“No,”
Raphael cuts in.
“You should return to the Hunt. I’ll make sure she leaves.”
“Mate!”
the black-haired vision protests, and he touches her face.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
So gentle. So sweet. The same tone he used to use toward me.
How can things change in an instant?
Of course I know about mating bonds. I’ve been living among wolf shifters for six years. But Rafe was supposed to be different.
Was supposed to be on my side.
My other half.
He stalks towards me, snatching my arm in a rough grip, like a fucking stranger. Worse than a stranger. Like someone who doesn’t give a shit at the pain he’s causing me.
I struggle to pull my arm out of his grasp, to no avail, limping along behind him.
“Rafe, stop! You’re hurting me!”
He releases me abruptly, as if burned. For a moment, I see a flicker of the boy I love in his eyes. But it’s gone in an instant, replaced by cold fury.
“What were you thinking?”
he hisses.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to be out here tonight?”
“I don’t know how I got here! I woke up in the woods, and-“
“Bullshit,”
he snaps.
“You were trying to interfere. Trying to make sure I didn’t find my mate.”
Shock has me standing still, stunned by the accusation.
“I didn’t-I wouldn’t-!”
“Was this how it was always going to be between us? Always insecure and forcing me to prove my loyalty?”
A gust of wind whips through, sending a violent tremor down my spine. Goosebumps prickle all over my exposed skin, but the chill in my bones, in my heart, isn’t just from the weather or my lack of clothes. It’s from the ice in Raphael’s perfect blue eyes. From the venom in his words.
His accusation cuts deeper than the frigid air. How can he speak to me like this? Like I’m nothing more than an annoyance, a burden he’s finally free to cast aside?
“Rafe, please,”
I whisper, my voice trembling.
“I swear I didn’t-“
“Save it,”
he snaps, cutting me off.
“There’s no excuse for this. You never should have stepped foot out here tonight.”
My heart shrivels under his anger, leaving me empty and aching. The Raphael I know-the one who held me close and promised me forever-would never treat me this way. He’d listen. He’d understand.
But the man before me is a stranger, cold and uncaring.
“How can you do this?”
I ask, struggling to keep my voice steady.
“How can you treat me like this? Just a few hours ago, you were holding me. Kissing me. Swearing we’d be together forever. How can all that change in hours, Rafe?”
His jaw clenches, a muscle ticking in his cheek.
“That was before. This is now.”
“Before what? Before you met some random she-wolf who batted her eyelashes at you?”
The words are out before I can stop them, fueled by hurt and disbelief. In an instant, Raphael’s eyes flash gold, a low growl rumbling in his chest. Before I can blink, his hand is around my throat, squeezing.
“Don’t you ever speak about my mate that way again,”
he snarls, his face inches from mine.
I can’t breathe. My fingers claw at his hand, desperate to break his grip. Black spots dance at the edges of my vision as panic sets in.
Rafe wouldn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t. He promised.
But as the pressure increases, a terrifying thought crashes over me. What if this is it? What if he kills me right here, right now?
Just as my lungs start to burn, his grip loosens. He blinks, as if coming out of a trance. His fingers loosen, leaving me to crumple to the ground. Coughing. Gasping. Tears sting my eyes as I gulp in lungfuls of air, greedy for oxygen. For survival.
“We’re over, Grace.”
Three words. That’s all it takes to shatter my world completely.
I look up, but can’t see him. Not clearly, anyway. My vision’s too blurry from the tears I’m desperately trying to hold in, and it’s too dark.
“Who is she?”
The words are choked and hard to hear, but he understands immediately.
“My fated mate,”
he snaps, as if it should be obvious. As if that explains everything.
“So… that’s it?”
I struggle to my feet, legs shaking, trying my best to ignore the agony in my ankle. It throbs, refusing to play second fiddle to this insane melodrama.
“You’re just going to throw everything we had away? For someone you just met?”
Raphael’s beautiful ocean-blue eyes are distant. Like he’s looking right through me.
“This is why humans don’t belong in wolf packs. You don’t understand. You can’t.”
The casual cruelty in his voice steals my breath all over again. He isn’t the boy I fell in love with. He isn’t my Rafe.
Not the one who assured me it was okay to be human.
That he’d take care of me forever.
That my lack of wolf didn’t matter.
“Get home safe,”
he says, his tone devoid of any real concern. Then he shifts, fur rippling over skin, and disappears into the darkness.
I stand there, shivering and alone, as the sound of his retreating paws fades into the night. The forest suddenly feels impossibly vast.
How did everything go so wrong so fast?
How long do I stand there, eyes straining in the darkness that steadily grows?
Who knows. I sure don’t.
The howls change, many are still hunting. Several have found their mates. Is Rafe howling out there, sharing a joyous run with his newfound mate?
That pretty little red wolf, the gorgeous woman within-she’s everything I’m not.
My breath puffs out in wispy smoke, a visual reminder of the temperature, even though my body’s already long cold.
My teeth chatter as I wrap my arms around myself, finally roused out of my fugue state to ponder more immediate concerns. Like how to get home.
I’ve never been great at reading the stars. Alpha always warned me I should learn these basic skills, I don’t have an internal compass, and I’m terrible at tracking. But I live with wolves, so I don’t spend many nights outside alone. It’s too dangerous.
The forest stretches endlessly, nothing but shadows and the rustling of leaves and howls in the distance.
At least no one seems to be around me. Hopefully that means I’m close to home. I pick a direction at random, praying it leads me out of this nightmare.
Who would do this to me, setting me up for such a cruel fate? The questions swirl in my mind, but answers are out of reach. Yes, there are occasional pranks when you live with wolves. There’s some harassment. There’s even a solid amount of bullying I endure in silence.
But this? To threaten my life, to put me in the middle of the Mate Hunt, knowing at any time a frustrated wolf could hunt me down?
Human women are fully aware of the statistics, unmated shifter males are their biggest fear. Any male shifter in human territory is automatically suspect whenever a sexual assault case comes up.
It’s no secret in the shifter community, it’s a struggle every pack deals with. Most of the assaults are from rogue wolves, but not all. It’s one of the many reasons they’re not welcome among most human communities.
So who would be this cruel, knowing my likely fate?
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.