Tell it all. “He’s after me because he thinks I’m his mate.” Shifters and their mates. For some of their kind, a primal, instinctual thing.
“He’s f**king wrong.”
Was he? “He’s like me, Jude. A hybrid.”
“We’re the same. Not weaker, stronger. They don’t have a f**king clue.” The voice from her nightmares.
“So? There are thousands of hybrids in the world. He can go pick one of them for his mate.”
“Knew we were meant for each other, from the first moment I saw you.” His weight had shoved her into the mattress.
A light shake from Jude. “Erin.”
It was hard to swallow over the fist in her throat. “He’s a hybrid, but-but he can still shift. I know, because I saw him change once.” Deliberate. Everything with that ass**le was deliberate.
“Yeah?” He shook his head. “So what’d the freak turn into? A bear? Coyote? A—”
“He’s a wolf.”
She caught the slight widening of his eyes.
A wolf shifter. One of the strongest and the most dangerous of the shifters. And, unfortunately, one known to sometimes cross the line that led into the realm of the psychotic.
But Jude shook his head. “Doesn’t change a thing for me. You really think I’m afraid of some mangy wolf?”
No. She didn’t think he feared much. Perhaps he should. “You know what they say about wolf shifters. They can recognize their mates—”
“Not at first sight, it can take time to—”
“He said I was his mate.” Her hand rose between them. Flattened over his heart. “A wolf shifter only gets one true mate.”
Broken.
“And for him, seems like I’m…it.”
“The hell you are.” He lifted her up, bringing her to eye level and letting her toes dangle in the air.
Erin blinked. “Uh, Jude…”
“Get the idea out of your head, got me? Just ’cause some f**ked up psycho thinks he’s your mate—hell, screw that! You don’t belong to him.”
Mine.
“And the ass**le sure won’t be living long enough to ever claim you.”
Well, that was—
He kissed her. Hard and deep and her toes curled and her heart raced and she held on to him and she hoped.
Let him be right.
Because being the perfect mate for that freak—no, even God didn’t hate her that much.
Her lips parted and his tongue swept inside. He still wanted her. He didn’t care about the wolf so it was okay and she could tell him—
He broke the kiss and muttered, “Wolves are insane. Everybody knows that.”
Her heart thudded to a stop.
“If they’re in a pack, they follow their alpha like blind dogs,” Jude continued.
Not always. Some packs were family, strong and—
“And if the bastard is Lone, well, shit, that means even the pack didn’t want him. And if pack doesn’t want you, then you’re f**king screwed,” Jude said.
She shoved against him.
“Erin?”
A quick step back. “I need to shower.” She grabbed the sheet, right before it started a fast slither down her body.
Fucking screwed.
Her cheeks iced, then burned. Her right hand clenched, holding the sheet close to her chest.
“Erin—what is it? What did—”
But she shook her head and skirted around him. About six more steps and then she’d be in the bathroom. Just six more.
“It’s been a hell of a night. I just need to take a hot shower.” To wash away the memories.
She pushed open the bathroom door.
“Let me come in with you.”
No. Not now. Too close to breaking. Erin cleared her throat. “Maybe next time, tiger.” Then she was inside, kicking the door shut behind her.
And turning the lock. Not that the flimsy lock would do much good if Jude wanted inside.
The soft creak of the floorboards reached her ears. Coming this way.
The sheet fell to the floor and she put both hands on either side of the sink, holding tight.
“Erin…” He sounded hesitant. Maybe even worried. “What happened, it doesn’t change you.”
No, it didn’t. Nothing would change her.
“You don’t have to hide from me.”
She stared at her reflection, seeing the eyes that held their own golden glow. The cheeks that had hollowed, the teeth that had lengthened.
Her claws dug into the undersides of the sink. “I’ll be out soon, okay?”
More hesitation. She could feel it.
Then that soft creak again. He was moving away now.
Her breath flooded out.
If the pack doesn’t want you, then you’re f**king screwed.
Yeah, she was.
Because she was a Lone wolf, one fighting to survive. She had a psychotic mate on her trail, and a lover who apparently hated her kind.
Jude stared at the closed bathroom door, his fists clenched. He could hear the roar of the shower, so trying to speak to Erin then was not really an option.
She’d locked him out. No mistaking the soft snick of the lock.
He could get inside, no problem. A quick shove against the door and he’d be in that small room with her, the steam from the shower around them. He could join her in the shower stall. Take her into his arms and let the spray pour over their bodies.
If she thought her story about that ass**le had changed the desire that he felt for her, well, she was dead wrong.
Her story had just shown how tough she was, how determined to survive. A woman with that much strength was damn sexy.
Nothing would make him stop wanting her.
Nothing.
But he turned away from the door. If Erin wanted space, he’d give it to her. At this rate, hell, he’d pretty much give her anything she wanted.
The bastard out there would pay. He’d see to it. A wolf. There had been whispers and rumors about the wolves for years.
Centuries.
They kept to themselves, always locking tight in their packs. Very, very rarely did they mate with non-wolf shifters. The wolves fought dirty, they fought hard, and they generally fought to the death. It was their way.
He hadn’t been kidding when he’d talked about the Lones. The wolves out there who either turned their back on the pack or who had the pack turn on them were the badasses the Other kept away from, if they were smart. Because some of the wolves had been known to become absolutely freaking insane.
When you were crazy, with the full strength of a wolf shifter, folks were smart if they avoided you.