Walk The Line

Chapter 4: Woo

I smooth my pants out and the sweater I tugged on. It's cooler out tonight, and while our body heat does run warmer than a human's, we still get cold. Lander says it's because I'm cold-hearted, teases mostly, but right now my heart is anything but a brick of ice as it pounds away in my chest.

Her footsteps are quiet. If she was a tracker, she's a good one. The only reason I can hear her is because I'm looking for her and even then it only sounds like a small rabbit hopping about.

I turn around the boulder, eyes looking for her in the darkness, but with her hair, it's easy to spot her. Her green eyes are glowing like two fireflies, she's calf-deep in the creek, hands holding an oversized dress up so it doesn't get wet.

She freezes where she is and at first, I think it's because there's danger. My beast rushes forward as I step out from my hiding place, my eyes scanning the area before they find the spot on her neck where we can see a vein pulsating. I want to put my lips there—I want to put my lips everywhere on her.

There's no one here. I wave her forward, awkwardly smiling because I feel like I won some kind of prize when she takes her first step towards me. I'm afraid she's going to run, but she doesn't; She's careful not to slip on the slick moss that covers the big slabs lining the creek before she jumps onto the ground. Her feet take a few cautious steps towards me before pausing. I want her to tell me everything but I also want to freeze this moment in time when the moonlight is dancing along her skin in its own lullaby.

"Are you all right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just—" I bite my tongue, can she not see how much sleep I've already lost over her? "Who came with you?"

"Billy," she replies, the fire brewing in her voice.

"If we leave now, he wouldn't find you, we would protect you," I blurt out. I want her so badly to just leave with me. I know we barely know each other but we have lifetimes to do that.

Her brows raise high before she rolls her eyes, crossing her hands over her chest while her head tilts. "Who the hell says I want to leave?"

"Well don't you?"

"Well, maybe you should ask first."

My beast huffs in the back of my mind. "Do you want to leave?"

"I don't know, that's asking a lot."

"I'm your mate." How is this complicated? This is the most basic thing about being a damn wolf.

"And that is my family, my pack, people I have known my whole life—I wouldn't be able to see them again, ever, if I just left."

Dammit.

Emmett would probably disown her. I don't know about her brother, but not being able to speak with her pack members, whatever family she has there—it would be excruciating.

"What about Jeremiah?" Because that's a ticking time bomb. She says nothing, which only makes my wolf pace. "The moon will close her eye to you! He's also older than literal dirt—that's bullshit and you know it!"

"You think I don't know that?!" she hisses at me. "You think I want that?! I had no idea until you did!"

"Well then little red, what the hell do you want to do?"

"Little red?"

She's shorter than me with the most vibrant color red on her head. It seemed fitting.

"Mhmm."

"Well, I don't know, asshole."

"Asshole?"