I’m guessing this was just bad luck. But there are scents of at least one female,said Colton.
My wolf howled, and we shifted towards the direction of the scents. Any luck and we’d head them off before they got onto the next pack’s lands. Better yet our neighbors would have heard my call and would be following our lead to head off whoever these wolves were.
Why go this far into territories. Why not stay on neutral ground?
No one answered me.
The further we ran and the longer it took the more I wanted to know what my mate was doing? I wanted to get back even if it was just to watch her through a window. Fuck. I had it bad, and it was going to be hell to stay away from her.
* * *
There’d been no laughter. No one deviated from the path back to our homes. The mood was dark. Things weren’t good. Finding the dead body of a male meant that these rogues were loose cannons and who knew what they would do with the females they found. It meant they weren’t going to respect pack boundaries and that meant none of our females were safe.
While my pack brothers walked back to their families and Colton to the pack house, I took a detour. Or rather my wolf wouldn’t allow us not to take a detour. Fuck I was lying to myself. I wanted to see her. I wanted to taste her. I needed to know she was safe.
The scent of the wolfsbane in her system was still strong, and it tainted her scent. My wolf knew she was unwell and I guess we should have been happy about that or I don’t think I could have stopped myself. My wolf was ever the gentleman, apparently.
The crunch of gravel under my paws changed to the soft silence of grass as we veered off the dirt path to the infirmary. We just needed to make sure she was still okay. That we hadn’t hallucinated the whole damn thing.
Her words though, regardless of what I’d just found,were what haunted me. I couldn’t get it out of my head that she’d sounded so broken. Breed her? What the fuck was wrong with this world?
Why goddess is this my fucking life? I wasn’t going to get an answer, but I sure as shit wish I would.
Only two days ago I’d agreed to a sham of a mating to another pack. One that I hated, but my father had long ago forged a promise. I refused to step foot on their lands ever and the last two years I’d avoided them like the plague.
There were packs who lacked morals or civility and then there were the morally bankrupt. This was one of those moments where it was better to keep your enemies closer and by that my father had made an agreement in time to sabotage my joy at taking over as alpha.
He’d reminded me time and time again. I hadn’t taken over yet and I wouldn’t without a mate. Fucking asshole. He’d been practically a figurehead for the last year letting me take the reins. It all came down to this one tiny damn detail. My mother was probably rolling in her grave at my father’s metaphorical spitting on fate.
The dirt shifted under our paws as my wolf practically ran to get to her. What was bad was that we were both on the same track and hoping she was naked. I shifted as I pushed through the door. This wasn’t a typical hospital for humans making it all but deserted most of the time.
I nodded to Sarah, my most trusted healer as she sat reading a book. Perhaps I should have stopped and said hi, but there was no stopping me as I continued down the hall to one of the few occupied beds. I could count on one hand how many shifters had been treated here over the years for anything other than childbirth. And now? This place would never seem the same to me.
I paused and stared. She was behind that door and all I had to do was push it open. My wolf sure as shit didn’t seem to mind barging in. But the human side of me couldn’t decide if I was being an asshole for listening to him. Earlier there was no rational thought, but right now? I could be rational. Or pretend to be.
I leaned my forehead against the door as I imagined her naked body in that small bed. I would need to get her a room of her own. She didn’t seem to have a pack, and I wasn’t quite sure when she’d realize who I was to her.
I clenched my fists and felt my heart race for a moment. I was not a fucking asshole who would use her that was for sure.
I did need to get to the bottom of her life, though.
I’d gotten nowhere with every capture we’d made in the last 24 hours. I wanted to know where the hell she’d been all these years. The shifters we’d tried to pry information from proved to be just as dumb as they were hardheaded. It was clear they’d retrieved my female and dropped her off at a meeting point. A few of my men were headed there now with the help of the triad. We needed to be careful with this and make sure that we not only had backup, but witnesses.
I should go in and see if she was willing to talk. That was logical and acceptable. Besides, I couldn’t stop myself. I reached for the handle and twisted. The door opened into the darkened room.
The IV bag wasn’t there anymore, and neither was the heart monitor. That had to be a good sign?
“Hello?” she asked.
She sat up, and I paused.
“I assumed you’d be asleep,” I said stupidly. My plan was falling apart, and I’d taken all of three steps.
“Would you like me to pretend to sleep so you can creep around my room?”
I chuckled at her tone.
“At least wherever you have been hasn’t crushed the sarcasm from those pretty little lips of yours.”