Page 52 of Feral Mates
I could taste her nervousness. While the sense of danger remained, it seemed further away, yet she wouldn’t know that with her constant internal processing.
She glanced quickly into the rearview mirror before making a turn, doing exactly what she’d stated she’d do. The car was blanketed by darkness. While we could see clearly, no one should be able to notice where she’d parked.
“I’ll be right back. Then we can head directly to my parents’ house. I should have enough gas.”
As soon as she was out the door, I exited the car, sniffing while I scanned the surrounding area. The stench of garbage covered up almost everything else.
“Let’s do as the lady asked,” Roman suggested.
I grabbed some clothes, not bothering to head toward the trees. What was the point? No one could see our position or what we were doing.
I’d just fastened the jeans when the wind shifted and I was able to detect her distinct fragrance once again. Something dark and possessive erupted from the depths of my being. For a few seconds I could do nothing but drink in her fragrance as it stained my nostrils.
Being pack leader at an early age had been challenging. My father, the former alpha had been gunned down by a hunter who’d wanted a trophy, not food. It had been the first and only time I’d killed a human. I’d heard my father’s bloodcurdlinghowl. I’d found him lying in a pool of blood with an arrow through his heart.
There’d been no stopping the moment of bloodlust and I’d gone after the human.
The attack and kill had taken less than two minutes.
There’d been no question I would become the pack leader. I’d simply taken over, leading the same way my father had. But in doing so, I’d alienated other wolves, which had left our pack smaller than I’d wanted.
With no mate.
Even over the years as we’d fought various enemies, forced to move our den more than once, I’d maintained control.
Now everything I knew and had learned had been challenged.
The fire of the woman, her sweet scent that infused my senses, and the fact she was in heat were driving me to the point of losing all sense of control. The way it lingered, a sweet haze of pure desire and savage animal magnetism had called to all of us.
But to me, it was a beacon that I’d believed would never occur.
And in truth, it scared me more than anything had ever done in my life.
Even still, the night of our awakening, her scent had been the first one that had drawn me out of a stupor. The draw to the source had been undeniable, her fragrance curling around me in sweet waves.
I’d lost all sense of worry about what we’d experienced, all the anger that had been building for weeks against my captor. I’d simply become focused on one thing.
Her.
Finding her.
Seeing her.
Tasting her.
All the restlessness had disappeared. Every sound had faded away with one exception.
Her voice. The soft lilt that had carried in the wind, igniting the same hunger I felt today. Even then when the ache had surfaced, I’d been lost in a fog of lust so powerful that my breathing had been labored.
Exhaling, I grabbed the shirt and inhaled, tamping down my hunger.
Yet the wind was unyielding, providing another scent, this one full of dirt, sweat, and urine.
Then I heard a sound, so slight that if I were human, I wouldn’t have heard it at all, but I did. Our mate was under attack.
The growl that erupted from my chest was the last thing the motherfucker was going to hear. I couldn’t risk taking the time to transition to a wolf, instead taking off running, sensing the other two were following. Only they’d shifted, the two wolves full of rage.
A hand was wrapped around her mouth, another holding a knife with the blade at her throat. Even as he was trying to drag her from the light, she was fighting him, issuing sharp punches into his stomach.
