screeching, I pulled into the empty north lot. I parked and sprinted into the woods, letting the sensation in my chest guide me. I’d only made it a few yards before Savannah’s shriek echoed through the forest.
My blood surged, and my senses sharpened to a razor. She was alive, but in pain and barely conscious. Perhaps a mile away. That would be near the border with the Indies.
She must have been attacked by the sorcerer. I knew that fucking cousin of hers couldn’t keep her safe.
Sweat dampened my shirt as I leapt over rocks and wound through the trees. My wolf surged inside me, wanting loose, but if Savannah was inside the Indies, I didn’t want any trouble with the LaSalles, and right now, my wolf would unleash a hell storm. I’d never felt him so agitated, and I struggled to keep him restrained.
I pressed on until Savannah’s signature dulled all other senses. Her sobs wrapped around me, each whimper digging into my already aching soul. I slowed and stepped around a tree and froze.
It couldn’t be.
Lying on the forest floor, crumpled and broken, was Savannah. Half woman. Half wolf.
My mate.
My fucking mate.
Her pulse was low, her breathing shallow. She was dying.
My wolf roared, demanding freedom, but I fought him down, though my bones cracked from the strain. He couldn’t help her like I could.
I rushed forward and knelt beside Savannah’s broken body. She was naked, her skin caked in blood, sweat, and dirt.
From our lore, I knew that the mate bond gave me the power to heal her. But I couldn’t be certain I wouldn’t kill her in this contorted half-human, half-wolf state. She was stuck in limbo and needed to shift all the way before she could heal.
When I touched her back, a tingling force shot up my arm, and her body jerked.
My mind burned with rage and denial and fear. It was impossible. This couldn’t be happening. But it was.
I gently lifted her, cradling her in my arms. “Savannah, it’s me. Open your eyes.”
She needed to complete the shift soon, or she was going to die. Her skin already looked pale, and her pulse was erratic. I brushed a strand of her scarlet hair off her forehead. “Savannah, I need you to wake up.”
She moaned, and her eyes fluttered open. “Jaxson?”
Her voice was hoarse, and her eyes were a rich amber gold. Beautiful. My wolf reared up again.
“Help me,” she whispered weakly.
My chest calved in two, and I wanted to tear the world apart. But I had to focus. I cupped her cheek and rubbed away a tear. “You need to finish your shift, or you’re going to die.”
She pressed her eyes closed. “I can’t. There’s something wrong with me.”
My heartbeat accelerated. What if that was true?
“There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re strong. Finish the shift.”
She opened her eyes, and I saw the fear in them. I could sense she was resisting the change, rebelling against the transformation.
Of course she was. We were monsters, and she was a LaSalle. But resisting would kill her.
She shook her head. “I’m not a…”
“You are. And you’re a fighter. The most stubborn woman I know—but the only way to win this fight is to give in. Let it happen. Or you’ll die.” I kept my voice calm and pushed my power into her.
She ground her teeth, fighting it again, but she finally whimpered. Too exhausted to fight any longer, she submitted to the change. Her body jerked, and she cried out.
My heart tore. “Easy, Savannah. Let the pain flow through you. It’ll pass,” I whispered, silently praying to the fates for one little mercy in the chaos they’d caused.
I felt her bones cracking and sinews lengthening and twisting beneath my hands. She screamed but let the transformation continue.
God, how long had she been fighting this?
I gently placed her on the ground and gave her some space. I could help guide her with my magic, but she needed to do the shift on her own. It was our way.
Her body jerked and arched, and I fought back the fear that had settled in my soul. For born werewolves, the first shift was painful, but according to our lore, the first shift was ten times worse for humans who caught lycanthropy. Not all made it through.
Would she survive this?
If she didn’t, would my mind break? Or would I slowly descend into madness, like Billy had? That would destroy the pack.
Savannah cried out and clawed the ground, and I pushed all other fears and doubts out of my mind. Nothing but her mattered now. I just had to get her through this.
“Don’t you dare give up,” I ordered. “Let the shift take you.”
Growling, she rolled onto her stomach and climbed to her knees. Her spine arched, and her legs and arms snapped and bent as her hands became paws and her face lengthened. Agony by agony, she completed the shift, until all that was left was a beautiful gray and auburn wolf.
She whimpered and shook her body, and my wolf rumbled in my chest, demanding to be set free. He wanted to meet his mate, but now was not the fucking time.
“Savannah.” I slowly took a step forward, hands spread. “Savy.” She snapped her head to me and growled, baring her teeth.
You did well, I said in my mind, testing our bond. She narrowed her amber eyes but didn’t respond.
Perhaps that would take time.
“Easy.” I took another step, sensing her pain. She was weak and favoring her left leg, and she snarled, limping backward. She was afraid and confused, and she wouldn’t be able to heal on her own yet.
I crouched low and spoke softly, letting my alpha presence wrap around her. “You’re safe, Savy. Let me help you.”
