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I’m jarred awake by something – I don’t immediately know what it is – and then it hits that I’m alone. I take a whiff of the air, follow my nose, and wind up at the front door.

I’m beyond unhappy. Because I’m not supposed to wake up alone anymore. The knowledge of this fact is deeper and more meaningful than I could’ve anticipated. And the gravity of it has anger stirring me toward a dark feeling I’ve never experienced.

I’m a deep sleeper, difficult to rouse unless I’ve gotten a solid, uninterrupted seven or eight hours. It’s a running joke that I sleep through tornados, because I’ve often slept soundly through howling storms.

This is what happens when I fall asleep in this form.

When things are amped around me, I sleep as wolf, sleeping light enough to rouse easily and deep enough to feel well-rested. I should have done that tonight with everything that went down today, but I fell asleep as my lungs synched up with hers.

I drop my jeans, shift, and sprint as wolf from the front step where I note the requisite Skye Quinn claiming basket along with the absence of the backpack Linc said he dropped off.

I follow Stacy’s scent easily, as it’s the strongest scent in my nose. Gunpowder is faint, but it’s still on her. She’s got a touch of my scent and something about that is soothing, but not soothing enough, because she probably only carries a trace of me. Time to fix that.

It’ll be dawn soon, and I don’t like the notion she could be around people when I find her. That I could have to go into town to get to her. I run at full speed towards her scent.

***

I’m only a mile outside Drowsy Hollow when I spot her. I’ve been considering hitting the clothing and supply cache near the water tower that my father’s council used, because I’d need some gear if I have to step into town, but seeing her on the old highway outside town happens just in time because the sun is about to rise.

She must catch my scent because she spins to face me on the dirt road and gasps at the sight of my wolf. I’m now walking as wolf instead of running.

Instead of changing directions to come to me or stopping and waiting for me to get to her, she runs. Or she tries, because as she moves, she’s clumsily pulling clothing off and stuffing it into her bag as she goes.

I growl at what’s happening, watching her shift to her wolf form before she steps out of her shoes, so she trips on them and kicks them off her hind legs while grabbing a strap on her backpack with her teeth, leaving the shoes behind, tossing the t-shirt I gave her. She trips on the backpack just as I get to her. She’s trying to scamper to her feet when I bark once, loud.

She startles, ears pinning back, tail between her legs as she shrinks, but then takes off anyway, abandoning the bag and my t-shirt. My wolf quickly gets to hers, taking a nip at her ass. My mate’s little wolf yelps just as I slow-shift, commanding her to, “Shift!”

Immediately, she shifts to her human form and curls into a tight ball.

“What the fuck?” I shout despite my lungs being filled with the scent of her fear.

Big, brandy eyes are on me with terror in them. She tries to scamper away, falling as I lunge for her, pinning her to the ground.

She’s breathless as I glare down at her. Her tits are pressed against my chest. My cock rises, erectly pressing between her parted thighs. I could stake my claim here, now. But although I’m furious, we’re in the dirt and she’s terrified. So, no. Not for our first time together. Pissed, I knife off her.

“Get those clothes back on,” I snap. “I’m taking you back home.”

Her bottom lip quivers and it’s almost my undoing.

“Don’t…” I demand. “Don’t ever run from me, Stacy.”

“I have to,” she whispers brokenly.

And I can tell by the look on her face that she’s about to try it again so to make sure she can’t, I scoop her into my arms.

“No, you don’t have to,” I say, squatting to grab her bag and then carrying her back the way we came. “And you won’t after I’m done with you.”

“Done with me?” she breathes.

“You don’t run from me. You run; I chase. I chase and maybe even punish. The size of your wolf? Believe me, mate, I run faster and would catch you every time.”

I set her on her feet a few paces away by her shoes so I can squat, grab them and stuff them into the backpack. I lift her up again.

“Please, Greyson, I need to get home,” she protests.

“That’s where we’re going.”

“ M - my home.”

Before I’m able to calculate it, I growl at her and clip, “Should’ve stayed in that fuckin’ cell and claimed you there.” I squat and grab the discarded t-shirt.

She tries to shrink but I grip her tighter.

“We wouldn’t be dealing with this shit right now if you knew who you belonged to.”

I take a fortifying breath and glare into her frightened eyes.

“I’m pissed right now, but I will not hurt you. Don’t be afraid of me physically harming you, ever, because it won’t happen. It’ll be a different kind of punishment you get from me, though believe me it’ll count. Waking up and finding you gone is not on, babe. Gimme until we’re home to cool off and then we’ll work this out. But do this again and it’s a problem.”

I break into a run, moving fast despite being in human male form and carrying her.

I know she doesn’t trust me. She doesn’t understand the gravity of our connection despite being shifter, which is an indication of her old pack being fucked. But she’s about to understand. Because I’m about to take her home and do what I should’ve done within minutes of scenting her. Claim her and make her mine. Show her who I am, who she’s gonna be to me, and how she’ll be treated as my mate.