by Alisa Woods
She tipped her head back to look up into his face. “I was serious, what I said before.”
He frowned and dragged his gaze across her body, up to her eyes. “About what?”
He knew damn well about what. “About having you claim me. I want it, Lucas. I want you.”
He slipped his gaze back to her belly, but he removed his hand. Now he wasn’t touching her at all, and it made her wolf whine. “No, you don’t, Mia. It’s just lust. You’ll get over it.”
A chill swept through her body and stabbed an icy coldness into her heart. “Is it just lust for you?” she challenged. She tried not to have tears jump so easily to her eyes, but they were already there.
“It doesn’t matter.” He rolled away from her and sat up, locking his hands around his propped up knees. He still wouldn’t look her in the face. “It’s just your wolf wanting someone to mate with. It’s an instinct. It has nothing to do with me.”
She propped herself up on her elbows. “How I feel has everything to do with you.” The tears were leaking from her eyes now, but he didn’t see them. He still wasn’t looking at her.
His hands clenched each other like they wanted to strangle something. “It doesn’t. You’ll feel the same with someone else, I promise. And that’s what you need, Mia. You need to find a mate. The sooner, the better. And someone who is not me.”
“You don’t mean that.” Her breathing was coming in short gasps. He was just pushing her away again, like he did before. Just trying to resist the pull—
“I do.” He met her gaze, jaw clenched. “I’m not going to do this with you anymore, Mia. I’m not going to get us both off just because we can’t seem to resist it.”
Get them both off… Her mouth dropped open, but he wasn’t looking at her face anymore. He was staring at her body like their lovemaking wasn’t the sacred thing she thought. Like it was a lustful thing he had tried and failed to resist.
His voice turned hard. Commanding. “It’s too hard, Mia. You need to find someone else.”
Anger surged up inside her, bubbling up like a noxious volcano that wanted to spew out any remnant of him. He had come inside her body moments ago, and now he was not only pushing her away, he was ordering her to be with someone else. Her rage was so inarticulate, she just threw a growl at him and scrambled up from the grass where she lay.
How dare he? How dare he treat her like that? When she’d bared her soul to him. Told him she wanted only him. She hadn’t said she loved him, but wasn’t he the one who said claiming was more powerful than love? But he didn’t want that from her, either.
“Fine!” she shouted when the growl allowed her to find her voice. “Finding a mate who isn’t you should be no problem.” She stomped away, toward their clothes, having no idea what she would do next. Her wolf was crying, working up to a howl. But her inner beast was wounded by his rejection, and she didn’t fight Mia’s anger, the righteous human side that was rising to their defense.
No one had a right to treat them that way.
Mia found their clothes tossed into the grass and scooped up hers. What was she going to do? Get dressed and have him drive her… where? Back to the hotel? To stay with him?
Screw that.
She glanced back: he was still sitting in the grass, head hung. The hurt and angry part of her wanted him to hurt, too. But she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t lash out at him again—she just didn’t have the heart for it. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to hang around and give him more opportunities to tell her how she needed to find someone else to screw.
His jeans lay in the grass next to hers. She bent down, fished the car keys out of his pocket, then stuffed them into the pocket of her jeans. She quickly rolled up her clothes.
And then she shifted.
Mia heard him call out her name somewhere mid-shift. He seemed alarmed, but that wasn’t her concern anymore. She grabbed the bundle of clothes in her mouth and took off through the forest, toward the path and the car that brought them here. She ran fast, hoping he wouldn’t follow, or if he did, that he was too slow to stop her.
She broke out of the forest and shifted on her way to the car. Quickly grabbing the keys, she opened up the car, threw her stuff in, and hopped into it, naked as the day she was born. His wolf bounded out of the forest just as she slammed and locked the door. He shifted as she started the car. He was calling her name, but she just twisted the wheel and spun the car away from him.
She allowed herself one glance back in the rearview mirror to see him standing naked in the middle of the dirt parking lot, watching her go.
Don’t drive angry.
It was a line from that crazy Groundhog Day movie, when the groundhog is at the wheel with Bill Murray, driving like a maniac. Mia felt a little like the groundhog, driving down the mountain buck-naked, leaving behind her wolf lover who didn’t want to be her lover anymore. Not in any real way, at least. When she was miles away and approaching civilization, she finally pulled over and put on her clothes. She’d left her shoes behind, but she could get new ones.
Especially if her roommate was home.
It was the middle of a Sunday afternoon, and she had no idea if Jupiter was at their dorm, but if she were, she’d be the perfect person to talk to… and the perfect shoulder to cry on. Jeeter wouldn’t hold it against her if the whole moving out thing didn’t last, but Mia couldn’t come back to stay: the Red wolves were still out there, and now that SparkTech was acquiring LoopSource, she really did need to lay low for a while.
Just not with Lucas.
It took her well over an hour to reach the university and her dorm. Somewhere in the middle her phone buzzed in her purse, which she had, thankfully, left in the car. As soon as she had seen it was Lucas, she sent it to voicemail. She was still figuring out her plan, but it certainly wasn’t going to include him. Best thing was probably to go back home and crash on her mom’s couch for a while. The place was a slum, but that was the whole reason she was trying to get her degree and a decent job to begin with. It would refocus her, get her back on track.
