“Easy, okay? I'm not going to hurt you.”
Her growl turns deadly and I stop moving.
“Genie,” I call again. “I need to talk to you. I need to explain what happened back there. Please, baby. Come back and talk to me.”
The wolf in front of me quiets but her lips stay curled. It's okay. She's going to shift, she just needs a minute to take back control. I step forward again, slowly, and reach out a hand, not to touch but to comfort. “Easy. I'm here. It's okay.”
She lunges at me and sinks her teeth into my forearm. She jerks her head, ripping skin and flesh and I clamp my jaws shut to keep from screaming. Screaming won't help this. “Stop,” I grit out as gently as I can. “Let go.”
She only releases her jaws enough to get a better, deeper hold before leaning hard and twisting and taking me to the ground. I roll with her. If she lands on top of me, she's going to either gut me or tear my face off. We roll a few times until I'm finally able to gain enough leverage to stop us with my body covering hers. She's a tangle of snapping teeth and ripping claws and every time I get a hold on one sharp bit, another comes at me. I keep saying silly shit likeyou have to stop nowandGenie, baby, stopbut she isn't stopping. She's not going to, either.
“Goddammit, stop,” I bark, throwing the strongest command I'm capable of into the words.
She stops moving.
Holy shit.
“Shift,” I command. “Now.”
Slowly, painstakingly, she shifts. It is completely unnerving to feel someone shift forms underneath of me. I feel every snap of tendon, every pop of bone as if it was my own. When it's over she looks up at me with the most horrible, lost look I've ever seen and starts to cry.
“Shh,” I hush, pushing her hair back from her face. “It's okay. It's okay. You're alright.”
“No,” she sobs. “I'm not. Let me go, Drew.”
I lean down and kiss her forehead and she cries harder.
“Just stop,” she sniffs. “Stop making it worse. Just let me go.”
I put my hands on either side of her and press my weight against her. I should probably feel at least a little guilty about the display of dominance, but I don't. “I can't. I'm not going to let you go, baby. Now or ever. You can be mad at me if you want to, but I'm never letting go. I need you to listen to me, okay?”
She shoves against me, but either she's exhausted or my command is still holding. “I'm tired of listening to you. I want to go home. I want this to be over.”
“I'll take you home, okay? I'll take you myself, but I'm staying there, too. Wherever you are is where I'll be. But I need to explain what happened back there. Can you please listen to me?”
She looks away from me but doesn't say anything else. So I start talking.
“About ten years ago, when Parker and I were still teenagers, people tried to hurt him. He's younger than I am, right?” I start moving my hands down her body, slowly and carefully, looking for damage as I talk. “Just a couple years, but that's enough sometimes. He was smaller too for a while. He was an easy target and people came after him because of me, or that's how it started. I don't know if you realize this or not, but Parker has a little bit of a shitty attitude sometimes and it has gotten him into trouble before. And because he and I had a relationship, other wolves assumed he was fair game and tried to take him from me. Romantically.”
She winces when I touch her upper arm and shoulder.
“Does that hurt?” I ask. “Right there?”
She nods.
“Okay. We'll get it looked at. So, there was this wolf from another pack. Billings.” Her lips curl into brand new snarl at the name. “Yeah,” I agree. “Exactly. He wanted Parker. He always wanted Parker. It had nothing to do with me. Well, Parker didn't want him and he made it very publicly clear that he didn't want him. Billings was embarrassed, naturally, but he was alsoangry. He and a few of his friends cornered Parker at one of the summits and tried to... hurt him. I got there just in time. If I had gotten there just a few moments later than I did, he would have taken Parker from me in every way possible. I attacked and did a good job of it. Billings and one of his guys ran away, but the other friend was all over Parker while I was fighting the other two. I pulled him off of Parker. I hurt him, Genie. I hurt him so bad. It took a few days, but he didn't survive. I don't feel bad about it. Not then and not now. But Billings has held onto that grudge and he tries to take it out on Parker.”
I shift my weight so I'm not so much pinning her down as I am laying with her. My body is still pressing into hers, but it's softer now, comfortable. She isn't trying to get away.
“That's all I could see for a minute when you brought him back,” I continue. “I saw him back then, small and overpowered. I saw the damage I did to the other wolf. I was so scared, baby. I couldn't see anything else. I'm so sorry. I should have seen you. I should have taken care of you. But I was so scared and stuck. It took a second for me to pull myself out of the memory. I'm so sorry.”
She's mostly stopped crying. She still has the snubs, but I think it's going to be okay. She takes a shuddering breath and allows herself to fully relax. “You should have seen me.”
“I should have,” I agree.
“I wanted him to be safe,” she says thickly. “They were hunting him. I tore Billings's ear off. I hate him.”
“Me too,” I say. “Fuck that guy.”
