I’ve never reacted to those thoughts the way I do now, though. Something inside me snaps at the idea of letting another wolf kill me. Burning, bitter indignation fills me, making me grit my teeth and growl under my breath. No, that’s unthinkable. There has to be a way out of this. I just have to think, but how am I supposed to think when I’m so mixed up and waiting to see my would-be attacker burst outside at any second?
I can’t wait around here; that much is obvious. But there’s nowhere else to go.
No, that’s not exactly true. There’s one place I could go, and now that I think about it, it might be the best option. I can’t take back what I did, but I can try to limit the damage. I can get to Daniel first before he goes to Connor. I can explain I didn’t know who he was and freaked out—maybe I can blame it on shifting tonight, being all mixed-up, tired and confused, and whatever. I’ll say anything it takes so long as I can find a way to smooth this over. It’s my only hope.
And once I’m with the alpha, there’s no way he could hurt me even if he does find me. That would be the stupidest thing he could do.
The lights in the meeting hall are still on—they must still be celebrating there. I take off for the building on a run, looking over my shoulder once, twice, making sure I’m not being followed. Maybe I did more damage than I thought, and he needed a little more time to get his strength back. I can only hope.
I’m so close, only a couple hundred feet away, my lungs burn, and my heart feels like it’s about to explode out of my chest. I run up the steps and fling open the outer door before hurling myself toward the second, inner door, leading straight into the hall.
I can hear them inside, even if their voices are muffled, thanks to the pounding of my heart and the rush of blood in my ears. There’s safety on the other side of that door, and I close my hand over the knob, ready to beg for help.
Except just as I start to swing the door open, a hand closes over mine.
It all happens so fast. The rush of dread, the sick certainty. He found me, he caught me, I was too slow. There’s no getting away.
But the door is still swinging open, and the force of his body slamming against my back sends us both stumbling into the hall. I can smell the blood on him, I feel it soaking into my clothes, and the elders barely have time to turn around and gasp in surprise at the sight of us before the strangest thing of all happens. What I least expect.
Pain—sharp, burning pain at the back of my neck. The door hasn’t even swung closed behind us, but he’s sunk his teeth into me.
That’s not the weirdest part. I could swear I heard him mutter a single word before he did it. “Mine.” But no, I have to be hallucinating—panic, fear, something like that.
Right now, it doesn’t really matter. Not when everybody gasps almost in unison, with some of them falling back in surprise while others step forward. My father is one of them, his gaze snapping back and forth between the wolf and me. He bit me. Why did he do that?
I stumble away from him, grabbing the back of my neck out of reflex more than anything else. It doesn’t even hurt anymore, not that it did for very long. Just that first, initial moment when he broke my skin. Now it feels warm, almost nice. But I still don’t understand why he did it.
“What is this?” my father demands in a growl. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Wilde?” I look around at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and find Connor, the alpha of the Silver Shadow Pack, stepping forward, concern in his eyes as he stares at his son. Oh, for the love of everything, he’s here, too? Could this get any worse?
None of it makes sense. The room is spinning around me, slowly at first but picking up speed. I sway on my feet, wanting to ask for help, but I can’t seem to put my racing thoughts into words. What just happened? It’s like he drugged me.
I look at Wilde, prepared to demand he tell me what he just did, but the second I set my eyes on him, a blast of heat in my core sweeps away every rational thought. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I only know what I want, what I need, and what I will die without.
Him. Wilde. All of a sudden, the whole world shrinks down to the size of a pinpoint. All of my attention and all of my consciousness focused on him alone.