Page 96 of Wolf's Mark

A few seconds later, she turned toward the fire. “That’s why the wolf experience I had as a child really happened. You save your kind. The wolf was required to save one of his own.”

“Likely. Female wolves are fewer in numbers. But I wasn’t there when you were saved. What I can tell you is that we do save the lives of humans. Often, the possible victim never knows.We have doctors and dentists within our packs. Surgeons and scientists. There are men so strong they can lift a car before a human is crushed.”

“Saving humans as well.” She was making a statement, but I felt a moment of panic building inside of her.

“Of course. I don’t know why you think we wouldn’t try and care about mankind since we’ve done everything in our power to lose our heritage, shoving aside what we were born as. What do you think I do in a day, Sedona? Powerful businessman in the light, hunter of humans at night? I might be dangerous to most, but that’s usually because of my abilities in the boardroom. Destroying competition is more my style.”

“No taste of blood? No need to rip a man’s face off?”

“Don’t insult me.”

“Then don’t patronize me.”

I’ll be damned if she didn’t flinch when I moved closer. I shook my head, loathing the building emotions. “Be careful about the questions you choose to ask unless you want to learn all the dirty, ugly truth about the Wolfen.”

“Maybe I do. And not just because I’m a scientist and doctor. Not just because I don’t believe in such things as werewolves. And not because… Because of what we’ve shared.”

She had no idea what her challenges were doing to me. Yes, my wolf was just below the surface. That wasn’t a lie, but I wasn’t going to let her know how close he’d come to rising from the depths of hell. “Like the fact we were extreme predators three generations ago, enjoying the hunt as much as you believe Ido now. We killed because it was a necessity. While we were considered hunters, so were certain humans.”

Her lovely face was pinched, her jaw clenched so tightly I was certain her teeth were grinding. “Yet you’re more dangerous than any human could ever be. And I’m not talking about nuclear bombs either.”

“In our distant past, there was a group of men, all very human who’d developed a nationwide group. They did nothing but hunt wolves. They thrilled in the kills, cutting off our heads and planting them on walls much like humans do with deer. They existed well into the nineteen seventies and were damn good at what they did given their organizational level that rivaled our own. We lost many females during that time, the fear so intense that many of the Alpha wolves required to fight in what we considered the Great War hid their mates and pups. Only to return home finding they’d been slaughtered. Tell me again that humans aren’t nearly as dangerous as wolves.”

“Oh, my God.” Sedona pressed her hand against her mouth. “I had no idea.”

“Do you really think those stories would linger generations later on depicted on the front page of a newspaper? No, they just became a dirty little secret.”

She moved closer to me, the apprehension still there. “Your numbers never rebounded.”

“No. Not in the way that our lives had been. We were almost driven to extinction. So were the gray wolves who have nothing to do with what you might call a curse. After that, we were disallowed hunting rights so we could blend in. Choosing mates wasn’t something anyone wanted a part of. Maybe now, youcan see why. But that doesn’t mean as young men and women we weren’t required to take training, to learn skills that could become necessary to use again. That all but stopped twenty plus years ago. I assure you that from what I’ve seen out of mankind, the brutality and savagery far outweighs anything wolves have done. Either in the past or what might occur in order to keep our kind alive.”

She took a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds. “You’re right.”

I wasn’t so certain what I was right about. I was still angry, more so than I should be. I had to remind myself that woman had had no reason to believe her world could be turned upside down until recently.

The tension was awkward, biting.

And I hated it.

The look she was giving me was understandable, but yanked at everything I had inside of me.

Being a man.

Being a wolf.

Being her protector.

When I moved closer, I was certain she was going to run away out of fear and repulsion, but she remained where she was. Yet her body language indicated she had no trust. The hunger inside was burning every cell and molecule, the need to protect her just as potent. There would be those who stopped at nothing to take her from me and I simply couldn’t allow that to happen.

I would rip apart anyone who dared to try.

My wolf was just under the surface, scratching at my skin in a desperate plea to be freed. There was no chance I could allow him from his lair.

The moment I touched her face, she started to recoil, but I refused to allow her to walk away from me. Not now. Not when our coupling and our need to trust each other had become so vital. I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck, bringing her closer. While she didn’t fight me, she didn’t want to touch me either.

“Look into my eyes, Sedona. What do you see?”

She purposely kept her face turned away.

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