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“Tasha!” Lydia’s voice calls out cheerfully for me, interrupting the uncomfortable confrontation.
I turn my head automatically toward her voice, then realize my mistake in taking my eyes off my visitor. I whip my head around as fast as I can, but an empty garden greets me.
Hmph.My wolf, who’s grown more and more distant since losing Jimmy, decides to make an appearance. I wait for her to give me some kind of warning. My instincts were always so sharp before I lost my mate.
I can feel her interest piqued, but that huff is all she gives me. I glance further away at the woods behind my garden and wonder if my stalker is watching me.
I have to suppress a shiver as Lydia reaches me, panting as she holds out an outdated phone. “Sorry.” She sucks in a deep breath. “There was a situation near the south boundary. A rogue got a little too close for comfort, but it seems he just got turned around.”
Surely she doesn’t mean the shifter I just spoke to. He couldn’t have been there and here at the same time. Knowing multiple rogues are nearby only makes me more uneasy. What do they want?
I know without a doubt my stalker must be a rogue. This kind of thing would never be tolerated within a pack. Not coming onto another pack’s land without permission. And definitely not stalking. It’s just not the kind of thing that’s done.
Hmm.My wolf again. Feeling her barely stir hurts me down to my core. But at least she’s participating. Sometimes, a shifter’s wolf never stirs again after losing their mate.
I’m… one of the lucky ones.
I choke back a sob as I realize this might be all I ever get from my wolf again. My relationship to that half of me might be fractured for the rest of my life thanks to losing Jimmy.
Lydia’s eyes widen. “Oh my Goddess, are you okay?”
“I’m sorry.” I need to pull myself together and somehow make sure my moment of weakness doesn’t get back to Waverly. There’s no need to give her any more reason to think I can’t handle my position. “I’m just worried about my sister and looking forward to talking to her. We don’t usually go this long without speaking.” I force a smile onto my face and hope it passes as genuine.
“You don’t have to explain. There’s nothing wrong with missing the people you love.” She sounds almost rueful, as if she knows from experience, but I don’t want to pry by asking her about it. She pushes the phone into my hands since I still haven’t taken it. I wrap my fingers around it and keep a smile plastered on my face.
It must be good enough for Lydia—who has shown me far more kindness than Waverly—because she returns my smile and bounds off back toward the pack house.
I move my gaze from her to the woods. I’m not sure if I’m better off moving to safety, even if it means eavesdroppers, or if I should take my chances out here. At least my stalker was clear enough about his intentions. Everyone acts like they have my best interests at heart, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be convinced of that. Not when I perpetually feel like the outsider here.
Decision made, I move toward the stone bench at the edge of the garden and sit. Only then do I stare at the keypad and realize I can’t actually call my sister. We’re used to memorizing other shifters’ numbers since we don’t usually carry phones in wolf form and never know when an emergency could pop up. But my sister left her phone when she ran and found herself with Dominic. I haven’t had enough time to learn his number.
I bite my lip and move to the contacts in the phone, hoping maybe the Alphas are programmed in. Of course I’m not that lucky. A fresh wave of guilt makes my chest ache. I should know how to reach my sister. I know beating myself up won’t change anything, but I feel close to tears anyway.
And as if my dismay summons him, my stalker reappears.
I slap a hand over my chest as if I can will my heart to stop beating so erratically. “How do you move like that?” The words leave my mouth before I get the chance to think them through. I really shouldn’t keep engaging him. The last thing I want to do is encourage him to stick around long enough for him to potentially hurt me or anyone else.
“I’m fast.” His explanation is flat.
I’m used to my sister being so fast she outruns almost anyone, but her speed doesn’t extend to her human form. I can only imagine how fast this guy must run if he’s moving this fast in his slower form.
“You want to talk to your sister?” He nods at the phone with knowing eyes.
“Yeah.” There I go again, engaging him in spite of my better sense. It helps that I’m keen to know why he brought my sister up. Exactly how much does my stalker know about my family?
“You don’t have to look so suspicious. It’s just an easy guess. When I’m alone, my sister is the first one I want to talk to too.” He walks straight for me. Before I can react, he drops down to balance on his heels and gestures to the phone. “Can I?”
“No, I—“
My mouth snaps shut as he ignores my answer, tugging the phone from my hand. My whole body suddenly feels frozen. My instincts tell me to move, to get away from the stranger who is openly stalking me.
Play nice.My wolf’s tone drops low and teasing. What in the world is wrong with my wolf? Doesn’t she sense that this man is a danger?
It’s enough of a distraction that I don’t realize he dialed a number until my stalker turns the phone on speaker and balances it on the edge of my knee. I start to reach out to take it, but he shakes his head to stop me. And I’ve clearly passed up fight or flight and gone straight to freeze because I let my hand simply fall to my lap.
The phone rings a few times before the line clicks over. “Hello?”
“Dominic?” Hearing a familiar voice sends a rush of relief through me. Waverly’s given me so little information about my family since they summoned me here that I started to think something bad might have happened on the outside. “I want to talk to my sister.”