It felt wrong using this magic on her, especially during her first shift, but I couldn’t risk her bolting off into the woods. Wolves normally shifted for the first time with their pack in a safe place where they could run freely and learn what it meant to let their other half take control. They also grew up with a community of support. Savannah hadn’t, and the gods only knew what she was experiencing right now.
“Easy. I’m going to help you, okay?” I stepped forward with my hand outstretched. I paused, my fingertips a few inches from her nose.
Her bright eyes bored into me, reading my intentions. But then her shoulders relaxed, and she sniffed my hand. Her ears flicked up, and she brushed lightly against my fingers.
For a second, a smile tugged at my lips, but when she carefully lowered herself to the ground and began to whimper, that deep ache in my throat returned.
Her emotions overwhelmed my senses. Pain. Fear. Exhaustion.
I stepped forward and scooped her into my arms. “You can rest now. I’ll take care of you.”
She didn’t fight me but nuzzled her face into my shoulder and closed her eyes. Her coat was soft and smelled like her—tangerines and sunshine. It was all I wanted to breathe in the world.
I carried her back to the truck, my mind churning. What the hell was I going to do?
My mate was Savannah Caine.
And she was a wolf.
13
Jaxson
I gently set Savannah down in the passenger seat and texted Sam as I slipped behind the wheel. 911. Meet me behind the apartment. Clear the guards up to my penthouse. Don’t tell Regina.
Sam was waiting for me fifteen minutes later when I pulled up out back.
“What’s this about?” she asked as I got out of the truck.
What could I say? I just opened the passenger door and pulled out the exhausted auburn wolf.
“Who is…” Sam sniffed the air out of instinct, and her eyes went wide. “Oh. My. God…that’s…”
“Yes, it is, and don’t say a word. Get the door. I’m taking her up to the penthouse.”
“Your penthouse?” she asked as she opened the door and called the freight elevator.
“It’s warded with spells, I can put a dozen guards out front, and nobody will ask questions. You’re going to stay with her tonight.”
Sam lived in the building and served as my eyes and ears in the pack. She was the only one I trusted to handle a sparking stick of dynamite like this.
The elevator binged, and the doors rolled opened. We got on for the long, awkward ride up. Sam’s heartbeat was racing, and I could smell her distress.
I pushed my presence toward her. “This is going to be a shitstorm, but we’ll ride it out, like always.”
She swallowed and nodded. “How could this have happened?”
“I have no fucking idea. It has to be lycanthropy. But Savannah never told me she’d been bitten. Would she have covered that up? Did she say anything to you?”
Sam shook her head. “What about after the battle in the woods? Could Billy have been a carrier? Savannah was pretty beat up and left immediately after. I never checked her wounds…or what about when we were captured? Billy had access—”
“I don’t know.”
Could my brother-in-law have done such a thing? He was a bastard, but this…
Old memories tore at me, and silence lapsed between us.
When the doors opened at my penthouse, the normal guards were gone, waiting for Sam’s word to return. I carried Savannah up to the magically warded door, which unlocked at my command and swung open. Hurrying through the house, I gently laid her on my bed—a beautiful red and grey wolf atop white sheets. She whimpered and set her head on her paws, then closed her eyes.
“She’s still in shock, but I think she’ll shift back sometime tonight. I need you to be here when that happens. If necessary, I’ll help her through, but you’ll need to clean her up. Calm her down. Get her clothes. And if you have to, explain what happened.”
Sam frowned. “I don’t think she’ll be happy.”
Savannah whined faintly.
A morose half laugh escaped my throat. “You think you’ve seen her angry before? She’s going to be livid. Good luck.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Dig into some of our old books of lore and see what I can learn about lycanthropy. And ways to reverse it.”
My wolf strained inside of me, and I felt my claws extend, but I pulled them back.
A flicker of concern crossed Sam’s face, but she gave me a small grin. “Okay. I’ll hang out here and wait for her to go nuclear while you go read a book. Got it, boss.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Sam, this is vital. No one can know about this.”
“What about Regina?”
“Not now. I’ll tell her and Savannah’s guards as soon as possible, but we have to control the information here. That’s your specialty.”
“Okay.”
“And Sam, no sleeping tonight. The sorcerer is hunting for wolves, and none of us can risk it. We’ll take shifts tomorrow during the day if we have to.”
She nodded. “We got the memo. What about Savannah, though?”
I frowned and growled low. It was a fucked situation, but we didn’t have much choice. “She needs her rest. We’ll have to gamble that the sorcerer is trying to capture her and not incapacitate her. If he tries that stunt again and she starts to sleepwalk, we’ll be here to stop her.”
“Got it.” She didn’t sound convinced.
I headed for the door. “Watch her.”
“Of course. I know what she means to you.”
I froze halfway out of the room, but my pulse started running.
There was no way Sam didn’t catch my reaction, but I pitched my voice as calmly as possible. “Savannah is a liability. That’s what she means to me. If we don’t handle this right, everything could go up in flames.”
“Jaxson,” she said with deep incredulity, “I know she’s your mate.”
