Come with me

The sun had yet to rise, but Elaina was up, using the hairpin from her cosmetic case to pick the lock on the door. Her smile spread quickly at the click of its release. She had to tamp down on her triumph, focusing on moving quietly. Only when she was once again outside, in the deep covering of the woods, would she release the yelp of victory of escaping yet another overbearing brute of a leader.

She would find her own place in this world, her own destiny. Her journey would not end here; it could not. No matter the pull she felt toward Edwards and regardless of that low hum of arousal that had stayed with her throughout the night, even after that mind-numbing orgasm. He was everything she did not want in a mate—if she were even thinking along those lines, which she was not. Elaina believed her mother’s words that there was more for her and she hoped with everything she was that Tora hadn’t simply been referring to her connecting with a male lycan. There had to be more to life for lycans than that simple link. Elaina definitely wanted more and she was convinced that she wouldn’t get it here.

The hallway was draped in darkness and the solemn pre-dawn quiet. Elaina tipped out of the room, her backpack over her left shoulder, a fresh pair of yoga pants and a hot pink T-shirt her runaway attire for the day. Two steps out into the hall, Elaina stopped, looking behind her. She hadn’t heard anything, hadn’t picked up any scent—because today she was definitely going to keep her wits about her and pay attention to all her surroundings. But there had been something … there was only a door, about five feet away, dead center. It was closed, of course, and the fact that her heart rate had picked up just by staring at it was a sure sign she needed to stay the hell away from whatever was in there.

On the move again, she tiptoed over the wooden floors, noting the walls around her were also wood, pictures hanging at measured intervals, of what she could not readily make out. There were two more closed doors that she passed, one of which she was almost positive led to Edwards’s bedroom. That thought only succeeded to hurry her along. If there’d been a tightening between her legs at the thought, she ignored it and kept on moving.

The staircase was grand for what she would definitely call a log cabin, only much bigger. About fifteen feet wide, it wound slightly to the right, ending in the living room area where she remembered coming in last night. For a moment she paused to look around. More wood, gleaming floors, high beamed ceilings, and a mixture of rustic and contemporary décor. Furniture pieces were either wood or leather, hard or soft, warm golden light pouring from antique wall sconces, plush rugs covering partial areas of the floor, a gorgeous wood-burning fireplace in the center of the living room, a mantel above holding metals of some sort.

This was their home, she thought fleetingly. She could sense so much more here than just a structure where they lived. There was strength, loyalty, despair. The last sort of hung in the air, out of sight but still there making its presence known. Elaina had no idea why that thought bothered her and so she took a deep breath and moved on to wonder something a little more mundane. There were too many lights on for everyone to still be asleep. The sound of his voice confirmed that assumption.

“Why are you running when you know the danger that awaits you out there?”

Elaina turned slowly, an almost relaxed feeling coming over her as she knew to whom that voice belonged.

“Because I have no way of knowing what awaits me in here” was her calm response to Channing.

He looked great in the early morning, his dark denim jeans hanging low on his hips, white shirt baring muscled arms and suede moccasins. Yes, the shoes did strike her as a little strange as everything about him as he stood there, hands tucked in his front pant pockets, screamed male model or possibly movie star. Yet he looked totally comfortable in his morning attire, his neatly trimmed beard and piercing blue eyes giving him a youthful yet knowledgeable appearance.

“Well, I can tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so you shouldn’t skip it. Especially if you’re planning to be on the move for a while,” he replied simply.

He’d moved his arm in a “come here” motion as he turned and walked away. He expected her to follow instead of heading out of that front door. She knew which one she should do and yet her feet were moving in the direction behind him instead. There was another room on this side of the stairway, a huge table, at least twelve feet long and probably six feet wide, with high-backed red-cushioned chairs all around. In the center of the table was a bowl full of fruit. To her left through a double-wide doorway was the kitchen.

After watching Channing go in this direction, immediately heading to a bank of white cabinets, she stepped inside.

“I’ll be fine. I don’t need to eat anything,” she said at the exact moment her stomach made a very loud and extremely rude noise in contrast.

Channing chuckled, looking over his shoulder at her to say, “Come on; you know better than that. You’re an alpha female, so you’re too smart not to know that you’ll be much more alert, more prepared to defend yourself should the need arise, if you’re not also fighting low blood sugar.”

