Feral：Devils Point Wolves #4(18)

Silence ensued as they both sat there staring out at the water. The wind coming in dried the tears on her face and a new calm wrapped around her once again. “A bear mauled my father to death when I was a teenager and even though years have passed, I’m never going to get over it. And now I’m scared all over again.”

“You’re scared of me.”

It wasn’t a question and even if it was she didn’t know how to answer it so she stayed silent.

Brody took a deep breath and exhaled hard. She could have sworn she heard the sound of defeat.

“Six months ago I was as human as you are. I didn’t ask for this. I had a different life in a different place. It might not have been the best of times but it was familiar and I thought I was happy.”

Prue turned her head and watched him from underneath the hair that tumbled across her glasses. The ferocious wolf shifter she’d seen minutes ago had given way to a vulnerable man telling her his story. She had to listen. No, she wanted to hear it.

“What happened?” she asked.

“My family hunts down shapeshifters and kills them. They do this because they believe that they are demonic and dirty or any other biblical nonsense they can come up with. We didn’t understand them or even try. So we killed what we feared.”

Prue shuddered at the idea of the violence that Brody had been born into.

“I’m not going to lie to you. I have a lot of blood on my hands. As sick as that makes me, it’s the truth. There is nothing I can say or do to take that back. But it’s not who I am anymore. The last wolf I confronted was a lot more powerful than I expected. Eventually I gained the upper hand, but the moment he realized he couldn’t beat me he decided to teach me a lesson and bit me.”

She gasped. “He bit you and turned you into a wolf. That’s really all it takes? A bite?”

“The answer to that is surprisingly complicated. Yes and no. The rules are apparently fluid based on Mother Nature's whim. As I understand it, during mating season in the spring, a human can be turned under the right conditions. i.e. a bond is formed and hell, I don’t understand it at all actually.”

Prue sat up, fascinated by the science of such a thing. “But that’s not what happened to you.”

“Nope and supposedly the bite I got should have killed me. So there are a lot of unanswered questions that even the pack doesn’t know. Much of their history was lost over the years so they sometimes make it up as they go. For example, they aren’t allowed to go around biting people on a whim. There are repercussions for that kind of thing.”

“So if you bit me right now, I would likely die?”She scooted several feet down the sand.

“I would never hurt you. I have to protect you.”

She scrunched up her face, confused. “Why do you have to protect me?”

“Because the wolf has claimed you as its mate.”

Prue opened and shut her mouth several times. She was so stunned she didn’t know what to say. She jumped to her feet and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Claim me? You can’t claim me. I am an independent woman. A human one. I don’t get claimed.”

“You do have the right to reject it. I’m not going to force you into anything you don’t want.”

Her shoulders relaxed a fraction. “Thank God.”

“This isn’t how I wanted you to find out. I thought we’d have more time to get to know each other before you learned the truth. But either way, what happens next is your choice not mine.”

Then why did he sound so forlorn? He sounded like all of his hopes and dreams had just been crushed.

“Brody, what happens to the wolf if I reject the claim?” She remembered some scientific research that suggested that real wolves who lost their mate never fully recovered from that loss.

He shrugged. “Not totally sure. I’m new at this too. Although I do know Creed’s mate rejected him and he’s one cranky ass bastard most of the time.”

She flounced onto the sand again, torn between the part of her brain that told her to get the hell out of there as fast as she could and the other that remembered every second with Brody in minute exquisite detail.

Especially the multiple orgasm parts…

God, really? She grabbed her head. What the hell was wrong with her? How can the sex be in her mind now? Now she really knew the crazy was setting in.

“Uhm… Prue?”

“What?” she asked without looking up.

“We haven’t talked about this yet, but I have the heightened senses of the wolf at all times.”

“Okaaay.” She didn’t know why that was important right now other than it was good to know interesting data.