Page 87 of Wanted
I shake my head and peer right up into golden-brown eyes. I never forgot Chance’s presence in the room, but staring into his eyes, grounds me in a way I didn’t know I needed.
That moment is when my present reality comes rushing back to me. All of the changes I may or may not go through within the next forty-eight hours. I need answers to those questions first, before I can respond to my mother.
“I-I’ll call you soon,” I tell her before hanging up.
I know I can expect an angry rant on our next call or maybe even a text about how rude it is to disconnect a call so abruptly. But that doesn’t stop me from tossing my phone onto the couch.
I glance down at the half-eaten plate of food on the coffee table in front of me. How I’d hungrily relished in its deliciousness just minutes before.
Now, my appetite has spoiled.
A large, warm hand cups the side of my face, tilting my head upward. Chance’s concerned expression fills my line of sight.
“What is it?”
“That was my mother.”
He nods, indicating he got that part.
“I spoke with Ashley too.”
“But?”
How can he read me so well? It’s been a few weeks since I’ve met him, but it feels like so much longer. The way it feels as if he can read my very thoughts.
“She sounded strange,” I admit.
“How so?”
“She told me she was ‘fine.’” I put up air quotes as I say the last word.
Chance gives me an expectant look.
“Ashley doesn’t say ‘fine.’ She once told me the word is boring and the world is too full of color and life to ever describe a mood as ‘fine.’ My sister doesn’t do ‘fine.’”
I turn my head to look at my phone. “Maybe she’s sick and is trying to hide it from me.”
Chance turns my head to face him again. That’s when I realize he wasn’t able to read my lips.
I repeat what I just said so that he can see my mouth.
“Why would your sister do that?”
I shake my head. “Probably because she knows I worry about her.” Even as I say that, though, it doesn’t make sense. Ashley always confides in me.
In fact, I’m the only person she confides in.
“Maybe I should go back to New York sooner than I planned.”
“No.” Chance’s tone brokers no argument. “The supermoon is in two days,” he continues. “And your wolf, while stronger, is too weak to understand the changes it’s about to go through. You need to be here. With our pack. With me.”
His eyes glitter with certainty. I’m torn between worrying for my sister and the part of me that has somehow started to think of this place as home.
It’s incredible that in such a short amount of time, I’ve managed to find a home here. There are too many questions in my mind as to whether it’s true or I’m just living in a fantasy.
But it’s the assuredness in Chance’s eyes that makes me rethink my plan of leaving.
He wants to keep me safe.