AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We had to have a plan, a collective plan. Even if that meant Dean would have to swallow and digest his ego. I knew that once I told him that his mate was in real danger, he wouldn’t be able to deny the pull any longer.
Chapter Sixteen
Jillian
Creek and Shane hadn’t been around all day, but that wasn’t totally unusual. We all worked hard and sometimes didn’t see one another from after breakfast until dinner, but for some reason, today it was harder than usual. I had planned to go into the compound, but knowing how close Dean would be, and that I couldn’t go to him just made that too hard. So, instead, I decided to spend the day collecting some of the herbs and other plant matter Magda had requested.
I hung my new basket on my back, the one my mentor had shown me how to weave, and filled it with cotton bags I used to keep the various types of material separate. Then I set off into the late-spring forest. This was how I’d spent most days before my mates entered my life, and it was possible to pretend there was no angst disrupting my home, to be distracted by the bounty of nature.
At this time of year, there were so many things I wanted to collect. I had a list, which I consulted as I moved through the trees and underbrush. I found some bonuses like porcini mushrooms that we could use for our dinner. Not so many that I’d take them in for the whole pack, but sometimes what I found was for us. Dean loved mushrooms, and always ate as many as I brought home. I’d sauté them in a little butter and add chopped parsley from the garden and…
No! I’d avoided the compound just to keep my mind off him, so I was not going to go there. We could enjoy the mushrooms perfectly well without someone who didn’t want to be with us. But why didn’t he? He’d come all the way back here only to live in the dorms and avoid us? An ache in my chest never quite went away at the thought that I could turn and run in the opposite direction and find him.
If he saw me…could he tell me to go? To leave him be? Everyone seemed to think I should let him come to me on his own terms, but “everyone” wasn’t having nightmares every night about a mate who didn’t want to come home. “Everyone” didn’t have a wolf howling for her mate.
“Well, now, if it isn’t just the lady I was looking for.” I froze, squeezed my eyes shut, and whispered a prayer that I’d imagined the voice. “Callista, don’t you think it’s time you came home where you belong?”
No such luck. Opening my eyes, I found myself staring at one of the creeps who’d been haunting our lands. I’d conveniently forgotten that the alpha had warned against my being in the woods alone. So while, yes, the alpha would protect me, I’d have to answer for my bad choice as well.
“Aren’t you glad to see me, Callista? I’ve come far for you.”
Why was he calling me that? I took a step back, trying to get enough distance between us to either run or, best-case scenario, shift and get away as a wolf. The intruder could do the same, but I was known to be very fast when furry, and I was more familiar with this forest than he would be. I’d spent most of my days out here until recently.
He followed me as I tried to move away, matching me step for step, and minute by minute, I felt my chance to escape slipping away. Finally, I stumbled over an exposed root and fell on my bottom. The heavily bearded man with dark, glittering eyes loomed over me. “Don’t you look fetching down there. Before I take you where you belong, why don’t you just lie back and we can have a little fun?” He reached for his belt and unbuckled it. “I think that’s a great idea.”
Well, he would, since it was his lame-brain idea. I spat at him, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the ability to spit far enough to reach him at this angle.
“Is that any way to treat one of your loyal subjects? I suppose you prefer those common wolves you lie under every night.” He yanked the belt free of its loops. “I guess I’ll just have to use this to make sure you don’t wander off while I show you what a real man is like. What you’ve been missing out on. Put your wrists together now, like a good girl.”
He outweighed me by two to one. And he had the muscular structure of a wolf shifter. My heart hammered, and my breath whooshed in my ears. My terrified gaze flicked left and right.
His chuckle was oily and slimy at the same time. “You’d love to sic those mates of yours on me.” He was grabbing for my wrists now, and I kicked at his knees, but he managed to avoid my blow. “Darlin’, if you keep this up, only one of us is going to enjoy this. I’m giving you one more chance to let me bind those wrists then lie back and spread those legs, or I will…”
I scrambled back, coming up against the trunk of a tree, and he followed, dropping to his knees and managing to catch my forearms in one of his. Writhing and flailing, I tried to get away, but he wrapped the leather strip around my wrists anyway. He had one leg between mine and he tore at my shirt, sending buttons flying. The son of a bitch was going to rape me then kidnap me.
“You will what exactly?” Dean’s deep voice stopped my attacker and distracted him just long enough for me to get my knee up and slam him right where it would do the most good. His howl cut off as he was lifted off me and flung into a nearby tree trunk. Dean followed him, clothes shredding as he shifted into wolf form. Slavering jaws left no doubt of his intent, but the man scrambled to his feet and tore off into the forest.
The wolf bounded after him, and a moment later, I heard the shriek of someone who hadn’t had a chance to shift before my mate took retribution for his attack on me.
Dean came back a while later and sank to his haunches beside me. I buried my face in his thick fur and wept. My whiteboard was in my basket that had fallen from my back and lay across the clearing, but it wasn’t time for words anyway. I just cried until I ran out of tears, soaking his ruff, and wondering what this meant. Was he back? Or was he just doing what any male would do if he came across a female in my situation?
Chapter Seventeen
Was that blood on his coat?
When my tears cleared enough to see what lay before me, I noticed the sticky smears across the wolf’s muzzle and paws. Frantic, I searched through his fur, looking for gunshot or stab wounds, or maybe even bites, claw gouges if the other guy had managed to shift out of my view.
To my great relief, it seemed the blood was entirely that of his opponent. Had he killed him?
Since I hadn’t heard anyone stumbling away through the brush, it seemed likely. Also, because I just couldn’t imagine my mate letting someone who attacked me live. Standing up, I urged him with me, and we walked slowly to the waterfall. If he’d shifted back, the blood might or might not be there afterward, but I wanted it off of him. The man who had tried to rape me did not deserve to adorn the thick, beautiful fur of my mate.
I was pretty dirty myself, after being held down on the forest floor, so we splashed together in the clear, cold water. I rubbed his coat with sand to help rinse away the blood and dirt then when he was clean, he shifted back to two-legged, and we faced one another in the quiet pool behind the falls.
“Jillian, he will never trouble you again. I—” His eyes held so much pain, I couldn’t bear it. He would have to share what happened, and the alpha would require a report, but I didn’t want him to have to say it over and over. And especially not now. I had no means to write any words, but they weren’t necessary, either. His lips crashed down on mine, and a rare sound, a low moan, escaped my lips.
I’d missed him so much, and I tried to show him that, to put everything I felt in my kiss. I wasn’t sure if I got it all across, but when his tongue slipped between my lips to find mine, our bond snapped back into place as if there’d been no time lost between us at all. As if we’d never been apart, as if I hadn’t ached night after night, crying into my pillow when I thought my other mates were asleep.
He held me so tight, I was sure there would be fingerprints in my arms, my waist, my buttocks, but I didn’t care. I welcomed any touch he chose to give. My wolf was howling inside, her joy mingling with mine. It never occurred to me he’d leave again after this. How could he? His lips moved to my ear, and he sucked the lobe into his mouth, nibbling and playing for a moment before trailing down the side of my neck. His teeth grazed me there, right on his mark near my shoulder, a place that would always be only his.
