Page 138 of Whispers and Wildfire

“They’ll find him,” Luke said. “There’s no way he can keep getting away with it.”

I wished I shared his confidence. “Whoever attacked me got away with it.”

Theo cast an uncomfortable glance at Luke.

“Yeah, well they didn’t have a Haven in their department.” Luke squeezed my thigh again.

“You’re not leaving her alone, are you?” Theo asked, gesturing to me. “Like, ever?”

“Nope.”

Theo nodded. “Good. Too many weird things have happened in our family.”

Luke took his hand off my leg and draped it over the back of my chair. I appreciated him so much, but I kept coming back to the fear that we were moving too fast. That his feelings were as mixed up as mine, and we weren’t being honest about it.

If it weren’t for The Whisper, I wouldn’t have basically moved in with him. We wouldn’t have been spending every waking moment together.

How much longer would he want to?

I was vaguely aware of Luke asking if I was done with my drink. And if I wanted to go home.

Home? Not my home. His.

I nodded without saying much. My insides were such a tangled mess, for once in my life, I didn’t have anything to say. I knew I was spiraling. That I probably wasn’t thinking rationally. But I couldn’t seem to stop. My thoughts were on an endless loop, repeating the same fear over and over.

When was he going to get tired of me? When was he going to realize I was too much?

CHAPTER 33

Luke

Melanie wastense and it was making me furious.

Anger seethed inside me as we drove back to my place from the Timberbeast. She hadn’t been herself for days, and it was only getting worse. I wanted to find the piece of shit who was responsible and make sure he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again—especially not my woman.

Shadowing her every move was probably starting to make her mad, but what else was I supposed to do? Someone was out there attacking women, and Melanie was not going to be one of them.

In the meantime, I wanted to rearrange his face. He was victimizing her without even targeting her directly. She was anxious and scared. And who could blame her? With everything she’d been through, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she decided to bail on Tilikum forever.

That thought made me pause as I pulled into my driveway. Would she? And if she did, would she bail on me, too?

We got out of the car in silence, tension snapping between us. Despite all my confidence—all my bravado about being the one to marry her—deep down, I was worried. Maybe even afraid.

And that kind of pissed me off too.

She went up the stairs ahead of me and unlocked the door. I followed her inside and locked it behind us—something I didn’t always used to do.

“I know it’s early, but do you want to just go to bed?” I asked.

Stopping in the kitchen, she didn’t turn around. “You know that’s not going to fix anything.”

“I’m not trying to fix anything. It’s just been a long day.”

She hesitated for a moment. “I don’t know if I’m going to sleep here tonight.”

If I’d been in a calmer frame of mind, that statement might not have felt like a punch in the face. But I wasn’t, so it did.

“What? Why? You can’t go to your place alone.”

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