Page 26 of Wolf Forsaken

Gripping the back of my neck, I tried to calm myself down. I wanted to kill that motherfucker for tackling Ivy, but something had stopped me. Well, someone.

I didn't even understand the odd connection I felt to Eli. It wasn't like what I felt toward Ivy, but it was up there. I'd been with men before, and plenty of women, but never had I wanted to protect one so fiercely. Never had I wanted a man to just wrap me in his arms and lock out the world.

As my feet froze in the snow and my body trembled with anxiety, all I wanted was for him to pull me against his warm body and comfort me. If it hadn't been for him, I might not have come back from the claws of my wolf.

After what felt like an hour but was probably a few minutes, Eli cleared his throat. "Maybe we should go inside." He spoke like I was a timid animal that might flee, and I flinched. I was one of the strongest in my pack, and now I was a trembling mess who couldn't even handle going in a helicopter.

"We don't even know these people." My voice was surprisingly steady given the shitstorm going on inside me. I turned my head to look at him and hated the worry I saw in his eyes. "Aren't the two of them enemies? Why would we come here?"

Eli stepped a little closer but didn't touch me, to my dismay. "I don't think Silas will hurt Ivy."

"He tackled her," I snapped, a little harsher than I intended. Eli winced, and I finally turned to face him. "I think we need to be cautious. He might not hurt Ivy, but he might hurt us."

"I agree. With the four of us, we'll be fine. I'm hoping I can get into contact with my sister and Manny. I'm sure there will be a lot of pack members that won't follow Dante's lead. He wasn't well liked." Eli reached out and put a hand on my arm. "Are you okay?"

I shuddered and considered lying to him. "No." My voice cracked.

Eli's face grew even more concerned, and he stepped forward. "Can I hug you?"

"You can always hug me."

He wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck. Why was being comforted by him such an amazing feeling?

I didn't even want to think back to the treehouse when I'd had my hand wrapped around his cock, bringing him to his climax. Being buried inside Ivy and feeling his pleasure had been the biggest high I'd felt in a long time.

"I don't know what happened to you, Xander, but you'll get through it. You have me, Ivy, Cole… Maybe possibly even Silas."

I laughed at that and pulled out of his embrace. "I… I don't know exactly where I was before, and that scares me. One minute I was being tortured and experimented on, and the next, I woke up in the middle of a forest, not knowing how I got there. I'm not even from around here. I'm from Washington."

Eli searched my face and then looked out at the tree line surrounding the property we were on. "I looked in the missing wolf database. I couldn't find anyone named Xander and none of the ten that matched your description were you."

"My name is actually Alexander." I laughed, shaking my head. "I just didn't correct you because I liked the sound of Xander coming from your lips."

"But you said it was Xander." He looked confused.

"My voice wasn't working right. I still want to be called Xander. It's a fresh start." I ran my thumb over his bottom lip. "You wouldn't have found me in your database. I belonged to a small pack, and we didn't use much of the technology available if I'm being honest. I'd like to see the database, though. Maybe." I'd seen a lot of other wolves where I was. Not usually in human form, but occasionally someone would shift. "Maybe I'll recognize some of the missing."

"You've talked about three others." Eli treaded carefully, and I couldn't blame him. I didn't even know my threshold for losing it.

"I think they got most of the pack, all thirty-two of us. I'm not sure if they got the pack we were going to merge with, which was a little smaller." I didn't even want to consider that they had something to do with what happened.

A lot of my memories were muddled. I had been captured in November, and now it was March. I wasn't sure how long I'd been wandering in the forest, but it couldn't have been that long, could it?

Seeming to sense my spiral, Eli put his arm around me and looked back at the building. "Are you ready to go inside now? That old man meant business."

"Yeah, I think I am."

We walked in the door, and all I could smell was fried breakfast meat. My stomach panged, reminding me I hadn't eaten in a few days, and even before then I'd had very little. The one thing about starvation is that you can't gorge on food or you end up in even more pain.

My stomach was loud enough that Eli chuckled and patted my belly. Normally, I would think that was a childish move, but it brought a smile to my face. It was exactly what I needed.

I followed him into the large room that reminded me of East Arbor's, except this one looked more lived in. There was a large mural of wolves on one wall and windows along the entire upper part of the walls.

The different sitting areas included one that had giant beanbags and another that had three sectionals arranged in a circle around a large coffee table. My mind was in the gutter because I instantly thought about a strip club and how perfect it would be if there was a pole in the middle.

I would be down to watch Ivy climb up there and strip for us... her mates, no one else.

I caught her staring at me from across the room where she sat at a large table that looked like it was made of one solid piece of wood. She gave me an award-winning smile that lit up her entire face and made me forget for a second that I'd just been through hell and back.

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