The Wolf's Surrender - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,52

was moody, impulsive. He told Sara Dumont he loved her, and a couple weeks after she initiated him, he broke it off as though it had meant nothing. Manipulative. And even when he challenged me for Alpha, I thought there was more to it. He must have known he couldn’t win, but he always seemed to have ulterior motives for things.”

“So he was disliked?” Mia asked, surprised. “He was pretty charming up until just recently. At least with me.”

Tomas lifted an eyebrow, but he didn’t seem angry.

“No, actually. Despite everything, it was hard not to like him, at least when he was in a good mood. He could be charming. And there was something about him that made people...myself included...feel a little sorry for him. He came from money, but I don’t think his upbringing was very happy.”

“I don’t think so, either. Is that why you let him go?” Mia asked quietly.

Tomas sighed heavily, then nodded. “I made a mistake. His problems were obviously deeper than I suspected. I thought him more troubled and pitiful than really dangerous. I was wrong. But I’ll make right what I can.”

Kenyon nodded, chiming in. “We will. We’ll do right by you where he didn’t, Mia.”

Hearing that was no comfort, not when Jenner’s hands still rested on her shoulders. She didn’t want anything from the Silverback. But she felt more and more how out of her element she was. Normal rules didn’t apply here. And she wasn’t sure, no matter what Jenner said, that her own wants and needs would matter to these creatures.

She leaned back again, glad for the comfort of Jenner’s touch while she could have it. Connecting with Jeff had been like winding through a house of horrors. His madness, his barely restrained violence, and worst of all, the depths of his obsession with finding her seemed to get worse each time. How had a creature like this, so twisted, managed to wear the mask of a normal human being for so long? she wondered. It was hard to remember the man she’d come to this place with, charming, witty, solicitous of her. All she’d wanted to see was the mask, and that he’d wanted her, needed her. That was her fault.

It was a mistake she didn’t intend to make again.

Strange, that being here should make her realize that her own wants and needs had merit, too.

She looked at Bane, a steady, silent presence watching her from across the room.

“He can’t hurt me when we connect this way, right? You’re sure?”

Bane nodded slowly. “I’m sure. But that doesn’t make the experience pleasant.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s unpleasant, as long as it’s useful. Did you see or hear anything more? Some clue as to where he was?” Tomas interjected his questions, impatient for information.

Mia shook her head. She wished she had more for everyone to go on.

“I can’t seem to see anything when I’m with him this way. There’s only darkness, and voices,” Mia explained. And the shrieking of his blood, the dark magic pulsing all around him in waves. Magic she knew she could harness, though nothing good would come of using what surrounded Jeff.

She hadn’t even been tempted, Mia realized with a start. She’d been able to look at it impassively, immune to the lure of the violence of that sort of power. It was the first time she’d gotten that close to such a thing...and the temptation she’d always been told she would feel had never materialized.

Was it the wolf blood in her? Or was it just...her?

Tomas gave a dissatisfied grunt, but Jenner’s voice, surprisingly patient, drew her attention to his face as he crouched down beside her chair. In that instant, he was the man who had led her out of the woods again, strong and competent, in control but not without compassion. And just like that, she was completely focused on him, as though they were the only two people in the room.

“Seeing isn’t as important as you think,” he said. “I know it isn’t fun, but think back over what happened. Did you hear anything? Smell anything? Sometimes that tells us more than our eyes would. It’s part of having the wolf in your nature, and you do now, new though it is. Think, Mia. I’ll bet there was something. Close your eyes and think back.”

Mia sighed, but finally gave a short nod. She let her eyes slip shut, despite her misgivings about it.

With effort, she shook off the thoughts that made her skin crawl and