The wolf caught me in less than three seconds, but he didn't tackle me or anything. He simply ran beside me.

It was so dark that I had a hard time staying on the road. But the sides of the road were sort of raised, so as long as I stuck to one of the raised edges, I knew I could make it.

I didn't stop. It was dark, so I could barely see a thing. My lungs burned, sweat poured off me, and I panted like I was the wild animal instead of him as we ran.

The wolf was nearly silent, remaining steadily beside me even as my jogging slowed to walking. My legs shook like Jell-O as I wheezed, trying hard to keep going.

When I couldn't go any further, I plopped my hands onto my knees and bent over, sucking in deep lungfuls of air. I was only wearing a sandwich shop t-shirt and a pair of high-waisted cotton shorts with my Converse, so I wasn't exactly dressed for exercise.

"Damn...you...wolf..." I wheezed.

He licked the back of my knee.

I let out a truly hideous screech, kicking and flailing at him. He easily sidestepped my half-hearted attempts to wound him, so I turned to threats instead. "Don't lick me if you want to survive.”

I paused, gulping down air.

When I could breathe, I added, "I am not one of those people who touches every dog they see. Your germs are not welcome on this body." I gestured to all of me.

He gave a pathetic whine.

"I don't care what you think I am to you, werewolf. I know you were Veggie Guy, and I am not amused by any of this. I'm going home." I wiggled my finger at him like a crazy person. "So just sit there while I catch my breath, or go back to wherever the hell you and the rest of your not-football team came from."

The wolf snorted, but he sat.

I bent back over, hands on my knees once again. I was still traveling alongside the dirt road, and though it felt like I’d been running forever, I would’ve walked for an entire week if it meant getting away from the werewolves and back to my dorm.

But it wasn’t going to take an entire week. The paved road couldn't have been much further.

"Alright, Tea. You've got this. Just a little further, and you're home free," I lied to myself as I started jogging down the road again. The wolf made a weird sound, and I glanced at him. "What are you laughing at?"

He didn't answer.

Because he was a wolf.

Although, cartoon-style talking animals wouldn't be that crazy compared to what I'd just discovered existed.

"You are truly infuriating," I told him, shaking my head as I kept running. "I'm not going to be what you want. Your mate or whatever. That's not me. I've got dreams, goals, and plans. I'm not going to be the housewife who sits at home and pops out a baby every year. I have school, and I have stuff to do, and things to accomplish. So just walk away. Go home." My voice raised as my rant continued.

The wolf ignored my lecture, his gaze on the forest in front of me.

I huffed but kept running. It wasn't like I had another option. The kidnappers and their van were way behind me, and probably heading in the opposite direction. After all, I was going back to my college town, and they'd been driving down the dirt road toward wherever they'd planned to take me.

Though it was suspicious that they hadn’t come after me.

Were they just going to leave me with the wolf?

According to them, he was hunting me. And that was terrifying.

But shouldn't hunting be more violent than just running with me and refusing to leave?

I didn't know. And without the rest of the kidnappers, I had no one to ask.

Glancing at the wolf, it occurred to me that he hadn't had anything to do with the abduction. I mean, he'd been there, but he wasn't one of the guys who grabbed me. Jesse had started going wolf after meeting me, and the other guys grabbed us both.

He had been with them, though. So he wasn't innocent, and I couldn't trust him.

Especially while he was furry.

A furry werewolf.

Dammit, that was a lot to wrap my head around.

I wheezed at him as we jogged (well, as I jogged and he trotted), "You should choose someone else to be your mate. You and your kidnapper buddies are not my kind of guy, and I'm far from the easy, party-loving, sorority girl that guys like you are into."

My honey-blonde ponytail swayed behind me, reminding me why people sometimes assumed I was something other than the book-smart nerd I was.

The wolf ignored me again.

Tired of being ignored, I shut my mouth and just kept on running. I was slow, but still moving.

It felt like an eternity later when I heard a car's engine behind me.

Cursing, I practically threw myself into a bush off to the side of the dirt road. Branches cut me and scratched me, but if it was Jesse's friends, I couldn't afford to get caught.

Jesse or the wolf that had once been Jesse crouched beside me, his body hidden by the bush even though he wasn't inside the damn thing like I was.

Sure enough, the kidnapper's van passed us. They didn't even slow down.

When they were gone, the forest seemed even darker than it had before.

