Page 36 of Rejected By a Wolf

“Sorry, mom, I took candy from the creepy man in the van,” Sophia muttered to herself. “Too bad it tasted so damn good.”

Stupid is as stupid does, she supposed.

Casper was probably right to have been wary of the wolf. He should’ve stuck with his gut.

But he didn’t and now she was here, standing in front of what looked like a predator that was hell-bent on punishing someone. Hell-bent on punishingher.

“I’m not sure what I did to upset you!” She called out to Antonio as the space between them closed. He didn’t respond, not seeming to want to hear it.

Well, when in trouble,run.

Seeing no option as logical as fleeing from the situation, she took off, sprinting into the crowd in hopes that she could lose him in the mess of immortals.

When she heard a howl behind her - a howl that she didn’t doubt came from Antonio - she realized running away might have pissed him off even more, provoking whatever animal seemed to have a handle over him.

It looked like there was no turning back now.

She really wished she knewwhyshe was running from him in the first place!

“You’re running because you trusted a strange werewolf. No additional explanation needed,” she huffed to herself as she rushed through the crowd, slipping past everyone with ease.

Despite beingmostlycertain Antonio didn’t have a great handle on his emotions at the moment, Sophia couldn’t help but entertain her thoughts with memories of him in an attempt to understand why he was so angry with her. Animal or not, she didn’t believe his anger should be targeted at her. She didn’t do anything wrong!

“He’s a werewolf,” she bluntly reminded herself. Werewolves were notorious for losing all sense of rational thinking more often than not, especially when they didn’t have a great handle on their beast. Sure, werewolves didn’tphysicallytransform, contrary to popular belief. They didn’t need to, because their mental transformations were dangerously excessive on their own.

But did werewolves lose themselves to the beast when therewasn’ta full moon? Sophia knew, without a doubt, that they unleashed their inner beast every full moon without fail, succumbing to their primal instincts. But there was no full moon tonight!

The fact that they could go wolf when there wasn’t a full moon was news to her. Then again, how would she know any better? She didn’t know jack about werewolves.

While her thoughts on werewolves spiraled out of control, she failed to notice how the number of immortal beings around her dramatically decreased, dwindling into almost nothing.

In the midst of her thoughts, Sophia was struck with a realization she could only take as good news. If Antonio or the wolf she believed was controlling him had any plans to kill her,he’d never be able to. They were both competitors in The Elaron Games and competitors weren’t able to kill another while not on the battlefield. The contract they all signed physically wouldn’t allow it.

She began to feel a bit more at ease at that realization. And as her emotions settled a bit, she finally took a moment to get a good look of her surroundings.

Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach.

Somehow, she managed to mindlessly run to Elaron’s famous Charmed Forest. She cursed herself for not paying attention to where she was running.What was I thinking?

She laughed, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “I wasthinkingabout werewolves.”

But her laughter didn’t last, because though Elaron’s Charmed Forest wasn’t a dangerous place, it was currently a veryemptyplace. No one camped out this far from the arena, which really put a wrench in her plan to hide in the crowd. It was difficult to get lost in a crowdthat didn’t exist.She slowed her pace as she debated where to run to next.

Maybe heading back to the crowd was a good idea. She could hide among the immortals until she believed Antonio’s anger dissipated. Antonio’s rage had to end eventually, right? She wondered if she might already be safe. There was a chance she might have lost him back when she was skillfully weaving through the crowd. He also could’ve calmed down by now, but when she felt large hands grasp her side she realized the threat was still very real.

Definitely didn’t lose him..

Her panic returning, she jolted forward. Unfortunately, the grip on her waist didn’t loosen when she did, causing her to lose her footing, sending her tumbling forward until she was laying face first in the grass.

Not good. Not good at all…

Before she was able to gather her bearings, those strong hands found her again, quickly flipping her over until she was looking right into Antonio’s wild eyes, her back pressed against the dirt.

He looked so lost, as if he wasn’t entirely present. Somehow, she knew hewantedto be. She almost believed she could see his struggle beneath his eyes.

In that moment, for some reason she didn’t exactly understand, she decided she’d work on understanding Antonio better. Maybe it was possible to get a rein on wolf inside him so she could prevent this from happening again in the future.

But first she had to work onmakingit to that future.

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