Page 8 of Bullied Wolf Mate
“Mark?” she asked.
“You two know each other?” Declan asked, looking between the two of us.
“Yeah.” I kept my eyes glued on her, taking in every inch of her. “Yeah, we were kids together.”
The last time I had seen her, she’d been a gangly, gawky preteen with stringy hair and green eyes that were too big for the rest of her face. If I remembered correctly, I’d called her Bug Girl for a while. Her clothes had always been a little too small for her, and she had shuffled around whenever she showed up in class, hunching over and keeping her eyes locked on the ground.
But now, she’d grown into a gorgeous woman. Long, slender legs with soft curves and a sharp face. Her auburn hair was dirty from days of confinement. Dirt smudged her cheeks and arms, but that didn’t detract from her looks. Her eyes were still large, but in a way that was alluring rather than off-putting. And her scent. Oak and vanilla. Something about it made my wolf stir with interest. It drove him insane. Actually, everything about her drove him insane.
She was bringing out a feral, almost primitive side that I wouldn’t have expected, one that was only about her and making sure she was protected. He didn’t want her out of his sight ever again.
It was so overwhelming that I had a hard time thinking straight. I knew we needed to leave as quickly as possible, but the world seemed to have stopped.
She had been an odd outcast during our childhood, and I’d had no issue taunting her whenever I saw her. Except now, as I looked at her, an overwhelming surge of protectiveness washed over me. I wanted to get closer to her, to pull her against me and drink in her smell. I wanted to keep her safe forever. Not just that, but I needed to be near her in a way I had never experienced before.
She had been in danger for weeks now, confined in a cell. Just the thought made me bristle with indignation. I had no idea what had come over me, but I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her ever again.
Except right now, she was glaring at me with unabashed hatred.
She snorted, her eyes narrowing. “That’s one way of describing it,” she said, her voice ice. She turned back to Declan. “I’m not going anywhere with him.”
Declan blinked. “What?” he asked.
“That asshole made my life hell for years,” she said. “I don’t want to be anywhere near him.”
The declaration stung more than I would have expected. But I wasn’t about to listen to it.
“Too bad,” I said. “We’re getting you out even if we have to drag you out.”
She barked out a furious laugh. “You’re fucking nuts if you think I’m going to let you lay a hand on me.”
Declan exhaled, then turned to Lorelei. “If we don’t get you out of here, you know what Inara will do. And if it weren’t for him”—he jerked his head at me—“we wouldn’t have gotten this far in the first place. I promise you won’t have to deal with him for long. Just long enough for us to get out of here.”
The reference to Inara seemed to do the trick. Her whole body stiffened at the name, something close to fear flickering in her eyes. I didn’t know what the witch had done to her, but just seeing that expression on Lorelei’s face made me want to tear Inara limb from limb. My wolf snarled, flexing its claws, wanting to break out.
Despite the panic Inara had clearly instilled in her, Lorelei still seemed reluctant. Her fingers drummed against the metal band on her wrist as she thought, her brow furrowed and her mouth a thin line.
She shot me another glare. “Fine,” she said.
Chapter 4 - Lorelei
Mark. Why the hell did it have to be Mark?
I tried not to stare at him, though I could feel his eyes locked on me. I took in the rest of the massive crew, trying to get a grip on the new situation. It felt like everything had been turned on its head in the span of five seconds.
I was half-convinced that this was a hunger-induced hallucination. How else did you explain my childhood bully suddenly appearing out of nowhere? That was not even counting the fact that a bunch of shifters—because that’s what they had to be; their stature gave them away, even if Mark’s presence hadn’t—had decided I was important enough to rescue. Witches and shifters didn’t exactly get along. And Declan’s words… they knew about my family and what we were guarding. It explained why they cared, but not how they knew in the first place.
It wasn’t until Declan’s hand rested on my shoulder, until I felt that weight, that I knew this was really happening. I was going to get out of here.
“How are you feeling?” Declan asked. “Are you able to walk for a bit?”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t going to admit I felt more than a little wobbly. Inara had followed through on her threat not to feed me. I forced myself to stay upright.
“In that case, let’s get going before Inara realizes something is wrong,” Declan said. “Or none of this will matter in the first place. I doubt we have much longer.”
I nodded, forcing myself to focus on the problem at hand. Not on the fact that my bully from well over a decade ago had just stormed back into my life.
“I’ll follow you guys, then,” I said.