That had been so easy, Mary couldn’t believe it. That was it? He apologized, and she was supposed to get over it that quickly?
The twins did have a point. She did miss him. Against every bit of common sense she had, she missed him.
But was love enough? That was how she felt; she was sure she loved him. But so what if he made her heart flutter every time she saw him? So what if she’d never felt so loved in her entire life? So what if she felt secure whenever he was around? Was that feeling enough?
She wasn’t a shifter. She had no idea how their mating rituals worked. What she did know was that she missed him.
That was a start, but she couldn’t bring herself to apologize yet. She hadn’t really done anything wrong. She was protecting the girls, and that had to count for something.
Who knew what his “I’m sorry” meant. Maybe he was just trying to get the girls to shut up and feel better. That was possible. But it was also possible that he really was sorry, that he didn’t want to fight with her anymore and knew where she was coming from. Maybe he understood her.
“Can we get out of here now?” Melody asked.
“I think we should go,” Connor agreed.
Something was wrong. Something had changed in the last few seconds. He was on edge, driven by his lion. His posture was rigid, and his hands were clenching at his sides.
Mary drew Hilary close to her. “Come on, girls, let’s go. We can talk to Connor again in the morning.”
A howl pierced the air. Melody jumped, and Hilary stood closer to Mary. Connor turned quickly and studied their surroundings.
“I think there are wolves out here,” he said. “You three head for your car now.”
The bush closest to her rustled. Mary told herself that it was just the breeze, but she dragged Hilary in the direction of the car.
“I think I know who that is,” Hilary said. Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, and her eyes were wide with fear.
“It’s the kid from the mall?” Connor asked with a growl.
“Yes,” Melody said. “But I don’t know how they found us. We haven’t talked to them at all tonight. Nobody knew we were going to come out here.”
“These two guys were being real jerks to us the last time we went to the mall. When Connor dropped us off,” Hilary said.
“Connor told us they weren’t good dudes and that we should stay away from them,” Melody said. “We should have listened. He was right. But they weren’t happy when we told them we weren’t going to hang out as much anymore.”
“When were you going to tell me any of this?” Mary asked.
“This isn’t really the time for that discussion,” Melody said. “We should get to the car and talk about it when we get home.”
“She’s right,” Connor said. “Get to the car now.”
The fear in his voice made Mary freeze up. “We should go together.”
Connor nodded. “You three in front, and I’ll follow close behind you.”
“I’m sorry too,” she said abruptly. “For whatever I did. We can discuss it later, but just in case, I’m sorry too.”
She couldn’t say any more to him in front of the girls, so she hoped he could see in her eyes how sorry she really was. He would never do anything to hurt her or the girls.
They’d figure things out together. She shouldn’t have shut him out. The thought of losing him in a final way made her acutely aware of how small a hurdle was in front of them.
To her right, there was a growl, then a chorus of howls filled the air. A wolf leapt from the bushes and ran at them.
“Run!” Suddenly, Connor transformed into an enormous lion. The beast grabbed the wolf as it lunged at them.
Melody screamed and grabbed Hilary.
“We have to move!” Mary tore her eyes from the sight of her love being attacked. She had to keep moving. If they stopped now, they were all done. The lion was stronger than a wolf; there was no way he’d be bested.
“We can transform too.” Melody crouched low.
“No,” Mary said, pulling her up. “He can handle this himself. He’s much stronger than you. We’d only get in the way.”
She was dragging them as she talked. She had to get them to the car. Connor was fighting to keep them safe. If anything happened to them, it would hurt his position.
She had to get to the car so he could do what needed to be done.