Wild (Wolf Ranch 2)

“There's no time!” I snarled.

He grabbed my arm. “If you can’t keep it together, I’m gonna fucking sit on you until morning. Clean up. Get your clothes on. Get your fucking head on straight.” There was alpha command in his words, which took my wolf craze down a notch.

I inhaled sharply through my nostrils and answered the only way a pack member can when his alpha pulls rank. “Yes, Alpha.”

I ran upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. Marina’s smell was everywhere, filling my nostrils, sending my wolf into a fucking tailspin. He was on a non-stop howl inside me, frantic to find her. The run had done nothing to soothe me.

I took a ten-second shower, only because Rob was right—I was covered in mud. I pulled on fresh clothes at the same time I ran down the stairs and grabbed the keys to my rental truck.

Please let her be at Audrey and Boyd’s. Please.

Rob was saying something to me as I left, but it didn’t register. All I could think about was getting to Marina.

I climbed in the truck and started it up, sliding in the mud when I gunned it too fast.

I needed to calm down, or I’d get the truck stuck. I eased off the accelerator until I was down the road, and then I gradually increased the speed.

The lights were off at Boyd’s. I didn’t give a shit. I climbed out and pounded my fist on his door.

I barely saw the anger on my brother’s usually easy-going face when he swung the door open, buck naked. “You’d better have a really good reason for showing up on my wedding night.”

Wedding night.

Fuck, I’d already forgotten.

But fuck if I’d apologize. “Where’s Marina?” I boomed.

My brain was too scrambled to reason through the situation. To realize that Marina wouldn’t have gone to stay with them on their wedding night. She wasn’t out of her mind, like me.

Boyd’s face clouded.

Audrey showed up behind him, dressed in a silky white robe. She wasn’t even wearing her glasses. “What’s going on?” Concern sharpened her sleepy voice.

“I’m sorry,” I forced myself to say, looking down. It was one thing to see my brother naked, another to see my sister-in-law barely dressed, especially when I’d been an asshole and interrupted them. “Marina’s gone, and I was wondering if she was here or if you knew where she went?”

Audrey’s eyes grew wide. “What did you do to her?”

I deserved it, but her words still hit me like a punch to the gut.

Fuck.

What had I done to her?

I’d scared her, for sure. Was that why she’d ran?

I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to remember exactly what had happened. I’d been eating her against the wall, and then I’d thrown her on the bed to have sex with her. My teeth had descended. She’d been scared and tried to stop me, but it didn’t get through my haze until I’d heard the word no.

Fuck!

“I lost control,” I admitted. “The full moon. Fuck. I wanted to mark her. And I scared her. So, I got out of there to keep her safe. I told her—”

Oh shit.

I knew why she’d left. What had I said? Something colossally stupid. Like, I can’t do this with you.

Had she taken it as a rejection?

My sweet, sensitive girl? She carried that insecurity from her dick of a dad. Not being good enough. Had I made her feel that way, too?

Jesus, I would cut off my own arm if I had.

I had. I knew it. And it was far worse coming from me. I was her safe place. Her person of trust. The one who let her be who she really was. I let her submit and give herself freely to me. That meant she gave everything to me. Even her heart.

And I’d been a dick. I’d destroyed her.

“You told her what?” Audrey snapped.

“Not enough,” I admitted. “I didn’t tell her she was my mate because—”

“You never told her she was your mate?” she practically shouted.

“I didn’t want to pressure her. She’s so young, and she still has school. She needs to have fun and figure out who she is, what she wants. Party. Hell, dance. I was going to try to keep my wolf in control and give her time for that.”

Audrey crossed her arms over her chest as she listened.

“If she were a she-wolf, she’d know she belonged to me. But Marina’s just a sweet young human who didn’t know about shifters until tonight. It’s not like I could just bite her. I couldn't claim her without her consent. It’d be too much to throw at a young woman who just met a guy and has no idea what a shifter even is.”

Audrey put her hands on her hips, and Boyd grabbed the front of her robe and tugged the two sides together. “So, what did you say?” she asked, ignoring him.