Page 77 of Bind Me

I don’t know where I’m going, but the need to get away is all-consuming. The air is alive with tension, and I can feel something inside me shifting, something awakening that I can’t comprehend.

The fear is suffocating, pressing down on me from all sides, but I can’t stop. My body’s betraying me, but I have to keep moving, even if it’s stumbling. I rush through the stalls in the bathroom, hoping for a window or something, but there’s nothing.

My thoughts are all funneling in on my father… a wolf shifter!

Is that what’s going on with me? But why now? What had Kaden done to me?

Pivoting back around, his huge figure fills the doorway.

“Let’s not panic,” he tells me.

I sneer at him, showing him my teeth. I’m way past the fucking panicking stage.

I’m losing my damn mind right now!

My movements are more in control now, more fluid, more powerful than I ever thought, but my mind is a whirlwind of chaos. My heartbeat is a drumbeat in my ears, urging me to run faster.

I charge for the doorway.

Kaden’s eyes widen, surprised by my actions.

“My little mermaid, or wolf, now it seems, I don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll wrestle you to the ground to get you to calm down.”

I’m moving so fast I’m like the wind, and in seconds, he goes to scoop me up. Except I dart right through his parted legs and back into the pool room.

Claws hitting the stone floor, I madly scramble toward the main door we’d left partially open. My sense of urgency doesn’t fade. If anything, it grows stronger, driving me forward with a single-minded focus. I don’t know what I’m running from or toward, but I know I have to get away.

The echoes of Kaden’s footfalls strike behind me, the hot air against me fluttering through my fur, but all of it is secondary to the terror that clings to me like skin. It whispers insidiously in my ear, telling me that I’m losing myself, that I’m becoming something else, something monstrous.

My breaths come in sharp, ragged bursts, my lungs burning with the effort, but I don’t dare stop. With a final explosion of speed, I throw myself at the door, rushing through the gap and into the mansion.

I keep running, keep pushing myself forward, away from the terror, away from the uncertainty. Needing to be outdoors… There, in the distance, I spot the side door to the kitchen, which leads to another exit where I can see woods outside.

My heart’s soaring, and I’m rushing madly for escape, a strange craving for the wild consuming me.

I glance back at Kaden at the end of the hallway, and he’s calling my name, but right now, all I can do is run.

Chapter 21

Kaden

“Sasha, fuck! Don’t run!” I shout as I watch her race down the hallway in her wolf form. Her thick white fur almost gleams aquamarine in the light—matching her hair. I’ve never seen a more spectacular wolf in my life, and right now, she’s sprinting away like her life depends on it.

I run like a madman through the mansion after her, half dragging my jeans up over my hips, doing them up, then pulling a T-shirt over my head, never stopping. I just met her friends, so darting around their home naked isn’t going to go down well.

Sasha rushes into a room with a door open to the outside, and in seconds, she’s gone.

My stomach drops. Fuck! The thought of losing her claws at my mind. What if she’s so panicked that I won’t find her again?

I have no idea what the hell just happened. One second, we were in the water, and maybe I’ll admit I got frustrated with her pulling away. The next second, I spoke and something I’ve never done before happened—my alpha voice rushed out of me, commanding and authoritative. I’ve heard of this happening before, an alpha controlling his mate, but I never intended to bring out her wolf. It’s the only way I can explain it.

She told me that her father was a wolf shifter, but she also insisted she didn’t have his ability. Yet the fear in her eyes won’t leave my thoughts.

Fuck, this is my fault. What have I done to my gorgeous little mermaid?

Sprinting through the kitchen, I leap outside, where the air is sharp and cool, the skies darkening with clouds. I scan the grounds, trying to get a glimpse of her. To my left is the front of the property, and farther in front is a lofty fence, but to my right, the landscape stretches out behind the mansion, moving into the woods. Of course, she’d be there. No way in hell am I letting my fated mate vanish in such a panicked state. I did this, and I’ll damn well fix it.

I run, my bare feet pounding the soft soil that’s cold to the touch. When I come around the corner of the house, my sights set on the explosive woodland stretching out, I swear I catch the movement of something white. I almost crash into someone, but at the last minute, I pivot away, missing a collision with a man who’s just as tall as me, standing with authority. Windblown dark brown hair cut short and tousled, he’s wearing dark jeans, a tight shirt, and a leather jacket.

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