Magic Side: Wolf Bound Complete Series: Books 1-4, page 58
Damn it all to hell.
40
Jaxson
Savannah’s lips were plump from our kiss, her breathing heavy as she stared at me with disappointment. She was fucking gorgeous. “Then you better let me go, Jaxson, because I’m not in control of my body right now.”
Her words were truer than she realized, I thought, biting back the curse that rose in my throat. I tried to push away, but my fingers sank into her skin, and my hold on her was stronger than before.
Fuck. The fates were in control now.
“I don’t think I can do that,” I said, my voice gravelly.
Savannah arched her brow, her pupils fully dilated and her skin flushed. “What are you suggesting?”
Her palms pressed against my chest, and though we were standing waist deep in the water, I could still smell and feel her damn heat. Like a drug, it was clouding my judgement.
I slipped my hand around her ass and lifted her to me. Just because I couldn’t fuck her didn’t mean we couldn’t do other things.
Savannah wrapped her legs around me and moaned as she pressed her heat into me. Thank fuck I’d left my jeans on, or all bets would have been off.
Cupping the back of her head with my free hand, I drew her mouth to mine, this time with less urgency. I brushed my lips against hers, inhaling and memorizing every note of her citrus sunshine scent. Her body fit so perfectly against mine, and though I knew it was only because of our bond, I couldn’t deny how right she felt.
I nipped her lower lip, and then gently parted her lips with my tongue, tasting her desire.
“Jaxson, I want you,” she whispered breathlessly into my mouth.
Releasing my fingers from her hair, I kissed her neck, dragging my tongue over her salty skin. She tasted so fucking good, I wanted to lick every inch of her.
“Tell me what you want, darling,” I purred, delighting in the way her body quivered under my touch.
“You. Inside me. Now,” she panted, arching her spine and exposing her neck to me.
My wolf surged against my chest at the sight, desperate to claim his mate. My intentions to move slowly were extinguished by the growing desire I felt building in both of us. With a quick movement, I positioned Savannah on my knee, supporting her back while I drew my other hand down between her breasts, following the curve of her body to the apex of her thighs. The sight of her hard nipples under the black lace threatened to send me over the edge, and a savage heat coiled inside of me.
She spread her legs, giving me access, and as my fingers slid under her panties and slipped inside of her, I felt just how ready she was.
“Fuck,” I growled. My jeans were suddenly painfully restricting.
“Yes,” Savannah groaned as I worked her heat, following every whimper and shiver until she was on the edge. And so was I.
She slipped her arm between us and unfastened my jeans, then took my length in her hand. With a moan, she ground her hips against me, her body trembling as her fingers deftly stroked me. The forest around us faded away as my desire intensified to an agonizing height.
When she dropped her head back and screamed my name, my release hit me like an explosion tearing across every nerve ending in my body. Pure ecstasy like I’d never experienced before pulsed through me. I felt like a godsdamned teenager.
What the fuck?
My chest heaved as I cradled Savannah’s spent body, our breaths mixing. She straightened her spine and looked up at me with a vixen smile. “That was amazing.”
It was. Better than any sex I’d ever had. And that was alarming. Whatever connection I’d felt with Savannah had now grown tenfold, and I knew for certain that the image of me deep inside her would relentlessly haunt my thoughts until I gave in.
“You are amazing.” I drew her close and kissed her gently, nipping her lower lip before releasing her and lifting her out of the water onto the grass. I kissed the pale skin of her inner thighs, feeling heat coil inside of me again. “Now I need a dip to cool off.”
I pushed away from her, and she smirked at me. “You sure you don’t want company?”
Hell, I could smell her own budding desire.
“You’re torturing me,” I grunted, not sure how strong my willpower was. Something had changed.
I turned and dove underwater, trying to focus on anything but the sweet taste of her mouth and the slick wetness I’d found between her legs.
I was a fucking goner.
