I couldn’t lie, I had to tell them the truth. I’d been lonely and desperate, and he’d made me feel more loved in a single hour than I’d experienced my whole life.
“Just… a guy. In town. At a bar.”
Uncle Dennis dropped me to the ground. I inhaled quickly, needing the air. I stayed where he’d left me, on my hands and knees.
I wasn’t getting back up just to be knocked down again. I’d learnt that lesson the hardest way.
As one of the only non-shifting women in the whole den, I was the weakest by far. I had the scars and the broken bones to prove it.
“It smells like a wolf,” he growled above me.
I kept my head down. They weren’t talking to me.
“We always knew she smelled like them,” Uncle Dennis said.
“One of their human mates.” Lou spat.
What?
I listened intently, though I tried not to show how interested I was.
A wolf’s Fated Mate? How was that possible? I was human.
“You know the Alpha doesn’t want the wolves getting any more of them,” Lou growled and I heard Uncle Dennis’ sigh.
Any more of them? Of what? Humans? Mates?
“Let’s take her to the Alpha and find out what he wants to do with her.”
They hoisted me to my feet, and I went with them willingly. Being submissive to the bears had kept me alive and relatively well fed.
I relaxed as much as I could, an unnatural calm descending over me.
I’d known this day would come, sooner or later.
They’d realise I wasn’t suited for their Den, and they’d either kick me out, or ship me off.
But now that the worst had finally arrived, I was calm. My mind worked faster than it ever had. There was more than me at stake now. My baby needed protection from the men who towered over us.
There was only one thing to do. When I got the chance, I’d run.
And thanks to Lou spilling the beans about my wolf-like smell, I knew where to go for refuge.
Tayte, the Alpha wolf-shifter had said something strange the night we’d met.
About a woman, a doctor, who was the first human mate they’d found in town.
I’d memorised that piece of information somehow through my alcohol fogged brain.
My baby and I needed protection, and the Daddy wolf who gave me this baby was the only one who could give it to me.
***
Death! They’d sentenced me to death!
The family that had taken me in as a baby, raised me. Whom I’d slaved for. W
hom I’d tried to love to the best of my ability. I’d spent years caring for their children… and this was the result?