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In the opposite direction from which I’d been running earlier. That rained on my parade a bit. He would have won either way, since my wolf and I apparently lacked navigational instincts. Go figure. Now I was belted into the passenger seat of his truck, barefoot and wearing his extra pair of basketball shorts and Wolf’s T-shirt.
“Where are we going?” I asked, watching the scenery fly by. The forest was steadily coming alive beneath the rising sun. It was only a little past six in the morning. It was still early, but the drive back to town was a long one from where we’d started.
“The compound.”
I flinched at the name. Hunter didn’t miss my reaction and quickly amended his statement.
“Bad Wolf Club,” he said softer. “It’s hard to illustrate to someone who hasn’t been in the life, but it’s where we congregate. Hold parties and…sleep most of the time.” I didn’t miss the sudden stutter. What had he been about to say? “Wolf and I have a permanent residence on the grounds. We have a bunkhouse for members who want to stay overnight. They all have their own rooms and entertainment. We have a dining facility and a garage we work out of. Anything we could want, really.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. Hunter was holding something back from me about this “club.” He’d averted his eyes when he talked about sleep, and then again when he’d mentioned entertainment. My inner wolf growled. She didn’t like that he was keeping secrets.
The rest of the ride was spent with nothing but the crooning of the radio between us. Shouldn’t we be talking? Getting to know each other more? He knew my whole life story, but that didn’t mean he knew me. All he’d done was interrogate me about where I’d come from and what I knew, but never once did he bother to ask aboutme.
“What does your club do?” The silent tension between us was killing me.
Hunter shrugged nonchalantly. “Things.” My shoulders sagged slightly at the dismissive answer.
“What kind of things?” I pressed.
Another shrug. “Charity rides and whatnot.” Well, at least it wasn’t a one-word answer.
“How long have you been in the club?”
“Few years.”
Pressure built up in the back of my eyes as tears threatened to make themselves known. Why was I even bothering? Clearly, he’d gotten what he wanted from me. Answers and a quick fuck. My hand fluttered up to touch the bite mark that was hiddenbeneath the oversized shirt. He’d said we were mates, and my wolf agreed. She still agreed. I could feel her pawing for him in the back of my mind. Was he not interested in being my mate now that he had learned of my past?
Was I so dirty that he would forsake the bond so easily?
Sighing, I leaned back in the seat, head turned away so that I was staring out the window. He didn’t ask me what was wrong or if I needed anything. The rest of the drive was in absolute silence, and it took everything I had not to cry. If he’d lost interest in me, why was he taking me to his club? To torture me for more information? I didn’t have much else to give him.
Fuck. Why was I being so damn needy?
It was like I couldn’t help it. I’d learned early on that my parents didn’t care enough about me to ask about my life. They were too involved with theirs. My parents were always trying to better their social standing, and I wasn’t a part of that plan. It wasn’t until the day Damien forced himself on me that they even started to pay attention.
And not in the good way.
They’d encouraged his behavior. Had him and his family over for dinner and drinks where they’d ignore my pleas and cries for it to stop. It didn’t take me long to learn that Damien fed off those cries. My tears made him hard, and my pleas only served to spur him on. He wanted to hear me scream.
“Where’d you go?” Hunter’s concerned voice broke through the haze of nightmares that barraged my mind.
I didn’t bother to look at him. “Nowhere,” I told him. He looked as if he wanted to push for more, but one look at me, and he seemed to think better of it. If he wanted to play the one-word game, I could play right along with him. I might be his mate, but I wasn’t about to make it easy on him.
If he wanted me, he would have to earn me.
I was through being a pawn.
The ride to the club had been strained at best. The silence between us spoke volumes. Freya tried to engage me in conversation, but my mind had been wrapped up in all the information she’d given me, trying to decipher what it all meant. Everything was connected somehow. I knew it.
My succinct answers to her questions had stirred something in her, and I could see her shutting down like she had been before. This time it wasn’t out of fear of churning up the past, but what looked to be frustration. Then she’d gotten that faraway look I’d seen in the forest. The look she donned when she was dredging up a memory she’d rather forget. When I’d asked her about it, she gave me a simple one-word answer.
My wolf clawed at my insides when she’d refused to look at us. Instinct pressed me to push her for more, but one look at the sad, broken expression on her face held me at bay. How had our intimate moment in the woods come to such a quick end?
Freya perked up as we drove through town. The mess from two nights ago had already been cleaned up, and Granny’s café was back to its original shine.
“Can we stop and see Granny?” she asked, her gray eyes turned to me, shining with hope. How I wanted to say that we could, but there were other matters that needed to be taken care of first.
“Not right now,” I told her. “From what I’ve heard, she isn’t even awake yet.”
