An Alpha's Choice (Talon Pack #2)(20)

He shook his head, his hair sliding over his eyes before he pushed it back again. He might have cut some of it, but he hadn’t lost all of its length. Damned man looked good no matter what he did.

“Let’s go.”

“Fine with me.” She moved past him, careful not to brush against him but doing her best not to look like she was being careful. Gideon needed to find a new wolf to mingle with the humans because doing this with Finn had turned her into a damn teenager worried about study hall and passing notes about boys. She wasn’t sure she could take much more of this. She’d turned into a complete ball of angst, rather than merely the mess she was now.

As soon as she stepped out from the alley, she took a deep breath, trying to clear her senses of everything Finn. It wasn’t easy to do seeing how he was right behind her, taking up too much space. She’d been an idiot to think she could help her Pack, her people, by acting like everything was normal. It was so far from normal she wasn’t even sure she remembered what normalcy was.

“Back to the dens, then?” he said from behind her.

“Yeah. We’ll do better next time.” She paused. “With different people. The world needs to know more than just the two of us.”

The sound of a photo shutter hit her ears and she raised her chin toward the noise, doing her best to look calm.

“I heard it, too,” he whispered. A pause. “And yeah, next time we’ll go out with others. Maybe Max would want to hang out with me.”

Her cousin Max was the most easygoing wolf she knew. He’d escaped through their version of hell a better man than she could have thought possible.

“You and Max have worked together with the council in the past.” Not a question, but he answered anyway.

“Yeah. Our Packs have worked together well for thirty years now,” he said softly. It stung that the two of them couldn’t, but she knew she couldn’t care for much longer.

“Where do you think that picture is going?” she asked, ignoring his last statement. “A curious human? Media? The government? I hate not knowing. But I also hate that we have to live with it so others learn not to fear us.” She smiled softly at a small child who waved at them. The little girl’s mother met Brynn’s eyes and paled before tucking her child closer.

It hurt, the slice of familiar pain that told her that, yet again, she wasn’t good enough. That she was something to fear, or worse, pity.

“She just doesn’t understand,” Finn said softly, moving closer to her so no one could overhear. “They will, though. What we’re doing matters. We aren’t monsters. They’ll see that.”

She closed her eyes before taking a deep breath. When she opened them, the sun hadn’t faded, hadn’t burst into a thousand flames. Instead, time moved forward as it always had—ever slowly toward an absolution that would never come.

“I’m sorry, again,” he whispered, and she wanted to kick him. Again.

“Don’t be,” she snapped. “It was a mistake that will never happen again. We won’t even talk about it. It’s like it never happened.”

“But it did happen, Brynn. We should talk about why.”

“We really shouldn’t. So get over yourself, Finn, and leave me alone. Got it?”

He didn’t touch her—he’d told her he wouldn’t—but he was close enough that she could practically feel every inch of him. “I’ve got it just fine, princess.”

“Thanks, prince.” He was just as much royalty as she—even more so since he held the title while she had nothing.

He snorted then stiffened before moving faster than she’d ever seen him move. Brynn went on alert, following him instinctually before letting her mind process her thoughts.

A car came out of nowhere, barreling toward them. She moved faster, putting her wolf in the action, knowing she needed to follow Finn. He wasn’t moving out of the way of the car. Instead, he moved toward the little girl from before who had just stepped off the curb.

Brynn screamed as Finn tucked the little girl close and took the brunt of the car’s assault on himself. The car skidded as Finn rolled over the top of it, landing on his feet, the little girl safely tucked in his arms.

The car sped off, leaving an array of screaming and shell-shocked humans.

Finn hadn’t gone wolf, instead, had moved with supernatural speed to save a human girl. He’d been hit by a car but landed on his feet with only a few cuts to show for it.

So much for blending in with the humans.

“Did you see that?”

“He saved that little girl!”

“What just happened?”

“I’ve never seen anyone move like that!”

“I thought wolves would have just let her die.”

“What a hero!”

The scent of burned rubber mixed with the tangy scent of spilled blood. Her wolf raged at the smell, but she pushed it back, knowing she couldn’t full-on shift in public with so many eyes on her. This man, this wolf, had almost died protecting a little girl who’d run out into the street when she shouldn’t have. As it was, Brynn’s whole body threatened to shake from adrenaline.

She’d almost lost Finn just then.

Almost lost him without ever having him.

Another photo shutter sounded and she moved forward, trying to ignore the calls for her name, the calls for what had happened right in front of her. She’d deal with the humans and the public’s need to know every single little thing in a moment. First, she needed to put her hands on Finn to make sure he was truly alive. It didn’t matter that he was moving and speaking slowly to the little girl in his arms. All that mattered was that he was hurt, and her wolf needed to protect above all else. She was a f*cking dominant shifter, and she knew her role, her duties. To protect. To serve her Alpha.