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She didn’t immediately respond. She continued to stare at me, those will-o’-the-wisp eyes spearing right through my soul. My hands clenched and unclenched as I waited for some kind of response. Did this woman see something familiar in me too? If so, did that mean that we’d shared all of those intimate dreams? I didn’t know how I felt about that.
The woman’s tears continued to fall, dripping from her chin to the ground, but her gaze never wavered from mine. The longer we looked at each other, the more I realized that I saw something darker and older than just fear in her expression. It was something I recognized in myself, something I’d felt more than once when I was just a teenager, before I took over the Wargs pack.
Back then, every day had been a struggle. The previous Alpha was lazy and preferred to let my pack waste away rather than trying to fight for resources. He would hog the better things for himself and leave my people with nothing. I was sick of watching my friends and my mom waste away to nothing just trying to get food on the table, and I’d finally felt strong enough to do something about it. Unlike me, this girl seemed to be at the mercy of an actual monster. She couldn’t fight back, not as she was. Whoever this girl was, she’d seen some shit, and it had left her scarred. Like I was scarred.
“Who are you?” I asked again, and my voice came more softly this time.
Hearing my voice again seemed to get her to snap out of it. Some of the shine returned to her eyes, but she remained silent. I watched her war with herself over how she ought to respond. Her only options were to scream for help or ask me to save her.
I ran my hand through my hair as she debated. I wanted to ask her more questions, but we hadn’t gotten past the first one. I wanted to know what the hell she was doing in the Alpha’s room, naked and all tied…up. I stopped. My eyes moved from the ropes to the red welt on her cheek. Realization hit me at a hundred miles per hour. Rage surged up within me, and my wolf snarled.
Troy, the sick fuck, was planning on taking advantage of this girl tonight. He probably wanted to use her to celebrate after he became Alpha. Whatever else he wanted to do to her could only get worse from there. I’d known that the women of the Kings’ pack were treated poorly, but this? This was foul.
Something yanked at my chest, and the need to save the woman overruled everything else—the challenge ceremony, my mission, and even the opportunity for victory. I couldn’t afford to think about any of those things while this woman was in such obvious danger. I needed to get her as far away from Troy as possible.
I glanced at the door. Troy could come in at any moment. I could take his life without thinking twice about it, but could I do it without risking harm to this woman? Could I get her out safely? Or should I leave her here and save her after the challenge ceremony had ended? When I became Alpha, I could make sure that anyone involved in her capture suffered dearly. But the idea of leaving her like this made my blood boil. I needed to come up with something better.
Fuck me. Why do I care about this random woman? The question echoed in my mind with no answer. I knew there was no logic behind it. Even stranger, I found that I didn’t need logic. She needed me, and that was all that mattered. Now, if I could just come up with my next move, I could stop acting like a sitting duck.
“Hey.” Though her voice was soft and hoarse from all the crying and yelling she must have done, it stopped everything for me. I turned my attention to her, ready and willing to do whatever she needed me to do. But her next words left me speechless.
“Who the hell are you?”
9
BRYN
I knew that this stranger had asked who I was, but given my current situation and the fact that this man had clearly broken in, I figured I was owed an answer first. As he considered how to answer, I tried to figure out what to do next.
I had never seen this man on the compound before, but those eyes were the same emerald green of the man who haunted my dreams. More than that, I knew exactly who he was from the photo that hung in the schoolhouse. There was no mistaking that hard jawline, those sharp cheekbones, or that thick hair as dark as the midnight sky, even in the dimness of the moonlight shining in through the window.
He didn’t look exactly like the photo. His shoulders had become much broader, his hair had been buzzed down on the sides while the top was left long, and he was much taller than I had imagined—he had at least a foot on me. But of course, there were the tattoos that peeked under the collar of his black, long-sleeved shirt. I had a better view of them than offered by the blurry picture in school; they appeared to be tribal tattoos intersecting with each other at his neck and shoulder and spreading down his right arm.
He was Night Shepherd, Alpha of the Wargs pack.
What the hell is he doing here? My mind raced to come up with some sort of explanation. It couldn’t have anything to do with me—no one knew I was there. And more than that, why was he looking at me like he knew me?
I opened my mouth to ask him these questions, but my voice died in my throat when he stepped closer to me. He was only a few inches away, and I could smell the scent of him. It was like pine and crushed wildflowers. He evoked memories of the forest in summertime—warmth and freshness and life. I wanted to lean closer to him, to get a better sniff, but my brain revolted against that impulse. This guy is from the Wargs! What the hell am I thinking?
I pulled at my restraints, my eyes widening as he leaned a few inches closer. Those eyes—how was it possible that they could be so green, so vibrant, and so full of danger? How could someone so gorgeous carry such a wild, terrifying energy about him?
“Who are you?” I demanded again, surprised when my voice didn’t waver.
He tilted his head at my question, the way an animal would when listening to a new sound. He grunted in reply and moved even closer. The ropes strained as I recoiled. Practically naked, I was in such a compromised position—at the mercy of yet another Alpha male.
“No, who are you?” Night’s voice was gruff and yet so smooth—the timbre of thunder. “And what are you doing here?”
I swallowed hard, but I didn’t look away; I couldn’t even if I wanted to—the jewel green of his eyes wouldn’t let mine go. “Because of Troy,” I replied. “He put me here.”
“That much is obvious,” he said. “His scent is all over this place. I’m asking why?”
I clenched my hands against a deep shudder. “He said he—” I stopped as tears spilled onto my cheeks. My hands clenched tighter, so tight I felt my nails digging into my palms. “He said he plans to rape me and keep me as his slave.”
Memories of Troy and that awful smirk flashed through my mind, and my blood rushed hard and fast in my veins. I hated him, hated that he’d put me in this position. He didn’t view me as a person, just as an object that he could use for his own pleasure, and it was infuriating that I was so powerless to stop him.
Night’s nostrils flared, and a deep growl emanated from his chest. He flashed his canines, slightly sharper than the average wolf’s in human form, and I felt something spark deep within me. That spark spread across my skin, making me feel warm and tingly all over. I’d felt this way before, but only in the warm darkness of the dreams I’d had of the stranger with the green eyes. Were those dreams about him? Night Shepherd?
No. No. I couldn’t get distracted. Now wasn’t the time for me to be thinking about the tension in his jaw, or the way his dark hair had fallen over his forehead, or those vibrantly green eyes…
