Nearing the top I feel hands wrap around my bare ankle. I look down finding a bulky man with shaven hair, good-looking obviously, but nothing at all like my mates.
“So, you’re the Alpha’s girl?” He says, looking up at me whilst still holding my leg in his grasp.
“She is… and if you don’t remove your hands from her skin, I will show you exactly what my Alpha told me to do should anyone hurt our future Luna.” Tyler’s growl is low and deadly. I look up to see him baring his canines at the man as he fixes him with a glare. I hear the rest of the crowd telling the stranger to let me go; eventually he does.
“Angel, go get ready for bed,” Tyler orders. Even though it’s in my nature to want to argue with him for ordering me around, the anger coming from Tyler leaves no room for it. I quickly do as he says.
CHAPTER 24
I wake up in a pool of sweat and immediately know the reason why. It’s happening again. I run to the door that opens onto my balcony and fling it open.
Oh no, a full moon. I’m on heat. I look around the room, but don’t see Tyler. Running into his room, I find he’s not there either. I can tell it’s either early morning or late at night, so I grab a bag and start throwing in clothes. I find the thinnest coolest sundress I can find and put that on. Grabbing toiletries and my car keys, I make a dash for the door. I know I’m running out of time as my temperature rises. It’s dangerous here with all these unmated males, especially the ones from Caspian’s pack. I need to get to Nixon’s treehouse and away from any men.
I sprint down the stairs and bump into Jacob.
“Angel? Where are you…” He lifts his nose into the air then slowly looks down at me with wide eyes, before taking a step back.
I don’t wait for him to speak, I hurry past him towards the back door. I manage to make it out of the house without bumping into anyone else. Throwing my bags into the back seat, I reach for the front door when a huge body pushes against my back. I turn around and come face to face with the shaven headed man from earlier.
“You smell so good,” he says, leaning in and sniffing my neck. I try pushing against his chest, but this only makes him lean closer against me, placing both hands on the roof of my car and caging me in.
I try to resist him as he pushes against my body and dropping his hands to my hips, but the fact that him touching me has me cooling down considerably makes this a losing battle. I lean into his chest and feel the now cold air as he gently runs his fingertips slowly up my upper thighs lifting my dress with every movement.
His one hand goes to my jaw and he lifts my face to look into his hungry brown eyes.
“This is so wrong,” I mumble. He’s a stranger, yet I’m struggling to resist his touch.
He moves his face closer to mine and I close my eyes waiting for our lips to touch, but it doesn’t come. The coolness his intimacy brought disappears and I’m immediately assaulted with a burning hot fever. I lean against the car for support, opening my eyes to find Axel and Tyler pulling away the stranger I was close to kissing seconds ago.
“I’ll deal with him, take her and get away!” Axel yells, holding the man down.
Tyler ushers me into the passenger seat and belts me in. I close my eyes and slouch in my chair as we pull away.
****
We drive in silence. Tyler has the aircon on full blast and facing my direction, it’s helping a lot or that’s what I keep telling him. I actually think my mates presence is the real reason I don’t feel like I’m about to die. I remember how bad it was the first time with Nixon, it makes me so much more grateful to have Tyler here.
He helps me out of the car and up the ladder into the treehouse. I don’t have the energy to even ask him how he knew where to go or how he’d got the keys. I flop down onto the bed, seconds later Tyler enters dropping my bag on the chair in the corner of the room.
“Thanks for coming with me,” I say softly, looking up at him.
“I’m sorry you have to go through this, Angel. If I could make it better then believe me I would.” He sounds pained as he says the words, but keeps a distance between us. Maybe this is just as hard on him; even if he doesn’t look all that fazed.
I can’t help but blurt, “You can make this better. You know what you-”
He quickly shakes his head, taking another step back until he’s in the door way. “No! I’m not having sex with you, Angel. You were able to last the week last time, you can do it again,” he growls, and then he’s gone.
****
Two days pass and although Tyler has been there for me whenever I need him, he won’t do the thing I need from him; the thing that will make all this pain go away.