I’ll catch you if you fall.

Cara remembered Darian’s promise when he stood under her on the mountain. His words warmed her and embarrassed her at the same time as she thought on them.

The way I’ve been behaving was all based on what I thought I knew. I don’t know anything.

They were on their way back down the mountain, the shifter Kate walking with them. Cara followed Darian glad to let him take the lead. It gave her the chance to think. For one thing, Cara realized she had to stop thinking of Darian and his pack as blood thirsty creatures.

It wasn’t just that Darian showed her patience far beyond what was offered by her father. The fact was, Cara was bitten and infected with the mutation. She was a shifter and not only did she still feel emotion and have complex thoughts, she had her eyes opened as though even her mind was trapped in shadow before she’d left Aldrich town.

“I have a question,” she said after accepting that she had a lot to learn.

“A question for me?” Darian asked not looking back in her direction.

Cara licked her lips realizing too late that she was going to come off sounding stupid with her basic questions. She glanced back at Kate and hoped the woman wouldn’t think less of her.

When she looked forward again she ran right into Darian, who’d stopped walking and turned back when she didn’t ask her question. His arms came around her immediately, steadying her with ease.

The warmth of Darian’s arms around her, was comforting.

Is this what it’s supposed to feel like to have family?

Looking up at him she tried to read in his expression if he felt anything unusual. His expression didn’t tell her anything at all.

“You had a question?” He removed his arms from around her.

“Yes. I know it’s going to be the first of many to come. I’m realizing there is a lot that I don’t know.”

Darian’s golden eyes widened as he looked at her.

I’ve already said something wrong?

“Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say the wrong thing?”

“No,” Darian answered. His eyes remained widened though as he turned and started walking again. Cara walked along-side him so she could see he still wore the surprised expression. “Ask your question.”

Cara realized she was staring at him and averted her gaze from his masculine profile. “When I turn or shift, is it going to hurt?”

“Yes.”

She exhaled, figuring it would but hoped she was wrong. “Will I have control over when I shift or how much I shift?”

“The first time will not be your choice. After that, you will learn to control when you shift.”

“Will I be violent when I’m a wolf?”

“When you were bitten, and the mutation was added into your blood stream it didn’t only change your abilities,” Kate said. She patted Cara gently on the back.

More physical contact. Good but not the same feeling as the one I feel from Darian. I wonder why?

“Life is a gift, Cara. There are many souls waiting for the right to a body. The mutation gene opens your body up to accept an additional host.”

“What?” Cara stopped walking. “You’re saying another spirit will occupy my body? That isn’t logical. I don’t know if I believe in the existence of spirits at all.”

Kate nodded. “I felt very similar when Valor tried to explain this to me.”

“Will this spirit argue with me and take over my body?”

“It will be the spirit of your wolf. She will be a companion and friend. Her love for you will grow like your love for her.”

Cara blew out a long breath. “I don’t understand how I’ll grow to love a wolf that wants to kill.”

Darian half smiled. “Your spirit wolf is already with you, Cara. You haven’t gone on a murdering rampage yet.”

“I would notice if a wolf soul was in my body.”

“She’s there,” Kate agreed with Darian. “If she wasn’t, Darian’s position as Alpha would mean nothing to you. His commands would leave you unaffected.”

Cara frowned. “How will I know what feelings are mine and which are hers?”

“The pull and tug,” Kate smiled. “When you feel have an urge to do something you know isn’t from you, you’ll know it’s her. She’ll emerge to protect you and the people you love. Your strong emotions are hers, and some of hers will become yours.”

“Is my wolf in need of a lot of human contact?”

Kate shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean?”

“Darian said he wanted to help me grow accustomed to his touch when I first arrived here. Is that for my wolf?”

Kate smiled a toothy grin as she looked at Darian. “I imagine that has more to do with you being his destined mate.” She laughed and sprinted away.

Darian’s ears were red and so was the back of his neck.

“Destined mate?”

****

Darian could feel Cara’s eyes on him and knew that he had to try and explain it to her. She might be willing to stay and help kill Aldrich but that didn’t have anything to do with caring about him or the Rizer pack.

When she started asking questions with an open mind, Darian thought he was dreaming. Never once did he meet a human, turning shifter or not, who was willing to admit they were clueless about the realities of life.

Her admission made him take a look at himself. Darian was humbled as he realized she was stronger in character than himself. She was angry with herself for not helping a woman in need, and she recognized openly that her knowledge was lacking. Darian didn’t think once of the hunters he killed as victims. He saw them as extensions of Aldrich.

Cara accused him of stealing the sun from the people of Aldrich town. How could he not have considered citizens of the town as victims when he knew so well how manipulative Aldrich could be?

“You said before that you didn’t want to feel all those different things you were feeling. Was that because of the destined mate thing?” Cara asked.

I wish I had not said those things to you.

“Yes.” Darian stopped walking and faced Cara. “I meant what I said when I told you that I will never force you to do anything you don’t want to do. I also meant it when I told you that you’re free and that I won’t force you to stay.”

Cara nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Do you want me to explain what Destined Mates, means?”

“No. I believe I understand.” She started walking again.

She did not look afraid, happy, sad, it was as if he’d told her something as insignificant as his shoe size, and considering he didn’t wear shoes, it was an extremely insignificant piece of information. Out of everything Cara learned over the past five hours, shouldn’t learning that she was destined to be married to Darian rank high on the scale of priority questions?

Maybe she didn’t think she could care for him and since he’d promised not to force her into anything she wasn’t worried. Or perhaps, she felt something too?

Ridiculous. She would have said something if she was beginning to care for me.

