Page 74 of Wolf Claimed
Maddox didn’t even flinch at the sound of the door slamming next door. Rafe scented the air. Tiernan’s scent remained strong in the adjoining room, whereas hers was fading. He glanced at Maddox, who hadn’t moved an inch and didn’t look like he planned to. Something more than the situation with the DSA and the other shifters was bothering him. Rafe would have to figure it out later. Right now, he needed to stop Artemis before she drove off and disappeared from their lives forever.
Rafe tore out of the room and caught up to Artemis as she unlocked the SUV. She didn’t turn around to face him.
“Let me go, Rafe.”
He reached around her and slid the keys from her hand. It took everything he had not to touch her, but he wasn’t going to seduce her. Staying had to be her choice ultimately, but he couldn’t let her go without trying to convince her to stay.
“I heard everything you said to Tiernan, Artemis. You’re wrong.”
She whipped around to face him. “Stop calling me Artemis.” That fire in her eyes accentuated her natural beauty. She was spirited, his female.Hisfemale. Fuck, he didn’t know what he was doing, only that he couldn’t lose her.
“I’m going to call you Artemis for the rest of my life. The rest of our lives, because you have the spirit of the goddess. You’re a fighter, Artemis. A woman with heart. And I can’t let you go.”
“You going to keep me prisoner?”
He slammed the keys down on the hood of the SUV. “I’d never force you to do anything except listen to what I have to say. If you want to leave afterward, then I won’t stop you.”
“And you won’t follow me?”
He thought about it. His wolf nipped at him when he considered lying to her. Lying was a legitimate tool when it came to defeating the enemy, but she wasn’t the enemy and deserved the truth. All of it.
“I don’t know. I think I’d have to follow you.”
“Have to?”
“A shifter doesn’t let a mate wander off without protection.”
“I’m not your mate.”
“I know. You’re Tiernan’s. But to me, you’re as much mine as you are his, even without the bond. I can’t explain it any better than that, Artemis, but I feel it down to my bones. You’re mine. And his. Fuck, even Maddox’s. We’re a pack, but not a conventional one.”
She sank against the SUV. “I want you, Rafe. And Maddox. But it’s not right, and it’s not fair to Tiernan or any of you. I don’t feel this bond he believes exists between us. I feel the same as I did before.”
“Except now you sound like you don’t want to leave him.”
“I don’t want to leave any of you, but I don’t know what else to do. I can’t have feelings for all of you.”
“But you do, don’t you?” he asked, his heart racing at the prospect that she felt for him even a fraction of what he felt for her.
When she didn’t answer, he gripped the back of her neck and gently drew her against him. As she sank against his chest, her arms curling around him, her scent changed. The bitterness of before gave way to the sweetest honey scent.
“You need us, Artemis, and we need you. We’ll figure out the rest in time, together, as a pack.”
“You already have a pack. All of you do. Three separate packs that you’ll return to. Eventually, I’ll have to choose between the three of you, Rafe, and I can’t. I just can’t choose.”
When she tried pulling away from him, he lifted her onto the hood of the car, pinning her there so she’d be forced to listen.
“That’s not fair,” she said.
“Life’s not fair.”
“Rather cliché, isn’t that?”
“Stop trying to distract me. It’s hard enough standing here without kissing you while I figure out what I need to do.”
“You think you’re going to convince me to stay, Alpha? Are you planning to bully me into it? To guilt me? Those won’t work on me.”
“You’re right. They won’t. Which is why I’m going to do something I rarely do.”
