Page 8 of Predator

Kirk snorts, gesturing at me and my cage.

“She was before. She’s not now.”

“Then apologize to her.”

Jade’s head whips around. Smart she-wolf. She’s careful not to look Lucas in the eye, though she’s more snappish than she should be as she asks, “What did you say?”

“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to Fallon.”

“She’s locked in her first shift. Feral. Even if I did, she wouldn’t have any idea what I was saying.”

“You don’t know that,” Eleanor says from her spot near me. “Maybe not that first week when she was frightened. I would be frightened, too. I spent my whole life believing I was human and if I suddenly shifted… she’s doing better than I would, I assure you.”

Lucas looks at Jade, but he says nothing else. He just waits.

She sucks in a breath. Holds it. Exhales.

And then, in a tone that I almost actually believe, she directs a quick, “I’m sorry,” to my cage before spinning on her heels, storming out through the open door to the piano room.

I watch her go. Even in this state, I’m so shocked that Jade actually apologized, I don’t notice it when Lucas nods his head or Eleanor—reacting as though that’s some signal she’s been waiting for—reaches past the bars of the cage again until she pins my shoulders this time.

The human woman is so much stronger than you would imagine. My muzzle hits the bottom of the cage with a thunk, a whine begins in my throat, and Eleanor looks imploringly over at my mate as he hitches up his jeans before crouching down to the floor.

He has something in his hand. I don’t know what it is, though my nose catches a faint metallic stink similar to blood that I scrabble with my back paws trying to escape him.

I never had a chance.

Not when the human half of me wants nothing more than to enjoy Lucas’s touch, even if he does pinch my skin before jabbing me with something sharp.

I trust him. Instinctively, I trust this male. He wouldn’t hurt me. So even as the edge of my vision goes black, my heart rate slowing down, the connection between my human half and the wolf I currently am growing hazy and intangible… even as whatever he injected me with takes me under, I shutter as I close my eyes, but I don’t fight him.

Because I trust him.

Because I love him.

Because he’s mine.

I could’ve been asleep for ten minutes or three hours, but I wake up again as suddenly as I passed out.

It’s weird. My head is fuzzy. My limbs feel heavy. A peek down my muzzle reveals that I’m still a wolf, but if I had kept my eyes closed, I would’ve thought I was Fallon. I feel like Fallon. Maybe Fallon after a bit of a bender, sure, but whatever he did to me, I feel more like myself than I have since I went wolfy.

Lucas’s scent filters in through my snout. It’s not as potent as it was when we were back in the piano room, and I expect that that means he was with me, but he isn’t anymore. However, when I look around, I let out a yip of surprise when I see him sitting only a few inches behind me.

I jump, only because I wasn’t expecting him to be there. But since I also didn’t notice that I was laid out on that old brown couch in his hunting cabin, gravity takes over and I—along the with ugly afghan that was tucked beneath my furry body—and I land it a pile of tangled limbs and scratchy yarn on the floor.

Lucas leaps gracefully to his bare feet. He’s wearing his usual clothes: tight black shirt, black jeans, and the black scarf still tied around his throat. The tail of it flutters behind him as he bends low, scooping me and the blanket up.

Have you ever heard a wolf squeal? I didn’t even know I could, but when Lucas hugs me to his chest, then deposits me back on the couch after untangling my paws from the loops in the afghan, I made a sound that is suspiciously a squeal, only rougher because it’s not designed to come from a wolf’s throat.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

He didn’t frighten me. I just… he caught me off-guard, that’s all. I bump his forearm, letting him know that all is forgiven.

Even if I have no idea why he obviously drugged me to bring me to his cabin.

It’s just the two of us. Even with my suddenly weaker nose, I don’t catch any other scents except for him and mine.

I lay my paws in front of me, sprawled out on my bell, waiting for him to give me some kind of explanation.

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