I closed my eyes and asked my wolf for patience. “If I would have known you were going to go to the motel, I would have guarded the goddamned place. How am I going to fucking protect you if you always do the exact opposite of everything that you’re told?”
She crossed her arms. “Well, I lived. And it looks like they got away. I thought you were fast, but…”
I had to step away. Just for a second. Just until I could get my wolf under control. Now was not the time for them to meet.
My chest rose and fell as I sucked in a deep, calming breath. I knew in my gut that the masked wolves were going to escape. They were amped up on something and moving far faster than a werewolf could.
The one in the car was dead. That meant that as much as Savannah infuriated me to the core of my being, I needed her.
I turned back and stepped up into her face. “Your situation is perilous. You need to help me. Scry on the she-wolf that attacked you. Tomorrow.”
“I’ll scry for you on the she-wolf, but”—she paused and narrowed her eyes, like that would somehow have some effect on me—“I’ll bring the scrying potion.”
My mind reeled. She agreed? If I’d known that all it would take to get Savannah to work with me was a little fright, I’d have done it sooner. Myself.
It was time to press. I shoved my hand in my pockets and loomed over the red-haired woman. “I’m glad you found your senses. You’ll meet me at Eclipse tomorrow at one p.m. We’ll scry, and if that doesn’t pan out with enough information, you’ll come with me to meet a seer.”
“Wait a sec, I didn’t agree to meeting a seer. Why would I do that?” She cocked her hip out and frowned. Even with a welt on her cheek and her hair a mess, she looked delicious.
But my patience was thin. “Because scrying might not give us the answers we need. We must do everything we can to stop these rogue wolves, for your sake and my pack’s.” I leaned close, whispering, although no one who would care was close enough to hear. “The seer is how I found you. She warned me that I had to protect you. She’s available tomorrow night. You’ll go.”
Savannah glanced over her shoulder at her cousin, who was resting his busted foot on the bumper of their car, looking amused. He shrugged.
“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow. Until then, I’m going back to the motel to get my stuff. I assume I won’t be jumped there again, but feel free to tail along.” Her eyes lingered on me for a second, and then she spun and headed toward her cousin’s car.
Protectiveness surged inside me. “You should stay here tonight. I’ll put you up in a different hotel, somewhere safe.”
She opened the driver’s door and paused, regarding me with obstinance. “Not a chance. I’m safest with my people. My family.”
My wolf rose, and my claws extended. “I can’t protect you there.”
“You can’t protect me here, Jaxson. Nobody can. I’ve been on my own for a while now. I’ll take care of myself.”
Her sadness and anger hit me like a punch to the gut. She was alone and had no one she trusted in this new world.
Savannah slammed the door and drove off, and my emotions ripped into me like claws. Frustration. Rage. Possessiveness.
Why did I fucking care if she was miserable? She was just a means to an end. The key to getting the answers I needed.
The seer’s prophecy wound around me like a python strangling an unsuspecting victim in the night. If you do not stop them, she will be dead before the full moon rises, and with her, the future of your pack.
The moon was up, and nearly full. Three nights left.
I scrubbed a hand through my hair. The fortune teller had drawn three tarot cards to foresee my future. The Moon for our adversaries. Strength for the woman. And the third had been for me.
The Hanged Man.
That fate seemed inevitable now. Savannah Caine was going to be the end of me.
21
Savannah
The next morning, I awoke in another strange room far from Belmont.
Aunt Laurel’s house.
I hadn’t had nightmares. This time, the nightmares had been real.