Page 2 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

I scrambled on top of the table and uncapped the bear spray, every part of my body aching from the punishing sprint as I panted, waiting for the wolves to come out of the forest. They were scant seconds behind me, the four of them spreading out, eyes aglow and jaws wide as they circled me.

“Go away!” I shouted, trying to make myself look bigger. But they didn’t budge, only growled louder.

Shit. I was clearly too easy prey for them to let me get out of here. This picnic table couldn’t be far from the parking lot; I just needed a little bit more of a lead to get back to my car and safely inside. I didn’t dare glance down at my hand again to see if the glow was getting worse, but I knew that once a hallucination started, it wouldn’t stop until the seizure ended.

I dragged in a deep breath and held it, then depressed the button on top of the spray as hard as I could, making sure to hit all four wolves before leaping from the picnic table and running like hell down the path. Adrenaline kept me moving past the pain and the stitch in my side, and it was probably less than two minutes later that I saw civilization.

Glowing neon lights and open pavement.Never had there been a more welcome sight.

But somehow, in my headlong run, I’d missed the path back to my own car. When I broke into the parking lot, it was for a shabby little bar, not the trailhead I’d parked in. As I heard the angry howls behind me, I didn’t care.

Inside a building was preferable to out here, alone and exposed. Paws on the pavement spurred me on, snaps and snarls right behind me making me worry they wererabid. What kind of wolves weren’t afraid of the lights, the human scents and noises?

None I wanted to mess with.

My vision was going blurry around the edges as I snatched open the door, stumbling through the doorway and squinting at the light. The bar stank, and the lights were making the preseizure headache infinitely worse after the dark of the forest.

But my gaze skidded to a stop on the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. He was wearing a suit for some godforsaken reason, his deep chestnut hair slicked back from his forehead.

“Are you okay?” he asked, taking a step forward, as if he could tell something was wrong with me. At any other time, I’d feel humiliated to be standing here in ripped, bloody clothes and on the verge of collapse, but all I could feel was an overwhelming sense of relief. I’d made it. Wolves couldn’t open doors.

“Don’t let them get me,” I whispered anyway as involuntary shudders rolled through me.

Here it comes. Seizure.

“Don’t let who get you?” the man asked, taking another step toward me, the scent of his cologne flooding my senses. Damn, he smelleddelicious.I was definitely about to go under the seizure if I was thinking about licking a stranger with everything I had going on. But I had to warn him about the wolves. They were in the parking lot. They could get him too.

“The wolves are after me. Please help me,” I said, starting to slur my words, even as his eyes locked with mine. I grabbed his hands, scared I was going to pitch over.

I lifted one hand and grabbed the front of his shirt when I started to slip away.

“Please,” I whispered, not even sure what I was asking.

“I’ve got you. You’re safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” the man promised as my knees turned to jelly, unable to support my weight.

It was the last thing I remembered as I crashed toward the ground.

TWO

Reed

Istared down at the human woman in my arms and then up at the four pissed-off shifters in the doorway.

Naked shifters. I clocked their lack of clothing and the strange chemical, peppery smell clinging to them, and it clicked.

These were the wolves she’d been running from. And these idiotic assholes had shifted in the parking lot and barged into ahumanbar buck-ass naked.

My wolf was raging for control, not at all happy at being confronted and outnumbered while our mate was helpless, shuddering in my lap.

A woman appeared at my side, dropping to her knees on the sticky floor. “I’ve got her. I’m in nursing school. I think she’s having a seizure. We need to get her on her side.”

Her capable hands pulled the woman out of my lap, turning her on her side as she cushioned her head.

The second I knew she was safe, I surged to my feet, stepping over her prone body to put myself between her and the shifters.

I dragged in another hit of their scents, unable to place their pack. They must be from a smaller local pack or from out of town. How long had they been chasing her? Only one was even close to my level of dominance, clearly the ringleader. The other three were gamma and lower, and even without backup, I had no doubt I could handle all three alone.

“Outside,” I ordered, letting my wolf take the reins enough to shine through my eyes.

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