Chapter Eleven

Savannah yawned and shrugged her shoulders, shifting in her seat, desperately trying to stay awake.

It was morning, and the days were starting to blur into one. Tonight was the full moon. Normally she’d feel the wonderful – the wild call of the moon, singing to her animal, coaxing her to the surface. Right now her brain was so fogged with exhaustion that she wanted to just crawl into a foxhole and sleep for a million years.

And now Roy was clanking his chains again, because he’d just woken up.

She braced herself to hear Roy howling and struggling, but he didn’t. Instead he growled, his voice low and hoarse, “Give me water.”

“Screw yourself,” Austin said.

“If we give you water, will you promise to stop trying to get out of your chains for the rest of the trip?” Savannah called back to him.

“Fuck, no.” Roy croaked out a horrible laugh.

Well, it had been worth a try. “Or at least not to attempt to get out of your chains for six hours straight?”

“Running low on tranquilizer, are we?” Roy sneered.

She flicked an annoyed look at the rearview mirror. Austin picked the wrench up off the seat next to him and slammed it down on Roy’s skull with all his might. It made a dull kong sound. Roy didn’t even blink.

“Do you really want to die thirsty, Roy?” Savannah tried again. “Because we know how this trip ends, and being thirsty sucks. So you can either promise not to pull on your chains, and get a bottle of water, or you can just lie there and suck it up. Dealer’s choice.”

Roy grunted, glaring at the front seat with bleary eyes. “What makes you think I’ll keep my word?”

She sighed. “Well, I’m just hoping that you will. I’m hoping that you will think about the memory of your mate, and that you’ll decide to go out with honor, to respect her memory.”

There was dead silence in the back of the truck.

“I don’t appreciate people using the memory of my dead mate to manipulate me.” There was something in Roy’s tone that sent an icy shiver through Savannah’s veins. His mate was no-go territory. Duly noted.

“I am not in any way using your dead mate to manipulate you,” she said, keeping her tone calm and even. “I am sorry about your loss, and I’m not saying that in the bullshit way that everybody says it when they don’t know what else to say. My father died four years ago. He was severely injured in a trap, and we kept bringing him back to a healer, but he died a year later, and it was devastating. My mother was in mourning for years, and the only thing that kept her going was the need to take care of her family. For the longest time, she was like a zombie, moving her emotionally dead body through her days. And she’s the strongest woman I know. I know how awful it is.”

Roy made a scoffing noise. “Yeah, whatever. Your mother didn’t go crazy and kill a bunch of innocent people.”

“Well, Roy, here’s the thing. The people you killed who were torturing wild animals, they were about as far from innocent as they could be. It sounds as if you screwed up and let humans see you, which was stupid and possibly deliberately suicidal, but you rid the world of a revolting cancer. As for the family that was murdered, I’m actually starting to wonder whether you did it, given that you didn’t even know what was done to them.”

“Told you. When you’ve killed as many as I have, you lose track.”

“If you’d killed anyone else, it would have been on the report,” she said impatiently. “Harris provides very thorough information on his marks. And we do monitor the news, you know. All the time.”

“Well, listen to shifter Nancy Drew.”

Roy’s voice was hoarse and it cracked on the last sentence. She pulled over to the side of the road.

“You are not giving him water.” Austin’s voice was tight and angry.

“Yes, I am.” Savannah stifled a flare of impatience. She was too tired and stressed out for arguing. “It’s going to take us several more days to get to our destination, and he is going to have to drink at some point. As for the tranquilizers, either we will have enough to get us through, or we won’t. We will deal with it at that point. If he lies to us this time, then we don’t give him any more water or food for the rest of the trip.”

She got out of the car, walked around to the door on the opposite side from Austin, and pulled it open. Roy looked up at her as she stood there, his gaze sullen.

Austin’s face was twisting, his expression strange and tormented. She’d never seen him look like that before.

