Page 7 of Wolf's Wild Woman

I shook my head, doing my best to dislodge the image he’d planted there with his words. He moved around, picking up my clothes then holding them out to me.

“Get dressed, and let’s head out. I need to finish rounding up the troublemakers before we continue what we started.”

“You don’t need me for that. Go,” I ordered him.

He shook my clothes at me. “Dressed. Now.”

“I’m not a member of your pack, Taylor. And even if I was, there’s no way in hell I’d let you order me around.”

He gave me a brooding look. “Your pack will be absorbed into ours shortly.”

“That—”

“But,” he continued, cutting me off. “That’s beside the point. You’ll listen and obey because I’m your mate. You belong to me, Rebel.”

I forced a laugh. Caveman words shouldn’t turn me on, but damn it! Everything about Taylor was a turn on. “I’m not a possession. I don’t belong to anyone.”

He jerked me against his frame again. “You have two options, Rebel. Put your clothes on so we can leave.” He released me slowly, making sure my body felt every hard edge of his. “Or you can go ahead and run.” He leaned close, his mouth at my ear. His warm breath sent shivers through me. “I know you want to run, but be prepared. I won’t walk away the way I’m betting everyone else in your life has. I’ll pursue you. To the ends of the earth. Mark my words, woman. You belong to me.”

His words struck true and deep into my soul. I’d known him so briefly, yet he saw inside me where others failed to even look. Probably because they didn’t care. His look. His touch. I couldn’t handle it. Couldn’t handle him. But god, how I wanted to. It was too late though. I already had one foot out the door of this dead-end town.

“I’m leaving,” I repeated, and before he made another caveman statement, I took off at a run, shifting and letting my wolf take over. There was freedom there. Exhilaration. Plus, it would speed up my body’s healing process. Most of all, I needed it. God, how I needed it. The wind. The rush.

I ran with abandon, sprinting through the edge of the open field he’d parked beside and making a beeline for the trees beyond it. I knew these woods like the back of my hand. All of the woods around town, actually. I’d run them my whole life, but I’d been trying to escape them for the last few years. I’d saved and stockpiled so I could get away. And it was gone. All gone. I had nothing.

I spied movement to my left and turned my head to take in the largest wolf I’d ever seen. It took me a few strides to realize he was shadowing me.

Taylor.

Part of me had known he’d follow me. Part of me had been scared he wouldn’t care enough to. Wasn’t that the story of my life? The girl with no one. No one there. No one who gave a shit about her. And as much as I wanted to grab on to the first person who offered me more, old insecurities held me back. What did it mean that the only other male who’d cared about me was dead?

With that, I broke. I stopped on a dime, lifting my head to the sky and howling. At some point, I shifted back to my human skin, finding myself on all fours, body shaking as my tears fell.

“I’ve got you,” Taylor crooned, lifting me against his bare chest.

I’d hate myself for this later. I didn’t fall apart. I especially didn’t fall apart with a man I’d just met, one who made me feel things I’d never felt…

“Nobody has me,” I argued, turning my head so his chest cushioned my face as I cried.

“Shh, baby,” he murmured above me. “I’ve got you, and I’m never letting you go.”

“You can’t say that.”

“Can. Did. And will again and again until you believe me,” he countered.

“You don’t know me.” It was a reminder to myself as much as him.

“I know you’re mine. I didn’t think I had a mate. Now I’ve found you. I’m never letting you get away. Never.”

Chapter Four

~Taylor~

She’d gone silent on me once I’d gotten her home address. It was yet another side of her personality, and I found it fascinating. I swear I felt the gears in her mind clicking from where I sat behind the wheel. I had no idea what she planned, but I looked forward to it. Anything but more tears. She’d killed me with the sobs she’d freed in the woods. They’d dried up as we’d walked back to the SUV. I’d quietly asked for her address, and she’d just as quietly given it to me. Then she’d gone radio silent.

The bruises on her face were mostly healed, now, as were the marks on her side and the myriad bruises I’d seen when she’d first stripped. Remembering what she’d looked like had my blood boiling all over again. Some wolves used our unique healing abilities as an excuse to lay hands where they shouldn’t. I’d put more than one of those wolves in their place. Tonight, I would again.

I pulled in the drive next to an old truck and turned to face Rebel. “You can stay out here.”

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