Page 290 of Knot What I Expected

Good.

Silent.

Focused.

Deadly.

Ahead of me, my mate walks toward the male who thinks he owns her.

Above us, a Dragon owns the sky.

Across the trail, a hybrid Bear stalks silently through the forest.

And hidden among the trees, the monster I spent most of my life fearing has finally found something worth unleashing him for.

My family.

Ethan of the Suicide Cliff Wake has absolutely no fucking idea what is closing in around him.

Chapter 30

Gabriella

I see him at the end of the trail.

Ethan.

For one terrible second, everything inside me forgets how to work.

My lungs. My legs. My fucking heart.

He’s standing there like a ghost from a life I thought I escaped, and suddenly the years between then and now collapse.

Ethan is tall and thin, all sharp angles and narrow shoulders. He isn’t powerful like my Alpha.

Not built like my Rowan.

Rowan is strength given flesh. Broad shoulders. Thick muscle. A body built to carry hoses up burning mountains, swing a Pulaski for hours, and hold me and my son like we are the most precious things he has ever touched.

Ethan has always been different.

Lean. Cold. Cruel.

Nasty.

The kind of male who never needed to be the strongest because he surrounded himself with males willing to hurt people for him.

My heart beats a fierce tattoo inside my chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The matebond burns beneath it.

Rowan.

I can’t see him. I can’t hear him. But he’s there.

I know he is.