Lost…
All I want is to outrun the ghosts that haunt me…
But instead, my nightmares chase me into the arms of an alpha who has my wolf eager for a closer sniff, and desire overwhelming my wary human side.
I never count on a night of passion leading to a mate I don't want, don't need, and have every intention of rejecting. A shifter determined to drag me back to a place I swore I'd never return.
A place where old enemies have resurfaced.
He's unmovable. Stone by name. Stone by nature.
Will Jeremy, the stone-hearted alpha, be the biggest mistake of my life or the best?
CHAPTER ONE
"You can't hide in there forever, Savannah," a male voice, low with amusement, drawls from the room next door.
In response, I close my eyes and rest my head against the closet wall, hoping, praying, wishing this is all a dream. That none of this is happening, because none of it seems real. None of it feels real.
How can it be that less than an hour ago, I was in my cabin figuring out what to eat for dinner? Right up until I picked up Jeremy Stone's scent and knew he was here in Hardin, and why he'd come.
For me.
Somehow, he's tracked me down, and instead of cornering me in my cabin as I expected, he headed toward the Lake, where Dayne and the others would finish the pack run.
I've never shifted to wolf and run so fast in my life.
Even then, it still wasn't fast enough to intercept Jeremy before he got to Dayne and revealed my secret.
Or rather, before he forced me to reveal I had a mate.
Even knowing this is no dream, it's not enough to stop me from hoping that when I next open my eyes I'll be back in my cabin in the woods, waking from one of the many nightmares which haunt me.
But of course, when I open my eyes and gaze around me to take in the mostly empty closet, I can still scent the shifter in the room next door.
Not just any shifter, Savannah. Mate. Your mate. The guy you ran away from in the middle of the night.
"I'm not hiding," I mutter as I shove my legs into a pair of blue skinny jeans.
I assumed that I'd left them behind in Dawley when the pack and I went to rescue Talis from her evil Uncle Glynn, but all these months they were here.
Since we left Hardin in a hurry, I'm not surprised to find several tops tucked in the corner, as well as boots I have no memory of bringing with me from my cabin.
I hate it here. I hate Jeremy for forcing me back here.
Well, maybe not forcing me.
I guess we could've gone to my cabin to get some privacy from the pack. Only I couldn't stand the thought of him invading my private space. My sanctuary.
Better we're here than there, I try to convince myself.
It doesn't help when all I feel is a rising tension that never abates until I'm back in my cabin.
Still, it's a relief to find I've got clothes here since the idea of facing Jeremy naked is enough to make me not want to come out again. Ever.
We shifters aren't usually hung up about nakedness, both ours and others. But remembering the intensity of Jeremy's gaze on me when I announced to the pack that he was my mate, made me aware of my body in a way I've never been before.
I slip into a white embroidered peasant top, but I don't go anywhere.
"Well, I'd call it hiding. Or did you need help in there?" Jeremy calls out in his husky voice.
Sexy. The other word you're forgetting, Savannah, is sexy.
This time when I close my eyes, it isn't to pretend I'm back in my cabin, but to focus on my breathing. Namely, slowing it down.
He's right. I am hiding, which isn't the best idea when it's only a matter of time before Dayne, Talis, and the rest of the pack tire of waiting for us to come down.
Dayne especially is going to want to know why I've been hiding Jeremy from him.
As my alpha, adopted brother, and the last remaining member of my family, he'll be the most pissed, and feel the most betrayed that I didn't tell him.
I should have. Then maybe none of this would be happening.
Dayne won't just want an explanation. He'll demand one, and I'd better get my story straight with Jeremy or the fight I broke up by the lake will be on again, and this time no one will be able to stop it.
I suck in a deep breath and quietly release it, taking a moment to wipe all expression off my face before I force myself to retreat from my hiding place.
The first thing I notice when I step into the bedroom is that he hasn't dressed in the sweatpants Talis loaned him.
Distantly, I'm aware of them, neatly folded at the foot of the bed. Yet that's not the most exciting thing in the room.
He is.
He hasn't managed to fit all six-foot-two of his tanned, lean muscled form on the bed, and his feet are hanging off the edge. Only, I'm not looking at his feet.
Nope. My eyes are focused on something else.
Something that has arousal spiking and my mouth going dry.
Something that looks pleased to see me.
I know because it's standing to attention.
"Hey there," Jeremy murmurs.
