Page 10 of Rejected Wolf

Was he in danger?

“Protect… him… He’s yours…” She sagged forward, and I caught her before she could fall out of her chair. She collapsed into my arms with a soft exhale. “Jude? What— Where am I?” She blinked dazedly, turning her head side to side, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar sounds and smells. This wasn’t the home she remembered.

“I’ve got you. You’re okay, you’re safe.” I lifted her in my arms and carried her to the bed. She was so tiny on the huge mattress; it looked like she was floating on a cloud. “Sleep, Vesta. Everything will make more sense in the morning.”

She nodded, relaxing back into the pillows as she drifted back to sleep.

Ask her!my wolf snapped, frantic to learn more about what she saw, but I knew there was no point. The vision had already slipped away, and she had emerged confused. She had no answers for us.

The sun had already begun to set, and all around the camp, parents were rounding up the pups for bedtime. Mal seemed to be leading the escape attempt, trying to direct Pax and Wynn to run in opposite directions. Too bad for him, the two younger kids had only just turnedone, and trying to tell a toddler what to do was like herding cats. Pax plonked himself down right where he was, and Wynn started shouting, “Dada!” Whether he was trying to tattle on his older brother remained to be seen.

I chuckled, watching their antics with my arms crossed over my chest. It was easy to imagine my own children added to the mix. I’d pictured it a thousand times, longing to be a part of it all, and it was proving difficult to let that future go. I had no other choice, though. Right? I couldn’t fall in love with a human.

Something wet dripped on my arm. I frowned down at it, then reached up and touched my cheek to find them wet. Tears. I hadn’t cried since…

I swallowed hard. Why was I crying now, after all this time?

Our mate, my wolf whispered.He’s in danger.

Sighing, I turned away from the perfect scene of family, friendship, and happiness and instead walked alone through the forest until I found myself on the banks of the river where I’d seen my mate. I swore I could still smell him on the air, as if he’d been here all along, waiting for me. There was a flattened patch of grass that might’ve once been his camp.

Sniffing, I wiped my sleeve across my cheeks to dry them. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to banish him frommy thoughts. What if what Vesta said was right and he was exactly what I needed? Was I really willing to live my whole life alone without at least trying?

I could feel my wolf’s tentative hope. He’d tried nagging, arguing, begging, bargaining. He’d tried wresting control of our body. Now, he remained silent, leaving me to my thoughts. This was something I had to figure out on my own.

A new thought shoved its way through to the front. What if my mate needed my help and I wasn’t there? The possibility was like a knife to the chest. I was failing my duty if I let something happen to him.

For the first time since learning of my mate, I felt the first twinge of regret for letting him go. How on earth was I supposed to find him now?

Thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was rolling in, the approaching clouds dark. The way the wind had already begun to pick up, it felt like it was going to be a big one. I could only handle one problem at a time, so I turned and headed back toward camp to alert the others.

Tomorrow, I would find my mate. I hoped he would be okay until then.

Chapter 6

Morgan

“When will you learnalready?!” I groaned, wiping a finger across my glasses, trying to get a clear view of the forest around me. “Think first, then act.”

I’d been in such a hurry to get the hell out of the city before the first snowfall came that I didn’t even think about checking the weather app. The sky had been clear when I parked the car and unloaded my gear. A few miles in, the wind had started to pick up. By the time I was nearing my usual camping spot, the rain had begun to pour down by the bucketload. I could barely see the ground in front of my feet. I had zero clue how I was supposed to put up a tent in this downpour, but I would worry about that next. First, I had to find the campsite. Normally it would be easy to follow the gurgling stream, but all I could hear now wasthe rain as it splattered down on the hood I’d pulled as far over my face as I could.

A crack of lightning split the sky overhead with a jagged white-hot fork. I was momentarily blind, blinking away the afterimage burned onto my retinas. The thunder was right on top of it, the deep boom vibrating through my chest. I rememberedWild and Bravesaying that if the hair on your arms started tingling, you should lie down as flat as you could. It was a sign you were about to get struck by lightning, and you didn’t want to be the tallest thing out there.

It would serve me right for getting worked up by the stranger in the bar, I guess. Now I was paying for letting myself get so carried away. My suspicion had gotten the better of me, and instead of thinking it over this morning once the alcohol had passed out of my system, I let my paranoia whisk me right out to my car first thing, convinced this guy was coming after my wolf.

I needed to warn him! Of what, I wasn’t sure yet, but I knew it as surely as I knew he was mine.

With a gasp, the ground shifted, and my balance tipped. I felt myself falling back, so leaned forward but ended up overcorrecting. Arms flailing, my foot slipped right out from under me, driving me down to my knees hard in the mud. I braced myself for the fall and hissed as somethingsliced my palm open. It felt like a jagged rock, not that I could see it with my glasses so fogged up. I held my hand close to my face and squinted. I couldn’t see the cut clearly, but there was no missing the bright red smear.

“Dammit,” I muttered, holding my palm out to let the rain wash away the blood. It stung something fierce. Normally, I would’ve broken out my trusty first-aid kid so I could properly sanitize and bandage, but that wasn’t happening in the middle of a storm. So much of camping really would be best left as an indoor activity.

Groaning, I pushed up to my feet, careful to make sure my footing was sound. I was such a damn mess. My pants were smeared with mud, every inch of me was waterlogged, right down to my socks in my boots. But it was more than that. I’d been a wreck since the moment I first laid eyes on my wolf. I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t sleep, eat, or breathe without him. Maybe my shrink was right. Maybe I was losing my mind…

Dejected but somehow still determined, I began walking again, but as I looked around, the path I’d been on had disappeared. Turning around in a circle to check the way I’d come, there was no sign of a path or anything that looked even remotely familiar. “But I was just there… and then I turned right at the dead oak… and then…” My stomach sank as I realized just how bad thiswas.

There was no denying it. I was lost.

Dammit! And I broke rule #1:tell somewhere where you’re going. No one knew I was out here, and nobody would even miss me, since I no longer had a job or friends. It wouldn’t be until my landlord came looking for a rent check that I would even be reported missing. By then, I would already be dead!

---