Page 73 of Wanted

She’s in there and she wants to come out.

I’ve sensed it for days. Emery’s scent has changed over the past week. Her wolf scent is strengthening. Her senses are muchsharper. Now that those pills, whatever the fuck they were, have been removed, her wolf has a chance to grow, to awaken.

Though the change has taken place quicker than I would’ve suspected. I don’t doubt that at the next supermoon, Emery will undergo her first shift.

That remembrance, makes me recall the danger that comes along with this event. It’s rare, but there have been shifters who were unable to endure the pain and discomfort of that first shift. While exact numbers are unknown, some wolves don’t survive.

It’s much worse for lone wolves. But rarely does a wolf have their first shift alone. Most lone wolves become so after being kicked out of a pack, sometime after they’ve shifted for the first time.

Emery won’t be alone either for her first shift. She’s here with me.

Mine!

My wolf growls and I agree because I’m done denying the truth.

Emery belongs to me.

When she drops to her knees and buries her face into the crook of my neck my wolf purrs and whines in utter satisfaction. It’s as close as he can get to her wolf. Until she shifts.

It’s also clear that Emery needs this and there isn’t anything I could deny her.

Not in my wolf form.

Or my human form.

“I was terrified of you the first time I met you,” her lips say.

My wolf whines at the thought of her being afraid of him.

“I’m sorry,” she replies while pulling back to look us in the eye. “Looking at you now, I know you’re still Chance. The man with the glowing eyes who saved me that night in my motel, and from those wolves at the diner, who brought me to his home and promised to help me find my sister when she was missing.”

She swallows. “I’m sorry for being afraid of you.”

I lick her cheek as a way of telling her there’s nothing to apologize for. I know she understands when a rumble in her throat occurs from her laughter. Even in my wolf form, my chest tightens with the yearning to know what it sounds like when she laughs.

“You’re amazing,” she says.

Her eyes move to the wall behind us then back to me. “The history of your pack is beautiful.” She points to the pictures and hieroglyphic-like drawings on the walls of the cave.

“These were written by some of your ancestors, weren’t they?”

I nod.

She smiles and slowly rises to her feet. “I’ll start here then.”

I twist my head to the side and let out a small whine.

“For my research to do the recorded history of your pack,” she says, answering my question. “It’s my gift to you for saving me and to your pack for allowing me to stay here for a while.”

Pain lances through my chest. She’s speaking as if she won’t be here for long.

“What?” Emery asks. “Is someone coming? Is that why you’re howling?”

To answer her questions, I can’t remain in my wolf form. Though he wants to remain like this, to be closer to her, to sense her wolf on a level that even I can’t sense while in my human form, I push my wolf all the way back.

The transformation from my wolf to my human takes less than a few seconds at this point.

Emery stares at me wide-eyed as I stand before her. Her mouth ajar, which does nothing to help me keep my wolf tamped down and in control.

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