Page 3 of Pregnant Kidnapped Mate

I cracked a grin. But just as I was about to grab the wolf and haul it back into town, a new scent brushed against my nose. Not new, actually…a familiar scent, but one I hadn’t smelled in years. My head swiveled to my right as the rest of my body froze.

“You all right?” Dan asked, waving his hand in front of me. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“Not quite,” I said. I sounded absent-minded, but I was anything but. All my attention was focused on that scent, a mix of lavender and honey that brought back memories I hadn’t fully forgotten.

Without any further explanation, I took off, racing through the woods as fast as I could, tracking the scent as my heart raced. There was no way. Not after all this time.

The smell grew stronger, and the closer I got, the more my disbelief grew and the more certain I was that I wasn’t imagining it. It was her. It had to be. It was impossible, but it had to be.

“Stop dragging your feet and get moving,” a raspy voice snapped as I got closer. “I’ve got other work to do.”

“Sorry.”

My heart pounded as the voice reached my ears. It was a voice I hadn’t heard in years. I gave an almost breathless laugh the closer I got.

It was her. After all these years, it was her.

“Don’t be sorry,” the harsh voice replied. “Speed up.”

I pulled up short behind a tree. I was naked, and I didn’t think startling her by bursting out of the woods was the best course of action. Instead, I watched silently.

There she was. Iris. I hadn’t seen her in years, but she was unmistakable. Her light brown hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, and her face was red from exertion, but she was just as stunning as the last time I saw her. Despite her petite frame, she was trying to juggle multiple dead rabbits in her arms.

Two others were with her—an older man and a younger one. Based on their noses and eye shapes, they were her relatives. But they certainly weren’t treating her like family.

“She’s just being lazy,” the younger man dismissed. I noticed that while Iris was carrying at least half a dozen rabbits, he only carried a single rifle. “You know how she is.”

My wolf bristled, and I did, too. My fists clenched as I watched. I was half-tempted to step out right then and there to teach those two a lesson for berating Iris. But just as I’d made up my mind to step out, the older man—her father, presumably—said, “Maybe we should just leave her out for the wolf men. Let them take her off our hands.”

Iris’s eyes widened in alarm. She didn’t say anything, but it was obvious by the tension in her shoulders and the way her eyes darted all over that she was frightened.

I froze, nearly kicking myself. I’d forgotten that Iris’s entire town was suspicious of shifters. She’d mentioned it to me the first time we met, and I’d just been working up the courage to tell her the truth about me when she’d vanished.

I’d always wondered what happened to her, why she had vanished the way she had. But I’d always expected it would be one of those mysteries I would never get the chance to solve.

As I watched, the brush rustled behind me, and Dan appeared in the corner of my vision.

“What—?” he began, but I held up my finger, still wanting to listen. I kept expecting Iris to stand up for herself, but she kept quiet, shuffling after the two men like a mouse. The men resumed chatting about the hunt and the weather, acting like she wasn’t even there.

I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t tell them to knock it off. They were bullying her, making her carry all their kills, and she wasn’t saying a word in her own defense. She just ambled after them, her head bent resignedly.

I watched her walk away, my heart thudding.

“You gonna tell me what that was about?” Dan asked when the three of them vanished out of sight.

“The girl,” I said.

Dan shrugged. “I mean, I guess she was good-looking for a human. But she’s human, so that kind of negates anything else.”

“I used to know her,” I said. “Haven’t seen her in years.”

Dan frowned, looked at me harder, then shrugged again. “Well, that was years ago. Don’t be too hard on yourself for it.”

I wasn’t sure what he’d meant by that, but I didn’t particularly care at the moment. Right then, all I could think about was Iris. I thought I’d lost her, but now it was quite obvious that she wasn’t only still in the area, but wasn’t in a great situation.

The least I could do was help.

Chapter 3 - Iris

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