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There weren’t many shifters whose animal surfaced pre in conitive functions suffered for it in later life, slowly degenerating There was no denying that the healing sessions orking for Nick The headaches, memory lapses, muscle tremors, and episodes of mental disorientation had all eased off In soenerative aftereffects could be healed completely, but in so But hiselse: that fear remained…that fear that the improvement was only temporary, that the problem would eventually return
His pack healer had warned Nick that this could happen If it did happen and he washis caregiver as opposed to his partner, watching him slowly deteriorate until he didn’t even knoho she was He’d seen what it was like for hisof her trueher entire existence around her children, clinging to them like a lifeline She was happy in her oay, but she was still lonely and only half alive With Nick as her patient rather than her partner, Shaya would in effect be without a ht of his spirited Shaya only half alive
Although he didn’t feel he could claim her, Nick was resolved that he would alatch over Shaya fro would always be paramount to him And that was exactly why he was, at that ates of Phoenix Pack territory He needed to be sure that the “bad news” had no relation whatsoever to Shaya He needed to know that it was not at all linked to her health or safety And, yes, he could admit he needed to just see her, needed a small “fix”
He kneasn’t fair to pry in her life if he wasn’t going to claim her, even if it was in an effort to protect her In fact, her Beta pair—the only e, who knew he and Shaya were htly pointed this out They had also warned hiood chance that a war between the packs would begin But even that wasn’t enough to keep Nick away
As Trey and Nick were close allies, the shifter guarding the periave theates of Phoenix Pack territory, which was disguised as a nature reserve Nick’s wolf relaxed a little—content in the knowledge that he would soon see his mate
Eli, Nick’s brother, drove the SUV to the mountain that was deep within the territory UnlikeNick’s own, the Phoenix wolves didn’t live in cabins Instead, they lived inside thethat had been modernized
Once Eli had parked the SUV inside the concealed parking lot at the base of the mountain, Nick turned to him “Stay here Derren and I should only be fifteentoo many wolves inside the caves The Alpha, Trey, wasn’t the most stable of people, and his wolf easily felt threatened As such, the arrival of three powerful, dominant wolves would instantly have him alert
“Nick,“Never mind”
Grateful he wasn’t going to have to listen to more of Derren’s shit, Nick exited the SUV Both Eli and Derren knew that Shaya was hissomeone who stayed out of other people’s business, Eli hadn’t saidwas an exercise in futility Derren, however, had raised thefear interfere with his decision to clai real old
With Derren close behind him, Nick climbed up the steps that had been carved into the face of the mountain until he finally came to the entrance One of the enforcers, Marcus, was there, holding the door open He didn’t look happy That iven Nick cause to frown if it wasn’t for the fact that the tall, dark-haired as usually cheery and flashing everyone a cloide s, a feeling of disquiet came over Nick
“Trey’s in the kitchen,” he said si with a tip of his head for Nick and Derren to follow hih the tunnels that would take them deeper into the mountain After a series of turns, they eventually reached the very conte table were the other three enforcers, the Head Enforcer, the Beta pair, and the Alpha pair Much like Marcus, they didn’t look happy to see hi: they all knew the truth about Shaya being his mate So either the Beta pair had finally told them, or Shaya herself had
Well, it had only been a a in front of the table, he simply said, “So you know”
“Oh, we know,” confir her nape, clearly trying to keep her froht be small and dainty, but she was powerful And scary, for that matter In fact, most of the shifter community feared her as her once latent wolf had overcome that suppression and surfaced
“I suppose this is the part where you order ht they’d have any success with that, more fool them Hell, he’d ordered himself to stay away from her, and not even that had worked
“You owe her that,” gritted out Jaime; the Beta female was a close friend of Shaya’s But that was his Shaya—she made friends easily, inspired loyalty and protectiveness in people, which hy the wolves in front of hi him He noticed that one of the enforcers looked particularly pissed with him Dominic Nick really did hate that wolf Why? Because Dominic spent a lot of time with her—so much so that Nick had at one point suspected he was in a relationship with her
Usually his as prone to jealousy—would have most of his attention focused on the little prick, but not today No, today his as stressing over so what his wolf had already sensed: Shaya’s scent was faint Extreled down Nick’s spine “Where is she?”