Cursed Mate (Feral Shifters 3)

Felicity’s shadows begin to wrap around Frost’s torso like a lasso. They don’t sink into his skin, luckily, or I might have something to say about yet more shadows touching him. But they form a barrier around his chest and stomach, then begin to slowly rotate around him.

In return, Frost’s shadow tattoos slow dramatically. They sync up with Felicity’s circling minions in a soft dance.

Felicity sits back and stretches out her legs over the edge of the table, then rests her hands in her lap. She watches the shadows moving and doesn’t speak.

Silence stretches over the room, broken only by the low murmur of conversation from the cooks in the corner. I watch Frost’s face closely, waiting for any sign that something is happening. His fingers wrapped in mine have gone still, though his eyes are still swiveling wildly beneath his pale eyelids.

Then his entire body relaxes all at once. A soft breath expels from his lungs, and all the tension in his face vanishes in an instant.

Felicity smiles triumphantly and opens her little box. Her shadows peel away from Frost and spiral back toward the container, where they vanish into the interior without a trace. She flicks the lid back over onto the box, then turns a little latch, sealing it closed.

“Done,” she says.

I lean over Frost and put my free hand against his cheek.

His long lashes flutter, and he opens his eyes. Despite the fact that the whites of his eyes are bloodshot, probably from the battle he’s been fighting, his irises are the purest blue I think I’ve ever seen.

“How do you feel?” I ask.

He blinks, then rotates his head on the table to face me. His other hand reaches up to cup mine where I’m still holding his face, and he lets out another little sigh. “Better. Much better.”

The sheer avalanche of relief that barrels through me cannot just be my own. A part of me recognizes that it’s a collective feeling of relief tinged with Malix’s and Kian’s own emotions.

Felicity slides gracefully off the top of the table and stands. “That should help stabilize him. The new shadows are still there, but have found a place in the hierarchy. I would venture to say that within a few hours, he’ll feel back to normal. His normal, of course.”

I meet Frost’s gaze. “I’m going to let go of you for a second, okay? I want to test if you can handle this on your own.”

He nods. “All right.”

I gently extract my fingers from his, then slide my other hand away from his face. Pausing, I give him a minute to adjust to the absence of my touch, and when he doesn’t react, I slowly step away from the bench. I back a couple of feet away, still staring at him, ready to leap back toward him if necessary.

But his eyes remain clear, his expression cool and enigmatic as always. He sits up and stretches, then looks down at his arms where his tattoos are moving and shifting at their normal rate. Faster than his brothers, but not the frantic madness they whipped around with after Quinton’s assault.

It worked.

Thank fuck.

Felicity shifts her focus toward an old clock set up on one wall, then back to us.

“We’ll set you up in a guest cabin,” she says. “Dinner is a community affair here, so when the food is ready, I’ll send someone over with meals for you.”

I exchange glances with Malix, and from the look on his face, I’m certain that he picked up on the subtext of her words just like I did. She doesn’t want us eating with her pack.

Despite the amazing thing she just did for Frost, she still doesn’t trust us.

Hell, I guess I shouldn’t judge her for that. I’m not exactly handing out trust like candy these days myself.

Felicity’s gaze flicks over the four of us again. “Rest. Recover. First thing tomorrow morning, we’ll meet to discuss Quinton.”

Kian nods once. “Thank you, Alpha Felicity. For everything.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she warns. Then she turns her back on us and disappears into her office, closing the door behind her.

Right. We still don’t know if she’ll actually be willing to help us against Quinton.

Cormac rises from a nearby table, heaving his muscled bulk up from the seat and striding over to us before jerking his chin. “Come on.”

I offer Frost a hand and help him off the table, although I let go of him so he can walk on his own. I don’t want to coddle him unless he wants me to. Then the four of us fall into step behind Cormac, while several of Felicity’s other wolves close in around us in a mirror of the way they escorted us into the village.

Sunset isn’t far off, and the sky is turning gorgeous shades of amber and orange near the horizon. We don’t have to walk far before we turn up a little pathway to a small cabin with open windows and a sky blue door.

Cormac twists the knob and shoves the door open. “There are clothes in the closet. Water in the pantry. Make yourselves at home.”

“Thank you,” I say, then brush past him into the cool, dim interior.

Kian exchanges a few words with the red-haired shifter while the rest of us check out our new temporary digs. The cabin only has one main room, with a small kitchenette set in one corner and a living area on the opposite side of the space, and a bedroom in the back. Two doors are set in the back wall—presumably the closet and a bathroom. Everything is beige except for a few colorful accents in the wall hangings and rugs scattered around the place.

The front door closes, and I swivel on my heel to see Kian peeking out through the curtains on the window near the couch.

“Everything okay?” Malix asks.

Kian shrugs. “Maybe. They’re not leaving.”