Keeping one eye on the wolf, she retrieved the jack and spare tire, grateful her foster father had taught her how to change a flat. It wasn’t easy, especially keeping half her attention on the strange-behaving animal and questioning the odd. warm rush spreading through her body. Even though cooler temperatures always came with nightfall, sweat had pooled at the base of her spine and grease stained her hands by the time she stowed the flat in the trunk and settled behind the wheel with a deep sigh of relief. Reaching for the door handle, she saw the wolf get to his feet as she closed the door. The headlight beam guided her forward and shed enough light she could make out the wolf’s shape as he loped alongside her car, his presence now welcome, making her feel less isolated out here, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark.
A few minutes later, seconds after her companion veered off to disappear into the woods, she realized she was closer to Gavin’s ranch than she thought. Driving up to wide, closed gates, the lit-up sign above reading ‘McCullough Ranch’, her heart rate sped up in anticipation and worry over her welcome. What if he turned her away, or worse, looked at her in disbelief and anger for showing up on his doorstep unannounced? She hadn’t considered that when she’d high-tailed it out of Boise, she’d only been thinking of getting to a place of safety for a few days.
Aislyn spotted the camera just as the gates swung open, an invitation she was in no position to refuse, or to sit here and contemplate. It was too late to second-guess her decision, and with nowhere else to go or anyone else she could turn to, she drove through, praying he at least remembered her.
Following the unpaved road in the dark stretched her taut nerves her further, especially when it took another ten minutes before she spotted lights. Approaching the large, two-story house with it’s lit-up, wrap-around porch, she almost missed the man waiting down by the road. Her heart thudded against her chest as she tried to make out his features. He was as tall as Gavin, and just as big. But as she rolled to a stop and lowered her window, the meager glow from the porch was enough to make out his startling blue/green eyes and the wicked scar marring one cheek. The family resemblance, though, was there in the strong jaw, straight nose and sculpted lips, not to mention the laser-sharp gaze. Gavin’s brother, Cody, whom she’d met one time at Spurs, had possessed the same features.
Leaning down, he stated, “You’re here to see Gavin.”
She couldn’t fathom how he knew that, but with her clammy grip refusing to loosen on the steering wheel and her frayed nerves ready to snap, she didn’t question him. “Is he nearby?”
Pointing, he said, “Keep going that way a few miles. Drive slow as there’s not much moon light tonight. It’s a ways, but you’ll get there.” Stepping back, he folded his arms and waited.
She didn’t know what to make of his abbreviated words, but it was as obvious as his scar he wasn’t the talkative sort. “Thank you.” Rolling up the window, Aislyn braced for more driving in the pitch-dark, praying Gavin greeted her with more enthusiasm.
****
Gavin barely had time to step out of the shower and dress while Aislyn stopped at Drake’s house, the first one she would come to, where his brother was waiting to give her directions to his place. He and his two brothers worked their spread together but valued their privacy and lived in separate homes. Yanking on jeans, he still couldn’t get over seeing her again, or the consuming rage that had spread through his body with the blistering heat of an out-of-control wildfire when his wolf followed the trespassing car and caught sight of who got out, alerting him to her nearness and distress.
Twenty-four months absence and his response to his mate was as potent as the first time he set eyes on her. Her frightened sobs had threatened to tear a hole in his gut, his wolf’s bloodlust as difficult to suppress as the need to go after whoever was responsible for her distress. His control over his animal half was minimal and rarely needed. It had never been tested before, until tonight. Going by the look on Aislyn’s face the last time he walked away from her, only a life-altering trauma would prompt her to come to him. Her devastated expression had haunted his sleep and plagued his days since leaving her, along with every memory of their time together.
Shrugging his arms into a shirt, he left it open as he padded barefoot down the hall, the flash of headlights in the front window signaling her arrival. The mad dash back to the house, shifting on the run, aided in tamping down his emotions. By the time he opened the front door and stepped out onto the covered porch, his rigid control was in place, but there was no help for his racing heartbeat as he leaned against a post, watching her get out of the same Fiat she’d owned before.
She hasn’t changed. Her hair was the same sandy hue as the pumas they were always hunting and curled with the same appeal toward her breasts. At five-foot-four, she was average height but she’d lost the pleasing roundness he had loved. He ached at that change and blamed himself. Crossing his arms, he fisted his hands to keep from reaching for her as she walked to the foot of the steps, paused and looked up at him, the porch lights casting shadows across her tear-ravaged face. Her nearness
