Page 47 of Purchased

I take my wolf form and I jump off the train.

This time I am not tired. This time I am not scared. This time I am furious and I am running from the horrific prospect of having to share one of the worst moments of my life with someone who I actually like even though I’m fighting with him right now.

I know he’ll hunt me down, but part of me hopes he won’t. I don’t want to have to share these horrible bleeding parts of myself. I don’t want to feel examined and exposed. I just want to be, and if he won’t let me exist, then…

CHAPTER10

Armand

She’d rather die than actually talk to me.

Watching a woman throw herself off a train mid-shift is an absolutely insane sight. She takes her wolf form while in midair, and by the time she lands, she does so on powerful paws and massive legs that absorb the shock and take the momentum, using it for propulsion.

Stopping the train with the emergency pull cord yet again, I bound into the dark after her. My life seems to be consumed by chasing my mate and wondering what the hell happened to her before we met.

I don’t have the patience for the chase, so I go all out, frustration propelling me at greater speeds than usual. I overhaul her in around five minutes and bring her down with a bite to the ruff of hair at her neck, bringing her down with me in a tangle of limbs, forcing her out of her animal form with a rough bite that does draw blood.

I’d usually be gentler, but I am at the limit of my patience with her recklessness, and she will heal up almost immediately in her human form anyway. I want there to be some rough animal pain for her to contend with, a consequence for turning this pleasant day into another mess.

“What’s wrong with you!” I snarl the question down at her, teeth flashing at the end of her nose. “Do you want to die?”

“What’s wrong with you!” she screams back, unafraid and twice as furious. “Why do you only fucking care about what’s been between my legs?”

“I don’t care about that. I do, but because I want to know what your life was like before me. I want to know what happened.”

“Liar! You don’t ask questions about anything other than sex,” she throws back, slapping me in the face for good measure.

The blow shocks me, angers me, almost makes me retaliate, but sense takes the place of violence. What the hell am I doing? I love this woman and this is how I am trying to find out more about her?

“Just… stop running. You’re going to get yourself killed,” I growl down at her as we lie panting in the grass. I slide off her, but I sling a leg on top of her to stop her from getting up again. She’s incredibly powerful in her wolf form. So am I, but I am not used to having to chase down my lover.

“Stop asking,” she says. “Stop asking about my past, about all of it.”

“Fine. I won’t ask again. Just please stop fucking jumping from the goddamn train or I’m going to have to start strapping you down when you’re aboard.”

She looks up at me, naked and beautiful and terrified in some way that I can’t touch. I don’t think she’s afraid of me. I think she’s afraid of me knowing her, which is worse.

I can’t rush this. If we were normal people, we would barely be one date into knowing one another. The fact that we are mates means everything has happened on an accelerated clock. I can’t expect her to trust me deeply yet.

“I’m sorry I asked again,” I say. “You’re right.”

“I am?”

She looks surprised.

“Yeah.” I sit up. “You hardly know me. We both have secrets. It’s going to take time to build the trust necessary to share all of them. I’m going to let you move at your own pace.”

“Okay,” she says, her voice smaller. “Armand?”

“Yes?”

“Can I make my own way home?”

“You want me to leave you in the wild in the middle of the night?”

“Yeah. I need some time to think. I need some time to myself. I can’t think at the chateau. It’s too… it’s not… the place fills my mind.”

I nod. I don’t want to let her be out here on her own, but I also don’t want to make her feel like she can’t breathe.

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