Page 9 of Plus-Size Sold Mate
And just as the woman looks at me like she’s seconds from passing out, I kneel down and carefully scoop her up, pressing her against my chest.
Her body locks up at first like she wants to protest, but she’s drained beyond belief, and only manages to slump against me further.
With the clearing silent now, save the whirring of bugs nearby, I carry her back, all while doing my best to keep my heart rate steady.
Up close, her condition seems so much worse, and beneath the smell of wolf and exhaustion, there’s something I can’t place.
Whatever she is, or whatever caused her to flee from Wraith Peak in the first place, it doesn’t matter. She isn’t going back.
With slow, shallow breaths, her cheek presses against my skin involuntarily, and the sight of her weakness only deepens the guilt of what I’ve done.
As I walk, and as she barely holds on to her awareness, my voice leaves me just above a whisper.
“I’m sorry.”
Chapter 3 - Sera
Luck has never been my friend, and it seems that still hasn’t changed.
When he appeared, I thought for at least a fleeting moment that everything might just start to turn itself around. The immediate relief I felt when he stopped those shifters from taking me was stupid and reckless.
Relief implies at least some level of safety, and as much as I’ve been chasing after that feeling since before I can even remember, I know that isn’t what this is.
He had stepped into the clearing with such controlled, deliberate steps, like he wasn’t wasting even a single movement. Regardless of my weakened state, I registered as the three wolves stiffened in his presence.
Even I could sense the raw energy surrounding him the moment he appeared.
An Alpha. Not Dawson, and not the old Alpha I once had, who likely couldn’t care less when I left.
For a moment, I even thought he was going to tear the three of them apart for even setting foot in his territory. I expected him to assert his dominance and maybe send them bleeding back to Dawson if they managed to get away in time.
Instead, he negotiated with them. He put a price on my head, as if I were a parcel changing hands rather than a person.
Their exchanged words still linger in my mind even as the trees blur above me, while the sky lightens just enough to signify that the early morning is just now setting in. It’s been a long night, but even in my daze, I feel his skin against mine.
His arms are steady beneath me, carrying me like I weigh nothing at all. Like I’m not any bigger than the average woman. He’s so warm and solid that part of me instinctively wants to curl closer, and to soak it all in. Despite being a stranger, he smells like pine, the cold breeze, and something far too comforting.
Noticing feels like the first offense, and the way my body eases against him while my mind screams not to is the second.
I know I should push away and fight. I should be screaming at him for buying me like livestock, but I feel so empty.
Rather than sitting just beneath the surface, my magic feels more like it’s dormant. It’s hiding in its brittle condition after what I demanded from it, and if I try to pull from it now, it won’t be subtle or controlled. I know it will be unstable, and if Coldreach is like the other regions on this island, they won’t be so accepting of it, or of me.
So I swallow the fury and humiliation down and allow myself to be carried. My body hurts too much to protest.
I don’t know how long he walks for, but when I open my eyes again, I catch a big, hazy structure up ahead. As we draw closer, my vision focuses, and I make out the shape of a wrap-around porch and several floors.
Half expecting him to keep going, I tense just enough to be noticeable as he brings me to it.
“You’re safe,” he says quietly, surely not realizing just how grating that word is.
He paid for me…in what world does that make me safe?
I don’t say anything as his steps pad softly against the front steps, seeing Hayes in my mind whenever he studied melike an object, or when Naia batted me around like something to amuse her. I hear Quinn’s voice accepting the deal.
They all assume ownership is the same as protection, and they all think control is kindness when they say it nicely enough.
Inside, the house is warm and immediately works hard to pull the chill from my limbs. It smells clean and fresh, like the windows spend more time open than closed during the day. It’s calm…normal, even.
