Summer had been caring once, but Wolf…cared for nothing but Summer.
And Wes.
That thought whispered across her mind in the final moments of her Change.
What will you do? Summer asked.
Destroy everything, Wolf replied.
Wolf stood on all fours and shook her fur out, gave Wes’s belongings the devil’s smile, and bolted for his duffel bag. She shredded everything, ripped the zipper wide open, yanked his clothes out and adorned the floor with his personal belongings. She shredded the mattress and covers to the soundtrack of fabric ripping. The TV didn’t survive, nor did the table and chairs. The shower curtain was still wet when she yanked it down with a crash, and for a moment she wished she could laugh.
Why? Summer asked in her mind.
Because we were so stupid to feel hope again.
Someone was banging on the door, so Wolf dropped the shower curtain and looked slowly over her shoulder. Yes.
No! Summer yelled inside her head. Let them live, let them live!
Wolf bolted for the window, leapt through the air, and sailed through the shattering glass, her ears tucked tightly back, eyes closed to protect them. Her skin burned with the gashes of the broken glass and her paws landed painfully on the sharp shards, but she didn’t care. Didn’t care. Didn’t care about anything.
But me and Wes. Wes. Remember Wes, Summer frantically argued.
He left us again.
Her paws would heal, but her insides never would because he was a leaver.
Mates weren’t supposed to leave. They were supposed to bond deeper and keep each other forever, and what chance did she have of finding another? Her stupid black heart had latched onto a monstrous mate who couldn’t stick around.
She spun and crouched down, faced the man who had been at the check-in counter earlier.
“What the hell?” the dark-haired guy whispered in a shocked voice.
Good. He should be scared. Stupid men deserved to be scared.
There was a roaring in her ears, and everything was tinted in a crimson hue. The rage did that to her, but oooooh, such rage felt like everything.
Wolf was born for this.
When she took off for him, he turned and ran. But he couldn’t escape her. Not a human. She was too fast, too deadly, too focused on the sound of his heart pumping blood to the rest of him. Stupid humans always ran. She had run once, and look what had happened? Running had triggered the hunting instincts.
What are you doing? Summer shrieked in her head so loud Wolf winced and stumbled. Stop!
The roaring got louder, and the man disappeared around the corner of the building. She picked up speed again, but something monstrous skidded to a stop in front of her, and she didn’t have time to avoid it. She slammed into the tire of a truck, and then he was there. Wes. Before she could even shake off the pain in her face and neck enough to stand, he was on her. Fuck, he was huge. His cowboy hat fell off his head as he pinned her down, and she wanted to bite him. She wanted to, but she couldn’t. Couldn’t hurt him like that. She could only scrabble to try to escape his arms around her middle, squeezing the life out of her like some massive anaconda.
“Stop. Moving,” he snarled in her ear, and something awful happened.
She did stop, but not on purpose. He said those words with such dominance infused into them that her body froze and went limp. All she could do was growl at him. He was using bad magic on her. When he hugged her close to him, she whined, her ribs screaming.
In her ear, he whispered, “You aren’t going to do that anymore. You aren’t going to hunt people.” And then he stood easily, as if her wolfish form was light as air, and walked her to the back door of his truck. He hefted her onto the back seat next to a bunch of grocery bags. Ooooh, he’d gone shopping. One tipped over, and three shades of eyeshadow fell out. That’s where he’d gone. On an errand for her.
Wolf still couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift her head when he slammed the door. It felt like hours passed before he opened the driver’s side. Now there were red and blue lights flashing outside the window. She could hear Wes talking, but it was much too low for her to understand the words. Other men were talking. She hated men. Men were venom.
She growled again and tried her best to move her body, but Wes’s order still rattled around in her head. If she’d had any question about what he was before, it was laid to rest now.
Wes was an alpha and apparently very good at giving alpha orders. Dangerous boy.
The driver’s side door opened, and Wes tossed an armload of his shredded things into the passenger’s seat. She’d ripped up his clothes, but he didn’t look mad when he glanced at her with those glowing blue eyes. He looked somber. Sad even. Sadness was worse than anger. Sadness was too close to disappointment, and Wolf didn’t like to disappoint him—not Wes the Alpha.
But…he’d left. She’d thought so, at least.
He sighed heavily, ran his hand through his long, mussed hair, and slid his dirt-smeared cowboy hat onto his head. He turned over the engine until it roared and then drove them past the blue and red lights.
He didn’t speak. Miles stretched on, and she was stuck here, frozen, uncertain, a little scared of what she could’ve done. She could’ve killed that man.
Good. Wolf smiled.
Horrible, Summer said softly in her head. We would’ve done to him what was done to us. Remember how scared we were?
Wolf did remember. It was the brightest memory she had. Waking up and not knowing or remembering anything. Seeing Wes’s wolf, feeling safe…but then losing him. Perhaps Summer was right. Perhaps Wolf didn’t want to do that to someone else, even if they were a man. Or maybe so. She really didn’t like men, and biting them would be fun. She needed to think more about it.
Your moral compass is broken, Summer muttered inside her head.
Disagree. I never had a moral compass to break in the first place.
Summer laughed.
Wes slowed and pulled the truck onto a bumpy road that wound this way and that until Wolf’s stomach churned. She didn’t like riding in trucks, especially when she couldn’t move. She was beginning to feel pinned and trapped, and panic flared in her chest.
He’s going to drop us in the woods, Summer murmured inside.
So now he would leave them. Wolf growled and slid her head a few inches on the seat.
“Not yet,” Wes said grimly. He hadn’t looked back at her even once the whole drive.
He was mean. It was cruel to freeze her in place like this. She wasn’t some submissive creature that enjoyed confinement. She was a wild animal who thrived in freedom. How dare he? How dare he give her an order like this? He wasn’t her alpha.
Yes he is, Summer argued.
Shhh.
Wes stopped the truck and threw it into park, got out and shut the door softly. Too softly for a man like Wes. He should be angry that she’d shredded his things. Angry that she tried to bite that man.
But when her door opened, he didn’t look upset. He dragged his eyes down her body and murmured, “I forgot how pretty your wolf is.”
I am Wolf. The words didn’t come out, only a snarl.
A slow grin stretched Wes’s face. “Monster.”
He leaned forward, cradled her giant body in his arms, and then walked into the woods. Between two pines, he lowered to his knees and cradled her against his body, rocking her gently.
The snarl died in her throat. What was he doing? Why was he holding her like this? People didn’t touch her like this. Touch was supposed to hurt, to be uncomfortable, but Wes’s arms around her made her feel okay.