Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
But he had absolutely no regrets.
The viper was a gift. For both him and Nadya.
Reaching out, he took her hand. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Coming with me.”
“You didn’t even have to ask.” Nadya squeezed his palm. “Plus this is a wonderful walk. The way this air smells—I can’t believe how delicious and clean it is.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too.” He frowned and remembered Apex carrying him out of the back of the old hospital. “I don’t remember much from… that night I was brought up here. But the scent. The scent brings me back—and speaking of scents…”
He glanced into the tree line as a shadow raced ahead, moving over the ground as fast and smooth as the wind.
“We’ve still got an escort,” he said with a smile.
“I thought I saw something, too.”
They’d started their climb at Callum’s garage, heading around back to the trail that was hidden in the trees—and the moment they’d stepped onto the beaten path, a wolven in four-pawed form had appeared in their way. And then another. And a third.
For a split second, the viper had coiled into Kane’s consciousness, narrowing his focus and assessment on a potential threat. Except then the wolven had lowered their heads as if they were bowing, and disappeared into the night—as if they had just come to welcome, to make sure he and Nadya had known they would be safe.
And as they continued to ascend, he had the sense that the wolven were keeping their distance out of respect because they knew why he was here and why he’d brought his mate.
Because they knew who he was. Or rather, what was inside of him.
As he and Nadya crested the final rise, and the turn in the trail took them around a tumble of rocks the size of cars…
There it was. The clearing with the fire pit in the center, and the hidden dens of the wolven, and the red hut.
As soon as they stepped free of the trees, a burst of flames lit the stack of logs that had been set in the circle of stones, and the whoof!-ing sound of spontaneous combustion was a greeting that was surprisingly cheery. And while the fire crackled and red sparks rode white smoke up to the clear, star-freckled sky, Kane turned to the hut.
He knew the old female who was not old would be emerging, and yes, there she was, holding the flap back so she could duck and step out. For a moment, he tensed up and moved in front of Nadya so that his body was protecting his female. But then the old female looked over at them and her smile was radiant.
“Greetings to you both. How wonderful to see you.”
She was wearing the same kind of crimson dress she’d had on that first night, except the beading and smocking was different—no, wait… the embellishment was moving over the fabric, the swirls of stitches and red, yellow, and white beads shifting their positions slowly, the pattern like a living thing. Her gray-and-white hair was once again loose over her shoulders, and he realized that it was alive as well, the gossamer strands swirling around her body even though there was no breeze to animate them.
Kane opened his mouth. And when the words didn’t come, he cleared his throat.
“It’s all right, I know why you’re here.” The old female smiled again. “You’re very welcome. And she is just lovely, inside and out. Aren’t you, my dear.”
The old female did not extend her arms, and neither of them walked forward, but the sense of warmth and comfort that came when one was embraced by somebody who loved unconditionally suddenly suffused Kane—and he sensed that it was the same for Nadya because she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Now go,” the Gray Wolf said, “and stand at the precipice and stare out over the valley. You will not find your future in the view, though, however beautiful it is. It is the one beside you who is your horizon. But you already know that, don’t you.”
Kane put his arm around his shellan. “You are too right, and yes, I do.”
He looked down at Nadya, and as her eyes met his, he felt her arm go around his waist. The touch was so natural, so easy, her hand resting on the top of his hip a physical commentary on how much she just liked to touch him. And that still mattered to him, that she wanted to feel him and his body as much as he wanted to do the same to her.
“Will you join us to look at the—”
Kane glanced up. The old female was gone and so was the hut. And somehow, he wasn’t surprised.
“Come on,” he said to his mate. “I want to share this with you.”
As they walked around the fire pit and out the other side, he thought briefly of Cordelhia and that empty beautiful house of hers, a relic of the past, a testimony to the female’s lonely present and desolate future. There was no horizon for her, and maybe it made him vengeful, but that was okay with him. She deserved an even harsher punishment for what she had been a part of. Her blindness to the consequences of the actions of her family still astounded him. More than anything else, that was what had stuck with him.