PIPER DIDN’T KNOW HOW many days had passed since she’d run from her home town in the middle of the night. Since then, she’d done everything within her power to put as many miles as possible between her and that place. Despite being aware of the dangers, she’d hitchhiked, run, walked, dragged herself along when exhaustion had gotten too much for her. She’d used what little money she had to catch a bus as far as she could afford to go, but after that she’d been reliant on her own feet and the pity of strangers. She had no plans for where she’d end up, only that she wanted to get as far away as possible.

She gazed up at the man cradling her in his big, muscular arms. From the angle she was at, she got a perfect view of his strong jaw. He glanced down at her in concern, and she noted the green of his eyes. They were a beautiful shape, too, still wolfish even in a human face. His mouth was generous, his nose straight.

Her rescuer marched forward, not breaking his stride, as though she barely weighed anything at all. She wondered momentarily if she should be frightened. She didn't know this man and, from the size of him, he could crush her in an instant. He could take her, break her, use her any way he wished. They were out here, in the middle of nowhere, and yet she’d allowed him to scoop her up and carry her away as though she’d known him her whole life.

“Where are we going?” she asked. Her voice sounded small, faint, and she didn’t like it.

“Home,” he replied, not even breaking his pace.

“Where’s home?”

“Not far.”

So he was taking her to his house? Again, the thought that perhaps she should be concerned went through her, but she felt safe in his arms. Able to relax for the first time in as long as she could remember. It felt good to give herself over to someone else for a while, and the warmth of his body seeped through the material of her clothes, warding away the chill of the forest floor.

Piper had reached rock bottom when he’d found her. If he hadn’t, she doubted she’d have survived the night. Temperatures dropped below freezing after the sun went down, and while she’d managed to find places to hole up against the cold weather on previous nights, she’d never have had the strength to find anywhere for the night currently encroaching. As much as she’d been determined to run, the lure of the relief of just giving in pulled on her also. She was so tired—tired of everything—and while she wanted to fight for her future, she also wanted to sleep and never wake up.

A wave of fresh exhaustion flooded over her at the steady stride of the man carrying her, his rocking gait, the warmth of his body. She struggled to keep her eyes open, the weight of her lids dragging shut. It was crazy to fall asleep in the arms of a man whose name she didn’t even know yet. He could be a murderer and rapist, for all she knew. But, in her mind, she’d left the danger behind her. Nothing could be as bad as what she’d been trying to escape.

Her eyelids fluttered open again at change in his motion. They’d reached the edge of the forest. Through the tree trunks, the gray of a road lay beyond. The sight made her heart stutter. Roads meant civilization, and civilization meant cameras, and phones, and computers. All things that could be used to track her. At least in the forest, she’d felt comparatively safe, but the forest was likely to kill her, so she had no choice but to accept help.

“I’m going to have to put you down,” the man said. “I need my clothes.”

She nodded, and he lowered her feet to the ground.

Concern glimmered in his green eyes. “Can you stand?”

“I think so.” Just the small rest she’d had between here and where he’d found her had rejuvenated her energy. That, together with his body heat having warmed her, already made her feel better. She was a shifter and healed quickly.

He stepped away from her, and she couldn’t stop her gaze from darting over to him as he strode away. His back muscles flexed as he moved, his ass a perfect, tight peach. Jesus, he was a beautiful man.

He stooped to retrieve a pile of clothing he must have left before shifting, and set about pulling on jeans and a t-shirt, shoving his feet into boots. She noted how he hadn’t put on any underwear and tried not to think too hard about how the thought made her pulse quicken. It almost seemed a shame for him to get dressed, though she had to admit it was easier to think without all that bare skin on display. Not that she’d been in much of a state to think about anything when he’d found her.

He gestured to the machine propped up beneath a tree. “That’s my bike.”

“Bike?”

“Yeah. It’s how I get around. Well, that and by wolf, of course.”

“Of course.” She’d never been on a motorcycle before. Nerves tumbled around her stomach. She must have lost her mind, but she needed help, and this man was offering it to her. She wasn’t too proud to turn it down. One night of rest, and maybe even a good meal, if she was lucky, and she’d be on her way again.

The man swung his leg over the seat, getting himself into position, and then roared the bike to life.

She hesitated. “I don’t even know your name.”

He twisted to look over his shoulder at her, his fingers still gripping the handlebars. “It’s Carter.” He jerked his head. “C’mon. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“I bet that’s what all the crazies say,” she replied, but in her head she knew that wasn’t true. The people who’d hurt her the most had told her exactly what they planned on doing with her. Even so, she found her feet moving forward, and, before she could talk herself out of it, she’d climbed onto the back, behind the man she now knew was called Carter.

“You’re gonna have to hold on,” he told her, shouting above the roar of the bike. “Don’t worry. I don’t bite.”

She wasn’t so sure about that, but it wasn’t as though she had a whole heap of options.

Piper wrapped her arms around his waist, the hard muscle of his abs beneath his t-shirt pressing against her palms. Even though he’d been carrying her while he was completely naked only minutes before, somehow this felt more intimate. She edged her bottom away on the seat, not wanting to press up against him, knowing he might detect her secret. He might have realized it already, despite her baggy clothes—after all, he’d been carrying her this whole way—but, if he had, he hadn’t mentioned it yet.

Before she’d even caught her breath, the bike was moving. She tightened her hold on Carter, hunching into him the best she could. Her heart thumped, and she clung to him as he navigated the rough terrain out onto the road. The reverberations of the bike pulsed through her thighs and core, and she prayed it wouldn’t have any negative effects.

The bike took them down a narrow road with the forest on both sides, and no sidewalk. Within fifteen minutes, the road had widened, and a couple of other vehicles passed them in the opposite direction. They passed a homestead, and then another. On the side of the road was a signpost.

