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; “What?”
He slid a hand between them, pressing against his stomach. “Oh, shit. I don’t hurt.”
Olivia stared at him as the meaning of his words hit her. She’d read enough of the blogs that talked about the blood rose phenomenon to know that there was always one irrefutable sign: the donor’s blood took away the mastyr’s pain. “You’re not hurting at all, are you?” Panic set in and her heart raced.
She wasn’t kidding when she’d said she wasn’t a relationship kind of woman. She’d lived alone for so long; she wouldn’t know what to do with a man long-term.
“Not even the smallest cramp, and I’ve had this pain for decades. I never thought I’d be free of it. I can’t believe it. But … that makes you … oh, holy fuck.”
She grabbed for some air because she felt horribly dizzy, even though she was lying flat on her back. “This can’t be. I mean I knew I was different. I have this cloaking thing and I sprout fur so easily and I can ghost you.”
“I don’t know what that means, that you can ‘ghost’ me.” Still connected, he frowned down at her. “Are you saying you have a way of tracking me?”
“If you want to call it that. And yes, I’ve been tracking you for months.”
Her gaze shifted along the cliff-line above, over the stars, at the moon just cresting the mountains to the east. She had to get away from him, from this. Maybe her shifter wanted to be close, but the human side of her was scared to death.
She pushed at him and he drew out of her, letting her go.
She hopped to her feet. “I’m going for a swim.”
~
Leaning back on his knees, the sea air cool on his heated cock, he watched as Olivia shifted once more to her wolf state and headed toward the water. He’d felt an odd vibrating snap once she was a few feet away. It took him a moment to realize the sensation had been the release of her cloaking ability. He was now visible.
He wasn’t too concerned. His escape from the camp wouldn’t be understood for a long time, if ever. So Margetta and her forces would have no idea which way to go if they wanted to hunt for him.
He remained where he was for a good long while. He’d never been so stunned in his life by all that had happened. He’d been trapped and whipped by Margetta, then later had a wolf licking his face while he lay prone in his captor’s tent.
He planted his fist on his right quad and stared at the wolf bounding in the ocean, swimming, then bounding out of the water for incredible distances, only to dive back in.
Olivia. A shifter. A blood rose.
Yet his instincts told him she was also part human and she wasn’t connected to Luther’s packs or he would have met her by now. Luther was the ruling alpha of the shifter community as well as the leader of his Shifter Brigade. All shifters, without exception, deferred to him.
The fact that Olivia wasn’t involved with the Swanicott packs meant, by Realm standards, that she was a rogue. Not to present herself to Luther on entering Swanicott was a violation of shifter law.
And she’d just confessed she had some way of tracking him, something she called ‘ghosting’.
So, who the hell was this woman?
He was grateful she’d left him to go for a swim. He needed time to dial down all the sensations that were coursing through him. He had no pain and Olivia had rescued him from a situation that could have easily ended in his death, possibly even the fall of the Nine Realms to Margetta.
He realized now why he’d been unable to resist biting her when they were still inside the camp. His first instinct should have been to get them the hell out of there. Instead, his focus had narrowed down to the intoxicating scent of her blood, that spicy-cinnamon scent he’d never forget so long as he lived.
Shit. A blood rose.
He took deep breaths, then remembered that he needed to make contact with Marian and Chase.
Pathing, he heard Marian’s voice break, even inside his head, Mastyr, is that you?
He’d been so caught up with Olivia, he’d forgotten that his people would have been worried about what happened to him.
I’m fine and I’m safe. He then relayed all that had happened, ending with, Did Chase take over for me?
Absolutely.
