Wolf Bite (The Blue Mountain Wolf Pack #5) - Emma Dean Page 0,49

she was going to run away.

“I’m not as stupid as I sound,” he teased, slipping a hand inside her sweater.

Her sharp inhale made him press against her, not even bothering to hide how turned on he was just from drowning in her scent.

“I never thought you were stupid.” Zoe shook her head and turned around so she could look up at him. “Not even when I first met you. Annoying? Yes, but not stupid.”

He grinned and tugged on her hair. “You’d be one of the first.”

Silver flashed in her eyes. “Do you have to do patrol?”

That she bothered to ask made Liam hug her tight, wishing that she’d stay with them. Having someone like her on his side would be life changing. He had Noah and Alexander, but Zoe was dominant and aggressive.

She had no ties to Shane or Kai, and he knew she’d go to bat for them every time. Something about that appealed to him. Liam didn’t mind his place in the pack, but occasionally he felt like he still couldn’t speak his mind.

“I don’t have patrol,” he said, releasing her and taking a step back. “We talked about our options with Cascade, and we’ll have another pack meeting tomorrow before we decide. There is going to be another wave of new wolves in the next forty-eight hours which will complicate things, but we can’t keep reacting defensively. We need to attack if we want to protect what’s ours.”

Zoe had proved that earlier, even if she hadn’t realized it.

She smiled slightly and then it slowly faded before she sighed and looked away. “I’ve been avoiding dealing with all my human shit.”

“I know.” He took her hand. “Would you like to take a walk, or go back in the house where it’s warmer?”

She glanced over her shoulder at the forest again. “I want to practice using my new senses, but I don’t want them all to see me.”

Liam squeezed her hand – grateful she’d trust him with this small insecurity. “If you know what you want to do, you should reach out to your human contacts. It’ll keep things from escalating more than they have. If you don’t, then we can take a run through the forest and see just how fast you’ve gotten.”

Her eyes slid to his and for some reason Liam felt his heart start beating erratically. “Can I ask you something?”

Suddenly his palms were sweaty. “Sure.”

Zoe took a step closer, and his eyes widened when she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I don’t know these people like you do. Whether I stay here or not…it would have nothing to do with you.”

Liam wanted to close his eyes against the pain he felt slithering through his veins, pumped by his breaking heart. “Considering the way you reacted to Kai, that doesn’t surprise me.”

“If I chose to go somewhere else, would you come with me?”

His eyes widened and Liam opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to accept the mate bond,” she admitted. Zoe didn’t look away from him, but she couldn’t hold his gaze either. Liam held her tighter when she leaned into him, pressing her face into his chest. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

So was he, but not for the same reasons. Liam held onto her, terrified that if he let go, she’d disappear. “Of what?”

Zoe was quiet for a long time, but she didn’t try to get away from him. Instead, she held on tighter, like she was afraid he’d disappear too.

“Of losing my freedom and independence,” she admitted, rubbing her nose against his sweater. “I’m afraid that you’ll start to hate me because of my bitchy personality and regret your choice one day. I’m afraid to get attached to you. What if you leave me?”

“That would never happen.” Liam almost cut her off he said it so fast, but he didn’t want her to think any of that for even a second.

Gently he lifted her chin so he could study her eyes, and he was surprised to see them glowing silver.

“How can you be so sure?” she whispered, studying him just as intently as he studied her.

“It would kill me to leave you,” Liam admitted. “Why are you so convinced I would?”

Zoe took his hand from her chin and sighed before kissing his palm. “When I was ten, my mother left my father, me and my sister who was four at the time. Everyday up until the day she never came home from work, she laughed and