My gut wrenched with shock, and I spun around. “How? How do you know?”
Her gaze was steady. “I’m a master of information for a reason. Plus, I know the signs of bonded magic. I suspected it when you dashed out of Eclipse like that. But I’m sure this started long before tonight—I’ve seen the way you’re pulled to her. You can’t resist.”
I braced myself against the door.
I’d been a fool to try to hide it from her. Sam’s parents had been fated mates—she’d grown up with it. And she’d known my sister and Billy well. She intimately knew what to look for. And although she’d never spoken of it, I’d always assumed that she hoped to find her mate one day.
Why she would wish to tie herself to another’s fate was beyond understanding, but it was none of my business.
I stepped very close, so my shadow fell across her. My voice was low and laden with warning. “You tell no one—not Regina, not Tony, not the guards. No one can know. We’ll find a way to reverse this, to change her back.”
My wolf tore at my chest, but I growled to rein him in.
Sam glanced over at Savannah and avoided my eyes. “Is that even possible? And if you could reverse the lycanthropy, do you think that would solve the mate problem?”
I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I don’t know, but I didn’t feel the bond with her until she started shifting. From everything I know, the mated bond doesn’t just develop. It’s always there, and I would have sensed it the first time we met. This has to be lycanthropy. Or some kind of curse.”
Could this have been a perverse trick by the sorcerer? The thought was too much to even contemplate.
Sam searched my eyes. “You’ve always been drawn to her, Jax. In the bar, in the woods…”
“No,” I growled. “Not like this. Yes, she’s gorgeous, but I don’t want her. She is not my mate.”
My wolf began to struggle, demanding to be let loose.
Sam rested her hand on my arm. “This could be a good thing for you.”
I pulled away. “A good thing? This is a fucking disaster! The worst possible thing at the worst possible moment.”
She crossed her arms and cocked her head. “Maybe, maybe not. This could be a bridge to the LaSalles.”
I wrapped my hand around the doorframe and let my claws sink into the wall. It took all my restraint not to rip the molding off.
I tried to steady my breathing, but I was on the verge of shifting. “Are you insane? Do you have any idea what Laurel will do when she finds out that Savannah was infected with lycanthropy? On our watch? And potentially by my brother-in-law, who was also plotting to murder her entire family? It’ll be a war like we haven’t seen in generations.”
Her eyes dilated as the gruesome reality sunk in.
“There’s no option. We have to find an antidote. And until we do, we cover this—” My fangs erupted, and fur bristled along my skin as my wolf began to tear itself free. He was growing more desperate to get out every second that I was near Savannah. I staggered back.
“Fuck,” I rasped. “He wants to meet her. Now. That can’t happen.”
Our mate! my wolf growled from deep inside of me.
Sam gripped my shoulder. “I’ll take care of Savannah. Go. Run your wolf, clear your head.”
Barely able to control my wolf any longer, I grabbed my keys and headed to the door. But I turned before I left as the chill of dread trickled through my veins. “Watch over her, Sam. And remember, do not fall asleep.”
14
Savannah
I woke with a gasp. Another fucking nightmare.
At least the sorcerer hadn’t invaded my dreams this time.
I turned over to go back to sleep, but I froze, eyes wide. These weren’t my sheets.
Every sense in my body screamed at me. I sat up, and my heart clenched as I looked around. Holy shit. Where was I, and how did I get here?
Clutching the white bedsheet around me, I scanned the room.
Think, think, think.
Light streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lake, and I squinted. It was almost blinding. The décor was minimalist and sleek. Expensive. White floors, gray walls.
I racked my brain for any memory of how I had gotten here. Fragmentary images of last night filtered through my mind like rain. The sound of cicadas. Casey. The bonfire.
Panic flickered in my chest. Oh, shit, had I had a one-night stand with one of Casey’s friends?
I squeezed my eyes shut. No. I’d been pissed, and I’d left.
After that, all I could remember was my nightmare of running through the woods. A shiver ran down my aching spine, and I shoved the dream out of my mind.
I slipped out of bed and wrapped the sheet around myself, sucking in a breath as pain trickled through my nerves. Not only did I have a massive hangover, but every bone in my body ached like I’d tumbled down a mountain a few times.
Whatever had happened, it wasn’t cool.
A quick search of the room revealed neither my clothes nor my phone. Shit. I’d left the phone under the seat in Casey’s car. Where my clothes were was anyone’s guess.
I crossed the room and picked up the framed picture that sat alone on the dresser opposite the king-size bed that I’d just awoken in. A woman with dark, curly hair smiled at the camera. My blood froze. She was beautiful and had the same eyes as Jaxson.
The bedroom door creaked, and I spun, holding the framed picture out like it was a weapon.
“Sam?” I released my breath but didn’t put down the picture. “Where am I, and why the hell am I buck-ass naked?”
“I think you should have some coffee.” She stepped into the room and smiled, but I could read the concern on her face. She gave me a wide berth and set the mug on the bedside table. “Do you remember anything from last night?”
