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A warm glow slowly distracted me from the way my heart had begun to race. She didn’t seem to notice my panic, just stuck out her hand. “Oh, I’m sorry, I have the worst manners. I’m Janie.”
“Amelia,” I answered, shaking her hand belatedly.
I’d assumed everyone in the King pack would hate me, like Stone. So I felt slightly dazed by her friendly chatter as we walked through the path in the woods, until she had to split away where the path forked.
“I’d better hurry home. My neighbor watches the baby so I can take Caleb to school and have some one-on-one time with him along the way. It was so nice meeting you! See you tomorrow!”
She swept away, and I stared after her. The casual way the pack seemed to look after each other—including each other’s kids—seemed incredible to me after being so alone. I’d only had my mom to help me, and that had come with so many strings attached.
The thought of running away and pulling Dylan away from his little friends and the school where he already seemed happy seemed, suddenly, like a sad one.
But I wasn’t safe here. I tried to conjure up the memory of Stone’s icy blue eyes watching me, of the nervousness I felt whenever he was nearby.
And yet, for some reason, I couldn’t summon the feeling of nervousness. When I pictured Stone, I imagined the thrill I felt when I was near him. He’d barely ever touched me, and yet when I remembered his hands on my body, the memory was flushed with heat and sudden desire. I’d been too afraid to feel that way at the time, and yet…
Although the path was quiet, just the sound of trees rustling in the breeze and the peace of the forest singing around me, a strange prickling sense ran up my spine.
I wasn’t alone.
My first impulse was to run wildly back to the safety of the King house and I kept walking, although the peace of the forest suddenly felt like suffocating isolation. If I ran, whoever was watching me would know I knew they were there.
Although maybe that didn’t matter.
I swung around to face the forest. “What do you want?”
My voice sounded too small and flat.
My gaze searched the trees until I thought I was losing my mind, and then suddenly, the glowing blue eyes of a wolf met mine through the underbrush. The wolf was big and dark and I could easily have tripped over him without seeing him in the shadows.
It looked like Stone in his wolf form. “Did you come back just to stalk me?”
I blinked, and the wolf was gone. I kept walking, but an unsettled feeling came over me. I wanted to ask Stone if he’d been the one watching me in the woods.
When I turned a corner, a stranger lingered on the path, as if he were waiting for me. What if the wolf was someone else from the pack, someone who had run ahead and shifted back into their human form?
He was short, with brown hair and an open, craggy face. His eyes lit with recognition as he saw me, and my heart sped up nervously. Behind me, I heard the faintest sound from the woods… a growl.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hi.” I wasn’t in the habit of talking to strangers after the last five years. I whipped around to look for the source of the growl, sure that the wolf was still watching me, but the wolf was gone.
He fell in alongside me. “You’re from the Longroad pack, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I used to have a friend there,” he mused. “Aiden. Do you know him?”
My heart swung open wildly at the mention of my brother. “Yes.”
He nodded, a smile coming to his lips, and stuck out his hand. “I thought so. Aiden told me about you. I’m Joshua.”
“Amelia.”
“How are you doing?” he asked, frowning. “Every time I see you, you’re with one of the King brothers. Are you okay?”
“Yes.” This entire conversation gave me a shivery feeling, as if I could get in trouble with Stone for even listening to a question likeare you okay?I didn’t want to give Stone any more reasons to distrust me.
He gave me a long look. “I know you’re not, but I understand. You have no reason to trust me. But I’m here, if you ever need any help. I work in the blacksmithing shop.”
