“Goodnight, Angelina.”
Angelina…
He grabs a sweater and leaves the cabin. No shoes, no explanation… nothing.
For a second, I stare at the door, wondering what the fuck just happened. Confusion morphs to anger. I won’t be looked down on—especially not by him.
I kick at the damn blankets until I free myself. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I can’t let him just walk away like that.
My wolf agrees. As soon as I open the door, I shift and dart out into the night, in search of him.
I can’t find his trail and scenting the wind proves useless. The wind, the pine needles, even the snow should have a scent, but it’s all so dull, as if someone took a picture and drained all the color, leaving nothing but black lines on a white piece of paper.
I don’t know what direction Garrett took, but I doubt he went toward the main camp. He avoids his packmates, only entering the heart of their pack when he’s called in by his alpha. Which doesn’t make sense. He’s good with people, knows how to talk to them, to relate. Even when he’s at odds with his alpha, he never seems to hold a grudge. What then, makes him avoid his pack?
For those few sweet hours after Garrett returned, I’d pushed Tiberius’s remarks aside. Now, they’re back—with a vengeance. Blaming me for those shifters that got left behind was shitty, buthe was right. And no amount of training with Garrett, nothing I will do in the future, will change that.
For over a month, I’ve stayed with his pack, focused on fitting in because that’s what Garrett suggested. I trusted him… still do. But he doesn’t see what Tiberius so clearly pointed out: this pack welcomes new shifters, sure, but they don’t forget—or forgive—easily.
And those shifters Garrett left behind? He sacrificed them, to save me. Does he think about them when he looks at me? That I’m the reason they were left behind?
My wolf wanders down a well-traveled path we’ve never taken before. I catch dozens of scent trails. Some belong to shifters I’ve met, others I don’t recognize. The scents lingering on the snow and trees are so faint, they must be days, if not weeks, old. No one’s traveled this way in some time. And yet my skin prickles and my wolf growls, low, with a hint of worry, as if she senses someone nearby.
When I turn back the way I came, I catch a scent that doesn’t belong. My brain is playing tricks on me. My wolf stops growling and her hackles relax, as if we’re among pack. I guess we are, to a certain extent, just notourpack. Then again,shedoesn’t need to figure out the complexities of a certain male shifter whom I can’t get out of my mind. She likes Garrett, and to her, that’s all that matters.
If only life were that simple.
That’s when moonlight bounces off an object in the dirt. I shift to human form, and pick up a hair clip with a pink bow half-buried in the snow. I brush it off, wondering who it belongs to.
A hand goes over my mouth and I’m dragged off the path, spun around, and pinned against a tree. My heart is racing, but I can’t scream. I don’t know if it’s fear or shock.
Bright teal eyes hold me.
“You have a lot to learn, Angelina.” Garrett pulls his hand away, and steps back.
“Why did you scare me like that? And why are you suddenly calling me Angelina?”
“It’s less personal.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening between us, Garrett.”
“Nothing’s happening between us. That’s the point. There is nous. I won’t enter your bed, I won’t let you seduce me with your scent, your sweet smile, the sway of your hips, or even your lousy cooking.”
“My cooking isn’t lousy.”
“There will be nothing between us, except a lot of training. Hard training. Tonight proved you need it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been following you for the last twenty minutes to test how attuned you are to your environment. You never caught my scent, even when you were downwind. You even went the wrong direction to return to the cabin. You have the instincts of a human.”
I wince at the insult. “There is no wrong direction out here.”
“Sure there is. Pack is safety. You veered away from the path, intentionally putting woods between yourself and the pack.”
“I caught a scent I thought I knew.”
“And that caused you to abandon the path?”