"I'm going to die out here," I mumbled to myself, as I slowly extricated my body from the bush. The wolf was licking me again, running his tongue over my cuts and scrapes. "Stop it, dammit. I don't know you." I shoved at his face.

He growled.

"Go find your wolfy friends and leave me to escape on my own." I tried to shoo him away. He barely budged. "Damn you." I sighed, then started walking down the dirt road.

I walked and walked, and walked. By the time the sun was rising, I was still walking.

When I finally saw a flicker of light ahead of me, I let out a whoop of excitement and picked up my pace.

Abduction averted.

It wasn't until I reached the edge of town that I realized I'd celebrated too soon.

The buildings were a completely different style than the new, modern builds of the college town I lived in.

I passed by a wind chime with at least fifty shells and bits of sea glass hanging from it. It looked homemade, which was odd considering we were surrounded by the forest and mountains, and nowhere near the beach. The wind chime hung over the porch of an old building covered in what looked like newly-painted, sky-blue siding. The building was small and old, but charming and looked well taken care of.

Stopping out in front of the porch, I looked at the wolf beside me.

"You knew I wasn't walking back toward my school," I said, my voice flat.

He batted his eyes at me. I think he was trying to look innocent, but he was a wolf. He could see better in the dark than I could.

Which meant that he'd played me.

The damn wolf had played me.

Abduction is not averted.

I looked back at the door, weighing my options.

I could knock and hope there was someone sympathetic inside, who could give me some water, and maybe some bandages to wrap my poor, sad feet in. Maybe they'd give me a ride back to my dorm, too.

Or... maybe the wolf would kill them.

Yeah, not worth the risk to those poor, probably-nice people.

I resolved to keep walking until I found a police station. Or maybe an animal shelter. One or another of those places would have a way to get rid of my wolfy stalker.

And hopefully, a ride home.

I kept walking. My shoes were soaked on the inside, and I hoped they’d been soaked by pus from broken blisters, or maybe sweat. The alternative was blood, and that idea made me want to puke. The shoes were at least six years old, but the worn-down soles and holes in them hadn't done a thing to help prevent blisters while I was walking.

My phone was back in my locker at the sandwich shop, so I had no idea exactly what time it was, but it had to be pretty early in the morning. Yet, the town was surprisingly active.

That was also the opposite of my college town. The university and its students didn't seem to fully wake up until noon, even though there were early classes offered too.

The further I walked into the city, the more I found it strange that no one commented on the wolf following me.

Seriously, who wouldn't be afraid of a wolf walking freely around town?

I guessed maybe he could pass for a dog, but he wasn't on a leash or anything.

We stopped at a gas station so I could ask for directions, and I walked up to a woman filling up her car with gas. I selected her thinking she looked like she wasn't a murderer and looked nice enough that she wouldn't be pissed by me distracting her from her task and asking where the police station was.

I forced a smile. "Hi, do you have a second?"

"Of course." She smiled back, glancing at Jesse. Like the others we'd passed, she didn't look alarmed to see him.

"Do you happen to know where the police station is?"

"Oh, you mean the main alpha's house? Sure, if you keep going down this street, you'll run into a logged mansion. The main alpha lives there, along with his pack."

Main alpha? What the hell?

"Are you a werewolf?" I asked bluntly.

It seemed like the only logical answer, given her weird acceptance of the wolf beside me and her strange answers to my questions. And yeah, there was no tact behind my words, but I was exhausted and in pain and confused.

She laughed. "Of course. Everyone in this town is a werewolf. Welcome to Moon Ridge, honey." She gave me a big smile, and I took a step back. When I stepped back, I bumped into Jesse, who licked my leg again.

"I've lost my freaking mind," I mumbled, hurrying back down the road the way I'd come. The woman filling her gas tank yelled something after me, but my brain was too fried to listen.

It had taken me all night to walk to the werewolf town, but maybe I could get back to my dorm by the time the sunset. If I just kept walking and ignored my dry mouth and aching feet, I could make it.

What was the alternative; getting eaten by a damn werewolf or turning into one?

I'd take some foot pain and hunger over that any day.

The wolf realized my intentions and stepped between me and the forest before I got back on the dirt road. He gave a low, threatening growl.

"Get out of my way," I threatened back. My body swayed a bit, and I flung my arms out to try to keep my balance. I managed to remain standing, luckily.

Taking a step to the side, I tried to pass the wolf. He just jumped in my way again.

"Dammit, wolf, move!" I yelled.

Laughter erupted behind me.

