Chasing Destiny (Silver Tip Pack Book 2) Read online

  “And since their sight is shit, they don’t recognize us.”

  “Right.”

  “Any imperfections? Can we move or talk?”

  “Their hearing isn’t very good either. We can talk softly around them while covered in ruebane. No sudden movements though. They can track that, and we think it can cause our scent to break through the oil barrier.”

  “So it’s like a shield? Covers our scents with a layer of something that the Noweres don’t detect as prey?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “That’s incredible.” The possibilities of what this would mean for our lives flitted through my brain. Walking among Noweres undetected meant we might be able to stage an offensive against them, one where we could take out dormant Nowere packs without them attacking us. We’d be unstoppable. Dare had mentioned so many times that he was tired of merely survival. He wanted to live.

  “This is all we have though,” Pace said. “We picked through the surrounding areas and pulled every bit of ruebane we could find, then planted it here. It’s the most precious thing we own. We guard it, and use it very sparingly.”

  “You didn’t have it on when you found us,” Dal said. “I smelled you.”

  “We had some with us, but we weren’t wearing it, no.” Pace tapped his temples. “Sparingly, remember?”

  I got to the point. “So are you willing to trade some ruebane? We have livestock and plant seeds for vegetables you’ve probably never eaten.”

  “Livestock?” Pace asked.

  “Cows. Beef.” Vaughn could have used a little less smug in his voice.

  Pace didn’t even glance at him. He looked at Vara, who once again nodded. I began to wonder more about the leadership here. Did Pace and Vara rule together? She seemed to be a little less rash than Pace. And this wasn’t the first time he’d deferred to her.

  He heaved a breath as he rubbed the ruebane leaves in his hands. Finally he met my gaze. “I’ll come to your compound with you. Me and two of my guard. I’ll maintain possession of the ruebane until we make the trade at your compound. I want trade, not aid. And growing ruebane in two locations might be for the best anyway.”

  He was cautious, but that was fair. “Okay.”

  Pace shifted his gaze to Nash. “You’ll help keep your Weres in line on the journey?”

  “I resent that—” Vaughn began.

  Nash cut him off in his deep voice. “Of course.”

  Vaughn huffed, but I didn’t care, because Nash was coming home with us. He was coming home. And with him, we were bringing a Nowere deterrent. Dare was going to be ecstatic.

  “Thanks for showing us the ruebane,” I said to Pace and Vara. “I appreciate you trusting us with this information. I promise again that we only want to benefit each other. There are enough problems without healthy packs trying to hurt each other.” We’d done enough to the Bluefoot recently that we were all sure retaliation was on the horizon. Dare was already lining up allies.

  Pace led us back out of the ruebane garden and locked the door behind him. “The reason we’ve kept to ourselves all these years is because of that. I worried if we told anyone, they would take us out to possess it. We’ve already had some nearby packs sniffing around, and it’s making me uneasy. After all we’ve done to recover our pack, I couldn’t let something like this bring us down.” He blew out a breath. “Breaking out of your room isn’t exactly trustworthy, and Vaughn makes me want to punch him in the face.”

  Vaughn snorted at that.

  “But,” Pace continued. “I’m going to go on instinct here, which tells me to give you all a shot. It helps that Nash trusts you.”

  Nash nodded.

  “I look forward to earning this trust,” I assured Pace. “So you’ll gather your wolves and be ready to leave in the morning?”

  Pace’s teeth came out to nibble at his bottom lip. “Yes. Vara will rule in my stead. But as alpha, I think I should be the one to negotiate trade.”

  “You’ll like Dare,” I said. “He doesn’t have a smart mouth like Vaughn.”

  Pace smiled at that. “Well, that doesn’t sound like as much fun.”

  “Keep pressing me, wolf,” Vaughn growled. “I’ll show you fun.”

  Pace shot him the middle finger and then walked away. He called back over his shoulder at us where we stood unmoving. “Well? Follow me. I’ll give you the rest of the tour.”

