Page 56 of The Wolf's Kidnapped Mate

Which meant Ihadto get my wavering feelings under control. Stress made people do all sorts of things. Fred had sworn to protect me. He was doing his job.

But the more he checked to see if I was behind him, the more I thought about the way he had cradled my body as he bit my neck. Nobody touched me so tenderly. Not a soul in this world had worshipped my body the way Fred did. If that wasn’ta sign of deeply held feelings, then I was a lot less socialized than I thought.

Desperation sank into my muscles when I spotted the hill ahead with plenty of cave openings. Goddess,yes, I was about to sprawl out and rest up enough to sprint the rest of the way to Buckhannon. The sapphics would be there. My brother would be there.

I shrank into myself as we approached the cave’s entrance at the base of the hill. Rocks decorated the path along with a giant boulder that guarded the left side of the entrance. I trotted weakly after Fred while thinking about the man who I hadn’t seen in over a year now.

The same man who had set me up as bait and kept all the juicy details from me.

My brother.

I paused at the mouth of the cave, listening to the comforting sounds of water dripping somewhere inside. There might even be an underground river or a pond. That would be a nice change of pace from the decrepit mines we’d been using as shelter.

Fred shifted into his human form, his pert bottom resembling the moon in the fading afternoon light. There was a nice view that could make me forget about everything. And honestly, stopping here for a few hours would help me get my thoughts together.

Because reaching Buckhannon meant facing my brother, the truth, and the fact that I’d been bitten by my brother’s best friend.

It was a lot to handle on top of everything else.

Fred collapsed over a large, smooth rock just out of reach of the sun. He groaned while stretching his limbs, curling his toes back to point his feet toward the ground and then hiking them forward toward his knees. Joints popped. Groans surfaced from each satisfying sound.

I wanted to do the same thing. But I wasn’t sure about shifting right now. One of us needed to gather food while the other gathered wood. When Fred stood upright, he wobbled a bit, but he was ultimately fine. He padded up to me and scratched under my chin, making me squint happily.

Wolf form meant scritches. And scritches were nice enough to make me relax.

“Come with me,” he instructed. “You can get another rabbit while I grab some firewood.”

He just read my mind, didn’t he?

I didn’t have any arguments against that. As long as I was here at this cave with him, I didn’t have to face my brother or the looming truth that threatened to rip me apart. Denial worked best in stages for me. It was how I’d processed Drew leaving me high and dry at that ridiculous church in Greenville, South Carolina.

Rabbits weren’t hard to catch. Once I had grabbed a few—within earshot of Fred, of course—I returned to him with my spoils and contentedly carried them with me into the cave. He set up the fire. I shifted into human form to start skinning and cleaning the meat.

Within half an hour, the fire was in full swing and the rabbits were skewered on twigs that Fred had located. He sat quietly on my right with his back facing the rear of the cave. His eyes were on the entrance. We were about fifteen feet from it, enough distance to spot someone and do something about it.

My back was to the entrance with my eyes hooked on the rear of the cave. The fire illuminated at least another ten feet, glowing orange and red against the stony gray walls back there. The water never stopped dripping. From inside the cave came the fresh scent of rushing water. There was probably a lot to explore if we had the time.

Fred nudged me. “Meat’s ready.”

“Thanks.”

“What are you thinking about?”

I eyed him suspiciously while accepting a thick twig. “Since when are you curious about what’s on my mind?”

“Since the cabin.” He bit into the rabbit, huffed with satisfaction as he chewed, and then shook his head. “No, before that. In the greenhouse.”

“When I came to talk to you?”

He nodded.

“I didn’t realize my thoughts interested you.”

He snorted. “Everything that confuses me interests me.”

“So, I confuse you?”

“All the time.” But that deadpan tone of his didn’t match his grin.

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