The Skin Walker

16 | Physical Contact

A growl emitted from the back of my throat as I complied to my animal instincts and listened into the house again. Down the hallway and around the corner. Her room. I hesitated before allowing myself to listen any closer.

"Well, obviously he didn't want to kidnap me," She spoke through a chuckle, her voice muffled behind the closed door as she spoke to someone. "I know that much. So, he just followed you and Reese to the car from here and trusted where you were taking him?"

Ander. She was talking to Ander in her bedroom with the door shut. My traitorous heart thundered in my chest as my blood simmered in my veins. Jealousy clouded my judgement as my senses tripled. I could smell his ease, his relaxed state of mind as his scent mixed with hers. They were close. Her bed shifted, and I knew she was on it. And then his footsteps walked toward the door as if he could sense someone was listening in.

'Relax,' Ander mind-linked me, having gotten used to my heightened abilities and how to sense them. 'I'm telling her what happened the day we took her. I can feel your anger from here. You're going to burn the house down. Relax.'

Forcibly, I did as he said, clenching my fists at the desk before me. I could feel the necklace in my hand, the one she wore the night of the gala. She'd wanted to give it back to me, but I pretended it didn't exist. Then I found it on the floor beside her room. Ruth must've dropped it.

"He was mindlinking you both threats the entire time, wasn't he? That means speaking to you in your own private link to each other's brains, correct?" Ruth, not suspecting me and Ander's mindlink, continued to question.

"Correct to both," He had the nerve to laugh. "And he didn't tell you to shut up. He was just telling me that you spoke a lot-"

'I will kick you in the balls if you don't stop talking,' I growled at him.

"But I twisted his words," Ander sounded regretful.

"Great," Ruth murmured sarcastically. "I called him a coward for nothing."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure he forgave you the moment you said it. Besides he gave me hell for it through our mindlink. That's why I slammed the breaks. Caught me off guard when he threatened to make sure I never have children."

Ruth burst into laughter, her voice a melodic tune that made my heart jump. Theodoros swooned, his form sitting in the back of my mind with his head tucked beneath his tail. He was obsessed with her. Too obsessed.

I sighed, loosening my hold on the necklace in my hand. I wanted to stop listening. I was about to, but she kept asking questions I wanted her to ask me instead. I wished I had the courage to approach them, yet I knew she'd stop talking at all. Sometimes she was as closed off with me as I was with her.

"You and Reese wanted to make sure I was okay?" She repeated, shifting around on the bed. "That was the excuse to drive to the park? And then my house. Wait- That would mean you'd have to have met me before. How would you all know who I am?" Her rapid words were as rapid as her heartbeat.

'She's getting scared,' I hissed at Ander.

'Good, then maybe she'll leave you,' He taunted. 'Isn't that what you wanted only a few days ago, anyway?'

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my free hand and tightened my grip on the necklace. Hell if I knew what I wanted. The last time she'd left, my wolf had gotten weak to the point that it was difficult to shift. It was never supposed to be difficult to shift, especially for Alphas. It was in our nature. Our wolves were embedded into our DNAs.

It was the separation that weakened Theodoros. He grew physically sick in her absence, and the moment he saw her again, I had to use the little strength I had left to keep him from jumping at her. My chest tightened at the memory of the bruise on her face. Yeah, I wasn't going to let her go back. She needed to be here with me so that I could protect her. Theo wouldn't be weak again.