Page 3 of Rituals & Runes

CHAPTER2

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I couldn’t help scanning, and rescanning the room. I’d come to this laundromat every Thursday for the last three years but tonight something sat wrong with me.

Maybe because my insides bloomed with a prickling sensation that came from the beginnings of my second heat. Or maybe because I'd stayed too long in this town, gotten too comfortable. Any day, another shifter could find me.

My wolf paced and pawed at me, sniffing the air in anticipation. At what? I didn’t know but it had me on edge.

I kept looking over my shoulder as I sorted the last of my dark clothes and popped them into a washer then got it going.

Watching the clothes tumble in a swirl of soap foam and water, my mind rewound to why I’d ended up in this dinky, human town.

If my mom hadn’t died in childbirth and my dad hadn’t had me kicked out of the pack at thirteen, I wouldn’t be in this predicament. I had always made the best of it.

I’d had to hide out because if any wolf shifters found me, they’d kill me. That’s how I ended up coming to wash my clothes on Thursdays after driving from my job as a vet tech. I’d figured out the smallest number of people showed up to wash their clothes on this night.

A shadow crossing the glass pane at the entrance made me look up. I froze as a broad-shouldered man measuring almost the height of the door stopped before the window. Light from the laundromat shone across his face. Barely able to make out his appearance in the shadowy night, he talked on a cell phone.

Though I could hardly see him, I could sense feel him. It was impossible not to feel his overwhelming energy.

An intense power radiated from him, in a hum that my wolf and I could sense pulsing through the air and floor. She sat up, on alert, whining and barking. Still on end, the hair on the back of my neck vibrated with his raw strength and dominance.

His fist crashed through the window. I sucked in a sharp breath, my heart hammering as the shattered glass tinkled to the ground. He cursed then glanced up, locking a hard gaze—

On me.

He moved to the door in one quick stride. The glass entrance creaked as he pulled it open, pausing as he filled its frame, bringing in a gust of frosty, December air. It swung closed behind him but he didn’t move.

Fluorescent lighting cast across his rugged face, all rugged hard lines and angles, with broad cheek bones and intense green eyes that seared heat into my skin with a drilling gaze.

The sounds of the washing machine faded away, and every nerve ending across my body tingled. He was strikingly handsome and had to be pure stacked muscle underneath his jeans and t-shirt.

Warm shivers raced over my body straight to my core where desire pooled. My skin flushed with heat. My wolf perked up, howling and urging me to approach him. The air crackled with electric energy that flowed between us. Despite knowing I should leave now, the pulsing rush through my veins compelled me to rush into his arms.

My wolf insisted she needed him.

She had to have lost her animal mind.

Because dear me, my jaw almost dropped at who stood before me.

Kaden Stone.

Alpha of Stone Mountain Pack.

The very pack mine had cursed.

My mortal enemies.

I cocked my head trying to assess the danger. How had he discovered my location? It had to be my heat, these pheromones blasting in the air like an announcement to male shifters, a homing beacon to come and find me.

No way could I stick around. I needed to run for my life. An urge to bolt surged through me but my sneakers remained glued to the chipped tile floor. Because he had moved in front of the door—blocking my only exit.

A devilish smirk ticked up on his full lips as he sniffed the air.

He definitely sensed my heat. My body’s traitorous reaction to him.

I couldn’t risk being near any shifters let alone attracted to a Stone Mountain Pack member.

My sight dipped to his bleeding hand, then back up to his masculine face, his penetrating gaze. After a few seconds, I fought my urge to expose my neck to him, then averted my gaze but tried to make it look like I simply glanced around the room. He had to have sensed my submissive nature. Still, I couldn’t roll over the floor like a puppy in the laundromat.

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