eyes fix on the bite on my shoulder, and it’s all I can do not to cover it up with my hand and fidget guiltily. I know I can’t show any doubt or shame, despite how much I might be feeling it.
She sneers at me as she cocks a hip. “From the look of her, she’s something. If she can spread her thighs for pack, then she can learn some damn manners,” Presley growls out, and I work to shut down my wolf as she tries to rise and answer the challenge in Strawberry’s cold gaze.
“Then take it up with whoever claimed her,” a tall, rail-thin woman declares as she walks up. Her hair and eyes are the exact same shade of wet oak, and there’s a vicious scar displayed on her neck. I stare at it for a beat, unable to stop myself. It looks as though she’s had her throat ripped out and survived it.
I stave off a shudder as I take in the healed injury, and then I snap myself out of the rude perusal and look up at her eyes. The female’s brown gaze widens slightly as it lands on my surveying stare. Confusion once again trickles through me, wondering what it is that she’s seeing in my eyes that’s set her off. I look over at Vera, and although her gaze isn’t fixed on the ground, she’s sure as hell not looking right at me. If I were actually part of their pack, I would take the lack of eye contact as respect and submission, but I’m not, and this feels...off. Like they’re too uneasy to look me in the eye.
Presley, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any issue staring me down, although her annoyed glare is now fixed on the thin newcomer.
“She’s fresh meat, and the pack says whatever she screws up in the first month is the responsibility of whoever claimed her. Go whine to them,” the new female states as she meets Presley’s glare with one of her own.
“Who is your mate?” Vera asks me, her face kind, even though her eyes won’t meet mine.
A tic starts in my jaw as I battle the embarrassment and frustration that wants to climb up my neck and settle in my cheeks. Presley starts to laugh, the sound mean and callous. My eyes harden despite the humiliation falling like a stone in my stomach.
“Look at her, the bitch doesn’t even know who claimed her!” she taunts maliciously, eyes flicking away. “You know what that’s like, don’t you, Harlan?” she jibes, her spiteful gaze once again settling on the lean, brown-haired woman.
Harlan’s lips peel back as a snarl bleeds out of her, but a loud howl interrupts whatever it is she’s about to say, and I go rigid at the noise. All at once, the open space starts to fill with members of the Ruin Falls pack. I have no idea where they all flood in from, but suddenly, there are people and wolves alike all trickling in from the surrounding homes and bounding out from the bordering treeline.
At first, I think it’s the call of the dinner bell so to speak, but the bodies ignore the food roasting around the fires and start moving as a whole toward the large house bordering the lake. The females who caught me stealing are bickering, and I take the opportunity to try and disappear into the gathering crowd.
I’m acutely aware of my bare body as I weave through the pack. I feel eyes on me, drinking their fill, and I hate it. On the fringes of the gathering, I see other wolves shifting and joining in on whatever is going on, and although they’re sans clothes too, it doesn’t make me feel any better.
I still feel vulnerable, exposed.
The number of wolves around me grows denser, and panic claws through me, driving me to get out from the center. How long will it take for them to notice I’m not one of them? What will they do to a stranger in their midst?
I push my way to the outskirts, but I’m only able to make it to the side with the pack houses behind it. I lope with the crowd, looking between the cabins for any path that leads to freedom. Unfortunately, they all back up to a decent-sized mountain, so unless I’m going hiking naked again, there’s no getting away in that direction. I know my wolf could probably make quick work of that incline, her