  Vaughn and Dal walked on ahead, while I hung back with Nash. He was walking slower, but his color was better than it was yesterday. “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey back,” he answered, his body drifting closer to me.

  “You and Pace have some sort of truce, don’t you? An agreement.”

  He eyed me. “Why do you ask that?”

  “I don’t know, there just seems to be something unspoken between the two of you.”

  He rubbed at his earlobe, a place I’d noticed him touching a lot throughout the day. I squinted at it, but he immediately dropped his hand, his hair covering his ear. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  “He’s not holding anything over you, is he?”

  Nash was already shaking his head. “Nothing evil, Bay. Don’t worry.”

  Well, I was going to worry about everything regarding Nash, it seemed. “Okay.”

  He stopped us by gripping my chin firmly and turning my face to look at him. He leaned down, moist breath coating my face as his nails dug into my skin painfully. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. If I didn’t have my wits about me, I’d be dead ten times over.” When I winced at the pain in my jaw, regret flashed over his face and he dropped my chin quickly. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” The pain in his eyes had been worse than my physical discomfort. “I’m sorry I doubted you. And I’m glad you’re alive.”

  His laugh was wry as he continued to walk. “Sometimes I’m not sure I’m glad.”

  “Nash—”

  “Last night, lying next to you. That was a time I was glad.”

  I didn’t know where the others were anymore. They’d walked ahead, leaving us along the back wall near the door to the ruebane garden. I stared at Nash as he slowed to a stop and turned around to face me. “What?”

  “Come here.” I wanted him near me. I wanted his hands on me.

  He didn’t move.

  “Come here, Nash,” I said again.

  With a heaving breath, he slowly made his way toward me, and then I advanced on him, forcing him to step back until he hit the stone wall. His eyes were huge and round in his thin face, and his breath was coming fast now.

  I wanted him. More than I’d wanted anyone. I needed to breath him in, scent him, mark him. He’d always driven me out of my mind when I was a novus, and it wasn’t until much later, after he’d left, that I fully understood what he’d meant to me and the connection we’d had. “Do you remember,” I asked, “when we were like thirteen and we snuck down to steal candy from the cellar?”

  He was trembling against me, and he gripped my hip like he needed something to ground himself.

  “And we got into that stuff that tasted nasty but made our heads spin?”

  He licked his lips and his eyes squeezed shut for a brief moment. “What happened next, Bay?”

  “You kissed me,” I said, recalling the press of his full lips on mine, the way he held my head, controlling the kiss, then slipped his hands down my back to pull me against him. We’d kissed and fumbled, humping against each other in an altered state, the room spinning, until we’d come all over each other. I could still smell the scent of our releases mingling with our breaths.

  I pressed closer to him now, feeling his hardness against me. “Do you remember?”

  He blew out a harsh breath. “You think I’d forget any time we were together? Especially that time? I lived on those memories, particularly that time, over and over again. It was what kept me alive, Bay. The memory of you.”

  “Where did you go?” I whispered. “What happened to you?”


  Instead of answering, he leaned down until his lips barely grazed mine. I didn’t move, didn’t even flinch, letting him decide how this next thirty seconds was going to go. But fuck I wanted to lift up on my toes and connect our lips, to taste him, to wrap my arms around him, to lap at his skin, to sink down to my knees and take that hardness into my mouth. To listen to him come, because I’d only gotten one chance when I was thirteen. One chance to listen to the man I’d always wanted moan out his pleasure.

  His hands slipped from my hips down to my ass, where he cupped me and pulled me tight against him with a strength I hadn’t known he had. Our lips were still a whisper away, and I wanted him to say the word that closed the distance.

  Instead, he shoved his face in my neck, hiding from me again, as he inhaled and sucked on my skin. “It’s too much,” he confessed on a broken moan.

  “What is?” I tried to pull his head back to look at him but he wouldn’t let me.

  “You. This. All of it.” His tongue swirled along my vein. “It’s been too long since I had to care, since I could care. I don’t know how to handle this.”