My eyes shoot up to his face and find him eyeing me with not a small amount of interest stirring in his whiskey brown eyes as his gaze slides down my body.
With his arms pillowed under his head, all I'm thinking about is how the last time I saw him stretched out like that, both of us were naked and I was straddling him.
No matter how much I tell myself to think of something else. To not go there, I learn that saying and doing are two different things.
"You dressed," Jeremy says, sounding disappointed as his gaze settles on my breasts.
Even if I couldn't see where he's looking, I'm convinced I'd feel the heat of his gaze because it's like a physical touch, caressing me.
I plaster a severe expression on my face, hoping it's enough to hide the direction of my thoughts, and that Jeremy doesn't notice how his close attention has made my nipples hard in record time. "And you haven't done anything but lie there."
The sharpening of his gaze tells me Jeremy is more observant than I want him to be.
"I was waiting for you." His focus never shifts from my pebbled nipples.
"You think you could look at my face for a minute?" I say through gritted teeth.
"Why? You're a model, I'd have thought you'd be used to people spending more time looking at your body."
For a second, I stare at him, unable to summon a coherent response.
His words are so beyond anything I could have expected him-or anyone-to say that all I can do is just gape at him, even as my anger wakes up.
I'm mated to a pig.
I shake my head, trying to wrestle my dawning fury back inside me. We don't have time for this. I don't have time for this.
It doesn't matter. After I've convinced Dayne not to kill Jeremy, he won't be my problem for much longer. It'll be a couple of days at a push. Any longer and I'll kill him.
This is temporary, I tell myself. Temporary.
"Look, whatever," I say breezily.
When he suddenly raises his gaze, I can't hide my relief that he's finally stopped staring at my breasts.
Jeremy's gaze turns thoughtful, and then the smile is back in his eyes, even if it doesn't touch his mouth.
And what a mouth it is.
I remember him trailing kisses along my jaw and down my neck, and when arousal once again stirs, I shove it right back in the hole I've been keeping it.
He's a pig, Savannah. Remember that he's a pig, and an untrustworthy one. Remember what he did to you?
"I see," he murmurs.
I blink. "You see what?"
With no warning, Jeremy rises from the bed in a graceful move that has his pecs, abs, and delts rippling.
Despite my intention to keep my gaze on his face, I find it slipping down, down, and fixing between his legs.
He's still rock hard.
"Sounds like you've got a plan, sweet."
I wrench my gaze back to his face as he stalks over to me.
He crosses over to me as if he isn't completely naked, as if he owns the room and everything in it. Me included.
If my agent, Paulo, saw him, he'd sign him in a fucking heartbeat.
"Don't call me that," I snap.
I have no idea where the ridiculous name came from, only I didn't mind it when he growled it in my ear when we were strangers in a Chicago bar.
Not sweetheart or sweetcheeks or sweetie pie. Just sweet.
But now? I'm finding it's just another thing that sets my teeth on edge.
"Tell me this plan of yours, sweet."
I tense the closer he approaches as I stand with my back to the wall, but I don't move. I'm not intimidated by him in the least. Sure, he's a six-foot-two alpha who at twenty-eight is in the prime of his life. But he doesn't scare me.
At five-eight, he's not that much taller than me, and even if he were, I still wouldn't go anywhere.
"I don't know what you mean," I say as he stops directly in front of me. A whole lot closer than I want him to be.
Up close, it's impossible to ignore his scent. He's an intriguing mix of wild forest, warm vanilla, and an underlying scent that's him and him alone.
My wolf growls her approval at my choice of mate.
Shut it, you. You're just as much of a traitor as he is.
My wolf makes her displeasure known by gently raking her claws against me. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make me snarl, one she follows up with another low growl.
With a flick of her tail, she settles down now that she's got the last word in.
I don't provoke her anymore, since it'll get me nowhere. While the wolf and human side of me are usually in harmony about all things, Jeremy Stone proves the exception. We won't agree, so I'd just be fighting my wolf side for no reason.
She's alpha. I'm alpha. Neither of us backs down easy.
"To deal with me," Jeremy says, as he rests one hand on the wall over my head while he lifts the other to my face.
My hand snaps out and locks around his wrist as I narrow my eyes. "No touching."
This time the smile in his eyes makes it to his mouth.
He leans closer. Close enough for me to feel the hot brand of his cock nudging against my lower belly. "You sure about that, sweet? I have distinct memories of you screaming at me never to stop."