Elaina stared at him quizzically. “How do you know what I am?”

“It’s fairly obvious to any lycan worthy of the breed,” he told her with a nonchalant shrug. “There aren’t many male lycans bold enough to stand up to Edwards the way you attempted to last night, let alone a female. We all knew you were an alpha the moment you stepped into this house.”

“You knew I was a Hunter,” she replied quickly.

Channing turned to look at her evenly. “Yes. We knew that too.”

“And you wanted to kill me,” she said with certainty.

“It’s our job to protect the alpha. In that regard, we do whatever is necessary. Lucky for you, Edwards had other plans,” he said before giving her that quick, infectious grin once more.

Elaina didn’t know what to say to his last remark. She didn’t want to know what Edwards’s other plans were. At least, she was trying valiantly to convince herself that she didn’t.

Reminding herself that part of what Channing had said was true—she did need to remain alert—she looked around, making more mental notes of her surroundings. The kitchen was a bright space, filled at this moment with the lights Channing had already turned on. The moment the sun rose Elaina suspected it would pour through the large window over the sparkling white farm sink, and the other window at the far end of the room, just above another table—significantly smaller than the one in the dining room—with bench seats. There were more exposed beams in here, jutting from the ceiling and even reaching down to serve as mounds for the eight-foot black granite-topped island. Again there was rustic and contemporary going on here. The cabinets were bright white with antique-looking handles, black and white subway tile backsplash, copper pots dangling from a wood pot rack above the island, and stainless-steel appliances, restaurant-style.

In addition to being well versed on the history of the lycans and on hand for whenever Penn and the pack needed tactical briefing, Tora had loved everything about decorating and designing. Their house had been an attestation to the sleek, clean lines she adored, each of the rooms decorated with her keen eye for colors that matched whichever person accepted its personality. Elaina had paid close attention to everything her mother wanted to teach her, even the things—like decorating and most of the household duties an alpha female was expected to perform—that she could actually care less about.

Standing at the doorway of this kitchen, she knew her mother would like what had been done here, the warm welcome of the rustic theme that was carried throughout each room she’d seen so far blending seamlessly with the cool efficiency of the modern touches that promised whoever worked in this kitchen would provide nourishing meals for all who dared to enter.

Despite the title and all the enhanced power over their pack, the alpha female’s main responsibility was to care for the pack by feeding them and taking care of their house. To some—namely, Elaina—that might seem like an old-fashioned or maybe archaic mentality, but to the lycans it was the way of their world and it in no way demeaned the alpha females. Especially since another one of their duties was to direct the pack’s strategic planning. If there was a confrontation expected, the alpha female would give instructions on when and where it was best to attack. Of course, it was the alpha’s choice whether or not to follow her directives, but since the alpha females had been trained their whole life for this job, their alpha usually respected that skill and did as they suggested.

It all seemed way too subservient for Elaina, and as she had when her mother had explained these points to her time and time again, she shuddered, the beast in her already prepared to rebel. Shaking her head from those thoughts, Elaina vowed once again that she would do more, be more, than what the lycan world mandated. She had to.

“You do the cooking here?” she asked after clearing her throat. There was no scent of another female here, and by the way they’d all circled around her last night she’d figured she was the closest in the vicinity. Of course, the way they’d all commenced upon her could have also been because they knew she’d come from a Hunter pack. Circling their prey was a definite possibility to which she supposed she might actually owe Edwards with his high-handedness last night an apology for sparing her life.

“I like to eat good food, so it made sense that I learn how to prepare it. The others, they aren’t as interested in the taste of their cuisine as they are in simply getting the nourishment that they need,” Channing continued talking in that light, casual manner she was beginning to associate with only him. As he still moved around as he spoke, Elaina couldn’t help but watch how familiar he was with this space and how completely comfortable he was with what he was doing.

He took down two frying pans, turned to the double-doored stainless-steel refrigerator to retrieve eggs and a carton of milk. After putting those on the counter he went back to the refrigerator, this time grabbing cheese and spinach. All the while his muscled biceps bulged and stretched with each movement. There was strength there, no doubt. Strength and complacency, two things Elaina hadn’t thought she believed a lycan could possess. How could one be content with living such a sheltered and solitary existence? But for their packs, especially for the Devoteds, lycans did not socialize with any other humans. If they held a job that required them to do so, then they did. If not, it was as if the two were living on separate planets. How was that considered a good thing? She wondered.

