Page 74 of Stealthy as a Wolf

Pure predators.

What girl wouldn’t want them?

Since I’d spent most of my life in prison, I was the opposite of a catch. Just being with me put Maggie in danger. If I were a good man, I would’ve let her go.

Thank fuck I wasn’t.

I was a selfish asshole, and Maggie was mine. I just needed to figure out how to win her over.

Eager to shed my skin for the first time since prison, I opened my mouth to agree but stopped when I noticed the stillness that came over Maggie.

Something was wrong.

Ignoring the others, I stalked toward her, taking the liberty of cupping her face. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

Her eyes were wide, her breathing rough, looking almost panicked. “I can’t shift.”

I cocked my head, acid churning in my stomach at the sound of her stark whisper, and compassion stirred in my chest. I knew what it was like to be trapped, my freedom taken away. That Maggie suffered the same horrified me.

Silence filled the cabin, the outrage from the others so overwhelming that the room filled with testosterone. Their concern became suffocating, quickly saturating the air like a too pungent air freshener. It only made Maggie retreat further, and she looked everywhere else but at me, as if she was afraid to see my reaction.

I felt the twins inch closer, wanting to offer their support, but they didn’t know what it was like to have the ability to shift be taken from them—the hour they wore the collars not counting.

It was truly the worst kind of torture.

The fucking wolves had stolen so much from her that it was enough to make me see red, and I wanted to bathe in their blood. “What do you mean can’t? Are you physically unable to shift?”

She cast a furtive glance at the others, as if worrying about their reactions. I quickly grabbed her shoulders, spinning us around until her back was to the room, giving her the illusion of privacy. I refused to allow the others to upset her. The men thankfully kept their mouths shut, as if they sensed that an interruption would make her retreat into her shell and we might never be able to reach her again. “Tell me.”

“I haven’t shifted since the wolves took me.” Her eyes flickered with shame, then her gaze dropped, as if she couldn’t bear looking at me a second longer.

I grabbed her chin, not letting her hide from the truth. “What do you think will happen if you shift?”

Her bottom lip trembled, and my resistance broke, my gut clenching with the need to ease her pain, and I confessed my own fear. “You’re afraid you’ll turn feral. That if you shift, you’ll never come back.”

Her head snapped up, her golden eyes huge as she searched my face. Anxiety had such a tight grip on her that I didn’t think she was even breathing. I gritted my teeth as a wave of helplessness slammed into me.

And I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t let her suffer alone.

I grabbed the back of her neck and nestled her against my chest, clutching at her almost as desperately as she clung to me. A broken purr rumbled in my chest, my house cat’s instinctive need to comfort her overcoming my embarrassment.

Doubts were paralyzing her.

If she didn’t face them, her worst fears would materialize. She would turn feral, and I couldn’t allow that. If I could do nothing else for her, I wanted to give her back the ability to shift.

She was too beautiful, too strong, to go on living with that fear.

She deserved to be free.

“Not shifting can damage your connection with your wolf. People have died when they’ve been denied the chance to shift. I spent years with a collar clamped around my neck, and every time they removed it, I wondered if I would be stuck. If I would be forever locked in my human or beast form.” I ran my hand up and down her back, loving the way she burrowed against me. “Every time, I was afraid it would be my last.”

A beat of silence followed before Maggie stirred in my arms. She pulled back only enough to peer up at me, concern for me replacing the blind panic from only moments ago. With her this close, her beauty made my breath catch.

I’d never seen anything so perfect in my life.

“How did you get over it?” she murmured, her eyes dropping to my chest. She fiddled with the buttons on my shirt, as if terrified to whisper her worst fear out loud. “How do you keep the fear from consuming you?”

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