“Nobody’s going to report me,” she said through her fingers. “I mean, I guess eventually they will, but not for a while.”
“And why not?” he said tightly, as though offended on her behalf.
“I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Just believe me. No one’s looking for me yet.”
The alpha was quiet a long minute. At last April lowered her hands from her face and risked eye contact, braced for judgment. The moment she did, he shook his head. “No.”
“No what?”
“I’d like to respect your privacy,” he said, “but without information I can’t protect you. I can’t protect my pack from the danger you might bring down on them without meaning to.”
“So—what, you’re insisting on the story of my life?”
“Your entire life? No. An explanation for why the humans in your life aren’t looking for you? Yes.”
She shut her eyes, then opened them. It was time. She had to face the utter train wreck of…herself. “Before Drew, I dated a human guy for about ten months. It was a very…isolating relationship. He convinced me that everyone else was the problem, that he was so misunderstood and anyway all we needed in life was each other. But I missed my friends, my mom—I missed them desperately. When I finally broke up with him…I had so much rebuilding to do. So many bridges burned. I had barely gotten started when I met Drew.”
The alpha rumbled low in his chest, a sound of anger and…understanding. “He saw your isolation and knew he could continue it.”
“And Istilldidn’t see it coming the second time. And the icing on the isolation cake—I was going to start a new job the week after he took my keys. He knew if he acted fast, my new employer would assume I blew them off.”
She pressed a hand to her cramping stomach. Putting all of it into words…acknowledging aloud that even her mother wasn’t aware she’d spent the last six weeks as a wolf’s kidnapping victim… It really hurt. Mom wouldn’t question not hearing from her for six weeks. In fact she probably assumed April was back with Nik.
And then there was the job of her dreams, stolen from her and discarded. Drew had known how much that job meant to her. No doubt that was why he took it away.
“I’m sorry,” Malachi said.
April hid behind a shrug. “I did it to myself, believing Drew.”
“No,” he growled. “You were lied to.”
“Right, because he saw an easy mark. Because everyone who’s called me an astute people-reader my whole life has clearly given me way too much credit.”
“What job were you supposed to start?”
She stared down at her hands. “I went to school for elementary ed. I knew from the time I was in fourth grade that someday I wanted to teach fourth grade. I had just finished my third interview, and I was going to get the job. The school as much as told me I was going to get it.”
The alpha’s chest rumbled. “And then this rogue abducted you.”
“After a week locked in his house, I overheard him answer a call on my phone. He told the school I was no longer interested in the position and asked them not to call me again.”
She shook her head to clear the mist of sorrow that had risen up around her. All these personal details—she hadn’t meant to tell him anything but the most basic facts. Why had she told him so much?
“I’m very sorry,” the alpha said.
“Anyway,” she said, “I don’t see how knowing any of that helps you protect your pack.”
“Information always contributes to a good plan.” He drew a long breath that caved his chest a little as he sighed. Was he so affected by her story?
“Thank you for telling me although you didn’t want to. You were wise to seek protection here.”
Wisewasn’t the best word.Desperatewas more like it. Again she shrugged, outwardly nonchalant. She hoped he couldn’t read her scent well enough to figure out just how terrified she was. “I came here on the chance that not all wolves are like Drew and his gang. If you’ll keep them from taking me, I’ll do anything you ask.”
“As I said, they will not take you.”
“Drew won’t give up easily. I…I’m his…” The word was sour in her mouth, and bile rose along with it. The force of him. The way he shoved her off the bed when he was done. But she had to say it. If this wolf pack knew she belonged to someone else, maybe none of them would do to her what Drew had done. “He told me I’m his mate.”
The gleaming-eyed alpha went stiff in his chair. His hands gripped the arms until his knuckles whitened. He turned his face from her, bared his teeth, and released a quiet yet lethal growl.
