Page 58 of Bound

There was no place in Austin that better embodied the city’s funky Keep Austin Weird motto than South Lamar. Vintage clothing boutiques and tattoo parlors competed for retail space with doggie daycares. Kerbey Lane, Austin’s famous all-night diner with its iconic coffee cup sign, lured breakfast lovers in with promises of 24-hour vegan blueberry pancakes.

Topher talked to Cal while I drove, the storm blowing through with the wild fury of Texas weather in early fall, lashing the highway with sheets of rain as overhead, branches of lightning tore the sky in two. Power lines were down all across the city, the rain-slicked streets leading into Austin strewn with leaves and branches torn loose by the wind. I checked my phone, squinting as a carload of college students pulled around from one of the drive-in spaces, splashing through the water running four inches deep over the drainage ditch leading out to the street. It was well after midnight, and our contact still hadn’t showed.

Topher shook his orange slushie, flicking a glance around the 24-hour Sonic where we were currently waiting for our contact. “Best tater tots in town. My granddad used to take us here to grab dinner before musicals on the Zilker Hillside Theatre in the summers.”

There was a note of longing in his voice.

“When things get back to normal, we should spend the day down here. You can show me all your favorite haunts.”

A smile quirked at his lips. “I like that idea. Go off the diving board at Barton Springs. Lie out on towels in the shade eating shaved ice from the food trucks. Then walk down to South Lamar for tacos and margaritas. Make a whole day of it.”

Leaning in, he pressed a soft kiss to my lips, and my heart twisted. I thought of the uncontrolled shifting, my failed attempts to contain my magic within my blood, and what River had discovered in the Council archives. If Omega wolves didn’t get mated by a certain age, they were a danger to themselves and others, and had to be destroyed. I wanted to be with Topher, felt sick at the thought of us being parted. But this time, it had to be his choice.

My phone chimed with an incoming alert. I pulled up my news feed.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Reports of a police raid up in the Texas panhandle near the New Mexico border.”

“The same pack your dad was talking to before he was taken?”

“Near there, yeah.”

“And you think it’s connected?”

“No… maybe? It’s been two years. Some days it feels like we’re grasping at straws, chasing down every crazy conspiracy theory.” I brought up the last text exchange between me and my dad, two years earlier.

Dad: Is August’s phone broken? He keeps sending me strings of icons.

West: He and River have a bet going to see who can get you to crack first. Send him back the skull emoji.

Dad: Okay, but what if I just threaten to throw his phone in the lake?

West: That works, too.

Dad: Gotta run, but I read your latest chapter. You have a real talent. One of these days you need to think about writing a book of your own.

“I never answered him,” I said softly. “I was going to, you know? But I didn’t want to say something flippant, and so I put it off. Less than an hour later we all felt him scream through the pack bond.”

Whiskey-amber eyes caught mine, then flicked over my shoulder as footsteps approached. At five foot three, London Blake looked about as unassuming as they came, particularly now when she was dressed in lime-green sneakers Lacey would have stolen from her closet, yoga pants, and a preppy cotton candy-pink hoodie that looked like it came from the local mall. Her long cornsilk-blonde hair had been tied back in a high ponytail and secured in a pink Texas Longhorns cap. She looked like she’d just finished a run around Lady Bird Lake, pretty much the last person anyone who passed by on the street would suspect of being the former Alpha of the North Austin pack, currently hunted by the Tracers.

A silver SUV that had been parked in the last spot turned off its engine. Phoenix Richards got out and flicked the key fob to reset the alarm, gaze shifting across the parking lot to where a group of college students were texting beneath KerbeyLane’spancakes special board. He looked far wearier than the last time I’d seen him. Dark circles stood out beneath his eyes. Phoenix was a Born like me, a third-generation shifter, someone for whom control shouldn’t have been an issue. And yet I could feel his wolf dangerously close to the surface, straining within his bones, the animal fighting the man. He glanced between me and Topher, mouth flattening at the sight of our knees touching under the table.

“Alpha.”

London’s jade-green eyes narrowed, the reaction so slight anyone else might have missed it. And then she reached into the Sonic to-go sack she was carrying and tossed him a wrapped burger. “You look like hell, Richards. They stop feeding you guys up at the pack house?”

The easy smile returned. “Nah. Just learning why you never seemed to get any sleep when you were running things.”

“Watch your back.” London took a sip of what smelled like a cherry limeade, then nodded to me. “You got the proof of life?”

“It’s Kieran. August confirmed it.”

“ID on the sender?”

“We believe he’s being held by Zara’s people. Course, Vlad might be lying to us.”

“Not likely. Any further communication?”