Page 28 of Anders
The implications for pack security were severe.And for Etta too.
Whatever came next, he decided—whoever had hurt her—someone would pay.
Anders would make sure of it.
CHAPTER 7
ETTA WOKE WITH Ajolt.
For one terrifying moment, she couldn’t remember where she was or how she’d gotten there.Unfamiliar curtains filtered morning light into strange patterns across an unknown bed.
Then it all came rushing back.
The basement.The newspapers.The pain in her head as memories began breaking through whatever wall had been holding them back.
Anders.
Anders shifting into a massive wolf right before her eyes.
Etta pressed her palms against her eyes, willing the image away.
People don’t turn into wolves.
It wasn’t possible.
She’d hallucinated—some kind of stress-induced breakdown.A migraine with visual disturbances.
Maybe she’d been drugged.
But the rational explanations rang hollow, each one collapsing under the weight of what she’d seen, what she’d felt.
What she’d remembered.
Even now, fragments of memory flickered through her mind—her mother’s face, not the Montana housewife she’d grown up with, but a woman with the same white-blonde hair as Etta’s own, her eyes a startling gold as she smiled down at her daughter.
My little wolf,the woman whispered in the memory.You’ll be so strong someday.
Etta shuddered, pushing back the bedcovers.
Her hands trembled as she took in her surroundings—the sparse but comfortable guest room Anders had led her to the night before, after…
After everything.
She remembered how he’d helped her up the stairs, his touch gentle despite the strength she’d seen in his transformation.
Her legs had barely worked, muscles refusing to coordinate after the shock.He’d been so careful with her, like she was made of glass that might shatter at any moment.
You’re safe,he’d told her.No one will hurt you here.
But Etta hadn’t known if she could believe him.
If she could trust him.
She still didn’t.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed, noticing she was still wearing yesterday’s clothes, rumpled and stained with basement dust.
Anders had brought her straight here, not even suggesting they stop for her things.
