Predator and Prey

Chapter V

{Jack}

I MADE IT far, far away before I really freaked out. I was in the woods, on the border of pack lands, and far away from the horrible sulfurous smells that seemed to be filling the air in town lately, when I finally let out all my rage, frustration, and fear.

My mate--my beautiful, fierce, mysterious mate--was in danger. Some jackasses had tried to hurt her, and if it hadn't been for the fact that she had already clearly beaten them, I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself from attacking them--which was stupid, because I didn't even know how to fight properly.

Still, the wild, terrified look in her eyes haunted me. When I had walked into that room... she said she had gone wolf, and I had let her lie, because I'm sure she didn't even realize she wasn't telling the truth. But the fact of the matter was that if she had gone wolf, she would've recognized me instantly and tried to protect me, not defend herself. Her wolf instincts would've made her want to get closer to me, not escape.

She hadn't gone wolf at all--more like gone human, before they started building organized civilizations, before they started making communities and jobs and school. When they were just animals like all the others, ones that relied on instinct and fear to keep them alive... she had lost herself to that, and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

I did know, however, that it meant there was something else she wasn't telling me. The look in her eyes she had snapped out of it, so broken and haunted, meant that it wasn't her first time being this afraid, or her first time being attacked, which made me beyond mad, both at her for not telling me and whoever attacked her.

***

When I walked over to her apartment the next day, I was understandably surprised to find the door not on its hinges and her sitting in the middle of the floor, adding more locks and occasionally glancing over at an instruction guide.

"Do I even want to know?" I asked, grinning as I stepped over the threshold. She looked up, dropping the screwdriver and turning red.

"Oh, shit. I totally forgot you were coming over today," she muttered, standing up and brushing non-existent dust off of her yoga pants.

"I kinda guessed when I walked in and the room looked like a tornado had gone through," I said wryly.

"Oh, um, yeah. Sorry, I've just been a bit busy."

"I could tell. You know that adding more locks won't keep them out, right?"

"I know," she said, her stormy eyes uncharacteristically serious, "but it'll buy me a few seconds."

She shouldn't have to protect herself, my wolf said unhappily. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation either, but I knew better than to engage--he would be so busy criticizing my fighting skills that he wouldn't even notice what I was saying and whether or not to agree with him. We had a dysfunctional relationship, true, but we were still close and trusted each other. The real difference between the average were and me was that most think of their wolf as a best friend, whereas our relationship was closer to brothers.

I honestly wasn't sure who was the older sibling.

"Well," I said, sitting besides her as I dragged myself away from my thoughts, "don't let me stop you. I'm eager to see what the final result is here."

She laughed, looking at me like I was insane. "Oh, no. If you're staying, you're helping."

***