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LUKE
Inever asked for a mate bond.
I never craved the soul wrenching pull that my brothers in arms talked about in our long nights by the campfire. To me, those witches in the castle were silly things, dressing up in their gowns and marching around chanting, every one of them raised up soft in the human realm, completely unprepared for the real duties of protecting that damned library or being a guardian’s mate.
But like it or not, I was bound now to one of them, and there was nothing I could do about that.
As we came through the thicket and rounded the corner, an impossible scent reached my keen nose. Something I’d learned of in my training, but never had the misfortune to meet face to face.
A hellhound.
I took another disbelieving deep breath of the crisp air, just to be sure, but there was no mistaking the mix of rot and sulfur that followed such an unnatural beast.
If the Order had summoned a creature this powerful, then they were getting bold, or desperate. Either way, it meant trouble.
The thought of the girl in danger set my protective instincts on fire, as if it were my own vulnerable flesh out there thrashing through the trees.
I regretted making her march after me. I should have slung her over my shoulder the minute I laid eyes on her.
I stepped backward into a shallow cave on the hillside and waited for her to catch up. On my own, I might have stood and fought. But I couldn’t risk the human getting spooked by my other form and running out of my protection and into certain death.
Closing my eyes, I called the beast forward a bit, so that I could sense her better.
As soon as the delicious throb of her heart signaled that she had rounded the bend I grabbed her and yanked her inside.
She gasped and struggled uselessly against me.
I put my hand over her mouth and pinned her to the wall of the cave, covering her body with mine, to stop her making noise and to cover her scent somewhat from the hellhound that was prowling just outside.
“Stop, human,” I breathed into her hair.
She smelled like wildflowers and her body was soft and tender under mine. Unbidden thoughts took hold of me and it was all I could do not to claim her there and then, even with danger so close.
She relaxed at the sound of my voice. Could her senses really be so dull that she hadn’t realized who grabbed her?
I forgot what blundering messes humans were.
“Wh-what’s happening?” she whispered to me.
“Someone sent a hellhound after one of us,” I whispered back. “It’s just outside.”
I turned, tasting the air to see if it was closer or further than before. It must have been close, its carrion scent tinged the night air, like charred, rotten meat.
When I turned back to the girl her eyes were closed, but moving back and forth quickly beneath the lids, as if she were dreaming. Her lips moved slightly too, but no sound came.
There was a rustling movement at the mouth of the cave. I spun to face our assailant, surprised it was able to sneak so close.
But it wasn’t a hellhound.
It was the sound vines closing in around the mouth of the cave, sealing us in.
My first thought was panic at the idea that we had blundered into some sort of trap. But then I realized what was really happening.
The vines weren’t trapping us.
They were hiding us.
