Page 48 of Arranged Wolf's Nanny

The best thing to do would be to turn around, travel a bit as a human to keep her scent to a minimum, until she was confident she was far enough back into Iron Walker territory to shift into a wolf.

Slowly, she turned around, tucking her tangled hair behind her ears and cautiously approaching the ravaged mess of a trail she had left.

An almighty growl ripped through the air behind her, and she froze.

Then another one came.

And another.

Three of them. Approaching fast. Their claws scrape the earth.

Her heart stopped beating.

The sound of cracking bones and ripping fur echoed from the trees, accompanied by the low, amused huffs of two who had chosen to stay as wolves.

Her legs turned to stone.

She couldn’t move.

“Well, well, well,” a sardonic voice drawled, “look what we’ve managed to find.”

It was the mockery in his voice that finally broke her from her paralysis.

She remembered him. From the Eastern Alliance Meeting.

Carter. Cocky son of the Black Claws alpha.

He’d gotten rather drunk and made a lewd comment about her.

And now he was here. Far beyond the border.

And he had found her.

She turned, arms crossing across her breasts to cover them. She tried to make the movement look natural rather than defensive. Shifters were much more comfortable with nudity than humans, but she was still a lone female staring down three terrifyingly huge alphas.

“You’re trespassing,” she said, her voice cold and clear, free of any stammer.

She’d been faking confidence in the face of alpha males her whole life. And now, it might be the only way to make it out of this confrontation alive.

Most hunters liked their prey scared.

She would not show them fear.

Carter laughed, his eyes flashing, his muscles rippling.

He was at least a foot taller than her. Not to mention an easy hundred pounds heavier. And even if she was stupid enough to think she’d walk away from him attacking, there were his two packmates pacing behind him, their eyes fixed on her form.

She swallowed. And raised an imperious brow.

“This is Iron Walker territory. And you arenotIron Walkers. I suggest you leave now before one of our patrols finds you.”

“Hear that,” Carter leered to one of the wolves, “she’s giving us a chance to run away! How generous you are, sweetheart.”

She scoffed, her eyes trained on him. “Onechance. I will not give you a second.”

Carter looked at her, his eyes lazily traveling the expanse of her naked body. She snapped her teeth at him, and his eyes jumped back to her face, his grin near feral.

“I know you, don’t I?” He took a step forward, and she held her ground, pushing away the instincts that screamed at her to run.