“Fuck!” he screamed. He threw the rifle down on the seat and stormed off down the road. She gaped after him in astonishment.

Was that how he handled disagreements?

No. She’d never seen him behave like that before.

“What a dick, huh?” Roy let out a deep chuckle. “Cowardly little pussy. Running off to leave you alone with me. He’s useless. You should shoot him in the fucking face when he comes back. If he comes back.”

Savannah bit back her urge to defend Austin. It was instinctive, so quick and sudden that it snatched her breath away. Her hands twitched with the urge to pick up the wrench and bash Roy’s face in with it.

Don’t talk smack about my mate, asshole.

Damn it!

She couldn’t deny it to herself anymore.

Austin was her true mate.

How the hell had that happened?

Her mother had told her that, according to legend, the paths of True Mates always crossed at least once in their lives. Smart shifters didn’t try to fight it. Dumb shifters sometimes did what Austin’s mother had done – ignored their heart, ignored their instincts, and chased after something shinier. And they always ended up miserable.

Rattled, she pulled a water bottle from her jacket pocket.

She opened it and held it up to Roy’s lips, and he gulped it down greedily, sucking down the entire bottle.

Austin was still gone. She looked around uneasily. She could still scent him, but he’d vanished into the woods. Restroom break?

But he could at least have told her what he was doing.

She went and got a sandwich from her cooler and fed it to Roy. He scarfed it down ravenously, and licked his lips.

“What was that sauce? Not a bad last meal at all.” He said that so calmly. Almost cheerfully. As if his imminent execution was no big deal.

“My mother made that sandwich. It’s a secret recipe.” She scourged him with a fierce glower. “And speaking of my mother, I’ve made an executive decision. Threaten my mother again, and I’m going to cut your throat. I’m not going to enjoy doing it, I won’t feel good about myself afterwards, but I’ll get over it and be just fine. I’ll forfeit the bounty, because we’re supposed to deliver your crazy ass alive, but my mother is more important than money.”

Roy looked up at her thoughtfully. “I’m not going to threaten your mother again, but it’s not because you told me that you were going to kill me. That’s a given. I’ll die today or in a few days – either way, this coming full moon will be my last one. I’m not going to threaten your mother anymore because taking away a woman from this world who can cook like that would be an actual sin.”

Savannah stared at him, her brow wrinkling in puzzlement.

“What?” he asked, squinting at her suspiciously.

“You aren’t acting anywhere near as crazy as I thought you would be.”

Roy’s face went slack and his gaze drifted, seeming to fix on nothingness. “Well. It comes and goes. And if you know your business, you know that makes me even more dangerous than someone who’s crazy all the time. I’ll lure you in, I’ll make you think I’m sane, and I’ll snap your neck when you least expect it. Best get it over with now.”

She folded her arms across her chest, shifting uncomfortably. “Are you trying to get us to kill you? Are you afraid of what the Washborn Pack is going to do to you? Because if you think they’re going to torture you, I don’t have to take you to them. I could take you back to Harris, the broker, and I guarantee you that whatever he does to you, it will be humane.”

She felt queasy. She’d been attacked and had to defend herself over the years. She’d killed three men who were trying to kill her. She hadn’t felt badly about it in the least. She had no problem with self-defense. But something about sitting there having a conversation with a man she would have to hand over to his death…

“Is that what you think?” He threw back his head and laughed. “You think I’m afraid of pain? It doesn’t matter what you fucking do to me. It doesn’t matter where you take me. Take me to the Washborn Pack, kill me yourself, it makes no fucking difference to me.”

“Hey!” she heard Austin calling, and she turned to him with a wave of relief washing over her. It had been getting to the point where she thought she might have to go search for him. Which would mean using more tranqs on Roy, and their supply was diminishing so fast that it was genuinely frightening her.

Austin jogged towards her, and as he got closer, her relief was replaced with worry.

The expression on his face…like he’d just stared into the bowels of hell. He was pale, and his eyes were wild. His hair was pasted to his head with sweat. He was breathing hard. What had just happened?

