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When I walk away from my cousin, my thoughts spinning like a top, I’m sure he expects me to return to my cabin. I make sure to head in that direction until I’m out of sight, then quickly start sprinting through the trees.
Before he was the Alpha, he was the Alpha heir. Ryker was still high up in the pack that the cabin he took after he became a mature male was on the outskirts of Accalia, on the opposite side of where his parents’ cabin stood. If I take the right path, I can make it there without any of my packmates figuring out where I’ve gone.
Only Bobby knows that I was looking for Duke tonight. So many other of my fellow shifters will be with their own mates. What do they care if I follow through with my plan to see if he’d be interested in having sex with me?
I’m sure his intended mate would care. But, see, that just proves that old, selfish Trish will never be gone and buried, no matter how hard I try. I want Duke. Forever would be nice, but I’ll take just tonight if I can. He doesn’t have to agree. He can stay true to his intended if he wants, but I wouldn’t be Trish Danvers if I didn’t at least give him the option to choose me.
* * *
No onein Accalia locks the doors, except for me. Even on the night of the full moon, with the Luna running him ragged and leading him to reach for Ryker’s chains, Duke leaves the front door unlocked.
The basement door, too.
I let myself in quickly. Because I’m me, I do lock the door, and because I don’t want anyone distracting us, I drag a chair in front of it, too. A determined shifter could still get inside, but at least I made it a little harder for them.
A howl erupts from below my feet. I can’t tell if Duke knows I’m the one moving back and forth over his head or not, but the pain in the howl is enough for me to give up on barricading the door. That’s the keening cry of a wolf in need, and mine is here to answer the call.
Hurrying for the basement door, I take a deep breath on the first stair, then step lightly down the entire flight.
“Oh, Duke...”
If I had any reservations about my selfish plan, they’re shot to hell when I see big, strong Duke Conlon crumpled on the floor.
No shirt. No shoes. His jeans are torn in a couple of places, from where his body started a partial shift before the silver in the chains affected him, and his head is hanging on his neck. He’s breathing hard, and when his head jerks up, as though he’s just caught my scent, he looks at me like he can hardly believe what he’s seeing.
“Now I know I’m hallucinating,” he mumbles. “Damn moon fever.”
I hurry over to him. His brow is slick with sweat. So is his muscular chest. Padding wraps around his wrists, keeping the silver cuffs from burning his skin, while the length of chain is snaked around him.
Cinder block dust is in a pile beneath the points where the chains are screwed into the wall. They’ve held tight, though not for a lack of trying.
When the worst of the fever hits him, he must put everything he has into breaking free of the chain and going to his mate.
Dropping to my knees, I lay the back of my hand against his forehead. Burning up, just like I thought.
Because I’m not his mate, I expected him to jerk away from my touch. He doesn’t. He leans in, gasping as if he’s drowning in the ocean and he’s just sighted land.
Just sighted his salvation.
“Trish…” he whispers.
“That’s right. It’s me. No hallucination, either.”
“Why? It’s not safe… you shouldn’t be here.”
I ruffle his sweat-soaked hair. “There’s nowhere safer for me in all of the world than right beside you, Duke.”
“No. You don’t know… not tonight. Not the Luna…” His eyes go from gold to hazel, then back to gold again. “I can’t fight her. I’d fight anything for you, baby, but not the Luna.”
My heart skips a beat when he calls me ‘baby’. He’s never done that before. I’ve been Trish, and I’ve been Patricia, but… I want to be Duke’s ‘baby’.
That seals it. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Tonight, though, I’m going to be his ‘baby’.
“You don’t have to fight anything,” I tell him. “Not tonight. But… you’ve got moon fever, don’t you?”
“It’s so hot,” he murmurs. “Why is it so hot?”
He isn’t wrong. I was burning up already, but once I got my first eye full of a near naked Duke? I’m about to combust.
