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Legend leans in toward me and whispers, “Did you just smell yourself?”
I shrug. “I was just curious what I smelt like. But all I can smell is my perfume and cat.”
“You’ll be able to smell yourself eventually.” Jules moves closer to me until only a whisper of space is left between us. “When your scent gets stronger, and when you start becoming more in tune with your paranormal bloodline.” He gives a short pause. “We need to blend out your scent for now, before the other pack gets here.” He ducks his head so his lips are near my ear. “Remember what we talked about at Philip’s? The last thing we want is for any of the other packs to know you’re alive before you get your memories back.”
I bob my head up and down, understanding. “Okay. How do I blend out my scent?”
He moves back, scrubbing his hand across his jawline. “I need you to climb onto my back.”
I instinctively step back. “What kind of plan is that?”
“My scent will blend out yours. Plus, with my guards being around us and it being dark, we should be able to keep you pretty well hidden.” He crouches down to make it easy for me. What he doesn’t understand is none of this is easy for me.
Sure, I didn’t freak out while I was on his lap in the club. I maybe even felt a bit safe. But being surrounded by werewolves like this …
“I don’t think I can do it,” I whisper, backing away from him.
“Lake.” His tone is so calm, so patient. “I’m not going to hurt you. No one here is going to hurt you. And I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do, but I need you to be brave right now and trust me, okay? I can’t protect you if you don’t.” He reaches out and captures my hand, his touch bringing me a drop of comfort. How that’s possible is beyond me.
I muster up what little courage I have, swing around him, and climb onto his back, looping my arms around his neck and hitching my legs around his waist. Once I’m secured in place, he straightens his legs, while I hold on for dear life, praying I don’t fall.
“Now, we’re just going to walk out of the alley and head to the field where we’ll shift and get you home, okay?” He slips his arms under my legs to hold my weight up. “I didn’t want everyone to shift by you because I didn’t want to scare the shit out of you, but we might have to now. You can close your eyes when we do it. It’ll probably be less alarming.”
I nod, clinging to him as he steps toward the entrance of the alleyway, moving in sync with his guards. I feel like I’m squished in the center of a marching band, in the middle of a parade.
The wolves’ boots stomp against the ground, one after another, and I flinch against the noise.
“It’s going to be okay,” Jules whispers over his shoulder. “We’re almost there.”
I lift my head to peek through the wall of guards around me. Between them and the darkness, I can’t see a damn thing, so I end up burying my face into Jules’ neck and closing my eyes, a lame attempt to block out reality.
A barely audible moan escapes Jules’ as he pulls me closer against his back. The scent of moonlight and violets kisses my nostrils, and I press my face against the back of his head and sniff his hair.
“Lake,” Jules groans quietly. “You’re being very distracting right now. And while I’d more than love the distraction any other time, right now, I need to focus on getting you to safety.”
“Sorry.” Warmth floods my cheeks as I move my face away from his hair. “I don’t know why I did that.”
He gently squeezes my thigh. “It’s your wolf instincts kicking in.”
I rest my cheek against the back of his head.Why am I so comfortable with him?“So, I’m going to start smelling everyone now?”
He flexes his fingers on my legs. “I hope not.”
“Me, either. It’d be super weird.”
He starts to chuckle, but then a clusterfuck of vibrating growls and echoing howls cut him off.
My gaze snaps up. “What the hell was—”
An animal whimpers from nearby, echoed by a herd of roars.
Jules and the guards take off in a mad sprint. The power of their legs carries us faster than I ever thought possible, the moon and starlit sky nothing but violet and silver ribbons.
The growling noises chase after us for a few minutes, but eventually fade away. But Jules and his guards don’t slow down until we arrive at the edge of a desolate field trimmed with trees and bushes. Then Jules carefully lowers my feet to the ground and places a hand on the small of my back, urging me toward Legend.
“Get in the sleigh with him and close your eyes, okay?”
“What sleigh …?” My question gets lost as a snowy white sleigh embellished with flowery swirls of silver materializes out of nowhere.
