After more breaths, I feel better. My sweating subsides and a cool chill cascades over my body. My breathing regulates, and my vision slowly returns to focus.
Just as I catch my breath, a voice sings, and it’s for me. “Come out, come out, wherever you are... I know you’re here... I can smell you.”
A sitting duck, all I can do is lie down and pray he doesn’t find me.
When I don’t answer, he chuckles. “Fine, I can wait. It won’t be long before the strength of the bond kicks in, and you won’t be able to resist.” A twig crunching nearby catches my attention.
He’s close.
“Tell you what,” he starts, “you come out now, and I won’t make you crawl to me when you’re begging me to take you back.”
Mate,my wolf says.
The bond must be setting in.
I’m going to have to kill this guy. He’s going to leave me no choice. I refuse to be anybody’s slave ever again.
Just as I mentally prepare for a fight, I hear a vicious growl, followed by a bloodcurdling scream.
I step out of the bush to face a bloodied Caleb.
Chapter FIFTY-EIGHT
Jay
Caleb clocks the mark on my neck instantly.
His chest and shoulders heave at the sight.
“He marked you?” Caleb stalks over and grabs the guy by his scruff just to toss him into a tree. He storms after his prey, growling. “You marked what’s mine?” Without giving this guy a chance to catch his breath, he pulls him up again to send him flying with another blow.
Caleb pounces on him again, pounding this guy’s face in until the guy is fighting for his life. His breathing is labored sounding more as a wheeze, but he’s still alive. I didn’t get a good look on the guy’s face, but I could never identify him now.
Caleb turns the male’s head to check his neck for a mark. When he doesn’t see one, he exhales a sigh of relief. Exhausted, he stands and slowly faces me.
“Are you okay?” he asks hoarsely.
Still too stunned that he’s here to speak, I nod.
Blood is splattered all over his face, neck, hands and chest. You would have thought it was war paint with how much blood he is covered in.
He holds the man’s neck in his grasp, ready to tear it clean off from his body.
I hold my hand up to stop him, while the other is pressed to my neck to stop the bleeding. “What’re you doing?”
He drops the body. “Are you choosing him?” He stands, and his fists clench. “If I don’t do this, then you’ll be tied to him. Is that what you want?”
I dig deep and find my voice, shaky as it might be. “No.”
He nods and picks the male back up by his neck.
Softly, I ask, “What’re you doing here?”
“I came for you,” he says.
“There’s nothing left to fight for. You practically said so yourself.”
“You think I’ll ever be done fighting for you?” Caleb snaps the wolf’s neck while staring directly into my eyes.