“Sorry,” he gasped, coming up the opposite side of the truck from her. He planted one hand on the side of the truck and leaned on it as if needing support to stay on his feet.

“Nice job, leaving your girlfriend alone with me,” Roy sneered at him as he scrambled in. “Next time you do that, I’m going to break my chains and eat her face while she’s still alive.”

Austin jerked upright, and his face contorted with fury. He drew back his fist and smashed Roy’s face, breaking his nose. Blood spurted out, dripping down his face, and Roy’s lips drew back in a wordless snarl.

“Next time you threaten Savannah, I’m going to dig up your mate’s grave and pound her bones to powder, and then mix it in my coffee and drink it!” Austin barked at Roy. “And then I’ll puke it up!”

Not the mate! Not the mate! That’s Roy’s trigger point!

“Austin, no!” Savannah cried, but it was too late.

Roy went insane.

His face twisted in a maddened scream, and he hurled himself against his chains so hard that Savannah heard several of them snapping. Fur rippled all over his body.

She reared back and shot him, twice, but Roy was so frenzied he didn’t even seem to feel it. His jaw was stretching, fangs descending. She had to shoot him twice more before he finally collapsed.

“Austin. What. the. Hell.” She stared at him in dismay. “Damn you, Austin! You made me waste all those tranqs! He promised to behave for six hours, and he would have if you hadn’t provoked him!”

He sucked in a breath. “You’re right.”

“And you ran off and left me with him!” she shouted, fear and worry boiling over and rushing out of her. “The agreement is, we’re working together!”

“You’re right. You’re right.” His head bobbed miserably, and he clenched his fists, then crossed his arms over his chest.

“Don’t keep saying that! It doesn’t help!” she yelled at him. “Just tell me what the hell is going on here!”

“Okay.” A haunted expression twisted his face. “I ran off because I saw a vision. You were catching on fire. I can’t control myself when I see them. I was afraid I might hurt you.”

Alarm jolted through her. “You…saw a vision.” What exactly did that mean?

“Yes. Again. I keep seeing visions. It’s been happening for months.” He chewed his lower lip in anguish. “I’m going feral. I’m not going to last much longer, and when I finally go, somebody’s going to put me down. That’s why I moved away from my pack, to Greenville. That’s why I’ve never tried to pursue anything with you. If I weren’t going crazy, I’d have been at your house courting your crazy ass from the day I met you. Losing you? That’s what sucks the most about all of this.” He shook his head miserably. “We should just get going.”

Savannah’s jaw hung open.

He’d just tossed a bomb into her lap, and…they should just get going?

“Seeing visions…that could mean a lot of things. What if you’re a Seer?”

“My visions aren’t like that. They’re twisted and crazy. I…I went to a healer. He said that I’m going feral, and there’s nothing that he or anyone can do to stop it.”

“Austin, you idiot, I do not have enough bad words in my vocabulary right now.” She bit the words out so she wouldn’t scream.

“I do. I’m a motherfucking stupid asshole. Is that good for starters?” His lips twisted up in a wretched smile.

“Don’t make this into a joke!” she cried out, blinking back tears. “I am seriously pissed off that you didn’t tell me that before! Because you know what? We’re True Mates, and I know that, and you probably knew that. And I’m not even worth fighting for?”

He shook his head in denial. “Savannah, I’d fight to the death for you! Every time a man even looks at you, I want to bite his head off! If anyone ever tried to hurt you, I’d skin them alive! That’s not the problem at all. This isn’t me running from a fight. This is me making a sacrifice, Savannah. This is me letting you go so I don’t flip out and kill you.”

Her heart pounded against her ribcage. Austin was dumb and stubborn and too blind to get out of his own way, but he was hers.

The only man who’d ever made her feel pretty and sexy and incredibly talented at her job, all at the same time.

