The One He Claimed

The One 17

Chapter 17: More Questions Hunter I watch as my mate stares at me in disbelief. I’m beyond thrilled that she’s at least talking to me. She no longer looks like she’s ready to run at any minute. It seems as if she’s truly interested in what I’m saying. I’m hoping that I’ve cleared up whatever memory she has of me from the night of her sister’s birthday. Looking at it from her perspective, it may have looked like I was watching her possessively. ‘We probably were. I was pulled to her even then,’ Shaw says, and I can feel him blaming himself. ‘Neither of us knew. How could we. But we’re here now. We need to make this work, make her see that we mean it.’ “Did you have any other questions for me?” I ask her. She shakes her head, and I see a ghost of a smile before she answers. “No, but I reserve the right to change my mind.” “I was serious about you asking me anything. I will never lie to you. I will share everything with you, my mate.” I see her frowning again. Hopefully, it’s good that I’m surprising her. I really do mean what I’m saying. “Can I ask you my questions now?” I ask. She nods, looking hesitant. “Where did you go?” I ask. While I didn’t know she was my mate, I’ve often thought of Sophie over the past two years, wondering if she was safe, if she had been captured. “I found a human town. It’s a small place, in an area with a bunch of cattle ranchers.” I raise my eyebrow at that. Cattle ranchers don’t think much of wolves running around their areas. It’s actually a very smart and probably one of the safest choices she could have made to settle down. “How did you survive?” “I got a job at a diner as a waitress. Sometimes, lone wolves. would travel through, and they’d all

ask if I was okay, recognizing that I was a juvenile. But they’d continue on their way, and I stayed.” “What happened that you finally left? You didn’t go straight home, so it’s not that,” I say and now I understand the conversation between Sophie and Penny earlier. Penny knew that Sophie’s pack was close by. That’s what she meant when she said it must be hard to be this close. “Some of the she-wolves on the run started coming through the area. The Alphas and other ranked wolves eventually followed. On the night I left, I saw a woman captured, being mated in front of the Alpha’s pack members. I had run back to my apartment and seen another group of ranked wolves at the diner. I knew they’d catch my scent and find me. Hedda and I ran with just a small bag, but the last bus of the night wasn’t leaving for another hour, and I knew I didn’t have that much More Questions time. I ran to the next closest bus station and hopped a bus there. At the first stop, I got off and asked the driver where the next closest bus station was. I wanted to make it hard for the hunters to find me. He seemed to realize that I needed to get away quickly and he suggested the train. You don’t have to pay for the train, you find an empty car and you jump into it, or at least, that’s what I did.” Her eyes have gone unfocused as she remembers that night. Her jaw has tightened, and no tears have spilled over, but I can smell the saltiness of them, along with the heightened fear that the memories are bringing to her. I desperately want to comfort her, pull her into my arms and hold her, but I know that’s not an option. Not yet at least. “When I jumped in the car, there was another girl there, another she-wolf running from the claiming process,” she says. I nod. “Penny, right?” I ask and her head snaps up to me. “How do you know that?” she asks, and her body tenses as if she’s ready to flee again. I put up my hands. “I was waiting for you to return to the space inside the mountain, but I could hear the two of you talking. I heard you call her Penny.”

I watch as she relaxes. She scrubs her hands over her face. “Penny was there. She’s an underaged G**a and unlike me, she hadn’t found a place to settle. She’d been running and apparently word of your little food pantry is making the rounds.” “Food pantry?” 21-16 She shrugs. “It’s free food, right?” “I guess,” I say, chuckling. 283 Vouchers She looks down at her hands again. “That’s a good thing that you do. I didn’t know if we could trust it. I was actually thinking, or hoping really, that it was my family who was doing it.” “They can’t. The unmated Alphas still watch your parents all the time.” She growls at that. “F**king vultures,” she says, and I raise my eyebrow at her. “What?” she asks, frowning at me. “Such language, Little Sophie Meyers,” I say, smiling at her. “I told you, that little girl is gone.” “Yes she is, and in her place is a beautiful woman, striking really You were beautiful when I met you two years ago, but now…. you’re breathtaking.” “Back to using your pretty words, Alpha?” she asks, but I can see her blush, even though she tries to hide it. “Call me Hunter, and as I said before, they aren’t just pretty words, they are words from my heart.” I shrug. “Maybe it’s the mate bond. I don’t know and I don’t care. I just know that you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.” I can tell she doesn’t know how to respond to what I’ve said, and an uncomfortable silence begins to weigh heavily between us. www 298 Vouchers “When’s the last time you ate?” I ask her, not wanting her to leave. I quickly glance over her body,

seeing that even though she’s been settled and in one place, she’s still much too thin. “Penny shared some of the food with me,” she says. I frown. “You make it sound like it was hers and not yours. It was meant for everyone.” “She and I had agreed to go our separate ways after arriving here. She was hungrier than I was, so I told her she could eat and leave first, and I’d stay for the next day’s meal. But there was a lot of food and she practically fell into a food coma, she ate so much.” That makes me chuckle. “I’m glad there’s enough food. I’ll make sure Kinsley knows that she’s doing a good job.” Of course, that reminds me that today is my day to leave food. “Would you be willing to go back to the hideout with me?” I ask her. She narrows her eyes at me. “Why?” “First, because it will be dark soon and you’ll be safe there. Second, because my Beta female is at the store today, and I was supposed to bring the food. But Shaw was too worried about you, and we left without thinking about food. Of course, you’re always welcome to come back to my pack with me…” I break off as she begins emphatically shaking her head, no. “I didn’t think so. So, rather than you sleeping out here on your own, I can feel safe leaving you if you are there. You have some clothes there and then when I come back, I’ll bring food for us 21 172 Chapter 17: More Questions 288 Mouchen and we can continue talking,” I tell her. “What else is there for us to talk about?” “I’d like to tell you about what my pack is like, what your life could be like if you accept me as your mate.” “Like what?” she asks me. Rather than answer, I set aside the branch I had placed over my lap. My erection is mostly gone

now, so hopefully I won’t scare her. I stand and reach out my hand to her. “Come with me. I don’t mind killing to protect you, but if I can avoid a bl**dy fight, I’d prefer it. You’re too vulnerable out here and Shaw and I won’t be comfortable until we have you tucked away for the evening.” She looks at my hand, then up at me. Tentatively, she reaches out. Her hand is cold, and I help pull her to her feet. She trips over the bushes that were covering her nakedness and stumbles into my body. I catch her easily, my arm wrapping around her waist as I look down into her pretty green eyes. The nearly gone erection springs back to life. Whether it’s the surprise at falling into me, or the feeling of the tingles that just whipped across my body and I’m sure hers as well, her eyes go a bit glassy, she licks her lips, and she leans into me. “Sophie, you need to stop looking at me like that. If you don’t, I’ m going to kiss you.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.