Chapter 21

ANNA

Standing outside the warehouse, having left Blake inside surrounded by Silver River soldiers, Zach, Anna, Steph, and Jon tried to figure out their next move.

Zach stared moodily into the darkness of the building, and Anna could guess that his thoughts weren’t beneficial for Blake’s health.

Almost absentmindedly, she stroked his arm to soothe the anger she could feel coming from him.

Anna paused with her hand frozen on Zach’s arm as she considered what she had just thought.

She could ~feel~ the anger coming from him, but how was that possible?

It was as if the anger was inside her own body, a tight black ball of rage that burned hotly in her chest, but she knew that it didn’t belong to her.

Instinct told her it wasn’t her own feelings but belonged to the large male beside her, but how was that even possible?

She knew that the mating would link them psychically but not to this level, surely. And they weren’t mated yet.

There was no bond, so she shouldn’t be feeling what he was feeling.

Out of the corner of her eye, Anna could see Steph’s eyes moving between Anna’s face and her hand still on Zach’s arm, a smirk curling her lips.

Anna yanked her hand away as if her skin had been burned.

Zach looked down at the movement, his anger dimming slightly due to the distraction. He raised one brow questioningly as Anna’s cheeks flamed red.

“I don’t like this,” Jon muttered, roughly dragging a hand through his already disheveled hair.

It was the fifth time he’d done it since they’d been out there, clearly a sign of his agitation.

“There’s too many unknown factors, too many players in a game we didn’t even know we were playing.”

“We knew about the human faction, but to know there’s another group pulling their strings…and gunning for us,” Steph put in.

“How come Anna’s weird DNA didn’t come up in her blood tests? Natalie must have screened her when she came in. Sorry, Anna.” Steph patted her arm apologetically when Anna glanced away from the group, guilt filling her.

The logical part of her brain knew that this situation wasn’t her fault, that it was crazy to feel guilty because she wasn’t responsible for her birth, but a huge bomb had just dropped on her.

Everything she had ever known had been a lie.

To find out that the people who had raised her, if she could call it that, weren’t actually her parents and that she also wasn’t even a full shifter?

They were all so sure she wasn’t human either, so what was she?

Warmth surrounded Anna.

It filled her from the inside out, centering her and calming her heart, which she hadn’t even realized had been racing with anxiety.

She inhaled deeply, the scent of pine and citrus filling her nostrils as Zach’s front came to rest against her back, his arms closing around her and holding her firmly against him. Anna let her body go limp against his, her entire weight leaning against him as she let his presence, his warmth, ground her until her mind stopped whirling in chaos.

She could hear them talking around her but couldn’t bring herself to participate in the conversation.

Instead, Anna focused her gaze on the arms resting across her chest, on the fine silver hairs on Zach’s forearms.

She could see that her knuckles had turned white from her fingers gripping his arms tightly as if to ensure he wouldn’t let go.

Anna tried to force her fingers to relax, but even after a moment, nothing happened.

Anna’s entire life, she had wondered if she had done something to make her parents despise her or if there was something she could change or do.

She had dreamed up scenarios of waking up one day with her parents being different, either deciding to love her or just being different people entirely.

To learn, after all this time, after Angela was dead, that she had never even been their daughter.

Instead, her mother—Katherine, Blake had called her—was Angela’s sister and had died giving birth to her. And her father…

Anna couldn’t touch that right now; there just wasn’t enough room in her head to deal with that problem on top of everything else.

If she opened that can of worms, it would open up other possibilities…such as doubts about her place at Silver River and at Zach’s side.

Anna bowed her head, stiffening her body against Zach’s hold, once again trying to force herself to let go of his arms. This time, she succeeded.

She couldn’t let herself rely on his comfort or his security, not when her future was so uncertain.

Anna hadn’t believed herself mate material before all of this, and now, she definitely couldn’t be.

She wasn’t even a full shifter, so how could she be an alpha’s mate?

There was no way she could be in a position of leadership where pack members would look to her for guidance or support.

She wasn’t sure she should even be in a pack anymore.

“This is insane; we can’t just trust his word!”

Zach’s angry words brought Anna’s attention back to the conversation going on around her, even as she kept subtly trying to force distance between her body and Zach’s.

Physical distance would be a start, and then, she could put some emotional distance between them.

Silver River needed strength, not a half-breed whatever she was.

“Think logically for a minute. What reason does he have to lie?” Jon shot back, clearly comfortable arguing with his alpha.

