Page 56

“Will you take me to my cabin?” I glanced at him again. “Please? I want my things. My sketchbook and pencils, my clothes, my comb and toothbrush and just… all my shit, Wolf.”

Although he brought my jacket and sketchpad from when I’d been running, the paper had gotten damp and torn, dirty from the fall, so was now useless. I also had nothing to draw with. And I was feeling a certain withdrawal from not being able to sketch.

“That will make you happy?”

His question surprised me, and I stared at him for long seconds before nodding. “Yes. That would make me happy.”Amongst other things, I thought to myself.

He grunted and went back to work cutting up the animal.

“Then I’ll take you where you need to go.”

All I could do was sit there and stare at him. That had seemed so… effortless.Why was it so easy now, but he’d made such a big deal about it before? Wolf glanced at me as if he read my thoughts.

“I’m an alpha. I’m dominant. And I always get my way.”

I refrained from rolling my eyes.

“But I can’t expect you to accept the situation and me, if I’m not willing to do the same.”

I blinked at his candor. Damn Wolf for making me like him a little more.

He grabbed the meat off the fire, not even acting like the heat bothered him, and brought the food over to me.

He sat in front of me, and I didn’t shy away as he picked up a piece of meat and gave it a few seconds for the strip to cool off.

I just stared at him, feeling something strange grow in my chest. For being so beastly, he was this gentle giant deep down inside.

Wolf held out the food and I went to take it from him, but his low growl and a small shake of his head stopped me.

“Let me feed you.” He leaned forward and focused on my mouth. “There’s nothing I want more than to please you, Marcella.” He was breathing harder now. “And feeding you gives me great pleasure. So open for me,” he huskily murmured.

I parted my mouth and let him slip the food inside.

“That’s my good girl,” he all but purred. “I want you to be happy here. I want to give you whatever you need and desire.”

As I chewed, my heart was pounding and my body was lighting up.

“And if it’ll make you happy to gather your items, so be it. I’ll take you at first light.”

Wolf was changing the rules. He was going from captor to caregiver, and I shouldn’t have felt myself wanting him because of how soft he was being toward me.

I knew what I’d do when he took me. Gathering my things from the cabin wasn’t therealreason I asked again.

I’d try to escape. I knew that would probably be my only chance, because as much as Wolf took care of me... this wasn’t my home.

Right?

13

Marcella

Snuggling in deeper under the furs, I felt my eyes droop with sleepiness.

After I’d eaten my fill of the meat strips, and the nuts and berries Wolf had given me, we’d bathed, come back to the cave, and now I heard him shuffling around.

I let that drowsiness take over just a little more until the motion of Wolf awoke me, as he pulled the fur aside and slipped in behind me.

He smelled like the outside, like the crisp air and the absence of pollution I’d been so accustomed to while living in the city.