My mind raced with escape plans. The front door.
I ran for it. Tripped on the rug and ran straight into the wooden door. My shoulder screamed with pain.
But I didn’t stop, I couldn’t.
I grabbed for the door handle with sweaty hands, “No... No… No!”
I could feel them coming up behind me. I screamed out as I pulled open the door and raced down the stairs to my car.
My keys were in my pocket, I grabbed for them and pulled them out. My hands shook and my heart pounded in my chest like I was running away from a bear.
“Hey, are you okay?” a man to my left called out to me, and as I beeped the door open I was grateful to see that he was smaller than all the others. Just taller than me, thin, and had a kind face.
He jogged over, his eyes going wide as he took in my trembling form.
“I’m Brad. Are you okay? You’re as white as a ghost.”
“I need to go home. Now. I can’t stay here. You don’t understand…”
“I probably don’t, but I can help you. Okay?”
He put his hand out and touched my arm, and I didn’t stop him.
The feeling of his skin on mine soothed all of my anxiety. Instantly. Like he’d switched off a tap.
The blood drained away from my arms and legs and the sky began to spin.
The man gasped and gripped my arm harder as I began to fall.
He swept me up into his arms, and after the day I’d had, following the year I’d endured, I let the darkness pull me under.
Chapter 4.
Brad.
She was heaven and angels, and perfection. All in one, beautifully scented package.
I took a deep breath through my nose, feeling the heat of arousal race through my blood like a driver speeding on the last lap of a five-hundred-mile race.
“Whoa.”
If this woman wasn’t our mate, I’d bite my own ass.
People came running from everywhere it seemed, and although I recognised all of them, I pulled my mate into my chest and backed away from everyone.
“What on earth is going on here?”
“Give her to me, Brad.” Grayson came towards me with his arms outstretched.
I didn’t want to hand her over.
Indeed, my teeth descended and my wolf rose to the surface to fight the Alpha for the woman in my arms.
“It’s okay, Brad. I know how you’re feeling. She’s our mate. I won’t harm her.” Grayson was saying soothing things, and I focused on his words to calm the animal in me.
“Okay.”
I let him take her and she began to stir in his arms.