“His pack is being picked off, Zach. They’re completely scattered, in hiding. Their pack building has been all but abandoned. What exactly does Blake have to lose at this point?”

“Maybe he’s a double agent, just pretending to help us. The minute we trust him, that’s the minute we’re all dead,” Zach stated grimly, glaring at Jon.

Anna used his distracted mind to take a small step forward, but the moment she did, his arms tightened, yanking her back until she was firmly connected to him again.

She bit her lip, torn between wanting to get away from him for her own sanity and not wanting to make a scene.

She needed to get some space before his scent, his touch, changed her mind.

“I have to take Jon’s side here, Zach,” Steph finally commented.

“We have to take a calculated risk here, and I think the threat of the Circle, whoever they are, is the bigger threat.”

“If they even exist!” Zach snarled.

“That’s the calculated risk,” she growled.

Anna had to admire Steph; she was little, but clearly, like Jon, she had no issues going toe-to-toe with Zach.

None of the lieutenants did, but that was why they were lieutenants, Anna guessed.

Couldn’t do the job if you didn’t have the balls to give an opinion to the alpha.

That wasn’t her. She’d rather run than confront him, which wasn’t an entirely bad idea.

“Come ~on~, Zach!” Steph continued. “Don’t make this about your pride; you have to think tactically.”

Zach stared at her impassively, not even blinking. Steph held his gaze for a second before her gaze dropped, looking at Anna.

“What about your mate, Alpha? How are you going to protect her?”

The ball of anger was burning in Anna’s chest again, the anger that wasn’t hers.

She could almost feel his skin radiating with his fury, but she refused to put her hands back on him, refused to look at him.

“What the hell do you mean by that?” The words came out with an angry snap of his teeth.

“Well,” Steph said calmly, reining in her own temper as she continued to eye Anna and Zach, “if we believe Blake that Anna is a hybrid, that would explain her lack of wolf as well as her extreme reaction when she joined the pack link.”

Steph paused, giving Anna an apologetic look before moving her gaze to stare firmly at Zach.

“If you don’t figure out her history, and soon, you are risking her life. Not Blake, you. We all know what Natalie said. Even if she is a hybrid, Anna is ~still~ a shifter. If her wolf doesn’t make an appearance soon, her life is at risk.”

“We lose Anna, we lose you.”

Jon’s words were quiet but had the effect of a bomb for Anna, making her whip her head around so that she could stare at the male behind her.

“What are they talking about?” she demanded. “We aren’t mated; we aren’t fully bonded. Why would you be lost?”

Zach didn’t answer for a long moment, glaring at each of his lieutenants in turn before looking down at Anna, his expression smoothing into something calmer.

“We haven’t completed the bonding process, no, but I’m too far gone. An alpha feels the bond more than other shifters, and if something were to happen to you…well, I would either be unable to survive it or I would turn feral.”

Anna swallowed hard, her eyes beginning to burn. The responsibility she had for his life—it was too much.

She had just decided to leave at the first opportunity, but now, if she did, he could die.

“How—are you positive of that? Because Zach, I don’t think I’m strong enough to be that person for you. I’m not even a full shifter, and there is no guarantee that my wolf will ever come back. You’re basically signing your own death warrant.”

Anna felt a tear escape and hated herself for showing that much weakness, ducking her head as she tried desperately to pull away from him.

This was all wrong; none of this was supposed to happen. Death was following her and she had to stop it. She was the common thread.

A firm hand cupped her chin, lifting it as a thumb brushed the tear off her cheek.

Icy blue eyes stared down at her, glinting with a warmth that sent butterflies in her stomach.

“Anna, you couldn’t get away if you tried.”

The corner of his mouth tilted up in a small smile before he lowered his head, brushing his face against her cheek before nuzzling into her neck.

She felt the gentle scrape of teeth against the sensitive skin of her neck, the threat of a bite, but somehow sensual, making her shiver. Her hands rose to grip his arms.

“I don’t want to be responsible,” she was finally able to murmur, “for anything bad happening to you, even if I’m not around to see it.”

“I don’t want you to worry about it,” Zach said, his voice muffled against the skin of her neck.

“We will figure all of this out, but I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

He leaned back so that he could look into her eyes, waiting until she nodded her agreement.

She knew it wasn’t a completely honest agreement, though, because there was no way she could just not worry about this.

“Sorry to interrupt, Boss,” Steph said, not sounding at all sorry. “Blake is getting antsy. We need to decide what to do.”

