Page 53 of Runaway Wolf
“You do belong. You belong with me, and you belong with our pack. I was so busy trying to let you choose me, I didn’t show you that I can’t live without you. I didn’t want to be like my father, manipulating my mother, turning her, causing her death. And yet, here I’m your maker.” He smiled wryly.
“That’s not on you. I asked you to.”
He nodded. “I should have realized that you already chose me. Then and there. So now, Caity Jane, I’d like to show you how much you belong. If you let me?”
She nodded, a little jerkily because she was still numb with cold.
“I love you. I will always love you. No matter what, no matter where you run, I’ll come for you. And you may not have anything to your name right now, but everything I own is yours. You may as well face that I will track you down. I’ll know where you are every minute of the day, and I won’t hesitate to let you know where I am.”
Her eyes were glossy with tears.
“And, Caity Jane, you are the strongest person I know. You have no idea how badass you are, but I do. You took two alpha wolves inside you, and lived. You stood up to a room full of humans who’d ordered your death sentence and you didn’t attack, despite being a fresh shifter. That’s not something I could have done.”
He pulled up into a tiny gas station—and it was lit up like a beacon in the grey skies with Christmas lights strung all around the building.
The trademark rocking chair sat in front of the old store.
Gah, this was the first gas station that ever scared her. The one she and Penny had visited back when Penny was just sixteen.
Joaquin sat in the rickety old rocker. He stood, waving at them as Isaac’s SUV pulled up. Isaac unlocked the doors and Joaquin scrambled in.
“Fuck, freezing my balls off. All this drama for a little she-devil wolf who’s bitten me like, sixty-nine times.” He ruffled her hair, handing her a hot chocolate. “This is the first gas station in the trail of them we’re about to visit, and no one serial waxed you dead, baby. Hope that proves our pack love.”
“Well, is this the only present you got me? It’s fucking Christmas, Joaquin.”
Isaac snorted. His beautiful mate opened up.
“Hot chocolate from the cockles of my frozen ass, Caity cat! It’s not a designer brand, but it’ll warm your cold little heart.”
And as she giggled, Isaac snaked his hand into hers.
Yes, his wolf muttered.Remind mate she’s ours.
They laughed and joked all the way to the next town, a half hour away, where Alex sat waiting on the cracked concrete in a folding chair that looked two sizes too small for him. Again, the gas station was strung with twinkling Christmas lights. He stood, folding up the chair and taking it inside, then waved atthe store owner before jumping in next to Joaquin and handing her a pair of gas-station sunglasses. “Your first pair of sunglasses in this magical shifter life. Merry human Christmas, little wolf. Your she-devil is loved. Oh, yeah, sunglasses along with your first pair of gas station panties.” He creepily rubbed the fabric repeatedly between his thumb and forefinger.
Isaac let out a low growl. “Stop fingering my mate’s panties, asshole.”
“They’re fucking faux silk, dude. I can’t help myself.” Alex tossed the black panties at Caitlin and sure enough, the tag was still on them.
“Hope they fit. Your ass looks bigger when naked so I had to guess at the size.” He winked at her and she burst into laughter.
And now he was sure his little mate no longer dreaded mountain store gas stations, but was looking forward to finding the next brightly lit one.
“Who’s at the next one?” she asked.
“Amos. Bitching because the owner of the store made him hang double the lights. Said he was doing it crooked, too.”
Sure enough, Amos was scowling as he rose from the chair, huffed a white cloud of cold breath into the air, and scrambled into the back.
“Pass this up to our little pack mate.”
“Just my mate,” Isaac growled, making her giggle.
“Whatever.”
And now she had a colorful outfit of balloon shorts and a triple sized t-shirt in tie dye, along with a gas station baseball cap, two Snickers, and a bag of Doritos.
“You sure know how to gift a girl,” she said scrabbling through the bottom of the bag to find a set of cheap, press-on coffin nails.
