“What?”
His eyes were wild. His pupils were wrong somehow. She thought she saw his face ripple, as if the bones were struggling to reshape themselves.
“You think…you’re human… I’m being too rough… I can’t control…” He staggered back a step.
She forced herself back to reality. She was in the woods with a werewolf. Right outside a town full of werewolves. She was being held prisoner.
Just like when she was little, when her father flew into his rages and locked her and her mother in their room.
She scrabbled in her pocket and pulled out the canister of pepper spray she’d tucked in there that morning. She shoved him off her, pepper-sprayed his face, and ran blindly. Every cell in her body was screaming at her to go back. Cliff. She wanted him. Needed him. She—
An upturned root hooked her ankle, and she went sprawling, barely stifling a cry of pain.
As she slowly climbed back to her feet, she heard that leaf-crunching again – this time, through a thick wall of underbrush.
She crouched down and peered through a tiny gap in the brush. Cliff, in human form, was loping through a clearing between the towering pines – when suddenly a white wolf leaped over a fallen tree trunk and blocked his path. It was a much smaller wolf than Cliff’s had been, and somehow Taylor knew it was a female.
Something flared inside her – something deep and primal. She didn’t want the female to be near Cliff.
As she watched, the white wolf shuddered and shook itself – and turned into Shelley. Naked, and standing next to Cliff. Who was also naked.
Shelley.
So that was how Shelley knew Cliff, Taylor thought, with a sharp sting of hurt. She practically lived with him.
Shelley slowly started walking towards Cliff.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Cliff snapped at her.
Shelley flashed him a hurt look. “Cliff, honey, I came as soon as I heard. She tried to escape, Cliff! She wants to leave our property and tell everyone about us. She’s a danger to us all.”
Taylor only focused on one word.Honey?
Cliff’s lips curled back in a snarl.. “I did not invite you to be here today. It’s nowhere near the full moon. You should be in town, or at work.”
“Okay, sweetheart, whatever you say.” Shelley put extra emphasis on the wordsweetheart, and a smirk curled her lips. Taylor thought she saw Shelley’s gaze flick to the wall of underbrush that she was hiding behind. “I was just trying to help. When I heard that she was brought here today, I wanted to come and warn you about her. You don’t know her like I do. She’s mentally unstable. She put her poor ex-boyfriend through hell with all kinds of false accusations. Almost got him fired.”
False?Taylor thought furiously.He threw me against a wall!
“She bruised herself,” Shelly continued. “To frame him. I’ve seen her do it. I know she puts on a good front, but remember, I’ve worked with her every day for the past year. You just met her yesterday.”
“Bullshit.” A short, angry bark.
“She’s trying to escape and you’re actually trying to bring her back? Why waste your time? The Elders already took a vote and forbade the mating ceremony. I heard.” Shelley’s nasal whine made Taylor want to stab her. And somehow, hearing that she was forbidden to be with Cliff filled her with anger. Completely irrational anger. After all, she was trying to escape him. And he was a werewolf. Of course she couldn’t be with him. But what the hell was a mating ceremony? And why did it sound so incredibly sexy?
“They didn’t forbid it. They said it would have to wait until after the Alpha Trials,” Cliff growled at Shelley. He took a step back, and when she tried to follow him, he froze her on the spot with a ferocious glare.
“But, Cliff, baby…the Elders are going to be looking over everything you do. I’d make a much better choice of Alpha’s mate. She’s not just an unknown, she’s a danger. You and me were so good together, and—”“
Taylor couldn’t help herself. She sucked in a gasp of dismay.
Cliff glanced over at her hiding spot. “Taylor? Come out here! Now!”
Taylor considered ignoring him and just trying to make a run for it, but she saw James loping through the woods, heading her way. Cliff, James, Shelley…she’d never outrun them all. Hell, she probably couldn’t outrun any one of them.
Reluctantly, she pushed her way through the underbrush and walked over to Cliff, standing a good distance back from him.
“Don’t touch me,” she said bitterly. “Ever.”
