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This wasallherfault.
What would happen to Naomi after this? She had no damn idea—
Thump.At the sudden noise, she realized that she hadn’t woken up entirely by accident.Someone appeared in the entryway as she crept forward. Not an intruder. This man was painfully familiar, his shoulders hunched, his gray eyes glowing in the pale daylight.
Had he spent all night out in the fields again? It sure looked like it. He was barefoot, wearing another grungy pair of sweats. His gaze swept over her, then homed in on the still sleeping Micha.
His voice broke the silence barely louder than a whisper. “He touched you.”
The low observation made her heart flutter. There was no point in denying it. Surprisingly enough, he grimaced, his nostrils flaring. There was a line he could have voiced but never did.
I’ll break him. Destroy him. I’ll kill him.With a hard swallow, he seemed to bite those threats back. Why? Because whatever happened between them in the fields was a mistake. He regretted it.
“You’re starving.” His voice fell flat as he changed the subject and headed into the kitchen before Loren’s disappointment could fully resonate. “I’ll make you something to eat.”
Instead of fixing her a serving of tuna, he leaned against the center island, face in his hands. The sight pulled at something in her. Something that had her stumbling forward to the opposite side of the counter.
Once across from him, she couldn’t bring herself to speak, let alone touch him.
He didn’t acknowledge her, regardless. Didn’t even move—but when he released a heavy sigh, she knew that his next words were directed at her.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” he began in a voice that rumbled with exhaustion. “This isbad, Loren.” He withdrew his hand from his face, meeting her gaze. “You can’t evenbeginto understand how serious. I’ve broken about fifty unspoken rules by doing what I did. I’ve put you in danger. Naomi…”
“You couldn’t let her die,” Loren whispered. “You couldn’t just—”
“Ishouldhave.” His tone was brutally frank. Honest. “You haveno ideahow hard life will be for her after this. She isn’t like you—madesaren’t entitled to the same status in a pack as a born lycan. They must earn their way in. Usually, their only chance is to be accepted by the pack of the wolf that originally bit them.”
And it went without saying that wasn’t an option in Naomi’s case.
“Fuck… I should have let her die.” His tone was cold, devoid of emotion.
“No!” Loren didn’t know what possessed her to reach out, grabbing his free hand with her own. His fingers were cold and slightly damp—but they automatically tightened around hers with a strength that made something flutter deep inside.
“You couldn’t just let her die,” she insisted.
He didn’t seem so sure, however. For a long minute, he watched her. Then he pulled himself to his full height. Loren didn’t even have time to react before she found herself gently steered around the center island until she stood directly in front of him.
Her pulse raced. Up close, he looked even worse. Exhaustion dripped from him in waves, or maybe it was just rainwater? He was drenched, his hair plastered to his forehead. Still, he had never smelled more like pine.Wild.
She inhaled him deeply, drawing strength from his presence. Now more than ever, she felt convinced that he had done the right thing. Not for her, or even Naomi—but forhim.
“You couldn’t let her die,” she insisted for the final time, voicing what she could sense through whatever invisible bond tethered them together. Like his anger, she was aware of something else lurking within him. An emotion he seemed determined to suppress.
Even if she hadn’t begged him to intervene…he might have done so anyway.
“W-what’s going to happen now?” she asked when he didn’t speak. Her eyes darted over to the living room. “Will she—”
“It could happen slow.” McGoven’s hoarseness threw her off. He sounded drained. “It could take months—years. Her body and mind will change, but by the time the lycan blood takes full effect, she’ll…be different. It could drive her insane. She’ll be dangerous.”
Loren winced. Naomi, sans claws, wasn’t a pretty picture. The thought of her being capable of turning into a wolf, evenhalfthe size of McGoven was…
“There is another way,” McGoven began carefully, but his tone had her stomach twisting into knots.
She glanced down to see that he still held her hand, and his grip tightened as if to make sure that—despite whatever he said next—she couldn’t pull away.
“H-How?”
He sighed. “Madesneed discipline; someone there to make sure they don’t fall out of line.”
