Page 66 of Bonded Through Bite

“The person who got hurt while trying to help me,” I cut him off.

“It’s all right, dove, I’ll manage,” Zack says. His eyes widen when I snarl. I can’t help it.

Santiago clears his throat and looks at me and then at Zack. “I can set it for you. I’ve got training,” he reluctantly offers.

Zack raises his brow at him. “I’m surprised you are willing to help me.”

“Why wouldn’t he?” I frown. “Why are you all acting so weird?”

“Sweetheart,” Rafael says, in what I’m sure he thinks is a soothing tone, “he’s a werewolf. There’s some truth to how we are portrayed in popular media.”

“How come you don’t know this?” Zack asks with a raised brow. “How young is she?”

“Days,” Rafael replies.

Zack’s expression turns horrified as he faces me. “And you offered me your blood!?”

“You let him drink?” Santiago groans just as Rafael lets out an earth-rattling growl.

“He was—is hurt!”

“Fuck, I didn’t know,” Zack says and rubs his eyes. Regret is showing in every line of his body.

“All right. Let me set the bones and we’ll deal with this mess later. Preferably when no one is drained or hurt or overly emotional.” At that last point, Santiago looks pointedly at me and I snap my mouth shut.

I spy from the corner of my eye when Rafael gets back to his feet. He’s steady enough, but his eyes still look almost black and his body is tense, ready to pounce. And I want to jump him again.

“No more drinking potpourri,” I say to Rafael. Before he can respond, Santiago does something that makes Zack roar in pain and I whip around. Chills rake down my spine and instantly, I bite my own wrist and lift it to his mouth. He’s in pain and I need to ease it.

“Samantha, no,” Rafael and Santiago hurry to say at once. Even Zack tries to turn his face away, but some of my blood drops in regardless. I won’t force him, but his refusal hurts. None of them seem inclined to drink my blood. Even my own body rejected the taste. I snatch my hand back and leap away.

“Sorry,” I mumble, feeling frozen in place. Part of me wants to run away, but I embrace the frost in my veins and stay put. My senses are working overtime and every breath brings a new smell for an evaluation. My skin prickles and my eyes tear up when I look at the men, so I close them and block everyone out.

I can’t give in to the feelings roiling inside me, so I focus on scents. The most prominent is Santiago’s smell wafting from him and Rafael. Still, it’s easy to separate Rafael from it; the smooth chocolate caresses and eases my nerves.

Neither of them carries anger in their scent, frustration for sure, but not anger. Then there’s Zack, or what I presume is his scent. I can’t read it like the others, but it has tones of freshly cut grass and moss soaked in rain. How he’s feeling about any of this is beyond me, unless I’m willing to open my eyes and look at him.

Nope. Not ready to do that. If there’s even a hint of rejection or reproach, both of which I completely deserve after pushing my blood on him, I won’t be able to hold back tears. And crying is not an option.

Inhaling again, I sort out more smells and my eyes fly open when I detect the rot. It’s the same rot that I scented on the body we found. Whoever killed her was here. The thing was here.

“Sam—”

I hold out my hand to silence Santiago. Rafael has moved to stand at my back, not touching, but close.

I can’t be completely sure, but I think it’s the same smell. The flavor on my tongue is an echo of the earlier horror.

“What was the thing that attacked me?” I ask Zack.

Rafael wraps his arms around me at that and his low growl vibrates against my back.

“Some sort of shifter, but none like I’ve ever encountered before. It changed forms smoothly between wolf, bear, and lion.”

Huh, so my eyes hadn’t been going crazy?

“I’ve never heard of that kind of thing either,” Santiago says, looking worried. “And it attacked you?”

“Yes, I was minding my own business, running away from you two, when the thing crashed into me.”