Nightshade (29 page)

“Fine.” She stepped around me, running after Dax.

Neville started to follow them, his eyes livid.

Ren grabbed his arm. “Get back onstage and start playing again. Whatever just happened, it’s over.”

“But—”

“I’m fine, Nev.” Mason put his hand on Neville’s shoulder. “We’ll sort this out. Go play.”

With some reluctance Nev headed back to the stage, and a moment later, the music picked up again, though on a noticeably angrier riff.

“Someone want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

“It was nothing.” Mason helped Cosette right the table. “Like Ren said, it’s over now.”

“It wasn’t nothing,” Ansel protested.

“What happened?” Ren asked.

“Really, let’s not make a big deal out of it,” Mason said, his face drawn. “He lost his temper, that’s all.”

“I don’t think you can just drop it, Mason,” Shay said quietly. “It is a big deal. Dax was out of line.”

I turned to Bryn. “What did Dax do?”

She glanced at Mason and Ansel. “He didn’t like something Mason said . . . about Neville.”

Ren’s jaw tightened. “I see.”

He started toward the door, and I was right behind him. We were halfway across the room when he turned abruptly.

“I’ll take care of it, Calla.”

“I should be there,” I said. “This affects both of us.”

He shook his head. “I can handle this. Dax already knows he’s in for it. It would be better if you stayed here and tried to convince the rest of them that it’s going to be okay.”

“All right.” It was already happening. Ren was in charge now.

I watched him leave the bar.

I was so angry my muscles began to ache from tension. I hated being treated like an inferior. I’d always led my pack and suddenly it was as if all those years of being their alpha meant nothing. I was only Ren’s mate. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find Shay standing beside me.

“That was pretty intense.”

I nodded. “It’s a problem. Dax and Fey aren’t handling Nev and Mason’s relationship very well.”

“I noticed that.” He glanced at the door. “What do you think Ren’s going to do?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I trust him.”
Like I have any other choice.

“You must,” he said, the corners of his mouth crinkling. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“May I have this dance?”

I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

“Ren had his turn on the dance floor,” Shay said. “Now it’s mine.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that arrangement.” I stepped back. “Besides, I have to talk with the others. Get things back to normal.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “I’m going to help you.”

I frowned at him, puzzled, as he put one hand at my waist and grabbed my other hand. He pulled me close while stretching our arms out, straight as an arrow.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

“The tango,” he replied, guiding me across the floor with melodramatic, sweeping steps.

“How is this helping?” I glanced at my packmates. They were all watching us, looking befuddled.

“Music doesn’t soothe the savage beast, Cal,” Shay said, dipping me so low my hair brushed the floor. “Laughter does.”

I looked toward our tables again, startled at what I saw. Shay’s plan was working. Ansel and Mason were already chuckling. Bryn giggled madly and even Cosette couldn’t stop smiling.

Shay sighed and spun me away from him before jolting me back as if I’d been a coiled spring. “It would be much better if I had a rose between my teeth. Wouldn’t I be dashing?”

I started to giggle. “That would be ridiculous.”

“Ridiculously dashing.” He grinned. Even the bikers around the bar were laughing now, morphing their hardened faces from Sid Vicious to Santa Claus.

I leaned into the warmth of Shay’s body. When he held me close, I could actually believe everything would be okay. I wondered if he knew how happy he could make me, despite my constant fears about the future. Regret suddenly constricted my chest, cutting off my laughs. Seeing me lip-locked with Ren earlier must have hurt Shay so much. He deserved better, more than I could ever offer him.

“So you’re not angry with me?” I asked as he made me pirouette like a ballerina.

“About what?” he asked. “You aren’t the bigoted one. Fey and Dax can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.”

Cool relief spilled through me, followed by a nip of guilt.

Nothing could change what lay ahead for Ren and me. Shay needed to understand that more than anyone. But looking at his smile, the warmth in his eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything more about the kiss.

“I think you’d better share this brilliant plan of yours with Nev,” I said. “I wouldn’t want him to think we’re mocking him.”

“Nev’s got a great sense of humor,” Shay replied, dipping me again. “I think he’ll get it.”

“If you’re sure.” I glanced at the stage. Shay seemed to be right. Though Nev looked a bit thrown, he was also grinning from ear to ear.

“You know, if I kissed you at the end of this number, it would be a real showstopper,” Shay said, keeping me tipped upside down.

I couldn’t stop my smile at his devilish grin. “If you kiss me now, Ren will kill you.”

“All’s fair in love and war,” he said. “And at least I’d die happy.”

“You’re terrible.” I dug my nails into his shoulder. “Pick me up again!”

“I just don’t want to disappoint our audience,” he said.

“They’ll have to live with disappointment, then.” I was getting woozy from all the blood rushing into my head. “I’ve been very clear about what will happen if you kiss me again. I think you’d miss your hand.”

He lifted me upright only to dip me low again on the other side. “Do you solve all your problems with threats of violence?”

“No.”

“Liar.” My head was spinning when he set me on my feet, but my body felt light as air.

I broke down into a fit of giggles as Shay began to polka. Neville shook his head, but he was laughing too. The music stopped; Nev said something to the rest of the band I couldn’t hear, but in the next moment they broke out a punk-rock cover of “Roll Out the Barrel
.
”

Shay turned us in circles, faster and faster. “I told you it would work!”

