Page 6 of Pregnant Wolf's Mate

Whatever it is, it's not my problem, he thought. He had given up enough of his full moon night and he wasn't about to waste any more of it. But though his wolf tended to agree with him, there was an urge deep in his stomach that made him follow the sound.

As he drew closer and closer, his golden pelt started to stand on end and by the time he came to the source, every inch of his skin was crawling. The sound of her weeping was such an eerie, grief-stricken sound that it clawed at his insides and froze him to the ground.

This is none of my business, he told himself firmly when he recognized Macie curled up in human form beneath a cedar tree. Her entire body was trembling, her sobs coming in painful-looking convulsions.

Ray knew that he should just turn around and sneak away, pretend that he had never seen or heard anything. After all, she was a Silverdale and if he knew them like he did, she wouldn't want him to be anywhere near her while she was upset. Werewolves didn't take kindly to sympathy at the best of times, let alone when they were inner pack rivals.

But still, he stood there, something inside him making it impossible for him to just turn around and leave. Instead of doing so, he gritted his teeth and slowly made his way deeper into the clearing, approaching on all fours before finally shifting back into human form.

Naked as the day he was born, Ray crouched down at the edge of the dip where she was curled in on herself and gently placed his hand upon her shoulder. The way she fell silent and the tension that stiffened her body told him all he needed to know about whether or not she had sensed his approach.

"Macie?" he said softly, hoping not to startle her.

"Go away!" she hissed at him, shrugging his hand off her shoulder and burying herself deeper into the dip beneath the tree roots. "Just leave me alone."

"What’s wrong?"

Though he told himself again that it was none of his business, he couldn't help but feel the urge that he had to be there, that he had to know what was going on.

"Just fuck off, Ray!" Macie snarled at him and when she whipped her head up to glare at him, her charcoal eyes looked darker than ever. "I said, leave me alone!"

Gritting his teeth against the urge to offer a sharp retort or even curse back, Ray gripped her shoulder a little tighter and said, "We may not be friends, but we are pack members and no pack member leaves another in this state."

It was clear to him she was in a great deal of emotional pain and no matter how much he wanted to turn around and leave her to it, he just couldn't do it.

"Don't act like you give a damn about me."

Macie pushed herself into a sitting position and turned her back on him, wrapping her arms around her legs. And for the first time, Ray noticed the white shift material of her dress. A huge tell-tale sign that something had gone amiss.

"What happened at the ritual?" he asked, even though deep down he already sensed that he knew.

Her eyes flashed at him again and she snarled, "You should know! You and all the pack got to witness my falling flat on my ass out there!"

Ray gulped past a sudden lump in his throat, feeling as though she didn't mean literally. Somehow, he knew it was something far worse than her simply falling over.

Shaking his head, he said, "I didn't witness anything. I wasn't even at the ritual. I had guard duty."

Ray thought he saw a flash of sympathy in her gaze but then just as suddenly, it was gone again and she bared her teeth at him. The lack of fangs that usually protruded when a she-wolf offered such a gesture made Ray even more concerned.

Though the words threatened to choke him, Ray asked, "You didn't shift, did you?"

"I…I couldn't." The way the fight went out of her voice made Ray's heartache for her. Bile rose in the back of his throat to think of what she would go through now.

She was a Silverdale, a prodigal daughter, and if she couldn't shift, she would be shunned by not only the entire pack but her entire family, including their alpha.

"Don't look at me like that."

It was then that Ray realized the sympathy was written plainly on his features. Feeling more than a little guilty for it, he wiped it from his face and shrugged. "Shifting is overrated."

Macie scoffed at that. "That's easy for you to say when you just shifted right in front of me."

Guilt swept through Ray and he felt heat rising in his cheeks. She did have a point. His guilt and sympathy melted into one until he blurted, "How about I help you access your wolf?"

His own shock was reflected in Macie's eyes. She stared at him as though she were waiting for him to take the offer back or even deny he had even said it in the first place. But seeing the desperation on her face, he quickly came to the conclusion that he couldn't do that.

"Really?" Macie asked, looking utterly stunned. "You would do that?"

The hope in her gaze made Ray more than a little anxious. How was he supposed to help her when his own wolf had come to him so naturally? But he also knew he couldn't just leave her to go through this alone. After all, he had been shunned by the Silverdales ever since his challenge against Dash. He could only imagine how much worse it would be for her to have her entire family turn on her.

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