“It’s still so early. Do you normally cook at this time?” Elaina asked because it seemed the more she stood in this kitchen with Channing, the more she wanted to know about him, about this house and this pack.

“No,” he told her. “You’re in luck today because I’m preparing my famous cheddar and spinach quiche. Needs time to cook, so that’s why I’m up early.”

She nodded. “I don’t like spinach.”

He turned to face her, lifting a brow. “Sit down and tell me what else you don’t like, Elaina.”

And he would listen, she thought as she stared at him contemplatively. This lycan who should have been her sworn enemy would let her sit in his kitchen and ask him question after question. He would answer her too, she realized. And it would be the truth, or the truth as to his way of thinking. Nobody in Penn’s pack ever listened to Elaina, unless she was telling them it was time for dinner. In the last few months they hadn’t even spoken to her unless it was to put her down or come on to her. None of them had the common sense to know the two didn’t go together and would most likely always end in her rejection of them. Then, it wasn’t etched in stone that lycans were the smartest creatures on earth.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I should go.” Elaina had to admit to herself that didn’t sound very convincing; still a part of her had felt she’d at least had to say it.

Channing didn’t immediately reply, but Elaina still stood there. Why didn’t she simply walk away? He wasn’t doing a damned thing to stop her. She could go, walk out the door, and not look back. But her feet hadn’t moved. She simply stood there as if rooted to this spot, watching this stranger prepare his morning meal.

“He’s not going to let you,” Channing finally said in a quiet, reserved tone.

“What? Are you talking about Edwards? I’m not a part of his pack, so why would he want to keep me here?”

My release. His words from last night echoed in her mind and Elaina’s entire body flushed as if he were once again directing her to a most delicious climax.

Thankfully oblivious to her discomfort, Channing had a glass bowl that he’d set on the island and he began cracking eggs and dropping them inside, as if she weren’t here interrupting what was probably usually a solitary activity.

“He won’t let you go back out there where you can be snatched by any other alpha, or beta for that matter, and either used or killed. That’s not something he can allow,” Channing continued.

“But he’s a Devoted. Why should he give a damn what happens to me? I’m not his concern.”

Channing looked up, tossing cracked shells back into the box. “You are now.”

When she opened her mouth to speak again, Channing spoke up instead. “Listen, Edwards was born to be a protector. It’s what he does, especially after what happened with his family.”

“What happened to his family?” Elaina asked immediately. She shouldn’t care. Nothing about Edwards mattered to her. The only thing on her mind was getting out of here and getting on with her life.

“I’ll just say that Edwards couldn’t be there for them when they needed him most. He’s never forgiven himself for that even though there was nothing he could have done differently to change the outcome.”

“But I’m not his family. I’m nothing to him,” she said, the words ringing oddly in her ears. “And I can’t stay here, regardless of whatever guilt complex he may be nursing.” With those words Elaina turned and walked out of the kitchen. She didn’t wait for Channing to respond or even look back to see if his response was a questioning look. No, she had to leave at this instant. She’d stood in that kitchen too long, looking at all the dishes, the notes on the refrigerator, the cups in the cabinet, all remnants of a home. One in which she was the outsider, a feeling that was all too familiar to her.

She came to the front door and pulled on the handle.

Nothing happened, so she pulled again. She pressed the latch and pulled once more. The door would not open and she cursed.

Elaina kicked the door once, then again, screaming in frustration. She’d just lifted a fist to pound on it—ignoring her mother’s training to keep a calm head in all circumstances—when Channing grabbed her wrist.

He held it gently, speaking in his quiet tone. “It’s an electronic lock. You need the code to get in or out. It’s specially designed for our safety,” he told her. “Whatever his reasons are, you can trust that Edwards will not let anyone hurt you, Elaina. You’ll be safe here until he can figure out what to do with you.”

She whirled around then, yanking her arm from Channing’s grip. “I don’t want him to figure anything out for me. I don’t want anyone to make decisions for me. Why can’t anyone understand that?”

