silky skin against mine, trying not to let those dreams destroy me in the darkness of the night. I’d wanted to touch her, to kiss her, to be inside her; but wanting something so impossible had sent both me and my wolf into a dark tailspin of anger and cruelty; one that I’d had no reason to break—until now.
“How did you survive without your wolf?” I inhaled deeply, my mind reeling at the other spirit I sensed inside her. “I can scent another wolf inside you, the one that killed you, that’s why I didn’t know it was you when I first saw you.” I rubbed my thumb gently across the corner of her mouth. “How the hell did it kill your wolf and then end up as yours?” My voice shook, so many emotions swirling inside me, it was hard to think straight.
Ember’s face darkened and she tried to push me away. I could resist but I didn’t want to force her into being near me. Gritting my teeth, and hiding my disappointment, I dropped my hand and stepped away, giving her some room.
She took a steadying breath, her eyes becoming unfocused. “That day in the woods, I ran like you told me to, but there were too many of Doherty’s men and I didn’t stand a chance of escape, so I stayed in my wolf form and hid inside a rotten tree trunk. I was there for two days with nothing to eat or drink…” Her voice broke and she squeezed her eyes shut. “I thought you and Rawson were dead. I heard gunshots and was sure they’d killed you.”
My jaw ached as I ground my teeth together. I hated that I hadn’t been able to save her that day. “I’m sorry I failed you, Em.” What else was there to say? No words could change what had happened to us all back then, or since.
A weak smile curled her lips. “None of it was your fault.” For a moment she was silent, and I didn’t push. “Doherty played games. He wanted me to think he’d pulled his men back. Twice they tried to lure me out before they actually left. I hid for hours, but it made no difference, he’d sent a lone wolf after me. It laid in wait for nearly two days in that wood. When I eventually left my hiding place, it attacked. I was in my wolf form.” She blinked, the skin between her brows creasing. “I don’t know what happened. There was excruciating pain in my neck as she clamped her jaws on my neck. And blood, so much blood.”
I swallowed hard as her face paled and she fisted her trembling hands. I really wanted to comfort her, hating that she was so upset. I wrapped my fingers around her hand, gently but insistently pushing at her fingers, uncurling her fist until I could hold her hand. She released a shuddering breath. “And then I was standing in a kind of in between world watching my wolf die.” She avoided my eyes, staring at the wall over my shoulder.
There was something else, something she wasn’t telling me. I could hear the elevation in her heart rate—and she had never been able to look me in the eye and lie.
“What happened then?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea…”
I raised my brows. “Yes, you do, Em, but it’s okay. I understand you don’t trust me yet. Four years is a long time.” I let go of her hand and she sighed, shaking her head.
“No, really I don’t know. It’s happened before, but it’s like I’m falling, and then I die.”
My brows dipped, my stomach tensing to rock. “What do you mean, you die?”
She rubbed her palms over her face, and then looked me in the eye. “I mean just that. Your wolf is right, my wolf, the one I have now, did kill my first wolf. I knew she was bleeding out and that it was fatal and just like when Perversion slit my throat, Fire came to life. She saved me, but she couldn’t save my wolf. Somehow, Fire pulled the wolf spirit from my killer and gifted it to me as my first wolf was called back to the Mother Wolf.”
Now it was my turn to shake my head. “This makes no sense. How? How can any of this happen?”
She sighed heavily and began to pace the room. I watched her, knowing I never would have believed her story at all, except her