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“I need to take a walk and clear my head,” I choke out.
I take a few steps away, trying to get my bearings. Every one of them moves as if to follow me, but I shake my head.
“Alone,” I clarify.
“It’s not safe,” Mason grinds out, ignoring my protest and fixing himself at my side.
“I won’t go far,” I promise. “But this is… It’s too much. I can’t breathe with all of you staring at me.” Willem and Ian exchange a sheepish look, but Mason still looks unmoved. I take a step, and he matches it.
I won’t leave the campsite, Mason, but you have to let me have a little space.I arch both of my eyebrows at him.
I can see the conflict as a range of emotions pass through his expressive eyes.Fine, he concedes finally.But the second I worry you’ve been gone too long, I’m coming to find you.
“Deal,” I tell him aloud. It doesn’t escape me that he doesn’t clarify the definition of too long, but I don’t call him on that.
He’s right that it’s not totally safe for me to be wandering alone. I can’t exactly be mad about his desire to protect me considering it’s all the protection besides myself that I have at the moment. And regardless of what else is going on here, Mason and Ian did scare off those other wolves following me last night. I really believe that part, at least, was genuine.
This time when I walk away, no one follows or protests or tries to ask me what’s wrong. They let me go, which feels a little bittersweet.
Are you nuts?My wolf urges me to turn around and go right back to them.Did you even get a good look at that new guy?
I rub at my temple and the headache building there. It’s getting hard to tune my wolf out as she goes on and on about every attractive quality she noticed in my newest mate. It doesn’t matter that we know nothing about him yet, she’s ready to jump right on board.
The more I’m stuck listening to her go on as I walk the length of the campsite, the more obvious it becomes that there’s no way the mate bonds aren’t real. I don’t know why I really even considered that it could be a possibility that they weren’t.
My wolf’s interest in the men can’t be faked. Her enthusiasm is the most genuine thing I’ve ever felt.
I’m not sure what Fate has planned for me, or why she deemed me worthy of multiple mates—or why she cursed me with a mate like Jakob first—but it’s my duty to find out. If I don’t figure out my own mate bonds, then I’ll never feel worthy of returning home.
Maybe I don’t agree with everything my mother believes about Cupid’s Pack, but I do know one thing. For a pack built on the concept of bonds and romantic love, I don’t have any experience with either.Thisis my opportunity to change that, and I realize now I should seize it with both hands and hang on for the ride.
My wolf settles smugly in my chest as she realizes I’m opening myself up to the possibilities of multiple mate bonds.Don’t get ahead of yourself,I warn her. Until I truly get to know these men, I don’t intend to mark anyone or let them mark me.
The mate bond isn’t solidified until at least one member of a bond has been marked. So long as my skin is free from the teeth marks of any of my mates, I have room to explore the potential.
And then I can decide if I’m ready for any of my mates.Or all of them, my wolf adds insistently.
I’m so lost in my own head that I miss the moment I step past the boundary of the campground—but there’s someone who doesn’t. All the air is knocked from my lungs as I’m yanked sideways. A harsh grip shoves my back against a thick tree, and my vision swims for a split second.
“You’re going to pay for making me chase you,” Jakob’s unwelcome voice bites out, his warm breath in my face making me turn my head in disgust.
Not all of them,my wolf concedes as a growl starts to build within me.Just most of them.
I curl my fists at my side, and even though I know better than to antagonize an angry, unpredictable man, I retort, “When a woman runs from you, you should really take the hint.”
“Do you think you’re cute?” Jakob shoves his forehead against mine, leaving me with no option to look anywhere but at him. “You’re the only thing standing in the way of me rising to Alpha. There’s nothing I won’t do to you to make you comply. I’d rather lose a week torturing you into submission than chasing you around fucking rogue territory.”
The venom in his voice is meant to scare me, but it has the opposite effect. I feel so angry that I’m vibrating with it as I raise my hand and slap him as hard across the face as I can manage in close quarters.
The resounding crack bounces off the trees and echoes around us.
Jakob’s face turns a deep red. “Your daddy should have taught you some fucking manners.”
The words burn worse than the pain as Jakob grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me by it, storming several feet away, leading me by the fistful of hair like a caveman. He stops in a muddy patch of ground and moves his hand to the back of my neck, shoving me down hard and unexpectedly enough to send me face-first toward the ground.
I barely catch myself before I end up with a face full of mud. My palms slip on the wet surface for a moment before I get purchase on my hands and knees.
My left knee throbs from the impact, only serving to heighten my anger. Jakob laughs as he stares down at me in the mud; he really seems to think that a little mud is enough to assert his dominance over me.
