The Awakening: Britton (Entangled Covet) (9 page)

“Knock off the sound effects, for
Dea’s
sakes. It’s a cup of damn coffee,” he snapped.

She blinked at him. “Sorry.”

As soon as the words had shot out of his mouth he regretted them…but whatever was going on in his

chest was irritating as hell. He shoveled the eggs onto a plate and handed it at her. “We’ve got to hurry,

okay?” he said, using a lighter tone.

“One inhaling of food coming right up,” she said as she went into the living room and sat down. At her

comment, a smile teased the corner of his mouth again.

When he realized it, he frowned. What was
up
with him this morning?

After they ate, they gathered up the gear and took it out to the car. Wanting to make up for being such

an ass yesterday, he dangled the car keys at her. She grinned and took them, then slipped behind the wheel.

As she drove to the cabin, he became aware that she was sitting only a few inches from him and he

wasn’t twitching. When she’d helped unload the groceries earlier, he hadn’t felt one moment of discomfort,

either.
Hmm
. Maybe the more time he spent with her, the more comfortable he was feeling.

She wasn’t half-bad, really.

Val pulled the car up in front of the cabin and they got out, pulling on their backpacks.

“What’s in these, anyway?” Val asked.

“Hiking gear. Compass, first aid kit, rain poncho. Stuff like that.”

“Huh. So it’s not your closet you brought with you, is it?”

He didn’t say anything, just smiled and winked, then started off into the woods. When a person walked,

the scent perfumed a wide area, but there was always a sharper imprint on the air he’d physically occupied.

If smells were visible, there would be a clear line slicing through the woods along his path. For Britton, his

acute sense of smell made it pretty much like that.

When they reached the area where the perps’ scents branched, Britton started hiking off toward the

right. “How do you think they knew about your limitation, Val?” he asked.

“It’s not top-secret information, Britton. Anyone who took some time to research my cases would be

able to put it together.”

“I didn’t know. I never even doubted your ability, since you were able to track Liam so easily.”

“I don’t make it a point to broadcast it. I was able to track Liam because the kidnapper hadn’t masked

his scent. If you recall, finding the actual kidnapper proved rather difficult.”

True. The guy had led them on a merry chase. He’d definitely known about Britton’s inability to track

him. Had he also guessed about Val?

“But you can smell the shifter under the masking, right?” he asked.

“Yep, I just can’t identify the tagging scent. Makes things harder. Still, my ability is better than almost all

other shifters. They can’t even smell the musk under the propane, much less keep the scent contained to a

smaller area like I can.”

He heard the defensive edge in her tone, as if she had to prove to him that she had been the right

candidate to take his position when the High Council had relieved him of his duties.

“The High Council hired you for a reason, Val. If they believed you were the next best thing to me, then

you are.”

Her footsteps halted behind him. He didn’t stop or glance over his shoulder. Yeah, he’d given her a

compliment, and most likely she was as stunned as he’d been yesterday when she’d given him one.

A soft, almost shocked laugh sounded before her steps started again. “When they laid out this trail, they

knew following it would cost me time, but they weren’t banking on the High Council giving you clemency.

They’re not going to be happy when they figure out you’re involved.”

“Let’s hope we find them before they do.”

Thirty minutes later, the scent of grass hit sharp and potent. Behind him, Val inhaled deeply. She’d also

smelled it. Once again the trail branched. However, this time, all three scents continued in both directions.

In one direction Charlie’s scent rang loud and clear against the propane, while in the other it was doused

under the propane. For now, Britton kept his mouth shut about the opposite direction, waiting to see what

Val said.

She sidled up beside him. “I can smell Charlie that way, along with a strong shifter musk.” Rubbing her

hand over her mouth, she turned her head in the other direction. “This way it’s all shifter musk, no Charlie.

But they could be masking the boy’s scent in hopes I’ll instinctively take off after him the wrong way. Or…

they could simply have carried something he’d marked with his scent, but the boy is still masked by the

propane.”

“Both directions have his scent, Val.”

“His
physical
scent?”

“Yes. It’s a decoy. They took him up one way to throw you off. They probably brought him back on

the exact same path, then took the other trail to wherever their destination really was. The question is,

which path is which?”

“Which door do we choose, Townsend?”

“What does your instinct say?”

“To follow the propane only.”

His did, too. But what if they were wrong? What if they royally fucked this up because of a split-second

decision? He’d made one in the past, and paid a high price for it. The High Council sure as hell wouldn’t be

lenient a second time.

“We’re going to have to split up.” He didn’t like the idea at all, but going together would take too much

time, especially if they chose the wrong path.

“Split up?” She looked around, breathed a low “shit.”

He knew she wasn’t comfortable in the woods. “How’s your phone?”

She dug it out. “Wow. I have bars, go figure.”

“You have a compass, water, and snacks.” He motioned for her to turn around, dug the compass out of

her pack, and handed it to her. “You take the southwest trail.”

He’d rather she go toward the area the general store owner had said was more hiker-friendly. Britton

would take the harder route.

“What if they trick me again?”

She no longer believed in her own abilities, and that pained him.

“Val. You smell Charlie and the shifter musk going that way, right?”

She nodded.

“So do I,” he continued. “Just follow it. It’s either going to end, or you’re going to find—”

A flutter beneath his ribs startled the words away. He gasped sharply, grabbing his side.