Oh my God. This guy is going to kill me.
"Hey, you guys all right in there?" Talis calls out from somewhere downstairs.
"No," I shout.
At the same time Jeremy shouts, "Yes."
We stare at each other, and there's a tense silence from downstairs.
"I meant yes. Yes, is what I meant," I shout, a little desperately when Jeremy leans even more of his weight against me.
Jeremy lowers his mouth to my ear. "I remember you screaming that as well. Hmm, what was it, again? Yes, Jeremy, give me-"
There's no hiding the scent of my arousal as his words triggers our sex-filled nights in Chicago. "Please, just… stop. Okay?" I beg him. "We can't talk about this here."
"Savannah!" Dayne calls, sounding like he's started up the stairs.
None of this is going the way I expected it to. And as time goes on, I can see it getting even more out of control if I don't reign Jeremy in.
"We'll be right down," I shout back, and keeping my head down, attempt to slip around him.
Only there's no getting around him. He has me trapped.
I eye his wrist and wish I hadn't bothered to grab it. Him touching me with his hands would've been better than him leaning his naked body against me like this.
"You should get packed," he says, surprising me when I was fully expecting this to turn into a badly time quickie.
A quickie, I might add, that I would have done everything in my power to stop.
My wolf snorts at my firm mental declaration.
I would have stopped it.
There's more amusement from her, but this time she stays silent.
I lean my head back against the wall to get further away from Jeremy. "Packed?"
"I need to go talk to the guy downstairs."
"My alpha?"
"Your former alpha."
I open my mouth to correct him, only he raises an eyebrow a shade darker than his tousled chestnut hair, which brushes against his nape.
He's right. Jeremy is an alpha, which means as his mate I become the Luna of his pack. If he had a pack that is. For the time being, at least, I tell myself.
"Former alpha," I repeat.
He holds my gaze as if he knows what I'm thinking, but he doesn't comment.
Instead, Jeremy steps back, and I release his wrist since he's moving away.
His gaze takes in the mostly empty room. "You don't have much."
"This isn't my room." I keep my eyes on him.
It's a nice room. Airy and painted lilac with dark-stained wooden furniture, but Jeremy is right, there's nothing much in it. It's got the feel of a guest room that's been rarely used.
Although he raises his eyebrow, as if he's waiting for an explanation, I don't offer him one.
"I thought you said you had to talk to Dayne?" I ask, folding my arms over my chest when he continues to observe me in silence.
Alphas. They're all the same.
What was it Talis called Dayne?
Yeah, alpha dick. And it would be no stretch of the imagination to assume Jeremy Stone is as bad-or worse-than Dayne.
"I did," he murmurs as he stares at me some more, an air of expectation in his silence.
"Well then," I offer brusquely as I cross over to the bedroom door and jerk it open, "best not keep him waiting."
I have a second to wonder if it might not be the best idea to antagonize a shifter-an alpha shifter-I barely know like this before he's stalking toward me, his eyes unreadable, and his focus so intent on me, it's a wonder he doesn't walk into the bed.
When he reaches me, he stops and stares down into my eyes without blinking. "Hmmm," he murmurs, reaching a hand to my face.
I force myself not to grab him as I did before. "What?"
"Just surprised." His eyes continue to drill into mine.
"By what?" With him standing this close to me, I have a sudden urge to roll around in his scent the way I would crispy leaves in fall, or freshly fallen snow.
"I hadn't thought you were an alpha, is all."
I freeze.
All this time I've been meeting his eyes, staring him down. Not lowering my gaze, the way any other wolf would.
Shit.
"I don't… I don't know-" Belatedly I shift my gaze away, but of course it's much too late for that.
Jeremy's fingers tighten on my chin so I can't break our gazes.
For a second, he lets his wolf out and I see the wildness in him. His eyes lighten to golden-hazel, and I know it's his wolf studying me.
He smiles. But it's a smile full of hungry anticipation. Like a wolf before a hunt.
"Should make things interesting," he says, and then he releases his hold on me and walks out.
He shouldn't know I'm an alpha. It's something I made damn sure to keep hidden from him in Chicago, but now it looks like the cat's out of the bag.
Since the alpha trait is more common in male shifters than in females, no alpha is going to let his female alpha mate walk away without a fight. Which means getting away from Jeremy Stone just dialled up close to impossible.
Fuck.