I'd only formally met this guy a few minutes ago, but I frowned the way I did with Sadie when I sensed my lifelong friend wasn't giving me the full truth. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“What aren’tyoutelling me?” he countered, raising both eyebrows. “You’re the stranger that mysteriously fell into the lake with about a thousand signs warning you against going anywhere near it.”
“I didn’t fall!” I snapped before I could think better of it. I was having a hard time thinking.
This male… his scent. He made it hard for me to think clearly about anything.
“You didn’t…” His face fell. “I’m sorry. I should’ve guessed that you were going through something.”
He took a guilty step back. “After we eat, can I drive you somewhere? Maybe Galway?”
“Galway,” I repeated. “Like the Ed Sheeran song?”
“Yes, like the Ed Sheeran song."
What I was beginning to suspect was a semi-permanent wry smile came back. But then he quickly got serious again.
"Also, it’s the closest big city. They’ll have therapists and people who can help you sort out whatever emotions were making you want to take your life.”
“Take my life?” My mouth dropped open when I realized, “Oh, you think I was trying to… no, no, that wasn’t it. Just the opposite, in fact.”
“Then what were you up to out there? And how did a North American she-wolf end up in an Irish lake?”
“I was… I was actually running away.” I exhaled, then decided to just tell him everything — the best I could without sounding like a crazy person. "You see, I have this whole life planned in Canada."
For the first time, I found myself admitting out loud, "I grew up in this extremely strict community where I didn't remotely fit in, and I've spent most of my adult life trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. So I trained myself in physics, passed a general education exam, and applied and got into one of Canada's top institutes of technology. I also signed up for this trip to go to Scotland for my sister's wedding. It's another long story, but the plan was to hide out there until it was time to start university in Canada this winter. Only thing is we — like me and a bunch of other she-wolves from my community — were kidnapped by a gang of…"
I trailed off before I could finish the story. Aidan had gone completely pale.
I had a bad feeling even before he asked, "Are you…? Are you a Wölfennite?"
My stomach dropped. "Oh, God, you're one of the Irish Wolves! You're going to hand me back over to them!"
I leaped up from the table. I had to get out of there. Aidan got in front of me before I could figure out which direction to run. "I'm an Irish Wolf, but I am most certainly not in league with — or anything like — the ones who kidnapped you."
"I don't believe you!" A panicked flush washed over me, like a sudden fever, and I tried to cut in the opposite direction.
Aidan was faster than I was in this manic state, though. He got in front of me again, this time with both hands raised. "I’ll take you wherever you want. No more questions asked. I only want to help you escape and get back to the life you had planned. Please, trust me. Naomi…"
His eyes became gravely sincere. "I would never, ever hurt you. Whatever you need from me, I'll do it.”
Whatever I need.I let out a breath. Little did he know that offer was the exact right answer to a final test I didn’t realize I was administering.
“I just… I just need to use your phone to call my family,” I answered.
“Sure, it’s still in my coat. I’ll just go get it. Call whoever you want. Then I’ll drive you into town. Was that where you were trying to get to?”
“Sort of,” I confirmed. I opened my mouth to explain the whole story. My escape. The lake. All of it.
But another hot flush rolled over my body, stealing the words. And all my air. Even though my panic had subsided.
What in the world…?
In an instant, it felt like I was drowning again. But not in water this time. A fever stole over me. And it had nothing to do with theembarrassment of finding myself half-naked in an extremely handsome stranger’s vacation house.
In fact, suddenly, the few clothes I wore were one t-shirt and a single sweater too many. The fabric tore at my skin like the barbed wire we twisted around the community chicken coop to keep foxes out.
I tore the sweater off and then the t-shirt. But it still wasn’t enough.