Cara asked questions about training to fight so that she could be useful against Aldrich. Darian told her he would make sure she was trained even though he had no intension of allowing Cara anywhere near Aldrich.

Every time Darian saw the bruise on her face when he looked at her it made him want to find a way inside the wall to find Cara’s father. The way she’d defended his abuse as a symptom of being enclosed in the town meant it was not a random incident. It was an ongoing practice of his and it was why Cara didn’t understand what real love was.

If she did understand what it was, she didn’t know how to accept it.

“I will train very hard. You won’t have to protect me,” Cara was saying.

“I believe you will. This won’t change the fact that I will protect you.”

Cara sped up her pace so that she was walking beside him. Her blue eyes were wide. “Darian, I know you had to step in with Rafi but that was because I haven’t shifted yet. Once I have a sharp pair of teeth too it’ll be a fair fight.”

Darian smiled. He couldn’t help but admire her warrior spirit shining through. “I can imagine. Rafi will be sorry he ever tried to stand in your path.”

“He is already, isn’t he? It wasn’t any small lesson you taught him.”

Darian only nodded. If she knew how strong his protective instinct was in those moments when he discovered Rafi growling at her she would consider him a violent man and Darian didn’t want her to look at him and see any similarities to her father or Aldrich.

When they returned home, the pack welcomed her as they should have in the beginning. She’d won them over with her bravery and of course that insane leap she’d taken.

Determined to take things slow with Cara, Darian resisted the urges he had to touch her hand, or feel the texture of her short hair. He sat stoic at her side through dinner. When her leg brushed against his and his mind turned to showing her just how good it could feel to allow him to touch her, he kept it to himself.

After dinner most of the pack was in need of a run. Darian needed the exercise more than the rest of the pack. He knew that when he returned Cara would be sharing his room. It would be a long night of smelling her sweet scent and looking at a beautiful woman, who’d taught him more about himself in a few short hours than he’d learned in a lifetime before her.

“I will stay with her,” Ian offered before Darian could ask. “We can all feel the energy you’re putting out there, if you don’t go run some of it off, all the mated members of the pack will be reproducing like its mating season.”

“Thanks, Ian,” Darian smiled. “Protect her.”

“I will.” Ian, his ice blue eyes solemn.

Darian slapped Ian’s wide back muscular back and returned to Cara’s side. Kate was telling Cara where to find the spare clothes kept for new members of the pack and as replacements. Darian waited until Kate finished before he spoke. “Ian is going to stay with you.”

“Where are you going? Are you going after Aldrich?”

“No, not unless he dares to leave the protection of the wall. We will be running the perimeters to make sure there are no hunters looking to attack.”

Cara nodded, lowering her gaze.

“I will give them every chance to run away,” Darian promised ignoring the way the pack looked at him. He would explain to them what Cara taught him and knew they would understand.

“You will?” Her smile and the light in her blue eyes made him ache with the need to kiss her. Darian inclined his head, too afraid of what he might say if he spoke at the moment.

No doubt something ridiculous would spill out of his mouth in an attempt to win Cara’s heart. There was nothing he could say that would change the fact that he stalked her and bit her.

Darian knew he had no right to even hope she would grow to love him as he was for her.

“Does your spirit wolf still want to kill me?”

“No,” Darian said the pang of guilt he felt growing.

“May I watch you shift? I’d like to thank your spirit wolf for protecting me.” She glanced around at the pack who listened intently to every word she was saying. “Unless, that’s not a good idea?”

Darian nodded as he searched for his voice. “It is a great idea. My wolf will never hurt you. You don’t have to be afraid of him.”

“Because he’s part of you?”

Darian swallowed hard as he nodded once again. His wolf pushing to be set loose. His instincts so basic that all he wanted to do was claim her as his mate. Darian mastered his wolf spirit and knew he would be in control. It was important that Cara trust his spirit wolf, if she didn’t her spirit wolf wouldn’t either.

The pack began to shift from their human forms into those of their wolf spirits. They understood what he was feeling, toward Cara and left to give them this moment alone.

All except for Ian as he’d promised to protect Cara.

Darian took several steps back. Before he allowed his wolf to push forward and shift his body into that of the wolf. He watched Cara as he changed, seeing himself through her eyes.

She pressed her hands over her mouth as his bones shifted and the cracking and stretching of his flesh began but as the white wolf emerged she lowered her hands from her mouth. Her blue eyes ran over Darian in a kind of awe that he knew he didn’t deserve.

He planned to roll onto his back to show her he wouldn’t hurt her but Cara fearless as ever approached him while he stood at his full height. Darian was no small wolf.

“Thank you for protecting me,” she said and stretched her hand out and tentatively stroked his head.

Her touch inflamed his wolf’s need to claim her but Darian held him back. Darian waited for Cara to remove her hand and back away. She didn’t.

“You’re so soft and beautiful,” she said running her hand down his back. Darian’s wolf shoved forward nuzzling Cara’s hand without Darian’s permission.

Darian pulled him back but Cara was smiling. Both her hands were on him. Her fingers rubbed his ear and it felt so good Darian became afraid he might lose control over his spirit wolf.

Her hands roamed over his chest and down his stomach as Darian’s spirit wolf nuzzled against her shamelessly.

“You should probably let him go and run,” Ian told Cara. His voice sounding much more like a plea than a suggestion. Ian wasn’t mated yet and the sexual need Darian was feeding out to the pack through the energy he emitted, had to be painful.

Cara removed her hands and it took everything Darian had not to growl at Ian and command him to leave. He had to think about Cara, not his own physical needs.

Run, Darian commanded his wolf.