His mate.
He had her scent, and he wouldn’t lose it. He flew over the terrain, ignoring the frigid cold temperature–an artic chill that he knew would be cutting into Paige. The cold wouldn’t kill a vamp, but it would make her body tremble and shake. She’d suffer out there.
She’d already been in pain when she left him.
And the only damn thing he wanted to do was take that pain away.
He bounded through the forest and sent snow flying in his wake. The world was a blur of white, but he could just see the imprints of her footsteps.
He knew where she was going.
Inside the body of the beast, the man cursed.
The wolf ran faster, faster…
She’d never seen him in this form. Before, he’d been ashamed for her to see him transform. He knew what he was…
“Guess I am a monster…” Her words were burned into his mind.
But he’d been the monster. Always. The beast who’d taken what he should never have touched.
He leapt into the air, easily jumping over a fallen tree. Her scent was stronger now. Strawberries. Sex. Woman. He’d never been able to forget that lush scent.
The small lake was frozen, its surface dark and glistening. Even though it was day, the sky overhead was as dark as the lake. No sunlight.
Not now.
Just cold. Just darkness.
Paige spun at his approach and put her back to the lake. Her eyes widened when she saw him. Swallowing, she backed up a step.
He froze.
Then he changed, for her.
The transformation was brutal to watch. He knew it had to be. His bones shifted and broke, reshaped into a man’s body instead of the form that belonged to the beast. The fur seemed to melt from his body. Soon paws and claws became hands and fingers–fingers that had dug deeply into the snow.
“Drake?”
Her hushed voice pushed through the last of the shift, and, naked, he glanced up at her.
Paige rushed toward him. “You shouldn’t be here!”
“Neither…should you.” He rose before her. Wind whipped against his body, but werewolves always stayed warm no matter what the outside temperature was. The beast burned within.
Paige shivered.
He took a step toward her, but she stiffened, and her gaze darted around the small clearing. “It’s dangerous. I didn’t think–we need to go back.”
Drake lifted his hand and offered it to her. “Then come with me.” He knew why she’d run from the compound. Desperation and pain had driven her to flee blindly.
I wasn’t at the lake.
But she had been. He knew a lie when he heard it.
“I’m sorry.” The words were torn from him. Jeremiah had come to him, told him that he had a message from Paige. “Your little human said to meet you in two hours.” Jeremiah had smiled and flashed his fangs. “That gives us time for a hunt.”
And he’d just…gone off with the bastard.
Paige wasn’t taking his hand.
Her gaze was on him, sweeping over his body. She hadn’t been disgusted by his shift, and she sure didn’t appear disgusted by what she was seeing right then.
Lust. He knew that expression well. But he hated the mix of lust and pain in her eyes. He hated to see any pain in her gaze.
He’d rather just have the lust.
“Come with me,” he said again, and he still waited for her to take his hand. There would be no forcing on this. She had to choose to come with him.
To be with him.
Her gaze swept around the lake. The woods. She inched toward him. The snow crunched beneath her boots. “I-I didn’t…you shouldn’t have followed me.” Her words rushed out. “I just needed a little time…”
“There’s a vamp hunting you,” he told her. Hell, it was probably a whole gang of vamps now. “You really think I’d just leave you on your own?”
No. Her hand lifted and slowly, so slowly, her gaze met his. Her fingers touched his hand. Tentative. Soft. “I lied,” she whispered.
His fingers closed around hers. “What?” But he already knew and if she wanted to confess to him, he’d damn well listen.
He should have met her here, at Lost Lake. He should have told Jeremiah to screw off, that he was still heading out to meet Paige and that he’d just wait for her to show.
If he’d gone then, they would have been married by now. Had children. Had a f**king perfect life.
It was all his fault.
But then he heard the growl of an engine. No, not just one engine. Two. Three.
Coming close.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
Her eyes still held his. “I lied,” she said again, then she jerked her hand free from his grip and shoved against his chest. “Run!”
The vampires were coming.
“Shift! Turn back into a wolf!” Paige yelled at him. “You can outrun them, you can get away!”
“Not without you.” His claws tore through his flesh. He’d be damned if he left her behind.
She shook her head and shoved harder against him. “It’s not about me. They don’t want me.”
But–but she’d told him–the vampire she’d called Gabe–
“They want you,” she said, voice stark and sad. Her eyes had never looked bigger. Or sadder. “And Gabe always planned to use me…in order to get you.”
He could see the light from the snowmobiles cutting through the darkness. The vamps were closing in on them.
The vamps wouldn’t get them, though. Dumbasses. Drake knew this land so well.
Better than any vampire ever could. His beast ran free often. Knew every fallen tree. Every secret bend. Every dark cave.
Every hiding spot.
“Run with me,” he told her. Because right then, it wasn’t about fighting, even though the beast within was roaring for blood. That moment was about protecting Paige. Getting her to safety.
Then coming back to cut down all the vampires after him.
She nodded, and they took off, racing not around the lake, but right across it. It was icy and slick beneath their feet, frozen solid, and by going straight across that cold surface, they saved valuable time.
The ice wouldn’t break. Not for months.
They cleared the lake. Entered the edge of the forest, where the heavy weight of the snow had bent the trees. Because they’d gone right across the lake then leapt into the woods, they didn’t leave any footprints behind.
Well, no footprints that would be seen immediately. The vamps would have to search first, scanning every edge of the woods, then if they got lucky, they might see the tracks just past the trees but–