Esme POV
I stayed in my wolf form until daybreak. It kept me warm. I think I wandered near the border. It would be so easy to cross the line and run away into parts unknown there was so much out there for a girl to see. I would be branded a rogue the second I betrayed my Pack. I would live with the mark of a traitor for the rest of my life and there was the small matter of the mating run.
“Esme!” Knox’s indistinguishable voice called. “There you are.”
“Don’t come any closer. I’m covered in blood and cuts.”
He stepped over logs and rocks to get to me. His black leather boots crushed sticks as he closed the distance between us. He knelt down to my level and reached out to touch my face.
“Blood and mud sure but you don’t have a scratch on you. You’re still new to this being a wolf thing, huh?”
He peeled off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders.
“I know why you ran. I wish you hadn’t.”
Was he kidding? I was outnumbered. When Leo came out to the river he was more than willing to let
