Her Wild Hero

Fortunately, Kendra didn’t mention Clayne again. If she’d started going on about how the wolf shifter might ride to their rescue, Declan was going to be sick.

They made use of the relatively hybrid-free moment and tried to get some distance between them and the tree they’d just climbed out of. They even found some berries and mangoes growing along their path and had an impromptu snack. Eating something other than energy bars was too much of a morale booster to pass up. And, even though it probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, they talked softly as they moved through the jungle. He had a feeling it was Kendra’s way of dealing with the stress, so he was okay with it.

At first, Kendra’s questions were pretty general—where did he hang out when he wasn’t working, what kind of movies did he like, what were his favorite foods? Declan didn’t mind answering those types of questions and even asked a few of his own—how much time did she spend with her family, and how often did she go out to eat at her favorite restaurant? But then she hit him with a seriously personal question that left him at a complete loss for words and no clue how to answer. Hell, he was pretty sure he didn’t even want to answer that kind of question.

He fumbled over his words, finally spitting out an extremely unintelligent sounding, “What?”

“Have you ever been in a long-term serious relationship?” she asked. “You’re such a great guy. I have a hard time believing no woman has ever tried to tie you down.”

Declan ground his jaw. If I’m such a great guy, why haven’t you ever shown any interest in me?

“I’m sorry if that was too personal,” she said when he didn’t answer. “You don’t have to answer that.”

He was tempted not to, but then she’d think he was hiding something, which he was. But he didn’t want her to think he was some kind of pathetic loser. The fact that he’d been engaged wasn’t a big deal. Anyone who’d read his personnel file already knew.

“There was someone…a long time ago,” he told her. “We were engaged.”

When Kendra didn’t say anything, he glanced at her and found her gaping at him.

“You should really close your mouth,” he said dryly. “Any number of nasty things could fly in.”

She closed her mouth with a snap.

“Is it that frigging hard to believe a woman wanted to marry me?” he grumbled.

Kendra shook her head. “No, of course not. It’s just that, if you were engaged, how come you’re not married? I don’t see you as the kind of guy who’d leave a woman at the altar, and I sure as hell don’t see any sane woman leaving you there.”

He supposed there was a compliment buried somewhere in all that twisted logic, but he had a hard time seeing it.

“When was this?” she prompted.

“It was during my senior year at MIT.”

Her brow scrunched up. “You were in some technical engineering program there, right?”

At least she’d read that much of his personnel file. “Yeah. I was a dual major, electrical and mechanical engineering.”

“Was your fiancée an engineering student, too?”

He shook his head. “Marissa was a political science major. Her family was very rich and very deep into the political scene in Massachusetts. She wanted to get into politics as well. She appreciated my brains and rational outlook on things. I loved her passion and social savvy. We might have been complete opposites, but we were crazy about each other.”

Back then everything had looked so bright and possible.

“I’m not completely sure her family was as thrilled about the pairing as we were,” he continued. “Probably thought her future political career would fare better if she married another politician—or at least someone just as rich as she was. But we didn’t care about any of that. Marissa always said I was the one decision in her life that wasn’t about her future career or her family’s image.”

“Why didn’t it work out?” Kendra asked.

“We were planning our wedding most of our final semester. Late one night, after class, we were in downtown Cambridge, going over some of the last-minute details with the wedding planner. We were having so much fun that time got away from us, and before we knew it, we were walking down completely empty streets at almost midnight.”

“Oh God,” Kendra breathed. “I don’t think I like where this is heading.”

Declan strained his ears, listening to make sure no hybrids had snuck up on them. So far, so good.

“We were still a half-dozen blocks from the car, walking across a parking lot to save time, when two guys stepped out of the shadows and approached us.”

He remembered every detail like it had happened yesterday. He remembered smelling something he’d never remembered smelling before—fear. Marissa had been exuding it like a perfume.

“At first I thought they were just planning to rob us,” he murmured. “I was already reaching for my wallet to give it to them.”

“But?” Kendra prompted when he stopped.