Chapter 163
DANE
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I respected a cunning woman, and the one who called herself Aurora Montague was a cunning woman, indeed.
I might not have been on the lookout for a trap if she hadn’t been so intent on toying with that necklace.
Aurora wore stillness and cool composure like warriors wore armor and weapons.
When she kept touching that necklace, I knew something was
wrong.
Then I felt the air gel around my body, and I’d had no more than
an instant to react.
Now I couldn’t move, except to breathe, blink, and speak.
But I had her pinned with her back against my chest. She pressed hard against me; her chin lifted to keep her neck from pressing into my raised claws.
If she relaxed, if she even twitched, my claws would open her throat, and there would be nothing I could do about it.
It had been a clever move, but my wolf hated it. He snapped and snarled and paced inside my mind, and nothing I did could calm
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him.
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Not for killing, he growled at me when I could get him to answer at all. She is not for killing.
I shoved the wolf down deep and murmured into Aurora’s ear, “What will it be, Luna? Will you trade my life for yours?”
“Aurora!”
Trajan, her giant beta, stood in his lycan form just on the other side of the barrier. So did a handful of other wolves. Some I knew, some…I almost remembered.
“Well?” I growled softly. “Would you?”
“I would die for you in an instant.” Her voice was barely a breath. Even so, I felt my claws slide just a fraction into her skin. Felt their edges go warm with blood. “But not like this.”
She lifted her hand and touched the pearl pendant. All of a sudden, I could move. I jerked my claws away from her neck. with a speed that surprised even me.
Before she could move, I snatched her, turned her in my arms, and kissed her.
I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking. I wasn’t. But I couldn’t feel her pressed against my body like that and not claim her mouth for my own. Not when she was this close, this fucking soft.
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She made a small noise of surprise. I thought she might jump away, try to escape.
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Instead, she deepened the kiss, sweeping her tongue across my lips, nipping at them, then opening hers to invite me in.
I took that invitation. I invaded her, stole what she’d taken from me and claimed even more. She melted against me. That should have felt like victory, like I’d won the war of wills. This tugging need to constantly pull each other off–balance.
Instead, her melting just drove me closer to the edge of a cliff. I needed this woman. As soon as I had laid eyes on her, every second of not having her had driven me mad.
Then, when my guard was down, she did pull away. Fast. Moving for the safety of the barrier.
Oh, hell no. If she wanted to try and capture me, two people could play that game.
But the second she moved, so did the giant beta. She jumped for him, and he grabbed her in his arms and spun her back inside the barrier.
She stumbled against his chest, pressed her hands against him to steady herself.
I saw red.
When I came to a moment later, I was snarling. I practically had my nose pressed against that barrier. But my enemies were on
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the other side, and if I entered, I wouldn’t have my shadows, so there was no way I was going to cross it.
“Keep your hands off her,” I snarled at the giant wolf.
Trajan didn’t crack a smile. He didn’t even blink. “If you want her, Dane, fight the Nameless and come win her back.”
I seethed at his words. My eyes locked on Aurora.
I served the Nameless. I was his general and his weapon. Maybe there had been more to me than that once, but those days were
gone.
The Nameless was a god, just like his sister, the moon goddess. Whoever I had been, there was no power, no magic, that would bring that man back.
Except for his family…
I ignored the voice in my mind, the memory of those children. That had been a momentary lapse.
Trajan put his arm around Aurora and led her away. I stood until I couldn’t see them anymore, then I looked at the wolves who remained. Some had gone with Aurora and Trajan, but not all.
Evelyn and a few other female wolves stood near the barrier.
Evelyn looked me up and down. She looked sad. Almost wistful. Then she said, “I’m sorry for what you’ve become, Dane. You deserved better than this.”
e jo tu eidwes
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I turned and walked away without responding.
Besides, I had done what I came for.
I tested their strength, and now I knew exactly how the real attack on the Broken Ridge Pack was going to happen.
