Page 13 of Wynter Abandoned

“I have to go,” I replied and stepped off the curb. The car horn blasted in my ears as a hand grabbed my arm.

“Be careful. Please. Take care of yourself.”

I looked down at his hand on my arm and gasped. No, that wasn’t right. Gasping would assume I was breathing, which I was not.

“Go on now.” His bass tone warmed me from the inside out and turned my legs to mush. How in the hell was I supposed to walk across the street now?

“Please.” I tugged at his hand. Across the street, my stepsisters were already getting into the car. Maybe they didn’t see him touch me. Hopefully. “I’ll be in trouble.”

He nodded and removed his hand quickly. I ran across the street as fast as I could. I somehow knew that man, although there was no way I could.

It was simply impossible.

Chapter Twelve

Smoke

We’d gone into town to run errands for the pack, nothing earthshaking about that. In fact, I’d been irritated that we were even doing them because the alpha certainly had enough pack members who would have been willing to go for him. I didn’t argue though. I never did. As an adoptee to the pack and the alpha’s friend, I preferred to stay in the background and watch what went on.

Today, that was more interesting than usual. I was just coming out of the hardware store, laden with supplies for painting the new milking parlor when I spotted Xerxes approaching a stunning female. She was far too thin, her features sharp with it, and I wondered if there was some physical ailment behind her slender physique. My wolf came on alert just as the female dodged away from the alpha and stepped into the path of an oncoming car. Xerxes grabbed her arm, tugging her back onto the curb just in time. A moment later, she freed her arm and darted across to a waiting car with some other women in it. I thought I might have seen them before but couldn’t think where. The slender female? From the back, I couldn’t be sure if I’d seen her before. I’d seen her ratty clothes and how thin she was but never gotten a look at her face. I joined Xerxes where he stood watching them drive away. “Pretty female you were talking to there?” The same girl from the meadow?

“Yeah.” He never turned away. “She is something.”

“Titan should be waiting for us at the sandwich shop,” I said. “Ready for lunch?”

“Hmmm?” With the car holding the female disappearing into the distance, he looked down at the hand that had been on the female’s arm, flexing his fingers. “Tingling.”

“Pardon? You’re tingling.”

He shook his head and turned away from the street. “It’s nothing. Let’s go eat. Did you get all the painting supplies?”

“Yes.” We walked down the street past the small shops that made up the town nearest our pack lands. There were a number of packs within a short distance, and even though most of the storekeepers were humans, this was where we did all our local shopping. Pausing to put our purchases in the back of the pickup truck, I cast another glance at the alpha. He was still opening and closing his hand, maybe not even aware of it. “She had people waiting for her.” He locked the truck bed topper and started across the street to where Titan sat at an outdoor table. “Them I know. Sort of.”

“Really? I didn’t get a look at them really. Local females?”

“One of the packs around here, and one of them accosted me on the street the other day. Made it very clear she was interested in being a pack luna. She was very, uh, complimentary about my looks but to tell you the truth, I don’t think she cared who I was as long as I was an alpha.”

“Sounds terrifying.”

“It was.” I wondered if we were done talking about it, but when we joined Titan, the alpha was still caught up by the female. Which worked for me since I was also very curious. “She smells of wolf.”

“So one of us for sure. I bet she’s a relative of someone in the pack the other females belong to and is just here for the ball?”

Titan looked back and forth between us. “I ordered both of you the usual, but I am thinking you’re not so much about food today. What is going on?”

We filled him in on the happenings, and he agreed that she must be here for the ball if neither of us recognized her. That would mean we’d be seeing her again soon, and I couldn’t be upset about that.

Chapter Thirteen

Wynter

I wasn’t in the car long enough to shut the door before Calla squinted at me, her bright-magenta lips pursed. At least I thought she was squinting at me. Part of her makeup regime was putting on fake eyelashes that resembled black caterpillars crawling across the edge of her eyelids. Maybe the glue was making her eyes twitch.

My stomach dropped as my stepmother crossed her legs and picked at her dress. This was her signature move. She always did this before ripping into me for whatever crime I had committed. “Wynter, we brought you here to do the shopping and to handle some chores for us.”

“I did,” I said with a fake smile plastered on my face. Maybe there was a chance I could talk myself out of this.

“And yet, you had time to pursue other interests…”

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