Page 34 of Marked By Moonlight
I sit up quickly but immediately regret my actions as my head pounds. The sheets fall down my body, and I realize I’m still naked. The details of last night are foggy. I remember following Ambrose and Emeric back to the campgrounds. I remember Emeric showing me to the bedroom, and then I must’ve passed out.
My eyes cut around the room, looking for clothes, but I find none.
Damn wolf shifters and their inability to realize that most people don’t like to strut around naked.
I rip the sheets off the bed and wrap them haphazardly around my body until I am at least covered. I run my hand through my long hair, wishing I had a hairbrush or, better yet, a bath. Grit and grime coat my strands, while sweat and oil coatmy pores. Hopefully, I’ll be granted a bath and a brush soon enough.
I cautiously open the door, expecting Emeric or someone else to be guarding it, but I find no one.Huh? Strange.
I walk down a long, empty hallway, listening for signs of Ambrose, but there are none. The house is huge—a maze of hallways and doors. I’m shocked to find that no one was guarding my door.Did Ambrose trust me enough not to flee? Did he trust that the other males would leave me alone?
Finally, I hear a pan clanking, and I turn a corner to find Emeric standing over a pot on the stove with a cup of coffee in his hand.
Emeric beams at me like I am the sun itself.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Emerics says, his voice is sweet and kind. He looks at me like Kael used to look at me—in a loving, sister sort of way.
“Morning. Where is Ambrose?”
“He’s out doing alpha stuff.”
“What does that mean, ‘Alpha stuff’?” I lean against the counter opposite Emeric.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but he is saying goodbye to the other alphas and their packs before arranging the marking ceremony next month.”
Next month—that’s my deadline. I have one month to learn to shift. One month for Ambrose to fall in love with me and me with him. One month to ensure that he is indeed my mate. One month to break the curse.
“And why aren’t you out there with him? You are his beta, right?”
“Because I have far better things to do than say goodbye to a bunch of arrogant, hot-blooded alphas.”
“Like what?”
He hands me a cup of coffee. “Like ensuring you don’t run away.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I want to meet with Ambrose. I want to break the curse.”
Emeric’s eyes shoot through me sadly for a split second. He turns back around to stir the eggs in the pot, and then he flips the bacon in the other pan.
“You weren’t doing a very good job of guarding me all the way on the other side of the house.”
Emeric chuckles. “I can guard any human like you from a far greater distance. My hearing and smelling abilities far outweigh your own. I knew the second you woke up, and I heard every footstep you made down the hallway. I smelled you the second you entered the room. You weren’t getting away without my knowledge. And as I am ten times faster than you, you wouldn’t have made it farther than a step outside before I caught you.”
I glare at him. “I’m not a human.”
“You could’ve fooled me.”
I snarl and growl.
Emeric just laughs again. “You’re going to have to work on that menacing growl. It’s adorable.”
“And what would stop someone else from breaking in and taking me? Another wolf shifter—an alpha, perhaps—could have kidnapped me before you had a chance to stop them.”
Emeric’s eyes fall and darken. “No one is a threat to you in this house.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You’re in Ambrose’s house. The alpha of the Moonlight wolves. He is the alpha that trumps all others. No one would dare break into his house. No one would dare harm you, not here. You’re safe here.”