Zach nodded, his eyes not moving from Anna’s face.

“We’ll take him at his word and treat the Circle as the top threat. We need to find out who they are and what they want, and I think, to do that, it all starts with Anna.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I believe it was the Circle who kidnapped your mother—”

“But that would mean they have been planning this attack against shifters, against Gray Wing and Silver River, for over eighteen years. How could that be possible; wouldn’t we have heard about them before?” Steph questioned.

Zach still hadn’t taken his eyes off Anna.

“Think about it, Steph. If they are responsible for Anna, they aren’t shifters and they aren’t human. So what are they, and how long have they been around? We find that out, and we find out why we haven’t heard from them before and why they want us dead now.”

***

“All right, we need a plan. You said they’ve only contacted you by phone. Have they contacted you since taking down your pack?”

They were back in the warehouse with Jon questioning Blake after firmly telling Zach he was too volatile and had to stand at the back.

So, of course, that was where Anna was too, in the same position as before with Zach at her back and his arms around her.

She wondered if she should be feeling suffocated by him and if that would be the normal reaction to him constantly caging her.

Instead, she felt protected, as if nothing could touch her when she was in the circle of his arms. It was ridiculous.

Anna had never relied on anyone in her life, had never been able to, and now, for Zach to come along and make her feel ~secure~, it was so frustrating.

She had just been getting back on her feet, finding herself away from Angela—

“Are you paying attention at all?” The whisper was right next to her ear, his hot breath blowing gently against her neck.

Anna’s stomach tightened; she clenched her fists as she fought to keep the rest of her body from tensing up in reaction to his nearness.

She could feel her heart starting to race and knew that he could probably sense it.

“I, uh, I am paying attention,” she finally managed to get out, keeping her eyes firmly on the group in front of them.

“Oh yeah?” His voice was laced with amusement. “Tell me what’s going on, then.”

“Why, aren’t you paying attention?” she snarked.

Zach immediately rewarded her attitude with a sharp nip to the earlobe before he soothed the hurt with his tongue.

Anna swallowed hard, her body temperature seeming to rise to impossible levels as she became acutely conscious of every place on her body that Zach was touching.

He was probably used to females that had experience with dominant males. Or just males, full stop.

Yet, here was Anna, who didn’t know what the hell she was doing.

Every time she started feeling a little brave with him, he did something else to throw her for a loop.

Anna needed some space to sort everything out in her head.

She felt overloaded with all the information she had learned today, including the fact that she now held a huge responsibility for Zach’s life.

She needed some space where he wasn’t clouding her head with his body, his scent, and these emotions that she kept feeling.

Right now, the heat was unfurling in her belly, tickling up her spine.

She could feel her own desire at the edge of her consciousness, but she had compartmentalized it and made it small so that all her thoughts could take focus.

His desire, however, was taking over her body and making her lose her control over that compartment.

It was leaking out, twining with the feelings that were his, and she didn’t know what to do with it. All of this was so new to her.

His arm moved so his palm could cup her hip, holding it for a lasting second before sliding up her body, over her side and rib cage.

He left it resting just underneath her breast, not touching her, but making her acutely aware of where it was, her mind super focused on the heat coming from his palm, searing through the material of her shirt.

“You need to stop thinking sometimes,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck again, his fingers squeezing just slightly.

“I can hear the whirl of your thoughts, and I know what you’re thinking about.”

Anna didn’t move, focusing on taking large, slow breaths before she turned her head, nudging him away from her neck with her shoulder so that she could look at his face.

“What am I thinking about?”

“Running.” Zach smiled down at her, almost kindly, before leaning down and pressing his forehead against hers.

He kept his eyes open and locked with hers. “And I wasn’t kidding before.”

Anna opened her mouth to ask but couldn’t get the words out, half terrified of his answer.

“You would never be able to get away, Anna, because I would always hunt you down.”

His gaze dropped to focus on her lips before his head dipped, following the movement.

He brushed his lips against hers, the touch so faint that she barely felt it, but she immediately wanted him to do it again, more firmly.

It was an almost insane desire, all-consuming.

He lifted his head, his eyes flicking to the group in front of them. Finding nothing alarming, he focused his attention back on Anna.

Zach smiled at her, lifting his hand from her side to cup her cheek, sliding his thumb softly over the fullness of her bottom lip.

“You’re mine,” he murmured. “You just haven’t accepted it yet.”

The warmth inside Anna’s chest spread until it felt like her whole body was on fire. She could no longer tell whose feelings were whose.