Page 37 of Alpha's Forbidden Bond

“They would come here,” I finished the sentence for her. She nodded worriedly. “Damnit, Diana!”

“It’s not my fault!” Her voice broke when she said that, and I realized she had started shaking. “It’s not like I asked to be stalked!”

I sighed. “No. I know. I’m not mad at you. Well, no, that’s not true. I am mad at you for coming here in the first place, but I understand that whoever might’ve followed you didn’t do so with your consent. It’s just—you have no idea how hard it is to keep my people safe. And now that you know the truth, and perhaps someone else does as well, that job just got a whole lot harder. Do you honestly have no idea who might be stalking you?”

“I don’t. I found a business card the other day, but I really don’t think it’s connected at all. And it didn’t even have a name on it.”

“What kind of business card doesn't have a name?”

“It’s—a long story. And one that isn’t going to help you right now because it wasn’t even really a clue.” She stood. “Isn’t it possible that whoever’s scent you picked up on was just some passerby? Someone on their way to work at the new construction site up the road?”

“At this hour? No way. It was definitely someone who came with you or followed you.”

“You can’t know that for sure. I just don’t understand why you are blaming me when we have no idea who else could be lurking in the woods.”

“Considering you’re the only person who has trespassed on the property lately, I think it makes perfect sense that I’m blaming you. This is private property, Diana, and most people in town tend to respect the law and not come anywhere close to the compound. And then there’s you, who has no respect for property law. Forgive me for having a hard time thinking this is all just a coincidence.”

She scoffed. “I won’t forgive you because you’re acting like an ass. I’m out of here.”

“You can’t leave! I need you to come show me that website, and then we have to figure out what to do about you knowing the truth.”

“We’re not going to do anything! I’m going home to get some sleep. That’s it.” She headed for the road.

“Diana. You can’t leave.”

She balked. “You can’t tell me what to do!”

I reached for her, but she moved out of the way too quickly.

“Don’t touch me,” she said. “You’ve made it perfectly clear that you don’t care about me, about the fact that I’m being stalked! All you care about is yourself.”

“That’s not true.”

“Fine, and your pack. You care about your pack,” she said. “And you know what—that’s fine! You don't owe me anything. You’re not my boyfriend or whatever. But that also means that I don’t have to stay here and take this. I’m going home, and if you try to stop me, I’ll scream loud enough that even the townies will hear, and then you’ll have to explain yourself to the cops.”

Her threat was empty, and we both knew it. She couldn’t scream that loud. We were too far away for anyone to hear her. But still, she could wake other members of the pack, and that was bad enough. I had no way of explaining to anyone on the compound what I was doing in the woods with a human this late at night. She stared at me for several heated seconds, probably to make sure that I wasn’t going to move toward her again, and then nodded.

“Goodnight, Andreas,” she said under her breath. I had no response. She walked away and I stayed there until I heard the engine of her car roar to life. Then I headed back to the house, where I saw a light on in the kitchen.

Chapter 18

Diana

My hands shook for most of the drive back home. My mind and body were still live-wire hot, a combination of leftover desire, confusion, anger, and fear. I hadn’t expected anything like that to occur tonight, and now that I had a quiet moment to myself, I was going over it all again to figure out just what the hell had happened.

Andreas was a werewolf.

A motherfucking werewolf. There was no time to process that major shift to my reality, because I’d been otherwise occupied, but holy shit. What did this mean? If we hadn’t had sex after he shifted back into his human form, I might’ve walked away from the compound this time with a much deeper fear of that man and the rest of his family. But I believed him when he said he wasn’t going to hurt me. No matter what kind of terrifying, bloodthirsty monster he could turn into, I still felt I could trust the man that I’d now slept with twice.

Instead, the only thing I was afraid of was the person who possibly followed me all the way out to the west side of town. If that’s whose scent Andreas had actually picked up on, then I was dealing with a true stalker. This wasn’t a teenager trying to pull a prank.

When I got back to Georgie’s grandmother’s house, I made sure to survey my surroundings multiple times before getting out of the car. Another car went down the road a few seconds after I put mine in park, but then continued on their way without slowing down. Breathing out slowly, I decided I would make a run for it. I leapt out of the car and tore off towards the basement door. There, I sucked in a sharp breath and got my keys out. As I struggled to push the metal into the lock, I noticed something.

I could no longer hear the car engine.

Whoever had driven past a moment ago had stopped their car. They wouldn’t have been at the end of the block yet, so they must’ve pulled over right after passing the house.

I stopped fiddling around with my keys and reached for the pepper spray instead. Pulling the little black canister up in front of me, I turned on a dime and darted around the corner to look behind the house. “Freeze!” I screamed as I saw a figure bending down to peek in the basement window.

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