The dawn came quickly and with it, the harsh truth of what he’d done.
Mari bore a gigantic, puckered, angry scar on her shoulder. It spread from the ball of her shoulder all the way up into tender lines of her throat.
It was a mating mark.
He bore its smaller twin on his own shoulder.
He thought it was supposed to feel different. More.
Although, he wondered if maybe they’d broken each other. Maybe they’d felt all the sensations that there were to feel last night. Maybe their wolves felt everything for them.
Except the pain.
His whole body hurt. Even deep inside his bones.
Everything creaked and ached.
Normally, after a night sleeping wild, he’d run down breakfast. In his current state, Warner wasn’t running down shit.
And he wasn’t even actually hungry.
Which concerned him.
Mari stretched and reached for him. He lay back down and held her close.
This thing that had happened between them, he didn’t know if it was good or bad. Probably bad, given the state of things, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Even though he knew he probably should.
She’d come to him.
She’d offered herself to him.
She’d wanted it as much as he had.
He remembered Lenore’s words about how he had to let her choose for herself. It didn’t matter if Warner thought he knew better. Or if he actually did know better. He couldn’t take away her agency.
He remembered last night when she’d demanded he give her the beast.
His cock stirred to life as he thought of it.
“Shut up and lie down,” he whispered. “Now is not the time.”
“Hmm?” she murmured.
He stroked her face and kissed the top of her head. “Shh. Go back to sleep. Everything is fine.”
But it wasn’t fine, was it?
Except when he looked down at her, sleeping so peacefully, looking like a delicate little frost fairy curled up on a pile of holly, he wanted to make it fine.
That’s really what Warner was wired for.
Not just War.
He was a fixer.
And he couldn’t fix this.
His ears perked as he picked up the sounds of something—no someone, in the forest. He lifted his nose to the air and realized it was Lenore.
She was back.
Hopefully, she had the answers they were looking for.
He was grateful when he found he hadn’t shredded all of Mari’s clothes. Her shirt had a rather artful slash across the back from his claws.
Although the jeans, he guessed, when he saw the shredded denim, those were going to be a problem.
“Mari, love. We have company.”
“No.”
“Okay. Be naked if you like. I’m sure Lenore won’t care.” He pushed an ice blond lock of hair away from her forehead. “I know I don’t mind.”
Bleary-eyed, Mari reached for her shirt and when she saw the slash, she arched a brow, but shrugged it on.
The jeans? She just looked at them, looked at him, and looked back at them with a sigh.
Seeing her sitting there in that shirt that he’d torn through like a candy wrapper to get at the tasty treat inside, well… it had him all kinds of hard again.
He’d hadn’t wanted a woman like this in… he couldn’t remember ever feeling like this. Ever being such a slave to his cock.
She sighed again.
“It’s really too bad we don’t have more time.” She raised her eyes to meet his.
She wanted him again, too.
He was starting to wonder if that’s all it would take to keep his darkness in check. If he could just lose himself in a haze of pleasure with Mari. If that was the key. If it was, he’d never complain about this gift again.
Mari crept over to him and crawled into his lap.
“Don’t start something we can’t finish,” he warned her.
She laughed. “We can always finish it. It’s just a matter of when and where,” she teased.
But that was when she did something even more devastating than not fearing what he had become.
She reached up and cupped his cheek while looking into his eyes.
He’d have been tempted to say that was just soft, sweet, Mari. There was something new in her eyes. A kind of knowing that wasn’t softness or sweetness. She saw him.
She really saw him.
And she still wanted to touch his face like that. Still wanted to be his mate.
He didn’t understand it.
Warner could hear Westwood in the back of his head telling him not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but if the Trojans had bothered to look inside their gift horse…
Was that what Mari was? A Trojan horse that once he let her inside, she’d break down all the walls?
She splayed her hand on his chest and leaned her head on his shoulder.
He knew she wasn’t made of spun glass, but she still seemed so delicate here in his arms. He hadn’t broken her last night, he reminded himself. And not for lack of trying. They’d tried to break each other.
He couldn’t remember too many details from the night before. He remembered the pleasure. Goddess, the pleasure.
