Page 16 of Bait Wolf
I reached my hand up.
Coal took it at once and the strangest thing happened: his gaze softened, and his shoulders seemed to sag, tension leaving them.
He pulled me gently to my feet but didn’t release me, holding my hand in his large, warm grip, thumb stroking my knuckles.
“I’m sorry I frightened you,” he said, and I knew he meant it. I could feel the emotion, almost like it was my own—a pang of regret.
Finally, the reality of my situation dawned on me. It was said that fated mates could feel each other to a degree that no one else understood, that they knew what the other was feeling and sometimes even what they were thinking. With the adrenaline of the fight and then the drugs coursing through Coal’s body, I hadn’t felt it, not until now.
As I gazed into Coal’s surprisingly gentle eyes, panic nearly overwhelmed me.
Coal reached out at once, frowning. He held my cheek, fingers sliding into my long, dark hair.
“It’s okay,” he said, and his words coupled with his nearness calmed me. Especially when he pulled me closer and pressed my face against his scent gland. Despite myself, my eyes rolled and I sagged into him.
Coal caught me, holding me firmly yet gently and I couldn’t remembereverfeeling so safe, so protected.
In all my years, rushed couplings with other alphas or even the gentle care of my older brother had never made me feel so…good.
I inhaled and had to bite back a moan. What waswrongwith me? I was stronger than this. I wasn’t just an omega cliche, at the very least. I never had been before, but at this moment, I didn’twantto pull myself away.
“Better?” Coal breathed softly into my hair.
I swallowed and physically forced myself to pull back. I managed a nod, unable to meet my alpha’s gaze—no, notmy, not yet.
I blinked.Not yet?
“What’s happening to me?” I muttered.
Coal stroked back my hair, and my body betrayed me further by leaning into the touch.
“It’s natural for your alpha to calm you,” he said, a surprising gentleness in his voice.
There was that sentiment again.
“You’re not mine,” I pointed out.
Coal’s eyes darkened, his gaze dropping to my neck, exactly where a mating mark would go.
“I am. But don’t worry, we’ll make it official.”
I wanted to point out that I wasn’t worried. That, in fact, I wanted to get away and live life on my own terms. At the very least, I hoped to not to be sent back into that dark cellar where I had been kept for so long now.
Unfortunately for me though, I couldn’t deny that Coal’s words soothed something inside me, and I realized that I had soothed Coal right back.
He was steadier now, holding me in his arms like I belonged there. The anger that had been emanating from him was now a hum in the background, a pressing feeling not to be ignored, but no longer an overwhelming force.
With a reluctant sigh, Coal pulled back.
“Time to go.”
“They want us to wait here,” I reminded him. “They’re going to let you buy me… if that’s what you want.”
The idea itself had stung, the fact that I was going to be used to make money for the people who had almost killed me, the fact that I had no say in who took me. The only consolation, of course, had been that if I was taken out of this place, I might actually stand a chance of escaping.
Coal was frowning at me, as though I’d said something perplexing.
“Did I not make it clear enough?” Before I could answer, Coal leaned closer, lips brushing my ear. “I want you. Of course I do, but they can’t sell you when you don’t belong to them. You aremine… and I am yours.”
