Fated Magic (Claimed by Wolves 1)

“There used to be four. But we’re down to three after—” He breaks off, shaking his head. “There are only three now.”

I don’t know what he was about to say, but questions are crowding my mind, clogging my brain as they pile up on top of each other. It’s hard for me to keep hold of a single train of thought for too long as I try to process everything that’s happened to me.

Holding up my left hand, I wiggle the fingers, surprised all over again that I can do it without pain. “What happened to my wrist? It was… it was hurt. Sprained. And my ankle…”

“Yeah.” Ridge’s eyes harden, but I don’t think the anger in them is directed at me. “I had our healer come take a look at your injuries. She was able to patch up the worst of them, including your arm and your ankle.” His brows pull together, and he scans my body quickly. “Are you hurt anywhere else? I can bring her back if you are.”

“No. No, I’m okay.”

I really don’t feel pain anywhere else, and I’m relieved to hear that the healer is a woman. But I don’t think I could handle being touched or examined by another stranger right now.

“All right.” Ridge leans back a little, a look of relief crossing his face. “Well, just tell me if—”

He cuts off, turning away from me and craning his ear toward the window. The glass is closed, and I don’t hear anything for several seconds.

Then a chorus of howls pierce the silence, faint in the distance but loud enough for me to pick up on.

“Fuck me,” Ridge growls, standing abruptly. He shoves a hand through his messy brown hair, then drags his palm down his face, closing his eyes as if to brace himself. When he opens his eyes, he levels that honey gaze on me, grimacing slightly. “I have to go.”

I nod, though I feel a twinge of regret that he’s leaving when we’ve only just begun talking. If I learn more about his pack, and about the life they lead, I think maybe I won’t feel the need to run so fast and far.

Life with Clint was one long unknown. Would I get a day’s respite before he raised a hand to me again? Would he feed me? Would he let me read a book so that I could have an escape from the horror that was my life?

The answers to those questions varied daily, and it kept me in a permanent state of high alert, my nervous system braced for whatever might come.

Here in Ridge’s secluded cabin, I’m still facing an unknown, and maybe that’s why I can’t calm down. I’m tired of the unknown. I want a plan, I want certainty, and I want to feel like I’m in control of my life.

He’s already crossing the room and opening the door, moving quickly. But he stops with his hand on the doorknob and turns back, his dark brow furrowed.

“You’re not a prisoner, Sable,” he says. “You aren’t my captive in any way, and I have no intention of keeping you here against your will.”

“O-okay.”

I nod my head a few shakes too many before I finally get it to stop, and a flush creeps up my cheeks.

Way to go, Sable. Just keep proving how insane you are to the beautiful man who’s doing his best to help you.

Ridge opens the door more and takes another step, but he’s still looking at me as he adds, “But if you stay here, you’ll be safe. I promise.”

Then he disappears through the door, leaving it open behind him.

8

Ridge

It takes a lot of fucking willpower to leave that door open.

What I really want to do is slam it shut and barricade it closed so that the woman in my bedroom can’t leave. Just because I told her she was free to go doesn’t mean I want her to. I want to keep her right here with me, where I know some jackass isn’t putting out cigarettes on her perfect skin.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

The front door slams shut behind me as I step out of the cabin, and I shove my hands in my pockets as I stride down the front walk to the packed-dirt road. I don’t know why I want so fucking much for Sable to stay with me. She’s nobody to me. Some chick I found half-dead in a ravine, and to hear my brother bitch about it, I should have left her there.

But as I walk away from my cabin, the thought that she might actually leave while I’m gone makes me sick to my stomach.

For now, though, this council meeting is a lot more pressing than keeping Sable in my bed. If Lawson caught a whiff of me putting a woman before my duties to the pack, he’d use it as a reason to wrest the pack out from under my control.

Not that he’d need a lot of reason to want to try.