He remembered when he Changed with her, there hadn’t been as much pain. It had been more natural. More streamlined.
Or maybe his body was becoming accustomed to this new form?
Except, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like there was something different about her Change, too.
She hadn’t become the pretty white wolf he knew her to be. It had been her warrior form, but…
“You usually remember what you do as a wolf, don’t you, Warner? What about in the beginning,” she went on. “Your early Changes. Did you always remember?”
“I suppose since we’re mated, it’s not unusual for you to read my mind. I was just trying to remember last night.”
Lenore emerged from the trees into their camp.
“That’s just rude, Warner. You spend the night with a lady, you damn well better remember,” Lenore teased. “Kick his ass, Mari.”
“I can’t really remember much of it myself.”
“Oh. Should I fuck off for a few hours?” Lenore grinned. “I could go catch some big boy bass for breakfast. Learned to how to do it with my hands when I was a kid. Keep the reflexes fast.”
Part of Warner, mainly his cock, thought that was the best idea he’d ever heard, but he knew they needed to get down to business.
Not that business.
Mari laughed. “No, it’s all good. Although, if you had an extra pair of jeans I could…”
“I don’t do jeans. I do have a pair of leathers, though.” She grabbed her pack from the ground and tugged out a pair of leather tactical pants.
Oh Goddess. No. No way could he handle Mari’s ass in those pants. Nope. Nope. Nope.
And worse, wrapped in leather, she’d smell like food.
Or at least, she would have. Before.
“Thanks.” She disengaged from his lap and took them gratefully.
“I’ll make some coffee if you two want to take a quick dip in the river. You should both be present for what I have to say.”
That didn’t bode well. Not at all.
About an hour later, they convened around a small, contained fire. Lenore had a magically enchanted, foldable fire pit she carried in her pack. Westwood made is especially for her. It was guaranteed to be forest-safe. Never a stray spark would escape it, and with a single word, it would extinguish itself and fold up into a small square. Leaving no trace. Warner thought it was pretty brilliant and he thought it spoke to the kind of person he knew Lenore to be. She cared about what she left behind, how she impacted the world around her.
It occurred to him then that if Lenore believed in him, if Westwood believed in him, if Mari believed in him, then maybe he could believe in himself, too. Maybe it was time to learn a new way.
He guessed maybe you could teach an old dog new tricks.
Although, that shit wasn’t easy. They needed lots of help.
And treats.
All the treats. He was thinking of Mari’s breasts. The way her nipples puckered in the cool night air, the texture of them on his tongue…
He had no problem remembering that.
Lenore poured steaming cups of hot, black coffee.
Mari sipped hers and wrapped her hands around the mug, and Lenore did the same.
“Okay. So.” Lenore exhaled heavily. “The Three did know what was happening. And they promised not to tell Westwood we asked them either.”
“I didn’t ask them not to.” Warner sipped his coffee.
“We didn’t have to. Apparently, the Three have concerns about how much power Westwood has at her disposal now. The Three were queens in their own right and since Westwood married the goblin kind… but that’s neither here nor there.”
“What did they say?” Mari asked.
“There’s a prophecy,” Lenore began.
“Well, that would’ve been nice to know before all this shit with your brother blew up,” Warner grumbled.
“Right? There’s a prophecy about me, too. They wanted me to wash their glass eyes with my tongue before they’d tell me that one. I said fuck it.”
“Fuck it, you did it, or fuck it, it’s not worth it?” Mari questioned.
“It’s not worth it. Not a chance. I think they just wanted to see if I’d do it. Which… no. Anyway, back to the prophecy at hand.” Lenore took another drink. “A darkness will rise in the north blah blah… a Dark Champion… blah, blah.” She shrugged. “We know all that. Oh, by the way. The Dark Champion can only be born into the world by the best of us, the witches said. Only the best of us can channel that kind of power without being corrupted by it.”
Warner snorted. “It’s like…” he struggled for the words he wanted. “Distilled corruption. Like evil nitroglycerin.”
“Damn it, will you just take the compliment?” Lenore grumbled.
“I didn’t know I was avoiding it.”
“You always do,” Mari said. “It doesn’t feel out of the ordinary, because it isn’t.”
