Page 14 of Betrayed Wolf Mate

Her affection clearly wasn’t a one-way street, either. I’d never seen Sam with children before, but the way he handled Elle and the tender way he spoke to her told me that he was great with them. It was sweet. And even though I was trying to stay distant from him and not get involved with him again, seeing him like this made it a lot harder to remember why I was so adamant about holding him at arm’s length.

“All right, Elle,” Georgia said patiently. “Let’s let these two get back to what they were doing. You don’t need to monopolize all of Sam’s time.”

Elle pouted again, but she nodded, giving Sam another hug and then hurrying off back to the group of women.

“We’ve got to get going,” Georgia said to me. “But it was really nice meeting you.”

“You too,” I managed to say. Why was it so strange to me that they weren’t treating me like an outsider? I would have expected at least some caution, maybe even a bit of hostility. But there hadn’t been anything of the sort.

“Let us know if you ever want to get out of the house, by the way,” Andi said. “We’re always happy to hang out with you.”

“Yeah, I will,” I stammered, doing my best not to show my surprise as they waved and walked away, all smiles as if we’d known one another for years.

“So, what did you think?” Sam asked me after they’d left.

“They’re nice,” I said, watching their retreating backs. “They’re some of the Silver Wolves’ mates?”

Sam nodded. “Georgia is Jameson’s, Andi is Luke’s, and Jenn is with Klyte. And Evelyn is with Oliver.”

I hadn’t realized Evelyn had a mate. For some reason, that surprised me. She’d always seemed so independent and free. It was hard to reconcile those traits with the idea of having a mate. But I kept the thought to myself.

“If you want to go shopping, this is probably the best place,” Sam said, nodding to a small boutique with cute, rustic clothing displayed in the window. Everything I could see in the window screamedme. I had a jacket like the one on the mannequin back at my old home. Whether this was a coincidence or Sam had remembered the type of clothing I wore, I wasn’t sure. And I didn’t want to ask.

I nodded curtly and walked to the front door, fully aware of him walking in behind me.

***

“Did you have a good time?” Sam asked me as we stepped back into the house.

I nodded absentmindedly. The truth was, I’d really enjoyed being in town, and being with Sam the entire afternoon had been…pleasant. It had felt almost natural. In some ways, it felt as though we were picking up right where we’d left off.

You mean the first time around when he abandoned you, I reminded myself. I couldn’t risk letting my guard down around him. It was too risky. I couldn’t be hurt by him again. And I didn’t want to get attached again, not after everything I’d been through the last few days.

“I’m going to put these upstairs,” I said, maybe a little too quickly. “Thanks for showing me around town.”

“Anytime,” he said. The intense way he was staring at me made my heart thud, and it threatened to break out of my chest. I turned, hoping he hadn’t seen the blush rising up my face.Don’t get attached again, I told myself, gripping the handle of my bag so tightly that I was white-knuckling it.

“Hey, Stella,” Sam said. I turned, wondering if he could hear my heart beating dully.

“Yeah?” I asked, half-turning. Why was my mouth so dry?

“Do you want to watch a movie or something together?” he asked, and he sounded a little nervous. “You’ve been through a lot, and I figured you might need a distraction. And it would be nice to spend time together.”

Part of me wanted to say yes, if for no other reason than the fact that he was right. I needed a distraction, and a movie did sound nice. Curling up on the couch with Sam, maybe falling asleep against him and—

“No,” I said before my mind could go any further down that path. “No. Thanks, but I’m pretty tired, and I just want to be by myself.”

He blinked, then nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

Was that disappointment in his voice? I didn’t want to think too hard about it. So instead, I just nodded and went up the stairs to my room, closing the door behind me.

Chapter 8 - Sam

Rand and Tannen brought back their intel, and none of it sounded particularly good.

“A couple of my old friends have heard about Akron,” Rand said. “Apparently, they thought he was dead. He’s been underground for a century at least. Or wherever demons go when they’re not terrorizing earth.”

“So, how do they know about him if he hasn’t been seen in decades?” Oliver asked. All of the Silver Wolves were sitting in the living room, listening to Rand and Tannen intently as if they were teachers giving an important lecture that was definitely going to be on the test.

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