Page 60 of Wolf Forgotten

"Eli. You showed up in East Arbor territory... in California." He pressed harder into me, and I whimpered, despite trying to hold it in. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Where are the others?" He spoke fast and his voice cracked.

"The others?" I didn't know who he was referring to, but with him agitated and scared, I wasn't about to tell him where Cole and Ivy were.

"Liam, Cal, and Austin? Are they dead?" He increased the pressure of his arm. "If you killed them..."

"I don't know who those people are. You showed up here alone." Didn't he remember anything from when he woke up or the day before?

"Alone?" He spun me around and his forearm pushed against my throat. "Tell me where you have them."

Nothing came out when I opened my mouth to speak. He was pressing against my throat, and I had a hard time getting air. His green eyes were troubled, but the rest of his face had a cold, detached expression. It was really off putting with the dirt smears and scruffy beard.

I wrapped my hands around his forearm and pulled down, getting him to loosen the pressure so I could speak. "I don't know where they are," I choked out as I tried to catch my breath.

He stumbled back and put his head in his hands, fisting his overgrown, tangled hair. "Where is she?"

He was coming back toward me, but I wasn't about to move and let him out of the room, so I did the only thing I could think of, I took his cheeks in my hands. "Listen to me. You came here alone and had probably been trapped in your wolf for a while, judging by your behavior. No one is going to hurt you, but you need to calm down and tell me what happened so I can help you."

"Ivy." His eyes darkened as they dilated, causing my heart to thud hard enough he could probably hear it. "Where's Ivy?"

"Ivy? She went shopping." Why the hell was he asking for Ivy? Even if she was around, I wasn't about to tell him that. Maybe Cole had been right about keeping him locked in the basement, and I wasn't just saying that because he was asking about my mate.

"We have to find her before they get her!" He jerked away from me and reached for the doorknob. "Move out of my way."

"No." I calculated how long it would take me to grab a tranquilizer from my nightstand and get to him with it. They were similar to an EpiPen, and we kept them everywhere just in case. "Why don't you take a shower and I'll get you a plate of food. By the time you've cleaned up, Cole should be back."

Wrong. Thing. To. Say.

He pushed me back against the door again and got way too close for comfort given his deranged state of mind. For some unknown reason, I had felt moved to cuddle up against his wolf in the basement, but he had been harmless while sleeping.

"Cole wanted me locked up. He locked her up!" His voice cracked, and he clenched his jaw so hard that it made my jaw hurt.

What the hell was he talking about? "Only you were locked up. Just you." I felt like a broken record.

His chest was heaving. "I need to see her."

I knew that trauma could cause neurological issues, but had never witnessed it for myself. Sighing, I stood there as he growled and glared, waiting for my answer. I didn't understand why he hadn't just knocked me out of the way to get out. Maybe he did have a tendril of sanity left.

He backed up again and looked around the room. It only took him a split second to make a mad dash to the window, rip the shutters off, and go for the lock.

Darting after him, I wrapped my arms around his waist in a bear hug, and with all my strength, tackled him onto the bed. I took a knee to the groin and an elbow to my ribs before he finally exhausted himself.

The most awful sound I'd ever heard came from him, and then he was clinging to the front of my shirt with his fists, his head buried in the crook of my neck. I froze for a second before my arms went around him and gently stroked his back.

"It's going to be okay." His hot tears hit my neck, and my heart hurt for him. "Shh. You're safe now."

"I can't even protect myself and my pack, how am I going to protect her?" I could barely understand him through his tears.

Male wolves rarely showed their emotions so openly, and it mademewant to cry too. What had happened to this wolf to hurt him so irrevocably, and how could I help fix it?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ivy

Shopping with Sara and Manny was better than not shopping at all. Would I have preferred to go shopping alone? Yes. Sara and Manny were going to make it that much more difficult to do what I had wanted to come to the city to do.

Putting my chin on my fist, I stared out the window of Manny's truck, trying to figure out a new plan. I was supposed to meet with Charles Scott, a social worker who had been in my dad's contacts and who had been in charge of my adoption.

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