Page 90 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“You came,” she says without looking at me.

“You didn’t make it hard.”

“I wasn’t hiding.”

“No,” I agree. “You wanted to be found.”

She finally looks up. “Don’t psychoanalyze me, Wulfson. I get enough of that from my sister.”

I walk closer but keep a good few feet between us. Not because I’m scared of her. But because shewantsme to be.

“I’m not here to push you into anything,” I say. “You don’t want a pack? Fine. You don’t want to train under me? Fine. I’m not here to crown myself your Alpha. I just want to make sure you survive.”

She snorts. “Survive? You think I’m weak?”

“No. I think you’re angry.”

“You’d be angry too,” she says. “If you found out the man who raised you wasn’t your father, and the man whoisdidn’t give a shit whether you existed.”

I nod slowly. “Yeah. I would.”

Her jaw tightens, like she didn’t expect me to agree.

“I’m not trying to control your fate,” I say. “But you need to understand what you are.What you’re becoming.This power? It’s not meant to run wild.”

She stands, her eyes flickering gold. “Why? Because it scaresyou?”

“No. Because if it scares the wrong people, they’ll come for you.”

“I’ll kill them.”

“Then you prove them right.”

She steps back like my words physically landed.

I take a chance and move in closer. “You’re not alone in this. Whatever you are—Wulfson blood or something else entirely—you’re notwrongfor feeling too big in your skin. But it doesn’t mean you get to burn the whole damn forest just because it itches.”

Her eyes shimmer. “I’m not Kendall.”

“I know.”

“I’m stronger than you.”

I nod. “Maybe.”

“And I don’t need you.”

“Probably not.”

Her lip curls. “Then why are you still here?”

“Because I care.”

Silence stretches between us.

She laughs, sharp and bitter. “You sound like a fucking dad.”

“I sound like a brother.”

---