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.
TWENTY-TWO
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.