Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Mom looks at me, smiling like I haven’t seen in a long time. It’s like she’s forgotten about Master Pete and the rest of it.
Then she stops, frowning a little, almost like she feels guilty for it.
“So it’s real,” she says. “A wolf...saved you.”
“Ramsey saved me. And thank you.” I look at him, laughing awkwardly. “I’m not sure if I said that yet.”
He shakes his head. “I wasn’t going to let him hurt you.”
Liam winces. “Sorry, everyone.”
Mom turns away, but I watch as his hand begins to change back.
Ramsey’s words bounce around my mind. He won’t let anything happen to me. He wants to protect me as desperately as I want him to.
Liam rolls his sleeve down as we all return to our seats. It seems oddly regular how we sit around the table after what just happened.
But that was life in the cult, too, a crazy sensory overload followed by a meal, everybody acting like nothing happened.
At least here, now, they’re being honest with us.
“I still don’t understand why he wanted me,” I mutter. “That man.”
“The hunter,” Liam says. “There’s more of them.”
“Who are they?” I ask.
“Some are friends and family of people who bad wolves killed. Some joined up for the sheer thrill of it. Some try to capture us and force us to change them. It’s a mess, all of it.”
“Those wolves,” Ramsey snarls. “Hurting civilians. They deserve what they get.”
“They do. But the hunters don’t ever stop to find out who’s good and who’s bad. They just want to kill us all.”
“But why me?” I ask, my head racing with all the new information.
Liam looks at Ramsey, his expression tight. Ramsey returns his gaze, biting down, his eyes steady until he glances at me. “I have to tell you something, Ruby. But we need to be alone. I can’t...not with people listening, please.”
My heart hurts when he says please, the genuine plea in it. “Yes, Ramsey. Mom? Is that okay?”
Liam’s already standing, gesturing to the door. “You get the first pick of room, Ilsa.”
Mom was about to speak to me, but she pauses, looking at Liam. “I get my own room?”
Ramsey’s jaw goes even tighter like sadness is twisting through him, the same kind which touches me at Mom’s words.
“Of course,” Liam says. “I’ll show you.”
They walk toward the door. Mom stops and gives me a significant look, then Liam does the same to Ramsey, as though they’re both warning us of separate things.
I know what Mom’s warning me about.
Be careful. Don’t do anything dangerous. Stay safe.
But what’s Liam warning Ramsey about?
They leave the room, closing the door, then Liam stands, placing his fists on the table.
He stares at me, and I feel like I’m going to melt.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ramsey
Careful, easy.
My fists are clenched so hard, my forearms bulging, a flutter in my neck that might be my pulse. Or it might be my wolf’s claw trying to tear through me, to tear free of my flesh.
Ruby stands across from me, her arms folded over her middle, making her breasts look even juicier, even more tempting.
Her eyes are wide, gorgeous, curious, and ready to listen.
I think about what she said about the cult.
“I will always be honest with you,” I tell her. “I think, Ruby, it’s important to you. Honesty.”
She licks her lips, making my cock twitch again. I remember how solid it felt in the alleyway, the stiffness when I was in my wolf form – then I block it out, close it away.
I’m a man...it’s all I can be right now.
“Yes,” she says.
“All right then.”
But it isn’t all right. I push away from the table, walk over to the window and look out into the darkness.
Her scent pushes against my back, clouds around me as though trying to become physical. Always, it’s there. I want so badly to indulge in it.
“Ramsey?” she says softly.
“The hunter targeted you because he connected you to me. I’ve been following you, Ruby. I tried to stop, but I couldn’t. It’s your scent...it draws me to you, over and over. It makes me want you so bad I can’t even explain it.”
I’m still staring into the darkness, but I can see her as she walks up behind me in the reflection of the glass. She’s trembling slightly, the same way she was when I was the wolf, and she placed her hand on my jaw.
“I’ve never felt anything like this before. I can do the same, what you saw Liam do with his hand. But not around you. You swirl around me, Ruby. Into me. You become part of me. I’m aching, burning up just being close to you. Every second I want to....”
“Liam, look at me.”
Can’t she see it in the reflection, the way my eyes are already flickering, the flames of my desire burning up? Can’t she see how badly I’m trying to hold it together?