I focus on his face, on the sound of his voice, on the warmth of his hands anchoring me to reality. Slowly, agonizingly, my lungs start to remember their purpose. The pressure in my chest loosens just enough that I can draw a full breath, then another.
“That’s it,” Connor praises. “Keep going. You’re doing great.”
It takes several minutes before the panic fully releases its grip on me. When it does, I’m left shaking and wrung out, slumped against the wall with no energy left to hold myself upright.
“How did you know?” I manage to ask, my voice coming out raw and hoarse. “How did you know to come back?”
“I was still in the parking lot. Saw you through the window. What happened?”
I don’t answer. Can’t answer. My phone vibrates again on the desk above us, and I flinch so hard my head cracks against the wall behind me.
Connor follows my gaze to the phone, then reaches up and grabs it. I watch his face as he scrolls through the messages, as his features harden into something cold and dangerous. A muscle ticks in his cheek, and his grip on the phone tightens until the case creaks in protest.
“Who is this?” he demands.
“My ex.” The word comes out as barely more than a whisper.
“The one you’re running from.”
I nod, not trusting my voice.
Connor sets the phone on the desk with exaggerated care, like he’s afraid he might crush it if he doesn’t concentrate. “He’s threatening you. These messages are direct threats.”
“He’s been sending them since I left. I block the numbers, but he just gets new ones.” I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them, making myself as small as possible. “I thought I was careful. I paid cash for everything, avoided main roads, didn’t tell anyone where I was going. But he found me anyway.”
“Maybe not.” Connor crouches back down to my level, his voice gentling. “He could be sending them blind, hoping you’ll respond and give away your location.”
“Or he could be outside right now, waiting for me to leave.”
“He’s not. I would have scented him.”
I let out a laugh that sounds more like a sob. “You can smell him?”
“I can smell any human who gets close to pack territory. Especially one who doesn’t belong here.” Connor reaches out like he’s going to touch my arm, then thinks better of it and pulls back. “You’re safe here, Fern. The pack protects its own.”
“I’m not pack. Not really.”
“You’re my mate. That makes you pack.”
The word sends a fresh spike of anxiety through my already overloaded system. I’m still processing the lottery, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m supposedly destined to spend my life with a man I barely know. And now Robbie has found me, and everything is spiraling beyond my control.
“Tell me about him,” Connor urges. “Tell me what I’m dealing with.”
I don’t want to. Every instinct screams at me to keep my mouth shut, to handle this myself the way I’ve always handled everything. But the look in Connor’s eyes stops me cold. He’s not asking out of curiosity or idle interest. He’s asking because he needs information. Because he’s already calculating how to keep me safe.
“I already told you that we were together for three years,” I begin, forcing the words past the tightness in my throat.“Engaged for six months. But what I didn’t tell you is how he changed during that time. At first, he was everything I thought I wanted. Charming. Attentive. He made me feel like the center of his universe.”
“And then?”
“And then the mask slipped.” I stare at a spot on the floor, unable to meet his gaze while I dredge up memories I’ve spent months trying to bury. “It started small. Comments about my clothes, my friends, and the way I spent my time. Then it escalated. He’d check my phone while I was sleeping, show up at my work unannounced, and accuse me of things I’d never done.”
Connor stays silent, letting me tell it at my own pace.
“I tried to leave the first time about a year in. He cried. Begged. Made promises he never intended to keep.” I swallow hard against the bile rising in my throat. “The second time I tried, he didn’t bother with tears. He just made it very clear what would happen if I ever tried again.”
“What would happen?”
I finally look up and meet Connor’s eyes. “He said he’d kill me. And the way he said it… I believed him. I still believe him.”
