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“I don’t know,” McGoven admitted. He scanned the horizon, eyes narrowing as they passed over the trees in the distance. “But, it won’t be good. In fact…”
He faced her fully, and she sucked in a breath. Gone was the doubt. His eyes glittered through the darkness. “If you ask me, I should put you on a bus right now—one way—heading straight to some destination on the other side of the continent. You’d thank me in the long run.”
It was impossible to meet his gaze. Nervously, Loren inspected her hands instead. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, but you don’t have to keep making decisions for me. I’m eighteen.”
In her world, at least, that age counted for something.
“I know.” His tone threw her off, and she looked over to find him staring at the fields again. “I know.”
“Maybe you should come with me?” she suggested. Even she wasn’t sure if she was serious or making a joke. “You know, once Naomi tells the whole town that you turned her into a wolf.”
“She won’t.”
He sounded so damn confident. Loren couldn’t even find the strength to doubt him. “Why not?”
“Because I told her not to. Listen… By submitting to me, Naomi has accepted me as her Alpha—” She didn’t miss how he seemed to cringe at the word, but he soldiered on anyway. “Among our kind, the Alpha’s word is thelaw.If I told her to stay home tonight and say nothing to her parents, then she’ll stay home and say nothing to her parents. It shouldn’t cross her mind to disobey.”
Loren’s first instinct was to be skeptical. Then, she nodded. She knew firsthand the type of effect his voice could have.
“I want to know what you’re thinking,” he demanded.
She blinked, thrown again. “I think it sounds…”
“Like what? You can tell me.”
“Like a dictatorship.” Creepy on top of that. Having your thoughts and emotions decided for you? What kind of life was that?
McGoven nodded as if he fully expected her reaction. “It would to someone like you, who has grown up on the outside. To those of us within the pack, it’s the complete opposite. We look to the Alpha for everything from strength to protection, and in return, we accept their leadership. Not out of fear. Out of love. We function as a family, of sorts, where everyone has a role to play. There is mutual respect,” he insisted. “It’s a two-sided relationship, one based solely on trust. Not violence. Not aggression.”
“So, Naomi trustsyou?” Loren asked, skeptical of that.
McGoven grimaced. “She will. Eventually.”
“And…you’ll trust her?”
He made a sound in the back of his throat that could have been a laugh if it weren’t so strained. “I’ll have to. She’ll be my packmate. My family.”
Don’t like that,a part of Loren hissed. She flinched as something hot and prickly darted down her spine. Was that anger? Rage? Jealousy?
You should be jealous,some nasty part of her taunted.After all, they don’t wear clothing when they shift…
“You’re uncomfortable with the thought of me being so close to her.”
Loren jumped for several reasons. One was that he seemed to be reading her mind again. The second was that he had reached for her hand while she’d been distracted. In frustration, she must have dug her nails into her palms, because the pad of his thumb gently trailed across the width of it, causing her fingers to loosen their grip.
“I-It’s nothing,” she stammered.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” he replied, scolding. His gaze trailed her face with concern, while his thumb continued to caress her hand. “I know what you’re feeling. I’ve felt it too. It’s instinct, nothing to be ashamed of.”
He’d felt irritation because of Micha, she thought, her face hot. Desperate, she hunted for a change in topic. “It’s just that…why didn’t it work on me? Why didn’t I s-submit to you?”
You know why,that snarky, shadowy part of her huffed.We don’t submit to anyone. Even him.
“I’m not sure,” McGoven admitted, his thumb left her palm, and he just wound up holding her fingers instead, locked within his. “I think… That there is some part of you that doesn’t like being told what to do.”
Loren had to snicker at that—she couldn’t help it. Did“Turtle Girl”have a backbone all of a sudden? But when she thought of what happened in the field and the man from last night…
Suddenly, the thought wasn’t so funny.
