Wolf at the Door by Sadie Hart

make
sure he’s the one lying dead instead of me. I want to be able to
fight back. I will not be weak. He doesn’t get another chance to
break me.”
    “All right.” A niggling voice in his mind
tried to convince him he was being an idiot, that he’d regret this.
But right now Timber needed confidence. Not necessarily in him or
the Hounds who worked for him, but in herself . She needed to
know she stood a chance. “Have you thought about self-defense
classes?”
    “I took a few shortly after I got far enough
away from Charles to feel safe. Time encourages you get lax,
though.” She shook her head. “I thought this was over.”
    Brandt studied her a moment. The skin around
her eyes was drawn tight, pale. She’d been holed up in this house
like a trapped rabbit. She needed to get out, get some space, some
air, and feel like someone who could defend herself.
    Sitting here at home, she had to feel like
bait.
    If he took her to Shifter Town Enforcement,
she’d be safer there for the next several hours than anywhere else,
and just maybe she’d lose that hunted edge to her eyes. Hell, it
was worth a shot.
    “Do you want to go now?” He tilted his head
for the door and saw the flash of relief shoot through her. She’d
expected a refusal, expected to have to fight for it.
    Timber jerked her head in a small nod.
“Please.”
    “Then let’s go.” She started for the door
when he caught her arm. This time she didn’t flinch. Already, some
small ounce of confidence was bleeding back into her. “You’re going
to be okay.”
    “You’ve done well up to now, Brandt, making
sure you don’t make statements or promises you can’t keep. Please
don’t—”
    He couldn’t help but smile. She’d seen that,
understood his hesitancy. “This isn’t a promise of protection. I’m telling you, you’re going to be okay. You beat him once, you
can do it again. And I know you don’t want to have to do it again.
I know that. But the woman you are right now, right here, is ten
times the woman you were when he first grabbed you.”
    “You didn’t know me then.”
    “I’m getting to know you now. And the woman
standing in front of me will fight harder and longer than the woman
you were four years ago. Sometimes fear isn’t a bad thing.
Sometimes it makes us stronger.”
    Her gaze met his, her eyes glinting with
tears. “Are you ever scared?”
    “Yeah.”
    “About what?”
    Brandt let her arm go. There were a thousand
things he could say, little white lies that were tempting, just to
make her feel better. But she’d been nothing but honest with him,
so she deserved nothing less in return.
    Brandt glanced at the window. He could see
the bush where Charles Wolfe had hidden and watched this afternoon.
Wolfe had been so damn close to her. “Right now? I’m scared that no
matter how hard I try, no matter how badly I want to keep it from
happening, he’s going to get to you before I can stop him.” Brandt
forced himself to look back at her, his gaze meeting hers. “I’m
worried that, no matter how much I want to keep you safe, how much
I want all of Shifter Town Enforcement to have your back, that he’s
going to beat us all, and that, in the end, it’s really going to be
up to you to save yourself.”
    He watched her throat squeeze as she
swallowed. “I’m scared of that too.”
    He didn’t tell her he was terrified that
she’d die if Wolfe caught her this time. And not just her, but
others, too. How many were going to die before he caught this
bastard? How many families would he have to talk to?
    Instinct, the same kind that motivated his
inner canine, demanded he protect those around him. It was a desire
imprinted in his bones, into every fiber in his body, into his
soul. It was the reason he’d been driven for as long as he could
remember to be the alpha, to be the one to make sure everyone
around him was safe. But dominance, power, it all came with a
price.
    And the price of failure could weigh heavier
than