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She waited for a feeling of triumph and vindication. He’d done much worse to her. But all she felt was a little sick and a lot mean.
“Open the wards,” she shouted. She couldn’t even repeat her threat to take his wolf.
“I can’t!”
The stick dropped from Goldie’s suddenly nerveless fingers. What if he was telling the truth? He couldn’t open them, not because he didn’t want to, but because he wasn’t the one who closed them.
“What did you do to my boy?” the question came from impossibly close, and Goldie spun to see a familiar older man standing at the edge of her circle.
Nathan stood in overalls, his salt and pepper hair sticking up in wild strands.
He lunged forward but stopped short of the line.
Goldie swallowed. A meaningless circle in the dirt was the only thing standing between her and an incensed wolf.
“You,” she whispered. “You closed them.”
The quick grin on his face told her she was right.
“So open them again.”
He shook his head once. “Too dangerous.” His sing-song voice was teasing her, and she wanted to hit him.
“Pa, she said she’d take the wolf!” a small cry came from inside the trailer.
“She can’t do that, you idiot.”
Goldie clenched her fists. “Can’t I?”
He leaned forward. “You harm a hair on his head, and that’s the end of you.” He seemed to come to himself and took a deliberate step back. “But you wouldn’t do that. Nice girl like you.”
Goldie almost smiled, recalling Aiden’s words about how nice she wasn’t.
“Best come home with me,” he said with a leer. “The one you’re shacking up with is defective.”
Indignation and rage choked her at his presumption and his arrogance.
And his calculation.
He hadn’t closed the wards because he was afraid of her family. He’d closed the wards to keep her in.
She’d been telling herself this whole situation was just teenage shenanigans, but it didn’t feel like teenage shenanigans. They bashed her on the head, put her on a horse, and hauled her away. When she had a chance to escape, they locked the wards on her.
“It was you. You were there in the woods. This was your plan.”
Again, that grin flashed before he schooled his face. He was so pleased with himself. “We expected to have more. The idiots hesitated, but I’ll take you.”
Revulsion swept through her, but she was careful to keep it off her face. She made her living negotiating, and you didn’t get what you wanted by letting your face telegraph every thought and feeling.
He swung his hands wide. “Look, I understand you need time to get to know me. I’m not even gonna mention Buck or the half-breed submissive you went for first. We can take it slow. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
Her temper flared. “I will give you five seconds to open those wards before I choke the life out of your wolf. You’re a disgrace to your pack.” She got in his face—and stepped out of her circle.
Her meaningless circle in the dirt had no power to protect her at all, except in this lunatic’s mind.
He lunged for her, and Buck screamed from the trailer.
Before he could get a fingertip on her, she was flying back toward the trailer as a dark beast put himself between her and Nathan.
