Page 40 of Forbidden Wolf

“Let’s hear it,” he snapped.

My eyebrows flew up. “What?”

“Everything was fine, then those shutters came down over your eyes and off you went. So, let’s hear what it is this time. Last time it was that I kissed you too well. What is my latest crime?”

My mouth opened and then I clamped it shut, looking over his shoulder so I didn’t have to focus on those angry amber eyes boring into me. “Nothing.”

“Uh-huh. That definitely means there’s something bothering you.”

My eyes narrowed as they turned to him in silent defiance. My back slowly straightened until I reached the height of his shoulder. I brushed his hand off my arm.

“You are so bloody infuriating. Why do you need to know everything? I’m embarrassed because I look like someone dragged me through a sewer. My hair is stuck to my head and my panties are full of mud and god alone knows what else because I don’t want to look. Every female wolf I’ve seen is tall and glamourous and looks amazing. Even though you’ve been wading through that disgusting swamp with me you look great. Thanks for asking.” I couldn’t help the sarcasm in my tone, today turning into another shitty day to add to countless others.

Levi took a step back, his gaze roaming over me for a moment.

“You’re huffing with me because your covered in mud?” he asked, disbelief tinging his reply.

I rubbed my hands over my face. “Levi, I’m not covered in it. There are places that mud should never find, and that includes where it is right now. This is not how I imagined you’d see me again.”

I waved my hands up and down the length of me.

His lips twitched and my expression hardened into my best reprimand face. His gaze darted away.

“I guess I should never have asked,” he muttered.

“Yeah, well, when you have mud stuck in your lady bits you’ll understand,” I said.

He gave me a slow exaggerated nod with his lips pursed. “Duly noted. I’ll let you know if I get any mud in my lady bits. I’m sure it’s worse than my cock stuck to my balls with mud.”

His sombre expression accompanied by his declaration made a bubble of laughter trickle up my throat.

“You’re being a dick,” I huffed out between giggles.

“Nah.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and started me walking again. “My dick is the one covered in mud. I’m Levi.”

Every so often, we stopped, and I tried to listen or sense anything unusual around us.

“How do you track animals?” I asked Levi.

He glanced down at me. “I guess that credit goes to my wolf. I sense differences and changes on my body like my skin tightening or tingles on the back of my neck.”

I chewed my lip. “So, I should be trying to discern how my body feels when I hear them?”

“When you heard them before, what were you doing?”

“Um.” I pouted and scrunched my nose up as I thought about it. “If I discount the voices I heard as a child, the first time I was trying to die, and the second time I’d fallen and felt weak and vulnerable.”

“We’ll put you in the darker emotion category, then,” Levi replied. “How did your body feel? Close your eyes and take yourself back into one of your memories.”

I stopped and did what he said, blocking out the sun and the surrounding countryside. I allowed the terror to creep up my spine from that moment when I knew I was dying. I embraced the voices, their deep raspy tone clawing at my insides. Darkness enveloped me as I remembered the voice of the ‘master’ as he commanded whoever was down there with him.

I crouched down to be closer to the earth. The palms of my hands itched as they clutched the ground. I rubbed them on the rough earth to try and ease the discomfort. When they’d attacked us in the swamp, my hands had felt tingly before that golden light emerged to repel them from us.

“My hands,” I whispered.

Levi lifted them in his. “Tell me about your hands.”

“They itch when I hear the voices and when they were chasing us in the swamp. They were warm and tingly before golden light emerged from them to prevent the creatures from following us.”

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