Chapter 159

“Don’t hurt her!” Sideburns barked, joining the chase. “Block her only!”

Canary shouted behind me, “Catnip, stop. We can talk about this and sort it out.”

Growls rose behind me. Fuck, they’d brought hounds too? I looked over my shoulder and saw a pack of wolves. The soldiers had shifted to their animal forms for speed.

A blink, and a massive black wolf cut in front of me. I nearly rammed into him and hurt myself. As I skidded to a halt, I fell backward on my ass.

Before I could pull my outraged ass up, a dozen wolves surrounded me.

“Shoo! Assholes!” I shouted, brandishing the knife at the wolf pack. “Gang up on me? Come closer and you’ll see that I’m good at stabbing.”

I was bluffing, of course. I hoped I didn’t need to test whether I was good at knifing people or not. I needed to have a better exit plan, like talking my way out of this instead of fighting my way out.

The black wolf snarled at the others, and they backed off a few steps, yet he had no intention of stepping out of my way.

The beast regarded me and inhaled, affection brimming in his gray eyes. I instantly recognized him as Sideburns’ wolf. His beast seemed to like me better.

Something dark stirred in me, and it wanted to crawl out. Was it the she- wolf Sideburns and Canary had sensed inside me?

The black wolf growled in encouragement, wanting my beast to come out to play with him. But I didn’t know how to turn into a wolf, and I didn’t want to try to shift in front of everyone, in case I made a fool of myself by doing it wrong.

The hunters had called me Death bitch and abomination. My hand had turned into blade-like claws. I didn’t want to give this pack any more reasons to think of me as a freak that needed to be put down.

I reined in whatever was inside me, and the moment passed.

The black wolf stepped toward me, friendliness in his every move and

gesture. I stretched out the hand that didn’t hold the knife, ready to scratch the space behind his ear or simply sink my fingers into his silky fur, but the beast halted in mid-stride, as if a force restrained him. He growled and shook his fur as if struggling to break free.

It dawned on me that the man inside the wolf was taking control, and he didn’t want his beast to get too close to me.

A gust of wind passed, and where the black wolf had been now stood Sideburns in his glorious nudity. His every muscle and line spelled masculine power.

I flushed and tore my gaze from him, yet I couldn’t expel the low hum of heat in my belly.

I bet a lot of women drooled over him. Maybe he already had a few women. Maybe that’s why he acted hesitant toward me despite lusting after me.

Fate had put him in my path. But I had this nagging feeling that we were wrong for each other, not in a biological sense but in other ways.