I haven’t given up on catching her attention yet. She’s slowly coming around to me. Allowing me to be closer to her without going on her guard. And I love it because I enjoy the chase. This little game of cat and mouse. I enjoy her believing I could take her at any moment. The guard she always keeps up with me. It makes me more desperate to knock it down. To show her the man and the Wolf I can be and all of the wondrous sensations I can bring to her world.
Sensations I know Sebastian can’t elicit within her.
That is one thing I miss from my village. When women come through those gates, they’re looking to mate. It isn’t a shock what they are wanting. That they reek of sexual energy and desperate want. There’s no chase involved. No trust to be had. No wooing or courting or compliments giv
en to ease the pants off their bodies.
I like the chase with Clarissa. The little dance we do.
It gives me the chance to indulge my Alpha male tactics, and it gives her a chance to trust me. The way I want her to.
“The Council’s on the move.”
The guard’s voice rips me from my daydream of her and throws me back to reality.
“Where are they headed?” the guard asks.
“To the war room. They want the last of our intel now.”
“But we haven’t breached the woods yet.”
“They’ve already done that. From the back. They got four miles in before a Wolf was spotted.”
Wait, the Council had come in from the back? That was where Sebastian was patrolling.
“We have to take what we know,” the guard says.
“Then we need to go sharpen our spears. Coat them in that serum Doryu’s made for us.”
“We’ll also need to label the spears. Make sure some of them are only projected at the males and some only projected at the females,” the guard says.
“Is that our job? I thought that was the dungeon master’s job.”
“You know the dungeon master has his hands full with that vile creature. Moving him from crate to crate every day. Taking tissue samples and trying to extract blood. No, idiot. This is our job, and we will make sure it’s done right.”
Shit. They’re talking about Kyle.
The guards stalk off through the snow, and I resist the urge to jump them. But there is no honor or pleasure in taking a man’s life from behind. I wait until they’ve hit the road before I shuffle out from underneath the snow, then I go bounding through the woods.
I have to find Sebastian.
My nostrils are flaring, and the cold of the winter is piercing my coat like it’s jelly. My claws are digging into the frozen tundra, catapulting me faster as I dodge the trees. I wind through hoards of humans posing and fighting and sharpening their weapons of destruction. I whip past houses and leap over gardens and growl when someone gets in my way.
I pierce the other side of the village and lift my nose into the air, then take a big sniff.
I can smell Sebastian, but it’s faint.
I let out a Primal howl and wait for Sebastian to respond. And when he doesn’t, panic floods my veins. What the hell had those men done to him?
I bound through the woods as humans called after me.
It takes an hour of search before I come across him in a trap. A massive metal contraption seated with lead and chomping down on his entire leg. It’s a fucking bear trap, and it’s dripping with a green substance I can’t identify.
And Sebastian is visibly throbbing on the ground.
My jaw grips the metal, and I stomp on the other end with my foot. I can feel the lead already draining me of my energy. The green substance is salty to the taste and makes me want to heave. But I manage to open the trap enough for Sebastian to wiggle out of it.
As I let go it snaps closed, and I can hear Sebastian whimpering. He bends down and licks himself clean, grimacing at the salty taste on his tongue. Humans are running up behind us to try and get a glimpse of the commotion, and I can tell Sebastian isn’t healing as quickly as he needs to be.