AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A white wolf charges between us, blocking Nathan.
I’ve never seen this wolf before, and I should have. Rylan would take me to the private land he owns for their weekly pack runs. Sometimes I’d just be the observer, but more often than not, I was the prey.
This is one wolf I would have remembered because there are no white wolves in Rylan’s pack.
He has his back to me as he snarls, a sound so thick with hate that I watch the impossible happen.
Nathan retreats a step, his smile falling away.
There’s no fear bleeding into his eyes because Nathan isn’t afraid of anything, but if he was, it would be this wolf.
“Saige? Saige?”
The world around me shatters.
I blink and Aden is leaning over me, brow creased with concern, his white shirt wrinkled as if he slept in it or hasn’t slept at all. The lines bracketing his eyes make me think it’s the second option rather than the first.
Because this is a bed that I’ve slept in often enough, I know where I am even if I have no memory of coming back here. His apartment.
I’m in sweats and a long-sleeve t-shirt that I don’t remember changing into, and with the sunlight creeping across the white sheets that cover me, it’s bright enough in the room for it to be early morning or close to it.
That isn’t all I know, either.
The white wolf was Kade.
He was protecting me from Nathan. Not just in my dream, but in the bar. In real life. Which means that Rylan lied about all shifters knowing I belong to him.
A second later, I realize Aden is talking to me.
“Are you okay? Is there anything you need? Water?”
I sit myself up. “I want you to go.”
“Saige, I won’t hurt you, there isn’t—”
“Please leave, or I will.” There’s no give in my voice because I can’t back down on this. I like Aden but he lied to me. And even if he hadn’t, Nathan has found me. It wouldn’t be safe for me to be anywhere near him.
He searches my face as if testing how serious I am, but when I do nothing but gaze back, he nods once. A short, sharp gesture. “Okay, I’ll go. Can we talk later? There’s a lot you need to know.”
“You mean like why you were hiding the fact the two co-owners of the bar are shifters?”
“Amongst other things.”
I look away.
After a moment, he rises from the edge of the bed and retreats to the door.
But before he can step out, I stop him. “Did you know?”
He turns back to face me. “Know what?”
I peer deep into his eyes. “That I was in trouble at the grocery store? Were you there to trap me?”
“Trap you?No.Why would you think that?”
He sounds so stunned that I know he can’t be lying. “Because of…” My voice trails off as I think of everything I believed. All thewrongthings I believed. Because of Rylan.
All this time, I believed that all shifters report to him, and if I ever managed to escape, any shifter who found me would take me back as soon as they learned who I belonged to. It’s why I only ever said his name in my head, never out loud. In case anyone heard.
