He frowned. “Are you cold?”
“No.”
A smile started on his face. He glided one of his palms over my shoulder, toward my neck, settling his thumb in the hollow of my collarbone. His four other fingers rested lightly on the knobs of my spine. My frenzied pulse pounded against the pad of his thumb.
“You know, the night it happened-probably moments after you left-my father called me. He was agitated and drunk. And angry. Really angry. He ordered me to set fire to the inn. He said your family would be the pack’s downfall. I told him he was drunk and crazy, and that no one was setting fire to anything. And then he called me a coward. A coward like my mother. And then he said-” His fingers clenched almost painfully around my neck.
I wrapped my hand around his and dragged it away.
His lids slipped shut.
“What did he say?” I murmured.
He squashed his lips hard. So hard I thought they would never open again. But they did. “He said that he’d hoped getting rid of her would make me more of a man.”
My hand froze against his. “Getting rid of-”
“Dad would beat Mom. Often. The night she died…” His voice juddered. I squeezed his hand to steady him. “They fought because of something I did.” His voice broke on a strangled sob. He pressed his lips tight again, but again, they reopened along with eyes blackened by tears. “I always suspected that he’d beaten my mother to death, but I’d never known it for certain. Not until he confessed to it. I lost my shit then. I told him I would kill him. And then I hung up.”
My heart shattered like Liam’s stance. He sagged against me, sobs rolling out of him. I wasn’t sure if they were for his father or for his mother. I led him to an Adirondack before the weight of his sorrow could knock us both over. He pulled me down with him and hugged me like a frightened child hugged their mother, clutching the fabric of my tank, crying against my collarbone.
Liam’s sobs finally subsided, but he didn’t raise his face from where it pressed against me. “Lucas and August had been sitting next to me, so when my father was found floating in his pool mere hours later, they were convinced I’d killed him. They went so far as to discuss this with Frank. I went ape-shit crazy on them and carried out my own investigation. I hired a PI and had him look into you. I’d smelled you on my father’s couch. I didn’t think you’d killed him-at least not alone.”
I ran my fingers through his hair, hoping my touch could soothe him a little.
“It took Everest leaving town for it to suddenly click into place. I’d learned about Becca by then and made the connection. And then, when Frank told me Everest had stolen the Boulder relic-”
“Everest stole it?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“I’m not sure. For leverage?” He sighed, and his warm breath pulsed against my skin. “Tomorrow, I’ll start looking for him, but tonight… Tonight, I want to spend the night not thinking about my father. Not thinking about Everest. Not thinking about the heart attack you gave me when you asked me to end your life…”
He released the fabric of my tank top and gazed up at me, his hands finding purchase on the small of my back. His breaths slowed, evening out. The heat of them raised goose bumpseverywhere.
I was suddenly conscious that it wasn’t a child who was holding me, and my fingers faltered. His lips connected with the sharp bone in my shoulder and stayed there-not quite a kiss. I never thought a shoulder could be so sensitive, but every nerve ending in my body converged in that one spot.
He raised a hand to the base of my skull and tugged my face infinitesimally closer.
“Frank wants me to join the pack,” I blurted out.
“He’s not the only one.”
With the tip of his index finger, he traced a line down the center of my face, down the middle of my throat, stopping only once his finger reached the patch of skin underneath which my heart beat a fevered rhythm. He spread his fingers and pressed his palm there.
“You really think Frank would have had us fight to the death?” I asked, my voice a little hoarse.
“Probably not, but there was no way I was going to risk your life to find out.”
His eyes glimmered in the violet darkness, reflecting the sheet of stars suspended over our heads.
He leaned toward me and fit his lips to mine. The fragrance of his skin tangled with that of the forest and of the moon and of the warm earth. His hold became crushing as his mouth parted mine, as his tongue twirled around mine.
Liam kissed the same way he did everything else in his life, with a deep, savage, territorial hunger.
In the distance, a wolf howled, and I swear my body responded, my skin bristled. Liam’s too. Soft, hot skin transformed beneath my fingers into softer fur.
He broke off the kiss to curse.
“Full moon,” he explained.
I frowned.
“It makes our bodies crave turning more than anything else.”
I was pretty sure I craved himmore than anything.
“Fuck it. I’d rather stay in skin tonight.”
Another howl tore through the dark fabric of the night, alluring and deep, an invitation. My fingers tapered into curved claws. Liam’s eyes glowed an inhuman hue, and the slightest hint of fang appeared over his lip.
“Do you have any plans tomorrow?” I asked him.
He frowned, and his teeth shortened. “No.”
“Want to spend the day with me? In human form? We could get to know each other…and not just in the proverbial sense.”
Heat stained my jaw.
He pushed a strand of hair off my face. “I didn’t think Ness Clark ever blushed.” He placed a kiss on the base of my neck.
I shuddered. “Run. I need to run.”
“Hmm…is that what you need?”
I swatted his shoulder, and he winked. Tightening his grip around my waist, he stood, then set me down.
Another howl punctured the night.
Liam weaved his fingers through mine, and then together, we raced down the staircase that was carved in the side of the wide deck and crossed the moonlit field.
Someone yelled for us to watch out for the wolves. I glanced back at the inn, my hair whipping my face. Guests stood against the railing, gazes plunged on the forest beyond. Their mouths moved, but we could no longer hear them. I guessed they were discussing the reckless girl and boy running toward certain death.
I understood then why the pack hadn’t avenged my father. What would these people do to us if they found out magic ran in our blood? Would they be holding rifles loaded with silver bullets or recording devices?
Neither scenario was pleasing.