Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“Birds are fliers.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So why don’t they group in with the dragons?”
“Dragons are their own brand of clusterfuck. Don’t listen so closely.”
“But . . . I . . .” I grabbed the door in sudden alarm as we passed through, trying to stop the forward momentum.
I’d been waiting for this, wanting this. I’d thought I was ready. And I was—for Weston. I was ready for the claim, for his mark, for our forever. But coming to terms with the fact it was a super-big deal? Doing it in front of the king and queen and the pack? And what if he finally let me join the pack bond and I mucked it all up? Or what if I couldn’t be a commander and it dashed all Weston’s hopes? What if I wasn’t cut out for all this?
I had the horrible realization that, while I was diligently working on my product, I’d been ignoring the extreme gravity of this situation. Suddenly I was not at all prepared.
“I’m not ready,” I bleated, clutching the edges of the door as Hadriel grabbed my legs and tried to pull me through.
Vemar came up behind us and stopped, watching me with a grin.
“Help me, Vemar,” I pleaded.
“I really enjoy you, Captive Lady, but I will not stand between you and your panic.”
“For such a small fucking thing, she’s as strong as a dragon,” Hadriel said, wrestling me.
“What in the—”
A whip crack made Vemar flinch and Hadriel jump away from me. He turned to find Leala marching closer, and balled his fists at his sides.
“I hate whips, Leala! How many times do I need to tell you that?” he yelled. “I do not get off on pain.”
“Oh hush, you big baby, I didn’t even touch you.” She reached for me, but my mind had frazzled and I was already running.
“Do we chase?” Vemar asked as I put distance between us.
“Yes, we fucking chase! Fuck, she’s fast. Hurry, Vemar, you have long legs, get her!”
A thrill came over me. I shed clothes as I went, streaking across the grass and leaving my layers behind me. I stopped long enough to shift, and then my wolf and I were gone, darting between the trees and running like fucking hell.
“What are we doing?” she asked, and I was surprised she was going along with this.
“I don’t know. Getting away? Giving ourselves some time? Freaking the fuck out?”
“Why is this scary?”
“I don’t know! I’m not prepared. The next chapter of my life is really, actually going to start now, but I don’t think my baggage is going anywhere, and he might get tired of it! What if I can’t handle a pack? What if I let Weston down, what if he is making a terrible mistake and realizes too late that I’m nobody, what if—”
“Okay, okay. Yeah, that’s all valid. Let’s hide.”
She didn’t immediately hide, though, because shifters popped out of the woodwork like insects, trying to tackle us. Or maybe they were playing? My wolf didn’t know, but she knew she needed to avoid them. We cut across a village, darted through a square and then out the other side of it, down a lane and through an Everlass field.
“Have you been keeping track of where we are?” I asked.
“I don’t know where we are. I’ve never been over here before.”
“Can you get back?”
“You want to go back now? We’re still trying to get away!”
She ran through the trees and then into deep brush, thorns scratching along her sides. She went deeper still and found a berm with a hole in it, big enough for her to squeeze down into.
“This isn’t a good idea,” I said as she wound her way into the earth. “This isn’t a good idea at all. How the fuck are we going to get out of here?”
“It’s okay—this’ll work out.”
“I really don’t see how. Back up! Seriously, stop going forward and start going back. What if there is something in here?”
“It’s a really good idea you’re not in charge right now,” she said.
“I fail to see how!”
At the end of the animal tunnel was a little den, big enough for her to turn around on her belly and face the way we’d come. She finally stopped.
“What if someone comes down after us?” I asked, our heart pounding.
“Who would be stupid enough to crawl down into this hole?”
I was mute for a long moment. “I wish I could punch you in the face.”
“Sharing a body with you is like being punched in the face over and over, constantly.”
I needed to take some deep breaths, but I wasn’t in charge of the body.
“Breathe,” I told her, needing to feel our lungs filling with air. “Just breathe for a second. I need to breathe.”
Thankfully, she didn’t push back, humoring me and sucking in air. The den smelled musty and old, like it hadn’t been used in a while. That, at least, was positive news. Silence filled the space, and she laid her head down on her paws.