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I pushed my plate to the side and leaned on my elbows. “There can be more than one alpha, and there can be hiccups with that. Especially here, where I run it as more of a town than a traditional pack, but that’s the only way it can really be done if we want to create a home and live among humans. Zander likes to make it more difficult because he likes to challenge me and constantly stir up trouble between the shifters and humans.”
When he’d appeared last night, I’d seen red. My wolf was a selfish bastard and wanted Tori all to himself. I’d been close to losing control of my wolf when Zander tackled Tori in a clearing and scented her. Thinking about it now made me growl and my wolf rage.
“Zander isn’t a good alpha. He doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions or the safety of other shifters and humans. He doesn’t have the respect of the other shifters, and that makes for a dangerous combination.”
Tori pursed her lips. “I’ll stay away from him. What happened next?”
I calmed my wolf down. If I lost control in front of her, she’d never trust me. “Zander found us and tackled you. It appeared mostly playful when he pinned you down, but with him, it’s never just playing. It pissed off my wolf, and I pulled him off you. Then shit got serious. I wasn’t expecting your wolf to jump in and attack Zander. She didn’t appreciate him interrupting us, either. That’s why we were covered in blood. Your feral counterpart battled it out with him.”
Tori bit her lower lip. I hated telling her, but she needed to understand exactly what it meant to go feral and how serious it was. Her wolf was small but fierce. She’d perceived Zander as a threat, and I’d had to intervene to stop her wolf from getting carried away and accidentally killing Zander.
“Then the other wolves started howling again, and you raced after them, heading back to Blackwood Creek. You took off so fast, and I was still fighting with Zander, fending off his attack. It took some time, but I was able to force his submission again. You’d think the wolf would learn. Anyway, that’s beside the point. I was finally able to pick up your scent. I raced after you, but the sun was already starting to rise. Once I got closer to town, I shifted so nobody would see me in wolf form. I went and got dressed and continued looking for you, and then I bumped into Clawson. Shortly after that, we heard Audrey screaming.”
Tori was taking it all in, the expressions crossing her face letting me see that. I stayed quiet and let her digest everything I’d said. Contrary to her carefully schooled expression, her face now displayed so many different thoughts. I yearned to know every single one.
What she was thinking wasn’t all good because there was a lot of scowling and so much confusion. She was trying hard to remember, but it wasn’t coming back to her. I could only imagine how frustrating and fear-inducing that had to be.
“Shit.” Her curse jolted me. She’d been quiet for so long before speaking again. Tori covered her face with her hands. “Don’t you see, Ridge?” She lowered her hands and looked imploringly at me.
“See what, little wolf?”
“The amount of time I was gone from you gave my wolf enough time to track the deputy down and kill him. It had been enraged when he got in my face at the diner.”
Her body shook, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes were frantically seeking answers in mine. Her earlier panic returned, ramped up this time. It was written all over her. My heart dropped into my stomach. I had to calm her before she ran.
“Did you wake up in the bar?”
She frowned. “What?”
“Did you wake up in the bar?”
She licked her lips and shook her head. “No, I woke up in the woods. Naked. I was in the bar because I needed something to wear. I couldn’t walk around town in the nude.”
She sounded so lost, I wanted to pull her into my lap and comfort her. Knowing that would only give her a reason to bite my head off, I refrained with willpower alone.
“Then I highly doubt you killed him. With your wolf more on the feral side, there wouldn’t be any rational thinking, only the glory of the hunt and the kill. You wouldn’t have left until you had your fill.”
Tori’s shoulders slumped and her face paled even more, which I hadn’t thought possible. She gulped down air. Her eyes flicked around the table, but she wasn’t seeing anything. Her mind was sorting through all the details and facts, and none of them were lining up for her. I could tell she didn’t believe that she couldn’t have killed the deputy.
It bothered me that she was so freaked out and scared of herself. Even more, I hated how alone and fragile she looked. She was so young to be battling so much.
I moved both plates aside, reached across the table, and grasped her freezing hands.
“Tori, I need you to listen to me. Hear what I’m saying.”
It looked like she’d forgotten I was there for a second, but she made eye contact with me. I squeezed her hands.
“I assure you, Tori, your wolf was playing and having fun. She wasn’t racing back to town to kill. She had her hunt and her prize with the woodland creatures. Play-fighting with me and then fighting with Zander allowed her to be a wolf. The howling of the other wolves made her curious, and she wanted to check it out. She hasn’t been around other wolves, has she?”
Tori’s eyes were a little watery, but no tears fell. Holding everything back wasn’t good for her. She kept everything bottled up so tightly that one day it would come out some way and potentially lead to somebody’s death. It hadn’t happened yet, though. I would do my damnedest to make sure it never did.
“Remember, I was running with your wolf. I enjoyed every moment I spent with her. She’s a little on the feral side, but she’s not an outright danger the way you want to believe. She just needs the connection of being with other shifters. Once you gain that, you can work on socializing with her. The two of you can be in complete harmony. Once that trust is there between human and wolf, she’ll be there to protect you whenever you’re in danger. That’s the beauty of being a shifter.”
Chapter14
Tori
My breathing evened out, and I started to feel better. Knowing more or less what had happened after I lost control the previous night calmed my frayed nerves. Still, I wasn’t convinced of my innocence purely because I couldn’t remember a fucking thing. Having to rely on someone else telling me what had happened didn’t sit well in my gut. Still, it was better than nothing, and as nothing was all I’d come up with, I had to be content with that.