Welcome to Silver Creek: Population 98.

They were heading into a small town. They drove through Main Street, which contained a grocery store, a barber, and a coffee shop. She wondered how they stayed afloat with such a tiny population, but it looked as though they got by.

Carter turned off Main Street and navigated a couple of blocks. The plots of land were large, with maintained yards, and tidy, whitewashed houses.

When he’d reached what seemed to be the outskirts of town, he pulled over and killed the engine. “We’re here.”

He climbed off the bike and put out a hand to help her off. She took it, his fingers warm and firm. “Thanks.”

She took in the sight of the house they approached, and her jaw dropped. Unlike the more modest houses they’d passed on their way, this place was a mansion. A pillared walkway surrounded the house. Tall windows graced the frontage—she counted ten windows on this side of the house alone. Topiary shrubs took position in huge pots either side of the grand front door. This town was small, but this house dwarfed everything else.

It was clear this was the alpha’s home, which she assumed meant the man beside her now was also the alpha.

From the way he moved, she got the impression he didn’t want anyone else to see her. He ushered her forward, using his body to block her from the rest of the road. He was twice her size, so it was easy enough for him to do. Perhaps she should care more—that maybe he planned on doing something with her he didn’t want others to know about—but staying hidden worked for Piper. She didn’t want anyone to know she was here either.

Carter leaned past her to unlock the door, and then pushed it open. She stepped inside first, glancing around with curiosity. He moved in behind her, pushing the door shut, closing off the outside world. Though she was inside a house with a strange man, Piper allowed herself to breathe. Though he was big and assertive, he didn’t seem intimidating or threatening. She imagined he could be, if he wanted, but so far he’d been nothing but kind to her.

“Come through, into the kitchen,” he said, already walking away. “I’ll make you something warm to drink, and food as well. You hungry? You look hungry.”

She nodded, following him. “Starving.”

“Great, I’ll make you something.” He gave his head a slight shake, as though mentally correcting himself. “I mean, great, because I like to cook. Not great because you’re starving.”

She gave an unsure smile. “Okay.”

“And I can find you some clothes to change into,” he said. “What you’re wearing is covered in mud.”

A spurt of adrenaline fired through her. Clothes? Women’s clothes? Did that mean a woman lived here? She hadn’t given any thought to the possibility this man might be mated already and have wolf pups of his own. She didn’t know why she had assumed he was single the moment she saw him. Perhaps it was instinct, or maybe it was wishful thinking. No, she couldn’t think like that. It was the very last thing she needed. She’d only just escaped one man; she didn’t intend on replacing him with another. Besides, considering her current situation, such a thing was impossible.

Even so, she found she couldn’t stop herself from asking. “Your mate’s clothes?”

He stared at her in confused disbelief. “Mate?” Then what she was thinking must have dawned on him as he gave a laugh. “No. No mate. This has been my family’s home for generations. I still have some of my mother’s clothes bundled away somewhere.” He glanced her up and down. “They’ll be far too large for you, but at least they’ll be dry and clean.”

Piper didn’t mind. Large was good. She needed them to be large, and all the running she done over the past few days with no change of clothing left her feeling horrible. If she lifted her arms, she was sure she could smell her own body odor.

“Sit.” He nodded at the round wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. “It won’t be a minute.”

She did as he’d instructed, slipping into one of the chairs.

Carter set about warming something up on the stove, and within minutes the scent of carrots, onions, and bay leaves filled the air.

“It’s just leftover stew,” he said over his shoulder, making it sound like an apology.

Her stomach gurgled with hunger. “Smells incredible.”

He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

When it was warmed through, he set some in a bowl and placed it in front of her at the table. He laid a spoon down beside it.

“Thank you.” She picked up the spoon and scooped up some of the beef, vegetables, and gravy and brought it to her mouth. It tasted as good as it smelled, and she was so hungry, she couldn’t even bring herself to be embarrassed about wolfing down mouthful after mouthful, while Carter stood and watched her with a kind of amused pleasure.

“I’ll run you a bath,” he said when she’d finished.

Her cheeks heated. He must have been able to smell her. With his shifter sense of smell, there was no way he wouldn't. How mortifying. A part of her wanted to curl up and give in, just sleep forever and forget any of this was happening to her, but she couldn’t. Anyway, she’d already done the hard part. Now she needed to look forward and figure out what the hell she was going to do with the rest of her life. That was, of course, assuming he didn’t catch up with her.

Carter continued, unaware of her thoughts. “And you can stay in the guest suite until you’re feeling yourself again.”

“You don’t need to do this, you know?” she said, looking up at him.

“Do what?”

“Help me.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Anyway, I’m not doing this purely for you.” He gave her a wink. “Maybe I like having someone else in the house again. It’s too big for one person to be knocking around.”

“What do you do to be able to afford a place like this?” She’d meant to think it, rather than say it, and her cheeks burned when she realized she’d asked the question out loud. It wasn’t any of her business. She flapped her hand. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that.”

But he laughed, a smile spreading across his handsome face. “Can’t say I can take much credit. The house has been in my family for generations now, and I invest what money I inherited after my parents died. It wasn’t a huge amount, but I guess I have an eye for what’s going to do well on the stock market.” He paused and then asked, “How about you?”

His question flustered her. “Oh, me? Nothing, really. I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.”

She couldn’t tell him the truth. A sickening darkness twisted her gut at the thought. None of it had been her fault, but she knew how it made her look—pathetic, weak, stupid. She was ashamed she’d been so easily pushed into something she hadn’t wanted, ashamed her parents had seen her as more of a commodity than a daughter whose happiness they cherished. If her own parents hadn’t been able to love her, then how could she expect anyone else to?