  “How can I help you?” I asked.

  He was quiet for a long moment, his grip on me iron-clad, his face pressed into my skin like he wanted to imprint on me. “This,” he said softly. “Just…let me hold you like this.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, the pain in his voice seeping into my skin and digging into my very marrow. “Anytime,” I whispered into his shoulder. “Anytime.”

  Chapter Five

  Nash stuck by my side as we caught up with the rest of our small tour group. Pace had rounded the back of the main building and was showing Dal and Vaughn the training area. Two groups of wolves were outside, one group using spears and the other hand-to-hand combat.

  “We like to prepare for Nowere attacks as well as attacks from Weres or other werewolves.”

  “Do you have close neighbors?” I asked.

  “We do,” Pace said. “After the Nowere attack, everyone was desperate. We had several breaches, where other packs wanted to steal what little resources we had and try to take our females for breeding.” Vara flinched, and Pace stepped closer to her. “So we want to be prepared for anything.”

  “Now that I hear about your history, I’m surprised you didn’t kill us on sight.”

  Pace cackled at that. “Yeah, well. The main reason was because of Nash. We weren’t sure why else Weres would come around here—this is mostly werewolf territory down in Atria, and you weren’t one of the Redpaws, so I wanted some answers.”

  “I look forward to proving that we mean only to help you.”

  Pace heaved a breath. “Yeah, I see that. I’ll tell you that this will be tough on the pack. We’ve lived isolated all these years by our own choosing. Just bringing you in through the gates had them on guard. I had to send my soldiers door to door to assure them everything was okay.”

  “But Nash has been here.”

  “Nash hasn’t left the hut since he’s been here.”

  I whirled around to look at him, and he stared back at me boldly.

  “Why the hell didn’t you get out? Exercise? You just stayed in there and barely ate?”

  Nash swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Bay.”

  “You had something to live for. To come back to us.”

  His jaw clenched as his eyes scanned the group watching us. “Let it go.”

  If Nash had been anyone else, I would have said fuck it and continued to press. I would have badgered him with questions, with words, until he coughed up everything black that was polluting his mind. Because I knew it was in there, swirling around. Some way or another Nash had been fed poison that told him he didn’t deserve to be happy, that he didn’t deserve to go home, and I vowed to be his antidote.

  I turned back to Pace. “Okay, so your pack didn’t worry because the Were in your midst wasn’t really in your midst.”

  “Correct. Now we have you three milling around, and this one”—he pointed at Vaughn—“is either glaring or smirking.”

  “Those are not my only emotions,” Vaughn said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I can be sweet as pie.”

  Pace rolled his eyes. “Uh-huh.”

  “Sugary sweet.”

  “Okay, Vaughn.”

  “A delicate, innocent flower.”

  This time Dal smacked him on the shoulder. “Shut up.”

  A grunt from the training fields drew our attention as a wolf fell to the ground, the other standing over him with a spear at his throat. “Break!” shouted the trainer nearby.

  “Hey, Bay,” Vaughn said. “Let’s go a round. You and Me. Shifted. Let’s show these wolves why we’d make excellent allies.”

  “Or scare the shit out of them,” Dal muttered.

  I raised an eyebrow at Pace, who seemed amused. He waved toward the training area with a flourish. “Go on. Give us a show.”

  Vaughn and I wasted no time stripping down then tossing our clothes in a dusty pile. Nash’s heated gaze was heavy on my naked back as I stretched my arms over my head. I wondered what he thought of my body now. I was older and broader, but my skin was marred with old scars. I knew he was attracted to me, I could feel it and smell it. There had never been a doubt in my mind that Nash and I belonged together. But this Nash…I wasn’t sure what he thought about that. This fairytale homecoming I’d built up in my head wasn’t a fucking reality.

  Yeah, I was ready to take some frustration out on Vaughn. With a nod to my friend, we shifted.

