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Mila
As I stood there in front of Alexander, I couldn’t help but stare into those honey brown eyes of his. The moonlight caught on them, causing them to twinkle through the darkness of the night.
There was just something about this guy, something that I had never seen in any other werewolf I had ever met before.
It wasn’t just the way his longish, light brown hair fell onto his forehead a little or his athletic body type, either. The guy was good looking... Okay, maybe a little more than good looking, but it was more than that. It was even more than the adorable hint of a French accent I heard when he spoke.
It was the brush of his lips against my skin, the feel of my hand in his... It felt like his touch was magnetic. I had never really felt that way before. And to be honest, the feeling sort of scared me.
I quickly withdrew my hand from his.
“I’ve heard about you,” I told him. “I was unaware that you were still alive.”
“Yeah, it seems that no one knows.” A sad smile touched his lips. “Fortunately, I am very much alive or else I never would have gotten the opportunity to have this chance encounter with your beautiful self.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I rolled my eyes at him. So, he was one of those. The type who thought he could win his way to a girl’s heart just by calling her pretty.
Well, I had been around for hundreds of years. I had met plenty of guys like him – enough of them to know that I didn’t want to have to deal with one of those.
Forcing myself to pull my eyes away from him – which was a task in and of itself, considering he was the most attractive guy I had laid my eyes on in a long time, if not ever – I turned my attention back to Elias.
“So, have you figured out why my vision brought us here yet?” I swallowed hard. “Any sign of... Jax?”
Elias shook his head. “No, nothing.”
I sighed. I should have figured as much. “I guess that means we have some exploring to do then.”
“Whatever you do, don’t touch the purple boulder at the center of the woods,” Alexander said from behind me. “If you do, you’ll end up stuck here for the rest of your life. With me.” He shot a cocky grin in my direction.
“Thanks for the tip. I will make sure that, no matter what I do, I will not lay hands on that purple rock,” I replied.
“Why? We could have a lot of fun being stuck here together. It would be our own personal paradise.” His lips turned into that cocky grin again.
I rolled my eyes at him and then glanced over at Elias. “Bash hasn’t come this way, has he?”
Elias shook his head. “Nope.”
“We need to warn him about that rock,” I said matter-of-factly. “We should probably look for him. Knowing Bash, he’s probably already touched the stupid thing.”
“What rock?” I heard a female’s voice ask from behind where Elias was standing.
My brother turned around and then let out a low, angry growl. “Blair, Camryn, what are you doing here? I thought I told both of you to wait in the car for me.”
“You did. We don’t listen,” Blair replied with a smile.
“Well, you need to learn to listen,” Elias snapped at her in a harsh tone. “If you know what’s best for you, you will listen.”
I felt my jaw drop a little bit. This was the meanest I had ever seen Elias be towards, well, anyone outside of our own pack. I knew that his emotions were running high since we were missing Jax, but that didn’t mean he needed to take it out on Blair. It wasn’t like any of that was her fault. She was nothing but an innocent human in all of this.
“I-I’m sorry,” Blair replied quietly.
“Don’t be sorry. Just do as you’re told from now on,” Elias replied, his tone softening a little bit.
I watched for a moment as the two of them just stared at one another, shifting awkwardly in my shoes.
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air between all of us for a few moments. Then, finally, Camryn cleared her throat nervously.
“So, um, have any of you guys seen Jax?” she asked quietly.
“I’m afraid not,” Elias replied, shaking his head sadly. “But hey, we’re here now. That means we’re at least one step closer to finding him.”
Camryn nodded, but she didn’t look entirely convinced. Not that I could blame her. The truth was that I was worried, too. I was worried that my premonition had sent us off in the wrong direction, worried that something would happen to my brother and we would never save him.
I knew I shouldn’t worry. I needed to just hope for the best. All of my premonitions had been spot on lately, so there was no real reason this one shouldn’t have been.
At least, that was what I hoped.
“We should all really go look for Bash,” I commented then. “We need to find him and then figure out why we’re here.”
“I agree,” Elias said with a nod. He glanced over at Blair and Camryn. “Now that you guys are already out of the car, I suppose we should stick together.”
“I think that sounds like a good plan,” Blair agreed with a nod as she tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. Even in the darkness, I couldn’t help but think that her cheeks looked rosy. It also looked like sweat was just dripping down her forehead.
“Blair, it’s hot out here. Aren’t you burning up in that hoodie?” I asked her with raised eyebrows.
“No, I’m fine,” she said quickly – almost a little too quickly. So quickly that I couldn’t help but think that she must have been hiding something under that sweatshirt. I just wondered what.
“Well, let’s get moving,” Elias commented then.
“Hey, what about me?” Alexander asked.
I glanced over at him with raised eyebrows. “What about you?”
“Well, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?” He pointed his angular chin at the other girls.
I rolled my eyes. “You guys, this is Elias’s pain in the ass friend, Alexander.”
“Who just happened to be hanging out in Devil’s Falls?” Camryn eyed him curiously.
“For the past seventeen years, I’m afraid.” He gave her a sad smile. “And you are?”
“I’m Camryn,” she replied. “And this is my best friend, Blair. Be careful around her, please. She’s a human.”
Blair shot Camryn a look of annoyance. “Way to point it out to everyone.”
“Sorry,” Camryn apologized with a shrug. “But you are.”
A look I couldn’t quite identify passed through Blair’s eyes then.
“Camryn is Jax’s mate,” Elias informed Alexander.
“And fiancée,” I added.
“You don’t say?” Alexander’s eyes narrowed in on Camryn. “Congratulations to you. Jax is a good fella.”
“Well, he’s my fella and if we don’t find out where the hell he is and soon, he and I will both die,” she replied in an impatient tone.
“Oh, so you and he are soul-bound,” Alexander realized aloud.
“Yep. So, you can help us figure out where the hell he is or you can just choose to be useless. The choice is yours,” she told him and then began to walk in the woods ahead of us.
Elias looked frustrated that she was leading the way and taking over some of his Alpha duties, but he followed after her anyway.
I glanced over my shoulder at Blair as she fell behind. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt, which made me wonder, yet again, what she could’ve been hiding.
I wasn’t going to question her then and there. I would wait until we were alone before I cornered her. But for now, I would keep my eye on her.
As we began to move forward through the woods, I heard it off in the distance.
The sound of a scream.