“Listen, we don’t need a Warner’s Awesome Party. We need to—”
“Why not? I’d love a Mari’s Awesome Party.”
“Hey, me too. I’d love a Lenore Rocks Party. We should do that.”
“Like herding cats. Goddess Above.” Warner sighed.
“Oh. Right. Sorry. Anyway.” Except Lenore didn’t say anything else. She looked back and forth between Warner and Mari.
“Holy Goddess, woman. Spit it out. It’s not like not telling us is going to change it.”
“Stop taking her name in vain, Warner. She’s going to smite you,” Mari teased.
“Look, either I’m her favorite or I’m not. There should be some perks to this Dark Champion garbage.”
“Fair enough. Before I go on, I have to ask something personal. Mari, is that a true mating mark on your neck?” Lenore looked worried.
“Yes. Why?” She bit her lip.
Whatever Lenore was going to say, Warner knew that it was going to hurt his Mari. Goddessdamn it. Why? Being with him had only brought her pain. She deserved so much better.
“The Three say that whence the Dark Champion rises, so too does his mate.”
Mari closed her eyes for a long moment. “What does that mean? Aside from the fact that we all know it’s not me.”
Warner hated the surety in her voice, but he couldn’t argue. Being with him had made her darker, but she wasn’t—
“She will be a Wendigo.” Lenore took a breath. “She will rise from the dead to join her mate in the fight. Wendigoare monsters. They’re the source of a lot of human lore about werewolves. They’re… insatiable.”
“And they feed on their own.” Like me, Warner thought.
A small voice inside of him said he wouldn’t have to be alone. To rejoice. That he wouldn’t have to hold back with this mate. That she would be his equal in every way. He couldn’t hurt a Wendigo.
Not like he could hurt Mari.
“Oh. I see,” Mari said aloud.
He was afraid that she did see. If he could’ve saved her this pain, he would’ve. And damned if he hadn’t tried. He’d tried to leave her, he’d tried to stay away. He’d tried not to touch her, but she’d demanded he surrender and so he had.
“It’s going to be Arianna, isn’t it?” Mari continued flatly. “She was meant to have been Warner’s in life, now in death, she will be. She’d come back to fight for her pack and her family.”
Lenore reached out and squeezed her hand. “We don’t know who it is. The Three tried to scry to see, but her face was shrouded from them.”
Warner opened his mouth to speak, but Mari turned fiery eyes on him. “If you even think about telling me to go back to Aphelion, I swear by all that’s holy you won’t make it to your next mate. She’ll have to raise you from the dead, too.”
That had been exactly what Warner was going to suggest, but he’d since thought better of it.
“Uh, no. Nope. I was just going to ask if you wanted more coffee.”
“No. I don’t. I’m ready to head north and find these fuckers.”
“A woman after my own heart,” Lenore said.
“It’s probably the leather pants. They make me feel like a badass.”
“You are a total badass. You’re brave and smart and strong,” Lenore said.
Warner looked at Mari and saw her in a new light. He knew that she was all of those things, but somehow, it hadn’t clicked in his head.
Of course she was brave and smart and strong. Mari was amazing.
Which was part of why he didn’t want her anywhere near where they were going.
Warner’s ears pricked. Gooseflesh raised across his body and all the hairs he possessed stood on end. He realized he probably looked like an agitated cockatoo, but it hit him hard and fast.
Their time was running out.
Something had happened.
“What is it, Lassie?” Lenore teased.
“Eat a dick, Lenore.” He snorted. “But seriously, we need to go. And we need to go fast.”
“What’s happened?” Mari asked.
“I don’t know, only that something has. We need to run.” He turned to look at Lenore. “I’ll carry you. I don’t want to hear any complaints.”
“You won’t get any.”
“I might after you see what I look like when I Change.” Christ, but he hoped he could keep it together long enough to carry the hunter as far as they needed to go. He prayed the beast would keep his shit in check and realize how much they needed the hunter.
He Changed.
To Lenore’s credit, after she whispered the magic words that cleaned up the camp and made their supplies small enough to pocket and she simply climbed onto his back and held on.
It wasn’t long before they were running so fast it was like flying and Mari kept pace beside him.