“I wanted to find you.” I almost say nothing more, because of how stupid it sounds in my head, but I won’t let him chastise me further. “I figured you’d be where other shifters weren’t.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve deduced right.” His voice calms slightly. “We can build on that, after you learn some basics. Twenty fucking minutes following you….” He shakes his head. “You gave me so many opportunities to attack you.”
“You said I didn’t need stealth inside your pack’s territory. That I had the pack to protect me.”
“That was before I realized just how vulnerable you are. How bad your instincts are. Training won’t be easy, but you will learnenough to escape the enemy. I only have one condition. You will follow my rules. Out and inside my cabin.”
“And if I don’t?”
His lips tighten. “I guess you’ll do as you threatened earlier. Find another to train you.”
“I want you, Garrett.” Fuck. That came out wrong. “To train me. I want you to train me.”
“You agree to my rules?”
“Without knowing them?” I ask innocently.
He glares.
“Yes, fine. I agree.”
“You’ll stay with me. Training will go better without the distractions of pack around.” He takes a hard step closer until he’s mere inches from me. That heady scent of male musk threatens to turn my bones to jelly, but his glare sobers me.
“I’m not throwing idle words at you. As long as you stay in my cabin, you will keep your distance from me. If you can’t, then you’ll find another place to live, even if that means sending you to bunk with the other unmated females, where you belong.”
I advance on him, getting up in his face, that sensual musk no longer a distraction. “Don’t you dare tell me where I belong. Or better yet, take your own advice and be with your pack, Garrett.Yourpack. Not mine. You know them, you talk highly of them, but then you avoid them every chance you get. Maybe you should be taking some lessons from me.”
“What? How to socialize?” He laughs. “You avoid them as much as I do.”
“Because I’m an outsider here. Your pack doesn’t know me. They’re suspicious of me, my past, hell, everything. And I don’t blame them for that. It’s to be expected. That doesn’t make it any easier, but at least I’m trying. Unlike you.”
“I have my reasons.”
“Let me guess. Marla. Every move you make is because of your guilt over her.”
“That’s not true. Not any longer.”
I poke him in the chest. “Listen here, Garrett Black, I don’t know all the details of that day, but I know you weren’t even present when she was killed. From what I’ve learned, your packmates don’t blame you for her death. The only one who blames you isyou.”
“Stay out of it, Angelina.”
Fuck, I hate when he calls me that. It angers me. One look in his face, and I see that’s exactly what he’s trying to do. Anger me so I’ll be too mad to tempt him, too mad to do anything but train during the day and ignore him at night. He wants to play games? So be it…
“Marla was an adult. Whatever she did, was on her. You don’t get to blame yourself for her actions. She went out that day of her own accord. You’re doing her memory a disservice by wallowing in this guilt that doesn’t belong to you. And it’s affecting more than you, but you don’t see it.”
“I see it, more than you can understand.”
“I don’t think you do. Your alpha’s on edge around you. I used to think it’s because he’s wound tight, like most alphas, but I’ve caught glimpse of Damien around others in the pack. Yes, he’s the serious type, but he knows how to chill, too. Except around you. And now this guilt of yours is affecting me. You think I’m trying to seduce or use you. That’s not who I am. I like you, Garrett. I really like you. But if you don’t feel the same about me, that’s my problem, not yours. I can’t force you to like me. Quite frankly, I don’t want to be with a shifter who has no interest in me. It’s a one-sided relationship that can’t go anywhere.”
“Good, then we understand one another.” He turns away from me to end our little discussion, but my wolf and I aren’t going to be walked over, not by his pack, and certainly not by him.
I grab Garrett by his shirt, to keep him from walking away. “We can keep things professional between us, but don’t you daretry to shame me for my feelings just because you can’t own up to your own.”
“I’d never shame you, and you know it. But you tempt me, even when you’re not trying, and we both know that as well.”
With an exaggerated release of his shirt, I storm down the path toward camp where I may or may not still have a bed with my name on it. I’ll hold my head high as I enter the women’s cabin and take the first open bed I see, until the other women drag me from it. And if they do, I’ll knock on Tess’s door and pray Damien doesn’t answer. I can just envision it now… me standing there naked and pitiful, barely able to get the words out as I ask for a place to stay.
“Wrong way, shifter,” Garrett calls out.
