Page 86 of Stubborn as a Shadow

I pushed the door open wider andfinallyheard our intruders. Someone’s footsteps were crunching through the snow. A narrow beam of light bounced through the darkness. And our intruders were talking…

“Put your phone away. I know you don’t need it to see. And you’re being too loud,” came a furtive whisper.

“It’s fine,” a woman said. And unfortunately, I now knew who these people were. Judy and Godwin, the wolf and mage duo from the hotel, had found us.

My whole body went cold, and it had nothing to do with the snow.

If I ran, could the wolf catch me? It wasn’t like I trained for marathons, and I wasn’t a racehorse. But wolves usually hunted in packs and targeted weak animals, so it might mean they couldn’t do much on their own.

But if I left, what would happen to Nelson?

I said it before, but it was worth repeating: I hated this plan.

“What if it isn’t them?”

“It has to be them. They haven’t shown up anywhere since the roads closed—we would have seen them when we hacked the cameras along the highway. And no one is supposed to be out here right now, so why does a cabin have smoke coming out its chimney? Besides, I smell…” The wolf’s words trailed off.

What did she smell? At the hotel, she’d said I smelled like candy. Was that it?

And here I was, once again wishing I’d disguised my scent along with my features. I really needed to think about carrying someone else’s dirty gym socks in my pockets. Sure, that would be disgusting, but what else could I do? Sew moth balls into my clothes? Ew, that was almost worse than dirty socks. Maybe I could douse myself in peppermint oil? Or was peppermint too closely connected to sweets? I didn’t want to make my scent more candy-like.

Oh, what about pine? Yeah. I could probably do pine. And it’d remind me of this little getaway. Although we hadn’t spent much time outside with the trees, they were still all around us.

Right. Pine was now my scent blocker of choice. If we got out of this, that’s what I’d do.

No. That was the wrong attitude.

Of coursewe’d get out of this. This memory and the scent of pine would not be tainted by anything bad. I wouldn’t let it.

Every single day I made a choice to be happy instead of sad. And some days that was incredibly difficult. But I did it because the alternative sucked. So today I was choosing to survive and kick these assholes’ asses.

They had no idea how powerful my willpower was.

“Fuck. What was that?” the mage asked. The tone of his voice betrayed a hint of fear.

“What?” The woman’s question came out sharp.

“The shadows are moving. Fuck this.” A fiery light burst to life amid the trees, and I could see the intruders clearly now. The mage’s hand was trembling as he lifted the fireball in his hand and peered into the dark landscape. He might feel safer in the light, but he’d just shown us where he was.

The woman’s nostrils flared as she cursed. In a blur of movement, she shifted. Her wolf wasn’t huge, but it lookedpowerful. Her sharp teeth glistened under the mage’s flickering light.

She spun around, snapping at something on her left, then her right.

Was she biting at Nelson?

Another shadowy figure—something small and fast—swept through the trees, and I knew without a doubt that wasn’t my mate. Someone else was here.

Well, fudge nuts… These guys had started multiplying.

The urge to run, just like Nelson wanted me to, was overriding every other thought in my head except one: Nelson. I needed him to be safe. I needed him with me. I couldn’t leave him behind like I did with Uncle Fraser. I just couldn’t.

“Go away, shadow jumper. We aren’t here for you.” The mage was trying to put on a brave face, but his voice quavered as he spoke. “But if you stand in our way, you will regret it.”

Their threat hit me like a physical blow.

I didn’t know how they knew about Nelson being a shadow jumper, but I wouldn’t let them hurt him. No way. I stepped away from the door and set the fireplace poker on the counter as quietly as I could. I didn’t need it for what I had planned.

Staying within the shelter of the cabin so my sparkles wouldn’t be seen, I felt magic tickle across my skin as my shift rolled over me. I ducked my head so my horn didn’t hit the ceiling. Then I pawed at the wooden floor with my hooves, ready to charge into the night and defend my mate.