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Laith lunges, all brute strength and no skill.
Elara drops.
Kade watches with growing pride as she slides through Laith’s leg, grabs his arm on the way, and flips the much bigger werewolf on his back in one swift move. Like a wild cat, Elara jumps the moment he’s down, pressing her knee into his chest and holding his hands above his head with a victorious smile splitting her face.
“Do you yield?” she asks playfully, wiggling her hips slightly. Her cockiness is her downfall because Laith uses his legs to throw her off balance. He wraps his legs around her chest and flips her, landing her face first in the grass.
When Elara shrieks in surprise, Kade almost reveals himself and jumps through the bushes, determined to destroy Laith. But as the sparring partners collect themselves off the ground, they’re all smiles again.
“No fair, Denzel, he has years of wrestling practice!” Elara whines good naturedly.
“And you have more practice as a werewolf than he does,” Denzel laughs, stepping forward to clap them both on the shoulders. “You two are amazing together. I can’t wait to see the connection that blooms between you as you grow to understand what life has in store for you.”
Kade almost vomits there and there as Laith and Elara smile at each other. Is she blushing? Does she already have feelings for him? Is the passionate kiss that Kade and Elara shared so easily forgotten?
Kade clenches his fists at his sides, no longer able to just stand here and watch the girl he loves fall for someone else. It’s time to go, time to wait at her house. Where she’ll return and be alone and he can watch her in peace.
Kade silently leaves the scene, darting between backyards and alleyways until he can make it to the road without arousing suspicion. When his sneakers scrape against the concrete sidewalk two blocks away, Kade stops and turns his face to the sun with an exasperated sigh.
He has no right to be jealous, Elara isn’t his. She doesn’t belong to him. He should be celebrating because the prophecy is coming to fruition. Everything Kade’s worked so hard to achieve, all the people who died to achieve it, it all means something now. It’s time to focus on the future, on making everything come to pass as legend says it will. It is not time to lament one's own heartache.
“It makes me sick! They’re abominations!” a woman spits.
Kade freezes, listening to the approaching voices as he slowly moves deeper into the shadows.
“I agree. It’s disgusting,” a man spits. “They’re nothing more than a half-thought-out witch spell, a fluke!”
“We should have wiped out the shifters long ago, but no, we let them live. Out of mercy. Now they thrive! Now they’re so strong they think they can destroy us? It’s ludicrous!” the woman exclaims.
Kade feels these words like a knife to the chest. He, too, was cursed by a witch, but that makes him no less of a were himself. Would they think the same about him? Would it matter?
“And now Denzel wants to bring in this girl, this outlier. She’s not right, I’m telling you. There’s something different about her, and about that boy she changed too. She’s more than just a wolf. We can’t let her join, we have to talk some sense into our alpha. The girl and her spawn need to be cast out before they bring more harm to the pack than we can handle.”
So these wolves are part of Denzel’s pack, and they’re not on board with Elara and Laith. It means that without a shadow of a doubt Elara and Laith aren’t safe with Denzel’s pack. Kade will have to do everything in his power to get them to understand they need to come with him. If they won't come, well then?—
Kade’s phone rings, ending his thought mid-sentence. He pulls it out and answers immediately. The only one who has this number is Guy.
“Someone broke into the lab. I need you here now,” Guy growls before Kade can even say hello.
Kade sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Someone broke in?” he repeats numbly.
“Yes, they broke in and stole important research. Listen, I don’t have time to discuss this over the phone. I have to go over the surveillance and figure out when and how this happened. Get. Here. Now.”
Click.
Kade stares blankly at the phone before he shoves it back into his pocket. After hearing what those weres said, every instinct in his body is telling him to run back to Elara. To stay by her side, even if she doesn’t know he’s there.
She can’t do this alone.
And Laith won't be able to help her against what’s coming.
It’s up to Kade to protect her. Except if he doesn’t obey Guy, he might lose the privilege of being her guardian altogether.
Growling under his breath, Kade kicks a rock back down the alleyway and starts running in the opposite direction of where Elara is.
He has to go to Guy, whether he likes it or not.
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