“I do,” Channing told her. “Believe me, I know all about wanting to make your own way in this world and to your own destiny. Been there, done that, and from the looks of things should have written a book about it.” He chuckled at himself as if it didn’t matter at all that she was smiling in response. “Now, come on, put this heavy bag down, and let me fix you a cup of my delicious homemade hot cocoa. Then you can sit with your feet up and listen to some of my infamous celebrity stories.”

Elaina looked up into his smiling face. Her head throbbed with the stress of the situation, yet her heart warmed toward him and his totally confident yet blissful attitude. He seemed genuine, his tone and actions toward her nothing but respectful. She wasn’t used to that from betas, or at least not the ones in Penn’s pack. Each of them had wanted to get her into bed so that he could claim her and lead the pack. When she repeatedly thwarted their advances they showed their truest colors, criticizing her weight, degrading her for not being as svelte and sexy as Tora had been, swearing Elaina should believe she was being granted a privilege if any of them would even consider sleeping with her. She hated each of them and she hated her father for allowing the treatment in his house and among his pack and, worse, for commanding that she allow one of them to claim her for the sake of them all.

“Come on,” Channing said again, reaching for her hand. “You have nothing to fear here. I promise.”

Elaina had never been made a promise before but was leery of them just the same. But as it stood she could not get out of this fortress, not at the moment anyway. She’d have to figure out the electronic lock system, and that might take some time. On a huff, she readjusted her bag on her arm and reluctantly took Channing’s hand. Couldn’t hurt to play at being cooperative. Besides, his hand was warm and strong as it clasped around hers and he smiled even more warmly at her.

“You are not going to believe the dirt I know about them, and it’s all true,” he was saying, about the celebrities, she supposed, as he headed for the kitchen once again. She followed him, reluctant and interested but determined to not let down her guard and to keep true to her purpose. To keep moving toward finding her own freedom, from men and from lycans.

* * *

“Why did you bring her here?” Phelan asked Edwards the moment he stepped out of his bedroom. “You know she’s trouble.”

His longtime friend and right-hand pack mate had absolutely no idea how true his words really were. The trouble had begun the moment Edwards had touched her, and this morning Edwards was just as angry about that as he had been when he’d finally fallen into a fitful sleep last night.

He hadn’t meant to reach out to her as he stood at that window staring out. His original thoughts had been on the danger she’d been in out in the forest alone. Any lycan could have happened upon her; he could have forced her into a claiming, taken her as his alpha female, and nobody would have ever known. Edwards had no idea why she’d been out there alone, but he damned sure planned to find out. In addition to that knowledge, Edwards also wanted to know what pack she’d come from. He knew exactly what Phelan was thinking right now because he’d thought it himself.

What if she was a decoy amidst a bigger plan to attack his pack? Edwards was a wanted man. There were some who if they knew who and where he was would kill him on the spot. Or they would try. He also knew that he’d kill every last being that came at him trying to take him down. Edwards’s father, Alec, had been a Devoted, committed to upholding everything his father, Lyktimos, had originally wanted for the lycans. By birthright Edwards was obligated to do the same—even though on some levels he hadn’t agreed with Lyktimos’s actions—but he had no plan to lose his life in the name of an old feud that had absolutely nothing to do with him personally.

How Elaina fit into his life’s plan Edwards had no idea. The only thing he knew for certain where she was concerned was that she needed protection and it appeared that he would be the one to provide it for her.

“Would you prefer I’d left her out there alone?” he asked Phelan in a clipped tone as he closed his door behind him and stepped out into the hallway.

Elaina’s scent was here already, lingering on the air until his entire body vibrated once again with need. He had intended to hit the gym for an hour or so in an attempt to work off some of this residual tension, but since Phelan was here, demanding answers, that probably wasn’t going to happen.

“I would prefer if we didn’t have a Hunter sleeping under our roof!” was his heated retort. “This might be exactly what her pack wants. Hell, she probably positioned herself out there in the woods knowing you liked to do a nightly perimeter check, and used the damsel in distress bit to get you to bring her inside.”

Edwards frowned at Phelan’s words. “Don’t insult me,” he said with the baseline simmer his tone often took when he was becoming irritated. “Or her for that matter. Does she look like any part of her is a ‘damsel in distress’?”

