Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
“I do give them a small portion of my horn.” At his shocked expression, I hurried to explain, “It doesn’t hurt me, but in order to make the tincture that heals someone, I have to shave off some of my horn and make a powder from it.”
“And that doesn’t cause even the tiniest bit of pain?” he growled, his wolf swirling in his eyes.
“None,” I reassured him, brushing my lips against his.
My small kiss wasn’t enough for my mate, and he wrapped my hair around his fist to hold my head in place while he captured my mouth. My lips parted on a gasp, and he thrust his tongue between them to tangle his tongue with mine.
I would have happily stayed like that, spending the morning kissing each other with me on his lap. So I let out a whimper of protest when he finally pulled his mouth away.
“I promise you’ll get all the kisses you want, sweetness. But first, we need to finish this conversation. Before you make me forget there’s a world outside the two of us.”
Butterflies swirled in my belly at his words, and I grinned at him. “I like the sound of that. We’re a newly mated couple, so I don’t think anyone would be surprised if we hole up in here for as long as our supplies last.”
“Which won’t be for very long since we already went through all of the food in your cooler, and I had planned to go to the store yesterday.” He captured my mouth in a quick kiss. “Before you provided the perfect distraction.”
“Ugh, yeah…I guess we’ll have to go out sooner than later,” I conceded with a sigh.
“But I need to know if I need to be on the lookout for these guys when we go. What can you tell me about them?” he asked.
“I don’t know much except for the few things my dad managed to find out before we ran.” A shiver raced down my spine, and Aaron rubbed his hands up and down my arms to comfort me. “My mom healed someone about a week before everything happened. A young boy who had fallen through the ice when he went out on a pond that hadn’t frozen all the way through. We didn’t know his family, but she couldn’t bear to see someone so young lose their life in a senseless accident like that. Not when she could do something about it. My dad scoped out the hospital and thought we’d be safe if she brought him the tincture in the middle of the night, after visiting hours.”
When I paused, he murmured, “I’m guessing that didn’t turn out to be the case?”
“Someone had to have seen her because they knew what she looked like and were searching for her only days later.” I squeezed my eyes shut as memories flooded my mind. “The news reports of his miraculous recovery never mentioned what she did, so they thought we were in the clear. But one of my dad’s coworkers showed up on our doorstep the morning we left. He was a leopard shifter too and never questioned why we weren’t part of a pack because most of their kind prefer a solitary existence, with the exception of family.”
“He heard they were looking for your mom?” Aaron prodded.
“Yeah.” Opening my eyes, I nodded. “He came to warn my dad. Told him that he’d thrown them off our trail, but he wasn’t sure if that would be enough to keep us safe. So we left. And I’ve been on my own ever since.”
“You have me now. You’ll never be alone again, sweetness.”
Clutching at his shoulders, I cried, “But what if they track me here somehow?”
After I told him what had happened the morning Jack showed up at my rental house and how I ended up at The Wilderness Pack, he asked, “These people have been after you for two years?”
“Maybe?” Shrugging, I heaved a sigh. “I don’t know for sure. I kept moving around for a long time, but I got comfortable in the last place I stayed. I’m assuming it’s the same people since I haven’t done anything to attract anyone’s attention.”
“Then we’ll just have to be prepared to run if it’s needed,” he announced, as if it was no big deal.
I was so touched by how he didn’t seem to care that being with me might change his life and not for the better. “I hate that I might end up tearing you away from the place you’ve made your home.”
“I spent years roaming the country aimlessly by myself. I don’t care where we are as long as I have you.” Happiness shone from his dark eyes as he smiled at me. “Being rejected was brutal, but I’d happily go through every moment of that pain as long as I knew you’d be waiting for me at the end of it all.”