By the time Mia arrived at her dorm and parked Lucas’s ridiculously expensive red and black Audi in the visitor’s lot, she had the plan all worked out: sob on Jeeter’s shoulder for a while, borrow some clothes so she didn’t have to go back to the hotel, borrow some money so she could take the bus to her mom’s, then call Lev. She knew Lucas’s brother wanted her and Lucas to be together as much as she did—correction, as much as she used to—but he was the only one who would understand why she had left Lucas naked in the national park and his car in visitor parking at McMahon Hall. How they worked out things from there was none of her business.
She sighed as she strolled into the dorm. She’d probably have to get another job, too.
She punched the elevator button and rode it all the way up with her arms crossed in front of her chest. If Jeeter weren’t there, Mia would just have to borrow stuff and leave her a note. And call her later. Which made her think… she dug through her purse for her phone and found her room card tucked in the case where she always kept it. Just as she was pulling out the keycard, the face of her phone lit up with an incoming call. It said No Caller ID, but that just meant it was her mom. She couldn’t afford a cell phone and was always calling from their next door neighbor, Mr. Bailey, who thought the government was tapping his phone and had Caller ID permanently blocked.
“Hi, Mom.” Mia tried to sound like absolutely nothing in the world was wrong, while simultaneously coming up with some plausible reason why she would be crashing on her mom’s couch soon. Her mom knew Mia hated it there.
“Hi, honey! How are you?”
“Great, Mom. Just great.” No, that didn’t sound sarcastic at all. Mia grimaced and strode out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened.
“You haven’t called in a while. I was getting worried.”
“Mom, there’s nothing to worry about! UDub is totally safe.” Mia cringed internally at the lie. She’d said it a million t
imes before, when she’d transferred to the university last fall, because her mom had this strange idea that the University of Washington wasn’t as safe as her mom’s rundown tenement, just because it was far away. Mia scanned her keycard and swung open the door to her room.
A quick glance showed Jupiter wasn’t home.
“I don’t know,” her mother was saying in that classic worried-Mom voice that every mother came with pre-installed. “I mean, during the school year, sure, when everyone’s there and serious and studying. But during the summer… it just seems like there might be more partying going on. You’re not going to parties, are you?”
“No, Mom, no parties,” she said with practiced patience. As if dorm parties were a bigger danger than the crackhead gangs in her mother’s neighborhood. Who were likely shifters, too. Little did her mom know her own daughter was a shifter. And embroiled in a pack war. Mia sighed into the phone while propping open Jupiter’s closet to peer inside. “You know what, though, Mom? I think I could use a break from the big campus life for a while.”
“Well, you can always come home,” her mom said, gushing relief through Mia. She should have known she wouldn’t need an excuse. “I’ve been saying that from the beginning. There’s no reason you can’t come home during the summers.”
“That sounds great,” Mia said, digging some clothes out of the closet. “But just for a few days, okay. Until I… until I miss Jupiter.”
“Who’s Jupiter?” Her mom was always forgetting her roommate’s name. As if it was forgettable—Mia guessed she was just still in denial that she had actually moved away from home.
“My roommate, Mom. Crazy drama girl, remember? You met her at Thanksgiving.”
“Oh, her! I remember now. Very nice girl.”
Mia scooped up an armful of clothes and dumped them on the bed to look through them. “Yeah, she’s great. The best roommate anyone—” Mia cut herself off when she glimpsed something blue on the floor out of the corner of her eye.
Jeeter’s blue feathered purse.
Oh no. Mia glanced quickly around. Jeeter wasn’t hidden under the blankets somewhere, nursing a hangover. The room was a mess, but Mia had thought it was just the normal kind of mess… only the blinds were kinked up, like someone had fallen into them. Some of Jeeter’s books were dumped on the floor. And her half-finished homework was still sitting on her desk, textbook open, pencil on the floor.
Jeeter never went anywhere without that damn purse.
“Honey?” her mom said. “Are you still there?”
“I gotta go, Mom,” Mia said in a shaky voice. “I’ll be home soon.”
She clicked off the phone. And clenched it in her fist. Maybe Jeeter just left in a hurry. Maybe some hot Boy of the Week stopped by and swept her off to his dorm room. Mia stumbled over to where the purse lay on the carpet and picked it up. Did her roommate really take this thing everywhere? Mia wracked her brain: surely there was a good explanation for Jeeter just picking up and leaving.
Mia smacked her forehead: she could just call Jeeter.
Clutching the feather-purse in one hand, Mia spun through the numbers on her phone. She never called Jeeter, they were almost always in the room together. Just as she was getting to the J’s, her phone lit up again, kicking her out of the phone book.
No Caller ID.
Mia growled in frustration and clicked the phone back on. “Mom, I swear I’ll be home soon.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” The voice was deep and male and full of way too much amusement.
A chill ran down Mia’s back.
“Who is this?”
“The more important question, Mia, is where is your roommate?” The voice was smooth and sinister.
Mia’s stomach seized. She forced herself not to be sick. “What have you done with her?” Her voice was trembling.
