Page 20 of Runaway Wolf
“Why? Why would he still sign it?”
Isaac shrugged. “Maybe he thought it would force her hand? That she would have to break things off with Noah if faced with death. But she didn’t have a choice. They’re mates. It’s easy to see. His wolf picked her, the man picked her, and even with human senses, she chose him. Because we don’t have a legal ceremony like marriage doesn’t mean a mating doesn’t exist. A mating is instinctual.”
“My dad knew that too?”
“She explained everything to him. He demanded that she leave us. Cut off her credit cards. She ended up using her savings to rent that cabin. That’s when she and Noah fell hard in love. They’d been friends, even dating, but when she stuck up for shifters? They knew this was a forever thing between them.”
“And she thought I’d reject him too.”
“You didn’t know anything about shifters. Everything you heard, you heard from your parents. If your father was a lost cause, she figured you would be too.”
Just then, Isaac stiffened. The air grew heavy and thick, hard to breathe, like they’d walked into a sauna.
“What’s happening—” she whispered.
When he turned to her, his eyes were the icy blue of his wolf. “Stay here. Don’t stray from the crowds of people.”
God, his voice. Growly, feral, deep. It froze her midsentence with the harshness. This. This was the man who she’d met this morning, not the one she’d gotten to know on the drive to town.
Her heart pounded and her breath came in deep gasps as she watched the man—no, the monster—walk away. Down, past the grassy areas, stood a group of five men. Not men, shifters.
One stood slightly in front of the other four and his glowing gold eyes never left Isaac as he approached.
Shifter.
But there was five against one. Noah was nowhere in sight. She didn’t even know which way Penny and Noah had gone, or she’d get him.
Maybe she could call Penny.
She reached down for her pocket and froze when the hair at the nape of her neck bristled.
A voice whispered near her ear. “Don’t try it.”
Every hair on her body stood on end.
He stood way too close and was he… sniffing her?
“Who are you?” she refused to take her eyes off Isaac, like she could will him to turn around.
“No one you know. Yet.”
Her heart ratcheted. She could feel power and anger pulsing from him—the same way it had when Isaac saw the group.
“See those males your alpha’s talking to? They’re mine.”
“He’s not my alpha,” she whispered.
“No, I know what you are.” He gave a deep inhalation. “Human.”
“So you’re distracting him.”
“Mmm. Smart girl.” With the barest pad of a finger, he swept aside her hair. And then helickedup her neck.
She stiffened, barely suppressing a shudder.
He chuckled. “His scent isn’t on you, Penny’s sister.”
“How do you—”