“No. What she looks like is an alpha female traipsing along in our woods by herself. Oh, did I forget to add an alpha female from a freakin’ Hunter pack? Hell, man, you know they want you dead. You’re watching them walk right up on you and not doing a damned thing about it.”

They were still standing in front of his room, Edwards hearing his close friend’s words while battling with his body’s need to be close to Elaina once more. Reaching into her mind last night had pushed Edwards into a very unfamiliar place. That’s precisely why he’d made it a point to never mindchat with the women he was with. Edwards had only ever had sex with lycans; it was part of the Devoteds’ credo, to stay true to their lycan nature at all times. Nyktimos had declared that after he watched his mate suffering through her life as a lycan before finally hanging herself. The guilt over having changed her without her permission had continued to plague him even after she was long gone.

Still, Edwards had started that conversation with Elaina knowing how it would end, but not knowing the ultimate effect it would have on him. His body had reacted to her every response and not just her words. He could hear her breathing and smell her arousal, and when he closed his eyes he could see her lying on that bed playing with herself. The more she’d fingered herself, the harder he’d stroked his cock. When she came, her heart pounding, chest heaving, fingers drowning in her pussy, Edwards had come too, arcs of his thick white semen splashing against the windows in front of him.

Even now the thought had his body hardening, so he started walking, knowing Phelan would follow.

“If she’s a decoy we’ll know soon enough. And we’ll have leverage when they attack,” he told his second in command.

Phelan grabbed his shoulder then, but when Edwards turned, looking at him with narrowed eyes, the beta let his hand fall slowly down to his side.

“We don’t negotiate with them. We kill the sonsofbitches!” Phelan exclaimed.

“No. We try to live peacefully until there is no other choice but to defend ourselves. And rest assured, if this is a plan to attack us by the Hunters, we will do just that,” he said in a tone that should have ended this conversation.

But Phelan continued, “What if it’s more than that?” he asked him. “I saw how you looked at her.”

Edwards moved immediately, stepping closer so that the few inches he was taller than Phelan were noticeable. They stared eye to eye. “You. Saw. Nothing.”

Phelan’s reply was a muscle twitching in his jaw, the scar beneath his left eye that had been left by a very angry fury years ago pulsating. He was angry, which wasn’t new for Phelan. The lycan had joined the Marines to quench the rage that simmered inside him. Twelve years later, Edwards was sad to report it hadn’t worked. Phelan was just as pissed off as ever, and considering he’d joined a pack of Devoteds, there weren’t too many outlets he could find in the mountains of Montana to assuage that particular ailment. But Edwards didn’t give a damn; his goals where Elaina was concerned were going to be made clear, here and now.

“I will handle this,” he continued. “I will handle her. Do you understand?”

Phelan nodded just as there was a loud screech coming from downstairs.

Edwards moved with lightning-fast speed, descending the steps with his feet barely touching them, stopping in the kitchen his gaze already intent on her, as she’d been the focus of his chase. He’d known Elaina had left the room he’d locked her in last night, had known the second she’d popped that lock and attempted to sneak away. Of course, he’d also known that she would never make the escape she planned, since she had no idea how to disengage the locks on the doors and windows of the house.

Nobody could get in or out of the fortress he and his pack mates had renovated without them knowing, as was their plan. A year ago, when the existence of the Shadow Shifters—half-human, half-feline shapeshifters—had been unveiled to the human world on national television, all otherworldly beings that walked this earth alongside humans had been put on notice. Their time was coming soon. And just like what had happened since the Shadow Shifters were discovered, the human’s mass panic, combined with the interspecies fighting, had created a world in a constant state of war, a place of mass hysteria, confusion, death, just as Lykaon had tried to tell the people of Arcadia before Zeus had arrived to permanently shut him up.

If the human world thought living among big, deadly cats that looked like humans most of the time was scary as hell then they could never be prepared for all the wickedness that came with Edwards’s world. The one where lycans were the norm along with furies, demigods, age-old rivalries, and gods that did not take kindly to being ticked off.

