“Come on.” He gets up and holds a hand out. “As much as I would prefer laying with you, Klaus is on his way.”

“And you ripped all of my clothes.” I mutter, letting him pull me to my feet.

He walks over to the shirt he had hung on a branch and hands it to me. “Why do you think I took this off?” He presses his lips to my cheek then heads to the stream to clean himself up.

I fasten the blue shirt around me, grateful that Dane is much bigger than I am. The shirt swamps me and easily covers my ass and thighs. As Dane is fastening his jeans, he walks back to me, locking his eyes on mine as he rolls each sleeve back to my elbows. “I should bring you out into the forest more often.”

The snapping of twigs alerts our attention to Klaus heading our way. He’s carrying a rucksack and hands it to Dane. “Eric and Brax were wondering where you have got too.”

“We will be home shortly. Did they say anything?”

“Brax said car troubles. Eric said you two probably took a detour.” He winks at me and turns away. “So I brought another car and I will be waiting in it.” I wait for him to go and started pulling out the clothes. As soon as I saw underwear, I knew that Mallory would have packed it. Men don’t tend to think about those things.

“How did Brax know to say that?” I mutter, pulling on the matching white underwear.

“It’s like you said, it isn’t a lie. Maybe it was the best option he could think of until he spoke to us.”

He leads me back to the road where Klaus is sitting in the driver seat of a jeep, book in hand as he munches on an apple. He chucks the book in the back seat as he spots us. “Ready?”

Dane opens the door for me and wipes something from my cheek as I sit down. I see the red on his thumb and he quickly rubs it away and jumps into the front as Klaus starts the car.

Did he not trust Klaus anymore?

‘He’s being cautious.’ Nyx mutters

‘Finally.’ It was so good to hear her.

‘Please don’t go getting hit by a car again.’ She mutters. ‘It messes with me.’

‘It wasn’t intentional.’

I feel her roll her eyes. ‘Something so stupid, but does so much damage.’

‘i don’t intend on letting it happen again! Were you aware of the other things that happened?’

‘Yes.’ She groans

‘Three members of Black Shadow.’ I sigh. ‘Three of Dane’s own Wolves.’

‘You are doing the right thing. It’s what I would have suggested.’

“You’re very quiet back there.” Klaus murmurs. “Are you okay?”

“Just tired.” I reply but I watch Dane stare at him.

‘It’s not him.’ I link Dane. ‘He is just

asking why I’m quiet, he didn’t astet

anything about the accident. You know

Klaus, he wouldn’t dou

Dane doesn’t answer me, but I do see him relax, but not completely.

‘I think Brax would know in a heartbeat if it was Klaus.’ Nyx tells me.

I had to agree and I really hoped it was just the three dead Wolves involved.

Klaus stops the car just outside of the gate. Ryken and another Wolf are on duty. I was a little surprised that Dane would have agreed to it. He had said multiple times that he wanted the Wolves to have most of the control here.

“Where’s Mako?” Klaus asks

“His mate has gone into labour. I was nearest, said I would keep watch so he could go be with her.” He shouts as he opens the gates.

“I will send someone down.” Dane tells him.

“No need, I’ve got this covered.” Ryken bobs his head.

“Wolves man the gate.”

‘We don’t know who else is involved.’ I link Dane again. Having a Wolf that is plotting against the pack is not someone we needed guarding the pack.

“Scrap that. You can do a shift.” Dane tells Ryken

Ryken looks happy to be doing something useful. I guess he must be finding it hard, going from a position of leadership to suddenly doing nothing.

“Any problems, you will need to link Neah.” Dane orders as Klaus drives us through.

Klaus takes us to the front of the packhouse and tells us he will be heading off to the hospital to do a check on everything.

“I thought you wanted him to check me over.” I murmur to Dane as I watch him drive away.

“Did I not check you thoroughly enough?” He muses.

Even now after several years together, he still somehow made me blush