Page 80 of Tethered to the World
“Stop acting like a boyfriend, save it for later until after we’re home. You’re the team leader. I am in no way a normal shifter. I could have handled myself. And don’t even mention Loulou.” She stuck her finger in his face, so annoyed she wanted to smack him again. “If it had been any of the guys, you would’ve let them go, trusting them to get the job donewhileprotecting her with their lives.” She waited for him to deny it, but he gave her the courtesy of the truth when he said nothing. “Now let’s get answers. I could really use a shower.”
He studied her for a moment longer, his grip tightening in protest before he reluctantly released her and strode off to join the others. Mason joined them after picking up the vehicle and hefting it off the road like a small suitcase, while Xander and Camden took the unconscious wolves and began tossing them haphazardly into the back of their SUV.
Annora turned toward where Lionel still held Loulou. He’d pulled her off the road, so they were both under the streetlamp. She approached slowly, sensing the wolf was ready to burst out of his skin. She stopped ten feet away, then crouched. “Is she okay?”
When he gazed over at her, pure wolf looked back, his eyes nearly a feral yellow. It took him a moment to remember how to speak. “It was you, wasn’t it? You somehow pulled her through the trunk.”
Annora just nodded.
He tightened his hold on his Loulou, as if Annora might try to take her away, and her throat ached at the gesture. “I would never hurt her.”
It took a full minute before he unbent enough to nod. “Maybe not, but danger lingers around you wherever you go. She’ll never be safe with you near. People will always come for you, craving the power you wield.”
Pain slashed through her heart, the wounding much deeper than any physical injury.
Because he was right.
He looked down at the blond hair spilled over his arm, then he carefully lifted Loulou like she was beyond precious. He stopped next to Annora, finally looking her in the eye. “Thank you for saving her. Most wouldn’t have bothered.”
“But?”
He looked off into the darkness. “I wouldn’t have reached her in time. What happens next time, if neither of us can get to her before it’s too late?”
The thought gutted her, and she swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Then you will both have to make a choice and decide what my friendship means to you. I will abide by whatever you decide.” Gosh, it hurt to say the words, and she let the pain wash through her. “The drugs should wear off by morning—faster, if you can get her to shift.”
Then she turned and headed toward the guys, unable to watch Loulou and her wolf walk out of her life.
To her surprise, Terrance dragged himself out of the darkness, battered and bruised, cradling his arm, his leg bent at a wrong angle. When she would’ve gone to him, he waved her off, his smile more of a wince. “Go. I’ll be fine. I’ll call the pack to come get me.” He nodded to the unconscious wolves piled haphazardly in the back of the SUV. “You’ll want to take them and be gone before the pack arrives.”
She took the friendly advice as the warning it was and headed back toward the others.
And stopped in surprise when Logan stood waiting in the middle of the road. Without a word, he opened his arms and pulled her close, the warmth of him almost burning against the chill that seemed to have invaded her soul.
What if Lionel was right?
Was she too dangerous to handle?
A smack to the back of her head took her by surprise, and she lurched back to see Camden and the guys glaring down at her.
Camden shook a finger at her. “Same rules apply to you. You don’t have time to be a girl. You’re an alpha with a job. Act like it.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it when she realized he was right. “Okay. What’s next?”
Camden pulled the keys out of his pocket and headed back toward the SUV. “Now we turn these fuckers over to Director Greenwood and get answers.”
The rest of the guys followed, while Xander fell into step beside her. “We’ll teach you how to be an alpha and control your gifts so you won’t accidently hurt yourself or anyone else.” Xander didn’t look at her as they walked, his jacket rippling behind him as if it caught a wind she couldn’t feel.
She asked the question that worried her most. “Will it be enough?”
“Not always.” He shrugged, then reached out and grabbed her chin. “But that’s why you have us. Two alphas are almost unstoppable. You’ve bound five of us together. It’s unheard of. People will come for us—some to test us, some to join us, some to destroy us. You’re still growing, but you’ll become the strongest of us…you just need to stand firm.”
Her breath caught at his offhanded description of their future.
There was no doubt or hesitation.
To him, they were a pack.
And they were becoming her everything.
