Page 24 of Wolf Unleashed
Because of him.
Alyssa would suffer a similar fate if he didn’t get her out of here.
Light footsteps moved quickly behind him. He slowed his pace, not realizing how fast he’d been moving. Without a word, Alyssa followed him. Maddox looked inward toward the bond he had never expected to form. After all, she’d blood-bonded Tiernan first.Thatwas the bond that should have taken. Not his.
“Stop,” she called from a few hundred feet back.
She was bent over, hands on knees, breathing heavily.
For the first time since he’d shifted to human form, he allowed himself to look over her. Several tendrils of golden hair had escaped her ponytail and now clung to her sweat-covered face. Her jeans were stained, mud dried into the fabric. Such a small insignificant detail, but it made his wolf growl inside, especially as he noted her torn jacket and smudges of dirt on her face. How long had she been hiking? Days? Weeks? Did Rafe make her walk all the way here from the DSA training facility in Nebraska? No, that was over three hundred miles.
The scents that clung to her like a second skin irritated his wolf. He had expected Tiernan’s and Rafe’s scents, but not Drake’s. His bastard of a cousin had touched his female.
“You’re angry,” she said from where she stood, still trying to catch her breath. “I can feel it. Over the bond.”
“The bond never should have formed. I was a fool to blood-bond you. I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, you were feeling, and I love you all the more for it, Maddox.”
“You shouldn’t love me at all. It’s a useless emotion, one that could get you killed. You shouldn’t be here, Alyssa.”
She approached him slowly, as one might approach a wounded deer, afraid it would run. He’d never been prey before. Except to her. He couldn’t run from her if he wanted to. The bond had flared to life, demanding he take her, protect her, love her. Even if the bond’s pull to her hadn’t increased tenfold upon seeing her, his wolf wouldn’t allow him to leave her. She was their mate. Their blood-bonded mate. What the fuck had he done?
Her hand lay flat against his bare chest. He sucked in air at the feel of her ice-cold fingers. She was freezing out here. The clothing she had on was too thin to protect her.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t be here, but I should be with you. We just found out a few days ago that you’d been returned to your pack. Before that, I wanted to contact the DSA to find out where you were, but Rafe thought it was too risky.”
“He’s right. You can’t trust the DSA. Or anyone here.”
“Except you.”
“Including me.Especiallyme.”
She blinked those beautiful hazel eyes twice. He wanted to hold her, but knew once he did, he’d never be able to let go.
“I don’t understand,” she said. Her teeth started chattering as she stood there in the icy wind, waiting for an explanation he couldn’t give.
“You’re here. That’s what’s wrong.” He almost called herangel. He wanted to call her that, but he needed her to leave. Today. Now. Before he got pulled in by her sweet scent, her warmth, and those beautiful eyes that looked at him like he mattered. If he weren’t careful, he’d talk himself into keeping her.
He winced at the stabbing pain in his soul. The crushing pain of rejection crossed the bond and sliced through him like a knife.
“Fuck, come here, angel,” he said, opening his arms. She sailed into his embrace. He never thought he’d feel her against him again, never thought he’d have the chance to touch or talk to her. Tears ran down her cheek. “A lot has happened, Alyssa. You can’t stay here, and I can’t leave.”
“Just tell Drake you’re not staying, that you won’t do your job if he tries to stop you. He won’t want a guard who isn’t motivated.”
“It doesn’t work that way. If we leave without permission, he sends guards to track and bring back the runner. Guards who have families. They’re motivated to obey. Very few escape.”
“I don’t understand anything about packs. Rafe said pack fights for pack no matter what, but his father gave him an ultimatum to get rid of me or leave his pack and never come back. And your alpha would rather keep a guard who doesn’t want to stay. And you, Maddox, you made me believe you’d fight to get back to me, but I find you here, running away from me, trying to get rid of me without any explanation. Did you fall out of love with me? Was I nothing more to you than a fun time while you were away from your pack and now that you’re home, you want a full shifter in your life, someone who will obey your orders without question?”
“That’s not what this is about, angel. I am fighting for you the only way I know how. I planned to escape the DSA and track you, but before I could figure out how to get away from them, they dragged me back here.”
“Why?”
“Because Drake gets what Drake wants. Always.”
“If he has connections in the DSA, perhaps I could try to reason with them, ask them to talk to—”
“He has a network of spies. I don’t know what intel he gave the DSA, but it’s moot now. I’m here, and Drake won’t release me from my oath.” Maddox sank to a log. “I already asked him. I won’t repeat what he said.”