I spun around, having no idea what to do with my hands if I was going to have to try to fight my way to freedom. Was I supposed to fist them? Or pull them up close to my chest, maybe?

There they were: the not-football team. Of course, those assholes were the source of the laughter.

That was just my freakin’ luck.

In the light of day, it was easier to separate the not-football players from each other. Five men of various ethnicities, sizes, clothing styles, and haircuts. Separate from each other in every way I could see, but with one thing in common:

They were all werewolves.

"I wish I could order my wolf around like that." Seatbelt Guy grinned. Now that I wasn't panicking, I got a better look at him. His skin was dark, his hair cut close to his scalp on the sides of his face and head. Slim, artfully-styled locs fell to the middle of his forehead. He was the tallest of the group, but only by an inch or so. They were all tall, and all built like the damn football players I'd assumed they were.

"We all do," another guy agreed. He strode toward me, offering a hand. He was tan, with a mass amount of fluffy, dark brown hair and a smile that would've set most people at ease.

But it just made me more wary.

I didn't take his hand.

"You assholes kidnap me, leave me with a monster, and want me to shake your hands and trust you? Yeah, right." I glared at the lot of them. "Take me home."

"Sorry, we can't do that." Smiley Guy pulled his hand away and gestured to the wolf behind me. "You've got a better chance at surviving the mating bite if you spend the weeks leading up to it with Jesse, at his place. We'll keep you fed and safe, but being alive is more important than being home."

I laughed, and the sound came out sounding slightly maniacal. I needed sleep, painkillers, and freedom. "Bullshit. All of this is bullshit."

Jesse stepped up next to me and growled fiercely at the guys. Their expressions faltered a bit.

He lowered his nose to my shoe, a wolf's way of gesturing, I guess.

"Is your foot injured?" one of the guys asked. I was pretty sure he had been the getaway driver, though that didn't help much because I didn't know any of their names.

"No," I lied, not wanting them to have an excuse to grab me again.

Jesse growled again, and it sounded like he was disagreeing with me.

Damn, wolf.

"Grab her. Let's get her back to Jesse's place so she's got some time to rest," Smiley Guy instructed.

"No, don't"

Seatbelt Guy tossed me over his shoulder once again.

I kicked and yelled as the guys walked back to Main Street, then turned down another street, and then another. They chatted amongst themselves and Jesse trotted behind me as they went, as if they weren’t dragging me along like a freakin’ prisoner.

Eventually, my throat got too dry for yelling, and my body too tired for kicking. And then I just gave up. I was carried along, draped over Seatbelt Guy's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and wondering what the hell I'd done so wrong to deserve being attacked and kidnapped by werewolves.

No one else in the town seemed to have a problem with my shouting for help or seemed to see it as a problem. I'd determined that werewolf towns were full of sick monsters who were completely okay with abducting innocent people… and probably murdering them, too.

The not-football team stopped in front of a row of townhouses and set me down, keeping a hand on my arm. In another situation, I would've thought the townhouses looked nice, maybe even cute. They were little two-story townhomes covered in siding, all of them painted differently with different accent colors and such, but all in the same shades of dove gray, dark green, and soft white.

They walked as a group to the house at the end of the row. It was mainly gray, with white as a secondary color and only hints of green. I liked the color combination the most on that one, not that I'd admit it out loud.

One of the guys typed the code into the garage door's keypad, and everyone headed into the house together. I eyed Jesse the wolf, who had started wagging his tail as we approached his space.

Wagging his freaking tail, after abducting me.

That wolf dude needed serious help.

Seatbelt Guy tossed me onto a dark blue loveseat, and said, "Welcome home, Teagan."

I sat up and shot him the most heated glare I could manage. "This is not my home. And I don't remember telling any of you monsters my name."

"It was on your shirt." Smiley Guy tapped his collarbone. "Your name tag fell off on the way to the van."

"You mean it fell off when you were dragging me to the van."

"Carrying you, actually," another of the guys corrected.

There were too many of the werewolves to keep them all straight.

I was so freakin’ screwed.

"Well, if it bothers you that we know your name, I'm Elliot." Smiley Guy offered his hand.

"I'm Ford," Seatbelt Guy added.

The rest of them told me their names too, but they all went right over my head.

Jesse jumped up next to me on the couch. He dropped his big furry head to rest on my thigh, so I slid away from him. He scooted toward me in response, and I moved more.

That continued until my side met the armrest, and then I was stuck… with a damn werewolf head on my bare thigh.

