Page 50 of Wolf's Claimed Mate
I needed to. I wouldn’t rest unless I knew she was safe; the best way I could do that was by staying at her side.
We drove up to the cabin, the pebbles crackling beneath my tires on the driveway. In the dark, without my headlights on, it was hard to see, but the outline of the cabin and the dark lake beyond were eerie.
I opened my door, not wanting to waste a moment. This had been one of the investments Fenrys had made after mating with Thalia, and then Aidan had made after making Dakota his Luna. Several safehouses across different towns for different pack members. Reinforced, soundproof walls, lights that went off and on with voice commands to avoid the need to move when trying to remain incognito. All of them stayed stocked up with the basics, and every so often, we cleaned up, made it fresh, made sure nothing had gone to waste in the freezers.
“Let’s go,” I told her. Sasha stubbornly remained in the car. I’d damn well pick her up and carry her in there if she didn’t move. “Sasha, comeon.”
“I’m not a dog,” she snapped. She glared at me from her seat, looking gorgeously dark and wicked with her heavy makeup and styled curls, her tanned skin on show, and her dress still perfectly composed. Finally, she unclipped her seatbelt andgot out of the car. I led her down the pathway to the cabin’s front door.
Inside was beautiful, a rustic log cabin with an electric fireplace, a large bed, small kitchenette, all contained within one room.
“One bed,” Sasha muttered.
“Problem?” I questioned.
“Half an hour ago, it wouldn’t have been,” she hissed, stalking ahead of me. She collapsed on the end of the bed, starting to take her heels off. Her feet stretched and arched, and I wanted to ask to take off the other one for her, but her prickliness kept me at a distance.
“So what the hell do we do now?”
“Now we lay low.”
Her eyes flicked to me. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.” I couldn’t risk her being attacked again. They’d gotten too close. “After this, for a day or two, maybe more, we can go straight to Palmetto and check out what seems to be their headquarters. Aidan checked in earlier to say they’d had another sighting in Oak Hill. The pack are now identifiable by tattoos of the old Silverlake Valley crest from before the Randons took over the town.”
Sasha’s eyes were still narrowed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sighing. “I know you hate this. I just—I saw that cloth that he held. They would have put it over you and taken you from me.”
“Frommyself,” she snapped. “Not from you, Conall, I’m not yours!”
The words died in my throat,but you could be.
“I know they’d have taken me,” she said, sighing, falling back onto the bed. “It’s what Aidan’s pack did to Dakota. It’s a certain chemical that prevents people like us from shifting to overpower the attackers while also knocking us out. It’s dangerous, but it works for what they want. You don’t think I can protect myself?”
“Not if he’d gotten that cloth near you, no,” I said. “It’s not about your skill set. I’d go down like a fucking ton of bricks if they did it to me, too. You needed me, Sasha. Why can’t you just admit that? They did the same trick to Thalia, too. It’s a coward’s way of kidnapping because they know the shifters always fight. She needed Fenrys.”
“Yes but I don’tneedyou, Conall,” Sasha said. I walked over to lie next to her, just wanting to be near her, even if her words carved through me like acid.
“Don’t you?” I asked softly.
“No.” It was the shot of a gun, that one word, that admittance.
“Without me, you’d be unconscious in the back of one of their cars, hightailed right to whatever base Jackson is in. Not because you can’tfightfor yourself, Sasha, but because they had something to knock you out with before you could even raise your fists.”
The fight drained out of her, but she still looked as though she fought a war in her head.
“What’s going on in your head?” I asked her. “The truth.”
“I don’t want to lie to you,” she mumbled to me. “But I can’t give you the truth right now.”
I actually respected that. I nodded. She turned on her side, propping herself up on a fist. She shuffled closer to me,anger still coming from her, but it was softer now, as if she had shifted back into being that false version of herself who thought she needed bravado.
“I thought you weren’t going to lie to me,” I whispered.
“I’m not,” she answered.
“Then drop the mask, Sasha. I want to know the real you.”
