What She Can Do
Rowan*
I’m in my human form as we trek out into the woods so that we can film Hezzlie shifting into her wolf form for her father. I don’t want to be anywhere near her–I just want to trade her for Mara and get her the hell away from my house forever.
And yet, as she walks in front of me, between Dean and James, with Natalie trailing behind us, I catch a whiff of vanilla and strawberries in the air. She smells delectable, and it’s difficult for me to think clearly even in my human form.
I can tell Hezzlie is irritated. She has her arms folded, and she keeps her head pointed straight ahead. I want her eyes on me. I want her to look at me the way I saw her secretly peeking at my naked body when I shifted in front of her that night I pulled her back from the cliff’s edge. I want to feel her lips against mine, like I did when she accidentally kissed me, only deeper. Harder.
But I also want Mara back, and I can’t have both.
The chilly fall air bites into my cheeks, filling my lungs with the scent of decaying leaves, pine, and the stream that flows by just ahead of us. It clears my mind, and I repeat to myself that I’m doing the right thing. I can’t keep Hezzlie and get Mara back.
“All right,” Dean tells her as we step into the clearing. “Just like last night.” He’s holding a camera against his chest, trying not to be obvious, but not hiding it either.
“Why are you recording me?” she asks, whipping her head around to look at him.
“Because Darksky wants to see that you have a wolf.” James has an angry spike to his voice as he responds. He’s glaring at me. I know he hates this and wishes I wasn’t “making a mockery of all wolf-kind” as he yelled at me when I told him what Darksky wanted.
“For my father?” she repeats, finally turning to look at me. “Your archenemy.”
“That’s right.” I keep my expression and tone neutral. “The man who killed my father and stole the princess.”
She shakes her head and mutters, “He probably had a good reason,” under her breath. It makes my blood boil, but she has no idea about any of this and is only lashing out because she’s upset.
She takes her coat off, and Natalie steps forward to hold it for her. Then, she kicks off her shoes and slips out of her jeans before pulling her sweater over her head. I’m not expecting this. She just shredded her clothes the first time she shifted. Seeing her standing there in lacy panties and a matching bra has my dick twitching. I wonder if Dean is recording yet. I assume he is. I want to watch this over and over again but also destroy it.
If she takes off her underwear before she shifts, I might explode.
She doesn’t. Hezzlie closes her eyes and leaps into the air like she’s done this a thousand times. Her majestic black wolf emerges, and she takes off running through the woods.
“You get that?” I ask Dean.
“I got it,” he growls. He’s obviously not happy with any of this either.
“Good. Tell her she can come back now.” I turn to walk back through the woods and hear James calling to Hezzlie to come back, but she doesn’t. Dean tries. There’s no response.
Irritation and panic war inside of me. Is she trying to be disobedient, or did something happen to her? She’s fast, I’ll give her that.
“Go after her,” I tell them both.
“Fuck,” Dean mumbles. He obviously wasn’t planning on shifting tonight. He sets the camera down and starts taking his clothes off a lot slower than I would like. James does the same. It seems to take them five minutes to get down to their boxers. They take off after Hezzlie, eventually, and I stand there and wait.
After several minutes of them being gone, my impatience grows. “Well?” I ask through the mind-link.
“I can smell her, but I can’t find her,” Dean says. “I’m on her trail.”
“I don’t know where she went.” James sounds slightly desperate. “She’s so fucking fast.”
Now, I’m just pissed.
I don’t bother to remove anything, not even my coat as I leap into the air and take a hard left, thinking I can get in front of her that way. She’s fast–but I’m faster. As her mate, I can smell her in the air better than my pack mates can. I cut through a less dense area of the forest and move up toward the high wall that surrounds the mansion. I cut back in the direction she is likely running, and that’s when I see her.
Majestic isn’t even the right word for it. I can’t believe how graceful and lithe she looks as she leaps high into the air, her midnight shadow fur rippling as she sails over a wall so tall she shouldn’t be able to fathom getting over it.
I cringe as I hear her hit the ground on the other side. There’s a drop off there. It’s not a ravine or a cliff or she’d be dead, but it’s a hard fall. I assume she’s probably lying there injured, but when I rush to the nearest gate, which is only a few feet away, and the guards throw it open for me, I don’t see her crumpled body lying on the ground.
No, she’s up and running again, not even limping, as she steadily makes her way through the forest outside of my perimeter. She’s still in my kingdom, for now, but soon enough, she’ll be headed down the side of the mountain that leads to the valley that separates my land from her father’s.
If I don’t catch up to her soon, I’ll lose my bargaining chip–and my mate.
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