Life-and-death, grow-old-and-gray-together, meet-the-family serious.
Not that I had any family left for her to meet, but I imagined she did somewhere, and I didn’t need a crystal ball to know they wouldn’t approve of me.
I ground my back teeth as I clicked my seat belt into place, giving her the space she so clearly wanted. As I stared out the window, I replayed the whole scene over in my head, kicking myself.
Why did I always default to asshole when I could have just helped her sit back up and kept my mouth shut? Samuel would never have pulled that shit.
Self-sabotage was the clear answer. I didn’t deserve her, couldn’t make her happy, and I knew that. So, I was going to keep shoving my foot in my mouth to prevent myself from ever having a real chance.
That was depressing as fuck.
But the more I thought about it, the more I saw a pattern. I didn’t go for nice girls very often. One, because, believe it or not, I wasn’t a monster who thrived on breaking hearts. It was just easier, cleaner when the woman knew up front I wasn’t planning to stick around.
Two, because any time one got too close, I’d push her away before anything serious could develop. If I ran my mouth, they’d eventually get sick of my shit and leave. Every time, over and over.
The sex kept the darkness at bay, and pushing them away kept me free, hovering about my issues closely enough to feel the threat of madness but not sink into the depths of my trauma.
But that wasn’t going to work this time, not with a fated-mate bond dragging us together at every turn. We didn’t have to fall into bed-or a relationship-but I could at least treat her with respect.
I owed Olivia an apology. As soon as we got a minute alone, I would give her one. Even if I had to corner her on the airplane to do it.
With that settled, my mind began to wander, the greenery passing by outside my window blurring with our speed.
When our tires finally hit pavement a while later, realization hit me.
“Hey, Samuel?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s the likelihood they planted a tracker in those cuffs?”
He went still for a moment, then turned halfway in his seat so he could see me.
“Given that they showed up on our doorstep with reinforcements less than forty-eight hours after we got there? Pretty damn good.”
“So, you don’t think it’s under my skin anywhere?”
“Brielle and I weren’t looking for anything like that when we were treating you, so it’s possible a tracker could have been overlooked. She was pretty exhausted just from helping fight the effects of the wolfsbane.”
I was both surprised and pleased when Olivia spoke up, clearly wanting to help the pack, despite her well-deserved fury with me. But that raised a new concern. If there was potentially a tracker under my skin, wherever we went, they’d just follow.
“How can you check for that?” I asked her, willing her to see the apology in my eyes.
“Well, there are several ways. Scanners, physical exam-while they’re small, some can be felt under the skin. With most of your…” She cleared her throat, shooting me an apologetic look before continuing. “With most of your scars healing cleanly, we should be able to feel the tracker under the skin.”
After what I’d just said to her, she was still trying not to hurt my feelings by pointing out that the biggest, ugliest scar was never going to heal.
Damn, I was a fucking lowlife.
“When we get on the plane, we’ll have them check you out. If there’s still a tracker on you, we can destroy it in the air,” Samuel offered.
On me was the nicer way of saying embedded under my skin, where they’d have to cut it out of me.
Joy.
“Don’t worry, buddy, we won’t let them track us to the centaurs.”
I nodded tightly, keeping my eyes on the road as we raced toward the airport. Somehow, instead of smooth black pavement, all I saw was Dominik’s laughing face as he loomed toward me, wielding a knife.
Time moved strangely when you were running for your lives. We were less than an hour out from the enclave when Galyna got a call from one of the maidens that Petr?’s people had arrived, and they were going to give them the runaround and keep them busy as long as possible.
After that, it was calm. Until we were about ten minutes from the airport, and Reed startled me from my haunted staring at the road slipping by beneath us.
“Shit! We’ve got company. Somebody call Gael, in case he hasn’t seen them.”
Before we could dial, though, Reed’s phone was ringing. Fiona picked it up and put it on speaker, so we could all hear.
“You’ve got somebody on your tail.”
“Yeah, I noticed. They’re not exactly being subtle. I changed lanes, and they practically fishtailed to stick to my bumper.”
Gael growled, the sound low and menacing enough to raise my own wolf’s hackles. “Do you feel comfortable trying to lose them, or are we going to deal with them at the airstrip?”
“I somehow don’t think they’ve got any doubts about where we’re heading. I’m more concerned about them ambushing us with more people at the airstrip.”
Gael was silent for a beat, and then Kane’s voice came over the phone. “I’ll contact my security guy at the airport. Hang on.”
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