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Because I’ve had that scent in my lungs since then and the entire village smells like Grey right now, I’m again thrown when I catch the sight of her long, copper curls inside Roxy’s.
And now that her scent has hit me again with a strength that overpowers Grey’s, I know I shouldn’t question my nose again. But as this thought occurs, I realize I have no choice but to question everything after all I’ve been through.
Correction: after all she’s put me through.
And I’m feeling like inside me are two wolves. One wants to ring her neck. The other wants to spank, bite and knot her sixty-nine ways to Sunday.
It’s infuriating.
She’s at a table with Ivy Savage, Amelia Quinn, Bailey Blackwood, and Cicely Oakes. And the restaurant is full, as it would be with the hullabaloo of the last twelve hours. A newcomer in town that hasn’t resulted in a code color change. Tyson getting shot. Greyson taking a mate, his mate being the one that shot Tyson and poisoned several pack members.
As if sensing my presence, her head turns and our gazes lock.
And suddenly, I’m growling and all eyes in the joint are on me, though I’m focused on her.
Cade moves in my direction, concern in his gaze. My eyes snap his way for two seconds, then he submits, picking up on my energy, showing me his neck. My eyes scan the perimeter and every other male in the place is also showing his neck.
My gaze cuts back to her and her eyes are wide. Not only that, she’s wet for me. It’s in my lungs and it’s absolutely infuriating. Because I’m split in two over what to do about the best scent that’s ever hit me. Like the day on that old hiking trail, then in the meadow when I knew. It’s stronger than then and it’s crashed into me like a freight train. Even more than last night, and I’m feeling like I might need to do something about it.
There’s movement behind me. I know the scents as well as the vibrations in my gut. Those vibrations used to be in my chest, where my council co-alpha bond existed, but they’ve moved and something else resides in my chest instead.
Mase and Ty are behind me.
Now that Ty and Mase have mates, now is when I should’ve smelled her. Is that why these sensations are hitting so hard?
“Everybody out!” Mason hollers, like he knows what I’m about to do.
Am I about to do that?
Roxy quickly rounds the bar and flings the patio doors open. I’m only vaguely aware of the place emptying as my eyes continue to hold the witch’s. Or maybe her eyes are holding mine. I don’t even know.
She shakily rises and her long dress twirls as she turns to leave, but Ty commands, “Not you. You stay.”
I bare my teeth and growl again, this time at him, feeling a sensation I’ve never felt, like I’m about to shift against my will and like I want him the fuck away from her. Like I’m about to make sure he’s away from her. Ty shakes his head curtly and I realize what’s happening and pull it back.
He’s the last to go; the doors slam and it’s just her and I.
Her chest rises and falls rapidly and without realizing I’ve moved across the space and grabbed her, I’m on her, pinning her back to the table.
“Riley,” she whispers as stuff crashes to the floor around us.
I roar in her face with all the anger I feel. The room shakes with my fury.
The look in her eyes isn’t the fear I’d expect at my show of absolute rage. It’s something else. And I can’t fuckin’ bear it. Deep, undiluted sorrow oozes from every pore of her being and the force of it affects me in ways I can’t fathom.
I can’t bear to touch her, smell her, can’t handle the sound of my name on her tongue and the emotions pulsing from her, the feelings filling me with the vilest sensation I’ve felt in my life. Like my nearly seven years of pain, but magnified multiple times – as if her pain quadruples mine.
I stagger backwards at the profound intensity and vault away, shifting to wolf form in mid-air and bursting through the now exploding glass of the front window of the restaurant.
9
Erica
Ten Years Ago
Aunt Lyrica and I were on a blanket under a magnolia tree full of blooms. I had them in my hair, on my lap, and in my hands as I was trying to weave myself a wreath with the beautiful flowers that she told me never stopped blooming on this tree. Even in winter! A tree full-to-bursting with magic, and I swear I felt it tingling in me, connecting with me. A few others existed in this area, and she said that while all trees contain energy, many of the older trees in this area were full of important energy that we can easily harness. Especially me. Before we sat down, she asked me a lot of questions about how the tree made me feel, how the grass felt between my toes.