When I surfaced, Savannah was lying on the grass, one knee raised as she gazed at the heavens. I finished cleaning up and climbed out.
Settling next to her, I scooped her up. She nestled her head on my shoulder and draped her leg over mine. Where there had been electricity before, there was now only the low thrum of a current passing between our skin.
“This was a good night.” She sighed, resting her hand on my chest. I could smell her contentment, or maybe it was mine.
I traced her back, watching the stars above as my thoughts churned.
Savannah was everything my body desired. But she was like a bottle of fine wine. Every sip I took, the more I wanted, and the further from reality I slipped. From responsibility—my responsibility to my endangered pack. Theirs was the only future that mattered. While I might want Savannah, I had to think on behalf of thousands more.
I was bewitched and drunk. And I needed to sober up.
We had to find a cure for her condition. When she returned to being only a sorcerer, only a LaSalle, then maybe the bond would be severed, and I could resist her siren call.
But she’s ours.
Savannah’s soft snores filled the silence, and I smiled.
And froze.
“Savy, wake up!” I jerked upright, grabbing her shoulders, but her eyes were shut, her mind somewhere distant.
Then she began to fade away.
41
Savannah
I breathed in Jaxson’s signature and sighed, letting my mind drift.
Everything felt right, for once.
Wake up!
My wolf’s warning echoed through my mind, but I didn’t want to. Jaxson and I were wrapped in a marvelous dream of dancing and swimming and kissing, and I never wanted to wake.
Suddenly, the firm warmth of his body was gone, replaced by rough ground and a seeping cold. I shivered as a chill brushed over my skin. Why was I so cold?
I opened my eyes and blinked, but there was only darkness. I reached out for Jaxson, but I was alone. Fear strangled my heart, and I bolted upright.
“Jaxson!” I searched the pitch-black void—a dark so deep that it made my skin tingle. The stars and moon and lights of the maenad’s revel were gone, and the only sound was the faint echo of my voice.
Where the hell was I?
Calm down, Savy, and think.
The last thing I remembered was holding Jaxson, my cheek pressed to his warm chest. And then I’d closed my eyes…
Oh, no.
The maenad’s warning echoed through my mind: don’t fall asleep.
Fuck. I’d drifted off, and now I was God-knows-where.
My ass cheeks ached from the rocks that were jabbing into my backside, and the ground was damp and muddy. A faint but omnipresent sound of dripping water was maddening with my heightened hearing.
Don’t panic.
I just needed to figure out where I was and then find a way out. That was possible, right?
I climbed to my feet, cursing when I realized that all I was wearing was my lacy underwear. Not good.
My eyes started to adjust to the darkness. A faint purple glow began to form shadows, and I could discern the muddy, root-ridden walls that rose around me.
I fought the fear that surged in my heart. I was entombed in the fucking earth, barefoot and practically naked.
Things could always be worse. Maybe.
My light source was traces of bioluminescent lichen that speckled the walls. At least it was something.
A steady current of fresh air blew through the passage, and a sliver of hope welled up in my chest. If there was air, then there’d be an opening, a way out.
I thanked the fates for my new wolf senses. One time only.
Gingerly shuffling forward, I began making my way toward the source of the air. It was slow going, but after a few minutes, my vision adjusted, and I’d blocked out the dull pain in my soles. I had to scramble over collapsed piles of stone and squeeze through a knifelike gap in the rocks, leaving scratches across my stomach and bruises on my knees.
Covered in scrapes and mud, I finally emerged into a forked passage. I paused. I’d seen this place before in a vision. When I’d last scried on the sorcerer right before we’d ambushed Billy’s cabin. Fear crept under my skin. Both ways were constricted, but the current of air was blowing from the one on the left.
I started that way but froze as a faint murmur of whispers stilled my heart. What the hell was that? I craned my neck and listened. Words, but too subtle to make out.
I glanced at the passage to my left, the way out of this nightmare, and then at the passage to my right, the one with the voices, beckoning me to follow.