  In Were form, my hearing was amplified, so I didn’t miss the gasps and sharp inhales from the werewolves around us. It was one thing to walk around their home in human form, reeking of Were, but it was a whole other thing to shift, standing tall on two feet, an upright wolf with a hunched back and massive head.

  Every form I had—human, werewolf, Were—had its pros and cons, and none was more natural than the other. We preferred human form mostly because our instincts were slightly dulled. In Were form, our hearts beat faster, our senses on constant alert. It was a little exhausting to hear every little sound from a mile away.

  I couldn’t talk in Were form, at least not in English words, but we knew how to communicate with each other through hand gestures and grunts. I waved to Vaughn, and we faced off in the center of the training area.

  Vaughn was my favorite training partner, because he didn’t hold back. Just like now, he made the first move, lunging toward me with a growl and swipe of his claws. We usually came away from our sessions bloodied and bruised, but it felt good.

  I dodged his attack easily and kicked out, my clawed foot catching him in the stomach and sending him stumbling back a few steps.

  He caught his balance, and then came at me, shoulder down. I didn’t have time to avoid him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist as he drove into me. My feet left the ground, and I gritted my teeth because I knew when I landed with an eight-hundred-pound Were on top of me, it was going to fucking hurt.

  We fell to the ground with a thud, and dust rose around us as we wrestled each other. Pain screamed through my shoulder, followed by the familiar trickle of blood running down my arm. Vaughn’s eyes were bright with blood lust. Vaughn lived for this shit. And so did I.

  I growled and lashed out with my feet, ripping into his thigh with my claws. The next minute was a blur of claws and fur as we both tried to get the upper hand.

  I knew in another minute, I’d be able to roll him over and get on top, but first I had to get him away from my throat and gather my strength.

  Except I never got the chance. Vaughn’s body left me in a jerk, and then I was gazing up at a fully shifted Nash standing over me, growls rumbling from his chest as he faced off against Vaughn.

  I tried to get up, because this was my fight, and I was perfectly capable of taking on Vaughn myself, but Nash didn’t give me a chance. With a ferocious roar, he launched himself at Vaughn.

  Getting myself involve
d at this point would only cause more harm, so I skittered out of the way and shifted back to human. I watched from the sidelines as two of the most magnificent Weres I’d ever seen fought tooth and claw. Nash’s body wasn’t nearly as emaciated as I’d expected him to be in his Were form. His ribs were still visible, and his Were face was still a bit gaunt, but he wanted to fight. Sparring had been what we’d done as novuses. Training had been an integral part of our lives. He had to have missed this.

  When they separated, Vaughn ran at Nash, intending it to be a feint, but Nash used it to his advantage, shoving his head so his momentum propelled me into the dirt beside him.

  Vaughn landed on all fours with a grunt, and immediately rolled out the way, probably expecting a secondary blow. But none came. Nash motioned for him to get up.

  This happened three more times, Vaughn trying to reach Nash, and Nash throwing him into the dirt, each time more forceful than the last. Finally, he met Vaughn halfway and they clashed so hard, the sound shook the dirt-packed earth.

  Then the hits came. One after another, Nash’s claws and knees and elbows and closed fists made contact. He’d always been a fierce fighter when we were young, one of the best, but this was on a whole other level. He was fast and powerful, so much that Vaughn wasn’t even able to get a hit in, his only recourse to defend myself.

  Nash was beautiful.

  He got Vaughn on the ground easily, tossing him with one hand and then landing on top, his jaws at his throat. Vaughn licked his bloody lips, a smile on his Were face as he tapped Nash’s leg.

  Except Nash didn’t stop. His nostrils flared and he pressed down harder, just enough that Vaughn’s gaze shifted to me, and for one of the few times in my life, I saw fear there.

  “Fuck.” I took off at a dead sprint, terrified I wasn’t going to get there before Nash did something stupid like snap Vaughn’s neck. I reached them just in time to see blood trickle from Vaughn’s shredded skin. I wrapped my arm around Nash’s furry throat and spoke loudly in his ear. “Let. Go.”