"I've got money."

Liam froze, and then turned to face her, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

And with insult.

"So?"

Jolie swallowed hard. "It's not a lot, but it's enough that we can get a room somewhere for a couple of days, hide out if we want to. We could rent a car, or get a train ticket, anything to get far away from here." He was shaking his head. That wasn't a good sign. Jolie pressed on. "I can get a job. There's enough to give us the first and last month’s rent for an apartment. We can have a normal life away from this place."

"You would abandon your pack?"

She didn't understand. "Renzo wants to give me to Dempsey. Did you forget about that?"

"Of course not. It's why you came to me in the first place."

Jolie cringed. "I told you I was sorry for that. Doesn't that count for anything? We were children."

Liam said nothing. He let out one of his claws. It was sharp enough that, as he crouched down, he was able to neatly clean out the guts of the fish and stick it over the fire for cooking.

Jolie didn't like that he'd been living this way for so long.

"I want to help you, too," she said. "We can be normal people again."

"Shifters are never normal. Your ears and tail are sticking out right now. That's not normal."

Jolie reached out to touch the soft fur of her wolf ear. She dropped her hand. Somehow, she'd always thought that only Renzo would be able to make her feel so small. She hadn't expected this from Liam, but then again, it wasn't as if they actually knew each other anymore.

"Is it because you don't want a woman taking care of you?"

"Don't you dare try and make this out to be about that." Liam shot to his feet. He rounded on her, his eyes blazing with anger. "This has nothing to do with you being a woman, and everything to do with me. That pack is still my home. You might want to leave it, but I can't."

"I thought you couldn't leave it because of me?"

The words came out of her before she could stop them. Jolie slammed her mouth shut, wishing she could take them back, knowing what she'd just revealed to this man.

And Liam growled at her. "That wasn't the only reason, but I'm wild now. I barely have a grade seven education. I'm not comfortable wearing clothes anymore so I stay in my wolf shape, or like this. How do you ever expect me to get a normal human job? Would you think I was so romantically tragic when I can’t even keep work flipping burgers to pay for your small apartment?"

"So then if it's not about you being taken care of by a woman, it's about your pride?"

She didn't say it judgmentally. There was no way she could judge him for that. He was an alpha, after all. Their pride was a thing of legends.

"It's not about my pride and it's not about being taken care of by a woman, it's about being taken care of by you."

Jolie fell back a step, as if he'd just shoved her. Her heart thundered beneath her ribs, painful, swelling and aching, and she could hardly breathe over the lump in her throat.

And she wanted to cry. "Do you really hate me that much?"

The scowl melted away from Liam's brow. His eyes no longer held that blazing hatred she'd seen there just a moment before. Now there was something else, a clarity Jolie could hardly appreciate, especially when she heard Dempsey's voice calling out her and Liam's name from beyond the waterfall.

"Liam! Jolie! I know you're both in there so you might as well come out."

Liam lifted his gaze towards the waterfall, as if he expected someone to come rushing in at any moment. His lips pulled back, revealing teeth that were less than human as his nostrils flared.

He charged forward two steps before Jolie grabbed him by the arm. "No, don't."

"He'll die this time."

"He probably has a gun pointed at the entrance and will shoot you the second he sees you coming out. Is there another way out of here?"

Liam looked down at her, and then back towards the source of the noise. He growled again, low in his throat, and his strong hand took a painful grip on Jolie's arm. He yanked her towards the back of the cave, behind the fire.

It almost looked as though Liam had carved out a neat space for himself at some point. The uneven patches and rough scratch mark made her shiver to think of him doing it with his claws, but at a certain point, the ceiling of the cave sank down lower and lower. Liam had to duck his head before Jolie did, and then he was crouching and pointing to a small space that looked like a claustrophobe's worst nightmare.

"I can wiggle through there if I try hard enough. You should be able to squeeze your way through."

"Where does it go?" Jolie had never in her life thought of herself as being afraid of small and dark spaces, but now that she was faced with the probability of pushing her body between the rock and hard packed earth that could crush her if it caved in...she didn't want to go in there.

"In about fifty feet, it will take you around to hills, away from where they can see you, and if the wind is right, they shouldn't be able to smell you down there either, not before it's too late."

Dempsey screamed for them again. "Don't play stupid with me. I know you're both in there, you might as well come out now."

"You're coming with me, right?" Jolie asked. "What if I get stuck?"

And what if Liam was just getting rid of her so he could safely charge out there and attack?

Something that would likely get him killed.

Liam's lips thinned, as if he really did not want to be having this conversation. "I'll be right behind you."

Jolie blinked, and her gut clenched.

Maybe it was the fact that she was connected to him as a real, natural mate, or it could have been their history together. It could have been any number of things, but she just knew he was lying to her.

"Go," he said, pointing to the little crevice she was expected to crawl through.

Jolie looked down at it, and then at him. And she was pissed beyond belief.

So, despite that anger, or possibly because of it, she grabbed tightly to Liam's ears and yanked his face forward, crushing his mouth to hers.

The widening of his eyes was a good thing. It meant she'd caught him off guard. Jolie had almost started to believe that wouldn't be possible, but now that it was, she was rejuvenated. Jolie could do this, and she pulled back with a smile.

"If we're going to be doing this, you're never allowed to lie to me again."

Liam blinked, his eyes huge, dilated, and maybe he didn't catch a word she'd said, but that was all right, and before he could stop her, Jolie rushed to the edge of the water fall.

Liam's hands reached out for her, trying to grab her, but she stayed out of his reach.

"Dempsey! I'm coming out."

To Be Continued........

Sorry for the bit of a late update. The holidays were awesome and I hope everyone here had an awesome Christmas or holidays with lots of family, food and prezzies to go around ^_^

Big Happy New Year to you too!

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Thank you so much again, and happy reading!

Mandy