I had the uneasy feeling that I wasn’t here by coincidence. I had no idea why, but something had pulled me here. My own intentions? Or perhaps another’s?
While the way out was to the left, it wasn’t the way that led to answers.
“Fuck,” I murmured as I shook off my misgivings and went right, slowly making my way into the darkness with the voices.
This was how stupid people in horror flicks got themselves killed, I thought. But something inside of me, urged me to follow the whispers. A sixth sense.
Or a death wish.
The roots in the walls thickened as the voices grew louder, but still, I couldn't discern their words. As I pressed further into the underground hell, the smell of sweat and grime burned my throat. What was that?
My heart pounded against my ribs as I followed the musk, and then I froze.
Lining the walls of the cave, wrapped in roots, were bodies.
Horror coursed through me as I gazed up at the clusters of suspended people. Their skin was ashen and smudged with dirt, and apart from the barely perceptible rise and fall of their chests, they appeared dead.
I moved closer and sucked in a sharp breath when I recognized the face of a woman—one of the sleepers Jaxson had shown me on his laptop. These were the shifters who’d fallen under the sorcerer’s curse.
I reached out to touch her, but a familiar voice stopped me: “Savannah, you know what they say. Let sleeping wolves lie."
My heart clenched.
Kahanov.
I slowly turned as his foul signature buffeted my senses.
“You bastard.” My nailbeds itched, and my wolf stirred.
“I had a dream I would see you again,” Kahanov said. “Funny how interesting dreams can get when they become real. What brings you here, anyway?”
I tensed to leap, but he whipped up a hand that erupted in green flame. “Ah, ah, ah. I could’ve already killed you where you stand, but I want you alive. We need to talk.”
I froze. How fast could he move?
“Release the wolves,” I snapped, trying to buy myself time to think.
“No. Not until you give me yours.”
What the hell did he mean?
I’ll rip his throat out! my wolf snarled in my mind.
My canines shot down, and hair erupted along my arms. I gasped as my shoulders started to stretch, but I shoved my wolf back and stopped the transformation.
“Wrestling with your better nature?” Kahanov laughed. “It’s such a tragic thing.”
I circled him cautiously, and he shifted, keeping himself out of reach. “I hate to see you burdened by your wolf, Savannah.”
“You did this to me! You turned me into a fucking monster!” I snarled as bitterness flashed under my skin.
His lips pulled into a deranged smile. “Me? Not at all. You’ll have to blame someone else for that. But I can help you get rid of your little wolf problem, if that’s what you’re aiming for.”
My skin crawled under his gaze. “Fuck you. Stay the hell away from me.”
He parted his hands, though the flames persisted. “Steady on. We can put our differences aside and help each other. You have something that you don’t want—a wolf—which just so happens to be what I need. Give me the Soul Knife, and I can free you from your beastly burden, once and for all. Everything will go back to the way it was.”
The way it was. What a foreign thought. I wanted that so desperately—to not be ruled by another spirit, to not have to worry about hiding the monster that I'd become. She wasn't supposed to be inside me. We were complete opposites, and she fought me at every turn. I was broken, and maybe this was a chance to fix that.
Don't you dare, my wolf growled.
But I couldn’t, could I? She wasn’t a part of me—yet she was part of me, bonded in some twisted way.
Doubts whirled through my mind, and I desperately needed to keep Kahanov talking until I could figure out a way out of this mess. “Why my wolf? You’re surrounded by werewolves. Why me?”
“Because you’re different, and your wolf is different.” The flames surrounding his hands flickered in his eyes, and the air hung with rage. “Because your family took mine and left me incomplete, forced me to inhabit this pathetic shell of a body. This is their fault, but you can fix it. Just tell me where the fucking knife is.”
“No,” my wolf and I growled together.
