“Including Drew?”
“Of course.”
He shook his head. “A mate doesn’t acclimate to her own wolf.”
“Because…it isn’t necessary.”
“Correct.”
The one thing she’d thought might spare her. The one thing another wolf pack might respect, and it wasn’t even true. Drew had claimed possession of her, fended off the others with snarls and fights. And it wasn’t even true. In fact this alpha was claiming the same thing…which meant he would do to her what Drew had done. April curled up in the chair, crossed her arms over her body as though she could protect herself. Her vision grew spotty. Her stomach churned, threatened to lose the nourishment she’d just consumed.
“I won’t harm you.”
Of course he would. She whimpered. This was too much.
A broad warm hand covered hers. A thumb slowly traced her knuckles. A deep rumble of comfort filled the room. April blinked away the haze over her vision. Malachi knelt on the floor in front of her chair. His free hand slid beneath hers, and now her left hand was cradled between both of his. The low rumble continued from the depths of his massive chest. Her breathing evened and slowed as she focused on the sound.
“S-safe?”
“Yes,” he said. “You are safe.”
“I wasn’t. Before. Yesterday, I wasn’t.”
The pressure of his hand was gentle. “You are now.”
She ought to pull her hand away, but she didn’t want to. If only his words could be trusted. She shook her head.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I’ll protect you. Always.”
“Because I’m your mate.” Her hand jerked, then contracted around his, trying to let go and hold on at the same time. “But Drew thinks I’m his. How am I supposed to—?”
He seemed to choke for a moment, but then she understood. He was holding back a snarl, not wishing to frighten her. When he met her eyes again, his looked like melted gold, burnished in fire.
“No wolf makes that mistake,” he said. “He wanted to control you with something he knew was a lie.”
Drew had done exactly that. Managed to be charming for hours, claimed her with credibly feigned happiness, explained how fate chose a wolf and mate who matched one another best. After two weeks of daily dates, she agreed to meet his pack and see his home. She’d never been allowed to leave.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “He said his pack would track me if I ran, track me and tear my throat out. But then yesterday he said…” She couldn’t repeat some of it. She swallowed hard and forced herself to tell what she could. “If I disappointed him again, he was going to kill me and dump my body where no one would find me, this very specific area of the park preserve about fifty miles from their territory. He was very…graphic…about how he would kill me. Maybe it sounds like a bluff to you, but it wasn’t. And Kyle knew it too—he would never have given me my keys otherwise.”
The alpha was silent, but the heat of his rage was betrayed in his eyes.
“Drew doesn’t have a conscience. You need to know that.”
“It’s clear enough,” he said on a low growl.
“But you want to involve yourself anyway.”
“Of course.”
Because he thought she was his mate. “How can I believe it’s actually true, that we’re…?”
“That I’m your wolf.”
He was hers? Drew had never said that, only claimed her as his. “I can’t trust any of this, Alpha. I hope you understand why.”
“First of all…” The alpha drew a deep breath that expanded his chest, reminded her for the dozenth time how massive he was, how powerful. “Please call me Malachi.”
“Oh.” She tasted it softly in her mouth, the roll and punch of it. “Malachi.”
