Page 16 of Undesired Mate

“She’ll be fine, but she had a close call.” Thorn pulls Levi aside and the two of them have a quiet, tense conversation. I can’t hear. I don’t need to. I have a pretty good idea what they’re talking about.

“Come on. I’m taking you back with me,” Levi says as he approaches me. I hear Thorn behind him, and it sounds like he is protesting a little, but Levi is having none of it. I can’t stop him from sliding an arm under my shoulders and my knees, lifting me like I weigh nothing.

“I can walk,” I rasp, but he only shakes his head. I should probably save my breath. He’s going to do what he wants.

And right now, I can’t say I mind. How long have I wished I could hand my problems over to somebody and simply close myeyes to rest? Finally, I have the chance to do that, letting my head drop to his shoulder while he carries me.

9

LEVI

“I need your word.Watch over her while I’m gone.” Because I will not have another close call like she had while I was out looking for information about her father. The lone wolf I pledged to kill for her sake.

I sense Thorn’s irritation at my insistence, but he manages to cover it without his anger flaring. “As I told you, there will be eyes on her at all times. Security teams will be working in shifts, patrolling our territory. If there are any signs of trespassers, they know what to do.”

That has to be enough. It doesn’t feel like it—not nearly enough—but I don’t have the luxury of hanging around, questioning whether or not this is the right course of action. It has to be. I cannot spend the rest of my life and hers waiting for the next time someone decides to eliminate her because of what she is, how she is.

And I did make a promise. I told Clara I would do this. My wolf won’t let me rest until I make good on that promise. It’s either head out to find and kill the rapist bastard who fathered her, orwrestle my wolf until he tears my mind apart. When I look at it that way, there isn’t much of a choice to be made.

Just like I have no choice but to set out now. The recon work I’ve done so far points toward a wolf named Bradford who has been spotted roughly ten miles outside our northernmost territory, haunting an old hunting cabin high up in the mountains. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live that way, completely cut off from my pack, left alone for the rest of my days.

Wolves do not handle solitude well, at least not in general. We’re born with the instinct to work together, to protect and support one another. I wonder what happens when that natural instinct is turned inside out. What it would do to the wolf’s mind, his identity?

At least I know as I make the shift that he won’t have any backup fighting his battles for him. It will be the two of us alone, which means I like my chances.

Everything is so much simpler and clearer when the wolf takes over. I have a goal nothing can keep me from. Heightened vision comes in handy when clouds cover the half-moon. I hear everything—the night creatures, how they scurry in their search for sustenance. The way they flee when they sense my presence. They don’t know I have much bigger prey in my sights.

It takes very little time for me to pick up a scent that should not be familiar, but is just the same. The shifter side of Clara, the unique essence that pulled me in from the beginning. It’s faint, carried on the wind along with the scents left behind by humans hiking and camping. I ignore all of that in favor of zeroing in on the wolf scent, following it, my paws slapping the ground a little faster as the scent grows stronger, more concentrated the closer I get. He’s out here somewhere, perhaps a few miles ahead. Hecould be hunting—the way I am. He’ll sense the presence of another shifter in the area and will be on guard, not that it will help him. He deserves to die for what he did, not to mention for all the pain inflicted on Clara.

It’s only another few minutes of climbing the increasingly steep slope leading up to the secluded cabin before I hear him in my head.“Stop. Turn back. There is nothing for you here.”

He thinks that will help him. I slow my pace, not out of fear but to keep watch. He might become desperate once he senses I’m still coming for him. I won’t be so easily deterred.

“Stop!”Louder this time, angry.“Do not disturb my peace.”

His peace? Now I’ve heard everything. The absurdity of his statement stops me, makes me wonder if that approach has ever worked before. Somehow, I doubt it.

He’ll start to panic soon, and he’ll show himself. I take my time, listening for him as I approach. He’s out here, standing upwind from where I peer into the darkness.

Calling out to him in my mind, I ask,“Are you the lone wolf known as Bradford?”

He hesitates before offering a response.“And if I am? You are trespassing.”

“A lone wolf has no territory of their own,”I remind him.“I’ve come to settle a debt.”

“I am indebted to none,”he tells me.“You have come here for no reason. Turn around now before you make a worse mistake than trespassing.”

“Again, I can’t trespass on land that doesn’t belong to you.”I start moving again, cautious but confident. Does he realize I feel his fear? I wonder how long it’s been since he was in the presence of another shifter. It hangs in the air, his solitude, like a handwritten sign. Banished. Alone.

“Your pack banished you.”I continue my approach, sniffing the air for him. He’s close, lying in wait somewhere nearby. I can make out the cabin up ahead, its outline barely visible in the profound darkness.

“What business is it of yours?”he demands. He is closer than ever, maybe stalking me. Somehow, he’s got the idea into his head that this runs both ways, that this is a dance between us. He’s going to find out very soon that’s not the case here.

“I know what you did. I know what you are responsible for.”Seconds after the thought leaves me, I feel the heat of his rage. Like all bullies, it’s never his fault.

“I was one of many! I won’t be held accountable for what everyone did.”

“That’s the problem,”I tell him, now using the intensity of his rage and his fear to guide me to him. He makes it so easy.“You won’t be held accountable, but that changes nothing. You caused years of pain, and for what? A few minutes of fun? Do you enjoy terrorizing helpless women?”

---