“Just like you asked.”
“Thanks.” Lila chewed her lip in thought. “Look. I should leave you alone to grieve and shit... But…I feel like this can’t wait. Case was always on your ass about getting a mate and fitting in with the pack… And let’s face it, none of the wolves in our pack are meant to be your mate. Maybe the one you’re meant to be bonded with is in a different pack. I always got the feeling that the only reason you stuck around here was because of your brother.”
It was true.
I fucking hated it here. I always had, even when our father was still alive.
“What are you getting at, Lil?”
“I don’t want you to stay just because of me and the baby, alright?”
“Are you saying I should just abandon you and my nephew? You’re my family.”
“You aren’t abandoning us. We’ll still be family even if you leave, and you can always come back and visit.”
She wouldn’t feel that way if she knew what sins I’d committed last night. And this morning.
Guilt threaded through my system like poison, making me ache all over as Lila said her goodbyes, then shifted into her wolf form and disappeared into the woods.
I turned and headed back into the cabin, calling to my bunny. “You can come out now, Ruthless.”
When there was no answer, I knew something was wrong.
I entered the bedroom and froze. Ruth’s scent was faint, swept away by the breeze that flowed through the open window.
She left. Climbed out the window.
“No.” My fists clenched into balls at my sides as rage built inside me.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. This was what we’d agreed on, after all. Fuck like rabbits, create a mating bond to cover her scent and end her heat cycle. Never see each other again. But the moment I’d marked her, priorities had changed. She felt like mine.
“Sheismine.”
This time, I had no urge to resist the monster inside me. There was no fighting it anyway, not this time. Now I wanted what the beast did—her.
The shift came on without me even thinking about it. This pain was like an adrenaline shot, slamming through my system, heightening my excitement and making my heart pound. It was time to hunt, and the next time I caught her, she wouldn’t escape me again.
Not ever.
TWENTY-FIVE
RUTH
Iwove between the trees as fast as my little bunny feet could carry me. Now that it was daytime, the sunlight that managed to squeeze through the thick canopy of trees lit my path well enough, though it wasn’t much help. I had no idea where I was going. It didn’t matter. All I could think about was putting as much distance between me and my new mate as possible.
What had I done?
Allowing awerewolfto claim me had seemed like the only way to guarantee the safest escape possible. It had felt right for reasons that went beyond survival.
I stopped dead in my tracks when the breeze carried a new scent—the masculine fragrance of pine and smoke. Every hair on my tiny bunny body stood when I felt the scar on my throat throb.
I could feel his approach like a narcotic in my blood. The bastard was tailing me.
My heart raced as I lurched back into full speed, the cold knife of betrayal stabbing my lungs with every frantic breath I took.
I bet this whole thing was just a sick game to him. This had to have been his plan the entire time: give me hope of escape only to hunt me down.
He’d told me I wasn’t like his other hunting trophies… Another lie.
