Page 59 of Rugged

She should be. I couldn’t stay and explain myself now. I wasn’t even sure I was capable of shifting back to my man form yet. I needed to put some distance between us until I got my self-control back. I bolted for the wolf-door in the kitchen and shot out into the night. I racedup the mountainside. Away from my mate. For her protection.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard the howl of my brothers already out on their full moon run.

Even from a distance, I heard Marina’s voice calling from the front of the ranch house. “Lyssa? Is that you?”

Heard the sound of running feet. Marina’s. Lyssa’s.

Good. She would take care of my mate. Maybe explain things. Maybe get her medical care, if she needed it. Audrey was probably there with her sister and could help.

That thought made my wolf snarl out loud. Our mate was hurt. He wanted to go kill someone.

That someone would be me, though. How could I have hurt her? Scared her? How could I have done that?

My wolf was confused.

Out of control.

I raced up the mountainside, my paws scrabbling over the rocks to get to higher ground, but stopped and lifted my nose to the moon, and howled over what I’d done.

I had to wonder if Lyssa would even be there when the moon set.

26

EMMA

“Johnny? Johnny, come back!”I stood at the doorway to the bunkhouse, wrapped in nothing but a sheet. The air was chilly, the night somehow alive. And–my boyfriend was a werewolf.

Shit! HOLY SHIT.

I didn’t know how to process that. To even get my head around it. One second we were having amazing sex–the next, he bit me!

Oh God. Was I infected? And if so, with what? Was I going to turn into a furry creature with big teeth?

When my sister went and did crazy things, I bet she didn’t have something like this happen to her. Oh, no. It was possible I finally won the bat-shit crazy sister award.

I’d fucked a werewolf. I just told him to come back, too.

What had I been thinking? I couldn’t stay here. Couldn’t wait for a wolf to come back and… and what? Eat me? Tear me to bits?Biteme again?

I put my fingers over the spot his teeth had nipped. There was a trickle of blood, and it only stung a little.

I couldn’t stay here. Couldn’t be by myself, so I started my way up the hill to the main house. Marina would be there. The others, too.

Before I could figure out what to even say when I got there, Marina called out. Thank God.

“Lyssa?” She was running down the gravel road toward me, followed by Audrey, Natalie, and Becky. “Are you okay? What happened?” The women surrounded me, hugging my shivering form.

“J-j-johnny.” My teeth chattered.

“What happened?”

I reached up and tapped my shoulder. It was hard to catch my breath.

“He bit her,” Audrey said in a calm, doctor’s voice. She tilted her head to examine my wound although it was really too dark for her to see anything well. “Come up to the house, so I can look at that for you.”

The four women led me up the path toward the ranch house. They didn’t seem surprised. Didn’t seem freaked out.

“H-h-e’s…” How did I say it? How did I explain what I just saw? That my boyfriend turned into a monster at the full moon.

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