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And that,I thought,might make the difference.
“You have a decision to make,” I said, my voice hoarse from screaming. “Do you want to hurt the prince and take on the entire Pack? You know they’re dangerous. Untrustworthy,” I said, throwing his word back at him. “And very, very powerful. I doubt you’d enjoy that fight. And I doubt your queen would, either.”
There was a hot burst of magic as insult spread around the room. They might have obeyed Ruadan, protected him, but Claudia was their still queen.
Ruadan’s lip curled, his fingers fisted so tightly, his knuckles were white. But he didn’t make a move. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that he hadn’t made any moves except when I’d been bound.
He murmured something softly, the sounds shifting between soft vowels and hard consonants, the language old and powerful.
Whatever he said, his fairies got the point. The tension of their bodies, their stances, loosened. But their eyes grew no kinder. They were angry, partly because of the intrusion, partly because Ruadan had leashed them again. He’d riled them to a fight, and they wanted the satisfaction.
“We’re leaving,” I said, and Connor stepped closer to me, his fur—so soft—brushing against my fingers like a whisper.
I picked up my sword and turned Lulu so she went first, so my back was to the fairies. Connor padded behind us, and we ran down the path toward the car.
FOURTEEN
Thelma, low and menacing in a spear of moonlight, sat beside Lulu’s car. The wolf padded onto the road behind us, then circled around to face us, lips curled back over gleaming teeth.
Connor was still a wolf, and he was pissed.
“I don’t recall inviting you along on this little adventure,” Lulu said to him. “So we aren’t the only ones who have explaining to do.”
It was the driest look I’d ever seen on an animal.
Maybe that’s why he didn’t warn us before light filled the darkness, searing across my retinas as magic engulfed him. It whirled around his body, sending energy and the scents of pine needles and fur into the air. I’d never stood in the sun, never felt sunshine on my bare skin. But the scent of him made me think of those things.
The light spun like a cyclone and dissipated just as suddenly, lights streaking into darkness and leaving Connor Keene completely, utterly naked.
“Clothes are on my bike,” he said, running a hand through his hair, and walked toward Thelma.
I’d never seen Connor with so much as a shirt off—and that had been my loss entirely. His body was perfection. Wide shoulders that led to a flat stomach and narrow waist, strong arms and legs, every inch of him toned from hard work and activity.
I couldn’t look away... and didn’t want to. Muscle rippled andshifted as he moved, and I had to fight back against the instinct to reach out and touch, run fingers down the taut skin that covered his abdomen or the sleek curve of his back.
Connor glanced back at me, and there was plenty of ego in the look.
Having seen the product, I couldn’t argue with the ego. But the realization that I’d just fantasized about Connor unsettled me. Who was I?
Lulu gave him a two-fingered whistle. “The ensemble is fantastic.”
He flipped her off.
“I mean, he is just delectable,” Lulu said quietly.
“He’s not bad,” was all I was willing to give him. I was still too disturbed by the fact that I found him attractive.
“You could bounce a quarter off his ass.”
“I can hear you, Lulu,” he called back, pulling on jeans and a T-shirt. He glanced back, and there was no hiding the masculine pride in his eyes. “Wolf hearing, remember?”
“Yes, I know,” Lulu said with a thin smile.
Connor sat on the edge of the bike to pull on his boots, then ran a hand through his hair. I figured his transformation was complete enough for us to talk again.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I said when we walked toward him.
“Saving your ass, apparently. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be the good one.”
