Mated

Twenty-Nine

I dismounted James' back when he slowed to a stop in front of a boarded up home. The sky was tinted with shades of orange in time for sunset. Cort jumped to his feet and walked up the broken steps leading up to what used to be a front door and peered around the house.

James didn't Turn because he would be naked and we didn't have another set of clothes here for him. He'd been lucky to find the pants and sweater at the warehouse last night, but they ripped to shreds when he Turned this morning. I made a mental note to remind him to try and be scarce with his clothes in the future.

I felt a nudge and turned to face James just as I saw Cort disappear around the side of the house from the corner of my eye.

"What is it?" I asked him. I came to realize that when he's completely Turned like this, he can't communicate with me, not even through the Alpha link. It's odd that such an ability would be stripped away when he is more wolf than werewolf, even as an Alpha.

He bared his teeth and glared at me. Somehow I knew exactly what he meant. I nodded.

"Don't worry," I smiled softly. "I'll obey and stay put until you return."

He seemed satisfied with himself and in the blink of an eye, leaped across the yard and into the trees across the street. I nearly shouted after him to stay hidden, but James knew better than to be seen in a city that was flooded with humans.

"There's a broken window over here. We can climb in and wait inside." I looked up at the sound of Cort's voice. His expression was anything but welcoming, yet his presence wasn't feared by my wolf since the day we met.

I nodded. "Okay." I followed him toward the backyard, though when we reached it, I laid flat on my back over the grass.

Folding my hands over my stomach and closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply. Vienna smelled exactly the same: polluted with car fumes and overcrowded by humans. It wasn't like Stratton's rich green smell, but it was just as good because it had once been my home.

"We should get inside," said Cort. I squinted at him with one eye open.

"He won't be long. And I'll be able to sense any wolves coming this way. This is far enough from my old werewolf compound that if a Rogue had followed us. I'd be able to sense it."

The sound of the Hunter lowering to a crouch sounded from a few feet away from me, but he said nothing. The rustle of his clothes and the sound of metal on metal meant he'd pulled out one of his guns and was checking its barrel for silver bullets.

I sighed.

"I haven't Turned in a while," I admitted to him. He didn't respond. "Did you know if we go too long, the next Turn literally rips our muscles apart? It's so painful, I hear."

Still no response.

"Well, I'm sure you already knew that. I'm sure as a Hunter you know everything there is to know about us. Including how to stop Sephiran. Any suggestions?" I lifted my head to peer at him and he didn't even look my way. "You and the others of your kind knew about this. You had to have had a plan, right?"

I sighed again after another minute of trying to talk to a walking wall, settling my head back down. I decided it was a talk we would have to have soon, but it can wait until after Raquel's grandmother reads my palms. We stayed in complete silence except for him checking his weapons. I jolted upright when I felt him.

Cort was on his feet in an instant, reacting to my reaction. "Rogues?" He asked.

I shook my head. "James." My heart skipped a beat when I could identify that it was him. I smiled to myself. My wolf's feelings for him have gotten a lot stronger within the past few days. I felt it the day he found me and the Hunter. It was as if his presence cast a spell on me. I'd been suddenly so relaxed and unafraid when he found me.

And I wanted nothing more than to be at his side.

I stood on my feet as soon as James reared the back of the house and spotted us. But he was alone.

Feeling my brows dip, I walked over to him. Something felt...off. Not just the fact that he was alone without my father's Palm Reader and didn't complete that part of the plan, but something else troubled him.

"Hey," I said, tentatively. "Did you speak to my father? He didn't agree?"

James didn't respond right away. Then he gave a cautious head shake. "No, I didn't see your father."

Now, my brows scrunched closer together on my forehead. "What do you mean? You didn't go to the house?"

James glanced behind him, took a deep breath, stepped forward, and placed both hands on my shoulders. My breathing wavered and I felt my eyes go wide. It was an amazing feeling having James' hands on me. His presence alone was enough to bring vigor to both me and my wolf, but this...his touch warmed the skin beneath it, even through the thickest of fabrics, the existence of the bond electrified the space between us as if I held it in the palm of my hand.

"Malia, I'm sorry–I'm so sorry," his gaze bore into me. They were filled with something I didn't want to see. Something that made my stomach lurch.

"What is it, James? Tell me."

His eyes flickered to my mouth, then back up to stare at me with a tenderness so raw it dislodged pieces of my heart. "The compound–it's gone. It's all gone–" I gasped, tried to step away but he held me firmly. "By fire. I smelled Rogues all over it, but it was by fire," he finished.

My body suddenly felt too heavy for me, my stomach too knotted. James pulled me into his embrace and I was too shocked, too stuck, to do anything but stand trapped within his arms and the side of my face pressed against his chest.

He didn't say anything else. Cort didn't move an inch from where he stood behind us. I don't know how long we stood like that, but we did–all three of us, until I found enough strength to pull away from James's arms.

"I need to see it," I told him, surprising myself by the firmness in my tone. My voice sounded strong, unaffected, despite the slight shake that started in my hands. "I need to see it."