Page 14 of Entering a New World

Instead, the storm picking up and changing its course had surprised me, leaving me sprinting through the woods, a race against time to get to my mate before anything happened to him or he did something stupid.

But he hadn’t done anything stupid at all. I was the one to blame. After all, I was the one who’d known about the weather forecast, and still, I’d made the decision to leave him out there, thinking the weather wouldn’t get that bad. I mean… a thunderstorm? Those were rare here, especially in fall. Something about temperatures not being high enough for cold and warm air to meet.

But of course, this had to be one of the rare times this weather phenomenon actually worked after the extraordinarily warm past few days.

I didn’t see the lightning through the thick canopies, but I did hear the rolling thunder. It was loud, but not as loud as my mate’s sobs next to my ear. His salty tears were a constant reminder of how badly I’d screwed up.

In wanting to buy a little time to figure out all the eventualities, think about all the possible scenarios of how Levi would react to his Wolfie being a shifter—and his soulmate at that—I’d gotten lost. I’d risked his health. And now I wouldn’t even have a great conversation to make up for it.

“Please, Wolfie, I’m… I can’t keep going like this,” Levi whispered, his voice hoarse from crying; his words were shaky, as if speaking even that one sentence was taking more energy than he had left.

Just a little further, I wanted to tell him. Just a couple more minutes. We’d almost reached the ATV.

I owed Grayson big time.

Instead of answering like I wanted to, I turned my head and licked his cheek, flinching internally at the coldness of his skin, my wolf howling in despair.

Automatically, I started walking faster, dragging Levi through the forest. He wasn’t walking anymore, his feet shuffling and dragging through the wet mud, arms desperately wrapped around me, clinging to me with all he had left.

Which wasn’t much.

His grip was slipping as a fresh wave of fear soured his scent.

There!

Even from afar, I saw the glow sticks, their pale green light shining like a guiding star.

“What…” Levi whispered. Hope, or maybe desperation, helped him back on his feet, stumbling the last bit towards the lightly illuminated ATV while still clinging to me.

Those sticks had been another one of Gray’s amazing ideas. I’d have found the damn thing on my own since my vision as a wolf was a lot better than the vision of a human, but for Levi, they were a desperately needed lifeline.

Entering the clearing, the wind gripped at us with fresh energy, dragging Levi back a step. He leaned against the wind, fought to get to the ATV, then fell to the ground next to it. Turning his head, he looked at me; the hope on his face shattering as he studied me.

“I… I can’t drive that… that thing,” he said, but his words were barely audible. Wiping at his eyes, he frantically shook his head. “You… I…”

With two steps, I was at his side, nudging against him, but he didn’t react to me at all; he just curled into a ball next to the damn ATV, his whole body trembling.

Fuck.

Shift, my wolf demanded. Shift, now!

I knew what I had to do; the fear of losing my mate by far outweighed the possibility of him hating me or freaking out.

Right there, right in front of him, I took a deep breath and willed my body to shift. It wasn’t hard, and my wolf was all too happy to comply and take a step back.

I heard Levi scream, saw him scrambling backwards, eyes huge as saucers, arms protectively raised in front of him. “What the fuck?”

My heart lurched inside my chest. This reaction, the fear emanating off of him, was the exact reason why I’d been dragging my feet. It was just the thing I’d been trying to prevent.

And now I’d gone and made it infinitely worse.

“Don’t be afraid,” I told Levi, crouching down in front of him. It was a stupid thing to say. Probably the stupidest thing I could’ve said. No one had ever stopped being afraid because someone had told them to. “I’m here to help.”

“You… but… you…” Levi pointed at me, then wildly waved his arms. “Wolf,” he finally managed to whisper.

“Yes,” I said, carefully extending my hand, hoping like hell he’d take it. “I’m so sorry you had to find out like this. I had a whole plan of how to tell you, but I screwed up.”

Levi eyed my hand suspiciously and shook his head.

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