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It hits me like a freight train, washing over me like a cold shower that I cannot ignore. For all the years my mom has spent glorifying the mate bond, the moment that I realize exactly what’s happening doesn’t feel good. Instead, it feels like being drenched in dread as my wolf stands on high alert.
“This is perfect.” The man doesn’t even look at me with interest. It’s almost like he looks past me as he reaches me, grabbing me by the arm and continuing on at the same pace. His grip is tight, fingers crushing around my bicep.
“Hey!” I shout, tugging backward in a fruitless attempt to free myself.
“Mr. MacKay, this is not appropriate,” my mom huffs in a winded voice. I try to twist myself to see her, but he jerks me around and continues to pull me away from the bell tower and toward the gates.Jakob MacKay,her bell tower appointment, is nothing short of a Neanderthal.
Being dragged along with this man only increases the uncomfortable feeling flooding through me. Luckily for me, I’ve spent plenty of time teaching traumatized shifters how to help themselves in situations like this. Instead of continuing to pull helplessly against him, I drop my weight, crumbling halfway to the ground.
Jakob MacKay only drags me a few steps before he realizes what I’ve done and stops with a scowl. “I’m in a hurry,” he growls.
Aggressive and rude.My wolf sniffs with disinterest. I thought the mate bond would plow into me, making my wolf instantly yearn to be marked the way everyone always talks about. Instead, my wolf feels defensive and on alert. I’m inclined to agree with her too.
How is this happening to me?
“Mr. MacKay.” Mom steps between him and me, looking nervously between the two of us. Anger roils gently in my belly—she looks nervous when this man seems hellbent on taking me against my will? “I told you my pack doesn’t take well to being confronted so callously. We can… sit down and talk about this bond like civilized shifters.”
He has the nerve to roll his eyes at my mom. I realize the anger I felt toward her seconds before was mere annoyance compared to the blood-boiling rage that courses through my veins when he says, “What do you say I let you keep the money and you mind your own business?”
My mom’s jaw drops as I push to my feet.
“I paid you to collect a mate for me, and instead I found my fated mate for myself. But we’ll call it a finder’s fee anyway, for the sake of you being the reason I came to this fucking place to begin with.” Jakob smirks and tries to reach for me again.
This time, I dodge him easily. I’ve been taking self-defense classes since I was four. Now that I see what this man is, he won’t catch me off guard again.
The smirk drops from his face as Jakob seems to take me in for the first time, from my pink hair down to my cropped T-shirt, black bondage shorts, all the way to my white Chelsea boots. “What the hell are you wearing?” He sneers, eyes narrowing as he shakes his head. “We’ll get you some proper clothes when we get to Red Ash. And some damn bleach. I guess you’d look okay blonde.”
My mom looks like she might be sick, but she doesn’t say a word in my defense.
Run, my wolf implores.We can run right now. This idiot will never catch us.Never before has my wolf reacted so vehemently to a person. Of course the first time would be with my fated mate.
Screw Fate. And screw Jakob MacKay.
“You’ll have to find your properly dressed blonde elsewhere, Mr. MacKay. I’m not interested.” I turn on my heel and take off running for the house. I’m prepared to shift if needed, but I don’t immediately hear anyone following me, so I stay in my human form, booking it away from the mega-jackass behind me.
“Quinn, honey, it’s okay!” Mom calls after me, and a shiver crawls down my spine. Nothing’s okay with this. “We just need to talk things out!”
There’s nothing to talk about here. I would rather throw myself off the top of the bell tower than ever let that man mark me,I scornfully tell her across mind link.
I don’t know what’s going on with my mom, but there’s not a conversation in the world that could convince me to give that man a chance. The fact that she still thinks I should means…
My stomach bottoms out with the thought, feet nearly slipping out from under me. I slow to keep from falling, but my mind reels.
I truly can’t trust her anymore.
THREE
QUINN
I pace my room restlessly, every creak of a floorboard in the house making me practically jump out of my skin. Even on high alert, Arielle still somehow manages to sneak in on me. She holds the key up as she slides through a small gap in the door, closing and locking it immediately behind her.
“Sorry.” She shrugs. As per usual, she doesn’t sound sorry at all. She has the decency to fake a pained frown as she slips the key into her pocket.
I force myself to stop pacing. “What’s going on down there?” I can hear the muffled voices of both Mom and Jakob, which means she still hasn’t sent him away. I can feel her trying to mind link me every few minutes, but my wolf is icing her out. I will never forgive her if she agrees to hand me over to this asshole.
“It’s bad.” Arielle grimaces as she slips further into the room, perching on the side of my bed. Her leg bounces, and she chews her nail for a moment before continuing, “That guy keeps demanding Mom just let him take you. He’s saying you’re his mate and that means you belong to him. Is it true?”
“The mate part is, but I’llneverbelong to that… thatasshole.” I grind my teeth together, trying to rein in my emotions. I’m trying to stay clear-headed, attempting to force my mind to spin through any and every scenario that could be a plausible solution to the asshole situation downstairs. But the longer I come up blank, the angrier I get.
