Chapter 6

Present Day

Conflicted.

That's the only word to describe how I've been feeling since I confirmed I would go with Tyson. Blake is beside himself at the idea of letting me leave with the man he believes is capable of doing just about anything, to anyone, if the mood so takes him.

Tyson, is not a man who's afraid of using violence to get what he wants. He killed my mate. He ripped the head off a vampire right in front of my teenage son.

And now, what he wants is me.

An attack on the pack that took me and my son in, made us feel like part of a family, is not something I want hanging over my head.

I told myself I would pay him back one day. Despite living sixteen years without hearing from him, somehow, I always felt I would see him again.

If he was still alive.

What happened that day bound us together; not one day has passed when I didn't wonder what happened to him.

Sometimes, the temptation to find out was almost irresistible. But my desire to keep my child safe was even stronger. Common sense won out whenever I nearly succumbed to the idea of contacting someone from my past life to see if they could find out how he was. Lee's pack would track me down if I left even a tiny breadcrumb that could lead him to our location. I've had a few close calls over the years, when I stayed somewhere too long or too close to shifters.

My alpha hasn't given up hunting me. There is too much at stake to risk exposing our location.

Many times, when I was lonely and afraid, his striking eyes or stupidly confident voice entered my head and reminded me to just keep going. In the dead of night, when he came to me in my dreams, giving me strength, reassuring me it will be okay, I feared it was because he was dead. That he had passed on at the hands of my pack.

Turns out that wasn't the reason I thought about him so often. And this man is way more than I bargained for.

"When did you work out where I was?" I ask, walking as fast as I can, and jogging every now and again, to keep up with Tyson's long strides.

He turns his head slightly so he can keep me in his sights but doesn't slow down. What a gent. Blake's enforcers stopped pursuing us long ago so there's no need to hurry anymore. He could slow down, he just won't.

So, now I just follow along behind him, wondering what he plans to do with me.

"When I met Noah. I recognised your scent instantly. He looks very like his dad, but he smells like you."

Noah's dad, the man that Tyson murdered. That part is left unsaid but hangs in the silence between us as he meets my gaze, the red rim now circling his eyes catching me off-guard each time I look at them.

He inhales deeply, and his gaze intensifies, but he turns his broad back to me and marches on once more.

"And you decided to show your fondness for his mother by scaring Noah half to death?"

Tyson jumps over a downed tree with ease, his vampire speed and agility evident in his human form. I climb over the broken branches a little less elegantly. Tyson's fingers twitch at his sides, lifting like he's about to offer me a helping hand, but then quickly drop back as he thinks better of it.

Coming to a stop, hands on hips, I wait for him to explain himself. His lips draw into a thin line and he glares at me, the red widening to take up more of his iris as his anger rises. A shadow falls across his face as he continues to stare at me.

"He's a tough kid. And my intent wasn't to scare him, it was to worry Blake. Maybe get him to leave Steel territory. And it almost worked."

He has the audacity to smile while admitting to terrifying my child and my luna to put pressure on his brother. Noah is the only thing that kept me going all those years of living on the run, looking over our shoulders like criminals. He is the only thing I care about.

Bristling at his callousness, I step closer to him. "Intentional or not, it was fucked up."

Quick as a flash, he grabs me and spins us, pressing me into a tree and running his nose along the column of my neck. "I am fucked up, if you haven't noticed. A vampire and a werewolf. A rogue, a freak. There is very little I can do about it if my very being terrifies people."

A shiver passes through me as my body reacts to his presence. Being surrounded by his scent is intoxicating.

"It's not your being people find offensive; it's your personality," I hiss, trying to hide how much he affects me.

He looms over me, dark and dangerous, clearly relishing in how my heart hammers in my chest from fear while my nipples harden with desire as his chest brushes against mine. A small part of my brain is still ringing alarm bells instead of submitting, conscious of the proximity of his sharp, elongated teeth to my jugular.

But the wolf inside me practically swoons at his dominance and the way his touch sends a jolt of electricity through me. She remembers him coming to our rescue. The man in front of us isn't the same though and her trust could prove to be misplaced.

"I will never hurt you or your son," he whispers. "Anyone else, however, who comes after me or mine, is fair game." He shuts his eyes tight. As if the thought physically pains him, and I have no doubt that he speaks the truth.

Tyson has already proven how dangerous he is. If he meant us harm, he had more than enough time and opportunity to do it already. Despite how uncomfortable it makes me to acknowledge it, the violence I judged him for was inflicted for my benefit. To kill my mate, and more recently, to save my son from another vampire.

Unable to speak through the confusing emotions swirling around inside me, I give the tiniest of nods, and he sets me back on my feet, holding me steady for a moment while I regain my balance. His fingers burn into my skin, despite his cool touch, and I fixate on the spot, unable to look away.

"What do you plan to do with me? What's next?" When I look up at him, he blinks, expression neutral, giving nothing away. In contrast, I feel like an open book; both my anger and my arousal plain to see in my flushed cheeks and rapid, shallow breaths.

"Would you believe me if I said I haven't quite decided?" Tipping his head to one side, he studies me closely.

"Not for a second."

He laughs, warm and loud, startling the birds who flee from the presence of this lethal predator.

"Clever girl." Releasing me slowly and carefully, his fingers slide across my skin in the briefest of touches, sending tingles dancing along my arms and my pulse racing. With a wink, he steps away, his scent fading with him and allowing me to breathe again.