Page 23 of Protector Dragon's Shattered Mate

She never looked back.

They reached the camp and used the password Rhett had given him to pass through the magical barrier.

“Are you guys okay?” Rhett asked when he came to greet them.

“We had a difference of opinion,” she said.

Which was a nice way of saying they’d had words in the woods. Levi grimaced and Rhett shot him a sympathetic look.

He could not just leave without saying anything to her. But he knew it would be wrong to try and push her. And it would only serve to piss her off more.

He swallowed hard. “Goodbye, Sofia,” he said stiffly. “I hope to see you again one day.” How had he even gotten those words out of his mouth? Despair was not a strong enough word. A heavy rock lodged itself in his throat.

“Goodbye, Levi.”

He trudged through the forest. He was tempted to shift and fly. When the sun went down, he might do just that. He could not accept that he’d just blown up his own life. He couldn’t accept that he’d never see her again. He tried to come up with a plan, but his mind kept blanking out.

About a mile away from the campsite his phone rang. It was Kellan. “Levi. Where are you?”

Kellan’s voice was frantic. Levi had never heard him like that. His own pulse skyrocketed in response. “I’m about a mile from Rhett’s camp in the Ouachita National Forest. Why?”

“We have some bad news. The feral wolves that had Sofia… Well, we’ve heard they’re in the states.”

Dammit. He should have gone after them instead of trying to court Sofia. “Where?”

“We don’t know yet. We skipped every available communication open but all we know is they somehow got into the country.”

“Well, that’s much better than nothing. Thank you for keeping an ear out. I’ve got to get back to her. I just left her with Rhett.”

“Tell him what’s going on.”

“I will. Does he need help getting the members of his motorcycle club hidden?”

“Probably not. You can ask him, but I don’t think he’ll need our help. He has plenty of trained security. But if he does need help, we’ll give it.”

Levi took off in a sprint. Sofia wasn’t going to be happy with Levi, but her safety had to come first.

15

Sofia

Levi had absolutely broken her heart. She couldn’t say he was like every other guy in the world, because even though she was furious with him, he was still so much better than most.

When she told him to leave her alone, he had done it. Not instantly, but he’d gotten there. He hadn’t put his hands on her and tried to force her to listen to him. But she discovered something else: being angry felt good. It feltreallygood. It felt a lot better than being subjected to the whims of someone else.

She had spent her whole life trying to placate the shifters around her. The temperamental ones, the explosive ones, the silent and the malicious ones. It seemed that the only solution was to shrink inside herself. But she had not done that in the compound. She asked questions and she’d been punished for it. And look at what the end result had been—she’d found her power and her voice.

Sure, she could’ve been killed. But shehadsurvived. And then she broke out of her prison and busted her way out of that razor wire fencing. So, when she hadn’t done that with a groupof evil wolves, she sure as hell wasn’t going to do it with Levi, a male who claimed to be her mate.

If he was truly her mate, wouldn’t he respect her wishes? Maybe that wasn’t fair. How would she feel if she had declared her feelings for him and been rejected without a chance to prove herself? Not good. But if she knew he had been through such an ordeal she would respect that—she hoped.

She thought maybe Rhett would hold it against her that things between her and Levi were tense, but he seemed to brush it off.

“Sorry about that,” she said.

“No big deal,” he replied. “Communal living has its ups and downs. All of us obviously prefer it. Shifters are meant to live alone. I’ve told everyone that you’re coming but it’s best if we introduce you slowly. So, for tonight you can just hang out with me or a few of the members who are the most outgoing.”

He waved to a woman who came walking over. “We’ll wait for the more reserved members to come to you. I’ve already explained to a few of our shifters who stay in their animal forms permanently why you’re here. They’ll make their way over; it just may take a day or two.”

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