The idea to cease the contracted covert operative work they’d been doing for the U.S. government had been Edwards’s, moving far away and steering clear of the chaos that was brewing in the human world his main goal. He would not be a part of the fighting, would not be forced to kill more lycans because half of them wanted revenge for what started from a god’s wrath.

Edwards’s fellow soldiers, the ones who had been a part of him since day one in the Marine Corps, had decided to come with him. They were committed to his cause. Together, the four of them had transformed the old run-down log cabin into a sprawling estate that could easily rival any lodge or resort situated in the picturesque mountain range. Only they did not take visitors; with all the money they’d earned over the years for the private contracting work, added to Edwards’s inheritance, the pack members rarely needed to leave their oasis. Some would call it hiding, running away from the problem, quite possibly cowardice. Edwards and his pack called it self-preservation, because otherwise the training of the human killers combined with the hybrid wolf genetics would most assuredly make them public enemy number one.

The moment Edwards saw Channing’s arms around Elaina’s waist, his face nuzzling way too damned close to her cheek, a grin on his pretty-boy face, all of Edwards’s genetics and military training came bubbling to the surface. His claws broke free, teeth elongating, sideburns and hair sprouting instantly until he looked every bit the alpha male he was. Right there in the middle of the country-style kitchen.

“Release her!” he stated, his voice deeper, raspier, when he was in this form.

Channing had looked up instantly the moment Edwards’s telltale pissed-the-hell-off growl echoed throughout the room. However, Channing hadn’t immediately dropped his hands from her waist. No quick movements that could be construed as defensive. That was a rule when dealing with a lycan, as such movements would most assuredly get the person killed. Even if it was a beta in that alpha’s pack. Instead, Channing had kept eye contact with Edwards, moving slowly away from her.

Elaina had been the one to step forward instantly, getting in Edwards’s face as if his teeth, claws, and growling didn’t scare her one bit.

“Good morning to you too,” she quipped, seemingly not impressed at all at his appearance.

Edwards’s head tilted, the unfamiliar feeling that had coursed through him at the sight of Channing’s hands on her ebbing only slightly, being replaced with something else Edwards wasn’t used to and therefore could not pinpoint. As he pulled the beast within back as quickly as it had appeared, his claws retracted, hair along his face and head vanishing, teeth drawing back inside his mouth. His nostrils still flared, her scent powerful as she stood this close, even over the aroma of whatever Channing was preparing for breakfast.

“Leave us,” Edwards directed both Channing and Phelan, who he’d known stood a few feet behind him, most likely ready to pull Edwards off of Channing had it come to that. Edwards would thank the one beta later and apologize to the other. Only after he made it perfectly clear to each of them that there was a hands-off rule where Elaina was concerned.

Channing nodded his acknowledgment while casting a quick glance at Elaina. He moved past Edwards on his way out and Edwards remained silent until Channing and Phelan were both gone.

“Wow, somebody sure did wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Elaina said before turning to walk away from Edwards.

She moved with what felt to Edwards, and his growing arousal, like blatant sexuality. The pants she wore today as tight over her plump ass as the ones from yesterday. Only these were longer, flaring at her ankles and draping over her tennis shoes. Her shirt was just as tight as the tank from yesterday as well, its bright and perky color only highlighting breasts that his mouth watered to suckle. Clenching and releasing his fingers at his sides, he thought of palming the delectable globes, watching as they overflowed from his large hands, dark nipples peeking up at him teasingly.

The sound of her knocking a spoon off the island as she moved her arms—to probably fold over her chest, since he’d been staring at her tits like a horny teenager—broke through his lust-filled haze. Only to replace that intense feeling of need with one of shock and then … Edwards wasn’t quite sure what.

As Elaina had bent down to retrieve the spoon her shirt rode up her back, her pants dipping lower on her hips. That’s how he was able to see it. The crescent-moon shape centered at the small of her back. Edwards sucked in a breath as realization hit him. She was not only an alpha female; she was also a Selected alpha female.

Damn.

“I asked you not to run,” he said through clenched teeth, now more annoyed than ever that she’d been in the woods alone. “And yet you tried.”

There was a quick jolt, one Edwards knew he hadn’t shown but he’d felt ricochet throughout his body. All of his feelings, his thoughts, his actions, could usually be held in check. He was the alpha after all, he reminded himself once more. It was his birthright and this was what he was meant to do. If he said that to himself more than a dozen times a day not only would he believe it, but so would others.

