Page 34 of Wolf's Chance

I ignored her, reaching for her arm. She resisted, even going so far as to hit out at me, but she was no match for my strength.Taking the cloth off her, I inspected the two puncture marks I’d left on her wrist. “It won’t scar.” Pulling her to the cabinet in her bathroom, I got a large Band-Aid and wrapped it over her wrist. “You’ll be fine.”

Willow was struggling to accept my calmness. Her scent was scared, confused, and…something that was dangerously close to arousal. Or maybe it was anger.

“We still need to talk,” I told her.

“Get out of my house.”

Sucking my teeth, I cocked my head as I considered her. “I said sorry.”

“You didn’t say sorry!” Anger overrode all her other scents. “You don’t evensoundsorry. You bit me. You made mebleed, and you stand there as calm as you like.”

“I said I didn’t mean it.” She was right, I hadn’t said sorry. “It was a moment of weakness.”

“A moment of weakness?” Her skepticism was warranted. “How often are youweak?”

“You’re acting like a scared virgin.” I looked at her more closely. “You’re not, are you?” That would explain my reaction to her blood.

“No, I’m not a virgin!” Her face was scarlet. “Jesus Christ, Caleb, what iswrongwith you?”

“If you’re not a virgin, then why the fuck are you clutching your pearls at a little blood?” Her eyes were as wide as saucers. “Okay, so you like vanilla sex. Got it. Can we get back to the point?”

Willow barged past me and stormed back to the kitchen. I followed, fully prepared for her to attack me with a knife or something. Instead, she was facing the window, her back to me. “Why do I see you?” Her voice was tight with fury. She watched me in the reflection of the window, and I could see the unshed tears.

“That’s what I was hoping you’d tell me.”

“I don’t have any answers for you, I told you that.”

“You’ve never had any visions before me?” She shook her head. “Do you see anything else?” She almost turned but shook her head. “So you don’t see, like, a scene or a vision?” Her head shook quickly. “Do you actually see me, or do you just wake up with my face or something in your mind?” She did turn at that, and I half shrugged. “It’s new to me too,” I reminded her.

“But biting people isn’t.”

“You’re the first human I’ve bitten,” I answered without thought. Her eyes were wide again, and I inwardly cursed my stupidity.

“You bite animals?”

“What the hell, Willow! Of course I don’t bite animals!” I thought about it. “Not live ones. I have no problem biting into them when they’re cooked and on my plate.” It was an effort at lightheartedness that fell flat. “Okay, I think we need to revisit this tomorrow or something.”

“I don’t want to see you again.” She wasn’t looking at me, but I could see the determined set of her jaw as she glared outside. “That means I don’t want you hanging about the woods either. I want you gone. I don’t know why you’re here, I don’t know why I see you when I sleep, but I know I don’t want to see you again.”

“If I leave, do you think the visions will stop?”

It was her turn to shrug. “This is fucked up. You are…” She made eye contact before turning her back to me. “You’re too much. You think you make me weak. It sounds preposterous, but itfeelsright. Those men from earlier, they weren’t a coincidence, were they?” I shook my head, and she nodded, her shoulders slumping. “Just leave me alone. Leave town. Please. I don’t have what you’re looking for.”

How did I tell her that she was the answer, and she just didn’t know it? But she was right. From the sound of it, she had been fine before. No paintings of men she’d never seen.

“I’ll be gone by morning.”

“Thank you.”

She was looking at me from the reflection in the window. We held each other’s stare for a moment, and then I turned and let myself out of her house. I was at the gate at the edge of her small garden when I heard the lock turn and a deadbolt slide home.

“I’d lock me out too,” I mumbled as I headed up the sidewalk, away from her house. I didn’t want her to see me enter the woods; she already thought I was peeping on her. I entered the woods and made my way to the small area where I’d made my base these last few weeks.

Cannon rose to his feet as I joined him and his beta. The wiry human was nowhere to be seen.

“She knows nothing. We agreed it was better if I leave here.”

“Why?” Cannon looked me over. “What did you do?”

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