h Red to end. I don’t want this adventure we’ve been having to be over. When Elise died, I thought my heart had died with her. She was my best friend, my other half. I never thought I could love anyone as much as I loved my cousin, but I was wrong.
Red showed me just how wrong I was.
She’s sweet and quiet and kind. I love how she takes care of me even though she doesn’t owe me a damn thing. I wonder just how messed up her life must have been before she came to the forest that no one misses her.
How could no one miss her?
I run faster, following her scent, knowing I might be running out of time. Something is wrong. I can feel it in my gut. I had the same feeling before I found Elise, before I saw the Alpha… That doesn’t matter now, though. The only thing that matters is getting to Red, saving her, making her mine.
I should have told her I was a shifter long ago.
I should have shown her who I really was, should have given her the chance to love me because the truth is that I know she could. I know she could love me. She’s not the type of girl who is going to discriminate based on looks or the fact that I’m not completely human.
No, she’ll love me for me.
The thought gives me hope, and I run a little bit faster.
***
I hear her cries before I even smell her, and I slow my steps. Every instinct in my body tells me to rush forward, to attack, to slaughter the monsters that are attacking my girl.
Like it or not, I realize, that’s what Red has become: mine. My everything. I hate the idea that she’s in trouble and I haven’t had the chance to tell her yet. I haven’t told her how important she is, how amazing she is. I haven’t told her that without her, my life is garbage.
Without her, my life isn’t worth living.
I need to rush in and kill these bastards. Every ounce of my being wants to rush in and destroy them in one swoop.
But I don’t.
If I’m going to save my damsel in distress, I’m going to do it right, and that means making careful calculations on how this is going to play out. I position myself behind some trees and peer out. I clench my teeth at what I see, but I don’t rush forward.
That’s how good men are killed.
Instead, I consider the situation, calculate how I’ll attack, and watch for just a moment. Red is surrounded by wolf-shifters. They’ve got her pinned down and they’re about to…it doesn’t matter because they won’t get a chance. I’ll save her. I’ll get my girl.
There are five of them, and they’re men I know well. Five wolves I’ve spent time with. Five wolves I’ve grown up with.
Five wolves who are the Alpha’s henchmen, for lack of a better term.
Why is the pack here? What do they want with Red?
And then it hits me.
A wave of nausea rolls over me as I realize what’s been staring me in the fact this whole time. The whole time Red has been in the forest with me, we’ve had a common goal and neither one of us knew it.
Her brother.
He’s the Alpha.
He has to be.
He never tells anyone his real name, instead insisting we all call him Alpha. It makes him feel big and powerful, I suppose, but none of us ever argued with him about it.
Now I wish we had.
She’s spent the entire time we’ve been together talking about Jeffrey and how evil he is, but I didn’t piece it together. I didn’t know. Surely she knows her brother is a shifter. Obviously, he’s only her half-brother, but wouldn’t she know? She has to know.
Then I realize that my fears about her not knowing I’m a shifter were completely unfounded. She must have suspected, at least. It’s why she was so instantly comfortable with me. It’s why she wasn’t afraid.