was no way to explain how Chris was in a coma and no, they couldn’t transfer him to the Salem Hospital.
“Why you?” she asked again, turning the volume down on the TV.
Liam froze mid-reach. He sat back on the couch and gave her a sideways glance. It was then that she noticed just how little space there was between them, but for whatever reason he was extremely careful about touching her, except when she’d been asleep apparently.
“Why me what?”
“Are you really that stupid?” Zoe turned to study the man next to her, trying to see if he was fucking with her or if he really thought she was that dense.
Liam sighed and yanked the remote out of her grip. He turned on the subtitles and muted the sound before facing her. “I don’t think the answer to that question is something you’re ready to hear.”
Instantly she was furious. She jabbed a finger into his chest instead of outright slapping him. “I don’t think what I am and am not ready to hear is your call, asshole. How about you answer my questions before I call the police.”
Liam sighed again and looked outside, grimacing.
Zoe felt a little bad about causing that kind of reaction. Liam seemed like a genuinely nice person who was more happy than sad. He had been nothing but calm and understanding despite her bitchy attitude, and yet…
Was someone like this even real? Liam could be playing her with this nice guy attitude. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Instantly her guilt disappeared, and Zoe glared at him, waiting for an answer.
“Noah and I were the ones who found you in Silver Falls. We killed the wolves who’d attacked you.” Liam glanced at her once before running his hand through his hair. Zoe was surprised to see he was actually nervous. “They infiltrated our territory and started biting humans. It wasn’t just you and Chris either.”
A strange sort of silence settled over them as she processed what he was saying. If what she understood was right, there was going to be more of them coming soon – more like her.
“In a few hours this place will be overrun with humans who will survive the bite or won’t. Our Alpha, Kai, is going to have to do something about the wolves trespassing on our territory lands. Since this isn’t their first offense, it could cause a war between us and the Cascade pack.”
A war.
Zoe blinked and tried to get his words to make sense to her very human brain.
She was used to the worst humanity had to offer. The things she’d seen in the various different emergency rooms and such would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life, but this was something else.
This was war on her native soil. Zoe had never had to work the front lines overseas before, and there was something about that, that terrified her. What was even worse, was Liam didn’t seem all that shocked by any of this.
He spoke like someone who’d seen this kind of shit plenty, or worse. Zoe recognized trauma in the strange calmness of his voice, and even his heart if her senses could be trusted.
Why she was so aware of the beating of his heart, she wasn’t sure, but it was a nice rhythm without any irregularities. Zoe found that soothing – not that she would ever tell him that.
“How did you know where Chris and I were?” Zoe asked, tapping her fingers on her thigh as she absorbed everything he was saying. “Did you just happen to be in the area, or what?”
Liam actually blushed. She’d consider it cute if she wasn’t so fucking shocked. “No, we knew where you were.”
“How?” Zoe frowned as she tried to understand. She turned so she could get a better look at Liam. What was she missing?
He cleared his throat and glanced at her before looking away. “Lily is a witch, right? Well, she scried for Liam and me. We knew where you were and what was going to happen to you because you’re my mate.”
6
Zoe
On a purely intellectual level Zoe knew what a mate was. Penguins mated for life and that kind of thing, but she’d never thought she would hear a grown man say that about her. If her rational mind was right, Liam thought…
“I thought the whole wolves mating for life thing was a joke,” she muttered, rubbing her temples like that would somehow fix the headache she could feel brewing.
“Well, wolves do mate for life,” Liam