“Britton, are you okay?” She laid a hand on his forearm. The tingles that warmed his skin at her touch

startled him even more than feeling the beast within him for the first time in over four years. There was no

urge to shove her away, no distaste at having her hand on him, just a comforting warmth.

He tilted his head, studying her curiously. Without answering, he lifted the hand she had on his arm and

tugged her forward.

“B-Britton?” Her voice shook as she slowly leaned away.

Ignoring her protest, he brought her closer, sliding his arm around her waist…testing, waiting for the

inevitable revulsion to hit. But as he hugged her tight to his chest, he felt nothing negative, just her very

womanly body pressed against his. He squeezed her once, chuckling into her neck before releasing her.

She stared up at him as if he’d lost his mind. Hell, maybe he had.

“What was
that
?”

His lips twisted into a half smile and he shrugged. “I think you’re growing on me.”

Chapter Five

Why wouldn’t it fade?

Val trudged through the forest, unnerved by the physical warmth that still lingered on the front of her

body where she’d pressed up against Britton—even an hour later. It had stuck around as a constant

reminder that, though she’d been shocked snotless, she’d enjoyed being held by him. And
that
unnerved

her even more than the tingling heat sizzling on her torso.

I think you’re growing on me.

She snorted. Yeah. Like a fungus, maybe.

Ugh. Was it possible that she and Britton had settled the past with that apology? Other than that difficult

moment last night, and him snapping over her moaning about the coffee this morning, things between them

had been…nice.

Comfortable.

Dare she even say she
liked
this Britton?

He smiled easily, and was compassionate and even thoughtful. Three things she hadn’t believed him

capable of before now. Not with her at least.

To make matters worse, he’d given her
the
smile—the arrogant tilting-up-of-one-corner-of-his-mouth

smirk that made women forget their first name.

Directed. At.
Her
.

And now she understood all too well why women reacted the way they did. She’d been completely

tongue-tied. In a dazed stupor. Where she could only focus on those cranked-up lips and wish they were

plastered all over hers.

How could lips wreak such havoc on her senses?

Yeah, the man was drop-dead gorgeous. She’d never denied that. She might not have liked him, but she

wasn’t blind. However, it’d always been easy to keep any body-betraying attraction in check, because

eventually he’d open his mouth and that attraction turned into a block of ice. But now, if he was nice like

this all the time with her, how was she supposed to keep from turning into every other woman who panted

after the damn man?

She’d be lost.

No
. They had a relationship based around insults and anger. Of course there was a little confusion and

necessary adjustments as they veered toward a more friendly association. Whatever was going on with her

body now was just pure bewilderment. In her head and heart, she knew Britton was a womanizing cad.

It was just taking her body a little longer to remember that.

Determined to forget the man, she started to climb up a steep incline, following Charlie’s scent. Halfway

up, the thick layer of leaves under her boot shifted and she slipped, stumbling to her knees. She grabbed

hold of an oak sapling to stop from doing a complete face-plant.
Dea
, she hated nature.

Huffing, she pulled herself up. She needed to pay more attention to where she was stepping, and less on

the devilish Britton Townsend, or she risked careering down one of the steep hills and killing herself.

When she crested the steep cliff, she looked down. Yeah, falling would be bad. The distance to the

bottom seemed like miles. She felt tiny in comparison. Hell, she felt tiny with only the towering trees

surrounding her. There was nothing out here but trees and bushes. And
Dea
knew what kind of creatures…

sensing her, growing agitated at her presence. She yanked her gun from its holster and checked the

magazine, already knowing it was fully loaded, but it comforted her to check anyway. It was times like this

it sucked being a half shifter. If she was going to piss off the animals in the wild because of her shifter

scent, it would at least be nice to have a beast to change into to escape. Unfortunately, as a female of the

shifter species, she didn’t have that luxury.

And it made her feel very fragile.

She
hated
feeling fragile.

Pulling in a deep breath, she scanned the area. The boy’s scent was still strong, leading her deeper into

the woods. But was it the right trail? They could eat up a whole day trying to figure which path was the

decoy. They’d already wasted an hour.

She drew in a deep breath through her nose. Her talent at detecting scents wasn’t as good or as sharp as

Britton’s. She’d been fooled by a damn piece of fabric. What if she was missing something vital?

As a test, she stepped a few feet off the trail. Charlie’s scent drastically decreased. That was good. It

meant she was still on the right track.

For another hour and a half, she treaded carefully around some rather terrifying drop-offs, muttering

unladylike obscenities under her breath about idiots and death wishes. Every ten minutes or when the

ground leveled out, she’d wander a few feet off the trail to make sure nothing had changed.

Each time, the scent faded and she grew more confident that she wasn’t being fooled. But a few minutes

later, she stepped forward and the scent dropped off drastically. She froze, sniffing. It had definitely

changed. Taking a step back, she was once again surrounded by Charlie’s scent. Tentatively, she walked

forward, concentrating hard on the much weaker smell. With each step it became fainter and fainter until

the trail was completely gone.

Finally, they had their answer.

She dug her phone out of her jacket and called Britton.

“Yo!” he answered.

The smile that immediately came to her lips from hearing his voice irritated her.
Focus, woman.
“I’m on

the decoy path.”

“Fuck,” Britton muttered, then made a sucking noise with his mouth. She knew the sound. She made it

herself whenever she made a wrong call and was angry at herself for her decision.

“I wasn’t sure which path was right, either, Britton. You had to be sure.”

“By the time this is all said and done, we’ll have wasted almost five goddamn hours. Damn it!” He