Page 10 of The Night Wolf
“I’m not pack. I—I don’t have one.”
When Gareth’s fingers grabbed Sean’s chin and forced him to meet his gaze, Sean trembled at the certainty he saw there.
“I’ve already said you could stay with us if you wanted. If you want to be my wolf, you have but to say the word and it’s done. When I found you out there, I swore that whoever left you, alone and injured, would need to pay for it. No Alpha—nopack—would do this to someone. Whoever hurt you is no leader, Sean.”
Sean turned away, his heart breaking. He’d always thought his parents loved him, but as soon as they found…. No, that was over and done with. He was strong now, didn’t need anyone, least of all an Alpha.
“I’m leaving.”
There was silence for a moment before Gareth spoke. “No, you’re not.”
Chapter Four
THE IMAGESthat Gareth’s wolf sent caused his knees to buckle. They were all the same. Sean’s body, tattered and torn, blood matting his fur as the life seeped out of him, and another wolf standing over him, howling in triumph, then tearing Sean’s throat out.
Sean stood, fists clenching at his sides. “What do you mean, I’m not leaving?”
The wolf in Gareth reared up, snarling. It refused to let Sean go, and if Gareth didn’t defuse the situation, he knew the wolf would come out and force Sean to stay.
“I asked you a question. What the hell do you mean, I can’t leave?”
If any of his wolves had spoken that way, Gareth’s wolf would have taken it as a challenge and treated it as such. Why, then, did his wolf actually calm a bit? Nothing that had happened since Sean had been brought in made sense.
The thing of it was, even if his wolf had calmed, it still demanded Gareth not allow Sean to leave. Images of Sean, flesh shredded, death imminent, and another wolf standing over his body, claiming it as a trophy, ripped through Gareth’s mind. Since he’d become Alpha, Gareth and his wolf had coexisted peacefully, but Sean had changed that. Now his wolf was more aggressive, straining Gareth’s attempts to get it to calm. His wolf was freaking out that something was going to happen to Sean, and it was pleading with Gareth not to let it happen.
“Why were you in the forest? What happened to you? Who did it?”
“That’s….” Sean glared directly into Gareth’s eyes. “That’s none of your business.”
Gareth drew closer, getting right in Sean’s face. “You’re on my lands, so it is my business.”
Sean made to move around Gareth, but he crowded him, forcing him back down onto the bed.
“You don’t want to do this,” Sean warned.
“Caleb, go home.”
“But, Alpha, I—”
“Now, Caleb.” The words came out in a low, throaty growl. “And don’t leave your room for the rest of the night, unless it’s a dire emergency.”
He’d never seen the pup move so fast.
Gareth turned back to Sean, catching the acrid scent of fear wafting off him. He narrowed his gaze. “Now tell me, what don’t I want to do?”
Sean swallowed hard, and he was tearing up. “Please, don’t hurt me.”
If Gareth thought his wolf was angry before, he wasn’t prepared when it lunged in his mind, demanding to get to Sean to attack….
No, not attack.
“Protect?”
He took a step back. His wolf was trying to protect Sean from Gareth.
“Sean, I—”
Sean got off the bed and rushed for the door. He flung it open and ran out into the night. Gareth stood, stunned. His wolf wanted to attackhim. Who was Sean to his wolf?
