Page 24 of The Alpha's Heart

“But your human female,” I say, taking one careful step away from him.

“There was never a human female!” Declan roars. “Only you. Only me. And you never fucking saw me there!”

Screw this. I don’t know what happened to Guy. I don’t even know if he really came this way or if Declan lied. All those phone calls… maybe he knew. Knew that I would be happy with my fated mate, knew that Declan was deranged enough to drop his ‘friendly’ facade to do what nearly ever other male I’ve ever known has: try to claim me for his own even when I don’t want to.

No.

No.

I want Bishop.

But he’s not here, and my naive self is standing on neutral territory with a feral who is lowering himself into a crouching position.

Forget going slow. Spinning on my heel, I bolt for the safety of pack territory.

I’m too late. As Declan launches himself at me, using his misshapen body to knock me down, and his claws hooked in my ankle to drag me to him, I’m caught.

I struggle. Just because I’m a delta she-wolf, that doesn’t mean I’m going to roll over and let this feral take me. I kick and I bite and I fight with everything I have… but when Declansmashes the back of my head against the hard earth, it wasn’t enough.

CHAPTER 9

MATE

My hands are onfire.

Considering my head is throbbing, my neck is twisted, and I feel cut off from wolf for some awful, terrible reason, I shouldn’t be able to pinpoint which one is worse. My nose is stuffed, my ears so muffled, it’s like someone shoved cotton in them, and my wolf… I can’t sense her.

It’s like she’s gone. My other half, the inner wolf that’s kept me company whether I’m in my fur or my skin… I can’t reach her.

And, yet, it’s the pain on my wrists that has me starting to panic the most.

My eyes spring open. It takes a second for me to recognize what I’m staring at. It’s the roof of a car. Beneath my ass, there’s a leather seat. The road is bumpy. Are we even on a road? The vehicle is reverberating like we’re on wooded terrain instead?—

Oh, Luna. No.

It all comes back to me in a rush. Declan. The messages. The monster he became, and the words I never would’ve thought I’d hear him say.

And the pain. Goddess, thepain.

I jerk my hands, trying to see what’s wrong with them. They’re heavy. I’m burning and I can barely move them. Worse, I’m laying on my beck, and I have a hard time rising up from my supine position. My head is resting in something, and even though my nose isn’t working right, I scent…

Lemon.

The panic triples. I kick out with my feet, trying to find purchase so I can get up. When that doesn’t work, and I’m gritting my teeth to keep back the screams of agony, I smash my head backward.

A human hand pats the top of my head before fingers run through my mussed hair, pinning me on something bumpier and harder than the seat of a car.

“Careful, Sofe. Don’t want to hit the goods, baby. Not when we’re going to need them later.”

The… thegoods? Wait. Am I… is my head in his lap?

I twist, not giving a shit that my swift motion has his fingers catching my hair. Compared to the excruciating pain in my hands, that’s nothing, and I even look past that for a second when I see a steering wheel out of the corner of my eye—and a pair of jeans-covered knees.

Iamin a lap.

No. He has me sprawled out along the front seat of a car—no, I remember, not car,truck—as he drives me who knows where. My wolf is gone. I want to gnaw off my hands with fangs I don’t have,

“Let me… let me up.”

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