Chapter-24 (Part 1)

                                                                  Asher

“What are you doing?” Mac snapped, startling me. “Go after her! Find her! She doesn’t know her way around here. It’s dark!”

“She made her choice. Why would I go after her?” I scowled. “I don’t have to deal with her bullshit just because she is my mate. I have better things to do with my life than babysit a grown-ass woman,”

“So you are fine with her wandering around in the dark with some untraceable intruder in the loose?” he demanded.

“She is a warrior. I am sure she can defend herself if needed,” I said.

“Fine, if you don’t go after her, then I will,” he hissed.

“What do…” I couldn’t complete the rest as a startling pain erupted through my body. It hurt so bad that I had to bend over to hold myself together.

“Mac, stop it!” I wailed. “Stop trying to phase! Stopppp!”

“Somebody needs to be the man,” my wolf roared. “I am not letting her wander around in this darkness on her own!”

“Fine! Fine…I’ll go!” I exclaimed, panting with pain. “I’ll go look for her!” The pain slowly subsided, leaving me weak for a few seconds. Once it completely disappeared, I straightened myself and gritted my teeth with annoyance. Mac has never been a very forthcoming wolf. But this time, he was taking it a bit too far. Where in hell was I supposed to find Ivy, and why should I bother? I offered to drop her home first, didn’t I?

“Shift so I can sniff her out!” Mac commanded. .

“Do I have a choice?” I hissed and begrudgingly shifted back again. My wolf picked up my clothes between his teeth and darted off in the direction Ivy did.

“You don’t have to go so fast!” I exclaimed as he sprinted at the speed of a damn tornado through the darkness, following the trail her scent left like a pro. Somehow, it was very potent and scattered through the forest prompting me to assume that she probably shifted halfway through. And gone round and round, suggesting she was probably. It was annoying trying to trace her scent.

Why she was so difficult was beyond me. It was tiring, to be honest.

“This is why she has gone so deep into the woods,” Mac muttered. “Smell that?” I sniffed and mixed with her scent, I could smell the metallic tinge of blood and then the scent of raw flesh. There were traces of blood leading to a small clearing and as Mac emerged through the bushes, we both were surprised to find a dead, bloodied elk lying there, blood gushing through its fresh wounds. Since her scent was all around the dead animal, it wasn’t hard to assume that this was Ivy’s doing.

"So she was hunting,” Mac murmured, sounding impressed. “She has to be fast with very sharp instincts to hunt so smoothly in the dark. It’s been barely fifteen minutes since she left,” I inspected the dead elk and have to admit, this was a very clean, strategic hunt. From the deep gouge in the elk’s neck and the marks of her canines, I could see that she didn’t let the elk suffer. She didn’t give her any time at all. It almost seemed like the poor thing had to bear the brunt of her rage.

“Well, I don’t think we need to worry anymore. Let’s just get back now,” I said flatly.

“No, we still don’t know where she is. This is too deep in the forest,” Mac said and against my will, scampered off to follow Ivy’s scent again. I don’t know how long we had been going around but finally, I reached the end of my patience as we neared the lake house.

“The scent disappears here,” Mac muttered, his entire focus on Ivy’s scent.

“This is close to the packhouse so I am assuming she went home. Now can we please just shift back? I’m tired. I was supposed to go on patrol with Eli but you wasted too much of my time looking for that stubborn woman. Enough is enough now. I need a drink and then we are heading back to track the fucker who dared to cross the boundaries,”

“But…” Mac protested but I was not having it anymore.

“No, Mac…we are done! She is not a child who needs to be babysat. I am sure she is safely back home and if not, I trust her enough to know she will be. I am not wasting any more time, that’s it,” Before he could try to convince me, I quickly shifted back and haphazardly started pulling on my clothes. Just as I was throwing the T-shirt over my head, a splashing sound near the lake echoed through the silence of the night, startling me.

“What the fuck,” I grimaced, heading towards the lake.

Was someone taking a dip at this hour? The water must be freezing. I cautiously walked out from behind the giant oak tree, but before I could take another step, I froze. Her blue eyes peered back at me and I almost expected her to shout or scream or throw a bunch of profanities my way. But not a word left her mouth as she stood there, gazing into my eyes.

I fought it. I fought it with every bit of strength in me to not let my eyes move beyond her oceanic gaze. It was the worst kind of temptation I have ever faced and, regardless of my extreme control, as she took a step towards me, I just couldn’t help it. How could I when every muscle in my neck clenched, my jaw tightened and blood rushed through my veins like dam gates flooding open?

"Oh fuck.” Mac hissed.

I have seen uncountable women naked in the last twenty-six years of my life. And never have I ever felt the way I was feeling at the moment as my eyes feasted on her naked body, glistening with droplets of water that seemed like pearls scattered across her skin as the moonlight fell on her.

“Am I dreaming or is she really naked?” Mac whispered.

She was really naked and I was…mesmerized. Ivy had the most luscious curves I have ever seen, her pink nipples erect and almost begging for my attention. I could devour them without ever getting tired. As my eyes traveled down her body, my breath hitched in my throat when they settled between her legs, the small sprinkling of hair probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen.

I would love to bury my face in there and just imagining the scent I would be greeted with has me not only struggling to breathe, but has my cock getting painfully hard too. My jeans felt so tight, like I had put on Theo’s pants, not mine. Just being around her was a struggle of no small means, but this…this would take ages before I can get this image out of my mind. The need felt blinding, the desire to touch her yet unable to make a move was the worst kind of torture imaginable.

The Moon Goddess must really, really hate me.