She gripped the steering wheel tightly, feeling anxiety flowing up from her stomach. When she didn’t respond to his advances, he pulled his hand away and placed it on his lap.
“I know that things are complicated,” he said. “You’re on a job still, and it certainly isn’t normal to have sex with your client. I mean, I’m assuming it isn’t.”
Hannah knew he was joking, and she wanted to join in on the laugh, but she kept her expression stoic instead. She couldn’t just act like they were a fresh, exciting couple. He was right; she was on the job.
“I’ll back off for now,” he said. “If that’s what you want from me, I will do that for you, Hannah.”
The man was so sweet and considerate that it made it incredibly difficult to reject him. So Hannah just nodded and continued driving in silence. When they arrived back at his mansion, lustrous clouds began to cast over the setting sun. She could feel her thoughts bouncing around in her mind, so she decided that it was time to do her own thing.
“I need to go for a run,” she said, facing away from Levi. “For my mental health. It helps my wolf calm down for a bit, and it helps me think.”
Levi walked toward the front door and nodded solemnly.
“As I said before, the woods out back are free to roam,” he said. “Do you want me to show you where the property lines end?”
Without thinking, Hannah shook her head. She was imagining the two of them being out there in the dying day, joking and flirting. She was already barely able to control herself. What would it be like to be with him in a place where she felt most like herself?
“It’s okay,” Hannah said. “I should be about an hour. Don’t go anywhere, though, please?”
She turned her head in time to see him smile at her choice of words. Her ache was strong for him, and she wondered how strong his was for her.
“I won’t. I promise.”
Hannah made her way into the backyard as Levi went inside. She waited to hear him lock the door, and when he did, she immediately began sprinting. She tossed her clothes off as she did, running frantically like she was struggling to breathe.
She became naked in the yard as silver clouds spun overhead. She shifted as she ran, which was her favorite way to change. It was like slipping into a warm bath or a comfortable suit, feeling her claws protrude, her jaw crack, and incisors sprout.
Soon enough, she was in her full wolf form, having galloped through half the acreage Levi owned. A part of her imagined him watching secretly, curious about her wolf form, wondering if she truly was as dangerous as she made herself out to be.
The truth was that she was, as was any shifter. Sex was a passionate interaction for anyone, and for shifters, everything was turned up to eleven. If she let herself go completely, she could easily break a few ribs, accidentally crush him, or choke him to death in the heat of the moment.
Humans were fragile little teacups compared to her and her kind. It enraged her to think that Nick would set her up with one of them, one that happened to be her fated mate. By that essence, she would do anything for him and to be with him, but what was he thinking?
He certainly didn’t think of her as his mate, that was for sure. Humans didn’t have the same cosmic concept. They could break up anytime and, through adaptation, simply get over the person and move on. Maybe even to another.
But that wouldn’t be the case for Hannah. He was her mate, and he would remain for life, whether he wanted to be with her or not.
She moved through woods swiftly, ducking and weaving past trees, shrubs, and discarded rubbish. The day was dying fast, and she thought another storm could be brewing. But that might not really matter. The point was to run as fast as she could until her ribs ached, so she would be too tired to contemplate.
She didn’t find it to be working, though. She had been running for a good twenty minutes, and her mind was still an annoying carnival ride. All those thoughts about Levi, his fragile human ways, his lack of fated mate knowledge, and her status as his bodyguard all moved around like some wretched abstract painting.
Hannah had to stop in the middle of the woods abruptly, sliding on her paws and heaving. She thought some of her guts might slide out with her coughing. It was so raspy, so gritty.
She had started thinking about her mother, as well as the letter.
Hannah had a very distinct memory of the day she and her mother were kicked out of the pack, one that had been lodged inside her for a long time, rotting away. It was coming up and out of her like her body was finally being flushed of its harmful toxins.
Her mother had grown close to another wolf shifter named Fred after Hannah’s father had died. It was, to Hannah’s knowledge, entirely platonic. But her mother had been accused of seducing Fred after having given her heart and soul to Hannah’s father, which was against all the ancient laws that governed her pack.
She’d been summoned by the pack once the rumors began to circulate. There was no evidence of their correspondence other than some phone calls and simple hearsay. But none of that mattered.
They were stripped of their financial aid that came with being within a pack and left to find a new home. The pack had been paying for her mortgage, and once the payments stopped, her mother had to find somewhere else to live.
She worked at a diner, and it was when she was working that the pack had made its statement.
They came in when Hannah was sitting behind the counter, her little feet swinging as she filled in a coloring book. She watched as a few of the men she had come to see as family stormed into the diner, looking more angry than usual.
“Mom!” Hannah called out.