Free Rosko, Mandy - Mate of the Wolf (Siren Publishing Classic) by Mandy Rosko Page B

managed to survive the wound she had already received, probably an undead thing, but the woman nodded. Fear glistened in her wide, mismatched eyes.
    “Good. Now get the fuck off my property before I put this in your heart.” Michael pointed with the blade toward the trees.
    Pearl got up, still clutching her bleeding chest. Through her trembling she sent a nasty glare over her shoulder as she spread her wings and leapt into the dark sky.
    Shelley breathed a shaky sigh as the woman became a dot in the distance and disappeared into the black clouds. Then it all came on her, and she couldn’t hold it back, so she put her hand over her eyes to try and hide her tears. She didn’t even want to touch her neck where that woman had bitten and kissed her. She was going to have to wear another bandage to match the one on the other side of her neck.
    Michael was on his knees with his arms around her in an instant, gathering her close, crushing her to his chest. “Don’t cry, baby, please. I’m so sorry. You’ll never see her again.”
    She wanted to stop, but she couldn’t. Her tears just kept right on coming, and her throat kept making that lousy sound that was something between a sob and a hiccup.
    After a few minutes of petting and kissing her hair, Michael left her, for just a second it seemed, before coming back. He scooped her up and held her as though she would crumble like dust.
    Shelley wiped and opened her eyes when he settled her down on a cushioned seat, wrapping something around her with a click.
    She looked down and knew where he’d gone. To set the truck in its proper position. He’d placed her inside and put her seat belt on. The window on her side was completely smashed out. Now he was climbing into the driver’s side.
    “Where are we going?” Shelley asked as he started the engine, wishing her voice wasn’t so shaky.
    He didn’t spare her a glance, just clutched the steering wheel with white knuckles as he pulled away from the cabin. Shelley was impressed the thing was still in working condition. “I thought she couldn’t find me out here, otherwise I would have let you go the second I knew you were mine. I never would have put you in harm’s way like that.” He shook his head at himself and clutched the wheel so tight it looked in danger of popping right out.
    “It was my blood that led her here,” she said, toeing the bandage on her foot.
    “She already knew I was in the area.” His lips thinned. “Careless. I was careless. She must have tracked my letters, or maybe I was seen by one of her servants in town.”
    He kept right on talking, apologizing and listing all the ways he could have been found in the middle of the woods, but Shelley barely heard him as he drove down the narrow dirt road, headlights leading the way through the trees.
    A bolt of dread struck her. He still hadn’t answered her question.
    “Where are we going?” she asked again.
    He still wouldn’t look at her. Shelley’s dread intensified.
    “I’m taking you back to your original campsite. I assume your car will still be there. It hasn’t been long.”
    “To…get my things, right?”
    He pressed his lips together. She watched his Adam’s apple bob deeply as he swallowed.
    “You’re sending me away,” she said, tears rising again. “But I thought—”
    “You are my mate. You’ll always be mine, but there’s a good chance Pearl will return regardless of my warning. When she does, I don’t want her using you to get to me like that,” he said. “I’ll go back to my pack and tell them what happened. I’ll command them to watch over you, keep you safe, but you won’t ever see them.”
    “Will I ever see you?” Billion-dollar question.
    “No.”
    Shelley let her tears fall. She turned away from him and curled into her seat. Mate or no mate, he was sending her off after she had just discovered what they really were to each other, after they’d had sex in his bed. She felt like a one-night stand.
    The truck