Page 27 of Wolf Marked

Erec’s gaze snapped over his shoulder to the tent’s entrance. “It’s Henrick,” he rushed. He was off her and on his feet in seconds, leaving a chill where his body used to be. “I should go.”

Astrid pushed herself onto her elbows. A jumble of conflicting thoughts collided in her head, making her temples pound. Part of her wanted to tell him to stay. That Henrick didn’t really need him. He could handle whatever it was himself. Ignore him and be with her. While the other part of her wanted to scream at him to get out.

It all hovered on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t utter any of it. She stayed quiet as Erec tiptoed to the tent’s opening.

Before leaving, he hesitated and glanced at her once more. In the flickering orange light, uncertainty clung to the shadows of his face. Then, he sighed, pulled back the canvas flap, and stepped outside.

Another icy gust of wind rushed into the tent, extinguishing the candle beside her.

Astrid was left alone in the dark.

Chapter Ten

The moment Erec stepped out of the tent, the bitter winter air flushed the prickling heat from his skin, but it did little to refocus his thinking or stop the erratic pounding of his heart. The desire to turn around and rejoin Astrid in her bed rushed through his veins, spreading fever and making his head fog.

Go back.

Erec hesitated. Maybe he should listen to himself. His instincts had never steered him wrong before. They’d helped him survive on his own all these years. What was really stopping him? Besides the fact that he was an orphaned rogue wolf with no territory and no home. Nothing to offer any mate, let alone Astrid, the daughter of Boden the Warrior and the alpha of one of the largest and oldest packs among their kind. She deserved better than him.

His stomach sank at the truth of it. He was a nobody. Even before Mikel had found him, no one had even known he’d existed. He would be a burden to a mate, especially Astrid.

But the curse… The sky spirits didn’t care who he was or wasn’t. If they didn’t meet their mate before the next Blue Moon, they were both dead. And if he and Astrid were supposed to be together, this could save them. He could save her.

Would she even want him, though? She had kissed him back at the pomple tree and just before in the tent, but both times he had pulled away and left her. Erec wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted to speak to him again because of it.

He cursed. Had he ruined his chances? What if she refused him, even if they were destined for each other, and chose death over being with him?

No, that was absurd!And a little too overdramatic.

He sighed. The only way to possibly save himself and Astrid was to not push heraway. He had to stop resisting the invisible link and the constant pull between them. Being with her, kissing her, touching her, was as easy and as natural as breathing or shifting. Like the wolf in him, it was as if she was a part of him he couldn’t ignore. Erec had never experienced this with any other woman. Even now, with the canvas of the tent separating them, her wolf called to his, coaxing him to come back and finish what they’d started.

Could this be it? Had he found his mate? Had fate really led him directly to the one? Or, he should say, had it led Astrid to the snow pile where he had been buried so she could pull him out?

He chuckled. He didn’t know the sky spirits had such a strange and twisted sense of humor.

Erec turned around, reaching for the tent’s opening. He would go inside and explain it all to Astrid, if she wasn’t too mad at him to listen. A flutter of hope skimmed his insides. Maybe things didn’t have to end so badly for the two of them. Maybe they could survive this and…

“Erec. There you are.”

When his name reverberated against his eardrums again, his mind caught up with the present. He had come outside for a reason. Henrick had been looking for him.

He spun around to find Henrick standing beside the sputtering fire pit. As his gaze danced between Erec and the tent, surprise transformed his sunken and dirty face. His nostrils flared, most likely taking in the scent of Astrid clinging to his skin.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said in a teasing whisper. “Did I interrupt something?” His lips split into a large grin, flashing perfectly white teeth.

Yes.Erec’s wolf growled, but he shushed it away and replied with a simple, “No,” instead. He didn’t know much about Mikel’s young ironworker. Erec hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with him when he was in Mikel’s pack, but the alpha had always admired him. Then again, Mikel was the type of person who found good in everyone. Even in Erec.

So far, what he knew for certain was that Henrick seemed to have impeccable timing.

His penetrating stare hinted that he didn’t believe Erec’s innocence.

Erec forced away any emotion from his face, afraid embarrassment might slip into his expression. “You needed me?” he asked.

“Er—yes.” Henrick nodded toward where Claus and Kalle were set at the edge of the campsite. “I was going to take the next watch, after the young one. Is there anything I should be wary of with Jerrick’s pet?”

That took Erec aback. After being starved and left to freeze to death, Henrick still wanted to offer his help? He should be exhausted and resting with the others. It was a wonder that he even had enough energy to stand on his own two feet.

He was beginning to understand why Mikel admired Henrick.

---