blood and stress and numerous tattoos that circled his arms, crept up his shoulders and across his chest. He looked as if he’d only aged ten of the last twenty-two years, but pain had carved its mark in his eyes.
They held little recognition as they studied her, but that made sense. She’d been only ten years old the day he’d finally fled his father’s temper.
She wet her dry lips. “Hi, Zack.”
“Eden. Are you all right?” His gaze snapped to Jay, and something dangerous stirred in his eyes.
She didn’t know how to answer.
“She’s been bitten,” Jay said evenly. “I need to take her to the hospital.”
Finally, a normal suggestion. She clung to it with both hands, fighting back the feeling that the ground had turned to shifting sand beneath her. “Soon? I’m not doing so well.”
“Scott’s friend got to her,” the brunette blurted in a desperate rush. “I know you told us to stay inside, but I had to stop him, Zack. I had to try.”
Zack smoothed his hands over the girl’s hair without taking his eyes off Jay and Eden. “Take her. We’ll deal with the bodies.”
Jay peeled back the edge of the makeshift flannel bandage and grimaced. “Let’s go, honey. You’ll do fine ’til we get there, but you’ll need stitches.” He lifted Eden off her feet and carried her to the battered SUV.
Holding back pained whimpers kept her distracted while he settled her on the front seat and buckled her in. By the time she’d gotten her breath, Jay was pulling down the driveway.
“You don’t have a door,” she protested belatedly.
He glanced at her, his jaw tight. “What are they going to do, arrest me?”
She couldn’t help it. Whether it was pain or shock or the series of emotional blows she couldn’t say, but it was too much. A hysterical, gasping laugh rasped out of her. “God, none of them would dare.”
“I hope not.” He pulled onto the main road and reached over to pat her leg. “You’re going to be fine, Eden. The bleeding isn’t severe. They’ll be able to fix you right up.”
Eden caught his hand and clung to it, scared that her good fingers had started to tingle. “Even though I was attacked by something they think doesn’t exist?”
He hesitated. “As far as anyone at the ER will be able to tell, a dog bit you, okay?”
Still avoiding. She squeezed his hand. “Are you a werewolf, Jay?”
“I am.” He slowed for a turn toward the highway. “So’s your cousin, I guess. And the dangerous people after him?”
Swallowing hard, Eden closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you. I don’t—I don’t know much about werewolves, or what Zack’s tangled up in. He tries to keep me and Dad out of it.”
“I get it. You told me as much as you could without sounding crazy.”
The tingling spread to her entire hand. If it hadn’t been so intense, she might have suspected it was nothing more than her body’s pleasure in touching Jay. Handsome, intelligent, wonderful Jay.
The werewolf.
“You didn’t answer me,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “Neither did the girl. I got bitten by a werewolf. Am I—” No, those words weren’t going to come out sounding serene, no matter what she did.
He drew to a stop at a red light and sighed. “Eden, I don’t know. It’s not that simple. I’ve seen people with bites turn out to be completely unaffected. It doesn’t mean you’re going to turn into a werewolf.”
“But I could.”
“You could,” he acknowledged.
Her toes started to itch. The pins-and-needles sensation from her arm jumped to her spine, rippling down her body in a liquid rush that made her gasp and arch. “Jay—”
He caught her by the shoulders and turned her to look at him. “What’s happening, Eden?”
It should have been agony. His fingers brushed the flannel wrapped around her upper arm, and she whimpered. Not pain. Prickling. Wild sensitivity so severe she wrenched away and tore the makeshift bandage free.
Her fingers encountered sticky blood and unbroken skin.
Jay pulled her arm toward him and ran his fingers over her flesh. “This isn’t possible.”
She could feel the individual ridges of his fingerprints. Time seemed frozen, his stroking touch overwhelming. “Jay—Jay I don’t feel okay. I don’t feel real.”
His fingertips settled over the pulse in her wrist. Then he drew away with a curse and whirled the vehicle in a tight U-turn. “We’re going to my place.”
Her heart was racing. She couldn’t just feel it, she could hear it. Muscle