“Perhaps this is serendipitous.” Dieter’s still monologuing like the deranged evil nemesis he is. “For too long you’ve kept secrets, wolf. Now let her see the truth. You will not thank me now but perhaps at the end.”
He lifts his sunglasses, and I catch a flash of weird, snakelike eyes. I don’t even have time to parse the information before my wolf registers the threat, and I shift to protect Adele.
Adele
An animal-like snarl comes from behind me. I hear the rip of clothing, and then a huge wolf leaps at Dieter, knocking him to the ground.
Rafe? I whirl to look behind me. His clothes lay in tatters in the snow.
Rafe is a wolf.
Rafe. Is a wolf.
In some kind of supernatural blast, the wolf gets thrown backward off Dieter, and the man scrambles to his feet.
The wolf’s fur is pitch black with a few orangey brown markings on the tips of its ears. It surges to its feet, teeth bared. Its canines are like steak knives.
A half roar, half growl rumbles out of it, and my bones turn liquid. Even though I know it’s Rafe, I scramble back, my legs threatening to give way.
I must make a disbelieving squeak because the wolf swivels its huge head and looks at me.
“Hold, wolf,” Dieter says in an authoritative voice. “You won’t win this battle. You saw what I did to her enemies. But I relinquished my claim on your mate. She’s not my intended. I won’t harm her.”
The fur at Rafe’s nape stands up, and he lowers his head, baring his teeth again and growling.
Dieter simply turns and gives Rafe his back, sauntering away with his hands in his jacket pockets like he hadn’t just been thrown on his ass by a giant wolf.
Yeah, I’m so not introducing that guy to Tabitha. What possessed me to have tea with him, a strange man, in the middle of a winter forest? None of my alarm bells clanged, but they’re ringing off the hook now.
“R-rafe?”
The wolf won’t stop growling, its green gaze fixed on Dieter’s retreating back.
“Rafe.”
It stops snarling and swivels its great head to look my way. He’s freaking huge. His head comes up almost to my shoulder. I knew wolves were big, but damn, if I saw that thing in a dark forest I would lie down and expire on the spot. Might as well before the wolf tears me apart.
“Rafe.” His name seems to be the only word I’m capable of uttering. Like if I say it enough, he’ll change back into the man I thought I knew.
He lifts his mighty chin in the direction of the ski mansion, still giving me orders, even in this fearsome new form.
I wobble toward the mansion, my entire body trembling. I can’t tell if I’m not breathing or if I’m hyperventilating. Either way, my lungs feel too full. Like they’re going to burst.
I push open the door, and Rafe crowds me from behind, jostling me forward and then nosing the door shut.
With a shudder and crack of bones, he changes form again, into all his extremely well-built, naked glory.
“Adele.”
I hear the apology in his tone, and I’m instantly mad.
Now that I recognize him I’m ready to rumble. “Adele, what?” I demand, hands on my hips.
He spreads his hands. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” I echo. I stare at him, my brain still trying to put all the pieces together. “You’re sorry for not telling me you’re–what? A werewolf? And what the hell was that about with Gabriel?” I demand, casting a wild arm in the direction Gabriel Dieter disappeared.
“Leave him out of this,” Rafe growls, and his eyes flash green.
My stomach flips as I realize what those flashes mean. They weren’t a trick of the light, as I’d previously thought. They were glimpses of his wolf.
“You’re a…” my breath hitches. I back into the kitchen, and Rafe follows slowly. “You turn into a wolf.”
“Yes.”
“Is that all?” My back hits the counter.
Rafe stops by the kitchen island and picks up the metal trash can. Holding my eyes, he crumples it into a ball, with about as much effort as it would take me to ball up a piece of tin foil.
He sets it on the marble topper, a modern art sculpture.
“All right. Okay.” My spinning thoughts slow. I grab a dish towel and toss it his way. “Tell me more.”
Rafe manages to get it around his waist to cover up. “Where do I start?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Can’t.” His jaw snaps shut and clenches so hard white lines radiate over his reddened cheeks.
“I thought we were getting close.”
“I wanted to, Adele. But I couldn’t.”
“I see.” So this is why we can’t be together. I’m human, and he’s…not.
“So that’s it, then–” I start to say when he interrupts.
“There’s more. You’re my…” he stops and runs a hand through his hair. The dish towel around his hips is woefully inadequate to hiding all his…impressiveness. With only his left hand holding it, the cloth is starting to slip.