“Okay, Savannah, how about I sweeten the pot?” He strode toward the sleeping shifters and drew his fingers through the hair of a man in his twenties. “You give me your wolf, and I’ll let you and all these people go. I’ll swear a blood oath on it. If you don’t—well, I can’t ensure their safety.”
My stomach dropped.
I had to do something.
My wolf reared up in my chest, and I stumbled backward. I'll fucking tear your throat out if you hand him that knife, she said.
“I’m not giving up the knife!” I shouted, both to him and to my wolf, as I wrestled for control.
“Fine. I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” He dismissed the flame from his hand, drew a vial of red liquid from his pocket, and took a sip. Magic swirled around him, and he raised a hand. “Stop.”
To my horror, I froze in place. I could feel his magic inside me. In my blood. My eyes darted to the vial.
He grinned as a trickle of red slipped from his lip. “You forget—I’m a blood sorcerer, and I have your blood. Now, let’s start with something simple. What are you doing in the Dreamlands?”
“Visiting Cavra,” I said before I could even attempt to resist. I clapped my hands over my mouth.
His eyes widened. “Cavra? You little minx…” Suddenly, he stiffened as a realization struck him. “What did she ask of you?”
“The bloodstone,” I replied through clenched teeth, willing my voice to be silent.
Kahanov swore and spat, then stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “Tell me where the Soul Knife is.”
“It’s here,” I heard myself say.
He laughed. “Really? Clever girl. Show it to me.”
I fought his control, but my blood began to boil.
Help me, I begged my wolf.
I felt her strength rise within, a snarled torrent of rage. Tell that bastard to—
“Fuck off!” we roared together as my body shook with her fury.
“So much stronger now!” Kahanov hissed. Then he gritted his teeth and pointed his finger at me. I felt his signature surge, a vile, dominating presence pushing down on me from every direction.
I let out a single sob of frustration as my resistance broke, and I summoned the Soul Knife. The cursed thing materialized in my hand in a swirl of purple smoke.
My heartbeat raced. It was happening all over again, just as he had dominated me in my room. Every muscle strained in protest.
He opened his palm. “Give it to me. Put it in my hand.”
He was so powerful, I knew that even with the strength of my wolf, I couldn’t resist.
But his words gave me a slender opening.
“Here, asshole!” I lunged and put the blade in his hand—point first. The vial shattered in a burst of glass and blood, and he screamed in rage.
A green wall of fire erupted from his hands. The shockwave seared my skin and threw me backward. I crashed into the wall and gasped as roots dug into my spine.
“Give me the damn knife!” Kahanov sprang forward and grabbed my wrist, but I kneed him in the groin.
He roared and, seizing me by my waist, threw me to the ground.
I screamed as the rocks jabbed into my side, but I kept my hold on the Soul Knife.
A crazed grin cut his face, and he lifted his arm and pointed at me.
Run, Savy. Get out of here, my wolf shouted in my mind.
The panic in her voice sent a fresh wave of alarm through me. I rolled onto my knees, but as I was climbing to my feet, his magic slammed me back against the wall. Piercing pain shot through my wrist, and the Soul Knife flew from my grasp. It clattered against the ground, and Kahanov laughed, delight clear in his voice, as he raced toward it.
Get out of here. NOW! My wolf pressed against my ribs.
No. This had to end.
As Kahanov bent down to scoop up the knife, I launched forward, crashing into his back. The force knocked him off balance, and together, we hurtled to the ground.
He grunted and cursed, then swung his elbow back, catching me square in the cheekbone. My adrenaline and fear dulled the pain, though, and I grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed his face into the dirt. "Die, you psycho prick!"
He roared and swung his arm around. I didn't see the blade until it sank into my thigh. Searing pain shot through my leg, and my vision doubled.
As Kahanov pulled the knife free, I slammed my hand into him and released an uncontrolled burst of magic. He flew back as I scrambled backward across the floor of the cave. My chest heaved, and I shook my head, trying to quiet the tortuous noises in my mind.
