Page 26 of Out of Peril

“I was.”

“What happened to you?” I already knew enough, but I needed to hear it from her.

“That's none of your business. You wouldn't understand.”

She started to walk away, but I grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Please.”

“I'm not talking about it, Walker.”

The venom in her tone stopped me from pushing any further.

Maya and Dante ran out of their room and hugged her.

Was it bad that I was jealous of a couple kids?

I wanted desperately to pull my mate into my arms and hold her, but something told me that wasn't going to go over very well.

Lindsey

Chapter 8

I should have been furious finding Walker roaming the house again after I told him to stay upstairs. Dante was still convinced he was going to get us all killed, so I was trying to buffer the two of them. And if I were being honest with myself, I was trying to put some space between myself and him too.

The man was gorgeous. How on Earth could he possibly be my mate? Even before I was a beast, I was just a nobody. It had been easy for the Raglan to snatch me up because no one cared. I'd lived within the Pack but always felt alone or like I wasn't good enough.

I'd attended public human school and was bullied there constantly. It hadn't been a good childhood. Though my fondest memories were of my family's time out here at the manor. I'd spent my summers here running free and wild. At the time, I couldn't wait for my wolf to come in, but I'd been taken before that had happened.

In fact, I'd only ever shifted fully into my wolf once before the experiments began. It had certainly been a slow, painful evolution into the beast I harbored now. And for a few years, I was locked away inside her. Trapped.

Things were better now. The beast and I were more in sync and I could shift between my two forms easily.

I had never really considered that I had a mate out there somewhere. Every shifter supposedly had a true mate, but many didn't seem to ever find theirs. I certainly had never expected to find mine. With my wolf so distorted now, I honestly didn't believe it was possible for me. Now that Walker was here, I didn't know what to think.

Happily ever after wasn't meant for a beast like me.

I dared a glance back toward him. When he noticed my attention, his eyes jerked upwards. I blushed. Was he really just checking me out? I knew I was naked, but that wasn't really uncommon amongst shifters. Lord knew I'd destroyed more clothes than I now owned.

My body warmed all over just thinking about it even though I knew I had to be wrong. This guy looked like a cover model and those dimples had surely melted the panties off many women. He'd seen me as a beast. He knew the horrors within me. There was absolutely no way he was actually looking at me like a man looks at a woman he desires.

But when I dared to look back, he was still staring at me, and there was something dark and dangerous in his otherwise blue eyes. This time, I didn't miss the way his eyes swept over my body and saw his pupils dilate.

Holy shit!

Was this really happening?

“They're not going to come back, right Lindsey?” Maya asked.

“I-I don't know,” I stammered, still too shocked about my Walker suspicions to think straight.

He knelt down to the kids’ level and smiled. My brain couldn't help but fixate on the fact that he was now eye level with my most intimate body parts too. I started to grow uncomfortably wet and knew I had to get the hell away from them. Hell, I was still naked from my shift and had never felt quite so exposed. This wasn't appropriate at all.

“Excuse me,” I muttered and ran for my room, slamming the door behind me.

“What's wrong with Lindsey?” Dante asked.

Walker had the audacity to chuckle.

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