shielded by a spread of trees that followed the small ridge. Few came this way, a perfect place for Ellison to change to wolf and enjoy loping through woods and up and down the hills. The main roads were distant, and not many knew about this place, not even other Shifters.
Ellison drove the motorcycle out to this road now, not stopping until they were as far from civilization as they could get to in one afternoon. Under the cool shade of trees, he helped Maria off the bike, not letting go as she regained her feet.
Maria looked up at him, her hair tangled from the ride, her eyes still full of fire, stirred by anger and fear. She’d been through so much, this woman, and still she faced down the world, standing up for herself and the weaker, like Olaf.
She drew a breath to say something, but before she could, Ellison wound his arm around her, drew her up into him, and kissed her.
He tasted her agitation and outrage, and liked it. Maria’s lips, dusky red and warm, moved on his, her kiss more practiced and confident than the one earlier today. She kissed in anger, seeking him, needing release.
Ellison pulled her closer, fitting her body against his, every curve of her against every hard plane of him. She was warm from the ride, mouth hot, skin damp with sweat, her scent filled with spice and heat. He could drink her all day, here away from the world. Nothing else mattered but this moment, his heart pounding desire through every space of him. Out here, Maria was his.
Maria pushed at his chest, breaking them apart, though she didn’t step away. She was breathing hard, the spangled shirt that hugged her breasts rising with her breath, its little buttons beckoning his fingers. “Why would someone do that?” she asked, rage in her eyes. “Try to take the cubs like that?”
“Bradley?” Ellison could barely remember the guy’s name after that heated kiss. He barely remembered his own name. “For the money. And the power. But we’ll teach him, darlin’. Don’t you worry about that.”
Maria didn’t calm. “Why do people like him think they can walk into someone’s life and take them? Away from everything? Like they own the world and can do whatever they want? They steal a person’s whole life.” She balled her fists. “Why? And why do we let them?”
“Come here.” Ellison pulled her rigid body close again, knowing what she was really talking about. “You didn’t let what happened to you happen, sweetheart. They were feral Shifters. They wanted you—they took you.”
“You don’t know. You weren’t there. I did it to myself. I walked right into it, took my own life away from me. And now my family won’t forgive me, and I’m alone. With no one. Just me.”
“And me.” Ellison let his voice go low as he stroked both hands down her back. “And what are you talking about, you did it to yourself? It wasn’t your fault, honey.”
“Yes, it was. I was stupid. So stupid.”
Ellison smoothed her hair, letting the satin warmth of it fill something in him. “Well, once you tell me all about it, love, I’ll know too. And I’ll keep explaining that Shifters do whatever they want, and ferals don’t even bother to be polite about it. Don’t keep this inside yourself, Maria. What happened?”
“What I did made my own family turn against me. My brother didn’t want me around his little girls, didn’t want them influenced by me. That’s the main reason I came back here. I could take it if my brother hated me, but he was teaching his kids to be afraid of me.”
A red haze of anger rose in Ellison, wolf anger. “Marquez is right. You’re brother’s a bastard, and I’d like to explain it to him. Now, I want to hear your side of the story, so I can tell you again that it wasn’t your fault.”
When Maria looked up at him, the heartbreak and anguish in her eyes stabbed pain through Ellison’s heart. He understood the loneliness he saw in her—he too had been ripped away from everything he knew and loved when Shifters had been discovered and rounded up twenty years ago.
He’d watched his sister lose her mate to a freak infection, and he’d watched his own parents make a pact to die together rather than submit to the Collars. He and Deni had been left alone, bewildered, with Deni’s two little cubs to take care of.
“I