Wild Night Road(14)

“You don’t know—”
He laughed. “You have no idea why Gideon Black is here.”
“I know that Owen is up to something.”
“You could call it that.”
She frowned and cast about for reasons Owen might have business with the Pacific Range alpha. Without Lan’s express blessing, even talking to Gideon might be seen as a betrayal, so whatever Owen had in mind, it was serious enough to risk a deadly reaction from his alpha.
“It can’t be about what I did,” Lilith said. “The hex was a tiny thing, and if it bothered Owen that much, well…weres rut all the time. He could find another female.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Hex Tasha’s mark?”
He nodded.
“Witches love to meddle in the affairs of others. Didn’t you know that? It’s common knowledge.”
“No,” he said. “I don’t believe that.”
She glanced down at her red boots to hide the unexpected welling of tears. Anger and frustration she could manage, but sorrow?
No. There was no room in her life for emotions. They were dangerous because they got people killed.
Remy might have an uncanny way of getting under her skin, but she didn’t want him to see the sadness. If pressed, she’d admit she liked kissing him. She liked looking at him, and had considered sleeping with him, but it would never be any more than that.
Not for her.
Not for any witch.
Witches belonged to the seraphim, body and soul.
Yet he still came around the bar from time to time.
Kissed her in the alley and made her blood heat.
She looked back at him. “Why do you bother?”
“He’s my friend,” he said, looking over at Owen.
“No,” she said, “with me. With a witch.”
He nodded at Gideon and Owen. “The packs live and die by their hierarchies, but we are different.” He patted his chest.  “Lyrinye live in pods, but we have no leaders like the packs.”
She shook her head. “How do you get things done?”
“Our world is the ocean, the ever-changing waters. We swim with the tides.” His gaze came back to hers. “We live by our desires.”
Wariness swirled through her. She didn’t trust him, wouldn’t allow herself to trust him, but a fragment of the truth might make him lay off the loyal protector routine. “The hex won’t affect Owen or Tasha in any serious way, but it could help me, help all…” She’d been about to say all witches who live under the harsh rule of the seraphim, but the words would not escape her lips.
Not because she didn’t want to say them.
Because she could not say them.
The silver rune at her throat burned.
“Enough to risk a man’s life?” Remy asked softly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed. “No were ever died for a fuck.”
“Then watch this.”
Tired of his attitude, she pushed away, but his hand slid down her arm and pinned her against him. His breath was hot on her cheek. “Watch,” he said. “This is your doing.”
Gideon Black rose to his full height. Owen remained seated, staring straight ahead, his gaze fixed on nothing. Gideon’s lieutenant cuffed Owen repeatedly about the back of his head. He jerked back and forth, taking it without responding.
“What is this?” Lilith asked. “Werewolf BDSM?”
“This is how a were submits.”
Lilith gasped. “No. Lan will kill him.”
“Lan will kill Tasha before allowing a woman into their pack with a hexed mark,” Remy said.
Gideon dragged Owen from his seat and forced him to his knees. Owen folded his hands before him and mumbled something Lilith couldn’t make out.#p#分页标题#e#
Gideon threw back his head and roared a growl, shucking his leather jacket and shaking his long hair free. He seemed to shimmer and grow larger, and Lilith realized he was…shifting.
He arched, threw his hands wide, and with a loud cracking sound, his face began to morph. His nose and jaw elongated, his shoulders sloped, his nails grew claws. He tore at his shirt until it came away in shreds. His jeans split with a loud ripping sound. Fur sprouted all over his body, a tail appearing and lengthening, and then things moved faster, one change blurring into the next.
A huge black wolf with silver-tipped fur loomed over the kneeling Owen White.
Micro-tremors shook every inch of Owen’s body, but still his gaze remained fixed and steady.
Lilith held her breath, unable to look away.
The wolf opened his massive jaws, fangs long and gleaming, and took Owen’s neck in his mouth. Owen’s head bent to one side like a doll.
Lilith’s hand found its way to her mouth. “No,” she breathed.
“Quiet,” Remy hissed.