Page 27 of Out of Peril

There was no way he could have known, right?

I sank against the door feeling suddenly mortified.

“Lindsey's just fine. She just needs a minute to get dressed and calm down. As for those men, they won't return if they know what's good for them. But if they do, our girl will handle them. And not to brag, but I am trained in multiple forms of combat. Between the two of us, I'm confident we can protect you.”

“Thanks Walker.”

Maya's sweet voice warmed my heart. She trusted him.

Those kids were important to me. As far as I was concerned, they were the only family I had. To see Walker being so kind to them affected me in ways I couldn't even let myself think about.

Get a grip, Lindsey, I told myself.

No one had ever made me feel quite like this before.

With everything that had happened to me, I battled with self-loathing. It was kind of hard not to.

Something had happened while I was still captive at the lab. No one seemed to know what, and at the time, I was locked inside my beast. I was still me—sort of.

It was really hard to explain it even to myself, let alone try to formulate the words to explain to anyone else.

I hadn't been alone. They'd opened the doors and just set us free, or that's what we’d thought at first. A truck had come and taken most of us deep into the bayou and tossed us into the river for the alligators to feast on. But we were more deadly than the gators.

Not everyone had survived, and some monsters were stronger and more dangerous than others. It had been like a blood bath at first and if I closed my eyes, I could still smell the coppery scent of all the blood. The river had turned red from it all.

I wasn't the strongest or the fastest, but where some of them seemed to have no humanity left within them, I was still alive and well. That's when my beast and I started to truly become one. With my intelligence and her superior modifications, we'd survived it all.

Lost and confused, the only thing I knew to do was go home, here to the manor. It had still been a thriving place at the time, and I had hoped my family would be thrilled to have me back, only they didn't see me, only a monster.

I'd done this. I'd run everyone from this place and from the looks of it, they'd never returned.

Slowly, I began to work with the beast, and eventually I'd been able to shift back to my skin. It had been a joyous occasion and a difficult feat, but I'd done it. In time, I was able to shift freely between my beast and my skin, just like any normal shifter.

Before I could control it enough to hunt down my family and explain things, I stumbled across a gravestone in the family cemetery with my name on it. They thought I was dead. They had buried me, forgotten about me. Had they even tried to find me?

I'd been so angry that I'd gone back and destroyed parts of the home. The scratch marks and smashed mirrors and picture frames were evidence of that.

Feeling sorry for myself, I'd gone for a walk. I'd bounced between my human form and my beastly one with ease, unsure of which would be best for me to stay in. Wolves weren't meant to be alone. It drove us mad not to have Pack and family, and I was certainly starting to experience those awful feelings.

Bad timing, horrible luck, distractions, who knew? I could blame a dozen things and give a thousand excuses, but it didn't change the fact that I had let my guard down and a Collector happened to be in the area to witness it.

I'd been snatched up and put back into captivity so fast it made my head swim. But that's where I met Dante and Maya, and my whole life had changed once more.

A light tap on the door pulled me from my walk down memory lane.

“Lindsey? You okay in there?” Walker asked.

“I'm fine. Just give me a minute.”

I knew I had to pull myself together. The last thing I wanted to do was frighten the children even more.

Forcing myself up to my feet, I rummaged through the dresser and found something to wear before rejoining them in the hallway.

Dante looked up to me. “What do we do if they come back?”

“You and Maya hide.”

She scoffed. “But why? I can help fight.”