Page 33 of Wolf's Chance

The fact that Willow was taking control of this conversation shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. Her calm steady look was deceiving, or maybe she was genuinely more in control than I was. As my life had turned into a shitshow I wasn’t expecting, maybe she had picked up on that.

I stayed low on the radar of the packs. I avoided alphas. Now I had an alpha, his beta, and a fucking human on my ass. And Willow.

Another human.

I no longer wanted to be here, but I knew I couldn’t run. I couldn’t walk away while she was bringing attention to herself.

I couldn’t leave while she was a danger to herself. Or my kind.

“How long have you been drawing people you’ve never met?”

“A month or two.” She held my gaze as she sipped her tea. “You’re the first.” Her lips twitched. “Hopefully my last?”

It was framed as a question. A question…as if I had the answer.

“Lucky me.” I sat opposite her. “Why me?”

“Your charm?”

Her eyes were dancing with amusement. “This isn’t funny,” I snapped at her, and I watched as her mirth dispersed. “Do you have any seers, witches, or psychics in your lineage?”

Willow shrugged. “No idea.”

Maybe if I snapped her neck, then we wouldn’t have a problem anymore?The ferocity of my anger surprised me, and I pushed it down, along with the surge of panic I felt at the feralness of my anger.

“Can you ask?” I strived for calm.

“No.” She carried on, cutting off any protest I may give. “I’m an orphan. Or more correctly, I don’t know who my parents are. I was left at a children’s home.”

She was abandoned? I studied her once more. Could she be a shifter after all? She didn’t smell like my kind, but then if she didn’t knowhowto shift, she may never have done so. But she was weak. Was it a side effect of her never having shifted?

Willow froze when I stood and crossed the room, dropping to a crouch in front of her. “Wh-what are you doing?”

She didn’t resist me when I picked up her hand, turning it over in my hold until her palm was facing up. Her sharp inhale was the only sound as I ran my nose along the faint veins that showed at her wrist. My tongue flicked out and tasted her skin.

I could hear her racing heart and the shallowness of her breath, but I tasted nothing other than the vanilla body wash she used.

“Caleb?” Willow’s voice held no strength now, and I ignored her as I let my fangs out and bit into her soft flesh. “Ow!” Willow scrambled away from me, clutching her wrist to her chest protectively. “What thefuck, Caleb? You bit me?”

My head was bowed as I tasted her blood. The heady scent of fresh blood caused my body to react, and desire pulsed through my veins as the coppery tang of Willow’s blood danced across my tongue. I knew she was talking to me, but I was fighting for control from my wolf.

Desire scorched my veins as I fought the impulse to grab her and fuck her. Shaking my head, I struggled to regain control. My control was slipping. I knew my eyes had changed color. Fuck, I couldn’t let her see me like this, and I couldn’t leave. She would have more questions if I left than she did now.

Questions I was forbidden to answer.

“Give me a minute,” I growled as I pulled my wolf and my lust back under my control.

“Give you a minute? Giveyoua minute?” She was angry, and she had a right to be. “You bit me like you were some kind of wild animal!”

She sounded further away, and I guessed she’d climbed over the back of the couch to get away from me. “I didn’t mean it.”

It hung between us like the lie it was.

“You didn’t mean it.” Her scoff was loud. “Get out. I don’t want you here anymore.”

I stood, and a quick glance at the mirror confirmed my eye color was back to normal. “Did you ever want me here?”

Willow had a cloth pressed to her wrist. Her eyes watched me warily as I approached her. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she told me carefully, “but this is no longer funny. I want you to leave. Now.”

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