Leviathan
Iturned in a slow circle, fists clenched at my sides. That bastard had laid hands on her. He’d hurt her. If June hadn’t been here, I would have killed him. I would have painted the walls with his blood.
When the door opened again, I nearly let out a howl of rage and rushed forward, thinking it was Anders returning. Instead, Mr. Hollis was backing his way in through the door, pulling a small pushcart.
“June, girl? You’ll never guess what I found at a yard sale this morning,” he called, a smile on his face as he looked over his shoulder. When he saw me standing there, shaking with rage, his smile faltered.
“Uh…is everything okay?” He glanced around the store. “Where’s June?”
“Gone,” I said, my jaw clenched so hard the word sounded more like a grunt. “She left with Anders. I need to go, Mr. Hollis.”
Walking forward on stiff legs, I nodded to him and pushed through the door.
The cool air washed away some of the heat that had built up in my body.
When was the last time I was this angry?
When those Red Maw pricks had attacked June?
Probably, but this was worse. At least then, I had been able to lash out, attack, and kill the ones who’d wronged her.
Here? I couldn’t. Anders was the alpha. With one word from him, I’d be banished for the second time in a century.
If I wanted to find out who killed Naphele, I needed to have access to the town.
Also, the thought of being separated from June made me want to fall apart, to shatter and melt into nothing all at the same time.
With my emotions roiling inside me, I shifted.
In my wolf form, many of the more human sentiments dulled, but even my wolf raged at the way Anders had touched her, and he yearned to tear his throat out.
I ran, pushing my body to its limits. I ducked into the forest, bobbing, weaving and ducking trees and branches.
The faster I ran, the better I felt, and after nearly an hour, most of my rage had burned off.
Stopping to catch my breath, I sat back on my haunches, panting and letting my tongue loll from my mouth.
The crinkling sound of feet running on leaves caught my attention.
Perking up my ears, I homed in on the direction of the sound, trying to figure out if someone was stalking me.
But they were heading in the opposite direction, moving at an incredible speed.
It sounded like someone else was sprinting out their anger and pain.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I stood and ran toward the sound, hoping to figure out who was in the forest with me. My chase brought me to a ridge that ran along a small creek on the outskirts of town. June was racing along it.
Had I been in my human form, I would have laughed. June angled to the right, heading down toward the creek. I ran until I was beside her. She glanced over and only slowed when she realized I was there. Rather than stopping, she moved over, still sprinting, and nudged me with her shoulder.
I nudged back, accepting the obvious challenge, and then the two of us bolted forward, racing.
Her speed was on par with some of the fastest wolves I’d ever seen, but it was still no match for mine.
After another mile of running, she trotted to a stop.
Turning, I circled around and stopped beside her as she shifted back to her human form and sat down on the forest floor.
“Wanna talk?” I said after I’d shifted back.
June took a long, deep breath and let it out before speaking. “It’s not what you think.”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. All that matters is what I saw. I saw that prick put his hands on you. That’s not okay, June.”
She ran her hands through her hair and cast a sidelong look at me, her face a mask of embarrassment.
“Fine,” she huffed. “I’m goddamn pissed, all right.”
“As you should be,” I agreed.
“It’s why I came out here for a run. I needed to cool down.”
I grinned at her. “And here I thought you were chasing me down on purpose.”
She smirked and shrugged a shoulder. “That was a happy accident.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences.”
She gave me a sardonic grin. “Isn’t our entire relationship almost entirely based on coincidences?”
Fair point.
“I’ve calmed down now,” she went on. “We talked about it after we left the store. I basically told him the same thing you said. That it wasn’t okay that he touch me like that.”
“Basically?” I said. “What does that mean? Because the only thing he needs to hear is my fist hitting his goddamn face.”
“You have to admit it was a bad look, right?” she said, ignoring my threat. “What he saw when he walked in on us?”
“I don’t care what he saw. That was a private moment between us. Fuck him.”
She sighed and looked off into the forest. This was not going well.
We’d been having fun in our wolf forms, now this.
Life was always so much easier as a wolf.
It was part of why I’d spent so much time in that form.
Sure, it had extended my life, but it was so simple to explore the woods and wilderness and not have to deal with all these human issues.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be the one who’s angry here. If anyone should be pissed, it’s you.”
