Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 07 - Revolution Read Free

isn’t your fault,” Jamie said as he rolled onto his knees from where he’d been laying. “You didn’t start the coup.”
Luuk shrugged. The guilt was his. Anyone would carry it if they’d endangered their mate and brought them into such harsh circumstances. “We have to leave here.” He saw the sadness flit through Jamie’s eyes. More and more, he saw it, felt it. Jamie tried to hide it from him, and that hurt, but Luuk respected Jamie’s need for privacy.
If it worried him—which it often did, as he felt the blackness swell and ebb in Jamie— he was guilty of his own secrets by not letting Jamie know his secret wasn’t a secret.
Jamie shifted into a beautiful brown wolf without another word and trotted over to rub against Luuk’s legs. Sometimes his mate acted more like a cat than a wolf, and Luuk found it endearing. He reached down and scratched behind Jamie’s ears before bending more to receive a faceful of licks.
“I love you, too, Jamie. So much.” So much his eyes burned and he had to squeeze his eyes shut tight to keep the tears back. Although why he bothered… It wasn’t like he couldn’t be himself with his mate, but Luuk was the Alpha Anax.
Or had been. He still considered himself the rightful AA, anyways. And years of being the alpha, of being all strength and power and leadership—well, Luuk rarely let himself cry, although sometimes in the darkness he had to give in.
Luuk shifted, immediately feeling a hundred times warmer. His own coat was thick and pale grey with flecks of cream and black in it. He tended to blend in better than Jamie’s lovely brown, which worried him to no end.
Together they cautiously began to descend the snow-covered slope. A third of the way down, Luuk stopped and turned to his right, leading them over rough and sharply angled terrain. The rocks beneath the snow were dangerous. One slip and Jamie could be seriously hurt.
By the time they reached the other side of the mountain, having stayed off all paths, it was almost dark and the sensation of being followed had only grown stronger. Luuk had hoped to put some miles between them and that feeling.
He and Jamie hadn’t even bothered trying to find food, and now he was worn out, and Jamie was moving sluggishly. Luuk was afraid Jamie’s black mood was more responsible for that than the lack of food.
“We can’t stop yet.” Luuk shared the thought with his mate, adding a mental caress as well as nuzzling Jamie’s nape.
Jamie gave him a dull look before shaking out his coat and apparently shaking off his mood. It was just appearances, perhaps, but it did make Luuk feel a little better. How long could Jamie keep living like this? How long could he?
They trekked on, Luuk keeping a conversation going with Jamie telepathically, knowing they both needed it. The moon had risen high and bright by the time Luuk caught a whiff of civilisation. It was hard to describe it except as an end of the pure, clean air.
“Where do you think we are?” Jamie asked.
Luuk racked his brain. “We were in Austria months ago. Slovakia, maybe?” Luuk snorted delicately. “We could even be in Poland, or further even. It feels like we’ve run the whole globe.”
“No kidding. Do you think…?” Jamie looked away, towards the direction the not-so-clean air had come from.
Luuk wished he knew. Jamie was afraid to hope that they could actually make it to civilisation, and Luuk couldn’t blame him. Even if they did make it, what then? It was a sure bet every hidden stash Luuk had in banks around the world had been compromised. If not, they were almost certainly monitored. All his accounts, all the information for them, had been at his residence, which had been taken from him.
Every bit of personal information that could have helped him—names of people he trusted, escape routes and plans, money—all of it had been lost to him. It didn’t matter right now, though. What did matter was getting his mate somewhere safe and warm, and making