“Why nothing. Nothing at all. Yet.” There was a noise in the background, a scuffling and a muffled, angry yell. Mia’s hand with the purse shook as she held her fist to her mouth, trying to stifle her own gasp.
There was a scraping sound, like the phone had brushed against something, then Jeeter’s voice came through, screeching so loud Mia had to hold it away from her ear.
“Mia! Oh my god, Mia!” Then crying, but the phone had moved away, and Mia could only hear the muffled struggle again.
Tears streamed down her face.
“See?” the voice said. “She’s perfectly fine.”
“Please don’t hurt her.” She tried to not let the tears show in her voice.
“It’s not her we want, Mia.” Smooth, deep-rumbling. It was almost soothing. Except for the words.
“What do you want?” Her voice hitched. She knew. Of course, she knew.
“We want you.”
Her heart sank to the bottom of her toes.
“Just come downstairs. We’ll have a car waiting for you.”
How did they know where she was? How did they even get her number? Then she realized: they’re already here, watching. And they had Jeeter, so they had Mia’s number. But who was she kidding? Red Wolf, beyond being run by an evil pack of shifters, was an internet development company. Of course, they had figured out how to find her.
And she’d walked right back into their trap.
When she didn’t answer, a hint of impatience crept into the voice of whichever of the Red wolves was on the other end. “Don’t make us wait, Mia.”
“I’ll be right down.”
Lucas was running as fast as four paws would carry him.
The dirt edge along the paved road winding through the Olympic National Park was clear enough—at least he didn’t have to run through the forest, dodging fallen logs and hidden rocks—but carrying his rolled up clothes in his mouth was slowing him down. And he had driven Mia a long ways into the forest for their little lessons in being wolf. Getting back out again on foot would take far longer. Even in his wolf form, his legs were screaming from the abuse.
Meanwhile, Mia was speeding away in his car, angry. There was no telling where she would go or what she would do.
A sick feeling cramped his stomach. He didn’t know if it was the run or the idea that she might do something reckless, but he had to stop. The clothes had to go, so he spit them out, nosed around with his muzzle to get his phone of out his pocket, and dropped it on the dirt to have a look. Still no bars. He didn’t know how far he’d have to go before he reached civilization and a cell phone tower, but he didn’t have the luxury of hauling clothes along for the ride. He mouthed the phone, trying not to drool on it while he clamped it in his teeth, and started running again.
A half hour later, he was about to pass out. Too hot, even in the shade, panting, he stopped to check his phone again. Two bars this time.
He shifted and flopped naked on the side of the road while dialing Lev’s number.
“Hey, brother, what’s up?” Lev’s cheery voice gushed relief through him.
“Need your help.” Lucas had to keep his words short. It was a massive struggle to catch his breath.
“Jesus, what happened to you?” Lev went from zero to DEFCON 5 in just those few words. “Wait… is Mia with you? Is she okay?”
Lucas winced. He was supposed to be guarding her, watching over her while his father’s pack made an offer on LoopSource. With the offer in play, Mia would be in even more danger from the Red wolves who wanted to use her as leverage to stop the deal. Instead, Lucas hadn’t even kept her out of danger for an hour. And managed to piss her off so badly she took his car and left him behind.
“Mia left me,” Lucas managed to get out. He swallowed, panted a few times, then added, “She has my car.”
“What in the…?” Lev was confused, but his state of alert dropped a few levels. “All right. What did you do?”
“Pissed her off.” His breath was settling down, but the panting was making him dizzy. It didn’t help that he was splayed out on the side of the road and not running anymore.
“Obviously.”
Lev sighed audibly into the phone. “Man, what am I going to do with you? Mia is the freaking best thing to happen to you, and you’re ruining it.”
“Need your help,” he repeated. Lucas squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop the world from spinning.
“Yeah, no kidding. You could have listened to me on Tuesday when I told you—”
“Now, Lev.”
Lev’s voice took on a little more concern. “Where are you?”
“Olympics.”
“Wait… she left you in the Olympic forest?”
“Need clothes, too.”
Lucas had to hold the phone away from his ear as Lev howled with laughter on the other end. He let his hand fall to the dirt and lifted his head slightly to peer down the road. Civilization was still miles away. He banged his head back to the ground. He deserved every bit of Lev’s mockery, but that wasn’t his top concern.
Mia was unprotected. His wolf snarled its reproach, and this time, he was absolutely right. He and Lev both. Lucas had been a complete idiot. He should have turned her over to… anyone… other than him for protection. Colin, Llyr’s beta, would have taken her in a heartbeat. Any of the wolves in his father’s pack would have. Instead, he selfishly wanted her for himself… and now she was gone.
Goddammit. Even if he’d given in to his wolf’s demands and claimed her, she would be safer than she was right now, all alone. It was his shitty inability to decide—he couldn’t let himself claim her, and he couldn’t let her go—that led to all of this. And that was it: as soon as he found her again, he was locking her far, far away from him. He wouldn’t even allow himself to be alone with her to explain. He’d send her a text or something later, but he would turn her over immediately to someone who actually had a chance of keeping her safe… because that sure as hell wasn’t him.