Page 26 of Bonded Beyond Trickery

“I guess you can’t avoid him anymore,”my wolf snickers.

While humming noncommittally at my wolf, I give Maggie a hug and promise to stop in and see her soon. I haven’t felt my mate’s eyes on me for a while, but I know right where to findhim. Which is why I head toward the packhouse and don’t stop until I’m standing outside his office.

I give him the courtesy of knocking, but I don’t wait for him to tell me to enter. If he was meeting with someone or not alone then I would, but my mate’s scent is the only one in the office. Whitaker’s head snaps up and his mouth falls open when I stride into his office like I own it.

Before he can get his shit together and question what I’m doing, which is clearly on the tip of his tongue, I grit out, “Why have you been following me?”

“I was curious,” he defends himself.

His excuse might be true, but I need to push him to find out if there’s more to it than that.

I sass him, “Really?” My hands find my hips and the look I throw at my mate is filled with defiance. “Or are you worried that I’m going around telling everyone I speak to that I’m your mate? Maybe you’re concerned that you can’t trust me, and I’ll betray you and your pack,” I spit the words, unable to contain my biggest fears even though I know they’re not exactly founded.

Whitaker’s mouth gapes open for a moment before he leaps out of his chair and practically bounds across the room. He grips my shoulders and shakes me. It’s not hard enough to hurt me, but it’s clear he thinks it might shake some sense into me.

“I trust you with our pack,” he growls the words, the violence and instincts of his wolf barely being contained.

Our pack.

My heart stutters with his words, but I can’t give into the warmth that wants to spread through my chest. Not yet.

“You can feel my intentions, Whitaker,” I point out, my lip curling up slightly in a snarl.

“I,” he starts before stopping, shaking his head, and swallowing hard, “I haven’t used the bond to feel your emotions.”

“You should,” there’s a challenge in my tone as well as a plea. “I can understand you not trusting me with you and your heart. I hurt you. But I haven’t done a damn thing to this pack. I want to help. I want to help the people here. I’ve been going around and talking to business owners because I want to use my degree. I want to make this place better,” the words spill from me so fast that they’re almost tripping over my tongue and barely able to be understood.

“No, Tilly,” pain contorts his face, “it’s not like that.”

“You don’t want me to be your Luna,” my voice breaks, “not yet, but I can’t turn off my instincts. You can hold me at a distance for the rest of our lives, but I won’t do that to the pack. I can’t,” I croak.

Tears fill my eyes and threaten to fall. I’m sure that I sound like I’m on the edge of hysteria. Because I am.

Fear is a tangible thing to me right now. We’ve bonded, but we aren’t a unit. My instincts are screaming at me to fix it, and my wolf needs us to meet in the middle.

But maybe I’ve already ruined everything, and we’ll never really be able to move past my choices.

I shake my head as anger, fear, disappointment, and frustration threaten to take me down to my knees.

“You can feel me, but you won’t use the bond to alleviate your worries,” my voice just sounds…desolate.

Before he can process or say anything, I pull out of his hold and run out of his office. Whitaker calls after me, but I don’t look back. I can’t.

The need to run is riding me so damn hard that I’m in danger of shifting before stepping outside the packhouse. The moment I do, though, my clothes shred and I’m no longer standing on two feet.

“Run,”I command my wolf, needing to get lost in the way the wind rushes through my fur instead of the feelings that threaten to ruin me.

CHAPTER 11

WHITAKER

Fuck. The moment Tilly sheds her skin for fur and races toward the tree line, my wolf lets out a roar in my mind. I fucked up. And since my mate has tried to give me space to process and hasn’t pressured me to forgive her, even though we marked each other, this is all on me.

“I told you that you should have used the bond to reassure your fears,”there’s an accusation in my wolf’s snarled words.

“You did,”I agree as I give my wolf control and shift into his form.

I take a second, only a second, to take a deep breath and allow the scent of my mate to fill my lungs. But it’s not just the scent of my mate. That’s part of it, but there is also the scent of the earth, the trees, and my pack in the air. The way it mixes with thechocolate and orange essence of my mate is beyond perfect.

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