I should've worn leggings to work.

"We'll leave you two alone for now. Dinner's at Ford's place tonight, it's the one next door." Elliot, AKA Smiley, gestured off to the side. "Get some rest and a shower. You reek. We'll find you some clothes, but for now, just wear Jesse's."

"You guys are insane." I scowled at them. "This is crazy."

"Yup. Welcome to Moon Ridge." Elliot grinned.

He was the second person to say that, yet somehow after hearing it twice, I felt even less welcome.

They all left, and I watched until the door closed behind them.

And… they had to be completely out of their minds if they thought I was going to stay in Jesse's house.

I slid off the couch, hurrying toward the door. It was true that I stank; I was a sweaty mess, and my feet were either soaked with sweat, pus-covered, or bloody and hurting something awful. But my life was my priority.

I found a key-hook by the door, and a perfectly good set of keys hanging off it.

Bingo.

I sprinted back to the garage door I’d just been carried inside through.

A scream tore through my throat when the wolf smoothly jumped over the couch, landing between me and the door a fraction of a second before I reached it.

"What the hell?" I screeched. "Get out of my way!"

The wolf growled. Somehow, I could tell it wasn't a threatening growl...more like an answer. A simple, "No."

I raced toward the front door.

He had no problem beating me there, too.

"Damn, you." My hands clenched in fists around the keys. I released the fists, shoved the keys into my pocket, and headed for the stairs.

I’d have to take a shower, then make my escape while Jesse was napping. Wolves slept as much as dogs, right?

The wolf jumped up a couple of steps, then walked up the stairs with me at my pace. Every step was excruciating given the mess that was my feet, but I pushed through.

At the top of the stairs, there were two bedrooms and one bathroom. I ducked inside the first bedroom and determined it was Jesse's. His closet was a smallish walk-in, but a couple of the racks were empty like he was expecting someone else to move their stuff in too.

I grabbed one of his shirts from the closet and opened the drawers, rifling around until I found a pair of his sweats. It was still too hot outside for sweats, given that we lived in Northern Georgia and it was September, but what looked like his shorts' drawer was empty. And I wasn't going to wear the man's boxer briefs; I didn't even know him.

Glancing down at my feet, I thought about the suspicious wetness in my shoes and reached into another of Jesse's drawers, grabbing some of his socks, too.

I needed to cover those suckers so they didn't leak blood and/or pus everywhere. I didn't care about my kidnapper's house staying clean, but if I couldn't escape, I wasn't about to walk all over my dried foot pus.

After shutting the drawers and then closing the closet door too, I headed into the bathroom. The wolf followed me in before I could shut the door to keep him out.

"Out," I commanded, pointing to the door.

He plopped down on the bath mat. The shower curtain was dark blue and only a little see-through, but I still didn't want to shower in there, all exposed to the wolf.

"Seriously, get out," I snapped.

Jesse wasn't just a wolf—he was a man too. That was easy to forget, but not when I was getting in the damn shower.

I looked around for a weapon. Like a broom, or maybe a razor...

All I found was a bottle of Febreze spray and one of those electric face shavers with three disc-looking things to trim facial hair.

I grabbed the Febreze and pointed it at the werewolf.

"Get out or you'll be eating perfume," I snarled. The sound could’ve rivaled the one the wolf had made earlier. "I'm exhausted and in pain, this is not the time to mess with me."

The wolf sat up straight at that and gave a soft growl.

"Don't you growl at me for threatening you? You're the asshole who kidnapped me and trapped me in your house, wolf."

He leaned his nose to my foot and sniffed, then growled louder.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He nudged at my shoes with his nose. When I didn't do anything in response but glare down at him, he carefully caught one of my shoelaces between his teeth and gave a gentle tug until the lace came undone.

"You want me to take my shoes off?" I asked, incredulously.

The wolf looked at me and bobbed his head vigorously.

"You're out of your damn mind," I muttered but sat on the closed toilet seat anyway. I eased my shoe off my foot carefully, wincing and cursing a couple of times as it came off. My sock was soaked, and the white fabric was stained red in a couple of places. In other places, it was the yellowish color of pus.

Blood and pus. Yay.

My eyes started to sting as I peeled my sock off my foot, and I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to stop from crying out.

Jesse started whining, trying to put his nose up close to my injury. I swatted him away, but he remained close and kept whining.

I did the same with my other shoe and sock and had the same results.

Intense pain.