I collapsed against him, dizzy but ecstatic, resting my cheek on his shoulder. Then I caught sight of Ren. He stood just inside the door, eyes fixed on us. He was so still he could have been carved from stone.

I pulled out of Shay’s arms. “I think the show’s over.”

“Great,” he muttered, following my gaze. “Go talk to him.”

“I’m sorry,” I said as I took unsteady steps away from him, still unbalanced from all the twirls and dips.

“I know you have to.” His smile was flat. “I’ll go hang out with Mason and Ansel, see if anyone wants to know where I got my badass polka moves.”

I started to turn toward Ren, but my stomach lurched violently. He crossed the dance floor, his scowl making my own temper flare. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I thought about the drive home, our new house, the union, suddenly wanting to do nothing that Ren had asked of me.

“What was that all about?” Ren snarled.

“We were just trying to break the tension.” I kept my own voice steady, waving toward our tables, where the pack sat laughing. “It was a joke. Behold our success.”

“Could you have thought of a way to settle them that didn’t involve having Shay’s hands all over you?”

“It wasn’t like that,” I snapped.
I wish it had been like that.

“Fine,” he said, taking my arm. “Try not to do that again. I don’t like to see another man touch you.”

Another man?
Ren had pointedly been referring to Shay as “that kid” since we’d first met him. Jealousy really was eating at the alpha.

“Of course, Ren.” I shook him off. “But if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve had enough of this for tonight.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m leaving,” I said. “I did what you asked. The pack is happy. Now I just want to get out of here.”

“Don’t be like that.” Ren sighed, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. It only made me feel like a child, and I swatted his hand away.

“I wasn’t trying to come down on you.” He tried again. “You’re right, that kid bugs me. I don’t like feeling jealous. It’s not your fault.”

He seemed sincere, but I was too angry to let it go. And there it was again, “that kid”—only now he was scolding
me
like a little girl too.

“Thanks for being honest,” I said. “But I don’t want to stay. Please don’t make me.”

I knew he could and I hated it.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“I’m going to the woods. Where wolves belong at night.” I flashed a sharp-toothed smile at him. “Maybe I hear the moon calling.”

“I’d like you to stay with me,” he said slowly. “But I’m not going to force you.”

“Great.” I walked away before he could speak again.

I slammed my way out of the bar, breaking a chair that I kicked a little too hard. Outside, cold night air bit my skin, taking long pulls of tension out of my limbs. Fey and Dax were still standing in the parking lot, heads close together, speaking in low tones.

Dax looked surprised and annoyed. “Did Ren send you out to give us another round of scolding?” he asked, flexing his broad shoulders as he faced me.

“I have nothing to say to either of you,” I snapped, walking past them and then breaking into a run. I shifted forms and plunged into the forest without looking back at the Burnout.

SHAY LEANED AGAINST HIS FORD RANGER.
He waved briefly when I loped up and then reached into the bed of his truck, pulling out a pair of ice axes, which he tied onto his back.

I shifted forms when I saw him trying to hide his smile. “What?”

“I was just thinking about the last time I was here,” he said, tightening the laces on his hiking boots. “I woke up in my truck. I thought I’d fallen asleep before I’d even managed to get a hike in and that the whole thing was a dream.”

I bent forward, stretching my back muscles. “Yeah, that was what I’d hoped would happen.”

“You knocked me out and then dragged me back here. Didn’t you?”

“I didn’t drag you,” I said. “I carried you.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Well, thanks for that. Ready?”

Shay proved an adept climber, moving up the slope with steady grace as I bounded through the woods just ahead of him. Only once did we have to pause so he could strap crampons to his boots before we scaled a particularly icy face, which I launched myself up in two giant leaps. His pair of ice axes remained strapped across his back for the duration of our climb.

I darted in front of him as we approached the cave. My head dropped low to the ground and I paced back and forth. I couldn’t stop the plaintive whine that spilled from my throat.

Shay trudged up behind me. “It’s going to be okay, Calla.”

I shifted into human form, stomping the snow restlessly while staring at the cavern, a dark opening in the mountainside that looked too much like a gigantic mouth ready to swallow us.

“I’m not entirely convinced of that,” I said. “What if someone finds out we’ve been here?”

“How would that happen?” Shay asked.

“My scent, Shay,” I said. “Any Guardian who comes to the cave will know I’ve been inside.”

“But you said none of you can go in the cave,” he said. “I thought it was forbidden.”

“It is, but—”

“Do you want to go back?”

I looked at him and then at the cavern. As far as I knew, no Guardian had ever set a paw beyond its entrance. Why would that change now?

“So are we doing this or not?” Shay asked.

“We’re doing this,” I said, pushing away my doubts.

He shrugged off his pack and pulled out a headlamp. We moved slowly into the cave, the light from his lamp dimly illuminating the blackness. The tunnel seemed to lead straight back, but there was no indication that it ended.

When the light from the entrance was little more than a glimmer behind us, I froze. A strange scent hit me. I shifted into wolf form, testing the air again. It was there, distinct but unfamiliar, like a mixture of rotting wood and gasoline. I lowered my head and crept forward. Shay took a tentative step alongside me, sweeping the headlamp along the cavern floor. We both saw the bones at the same time. My hackles rose as I hunched closer to the ground.

Scattered across the cavern were the whitened remains of animals, mostly deer. I looked more closely at the piles of bones and shuddered. The immense skull of a bear grinned at me from one side of the tunnel.