Page 95 of Wolf's Fate

They thought they knew me, but they knewnothingabout me. They thought they understood the “tragic loss”—theyunderstoodnothing. They would never know what it felt like to know that feeling of betrayal. That loss of trust and family.

She said I was paranoid. Didn’t she understand that I’d be a fool not to be?

They all expected me to trust them.Trust. I’d trusted before and I’d paid the price for it. Mypackpaid the price for it. I didn’t trust anyone. Not anymore.

My head turned south as I felt them step onto the mountain. Turning, I focused on my senses, tuning into the intruders who dared walk over my lands. The wind shifted, carrying their scent to me. My growl was low as my anger rose. The scent of another caught the breeze—a familiar one, human.

Willow.

Even when I tried to focus on something else, I was never free of her. She was all I could think about.

Had the generator come on? Was she warm? Was she worried about me, thinking that I was out here, losing myself, spiraling out of control while she froze in an abandoned cabin? I could almost hear her worrying about me.

I shouldn’t have left her.

Shaking my head, I tried to clear the heaviness of self-doubt. She would be fine. She was safe. I was in control. I was in charge of this, and she would be fine.

But there were shifters after her. What if they were on the mountain? What if they got to her? What if I lost her? I’d already lost so much. Iwouldn’tlose Willow. I started to turn back, return to her and ensure she was okay, my wolf anxious to be by her side.

Shadows moved around me, and I shook my head as the wind through the trees started to sound like whispers.

But what if that’s what they wanted?I felt the others on my mountain. I would know if there were more than Blackridge Peak wolves on my land. Willow was safe where she was.

I had to stop being consumed by her. It seemed that ever since she came into my life, ever since I had gone looking for her, something had shifted within me. My instincts, the very ones that kept me sharp and alive, felt like they had dulled. She was an intruder in my mind as much as in my life. Would I even be back here if she hadn’t forced my hand?

I stayed far from here for ten years. How had she made it that I returned?

We were here to figure out what the hell was going on with us, what was the link we shared, but how had she convinced me that this was for the best? And now that I was here? She wanted me off it? What the fuck was her plan?

I thought we were here to figure out whatboundus. But since I got here with her, I felt like I was walking through someone else’s territory, but this wasmine.

Another scent reached me, this time a rabbit. But I didn’t move. I had no appetite. Not when my thoughts were so confused, filled with doubt and frustration.

She had done this. She had made me this way.

No matter how far I got away from her, she was always there, at the back of my mind, lingering. Tugging at something inside me, something that I didn’t understand. I hated how much it unnerved me. I hated how being linked to her allowed her to see into my past.

Unnerving me.

“You’ve been erratic, paranoid…angry.”

I hated the thought that she might be right. She’d said it socalmly. So clearly. There had been no doubt in her mind that she was right, like she could see me unraveling in front of her.Hadshe seen something I hadn’t?

What had she drawn?

Suddenly, I wanted to return to her and demand she show me her sketchbook. The very thought of her seeing something had me so on edge that I felt my hackles rise. My wolf paced, furious, resenting her thinking she knew me.

Thinkingsheknew Shadowridge Peak.

Iknew this mountain better than anyone.

She wanted me to leave. After all that time they took to get me to come here, now she didn’t like the truth of what she saw. The betrayal and death weighed heavy on my soul, the taint of it so strong she would never understand. She may paint my past, but she would never understand the history here. She would never know the sense of betrayal when someone you loved sliced through your heart with their actions.

That’s why I resented her.

Willow thought I had to listen to her. That she couldfixme. She had never been here. She hadn’t lived through the whispers of the trees, the feeling of eyes that were always watching from the shadows, or the way this mountain would turn on you if you weren’t careful.

No…I wasn’t losing it.