Massive blisters on my heels, toes, and the backs of my ankles.

I should've worn athletic shoes and leggings to work.

"Happy?" I grumbled at the wolf, who was still whining. "Me neither." I leaned my back against the toilet, my eyes closing as my body relaxed just a little. "Damn, I'm tired."

Jesse poked my leg gently with his nose, then poked the cupboard beneath the bathroom sink. With a dramatic sigh, I leaned over and pulled it open for him. He dug around for a minute before dragging out a small red fabric bag with a white cross on it.

"A first-aid kit? That's helpful, thanks." I took it from him.

He sat down and watched me pull some things out.

"I don't know much about first aid. I've never really been injured before," I rambled as I spread items out on the ground in front of me to take stock of what I had. "Other than the usual scraped knees and neck burns from curling-iron fails, of course. But I've never broken a bone or had anything like this before." I gestured to my feet.

He made a weird noise.

"I have no idea what that's supposed to mean," I told him. "I don't speak wolf."

The noise of frustration that followed, I did understand.

He gestured toward my foot with his nose, then went up on his back legs and stuck his nose in the sink.

"You want me to put my foot in the sink?" I checked.

He bobbed his head, then gestured to a bottle of hand soap beside the sink.

"You want me to wash my raw feet with hand soap?" My eyebrows shot into my forehead.

He nodded again.

I had no idea what else to do. With a sigh/groan, I forced myself back to my feet and carefully lifted one of the raw devils into the sink. I had to contort my leg to do it, and resting my weight on the other foot was hell, but I managed.

Lifting the handle on the faucet, I put it on warm and hissed when the water flowed over my burning, throbbing skin.

The wolf bumped the handle with his nose, setting the temperature right in-between cold and hot.

The water ran over my foot until the throbbing faded to dull, aching pain. Jesse hit the soap bottle with his nose, and I sighed again.

But, since I didn't have any other ideas, I shut off the water and pumped a little soap into my hand. While I cleaned the area gently, I flooded the bathroom with enough curses to make a pirate grin.

After a minute, Jesse bumped my hand to stop me from scrubbing, then flipped the water back on. He took care to make sure it was right in the middle between hot and cold again.

More cursing ensued when I rinsed off the bubbles, and even more when Jesse shut off the water and gestured to my other foot.

I repeated the process with foot two, then finally sat back down on the lid of the toilet seat. And honestly, I'd never been so thrilled to sit on a toilet in my life.

Since my feet were still dripping wet, I reached for a towel. Jesse growled, and I jerked my hands away.

His growling stopped instantly.

Looking at him curiously, I reached my hand toward the towel again, just to see what he'd do.

Sure enough, he growled again the moment my fingers were nearing the towel.

"You want them to air-dry?" I checked.

He bobbed his head.

"Alright." I shrugged.

He wiggled beneath my legs, lifting them so I was using his back as a leg-rest while my feet dried off.

He was warm and fuzzy, so it was actually kind of relaxing. The pain eased a bit with my weight off my feet, so I leaned my head back awkwardly against the toilet seat and shut my eyes.

I managed to doze off until my leg rest began to rumble with a growl.

Yawning, I sat up.

Damn, my body hurt.

"What now?" I asked the wolf.

He slowly slid out from under me, his eyes sweeping the medical supplies on the ground. His nose touched a tube I recognized, and I picked it up.

Triple Antibiotic Ointment.

Maybe he did know what he was doing.

He used his nose to gesture to the bottoms of my feet.

"I know how to use this," I told him.

It took me a while to spread it over my blisters. When that was done, the wolf pointed to some square-shaped gauze pads and a roll of what looked like tape.

I slapped the gauze on my feet, used a little tape to keep it there, and then grabbed Jesse's socks off the ground. Wrestling one on without too much pain or swearing, I looked over at the other sock and stared for a minute.

"Dammit," I finally said.

The wolf tilted his head. It was kind of adorable, not that I’d admit it.

"I haven't showered yet. I stink," I gestured to my feet. "I'm going to have to redo all of this."

The wolf shook his head at me. He gestured to the shower, which was one of those combination shower tubs.

I waited for more of an explanation.

He hopped into the tub with ease, then rolled to his back. His back legs popped over the edge of the tub, and he wiggled them around.

"Clever bastard," I muttered, shaking my head as I eased the second sock on. "Now, out." I pointed to the door.

He gave me puppy dog eyes, and I grabbed the Febreze again. "I will use this."