Page 30 of Bones

Not like with Marissa—or whatever her name had actually been.

I had no clue how to describe it other than…

Off.

Like a barrier. A mask. Something.

It wasn’t exactly a shock. I was a stranger. She was smart to keep her guard up. My body, mind, and soul didn’t show thesame restraint. The longer we stared at each other, the louder my need became.

Keep her.

Don’t let her go.

Keep hersafe.

Safe?

Fuck…

CHAPTER FIVE

THE PURITANS WERE RIGHT

DEKE

From the second I’d felther, my focus had been on finding her.Keepingher. My mate. The other half of my soul that’d been promised by the powers-that-be. I’d long ago given up on meeting her.

I’d given up on everything.

I dragged my head out of my ass and thought about how I’d found her.WhereI’d found her. That she had access to my phone and my truck, but she wasn’t using either.

Pieces clicked together, and the picture they showed burned like acid.

Humans did a lot of dumb shit, but voluntarily going for a nighttime hike without any gear in unmapped woods would take a special kind of stupid.

Not unless they had no other choice.

It took effort I wasn’t used to using since I normally didn’t care if people knew I was an asshole, but I forced my voice to soften. “Do you have someone to call?”

A headshake as she handed me back the phone.

I distractedly pocketed it. “Are you in danger?”

Her immediate headshake made my bunched shoulders loosen.

“Why were you in those woods?”

Her brows lowered as she gave a small shrug. She blinked up at me for a long moment before her lips curled down in a heartbreaking frown.

Like when I’d gotten out of my truck, that pull in my chest stretched, reaching out to her. I wondered if she felt it, too. If she’d been searching for me without knowing why.

The sensation was intense, and every damn part of my being knew who she was to me. I couldn’t imagine how confused she had to be.

How scared.

As badly as I wanted to unload the entire crazy-ass story to explain it to her, I had to tread carefully. She was already as skittish as the baby deer who wandered into my yard. If I made any sudden moves—or insane proclamations of mates, magicks, and the apocalypse—she’d take off right back into the woods.

That time to getawayfrom me.

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