“And you have the emotional maturity of a boiled turnip. This is serious.”
Lucian hops up. “Fair. That I do,” he says and holds up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I knew you had something with her but I didn’t know it was that.”
“The fuck you did.” There’s no way he knew shit about Cordelia and I. I kept my distance. Made sure to keep everything between us strictly by the book. “Ronan ordered me to keep an eye on her.”
That sends Lucian into another fit of laughter. “I bet he did. I’ve seen where your eyes have been going when it comes to her.”
I flip him off. “Fuck you. I’m going. She needs me. I’ll catch up to you on the east ridge in the morning.” I’m a couple of hours from Red River. It’s midnight now, plenty of time till daylight. I’ll get to Cordelia and sort this out before I rejoin Lucian and the others. If I push myself hard I can get there quicker. The Soul Tie spikes. Fear floods me and then anger rushes in. I’ve felt Cordelia feel a lot of things but anger? That’s not an emotion she’s prone to. Whatever it is that’s happening is big. I have to fucking make some moves and get to hernow.
“The ridge. Tomorrow,” I bark at Lucian and start to sprint out of the clearing.
“Wait,” Lucian calls out and I skid to a stop.
“What?”
“Who else knows? About the Soul Tie.”
“No one, just you.” I look at him over my shoulder. All traces of laughter are gone from Lucian’s face. He’s serious now. He knows what a Soul Tie means. “Not a word.”
Lucian crosses his heart. “Not a word. Run fast.”
The run back to Red River is calm, a gift, because Codelia’s emotions are anything but. They rage. Her anger and fear are so potent I can taste them. It gets worse the more time passes. I’m practically choking on them when I sprint through town and up the lane to her cottage. I shift the second I’m within sight of her cottage and discover there’s a new scent.
Citrus? What the fuck is this? I turn my head to track the smell, it’s all over. An alpha that smells like one of thosefrou froudrinks the girls get at the bars in Oak Fast. Sickly sweet. Cloying. The alpha’s scent is everywhere. He was trying to mark her space, claim it. I didn’t smell the alpha when I was on my way in, so where did that fucker come from? I start to investigate when the door to the cottage flies open. Cordelia is theresilhouetted in the light of her fireplace. There’s a loud clang of her dropping something before she says my name.
“Thorne?” Her voice cracks.
That sound in her voice shouldn’t be there. That fear should not be there.
I forget tracking the alpha and do the one thing I want to.
I go to my omega.
Chapter
Forty-Six
CORDELIA
Iwant to say that I kick open the door to my cottage like a badass. I’m sure Piper would kick it, Clover would be ready with a serious elbow but me? I can’t do it even though I try. My hands shake too much when I open the door and I almost shift to let my wolf take over. She’s one hundred percent ready to take Keiran on.
She sends me visions of his throat in her maw. Him screaming and running from her while she howls. It's confusing, the juxtaposition of her anger and my fear. They both collide and mix until it's just one big wave of emotions. Even though I’m drowning, I manage to get the door open and I only hesitate for a half second before I walk inside.
“Keiran?” I call out. I don’t even bother trying to pretend that I don’t know he’s here. His scent is concentrated here and hits me in the face like a brick the second I open the door. He was definitely in my cottage. “Keiran, where are you?” No answer comes but I didn’t exactly expect him to answer me.
I close the door behind me and start to sweep the house. It doesn’t take long because it’s small. There’s not many places for an alpha Keiran’s size to hide. It’s when I’m standing in front of the back door that I realize that’s where he must be if he’snot inside. I sigh and walk back to my kitchen to grab a frying pan. Earlier I was shocked, too thrown off by Keiran suddenly appearing to feel anything but nervousness and fear. But now?
I’m mad again. Mad enough to swing on Keiran if I see him. This time I do throw the door open and charge through, frying pan first. I flip on the back porchlight on my way out. “Keiran?! Where are you?” I yell.
The only answer is the rustle of the trees and the whistling of the wind moving over the mountain. There’s no one back here. I can tell from the way Keiran’s scent is going old. It’s stale. Like he spent time here first before making his way through the rest of my space. Still, I force myself to walk the backyard and look to make sure he’s not there. Once I’m sure he’s not I go back inside and lock all the doors and windows. I didn’t lock them before, didn’t even think of it on account of never having my own space to lock up. In Frostclaw the dorms were open and closed by the Enforcers and Maud never locked her hut up. There was never any need for her to. No one would be dumb enough to try and break in. I figured the same would happen for me here in Red River but that was before Keiran showed up.
“What the hells is he doing here?”
I start to pace the length of my cottage. I look under the bed and check the bathroom again, frying pan leading the way, but he’s not there waiting to leap out at me from the corner of the room. Even if he was in the corner of the room, my cottage is too small for much moving around. I’d be able to nail him with the frying pan before he did much. The thought comforts me while I go from window to window to look outside. I put a pot of tea on while I pace. One hour, then two hours pass with me sipping my tea and keeping watch.
It’s in the second hour that my wolf perks up. She’s been on guard, watchful but quiet. Something is up from the way she goes on alert. Someone is here. It doesn’t feel like Keiran, if itwas him she’d be losing it. Instead she’s interested in whoever it is that’s arriving.
I go to the door and open it. Keiran’s smell is still there but there’s another that cuts right through. Pine and frost. It’s like winter arriving and wiping clean Keiran’s presence. I take a deep breath and my wolf goes calm. We both do. I drop the frying pan on the floor when Throne walks into view. The clanging sound of it on the hardwood has his attention in record time.
