Page 55 of Wolf Claimed
Maddox caught up to her before she made it to the stairs. He pulled her back into the apartment and shut the door. “What are you going to do? Run back to the training center? He won’t be there.”
“I’ll shout for him. Eventually, Tiernan will hear me.”
“Along with every other human and shifter around. You’ll give away your location.”
“Then lead me to him. I’m not just going to sit here and wait for Rafe to show up to say he killed Tiernan.”
“We sayput down. It’s considered a mercy kill.”
“Call it whatever you want, but Tiernan will still be dead!”
* * *
MADDOX
Maddox stood there,pleading with Alyssa to accept what had to be, but she couldn’t. He knew she cared about Tiernan, as she cared about everyone, but this went further, deeper. She was willing to sacrifice herself for him. It was the sign of a true mate. The blood-bond would be a good one, if they could find Tiernan and if the shifter could overtake his wolf long enough to blood-bond. But the chances of that were slim compared to the risk to her.
But this wasn’t his choice. It was hers. That was one of the things he loved about Alyssa; she fought for what she believed.
And she believed in Tiernan.
A tinge of jealousy moved through Maddox. Even his wolf growled low and deep. Tiernan might already be dead, but he still held a part of Alyssa’s heart, and likely always would.
“Are you sure you want to do this, no matter the risk?” he asked, desperately seeking a way to change her mind. Humans couldn’t comprehend the pain of watching a loved one go feral, of losing the shifter to the madness and then having to put him down.
“I have to,” she said, hazel eyes pleading with him.
“Why? You barely know Tiernan.”
“I care for him. I think I love him. I need to save him, and—” She swallowed hard, then faced him with that raw determination of hers that he loved and admired. “And save me.”
“You’re not a shifter, Alyssa. I can’t even believe we’re having this argument considering who your father is.”
“Who my father is? Do you know how he ended up hating shifters so much? Because my mother was one!”
Maddox must have misheard her. The famed Woodrow Monroe married to a shifter? No fucking way.
“Or rather I think she was shifter. Which makes me half-shifter by birth, despite whether I smell like a shifter or human. I don’t have any proof about my mother being a shifter.”
“Even if your mother were shifter, that doesn’t mean you are. There’s nothing saying those genes would have been passed to you. You would have shifted by now if you were.”
“You’re not listening to me, Maddox. I have thisthinginside of me. And it scares the hell out of me. It’s there, lurking like some monster in the shadows.”
That remark hurt, coming from her. “You don’t have a high opinion of shifters, do you?”
She rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know how to explain any of this. Your wolves are noble. They watch out for you. But I don’t have that. I’m telling you, something is wrong with me, inside. Whatever is in me doesn’t communicate with me like your wolves do with you and the others.” She sank against him. “I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know this beast inside of me or what it wants.”
She sounded so convincing. It made him question everything he knew about human-shifter pairings and their offspring. What if she was part shifter?
“Are you sure whatever you’re feeling inside you is a wolf?”
“That’s just it, Maddox. I don’t know. I’m so fucking confused.”
He pursed his brows. “You’re holding back something, Alyssa. What could be worse than admitting your father is Woodrow Monroe, which I don’t think I’ve fully processed yet, by the way.”
She wrung her hands. “When you asked if I’ve shifted, I wasn’t entirely honest.”
“You’ve shifted?”
