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Gwynn had done a quick wash up before getting dressed in the clothes Dara had provided. The chatty teen had been informative on every aspect of her life, except for being a shifter. When Gwynn had asked the girl if she was a wolf too, Dara had pressed her lips together and sidestepped the question, moving on instead to her latest beef with her mom as she laid out clothes and a few guest necessities before exiting the room and locking it from the outside.
And yes, Gwynn had tested the door and checked how far the drop was to the large landscaping rocks below. Too far.
No phone, no allies, and no escape. Great.
Aaron entered the room, and Gwynn’s newly regained peace shattered. His stance had the deceptive calm of a coiled spring.
She stood up, sat back on the bed, and bounced back up again, unsure of what to do with herself except stand in the corner with her arms crossed. Seeing him, she wished the chattering Dara had stayed. Something had changed during the half an hour he’d been gone. He’d been tense before, but now he looked almost savage.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.” She didn’t know where to look. “What happened?”
“I’m reinstated.” He hovered by the door as if he were planning his escape too, even though it had been locked after him by Zeke. “They’ll back us up with the whole Leon and your dad situation.” He paced the small space between the door and the window and her nerves tightened. “Gwynn, you need to understand. I would never have harmed you.”
“You said all this earlier. I don’t believe it. All you’ve done is lie to me, manipulated me. Was any of it real? Did you care for me at all or was I just a convenient fuck?”
“I need you, Gwynn. I—” He dragged a hand through his hair. “I love you.”
“Save it. I don’t have a lot of experience with love, but even I know you don’t go using the people you love.”
Aaron dropped to his knees in front of her, his eyes wild. Now she could see the beast inside waiting to attack. “I made a huge mistake. If I had known then what I know now, I would have done it differently.” He reached for her, his hand shaking.
She recoiled into her corner.
“Please say you forgive me.” His big body quivered like a wave about to break. “Please, Gwynn, give me a chance.”
Fear washed her skin in ice. This wasn’t the Aaron whose calm patience made her trust a complete stranger. Where was the man who’d made her feel safe? This man teetered on the brink.
“I can’t do this! You can’t expect me to trust you after all this.”
“Please, Gwynn. I need you.”
“Everything about you is a lie. If I hadn’t run away, you would have turned me over to your boss.”
His face blanched. “No.”
“Even if your land deal for your precious pack depended on it?”
“I would’ve let it all go. You have to believe me. I never would have put you in danger.”
“But I am in danger.”
“We have a plan. The pack has a plan. We’ll take care of everything. We’ve set up a meeting between you, your father, and Leon, but you won’t be alone. We’ll back you up.”
“Back me up?”
“You, me, and the Fated Mountain Enforcers. The pack takes care of its own, Gwynn. After tomorrow, Mike Leon will never bother you again.”
Tomorrow, they’d confront the man who had ruined her childhood and betrayed her, and the man he’d sold her to. After that she’d have no reason to see Aaron again. Could she face that?
“So, then I can go home.”
Aaron’s face blanched. “Gwynn, I know we haven’t had the best start, but I want you to stay. I want you to become part of the pack.”
“Part of the pack?” Gwynn’s head reeled. “Are you asking me to become like you? A...wolf shifter? What the hell?” She shook her head. “I saw the way your body twisted and changed. It was gross.” Watching him shift made her want to throw up, even though the animal he’d become had been beautiful. “I don’t think so.”
He shook his head. “Well, that’s good because the odds of you becoming a full wolf is unlikely. You need two genes to shift. I know you have one, but two?”
“How could you possibly know?”
“It’s complicated, but in special circumstances, males can smell potential mates. It’s a pheromone thing. It’s astronomically rare for anyone outside the pack to have even one gene. It’s one of the ways we’ve managed to keep our existence secret. The odds of you having two, and the exact two for you to become a wolf, are a trillion to one.”
“But it’s possible.”
“I can’t say it’s never happened before, but outsiders never have two genes. Never.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck and blew out a breath. “But I am asking you to be my mate. To accept my claim on you. It would make you part of the pack. And, there’s a chance that you might be something else in our pack. The mating process can still react with a single gene—you just don’t become a wolf.”
Her stomach was doing somersaults and she sagged back onto the bed. “It’s too much.” An emotional storm had stolen all of her stability, and she wasn’t sure it was ever coming back.
Aaron reached for her hand. She jerked away. The anguish on his face almost made her regret her action. It was as if not touching her was painful. She got it. All of this was painful for her. And so confusing it left her feeling totally out of her depth.
“Keep talking. How does it work?”
“When a male is exposed to a potential mate, the Fever quickens. When he bites her, he transmits his version of the Fever, and they bond. It’s fate, Anna.”
She looked deep into Aaron’s quicksilver eyes and saw the edge of the wolf. And underneath, a burning need.
Suddenly the heated look to his skin, the frantic movements, the way he couldn’t keep still or keep his hands off her—it all made sense.
“You have the Fever. Now?”
She wrapped her arms around her shaking body as if she could hold herself together from the outside in. He was ready to take her as his mate—a wolf’s mate. Something she’d never imagined in her wildest dreams.
“Yes. But if I bit you, you still couldn’t change into a wolf without both genes. I won’t lie to you, there will be repercussions. We don’t usually give it to adults. Women in the pack, when they get the mating Bite, it’s the second time they’ve had the virus. They’ve already survived. You’d be getting your first dose as an adult.” He swallowed hard. “You might not survive.”
“I’d just get sick, no wolf. What if you’re wrong? What if I have both genes?”
“One of either gene, and you would be a dormant. But there are two different genes so there are variations. You could have certain...powers.”
“Magic?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe that.”
“Not magic, not like you’re thinking. The spelltalkers are our shamans.”
“Priests? You have a funky religion too. It’s a cult.” She threw up her hands. “I don’t know what else I expected.”
“I’m not explaining this well.” He growled. “The spelltalker gene is less common, even within our population. It’s more likely you’ll be a shifter—or have a dream wolf.”
“A dream wolf? I don’t even know what that means!” She pushed out of her corner and past him to pace across the cage of the narrow room. “Even without the risk, even though you don’t think I’d change, or be a wolf, or have a magic one in my dreams—staying with you, Aaron, would change my life.” She stopped within arm’s length of him. Close enough to touch him. Far enough to get away. “I don’t know you. Are you the man who kept me safe? Or the man who would do anything for his pack?”
He opened his mouth, but suddenly she didn’t think she could bear to hear the answer.
“I have to go.” She backed away.
“Gwynn!”
“No. I can’t be here with you or listen to you anymore. I need some space.” She headed for the door and he started after her. Her hand shot up into the air, palm out. “Back off.” She reached for the knob but the door was locked. “Let me out! Let me out!” She shook the knob, then gave up and pounded on the door with both fists.
Suddenly, it opened, and she flew out into the hallway, almost tripping over a strange man’s feet. She threw one look at him through eyes blinded by tears, and fled, slamming the door behind her. He let her go and she ran.