Chapter 187

The drive to the park is quiet. Archer drives, with Beau in the passenger seat. Neil and I are in the back.

It’s still the early morning hours. The world is dark, the sun not yet risen. We chose this time so no one else would be around. We don’t want the world to know about this rematch. Neither do we want anyone else to get hurt as collateral.

Or maybe that’s just me. The Hayes brothers don’t seem to care much about anyone else, except for a select few. I’m still not totally sure how that select few came to include me.

No one has said anything since we left the Pyramid. Maybe I should, but I don’t even know where to begin.

I feel a little like I’m marching off to war. I’m not even totally sure that I’ll make it back, even with the brothers’ reassurances and my own trust in them. To keep Wyatt from detecting their scents and their presences, they have to stand a very long way off from the spot I am to meet Wyatt.

It will take the brothers a long time to get to me. And with my broken ribs slowing me down, I’m not totally sure I’ll be able to hold off Wyatt long enough for them to come to my rescue.

Everyone’s worried about that. That’s probably why we’re all so quiet.

But there’s nothing to be said for it now. The plan is set, in motion, and only a coward would back out now. I’m a lot of things, but I am not a coward.

In the backseat, Neil reaches over and taps my knee. “We could turn around. Think of something else.”

It is sweet of him to want to give me an out, even here, even now. He might not even judge me for it. But I would. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself for tucking my tail between my legs and cowering.

I would never live it down, least of all from Wyatt himself.

“I can do this,” I say. Fortunately, it comes out much stronger than how I feel inside.

Neil places his hand on my knee and squeezes. I soak in the support while I can.

Too soon, Archer pulls the car into a spot in a bank near the park. It’s on the complete opposite side of the park from where I am to meet Wyatt, but it is only at this distance do the brothers feel they can wait without being detected.

Those werewolf noses must have a hell of a range.

I’ll have to walk the remaining distance across the park on my own.

Beau hops out of the car first. The rest of us join him soon after, with me being the slowest to leave the car. My ribs are aching extra badly this morning, whether it’s some kind of change in temperature or just my anxiety spiking out in different ways, I’m not sure.

Either way, it sucks and I’m uncomfortable. I hate moving this slowly.

“Well…” I begin. There’s no easy way to say goodbye, especially when I might be seriously injured in a few minutes. But I struggle forward, determined to do my best. “I guess this is it.”

No one else is saying anything. Neil is looking off into the direction I have to walk. Archer has his arms crossed and is glaring at the ground like it made some kind of affront against his mother. Beau, at least, is looking at me, although he seems to be thinking critically hard, a dangerous proposition for him.

“Chloe,” he says, after an awkward moment where we simply stared at each other.

“Yeah?” I ask.

He opens his arms. “Come here.”

A goodbye hug doesn’t seem all that strange, especially from Beau. From what I can tell, he’s the most touchy-feely of the ground, at least in terms of affection. So I’m not terribly surprised when he pulls me close.

I am a little more surprised, when he leans down and starts licking the side of my neck.

“Hey!” I shout. He’s holding me too tightly for me to back out without hurting myself.

It’s not that I’m against what he’s doing exactly. It’s nothing that we haven’t done before. But it’s one thing to lick each other when we are behind closed doors or alone, and totally another to do it here, out in the open, in front of his brothers.

“Beau, what the hell?” I snap.

“Stand still,” he says and moves to the other side of my neck to lap at the skin there too. What he doesn’t do is give me any kind of explanation.

“What the fuck?” I say.

“Oh,” Archer says. “Good idea.”

Archer, too?

“I’ll go next,” Archer says.

Next?

My brain fizzles out for a long moment. Are they just going to pass me around like some kind of chewy toy?

“Someone want to fill in the lowly wolfless what the hell is going on here?” I say. I look at Neil. Out of the three brothers here, he’s the one I would guess to have enough of a soft spot for me to actually explain what the hell is happening right now.

My guess is right, when he opens his mouth. “Beau is scenting you. If you smell like us naturally, Wyatt will have a harder time detecting our presence nearby. He will think he is simply smelling us on you.” Neil shrugs a bit. “That’s the hope, anyway.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Archer says. “My turn.”

Beau releases his hold on me, and at once, I’m folded into Archer’s arms instead. He kisses a spot behind my ear then sucks a mark there. I try not to shiver. Now isn’t the time for horniness. But it’s so difficult when they are holding me like this and doing these things to me.

Archer leaves a few more marks, carefully avoiding the ones Beau already placed on my neck. He even tugs down the collar of my shirt to suck a mark right onto my collarbone.

“It’s almost time,” Neil says. “Give her here.”

Maybe I should be mad that I’m being passed around like this, but when each turn is so delicious and pleasurable, I would be out of my mind to complain.

Archer releases me and I go to Neil. Instead of sucking in a mark, however, he lowers his mouth to mine and kisses me. His tongue delves deep. I’m not sure how he’s scenting me like this… until I feel his fingers curl around the back of my neck. His other hand reaches up under my shirt.

I melt against him, just as I did with the others.

When we finally pull away, Neil’s lips are kiss-swollen red but his eyes are serious.

It’s time for my walk.

As part of the plan we decided, I pull out my phone and call Archer. He places himself on mute, so that he can hear my half of the call, but not give any sound from his half. This will allow them to keep track of Wyatt and my conversation without needing to be too close.

It’s also how they will know when to dash forward and make their move.

When I have to leave, we don’t really say anything at first. A look passes between all of us, and then I start walking, taking the appropriate sidewalk.

Before I get too far, however, I stop and turn around. “See you on the other side,” I say, and laugh a little.

No one laughs with me.

While I begin to make the trek across the park, the sky starts to light. Though it remains much darker than it should be for dawn. Almost as if –

Crash!

A clap of thunder breaks through my thoughts. The clouds churn overhead. A storm is brewing.

By the time I reach the meeting spot, it’s beginning to rain.

A few minutes later –

“Chloe!” Wyatt calls. I see him now, walking toward me from the tree line.

As he approaches, the sky opens up and the rain falls down in earnest.