Free Cry of the Wolf by Dianna Hardy Page B

close to feeling something for anybody. Even Heidi gave up trying to be your friend – yeah, did you not think I noticed how she tried to get to know you? And my dad’s been nothing but supportive of anything you’ve asked for, and all the orders you mess up…”
    Holy shit!
    It was all coming out now, from where she didn’t know. She always kind of thought Brendan just accepted her for who she was – even if who she was, was locked away from everyone else. Even if that meant he was always stuck on the peripheral of her life.
    Selfish girl.
    She felt like she’d just been slapped in the face. She stood there, mouth open, unable to think of anything to say except, “I don’t lock myself away…” But her protestation was weak, even to her own ears. Is that what she did? Had she pushed everyone away?
    Her sarcastic inner-voice reared its irritating self with a round of applause. Affirmative! Ever since that time at school when you got laughed at for opening up to your friends about your dreams – around the same time your mother killed herself.
    Oh.
    “I … I didn’t mean to…” She couldn’t quite form the words she really wanted to say, her mind and heart still a jumbled mess, but she no longer needed to worry about that, because a low rumble ran through the earth, heading this way from the small road by the side of the woods. And she’d know that sound anywhere.
    ‘Fuck’ did not even cover the potential chaos of this moment.
    She didn’t bother to peek around the wall to see if Lawrence was looking for her – she knew he would already have scented her here. “I have to go.” I so have to go!
    “No – wait, please,” Brendan grabbed her arm again, sorrow in his tone. “I didn’t mean half of what I said.”
    “You did, and it’s okay, I’m not upset about that … well, I am a little, but you’re not completely wrong … and I really have to go.” She shrugged out of his grip, pretty sure that another man touching her – a man who wasn’t Ryan or Taylor – would not go down too well. “Please say sorry to your dad for me.” She sped around the corner of the café towards the front of the building and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Lawrence standing his full six-foot-three in front of his bike, looking unmovable, staring her down and … god , his eyes!
    She could feel the rage in them, and surely all that anger couldn’t just be for her? So she’d snuck off to see Brendan without telling anybody, but hello! Full grown woman here! She was allowed to do that – she didn’t have to tell anybody squat!
    As if she was his mirror, her own anger flared within her, but she had to admit that a slither of fear coiled at the bottom of her stomach. She’d never seen Lawrence look like this before. His ice-blue eyes burned with fury and a strange, freezing cold fire surrounded him like a blazing shroud.
    With startling clarity, she envisioned some parallel universe in which she was twenty years older and still alone, still serving tables, still numb to emotional attachments … untouchable…
    No. No way. She was nothing like him!
    “Lydia!” Brendan had chased her around the corner and chased her out of her disturbing thoughts.
    Lawrence eyed him up and down. His jaw twitched, his fists clenched, and he strode towards Lydia with a definite purpose. She could guess what it was.
    “It’s okay!” she shouted out, and she didn’t know who she was trying to calm down, because Brendan reacted to Lawrence’s presence by straightening up to face him head on.
    Very bad.
    She struck a palm hard into Brendan’s chest, not caring that she was using some of her werewolf strength to hold him back. “It’s okay,” she repeated, but it was Lawrence she glanced at. His knuckles had turned white from the way he balled his fists.
    “Don’t you dare hit him, he’s done nothing wrong.”
    He ignored her, just ten yards away now.
    “I mean it!”
    With a speed and agility he didn’t look