He looked at her like she was the tastiest dessert on the buffet table and he was starving. When she was with other men, she was always sucking in her stomach, trying to tone down how much stronger she was then them, trying to sound natural when she laughed at their dumb jokes.

Austin made her laugh without even trying.

And a curl of his lips made her knees melt and her heart pound.

Sure, he was a hothead. And he loved to torture her. But she loved to torture him back. He was the only man who’d ever challenged her.

He made her yearn for things she’d never even dreamed of before. A mate. Kits, or cubs, whatever they would have together.

She wasn’t going to give up on him, and she wasn’t going to let him give up on himself.

“Tell me everything,” she said tightly. “From the beginning.”

“I can’t. We need to just get back on the road and drive. The tranqs are only going to last so long.”

“No, Austin, this truck doesn’t move until you talk to me. And you’re not going to do it while we’re driving; I want to focus and hear every word you’re telling me without distraction. Saving your ass is more important than delivering this mark. You know what? If I don’t get this bounty, we will lose the restaurant. And that will be horrible. But you know what would be worse? Me letting you, my True Mate, down. Me not fighting to the last breath for you. My mother would agree with me, you know. If someone had come along and said that we could save my dad but we’d have to give up our house and the restaurant and everything we own, she’d have been building a tent for us in the woods and sewing us clothes out of rags and rubbish.” She fixed him with a stern look. “You should have told me earlier.”

Austin’s face twisted in an anguished grimace. “I should have. You’re right. I’m just not used to anyone going to bat for me.”

“Well, get used to it, idiot. Jerk. Wuss. God, I am so angry at you right now, I can’t decide if I should punch your stupid face in or kiss you.”

He tried on a rueful smile. It looked as if it hurt his face. “Do I get a vote?”

“No, you do not. Just talk to me, Austin.”

He glanced down at Roy, who was lying there between them. “Wait.”

He climbed out of the truck and walked around to her side. Then he reached out, threw his arms around her, and pinned her up against the side of the truck.

Desire flared through her. “What are you doing?” she choked out.

“This.” He bent down and brushed his lips across hers, ever so gently, then pulled away for just a second, and then he kissed her hard. His kiss was hungry and commanding, drinking her in, tongue invading and probing, and she melted into his mouth with a moan of pleasure. The kiss stretched on and on, and when he pulled away, he cradled her face in his hands. “I’m kissing my True Mate. Because I don’t know how many days I have left, and I want to stop wasting time.”

“Please don’t talk like that.” A sob caught in Savannah’s throat.

She couldn’t have found her True Mate just to have him snatched away from her. Fate couldn’t be that cruel.

Austin sighed and stepped back away from her, and her body cried out in protest. But he wasn’t looking at her now – he was retreating into somewhere far away.

He started telling her everything. It had been going on for the last year. It had started out with terrible, realistic dreams that felt like waking nightmares. He’d suddenly come to, standing in his kitchen or out in the street, with no idea of how he’d got there.

Then he started having the nightmares while he was most definitely awake.

Even though his nightmares were bizarre and distorted, and even though there was no history of Seers in his bloodline, he’d hoped against hope that they were future visions. But, he said, they weren’t. And Korbin the healer had confirmed that.

“They’re all messed up. I see things that couldn’t possibly be – dead people walking into my visions, people I know turning into monsters, things that couldn’t happen. It’s not me being a Seer. It’s me going crazy.”

“You saw one healer, Austin! One!” Savannah yelled at him. “After we drop this jackass off, we are going to visit other healers. We’ll do research. We’ll contact that wolf shifter database.” She headed for the driver’s seat.

Austin nodded and climbed into the back seat, settling next to Roy and slamming the passenger door shut. “There’s always the possibility that the database will have answers that we don’t like.”

“And I thought I was the one who always borrowed trouble. We’ll fix this. I swear to you, Austin.” She started up the truck and pulled out onto the road.

