Nixx

Her scent is driving me crazy.

I think I finally have a handle on my wolf, then a breeze of dahlia scented air surrounds me, and I'm left scrambling to get him back under.

I paired with her to keep her safe, but my thoughts of everything I want to do to her right now are anything but safe.

I almost kissed her last night. It was a lapse in judgment, a slip up, a mistake that won't be happening again. I let my guard down, and it felt so natural with her. It felt natural to be myself around her. She asked a question, I answered. No lies, no pretences, just a deep conversation between two people.

I have never told anyone about the blame I feel, yet all it took was her soft question and adorable eyes to have me spilling my mind into her hands. Not only did I tell her my thoughts, but she made them feel less weighted. Like it might not have been my fault.

Noella shivers again behind me, bringing me out of my thoughts as her shaking vibrates in my ears, the sound of her teeth chattering gripping my heart in a hold so tight it hurts. She's freezing, but I am absolutely powerless in helping her.

Except, maybe....

I stop walking and turn, causing Noella to halt as well.

I unzip my jacket and sweater, taking them both off.

"What a-are you d-doing?" She asks.

Blue is started to tint her lips, and her nose is the colour of roses in the summer. She's too damn cold.

"Helping you warm up," I answer, unzipping her gear as well.

"I'm f-fine," she says, trying to push my hands away.

I shake my head with an incredulous laugh.

"Do me a favour and don't take a career that requires you to lie, ok?"

I push her arms through my sweater before putting her jacket back on, zipping it all the way to her throat, tingles erupting from the contact of bare skin.

I grit my teeth as I wrap her scarf back around her neck, ignoring the pull I feel to keep my hands there.

She shudders again, but I have an inkling that it isn't because of the cold this time.

I pull her toque back over her ears and forehead before rubbing her covered arms, trying to give her body a head start at warming up.

Her teeth are no longer chattering as she mutters, "Thank you. You really didn't have to do that." Then she notices my bare arms and panic fills her face. "No, Nixx. I can't take your sweater! How will you stay warm?"

Her fingers reach up to start undoing my handiwork, but I trap them between mine.

"I still have my jacket," I reassure her. "Plus, my body tends to run a little warmer than others."

Abnormally warm, is what I don't add. Wolves have faster functions, and because of that, I am anything but cold right now.

"Well then put it back on!" She demands. "Goodness, warmer or not, you'll freeze to death!"

My lips twitch as I put my jacket back on, fighting against the laughter that's bubbling up my throat.

"You're amused, but you won't be when you're sitting by a fire drinking scolding hot tea in an effort to ward off hypothermia."

The laugh bursts free, and it feels like the most uncontrolled thing I've ever done. It feels free. It feels good.

She giggles too, but then her face turns soft as she murmurs, "I like your laugh."

My eyebrows raise, a smirk dawning.

"Oh?"

Embarrassment coats her cheeks and she says, "I mean- it just-" she huffs frustratedly before finally settling on, "I just think it looks genuine. It looks like you don't show it often, so when you do, it lights up your whole face." She scrunches her features with a weak laugh. "That is the most open thing I have ever said to anyone, and now that's it out of my mouth I think it should have just stayed in my head because now that I heard it it sounds kind of stupid and-"

"I don't think it sounded stupid at all," I interrupt. Then moving closer I add, "And you are one of the only people that can make me laugh like that, so it's only fair you noticed how rare it is."

She grins, but then something behind me catches her attention and her face lights up.

"Look!" She points to something over my shoulder and I turn. "A white rose! He has to be here somewhere!"

Alarms ring through my head, the echoes of a trick looming in the wind.

I need you all at my location. Now. I demand through my link with everyone.

Coming now, Alpha, they all reply.

I cautiously approach the spot that Noella indicated, and every hair on my body zaps up as I see what awaits there.

White roses outline a very specific shape. A shape that I haven't seen in seven months.

My father is outlined in the very flowers he died within.

"That bastard," I grit out.

"What?" Noella asks, alarmed. "Is something wrong?"

"He's not here," I say through clenched teeth. "But he knows we are."

Footsteps sound, and then Kyler, Rowan, and three soldiers are surrounding the flower made man.

Rowan whistles low. "He sure does have a knack for pissing people off, doesn't he?"

Growling sounds from somewhere, and I whip my head every which way, trying to find the source, but I can't see anything until suddenly, we're surrounded.

No shifting, I command through the link.

I refuse to let Noella find out about us because some rogues forced it on us.

They start advancing closer, snapping their jaws as they froth with unrestrained hunger.

I grip the Silverthorn tipped dagger that rests in the back of my pants before slowly opening Noella's hand and setting it there.

"I know you don't know how to use this, but as soon as one of those wolves gets too close, you thrust blindly, with everything you have, you shove this dagger wherever you can. Got it?"

I don't take my eyes off the beasts stalking toward us, but I feel her panicked eyes staring up at me.

"Ok," she whispers. "I'll try."

Let me protect mate! My wolf demands, his claws scratching at my skull, begging to be free.

If you come out, we lose every ounce of trust we've gained so far.

Rowan and Kyler draw their blades as the wolves get dangerously close, and the soldiers do the same.

I draw my own as I eye a particular grey one, his eyes set on me, hatred burning in his gaze.

I barely have time to blink before he pounces, his paws swiping for purchase but missing as I duck left and ark my sword, catching his belly. He goes down with a howl, my blade silencing his cry as I plunge it through his heart.

I barely get a heartbeat in before two more are on me, their fangs snapping in warning.

My blade goes through the first's abdomen, but the second catches my forearm in its jaws. I grunt before swinging my sword to hit his head, his body falling limp at my feet.

The next one doesn't even get close enough to growl at me before I'm shoving my blade in his back.

"Nixx!" Noella shouts, and I turn just in time to avoid a claw in my side.

I swipe my sword left, but a piercing sting grabs my calf in a death grip, dragging outward until I'm knocked on my back, the air leaving my lungs in a giant whoosh.

The Silverthorn of my blade takes effect in the first wolf, but I haven't touched the one attached to my leg. Another jumps on me, his paws straddling my chest as he snarls in my face.

This is why we work as a team! My wolf says.

Not the time, I grit out.

I go to raise my sword but a brown furred wolf grips it in his mouth.

The one on my chest dips his face closer to mine, his fangs lowering to my throat and-

A cloud of fabric and brown hair bulldoze over my body, taking the wolf off my chest and the one biting my calf while simultaneously distracting the one holding my sword.

I rip it from his mouth and slice across his legs, the Silverthorn entering his blood making him drop on the spot.

I jump up, wincing as my leg protests, the healing taking longer than usual.

I frantically search for Noella before finding her six steps to my right, her blade puncturing the throat of a golden-brown wolf.

That's our mate, my wolf says proudly.

Pride fills my chest, but it's quickly replaced by panic as a grey wolf pounces, his aim unmistakably Noella.

I bolt, but it's painfully clear who will reach her first, and I watch as the wolf jumps, hitting his mark and dragging Noella to the ground.