Free The Corollaria by Courtney Lyn Batten

forward.
    “Come on, Em,” h e said hoarsely. “We gotta get you safe.”
    Safe . Emily kept thinking of Luke. It was impossible not to. The raw-edged feeling inside her just kept gnawing at her, growing in its fever and intensity. An endless ache of want and confusion.
    She also kept thinking about what Samuel had said, about what Curtis had said too. And about her grandmother. She’d only ever seen one faded photograph of her. She was young with long flowing blond hair. He said Emily reminded him of her.
    She tried to picture her own mother, with the same fair hair and light blue eyes. The memory of her was fuzzy though. Emily had been too young when she had died, her memory made of photographs. A sudden longing for her mother, to be able to tell her about all this, about Luke, struck her hard.
    Even talking to Aunt Lucinda, with her crinkly green eyes and her hard weathered smile, would help. She couldn’t help the feeling that she had known about all this. That the reason she had gone to live with the Lyall’s, with Luke, was more than just a family connection.
    Her wolf.   Those two words kept repeating themselves in her mind.  And it made her feel inexplicably anxious. A barrage of questions flooded her consciousness as Curtis led her into an abandoned subway tunnel, a faint light flickered overhead.
    What did it mean that he was hers? Were they supposed to be lovers? Make little half-wolf babies? Would her daughter be like her too? What if Luke didn't want her? Samuel said he didn't. And that hurt. What was so wrong with her that Luke was the first wolf in history that didn’t want his mate?
    She gripped Curtis’s hand tighter. Luke’s rejection punched her in the gut.  Was it wrong to seek comfort in Curtis’s touch? The simple truth that he never pushed her away offered her some solace. 
    Eventually, hours later, they found themselves in a busy terminal. There were lots of people milling about, rushing on and off the approaching trains.
    Emily felt strangely removed from the normalcy of these people’s Saturday afternoon. She let her eyes wander around the station, observing the people. A small girl with red hair and a splash of freckles tugged on her mother’s arm.  A tall, willowy brunette with model length legs and a tall guy with perfectly tousled hair wrapped around her, kissing her neck.
    And then, with an intense tingling sensation prickling along her skin, she found Luke. His gray eyes found her a second later, and he pushed through the crowded platform.  He paused before he reached her, and her stomach twisted in a tight knot. She wanted his arms around her. His stormy eyes narrowed, his lips thinned into a straight line. The muscle in his jaw twitched.
    Emily followed Luke’s gaze to her hand, clasped tightly with Curtis’s, and felt the blush color her cheeks. She started to withdraw her hand, and for a mome nt Curtis’s grip only tightened. When she looked up, his dark eyes were on her too. A moment later, he reluctantly released her fingers and looked away.
    “What time is it?” Curtis asked Luke finally after a tense, seemingly endless, minute of silence.
    Luke’s eyes were still on Emily when he spoke, his voice rough, “It’s close to six.”
    Curtis nodded, with worried eyes he surveyed the entrance to the street above.  “Is it, uh, dark yet?”
    Luke finally looked at him, and furrowed his brow a moment. Truthfully, Luke felt sick. His hand was already shaking. He wanted so badly to touch her, to make sure she was okay. He felt fiercely protective with Curtis standing here, knowing what he was, what he had done to her. The image of Emily’s bloody neck made a jolt of heat vibrate along his spine.
    “Close enough,” h e said evenly. Luke’s hand reached out to grab Emily’s. But he paused, curling his fingers into a fist. Emily saw the muscle in his jaw jump again. Her stomach dropped to her knees as Luke turned away and headed to the exit. Curtis and Emily were fast