Page 12 of Marked For A Bite
Several feet away from her, Tabitha cleared her throat diplomatically. "Honey, why don't we get you inside? Logan will?—"
"No." Zoe spun around, her hazel eyes flashing gold in the darkness. "He was about to kiss me."
Tabitha's eyebrows rose. "Was he now?"
"And then he just... stopped. Walked away like nothing happened." Frustration bled into Zoe's voice. "What kind of alpha male behavior is that?"
"The kind that suggests he's fighting something bigger than himself," Tabitha replied carefully. "Logan's... complicated."
Zoe laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Complicated? The man broke into my house, killed two people to protect me, helped me kill two more, and drove me to a safehouse while looking at me like he wanted to devour me. And now, he almost kissed me and ran away like a scared teenager. I'd say complicated is an understatement."
The crescent moon birthmark on her inner wrist throbbed with an uncomfortable heat. Every instinct she possessed told her to chase after Logan and demand answers about this electric pull between them that made her feel like she was drowning and flying simultaneously.
"Listen, sweetheart," Tabitha said gently, "Logan's world is dangerous. Maybe it's better?—"
"Better for who?" Zoe's voice sharpened. "Everyone keeps making decisions for me, telling me what's better, and what's safer. My mother hid my father's true identity for twenty-five years. Logan just decided I'm better off with strangers than with him. When do I get to choose?"
The words hung in the cool air like a challenge. Zoe's breath came in short puffs, her body still humming with the memory of Logan's proximity. The way his green eyes had darkened when she'd whispered his name. How his control had visibly cracked before he'd yanked himself back from whatever precipice they'd been approaching.
He wants you,her wolf purred confidently.But he's running from it.
"He makes me feel..." Zoe trailed off, searching for words that could capture the inexplicable calm that settled over herchaotic thoughts and feelings whenever Logan was near. "Safe. For the first time since my mother died, I don't feel like I'm fighting this world alone."
Tabitha's expression softened with understanding. "And now he's walking away from you."
"Well, I'm not letting him." Zoe's chin lifted with stubborn determination. "I've spent the past year letting grief control my life and letting fear isolate me from everyone except Naomi. I'm not letting the first person who makes me feel whole just disappear into the night because he's decided what's best for me."
She turned back toward the treeline where Logan had vanished, her enhanced hearing picking up the distant sound of his boots on fallen leaves. He was moving deeper into the forest, probably thinking he was being noble or protective by putting distance between them.
Stubborn idiot,Zoe thought with surprising fondness.
"I'm going after him," Zoe announced.
"That's not wise," Tabitha warned. "When Logan is... conflicted... he can be dangerous."
Zoe snorted. "I just discovered I'm half-wolf shifter two days ago. I attacked an art critic at my museum exhibit, got arrested last week for assaulting my neighbor, and killed a hunter tonight with claws I shouldn't have. Dangerous seems to be my new normal."
She started toward the forest edge, her blood-stained hoodie rustling against her black yoga pants. Every step sent anticipation crackling through her veins like electricity.
"Besides," Zoe called over her shoulder, pausing at the treeline, "someone needs to tell that wolf shifter that running away after almost kissing a girl is terrible form. Especially when said girl has been through hell and just wants to understand why her entire world makes more sense when he's around."
The moonlight filtered through the forest canopy overhead, painting silver patterns across the ground where Logan's boot prints pressed into the soft earth. Zoe's newfound senses tracked his path easily, following the trail of his scent deeper into the wilderness.
Behind her, Tabitha sighed. "Logan's going to hate this."
"Good," Zoe muttered, pushing aside a low-hanging branch. "Maybe it'll teach him not to cage a girl against his Jeep and then run away like a coward."
Zoe inhaled deeply, trying to focus on Logan's scent—that intoxicating blend of mountain rain and leather that made her pulse race. For the first twenty yards, his trail remained clear, leading her deeper into the moonlit forest where ancient firs towered overhead like silent sentinels.
But as the canopy thickened, blocking out more of the silver light, Logan's scent began to fade. Zoe pressed forward, her tennis shoes crunching on fallen pine needles, following what she hoped was still his path. The earthy smell of moss and decomposing leaves overwhelmed her untrained senses, masking the subtle traces she desperately needed to track.
Come on, wolf,she thought, willing her inner beast to help.You protected him tonight. Now help me find him.
Her birthmark pulsed with warmth, but her supernatural senses remained frustratingly unreliable. After another ten minutes of stumbling through underbrush that caught on her yoga pants, Zoe finally admitted defeat. Logan's scent had completely vanished, swallowed by the forest's complex tapestry of smells.
Panic crept up her throat. The darkness pressed in from all sides, transforming familiar tree shapes into threatening shadows. Every rustle of wind through branches sounded like approaching footsteps. Every snap of a twig could be another hunter tracking her.
Don't scream his name,she warned herself, wrapping her arms around her torso.You don't know who else might be listening.
