Page 41 of Sold Wolf Slave

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

I shook my head. “I’m not going through the portal yet. I’ve told you.”

“I didn’t mean through the portal.” When I gave him a confused look, he added, “I went exploring the other day. I found a little forest area nearby. I figured you’ve been too cooped up lately. How about we go there?”

I blinked, letting the words sink in. “Go out. As in, shift and run through the woods?”

He nodded, raising one eyebrow in question. “I thought that might be something you could use after everything that’s going on. How about it?”

I couldn’t help it. I grinned.

Twenty minutes later, I ran through the woods, relishing the feel of wind through my fur as I bolted after Will. When was the last time I got to shift? My wolf was ecstatic. Despite all the chaos and all the bad things happening, this felt like a breath of fresh air. Itwasa breath of fresh air. For the first time since I had been dragged to the Underside, I felt like myself.

We came to a clearing surrounded by trees. Bathed in the purple light of the sky, there was something ethereal about it,a beauty that seemed impossible in the Underside. We shifted back to human, and I sucked in a breath, taking in the sight.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” he said.

“It’s beautiful,” I admitted.

He gave a small grin. “I thought you might like it.”

I studied him for a long moment, chewing the inside of my lip. The question that had been pressing on my lips for the last couple of days wanted to come out. A question I desperately wanted to know the answer to, if only because I thought it would help me better understand this shifter in front of me.

He saw me staring and tilted his head. His lip quirked upward. “Like what you see?” he quipped.

Despite myself, I blushed.

He laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Take it however you like,” I retorted.

He gave a half-laugh and shook his head. “You’re a strange one,” he teased.

“Can I ask a question?” I asked before I could lose my nerve.

Will blinked, then smirked once more. “I don’t think I can stop you from doing anything you put your mind to. What is it?”

I took a deep breath, trying to find a way of asking what I wanted to ask without coming across as hostile. “You seem to be reluctant to do anything that might compromise the mission,” I said. “Why?”

He didn’t answer for a long time. Instead, he stared up at the sky, his blond hair splayed in the grass.

“When I was younger, one of the first missions I ever had as a Gold Wolf, I made a big mistake,” he admitted. “I don’t really want to go into the details, but I let my emotions get in the way of the bigger mission. Because of that, I ended up ruining the whole thing. People died. The bad guy got away, and we didn’t catch him for another two years.”

His jaw twitched, and his eyes narrowed as if the memory still made him angry. All of a sudden, the interest and cool-headedness made sense.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sure that was rough.”

He took a deep breath, his massive chest heaving with the motion. “It was. Is. But I’ve made my peace with it. I have just made an effort to never let my emotions get in the way of things.”

“Do you ever regret becoming a Gold Wolf?” I asked, the words slipping out of my mouth before I could realize what I was saying.

He blinked, as if surprised by the question. “No. Not for a second. I get to help people every day. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

I didn’t have a response to that. A silence fell between us, though it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the kind of comfortable quiet that fell between people who didn’t feel the need to talk every second.

I liked it.

After a moment, Will said, “My turn to ask a question.”

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