Chapter 19
19
I ’ve never been patient. Pair my impatience with boredom and a desperate need to find out what the hell Nathan’s surprise is, and I’m bouncing out of bed not five minutes after he left.
I have the fastest shower in the world, brush my teeth, and once I’ve stuffed myself into clean jeans, a sweatshirt, and my sneakers, I’m braiding my hair as I rush out of my cabin and come to a screaming stop.
It’s early.
Maybe six or even seven. A brief glance at my cell phone before I got up revealed Nathan wasn’t joking when he said I should go back to sleep.
But it isn’t the slightly overcast gray day with the sun disappearing into the distance that halts me.
It’s an unfamiliar scent on my left and the snarl of my wolf rumbling a warning that something is very, very wrong.
I turn away from the beaten path that will take me to the Blackshaw farmhouse and face a towering oak a few feet away.
Sure, I could rush back into my cabin, but I’d be the proverbial rat in a barrel if I did that.
Trapped and easy to catch.
“I know you’re there,” I call out, abandoning my half-finished braid.
Adrian steps free from the trees.
He’s still the same handsome blond man with green eyes in his late twenties that I remember from Minnesota.
Dressed in a black long sleeve tee, blue jeans, and hiking boots, he is not unattractive. But I want nothing to do with this man. I never have and I never will.
“Clara,” he says, smiling.
A part of me isn’t even surprised he found me. He tracked me to Dawley from Minnesota. Even tracked me to Rosenwood, that tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Of course he’d turn up here. About the only thing I have to be grateful for is that Nathan isn’t here to get himself killed trying to protect me.
“What do you want?” I ask, as if it isn’t obvious.
His smile widens. “You, of course. Always you Clara.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me there’s an easy way or a hard way,” I say, trying to buy myself some thinking time.
Someone from the house might realize I’m in trouble and rescue me. Not exactly a strong possibility given they would have to pick up Adrian’s scent from the house or know he’s encroached on their land. Or I can save myself without getting any of the Blackshaws killed.
“There is the only way.”
“Which is?”
Can I make it to the house if I ran for it?
“You can come with me or my pack will wipe this one out of existence, starting with the one who thought he could put his hands on what’s mine.” When his nostrils flare, he must be picking up Nathan’s scent on me.
Yes, I showered, but I’ve been spending a lot of time with Nathan lately. There’s no way we don’t both smell like each other, even after a shower.
My blood turns cold and I abandon my decision to run for it. I bet that’s exactly what Adrian would want.
“The Blackshaws have nothing to do with this.”
“They’ve been keeping you from me. I will rip out their throats and set their land on fire for it.”
A touch extreme, maybe. But from the intensity of his stare and the tension around his mouth, he means it.
“But if I come with you?” I suggest.
He shrugs. “Then I might forget about them.”
Might is not good enough for me. No one can die because of me. Especially not the people who invited me into their lives and gave me a place that feels so much like home that I haven’t thought about leaving even once.
“You can’t hurt them.”
A snarl drips from his lips.
He stalks toward me and it takes everything not to run. The Blackshaws home is remote. If I ran, Adrian would eventually catch me. If I made it to the farmhouse, Adrian would get his pack and come back to set their home on fire, probably with us all inside. I’ve dragged Nathan into my mess already. The last thing I want is to drag Talis and her kids as well.
So I stay right where I am as Adrian stalks toward me.
I don’t move when he lifts a hand and softly, oh so softly, closes his palm around my neck.
I hold his gaze as he pushes me until my back bumps the cabin doorway.
“If you hurt them, I will make you wish you were never born,” I threaten.
His eyes narrow as his hand tightens slightly around my throat. “Is that so?”
I swallow my fear at how easily he could end my life. “It is. But if you leave them alone, I will go with you right now. I won’t yell or fight or try to escape. Otherwise, you had better learn to sleep with one eye open for as long as I’m alive because I would never stop fighting you.”
He stares at me for another long moment, then a slow smile stretches his lips as he releases me. “I like your fighting spirit, Clara.”
He laughs and I have a terrible feeling that I’m going to regret not running when I had the chance. Because something about him is… not right.
As he takes a step back, he seizes my wrist and yanks me toward him so hard I bounce off his shoulder.
He doesn’t notice. He’s dragging me along as he calls out, “Watch our back in case this is a trick.”
Three enforcers melt out of the forest. Wolves, not men.
I should have known Adrian would not have come here alone. I hadn’t scented them, but they’d been there, hidden in the forest, maybe waiting for me to run so they could chase me down and drag me back.
The brown and gray wolves look at me, peeling their lips from their teeth as if they suspect it’s a trap.
It’s not.
It’s just me stepping into one so no one else has to.
Adrian leads the way from my cabin, his enforcers constantly roving behind us to ensure no one follows, as I curse myself for a decision I already regret.
I know this won’t end well, but I didn’t see any other way to protect the people I care about. I still don’t. That doesn’t mean a part of me isn’t holding my breath, hoping someone will come along and save me from my stupid decision.
We make fast progress through the forest, soon emerging from Blackshaw Pack land and onto a road where two black cars are waiting and two shifters standing alongside the vehicles. More of Adrian’s men. Not enough to take on the Blackshaws, but all it would take is one phone call to Minnesota for backup, and then it would be over.
This is the right thing to do, I tell myself. This way, no one gets hurt but me.
A dark-haired man with mean gray eyes opens the back door and Adrian, none too gently, pushes me inside.
I get in, Adrian gets in beside me, and we pull away.
This was the right thing to do, I repeat to myself.
But as we leave Hardin behind us, I struggle to believe it.