37

M
y traitorous legs moved in his direction. Out of all the scenarios I’d imagined, Griffin being home wasn’t one of them. He’d been gone for weeks, and all of a sudden, he reappeared
tonight? Figures. That’s my luck lately.
At least, he couldn’t fight worth a damn, and the moon was already charging me. I’d kick his ass to get away if it came to that.
Not bothering to acknowledge his existence, I pressed forward, despite everything inside of me screaming to run to him and kiss his sexy mouth and touch his hard, muscular chest.
My weird attraction to him took my breath away. The time we’d spent apart from each other had only made this irrational desire even stronger. And those emotions I felt for him on top of the chaos already swirling inside made my throat dry as tears burned my eyes.
I didn’t want to leave him either.
Stupid douchebag, always showing up at the worst times. Fate had a way of torturing me.
“Dove,” he said, and it sounded like a warning. His feet hit the ground, coming after me. “Do not ignore me.”
He moved faster than I expected him to, as if he was equally eager to get to me. But that had to be because he wanted to torment me or insult me further. My stupid legs didn’t move any faster, almost as if they wanted him to catch up to me. Soon he grabbed my arm, forcing me to turn toward him.
I went to punch him but stopped short as his hazel eyes distracted me. They glowed, his wolf bleeding through and making him look even sexier. It took every ounce of my strength to keep myself from jumping into his arms.
“Does Killian know you’re out here by yourself in the middle of the night?” His words held such concern. “I have a feeling he doesn’t.” He pushed the bag off my shoulder.
“He’s not my dad-” That one word combined with Griffin’s touch released the sob I’d held back, and the tears fell freely down my cheeks.
The sorrow of the past two weeks settled hard inside my chest. I hadn’t truly broken down; I’d tried to focus on staying alive. But as of tonight, I’d genuinely lost everyone I cared about, one way or another. I couldn’t even say dad without breaking down.
“Hey,” Griffin said softly as he brushed tears from my face. “What’s wrong?”
My skin warmed and buzzed wherever he touched me, and somehow, the bastard calmed me enough to get a handle on my emotions and stop crying.
His tenderness caught me off guard, and the urge to flee, to escape whatever influence he held over me, returned. I liked it better when we were fighting. I could channel the hate to ward off the tug toward him.
“I need to go.” The longer I stayed, the harder it would be to leave.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” His words held a plea. “Or do I have to call Killian?” His nose wrinkled.
Dammit, if he called Killian, he would figure out I was leaving and ruin my escape. “Please don’t. I’m doing this to protect him.” I didn’t want to give too much away, but I needed Griffin to let me go.
“How is running out late at night protecting him?” His brows furrowed, and he looked back at Killian’s house.
“I thought you couldn’t wait until my ass left him.” I bit out the words, trying not to let him see how much it had cut me.
“You know I was being a jerk.” His phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket and rejected the call. “Regardless, you can’t do that to him. You have to at least say goodbye. Do you know what you disappearing would do to him? He’s already lost too many people in his life.”
I didn’t need this ass clown trying to make me feel bad. He treated people like shit, and he had the audacity to lecture me? I’d already struggled with this decision, so I didn’t need him laying it on me too. “People are hunting me. I care about Killian too much to let him get caught in the crossfire.”
“The bear shifter would’ve attacked anyone close to us that day,” he growled. “You don’t need to feel bad about that.”
“I wish it was just him.” If I had only one person to worry about, I wouldn’t be so nervous or scared. I’d kicked that bear’s ass that day all on my own, and I’d been holding back.
“What are you trying to say?” Griffin leaned toward me.
If I wanted to get out of this gracefully, I’d have to bare my soul to him. “I met Killian only a couple weeks ago.” I stopped, needing to prepare myself for the inevitable questions that would come.
Much to my surprise, Griffin didn’t rush me. Instead, he patiently waited for me to continue.
“In reality, he probably saved my life.” And I’d never even thanked him for that. Another thing I didn’t handle correctly. “I almost drowned when I tried to escape a group of men that had chased me from my pack home.”
“Drowned?” His body tensed as a low snarl rumbled. “Why were they chasing you?”
“I jumped into the river, trying to hide my scent so they couldn’t keep following me. They jumped in after me, and I found an undercurrent that helped me get away, but I almost didn’t break free.”
“But your pack. Why didn’t they help?” he asked. “Is that why you’re leaving? To go back to people who abandoned you?”
I laughed without humor. The bleak part of my soul flared. “No, I’ll never go back home, but my pack didn’t abandon me.” I looked skyward at the moon, needing to find comfort in the one thing that I’d never have to give up. “Those men who chased me, they slaughtered my pack before running after me.”
His eyes softened as he took a step toward me. “How did you escape?”
I told him the story of how I wasn’t there at first and heard the screams. “You see-” I stopped short, bracing myself to spit out the truth. “My pack kept to themselves. We stayed at arm’s length from all other supernaturals to keep our identity hidden. But, somehow, some wolves got wind of what we were and that a woman had been born to be the next alpha.”
“So they didn’t want a woman to lead?” He shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense as to why they’d kill the entire pack then.”
“No, they wanted the woman for someone.” I averted my gaze toward the ground. “I’m not sure who, but it doesn’t matter. They want her to have babies with this man so he can lead her race.”
“Why not lead the current pack?” Griffin tilted his head. “You’re holding back key pieces of information. I need to understand how you leaving right now, in the middle of the night, protects my best friend.”