Except her.

“I wasn’t running; I was leaving; there’s a difference. I don’t belong here, and if you can’t see that your pack sure can. I know they’ve warned you about keeping a Hunter here. If you won’t listen to me, I’m curious as to why you won’t listen to them either,” she said, long lashes brushing over her high cheekbones as she watched him.

“Because I’m the alpha,” he told her, inwardly berating himself because he still sounded like he wasn’t totally convinced by that fact. This had never happened to him before and he didn’t like that it was happening now. “I know what I’m doing, Elaina. And I know that you being here is safer than you being out there.”

“Are you positive?” she asked, lifting one elegantly arched brow. “Because Phelan looks like he’s ready to claw my heart out at the first opportunity. And Channing, well, he’s very nice, but he’s also suspicious. And the other one, Malec, he acts like he’s pissed at me for being a Hunter. Or he’s pissed at me because he’s in his needing. Either/or wouldn’t exactly lead to this being such a safe haven.”

She was right. Every word she’d spoken was absolutely correct. Edwards had seen it all for himself, so there was no sense denying it.

“And yet I can assure you that none of them will put a hand on you. And if, or should I say when, your pack comes for you, those three guys will actually protect you as they do me,” he told her seriously. They would do just as he said because he would order them to do so, regardless of what they might truly think of her on the inside. And to be perfectly honest, Edwards had no idea why he planned to ask them to protect her that way, as if she were his alpha female.

“They won’t come for me,” she said, momentarily looking away from him.

“Why?” he implored. “Tell me what happened to make you run.”

Her gaze was back on him, that stubborn chin of hers jutting up as she did. “They didn’t make me run. I decided it was time to go.”

“Because you thought that was the only choice you had.” He moved closer, finding himself just as entranced by the smooth buttertone of her skin and almond-shaped brown eyes as he was with her seductive and curvaceous body.

She stayed on the other side of the island, her hands flattened on the wood top. On the surface she looked calm, but Edwards could hear the quickened beat of her heart; he could smell the almost instantaneous drip of her arousal.

“You’re trying to find something,” he told her. “Something you want more than your own life.”

“You don’t know me,” she replied, her voice a breathy whisper.

“But I do,” he told her, realizing now why he’d been so drawn to her from the start. It wasn’t simply the burning desire that he’d first thought. It was so much more, so much deeper, and that much more annoying to him. “You’re running from who and what you are.”

“No.”

“Yes,” he continued. He recognized the look in her eyes, the persistence in her words, the bravado barely masking the fear. Edwards recognized all of these signs because once upon a time he’d felt them himself.

“Look,” she said, balling her fists, then releasing her fingers flat on the island top. “I don’t have to stand here and bare my soul to you. You think you know so much. Fine.” She shrugged. “You’re right; I am running. I’m running to the life I want to lead. The life I’m entitled to. Is there something wrong with that, Edwards? Aren’t you allowed to live the life you want to lead?”

“That, right there,” he told her with a nod of his head, “is why you fail.”

“What? You’re why I failed. If you hadn’t been creeping around in the woods like you were searching for something or someone, I would have been halfway to my destination by now.”

“Or you would have been dead, or taken” was his simple reply.

She folded her arms over her chest, the action pushing her breasts up even higher, the mouthwatering rise of cleavage a momentary distraction.

“I’m so sick of hearing about this. Sick of the way all lycan males think.” She’d dropped her arms then, letting them slap against her sides, then raising both hands and running her fingers through her long tresses.

She was sick of the lycan males she’d known because they weren’t the ones she had been Selected for. The thought had Edwards cursing inwardly. He did not want to think about this. Did not want to be faced with an ancient legend on top of everything else. And yet he couldn’t walk away.

“Come with me,” he said, turning immediately away from her.

“What? No, I’m not coming with you, Edwards. You’re not my alpha,” she insisted.

Her words raked over something inside of him, adding to the unfamiliarity, doubling his intentions, cementing in his mind a plan he never thought he’d make.

“If you want to live on your own terms and be successful, I will show you how,” he told her slowly, matter-of-factly. “I will show you what you need.”