“Okay,” Austin said quietly, but Savannah could tell he didn’t really believe it. She felt a bleakness in her, a despairing sorrow. She was deathly afraid that he wouldn’t really fight for himself. That he’d let himself go, thinking he was protecting her when really he was breaking her heart.

* * *

It took them almost an hour to get there from Rural Route 7, bouncing along a rutted dirt road deep in the woods. Several times they had to get out and clear fallen branches in the road ahead of them.

They found a tiny group of shifters – only about twenty, counting cubs – with half a dozen cabins clustered together. The windows of the cabins were cracked, the roofs carpeted in twigs and leaf litter. The area around the cabins was choked with weeds and adorned with rusting car parts.

Their Alpha, Aberthol, came out to meet them as they shuddered to a stop in front of the largest cabin. His dirty feet were bare, and he wore only stained jeans.

“Welcome, welcome,” he said as they climbed out of their truck. “Mi casa es su casa. Let’s just get the prisoner locked up safe, okay?”

The rest of the pack clustered together and stared at them with open curiosity. Apparently they didn’t get many visitors out here.

Austin opened up the back of the truck and dragged Roy out, hauling him across the ground to a small concrete block building with a thick steel door. He flashed Aberthol a look of annoyance. “You told me you didn’t have anywhere that could hold him. This looks just fine.”

Aberthol shook his head regretfully. “Look, man. We’re out in the middle of nowhere. If anything goes wrong, help is a long, long way away. The nearest pack is at least three hours from us, and that’s assuming any of us is alive to call for help. If he breaks out, every last one of us is dead, and we got six cubs here. So I’m trusting you when you say you got him under control.”

“I understand,” Austin said. “We won’t let him hurt your pack.”

He dragged him into the concrete bunker and started unwrapping the chains, because Roy would just tear them off when he shifted anyway.

A little part of him felt an odd twinge about locking a wolf up during the full moon, but Roy had brought it on himself.

Savannah insisted on leaving a couple of bottles of water and a sandwich for him, so he’d have something to eat and drink when he woke up.

“Waste of good food,” Austin muttered.

“So, what’s the plan?” Aberthol asked nervously as Austin carried out all the chains. “When the full moon is over?” He shut the door and slid an enormous bolt into place.

“You clear the area. Savannah opens the door and stands back. I shoot him with tranq darts until he falls over.”

Aberthol didn’t look particularly impressed. “Ooookay. Well, dinner is served in about an hour. We’ll be eating in the clearing outside the big house. You want some beers?”

“We’ll come join you in a few,” Austin said. “I think we’ll go for a little stroll in the woods. Stretch our legs a bit. Thanks for the offer.”

A dull roar sounded from inside the little concrete bunker, making them all start. Aberthol shook his head. “I don’t envy you,” he said. “Me, I like the simple life. No amount of money in the world would make me want to take on that kind of trouble.” And he headed back to his cabin.

Austin glanced at the bunker. It was as solid as a rock. There was no way that anyone could break out of there, even Roy.

Austin led Savannah away from the clearing, his arm draped possessively around her shoulders. A smile twitched on his lips.

“Your mood sure shifted,” Savannah said lightly as they made their way out into a clearing. “It’s nice to see.”

She sat down on a fallen log, sweeping her hair back over her shoulders, and he settled in next to her.

The moon hung huge and white overhead, and he took her hand in his. “We’ve got a little time before dinner,” he said. Then he gave her a roguish grin. “But I’m still hungry. I want to eat my dessert first.”

“Austin!” Savannah blushed, but she didn’t protest as he stripped off her T-shirt. He leaned down and kissed her shoulder. Then he nipped it, and her whimper of pleasure made him rock hard.

“That’s where I’ll mark you, if I don’t go crazy.” He was rewarded with a hard smack on the back of his head.

“What? You prefer the neck? Somewhere more visible?” he asked, straightening back up. “I like it. Make sure everybody knows you’re mine.”

