Page 21 of Hunted Mate
For a second, I think the ferocity in his eyes means I am about to get hit the hell back, but he chews and swallows the anger down.
“You’re upset,” he says, obviously.
“Yes. I am.”
His eyes turn cold, calculating. “You seem sober enough now to take care of yourself,” he says. “I’m going to go. Sorry, Callie.”
“No!” There is a hysterical edge to my voice as I stamp my feet. “You’re going to stay here and you’re going to get arrested, and you’re going to go to jail for a very long time because I am going to have the book thrown at you. Actually, fuck that, I am going to have the whole fucking library dropped on your head. I am going to…”
He opens the bathroom door and walks out, not listening to my threats
“I’m going to have you charged with terrorism. You’re going to spend the rest of your days in a federal box with no sharp corners, you fucking asshole.”
I chase after him, holding my shirt together over my shoulders. I’m aware now of how much I’ve fucked up this evening, and Iabsolutely hate that. I almost let myself get murdered in an alley, and now I’m going to let him go because I didn’t have the sense to call the cops right away. I was too fucking drunk to realize that he was in reach.
He stops at the front door, opens it, then turns back to look at me. “Look after yourself, Callie,” he says. “I’m not always going to be here to save you.”
I pick up a vase that happens to be at hand, and I hurl it at him. But he’s already gone. He’s stripped me down, seen my vulnerability, and now he’s leaving and all I can do is arc some ceramic at him.
It hits the closing door and shatters.
“Fuck!”
I scream the word after him. It does nothing.
I run to the phone, and I start to call the police. But then I realize… he’s given me a chance. This is an opportunity. I’m going to take it. Fuck the authorities. It’s time I handled this like an animal.
CHAPTER 5
Gray
Three days after I left Calista Hart screaming at me in her house, I park my surveillance van down at the bottom of my warehouse for the last time. It’s a bittersweet feeling.
I’m going to miss Callie. She was a lot of fun to try to warn off, and she was a delight to watch. I have been in her life for over twelve months, and I’d almost started to feel like a part of it. I’ve stayed long enough. Too long.
It’s time to move on.
Time to shake the obsession.
It’s getting messy. Saving her from herself is not my job, and I suspect if I took it, it would be a full-time job. She’s unhinged now. Unmoored from her wolf obsession. She’s going to do some crazy shit, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
The scars on her back were hard to look at. I knew what they were instantly. I have inflicted similar myself—but nobody walked away from them.
I don’t know how she got them, but I know that there’s a story that explains the obsession. She’s encountered our kind before. And somehow, she survived.
She has no idea what that means. Nobody survives an encounter with shifter wolves. Her existence is proof of her strength and her good fortune.
She doesn’t need me.
She’ll be okay.
I tell myself this was never meant to be long term. This is part of my job protecting the pack. I did it with flair and a lot more intimately than most of my assignments, but I regret nothing, except the fact that I have to leave.
I’ll keep remote tabs on Callie Hart, ensure that she doesn’t get back into her research, but I’d imagine she’s now thoroughly aware that I am untouchable, and she is entirely at my mercy.
I get out of the van and head up to the apartment that sits on the mezzanine floor of the workshop.
I like this spot. There’s space to work on the van, or anything else I want, and it’s far enough away from civilization that if I get a little wild I won’t be immediately spotted. This is an area zoned for industrial activity, and it’s pretty much the last place anybody would ever look for me.
