Taking on Grigori, who'd claimed the boy as his own kin was bad enough. But to add on a wolf protecting his own son? Jesus.
They were fucked.
* * *
Abby looked over at Jace, who had fallen into a fitful, painful sleep while she drove. He'd put on his leather jacket, but his skin was cold and ashen, and his energy was low. His ankle looked like it was destroyed. When he'd wrapped it, it had virtually crumbled beneath the bandages. Had his bones basically turned to dust from the two injuries? How could an alpha wolf survive on three legs? How would he defeat Grigori? After Lucius's trap and Jace's story about his past with Grigori, she knew they were both being hunted. It was simply a matter of whether she and Jace were caught before they found Seth. Either way, they were going to meet. When they did, someone would win, and someone would die.
She gripped the steering wheel, desperately trying to decide what to do about Jace. If she did nothing, he would be on three legs his whole life, a weakened state that would turn him into the hunted by other wolves. There was one person who might be able to help him, but he was from her past, the time when Grigori knew her.
Would Grigori guess she would go there?
He might.
But if she didn't... She touched her neck, grimacing at the torn skin. It wasn't a deadly bite, but it was significant. She was afraid of what Lucius had done to her. So deeply afraid.
How big was the risk if she asked for help? How significant was the impact if she didn't?
If she asked for help, they had a chance to survive. It was possible it would pay off.
If she didn't ask for help, it was guaranteed they would have no chance when Grigori or Lucius found them. What choice did she have?
None. Because hiding wasn't an option. Somewhere out there was Seth, four years old, in the hands of a madman that would strip him of his humanity within days. She had to seek out help, and just be very, very careful while she was there.
She looked over at Jace, then put on her blinker to turn off the main road, away from his house, away from the place he'd told her to go, and to the one destination he'd probably never agree to go.
As the truck bumped over the dirt road, she prayed she'd made the right choice.
If Lucius and Grigori were waiting for her when they arrived, the ending would come too fast, and they would lose.
Chapter 6
Three hours later, Abby emerged from the winding dirt road, slowing the SUV when she saw the familiar cabin hidden in the shadows of the tall pine trees. The shutters were askew. Vines had grown over the windows. Weeds owned the walkway. The windows were cracked, and no light shined from within. It looked like no one had set foot in there for decades.
Relief rushed through her. Kiernan still lived there.
Warily, she pulled up in front of the cabin and turned the engine off. She scanned the woods around them, searching the shadows for any indications that Grigori or Lucius was waiting for her, but she didn't see any sign of them. The birds were chirping, the squirrels were bustling about, and all the forest creatures were acting normally, which they wouldn't if there was a wolf shifter in their midst.
She let out a deep sigh of relief, realizing that the first hurdle had been passed, for now.
"We're here?" Jace opened his eyes, and looked sleepily around. His entire body tensed, and he sat up quickly, sucking in his breath when he accidentally moved his leg. "Where are we?"
"A friend's place." Maybe a friend. Maybe an enemy. "He might be able to help. He's a gifted healer." Abby started to open her door, but Jace lunged across her, his hand clamping down on hers.
His grip was like steel, his silver eyes glittering with fury. "Don't open the door," he snapped. "We're leaving."
Despite his injury, power thrummed through him. His muscles were taut, his body a deadly machine. Awareness rippled through her, a deep awareness of exactly what kind of man he was. Despite his warning, she had mistaken his guilt and his injury for weakness. She'd seen him as a victim who needed help.
He wasn't.
He was pure alpha, and he was pissed. Heat rose from his body where he was leaning across her, his abdominal muscles hard and unyielding where he was pressed against her belly, pinning her to the seat.
She swallowed, her heart starting to pound at the intimacy of their position. It had been so long since she'd noticed a man, so long since she'd responded to one. Now was not the time, but there was something about Jace that shattered her shields and dragged her mercilessly under his spell. "Jace-"
His gaze went to hers, and something shifted in the air, something that turned intensely sexual, making heat lick through her body. She caught her breath, aware that his upper arm was against her breast, and he hadn't moved it away.
For a long moment, he didn't move, and neither did she. Tension hovered between them, heated, dangerous, and loaded. There was so much at stake, and yet she couldn't tear her gaze off his. Her entire body seemed to be wound into a tight knot of fire and heat, held in abeyance by the barest thread of self-control.
His gaze went to her mouth, then snapped back up to her face almost instantly, but the heat continued to rise from his body. "We're not safe here," he said, his low voice wrapping around her like an invisible caress. "Drive us out of here."
She swallowed, knowing it must be making him crazy that his injured ankle kept him from driving. "You can't heal your ankle on your own."
"I'm fine-"
"And I'm worried about my bite," she blurted out.
His gaze went to her throat, his brow furrowing as he inspected it. He still hadn't retreated, his body pressing her into the seat. "It's not deep-"
"It's not my first one from him." It was almost impossible for someone to become a shifter just from being bitten by one. But repeated, grievous injury from the same wolf was a different story, with the potential to turn the human into a shifter. Not all females with one shifter parent inherited the ability to shift. When it became apparent that she was one of those failures, Grigori had ordered Lucius to turn her into one by biting her repeatedly until the wolf proteins built up in her blood. She'd fought it desperately, because a bitten shifter always became a half-crazed werewolf, unable to contain their bloodlust. Those shifters were the ones that horrors of werewolf lore were founded upon.
His face darkened. "What?" His voice was clipped, taut with fury.
Crud. She hadn't meant to tell him. She didn't need his sympathy. All she wanted was to get out of the SUV and find Kiernan, praying that he would help. "Nothing. I just-"
His gaze went to her stomach, and she realized she'd pressed her hand over her old wounds. She winced as understanding flashed across his face. Damn him for being perceptive.
Scowling, he grasped the waistband of her shirt and started to pull it up.
She grabbed his wrist, holding his hand down, panic rippling through her. "No, don't."
No one ever got to see her stomach, and the last thing she could endure was Jace being the first one to see her truth.
* * *
Jace froze at the sudden fear in Abby's eyes when he grasped the hem of her shirt.
Her face had paled, and her grip on his wrist was desperate. Her fingernails were digging into his skin. Swearing under his breath, he went still, trying not to threaten her. She looked so vulnerable that his alpha protective instincts surged to the surface. He would not hurt her. He had to keep her safe. "Let me see," he said, keeping his voice gentle, letting her hear the strength he was offering her.
She shook her head. "No." She dismissed him quickly. "It's fine-"
"Abby. This is my world. I need to know." Foreboding was pressing heavily at him, the certainty that something was very wrong, that she'd been hiding so much from him. "Let me see," he said again.
Her eyes narrowed. "You're a persistent pain in the ass."
He grinned. "Yeah, I am."
"Fine, but only because I don't want to listen to your harassment for the next hour." She glared at him one more time, then she bit her lower lip and let her fingers slide off his wrist. Her bravado faded into vulnerability as she clasped her hands on top of her head and stared out the windshield, avoiding eye contact with him.
His heart softened at her stoic resignation, and he touched her jaw lightly to reassure her and connect them. The moment his fingers brushed over her skin, he went still, shocked by how soft her skin was. So fragile, so smooth, so delicate. Fierce protectiveness roared through him, a need to draw her into his inner circle and offer her the protection he was born to give.