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Niamh whirled around toward him, prepared to attack no matter what he shifted into. Instead, she found herself looking at Olcan and his brothers.CHAPTER TWENTY-TWOOlcan
“YOU CAN SHIFT BACK, Niamh,” Olcan told her, but she didn’t. Instead, she stood there, looking at him through eyes that revealed just how terrified she was, even in bear form. “No one is going to hurt you. I promise you that.”
She still did not shift, instead standing her ground, growling at the circle of men gathered around them. There was no way she could fight her way out of this, not with three Alpha bears and a half dozen shifters of some unknown sort surrounding her, but he had a feeling that she’d not be going down without a fight. Of course, they weren’t here to hurt her, but how could she possibly believe that at this point?
Instead, Olcan walked toward her, stretching out his hand as she backed up a step and watched him, her eyes darting back and forth between him and the men around him. He attempted to make physical contact with her, stroke the fur on her face to show her he meant her no harm, but she lunged at him, snapping at his hand, and making contact with one side. He jerked it back, looking at the blood that now flowed down his arm with slight amusement.
“Olcan . . .” Niall began, but he cut him off, raising the bloodied head up to quiet his protest.
“No one here is going to hurt you, Niamh,” he repeated. “If that is what we were here to do, we’d not need you to shift. You know that. I just need to talk to you, and I can’t do that if you stay in bear form.”
Finally, she gave in. He watched as she shifted back into human form, everyone in the room looking away as she stood naked in the middle of them. Niall grabbed something off a shelf beside him and tossed it to her. She wrapped it around herself, revealing that it was a checkered tablecloth.
“Thanks, guys, I owe you one. If you could leave us alone here for a few, I’d appreciate it,” Olcan told them.
Everyone filed out, including his brothers, leaving just him and Niamh. She watched him through defeated eyes, waiting for him to say something he supposed. Instead, he walked toward her and pulled her to him, holding her tightly against his chest. She began sobbing, and he didn’t try to stop her or say anything. He just let her get it out for a bit before pulling away to dab away the tears that remained.
Lifting her chin, he kissed her, welcoming the familiarity of her lips. She didn’t try to stop him, instead leaning into him as they lingered there as one collective soul that had been rejoined after a horrible separation. Finally, he pulled away again and looked down at her.
“You’re safe, Niamh. I will keep you that way.”
“You hate me. Your clan hates me. What I did . . .” her voice trailed off.
“What you did was what any woman would have done to try to avoid what they’d intended for you. I was angry, but I realize that I was wrong to send you away. I almost lost you, and I won’t do that again. I love you, Niamh. My clan will see things in time; some do already.”
“I love you too, Olcan, but he will never stop coming for me. I don’t know how you found me, how you got me away from his people, but he will keep coming for me and he will keep coming for you. Sorley won’t let anyone stand in his way. You know that as well as I do.”
“Perhaps, but he won’t succeed. He got wind that we were looking for you and stepped up his game. He sent humans to do a shifter’s job, thinking we wouldn’t be able to locate you before he got you out of the country, but we did, and now he’ll never get to you again.”
“But how? How did you find me? They took my phone when they sedated me.”
“No. Carter tracked you on it even after they took you. They took you in a van and we went after that, but they shifted you off to an old delivery truck. When we discovered you weren’t in the van, we tried to get them to talk, but they chose not to. Carter pulled the signal again and found it moving along in a pup truck that was well in front of us. I called in a favor from my buddy Griffin and his pack buddies.”
“Griffin? That’s the American that was in here?”
“No. Those are some of his friends.”
“Pack? Pack of what? I don’t recognize their scent.”
“Wolves.”
She nodded, looking a little more relieved but no doubt still having a lot on her mind.