“Thanks,” she muttered and looked down at her hands. “I’m not happy. I made sure Anders knew how upset I was. You’d be proud of how I handled it, actually,” she said with a grin.
I smiled back. “Did you chew his ass out?”
“Big time. I told him an alpha needed to stay calm and collected all the time, and how a real alpha wouldn’t be so quick to anger, all that stuff.
I think it worked. He visibly calmed down.
” She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I’ve never met a guy so worried about what others thought of him.
He doesn’t seem like an alpha in that way.
He’s sort of insecure and not like…” She drifted off and averted her eyes.
Not like me? The thought made my inner wolf happy, and I had to stifle a satisfied growl.
Unable to help myself, I inched closer to her, feeling her body heat radiate into mine.
To my relief, she didn’t pull away. When our legs touched, I couldn’t help thinking of having them wrapped around me, urging me deeper as she moaned beneath me.
June tilted her head. Our eyes locked, and the world narrowed. I had to believe she was imagining the same thing I was.
“So, you guys are still good?” I asked, trying to pose the question as innocently as possible and get my mind off the things flashing through my head.
“We are.” Her cheeks flushed as she looked away. “He apologized once he calmed down.” Rather than looking relieved, she appeared more like she’d accepted a fate she wasn’t exactly excited about.
“Which is good,” she continued. “This is my last chance. I can’t fuck it up.”
That stoked my rage again. She wasn’t fucking anything up. Anders was. I didn’t give a shit what he’d seen us doing. That piece of shit should have been thanking his lucky stars he had a woman like June as his mate. Through sheer force of will, I kept my mouth shut and said nothing in response.
June must have sensed my emotions without me speaking, though. She nudged my knee with hers. “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’m not the type to stay with a guy who doesn’t treat me with respect. Anders is rough around the edges, but I’m hoping he’ll get better with time.”
Something about her tone told me she wasn’t confident in that assessment.
I wanted to tell her to forget Anders, to come back to Hidden Grove with me, but I held my tongue, not wanting to damage our relationship further—or damage my pride along with it.
This was a decision she’d made. I couldn’t alter her choice.
“I need to blow off some steam,” she said, and before I could respond, she’d shifted.
She jumped around in a circle, wagging her tail, tongue hanging out madly.
She looked more like a goofy family dog than the big dangerous wolf she was.
There were other, more intimate ways I’d rather blow off steam with her, but I’d take what I could get.
There was no telling how much time I’d get to spend alone with her.
Climbing to my feet, I shifted. Before I’d even landed on all four paws, June took off.
Over the next half hour, we played like children, racing each other, playing follow-the-leader, splashing in the icy creek water. We even tried to hunt a deer together. I hadn’t had this much fun since I was a child. What made it even better was that I was having this moment with June.
Eventually, we ended up in a small clearing only a hundred yards from town.
She rushed toward my side and shoved her nose under my right armpit, causing me to tip over.
I yelped in surprise as she jumped on me.
We rolled around, before I managed to clamber atop her.
We both shifted back to our human forms at almost the exact same moment.
June lay beneath me, panting for breath.
“You got me,” she said, grinning up at me.
She was beautiful with her hair spread out around her, her skin all rosy.
The heat of her body radiated into me, and I couldn’t help but lean forward and kiss her.
When our lips met, all I could do was moan in relief and pleasure.
Kissing her was like coming home, and even more so when June wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close.
For a few brief moments, it was like heaven, but then we came to our senses. I slid away from her, and June scrambled out from under me, looking horrified.
“We can’t,” she muttered, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I know, but that asshole doesn’t deserve you, and you know it.”
“We talked about that,” June said. “I calmed him down. It’s going to be all right.”
I scrambled to my feet, my anger returning. “He put his hands on you, June. No man worth a damn would do that. You deserve better.”
June wrapped her arms around her knees and gave me a sad look.
“I know that. I really do. But at least Anders wants me. Good or bad, he wants me. Not a dead woman he can never have again.” She stood and walked away without another word.
All I could do was stand there, mouth hanging open, watching her go.
How could I argue with that? Was she right?
Was my obsession with Naphele costing me something that might be wonderful?
I shoved my hands into my pockets and began the slow walk back to town, wondering how I’d gotten in such an awful place and dreaming of ways to get out of it.