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“My dad, the man who raised me, is William Summers, the leader of the shifter-hunting faction.”
The world fell out from under me as I watched this beautiful wolf, my mate, stare at me with trepidation. I finally grasped that she was expecting me to kick her out of my bed, out of my home, out of my town. It killed me that she believed I would do that, but what other reasoning would she have? Her only family had cast her aside and hunted her because she was a shifter. Why wouldn’t she believe that I’d force her out as well?
My wolf and I wanted to weep for the lost girl beside me. She’d been raised by the very man who now hunted her. No wonder she was afraid of bringing danger to the town. What father, real or not, wouldn’t do everything to find his child? It didn’t matter if it was out of love or spite. William wouldn’t give up.
“He’s the one hunting me,” she said. “Things got personal for him after a shifter killed my mother. He went off the deep end and turned into someone I didn’t recognize. He has this vicious, vengeful vendetta against shifters.
“The day after my mother’s funeral, he pulled Kyle out of college and took me out of high school, sold the house and all our belongings, and moved us to the hunter base—the same one where you were held. I went to a hunter school there with Kyle, where we started training as hunters. My dad told us everything. All my life, I’d been sheltered from the reality of the world, and then a monster killed my mom and everything changed. If my father wasn’t speaking about training, he was telling us we had to kill all the monsters. We had to get vengeance for our mother. That was our duty, our mission, our sole purpose.
“It never dawned on me that I wasn’t his child, not until Elliot Elkins mentioned another shifter being my biological dad. My father must have realized I wasn’t his child once I shifted. He’s had the hunters hot on my tail for the last four years. He never gives up. I’m terrified of what he’ll do if he ever catches me because he doesn’t see me as his daughter. Not anymore. To him, I’m another monster who has to pay for my mother’s death.”
I listened to her sad tale and how disengaged she sounded, trying to separate her emotions from her words. Despite her emotionless tone, her eyes were wild with fear. The dichotomy broke my heart.
Now that I knew her background, I understood her better. It explained why the hunters were after her specifically. Before, I couldn’t figure out why they’d waste so many resources on her when they could’ve easily captured other shifters.
I put my arms around her, rocking her back and forth, trying to soothe her in any way I could.
“How old were you when you shifted?” I’d been dying to ask, but it was a personal question, especially for somebody like her.
“Seventeen.”
Not wanting to voice my hatred for her father and brother, I bit my tongue. My upset feelings wouldn’t do her any good, but I wanted to have a few words with William Summers. Tori had practically been a child when she’d run; she’d known what the hunters were capable of. What made it even more frightening was that she was running from her family, the very people who should have offered her comfort and protection. She’d had nothing but the clothes on her back.
Except she told me she’d run straight after shifting, so she hadn’t had clothes on her back.
“I thought my brother and father hated me, especially after what Kyle said to me when he found me in the hospital.” Tori extricated herself from my arms. “But I think you might be right about Kyle. He might not hate me the way I thought he did. Like you said, he’s concerned about me. He didn’t really bring up my shifting, but he asked if I’d prefer to be rid of my wolf. Crazy, right?”
A ringing sounded in my ears. Be rid of her wolf? I now knew what Kyle meant by that. The fear of something happening to my mate had me shaking in fury. A sheen of red coated my vision.
Tori’s brow furrowed with concern. “What’s wrong?”
I told her about Zander, despising myself for adding yet another worry to her already full plate.
“Zander’s human? He’s no longer a wolf?” Tori asked breathlessly.
Nodding, I stroked her arm. “When we were held captive, I heard Kyle mention a woman named Giselle. I think she’s a dark witch. Does that name sound familiar to you?”
Tori’s eyes moved back and forth in contemplation, then she said, “No, it doesn’t ring a bell.”
“She’s used magic to somehow separate the shifter from their wolf. It explains all the magic symbols we found Zander doused in and painted all over that room.”
I gave Tori time to process. I’d had plenty of time to let the information sink in after leaving the hospital; I could afford to shut my mouth and give Tori some to do the same.
“So, it’s possible there’s a cure for shifting?”
I growled. “It’s not acure. Shifting isn’t a disease. What they’re doing is unnatural, and I can’t explain why, but my instincts tell me this is bad. I’m worried about Zander. Who knows what’s going to happen to him? I told the doctor to keep him under close observation until we get some answers.”
Tori licked her lips. Since I could read her so well now, I knew she was weighing her words. “Maybe it’s a good thing if shifters had a choice about whether or not they want to have an inner wolf in the first place. If I’d had a choice after I first shifted, I would’ve absolutely separated myself from my wolf. I wanted to be human, Ridge. I thought my wolf was a monster, and I didn’t want anything to do with it.”
Fear raked up my spine, forcing my wolf to awaken to his full strength. It took everything in me to keep him in check. He wanted to claim her there and then so we could track her and know exactly what was going on with her at all times.
The idea of her being human had me trembling. As fated mates, we would no longer have that connection if she wasn’t a shifter. I’d lose her before I’d even officially had her. That was unacceptable.
While I hadn’t been actively searching for my fated mate when meeting Tori, I’d always known there was a possibility that she existed. All my life, I’d wished I could find her, but I’d focused on fixing my ancestors’ mistakes instead of pining for her. I secretly knew that the universe would bring her to me when it was time, because we were fated to be together.
Now that Tori was mine and we’d spent so much time together, I’d do anything and everything to keep her and make her see how real it all was between us—none of this curing-shifter bullshit. Once we officially claimed each other, the fated mate connection would be unlike anything else. She’d see how magical and rare it was, and that she was lucky to have been blessed with it.
I desperately wanted that connection with Tori. It was all I thought about, even with everything else going on. The only surety was knowing I had my fated mate, and soon we’d have it all. The possibility of losing all of that—losing her—put me and my wolf in fight-or-flight mode. I wasn’t above kidnapping and taking her far away until our bond was sealed and she could never leave me.