“No, you idiot, I’ll be happy with your claiming mark anywhere on my body! That was for saying ‘if’!” she said fiercely. “You will not go crazy. You will drive me crazy, for sure, but you will not go crazy. I will not let you. You even try to go crazy? I’m coming after you and dragging you back.”

A sudden storm of emotion swept over him. Nobody had ever fought for him like that. Not his mother, not his brothers, not the members of the Hidden Hills Pack. She deserved someone sane. Someone who could give her a perfect, beautiful life. Someone who’d never be a threat to her.

Swallowing hard, he forced the terrible thoughts down as he looked away.

She squeezed his hand. “Tell me you’ll fight for me, Austin. Because damn it, I’m worth it.”

“Oh, God, yes you are,” he said, his voice husky with emotion. “I’ll fight for you. I don’t want to leave this behind.”

She threw her arms around him and kissed him, and it was wild and hungry and needy, the eagerness of her touch mirroring his own desire. He drew away slowly, watching her face as her reddish eyelashes fluttered, her eyes drifting open. She looked half-drugged and dreamy, and he felt a sudden surge of male pride at the knowledge that he did that to her. He made her feel that way. His cock twitched urgently in his pants, and he wrestled down the urge to rip off her clothes and take her right there and then, roughly and thoroughly.

Instead, he dipped his head and kissed the creamy swells of her breasts above the subtle lace trim of her bra, running his hands down her spine and pressing her closer. The way she shuddered against him was maddening.

He kissed his way down her body, unsnapping her bra behind her back and slipping the straps down over her arms, unbuttoning her pants as he dragged his lips over the soft curve of her belly, ignoring her playful, breathless half-protests.

As she wriggled out of her jeans and panties, he shucked his clothes, tossing his shirt behind him and skimming down his pants, toeing off his boots. Her gaze on his body was like a lingering caress, hot and insatiable, and he felt his cock growing impossibly harder, a slick bead of precum gathering at the head.

She reached out for him, but he shook his head, chiding her, teasing her with his eyes as he dropped to all fours and crawled towards her. She looked delicious in the moonlight, her pale skin spattered with freckles, her rosy nipples pert and erect in the cool evening air.

When he reached her, he ran his hands up her calves then pushed her knees apart, exposing her glistening pink sex. He trailed his fingers higher, watching with fascination as trails of goose bumps followed his touch, then settled his hands on her inner thighs, bracing her open to him as he lowered his head and lavished her pussy with a long, slow, erotic lick. She gasped and clutched at his hair, tugging hard enough to hurt as he suckled her moist flesh. She tasted delicious – musky and sweet – and he lapped hungrily at her molten core as she whimpered and shook, her breathing broken and irregular as he zeroed in on her clit. A few fast, hard flicks of his tongue were enough to shatter her, and she came apart, writhing against his mouth.

He drew away slowly, reluctantly, going back for another long, thorough lick before grinning up at her, the swelling sense of self-satisfaction in his chest almost enough to distract him from the urgent throbbing of his rock-hard cock.

He tried to draw her into his arms, meaning to tumble her onto the floor and drive himself inside her still-clenching body, but instead she scrambled to her feet, and the look in her eyes changed from half-stunned bliss to wicked determination. She yanked at his hands, and he allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. Then, with slow, deliberate seductiveness, she backed him up against a tree, walking him backwards until his spine bumped against its rough bark.

She smirked up at him, trailing her fingers down his chest and over his jumping stomach muscles, eyes full of mischief. “My turn.”

“What are you do— Ohhhhh, fuck…”

His question trailed away into a ragged curse as she sank to her knees.

She wrapped her hand around his length, squeezing slightly, the sensation almost too good to bear. Then she lowered her head and swirled her tongue around his swollen tip, licking up the sticky, salty liquid weeping from the slit.

