Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,90
said.
“Can’t it?” she asked him, letting him see all her misery and pain. “Look at me.”
He hung his head.
He thinks it’s because of him and all his drama.
She kissed him. He responded, and she could feel all his yearning. She twisted in his arms so that she could wrap herself around him. He was on his knees, still holding her.
He loved her. She knew he did. Knew that he would do anything for her. She wanted him, wanted to be with him, couldn’t imagine her life without him.
And I don’t have to. One little nip, that’s all it would take, and then we could be together.
She put her teeth on his bottom lip.
I could do it right now.
She froze. She quickly let go and pulled away.
“What is it?” he asked.
She leaned her head against his shoulder and sobbed. He held her, rubbing her back. He was Trick.
“Trick, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Anything.” He kissed the crown of her hair.
“I need you to know.” She took a deep breath. She knew what she wanted him to know, but what exactly did she need him to know? “I need you to know that I want to be with you.”
“Works for me,” he said, giving her a squeeze.
She lifted her head and forced herself to stare him in the eyes. “But there’s stuff about me, terrible stuff, that you don’t know. I just can’t be with you. I can’t risk hurting you anymore.”
He didn’t blink. Didn’t smile. “Katelyn, if you care for me I’m willing to risk anything, do anything. Just let me help.”
“I can’t.”
She twisted so she could get her feet on the ground and she stood up, feeling light-headed. He was still kneeling, looking stricken. “Trick,” she said, her voice strangled. “If I were free . . . but I’m not. And you’re better off without me.”
She hurried away before he could stop her. She had only made it a few steps before the tears started gushing down her cheeks. Any delusions she had harbored that someday she and Trick could somehow be together were gone. In the span of an hour she’d almost bitten him twice, once in anger and once in passion. If she tried to be with him, it was only a matter of time before an accident happened.
And she loved him too much to curse him as she’d been cursed.
“Darlin’,” he called after her.
“Please, I need to be alone,” she cried, without looking at him.
“No way.”
“Please,” she said again, and as she walked away, he let her.
She wandered around for nearly half an hour before finding her way back to the school parking lot. Trick’s vandalized car was still there, but there was no sign of him. She figured he was hovering nearby, giving her space, and she climbed into her Subaru and left as quickly as she could. She tried to force herself to calm down, but even after she had put the town behind her and driven well into the forest she couldn’t.
Her cell phone trilled and she snatched it up. The number was unknown.
“Hello?” she asked carefully.
On the other end of the line all she heard was very gentle breathing.
“I’m alone,” Katelyn said, clearing her throat and hoping that that hadn’t been the worst thing in the world to admit.
“Kat?”
It was Cordelia, but her voice was strangled, barely recognizable.
“What’s wrong?” Katelyn asked, all senses on high alert.
“It was never supposed to happen like this,” Cordelia said with a sob.
She’s crying. She felt a terrible chill. Cordelia had been so cautious about communicating at all.
Something’s very, very wrong.
“What is it? What’s happened? What can I do?”
“It’s Dom.”
“Has something happened to him? Has he hurt you?” she asked, her mind racing to different extremes.
“My time’s up,” Cordelia whispered. “I have to do it.”
“Do what?” Katelyn shouted into the phone. “Cor, tell me.”
“Please. I am — I was — your pack sister.”
“Cor—”
“I have to marry him. If I don’t, I have to leave. And I have nowhere else to go.”
“No, that’s crazy. Don’t. Wait. I’ll think of something.”
“Then do it now,” Cordelia said.
And then the phone went dead.
Katelyn tried calling back but the call went straight to voice mail, the automated robotic female voice informing her that the mailbox hadn’t been set up, so she couldn’t even leave a message.
She became aware of a rumbling sound that seemed to grow louder. Was it thunder? She frantically tried calling again. Straight to voice mail once more. Before she could hang up something slammed into the side