Page 59 of Wild

I’d get Rob to lock me up tonight, if he had to. Even though I desperately needed to talk to Marina, to explain why I’d left, I couldn’t risk getting near her. Tomorrow, I’d explain it all. Hell, grovel even.

I shifted when we got to the back door, then picked my clothing up from the mud. Jesus. It looked like a car had driven over them. I’d been so out of my mind when I ran down here, I hadn’t even noticed if anyone had seen me shift.

At least all the humans had gone.

Levi walked up from the direction of the bunk house, like he’d been up waiting.

“Hey, Colton.” He stood back, kept his hands in his pockets.

I ignored him, stalking into the house. If he wanted to stand there, he could check out my bare ass. “Not now.”

I didn’t have it in me to focus on anything but keeping my wolf under control until morning, when I could fix things with Marina.

“She’s not up there, man,” he called.

I froze, a violent tremor running through my body.

I spun on my wet heel on the wood floor.“What do you mean, she’s not up there?”

There could only be oneshehe was referring to. Marina. My mate.

“She drove away, man. Right after the rain stopped. Didn’t say anything, not that I was out here. I don’t know where she went.”

Audrey. She’d gone to Audrey’s. It made sense. She’d want to talk to her sister. I shook open my muddy jeans and tried to step into them, but Rob stopped me. “Go get some clean clothes on, Colton.” His voice was low and even. Like he was trying to calm me.

“There's no time!” I snarled.

He grabbed my arm. “If you can’t keep it together, I’m gonna fucking sit on you until morning. Clean up. Get your clothes on. Get your fucking head on straight.” There was alpha command in his words, which took my wolf craze down a notch.

I inhaled sharply through my nostrils and answered the only way a pack member can when his alpha pulls rank. “Yes, Alpha.”

I ran upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. Marina’s smell was everywhere, filling my nostrils, sending my wolf into a fucking tailspin. He was on a non-stop howl inside me, frantic to find her. The run had done nothing to soothe me.

I took a ten-second shower, only because Rob was right—I was covered in mud. I pulled on fresh clothes at the same time I ran down the stairs and grabbed the keys to my rental truck.

Please let her be at Audrey and Boyd’s. Please.

Rob was saying something to me as I left, but it didn’t register. All I could think about was getting to Marina.

I climbed in the truck and started it up, sliding in the mud when I gunned it too fast.

I needed to calm down, or I’d get the truck stuck. I eased off the accelerator until I was down the road, and then I gradually increased the speed.

The lights were off at Boyd’s. I didn’t give a shit. I climbed out and pounded my fist on his door.

I barely saw the anger on my brother’s usually easy-going face when he swung the door open, buck naked. “You’d better have a really good reason for showing up on my wedding night.”

Wedding night.

Fuck, I’d already forgotten.

But fuck if I’d apologize. “Where’s Marina?” I boomed.

My brain was too scrambled to reason through the situation. To realize that Marina wouldn’t have gone to stay with them on their wedding night. She wasn’t out of her mind, like me.

Boyd’s face clouded.

Audrey showed up behind him, dressed in a silky white robe. She wasn’t even wearing her glasses. “What’s going on?” Concern sharpened her sleepy voice.