He gasped sharply and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the tree. He wrapped her ponytail loosely around his fist and tried to catch his breath as she started to bob her head. At first she took in just the head, allowing her tongue to play over the silky skin before letting it pop free from her lips. Then she took him deeper, sucking in more of his length with each smooth motion of her head, hollowing her cheeks to stroke him and swirling her tongue in an undulating rhythm that made him curse and tense. Every muscle locked as he ached and shook on the cusp of orgasm, and he thought he’d die when she wrapped her fingers tightly around the base of his shaft, holding him back. He was coming but not coming, groaning with the fierceness of the sensation.

“Watch,” she whispered.

He looked down at her, kneeling at his feet, her lips shiny from sucking him. He looked straight into her magnetic eyes as she jerked him off, stroking him quickly and smoothly until he came in a spasm of blind sensation, dotting her freckled breasts and collarbone with glistening pearls of come.

Savannah reached up and used the pad of her thumb to collect a drop of fluid that had splashed her cheek. Then she sucked it off her skin, never breaking eye contact, rosy lips suckling her thumb.

It was the sexist thing he’d ever seen.

He glanced up at the sky, feeling the power of the moon wash over him. He felt wild and lusty and full of crazy energy. The full moon wasn’t for another few hours. He couldn’t wait to spend his first full moon running through the woods with his mate.

Savannah stepped back into her pants and zipped them up. “Do we have to go back and join them for dinner?” She sighed. “I just want to spend time with you alone.”

“I’m afraid so,” he said reluctantly. “They’re already not happy about having Roy on their property. Can’t say I blame them. I know that bunker’s solid, but just as a show of good faith, until we turn, we should be nearby, keeping an eye on him. We shouldn’t even have come out here like this, but, you know.” He grinned at her. “Sorry not sorry.”

“You’re right, you’re right. Duty calls. Stupid duty,” she said. Then she flashed him a quick look. “But we’ll have plenty more time. Won’t we?”

“Of course we will,” he said, because he knew that was what she wanted to hear. And because he hoped it was true, even if he feared it wasn’t.

They trudged back to the little cluster of cabins, holding hands as they tramped through the woods. He liked the feeling of her hand in his. Liked how she glanced up at him, the look on her face. So happy and contented.

They found the pack sitting in picnic chairs, gathered around a campfire. Aberthol’s mate, Louanne, fetched them a couple of ice-cold beers from a plastic cooler. She was a skinny, fierce-looking woman with stringy brown hair and scowl lines stamped across her forehead.

Aberthol ladled them each a bowl of stew, and they settled in, sitting next to each other, facing him.

Austin shifted restlessly in his chair as he tucked into the stew, feeling the full moon’s energy rushing through his veins.

“Good stuff,” he said to Aberthol. “I’ve always loved venison.”

Aberthol patted Louanne on the shoulder. “My old lady made it. Not bad, huh? I think I’ll keep her.”

“Shoo,” she snorted. “Who you calling old? And who says I’ll keep you?”

Austin looked at Savannah, and she flashed him a grin, and he knew what she was thinking.

That’ll be us in a few years. Together. Mated. Still giving each other a hard time.

She settled back into her chair with a sigh. “Tired,” she mumbled.

“I know. Me too.” It had been the day from hell. They’d both been driving too long, not getting enough sleep.

Still. Something was wrong. Should they be feeling tired right before a full moon? His thoughts were getting dull and foggy.

A feeling of lassitude seeped over him. Something is wrong. He should be feeling more energetic, not more and more relaxed.

He turned his head slowly, way too slowly, to look at Savannah.

Her head was nodding, chin resting on her chest. Eyes half closed.

His fingers felt thick and numb. He dropped his bowl of stew on the ground and tried to speak, but his lips wouldn’t move.

Drugged. They’d drugged their stew.

He struggled, trying to push the sedative from his system, but whatever they’d used was too powerful.

He shouted wordlessly, screaming a warning that his mate would never hear. Shavannahhhh…runnnn…

The world went hazy and he could hear Aberthol yelling “Now!” and Louanne yelling “Ooh, baby! One million dollars!”

And then everything went fuzzy and the world winked out.