Page 4 of Wolf Unleashed
“I’d say he’s nervous more than anything.” Tiernan tapped his nose, letting her know he’d scented the male’s unease.
“I’m sure your nose is as accurate as it is handsome, but what does Gunnar have to be nervous about?”
“Rafe put him in an awkward position. Essentially making our safety his responsibility mere minutes after the guard witnessed their alpha’s displeasure with us.”
“Oh.”
Tiernan rubbed her arms. “We’ll be fine, Alyssa. Go have a look around. Get comfortable. We might be here for a while.”
Alyssa moved from room to room as if she were conducting a raid on a drug den. It took a mere ten seconds, if that, given the small size of the cabin, to check over the cabin.
“Find any enemy combatants?” Tiernan joked.
“Yeah. The guard outside.”
“I was joking,” Tiernan said.
“That makes one of us.”
He understood her fear. She wasn’t used to shifters. Tiernan casually walked around, taking in the few amenities of the cabin. The space was sparsely decorated, with one woven rug, red with a caveman style depiction of animals along the border set in front of a medium-sized fireplace. A plush chair faced the fireplace, which had a hefty pile of wood neatly stacked off to the right. The bathroom had been updated with an open shower that used smooth river rock for the floor. Aside from the small but functional table, the kitchen was as bare as the rest of the cabin.
“I guess this is a guest house of sorts,” Alyssa said as she surveyed the bedroom with a large enough bed for two with a folded quilt at the end and another rug, a smaller version of the one by the fireplace, in front of the bed. “Beats a cell.”
“This is Rafe’s cabin,” Tiernan said as he picked up a picture from the mantel of a woman laughing as she hugged two dark-haired boys to her chest as she held a baby in one arm.
“How can you tell? I’ve seen motel rooms with more furnishing.”
“His scent is here. And only his scent.”
“Is that your way of saying this isn’t some type of love nest where he brings women?”
“More like a retreat, I’m guessing. A place away from the alpha and his pack.”
“After meeting his father, I can see where he might need that. But he spoke highly of his father before we arrived.”
“Being related to the alpha is always hard because the alpha responsibility to his pack often wins over his duties to his own family.”
“I shouldn’t have come. Rafe didn’t like humans when we met. I should have known his father would be no different.”
“Rafe still doesn’t like humans. Except for you.”
She released a nervous laugh. “I guess he senses the part of me that’s not human after all, even though he won’t admit it. Maybe if I tell his father—”
“It won’t make a difference. Unless you could shift to prove you’re shifter. Your scent is human, Alyssa. That’s why no one believes there’s a wolf in you.”
“Except you.”
“I’m not convinced, but as a scout, I have to be open-minded. Have you heard your wolf since we blood-bonded?”
“I’m not sure. After blood-bonding Maddox, I could feel his emotions and there seemed to be more. Another presence.” She hesitated, then added, “One filled with rage.”
“That sounds like Maddox.”
“No, something else. Maddox’s rage feels like a layer of blue ice, subtle, below the surface, contained. This felt red hot, like rage that had been building up in a pressure cooker over time and was ready to explode.”
“Do you still feel it?”
She slumped onto the edge of the bed. “No, and I’ve been questioning if I imagined it, or if it was real. It was so brief.”
