“Ramsey?” Ruby’s voice rises. “Ramsey? Are you all right? Ramsey?”
She’s even hazier now, my gaze fixated on her outline, the shape of her hips. But mostly, it’s her scent, swirling around me, a tornado.
“Go,” I croak, as my voice cracks, and my vocal cords shatter and reshape.“Go!”
I collapse against the wall, my neck jarring upward, my body convulsing.
I’m changing.
And I can’t stop.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Ruby
When he shoutsgothe second time, his voice becomes more of a wolf’s howl. There are footsteps upstairs, on the other side of the cabin, but I’m not sure they’ll get here in time.
Ramsey stands up to his full height. He changed so fast, his bones cracking and reshaping, the hair growing. It felt like a minute, maybe less.
And he’s burning up from the inside, his eyes almost glowing red, his ears flattening as they brush along the ceiling. He’s so big he completely covers the doorway.
Go, he said, but there’s no way out.
“Ramsey?” Liam’s outside the door. “Are you in there? Ruby?”
“It’s...,” I swallow as the wolf – asRamsey– softly lowers himself to his forepaws, walking toward me, his eyes glowing as he stalks closer. “It’s Ramsey. He’s changed.”
“Okay. Can you get out of the room?”
I don’t want to.
“He’s not going to hurt me,” I whisper as he closes the distance completely.
It’s like in the alleyway. He stares right at me, his eyes searing into me.
“Ramsey,” I whisper as tears prick my eyes.
I’m not sure where they come from. Maybe it’s just how quickly I went from body-shattering pleasure to this; to being face to face with my massive heaving beast.Mywolf.
“Ramsey.”
He growls softly, tilting his head. I walk closer, brushing my hand along his silver jaw and behind his ears.
“Ruby?” Liam says from outside.
“We’re fine,” I tell him.
Ramsey grumbles and then steps back, rearing back, shaking as he stares down at me. He’s hard, just like last time, his body heaving just like it was when he was in his human form. Shreds of clothes cling to him, but most lie in tatters on the floor.
He opens his mouth and snarls; teeth bared, he snarls and then throws his head back and howls. He howls so loudly that the glass shatters in the mirror, and the walls tremble.
The wholeworldshakes. It feels the same way it did in the alleyway.
Except now we’re closer and I know who he is for sure.
Ramsey lowers himself again, shuddering as he moves toward me.
A note of fear touches me, and I hate myself for it. He’d never hurt me.