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“Too far.” She grasped his shoulders, standing on her tiptoes to close the distance between them. He pulled her close with a wolfy growl, and their lips met as their bodies touched. Everything inside her turned to liquid heat as he drew her even closer, pulling her against him, his erection trapped between them. She wanted to touch him everywhere at once, but she couldn’t stop holding on, afraid he would vanish, and she’d wake up and find it was all a dream.
He tasted as good as he smelled, and every time he chased her tongue with his own she found herself falling further into the spicy scent of him. Adam growled in warning as he lifted from her lips.
Row’s voice echoed behind her. “Let my sister go.”
Dani, still breathless from Adam’s amazing kiss, rolled her eyes and said, “Go away, Row.”
“Dani,” Row snarled, “come to me. We have a journey ahead of us.”
Adam growled darkly, his grip tightening on Dani possessively. “Mine.”
Dani looked at Adam and saw he was furious, ready to kill. She didn’t want Row to be hurt, or for Row to try to hurt Adam. “It’s okay, Adam,” she whispered. “That’s my brother.”
She pressed herself to Adam’s side, wrapping her arms around his waist and holding him tightly. She saw that Row was holding a female behind his back, and she heard the woman say softly, “Please don’t hurt my friend.”
Row’s growl cut off abruptly, and he straightened from his defensive stance. He glared at Dani and Adam. “You’re my responsibility. I promised our mother that I would take you to your people.”
“What if we get out of the woods and talk?” Dani suggested, trying to be helpful. “Adam isn’t going to let me go, Row. No more than you’re going to let that female behind you go. My name is Dancer, by the way, but everyone calls me Dani,” she added to the other woman.
The female giggled softly and leaned around Row to smile at Dani. “I’m Kammie. I’m not sure where we are exactly, but maybe Adam’s house is close? My apartment is on the other side of town, and I really don’t want to traipse naked through the streets.”
Dani laughed. “Me either. Adam?”
“My house is about a half mile that way,” Adam said, jerking his head to the right.
“You might have mentioned your house was nearby, instead of letting me molest you in the woods,” Dani said, chuckling as she tweaked Adam’s side.
“I had no blood left in my brain,” Adam said.
Row made a disgusted sound. “She’s my sister, man.”
“Sorry,” Adam said, not sounding one bit sorry. He swung Dani into his arms and began to walk, not seeming to care if the others followed them. Dani looked over Adam’s shoulder and saw Row pick up Kammie and fall into step behind Adam.
“We should talk,” Dani said, resting her cheek on Adam’s shoulder.
“We will, sweetheart,” he replied. He limped slightly as he walked, and she could guess that the burn scars she’d felt under her fingertips had somehow messed up his leg as well. She wasn’t about to ask him to put her down to let her walk on her own, though. She’d only just met him, but she had a feeling that her mate was a proud male who wouldn’t want her to question his ability to take care of her. And she had no doubt he could, and would, take good care of her for the rest of their lives. He’d held her close and growled fiercely when they’d been interrupted. He was ready to defend her against anything—that much she was sure of.
“It’s sexy when you growl,” she whispered, kissing his cheek.
He chuckled. “I’m glad you like it. I kind of can’t control it around you. My wolf is doing backflips right now because we’re so happy to have found you.”
“You don’t mind having prey for a mate?” As a reindeer, which were traditionally thought of as preyanimals, she wondered if he would be embarrassed by her. Some shifters, especially the serious hunters like wolves, tended to think of prey shifters as inferior.
“Hell no,” he said vehemently. “I couldn’t care less what you shift into. You’re mine, Dani. I’m never letting you go.”
Everything changed for her in that moment. She didn’t want to keep going on her journey to meet her people; she wanted to stay with Adam.Hewas her people now.
“I don’t want you to let me go.”
He glanced down at her as he stepped up onto his porch. “Good.”
He pushed the front door open and carried her straight through a dark living room and into a bedroom. He set her gently on the bed and reached over to click on a small lamp, bathing the room in low light.
He straightened and stared down at her, his body tense and flexed as if he was stressed. She let her gaze roam his body. The left side of his body was mottled and shiny with burn scars. They formed thin stripes from his neck down to his knee and seemed worse on his torso.
Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked rapidly as she met his gaze. “Do they hurt?”
He relaxed slightly and cupped her face with one hand. “My leg hurts because the muscles were damaged by the fire. I was too young to shift and heal myself.”
