11
“Hello?” A voice I would now recognize anywhere called into the tent.
I stood. “Alec?”
He opened the flap. “I would ask if you’re decent, but it’s not like I didn’t carry you naked for three miles.”
“Wait, what?” That was news to me. “You said I was a wolf when you found me.”
“You were, as was I, but you shifted back as soon as I growled at you. You gotta work on your wolf’s ability to stand up for herself,” he said.
“Well, that would have been helpful information when we first met,” I said.
“Not really, you couldn’t do anything with it. I’m going to wager you still couldn’t. Sheila said she wanted to have you work with Greta.” He held up a pair of boots. “She also said you needed these.”
The black combat boots in his hands were practical, sturdy, and looked like they could do some damage if I ever needed to kick someone while wearing them. Basically, they were my dream shoes. I crossed the tent and took the shoes from him. “Thanks.”
A quick glance at the tag let me know they were exactly my size. I wasn’t going to question my good luck. There was also a pair of thick socks stuffed into one of the boots.
I sat down on the chair and got to work sliding my freezing feet into the socks and then I started lacing up the boots.
Alec cleared his throat.
I stopped mid-tie and looked up at him. “Would you like to sit?”
“No, I should go. There’s lots to do,” he said.
“Lots to do at the camp with no alpha and no rules?” I smirked.
He looked like he almost smiled. “Us feral wolves have to get back to work eating babies or whatever else your pack thinks we do.”
I rolled my eyes. “First, they’re not my pack anymore. Second, I don’t know what you do in your free time.”
“I’m not going to tell you what I do, but I promise, I don’t eat babies.” He winked.
“You’re something else, you know that?”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Anything else you want to share about our first meeting that I might want to know?” I finished tying the first boot. “I usually like to know what happened to me while I was naked.”
“Trust me, there was nothing intimate about it,” he said.
“Ouch. You know exactly how to make a girl feel special.”
“Saving your life wasn’t enough?” he asked.
I tied the other boot then stood and grabbed the shirt he’d lent me. “It is. And once again, thank you for saving me. And for the shirt.” I held it out to him.
He moved closer to me and took the flannel. For a moment, he stood a foot away from me, just gazing at me with those gorgeous two-tone eyes. They sucked me right in and I couldn’t help but stare back. They really were the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.
“I should go,” he said.
“Okay, bye,” I said, still not dropping my eyes from his. The seconds seemed to drag by as we stood there, locked in each other’s gaze. Finally, he broke away and turned and walked out of the tent.
I let out a breath and realized my heart was racing. There was something about Alec that drove me completely crazy. If I was going to stick around here, I was going to have to be careful. He was bad news, that was clear. Plus, he was the leader. Even if they didn’t use the term alpha, that was what he was. I could feel a magnetic pull toward him. It had to be the pull to the alpha that other shifters talked about. I never felt it in Wolf Creek but I must be able to sense it now.
The tent flap opened, and for a fraction of a moment, flutters filled my chest with wishful expectation. They fell flat when Sheila walked through the door. My shoulders slumped.