Chapter Sixteen
Vaughn
“What in the hell is happening?” I asked, already pulling off my shirt as the three of us fast-walked toward the back door. My wolf felt the power of her shift, and there was only one thing to do.
Our omega was scared. The sharp, acidic scent of fear filled the air. My wolf tore out of my human body. The most painful shift I’d ever experienced.
All three of us shifted at the same time. Our omega wolf was faster than us but we knew the land better.
Her fear propelled her even faster.
What in the hell was she afraid of? We hadn’t done anything to make her scared, had we? Though there was something fierce about the way Holt looked at her after reading the text he’d received.
We gave chase, splitting up so that she didn’t get lost or hurt. No matter what was going on, running from us or her problems solved nothing.
We were a pack, even if she hadn’t accepted us, and we hadn’t made a commitment to court her. She was ours. Period. Even if she never took us on as a pack.
Once you met the person made for you, no one else stood a chance.
At the top of a grassy hill, we surrounded her, finally catching up. She was the fourth point on the square and the only way to get away from us was down the hill.
Don’t do it. Female, don’t do it, I pleaded even though she wouldn’t be able to hear us until we were bonded completely and she bore our marks.
She did it. Katie’s wolf turned and, instead of making her way down the hill at a slow pace, she tripped in her haste and rolled down the hill.
All three of us followed and somehow, in our desperation for her not to get hurt, tumbled after her.
The sky became the ground, and grass and dirt got in my mouth.
We ended up at the bottom, breathless and disoriented.
And shifted back to human.
Katie stood. Behind her was the river. We surrounded her. Her shoulders slumped, and she looked at her feet. “Worth a shot,” she murmured.
None of us laughed.
“Maybe we should try talking, omega,” I said. It came out harsher than I wanted, but she held secrets. Secrets that she thought would make us angry? Not want her around? It would be so much easier to tell us what was going on, so she no longer had to run or look over her shoulder.
“What in the ever-loving fuck is going on, Katie?”
Every time we said that name, it was like a tiny betrayal. That wasn’t her name. We knew so little about her, we were calling her by the wrong name.
“I’ll go back with you. To the house. Let me put some clothes on.”
Nothing about telling us the truth or admitting what the hell was going on. But going back to the house was a start.
On the way back, I pulled out a bag from a nearby tree. We kept a hoodie and some shorts there in case we needed to shift and be presentable to a human or someone who stumbled onto our lands. I offered them to her.
When her head emerged from the top of the hoodie, she stared at me. “What?”
“No matter what is going on, you have us,” I told her. “Anything.”
She scoffed. “You can’t know that, Vaughn.”
I cupped her face and rubbed some dirt away with my thumb. “I do, omega. You can trust us. I know it’s hard and you’re scared, but we’ll work through this together.”
Holt cleared his throat. “Let’s get inside.”
Pushy alpha.
“Yeah, okay. Inside.”