Wyatt
Wyatt hadn’t slept a wink all night so at a little after six the following morning, he gave up trying and headed out for a run, hoping the fresh air would help to clear his mind. It didn’t. For a while he considered changing into his dragon form then taking to the sky so that he could stretch his wings, and let his inner beast loose for a bit, but his dragon was furious with him for running from their mate the night before. He didn’t trust the beast not to try to take control and go back to the alleyway to track his mate’s scent.
Wyatt’s sense of smell while in his dragon form was second to none, almost as good as his eyesight, which was unrivaled by any other shifter. He had no doubt that his dragon would be able to find the woman with the beautiful blue eyes. No, he had to wait until more time had passed before he could even consider shifting forms. The thought that after a day or two he would no longer be able to find her left him utterly despondent and relieved in equal measures, but he refused to have his mate cut off from the clan. She deserved better than to lose her family and her home, just for him. He could never be that selfish—no matter how much he might want to.
Wyatt ran pretty much flat out for an hour then slowed to a jog for another forty-five minutes. By the time he returned home, sweat poured from him. A cold shower was in order, but as he neared his house, his heart started pounding harder than it had for his entire run, and his legs suddenly felt weak as a day-old kitten’s. His head swam and he blinked, hard, but it didn’t change what he was seeing.
There she was. His mate. Standing on his doorstep, hand raised as she rapped on his door.
And she was every bit as beautiful as he remembered. His dragon’s elation flooded through him.
Our mate is here. Go to her. Be with her!
Wyatt shook his head and gritted his teeth. He couldn’t do that. He flung a glance back over his shoulder. Maybe he should leave before she noticed him, find someplace to hide until she went away.
She will come back. She will find us again.
The breath left Wyatt’s lungs in a heavy sigh. His dragon was right. It would be pointless to leave now. If she knew where he lived, she would only come back again and again until she had spoken to him.
He had just taken a step in her direction when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he knew instinctively that someone was watching him. He spun around and scanned the street then spotted a man loitering on the street corner about twenty houses down from his. The man was tall and looked almost as bulky as Wyatt was, but he didn’t recognize him. Yet as he watched, the man continued to stare at him. A bad feeling settled in Wyatt’s chest, and he wondered who the man was and if he was there to watch him, or his mate.
Was she in some sort of danger?
A weird, primitive sensation that he’d never experienced before rose up inside him and it made him feel suddenly murderous. He realized it had to be the instinct to protect his mate and wreak havoc on anyone who sought to cause her harm. His feet got him moving towards the stranger as if acting on their own volition, but after only a couple of steps, the man turned and hurried in the opposite direction. That made Wyatt all the more convinced that the man had been up to no good. For a moment he was torn between the pull of his mate, and the pull to destroy anyone who would threaten her.
He watched the man go. He couldn’t be lured away from her side if this was a trap. No. First he needed to speak to her, and find out if she was in some kind of trouble. He would ensure her safety at all costs, even if they couldn’t be together.
And if any man tried to harm a hair on her head, it would be the last thing that man did.
