My eyes widened at where she was going? “What? No, no, no.” I waved my palms at her, trying to step closer, but she just moved away.
“What then?”
“I just—” Panic made me choke. I couldn’t think of a single word to fix this. “I was going to talk to you. Change your mind about the B&B. That’s all.”
Natalie clutched her stomach like she felt sick. “God, I told you all along, that it was your wolf who was into me. Now I know why. You said your alpha was fine with mating a human but living next to one? Or having them in and out on your neighbor’s property? Yeah, you had me right from the start. I knew this wasn’t real.” Her face crumpled.
“It’s real!” I roared.
In my periphery, I saw some of the females coming closer—Marina and Becky and Audrey.
“You were sent by your pack. By your alpha.” She shook her head. “I was... a task.” Natalie stumbled away, and I lunged to follow.
“You were not a task!” I shouted. “You are my mate!”
“As far as I can tell, mating is like ownership. You call it claiming. You were supposed to claim me, so the pack could have ownership of my land.”
“That’s not true,” Rob interjected.
“It’s not,” I pleaded. “It’s love, Natalie. I’d be begging to claim you if you lived in a gutter. I swear to fate.”
“It’s not love,” she said, shaking her head, tears streaking down her face. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely something different. This can’t work, Rand.”
“Let’s talk this out,” I begged.
“You all have been talking with each other. You’ve got what you need from me all planned out. There’s nothing left to talk about.” She spun on her heel and walked off in the direction of her land.
I wanted to catch her up, to pull her back against me, to carry her off somewhere private, so I could figure out how to show her the truth, but I knew my touch wasn’t welcome. So I settled for following her retreat. “Natalie, it will work,” I called. “We’re not that different.”
“Don’t follow me,” she snapped as she glared at me over her shoulder, throwing a hand out. The scent of her tears drained me of all aggression.
“Natalie,” I choked. My wolf howled, frustrated and angry she couldn’t see reason.
“I can’t do this,” I heard her say more to herself than me, but my wolf hearing heard it loud and clear.
“Let her go.” Becky caught my arm. “She needs space right now.”
My wolf howled some more.
“Natalie,” I choked again, watching her retreating back. “Please stay.”
I heard her sob, and she broke into a run, following the horse trail that led to her place.
“Fuck,” I croaked, unable to do anything but let her go.
Someone laid a hand on my shoulder—Rob, maybe.
“Fuck,” I repeated and dropped to my knees.
My mate was gone.
I’d fucked the whole thing up.
22
NATALIE
I ran the entire way back to my place, my flip flops slapping the ground. After I climbed through the barbed wire fence onto my property, I stopped and threw up.
I couldn’t believe I had been a task to Rand.
The pack had sent him to befriend me. To mate me.
What the fuck? I’d known it wouldn’t work. That there was no way a shifter could love, not when he was controlled by his wolf.
And Rand had been using me! He’d chosen the pack first. I was just a pawn. Heck, if it hadn’t been me who’d inherited the land, the same issue would have existed. If that person had wanted to start a B&B, Rand would have been sent just the same.
I was interchangeable. I was just the human in the Sheffield house threatening the pack.
This just underlined the fact that Rand was an entirely different species. He wasn’t human. He hadn’t even been thinking with his dick when he’d wanted me in bed. No, he was a shifter, and he’d had the mating urge. Nothing more.
He was part of a pack. A pack that didn’t permit human matings until two years ago. A pack that apparently had a really big problem with me opening a B&B here.
I didn’t even know what was real.
I really didn’t. Why didn’t he just outright say they didn’t want that type of business next door? Out of everyone, I’d have understood. Hadn’t Uncle Adam and I both kept their secret all this time?
I pushed into the house and ran up to my bedroom, collapsing on the bed. When I’d moved here, I’d been used to being alone. I didn’t mind the idea of living out here by myself.
But now the idea suddenly terrified me. With the windows open, I could hear the crickets, nothing more. Loneliness blew through the house like a tidal wave, drowning me. All my time here had been filled with Rand. Rand’s smile, his wink. His clever tongue between my legs. His ever present concern for me and the property.