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He ran for freedom.
No, he ran to a new prison.
17
Aiden shifted back to human outside Harpers Ferry while he still could. Goldie’s influence dampened the wolf just enough to change forms. Then he ran like hell.
He had to get back inside his house before anything sparked the beast’s hunting instinct. Without a horse, his wolf, or any vehicle, it was a long and tedious run, each step in time with a drumbeat of recrimination and regret.
He didn’t know whether it was the wolf or his human half insisting they turn around.
The only thing that kept him going was that none of his arguments could change reality. He knew when he walked away that he was abandoning the best thing to happen to him. He knew she was the love of his life, his pack mate, and the other half of his soul, not to mention the only person on earth who could control his wolf—including him.
He also knew the reverse wasn’t true. He could not be to her what she was to him. She granted him peace, and in return, he offered nothing but violence. She transformed his lonely existence into one of passion and connection, and in return, his family knocked her unconscious every chance they got. Sheopened the world to him, and all he offered her was an eccentric house in the woods. He loved her enough not to do that to her, so he didn’t turn around.
Hours into the night, barefoot and freezing, he climbed the stairs to his porch where the wards would keep his wolf contained so that Goldie would not have to.
Except, when he touched the doorknob, he realized the wards were gone.
His heart rate tripled as he stood frozen on his threshold, a completely ordinary bit of wood that was all that stood between his wolf and the world. He stepped inside and shut the door with an ember of hope, but nothing changed. His house was just a house and not a prison, and he had never felt more vulnerable in his life.
He knew Goldie had ripped down the exterior wards. She could not have left the land with him if she hadn’t. The details were fuzzy. He’d been losing a lot of blood and consigning himself to death at the time.
He’d had no idea until now that his mother had tied the wards of his house to the wards of the land, but all of them were gone.
The beast was quiet, mourning its mate for now. But sometime soon—probably in a matter of hours—Aiden would lose focus, get tired, blink, or sneeze, and it would be free with nothing to stop it.
His wolf perked up, and he cursed. There was no hiding this from it; he couldn’t bluff his own wolf.
He paused. He couldn’t bluff his wolf withmagic.
He stood in the foyer, remembering Goldie’s booby traps. He’d been thinking like a witch, relying on magic to stop a wolf, but that wasn’t all he was.
He ran for the kitchen.
>>
Aiden woke in his fur with his teeth embedded in the windowsill of his dining room. He nearly collapsed in relief.
He could see claw and teeth marks on the wood, but the chain-link fencing they used to protect the horses had held across the window. The beast snarled at him, demanding freedom, blood, and its mate.
He tried to keep the smugness out of his voice as he thought,No way, dude.
The beast stalked into the foyer and nearly collapsed when an air horn went off inches from its sensitive ears. It scrambled back toward the stairs, ears ringing.
Do not try the back door,he told it sternly.
Aiden had put two cans of bear spray across that entrance. It worked just fine on wolves as well, but the stench would never leave their fur if his wolf triggered them.
We never did get that steak,Aiden said tentatively, and his beast snapped its jaws.
It backed up to stand in the now-empty dining room. The table was on its way to Harpers Ferry and to her. He couldn’t even summon her name without flinching. He stubbornly thought of all the food in the fridge, trying to tempt the beast. It ignored him.
I’m gonna have to get some writing done at some point.
The beast snapped again. It didn’t want to leave its post at the dining-room window, the biggest one in the house overlooking the front porch.
Why not?
