Page 61 of Patrick’s Seduction

“No!” Patrick’s protest came as if fired from a gun. “That’s not necessary. He can’t do anything we can’t do ourselves. Everybody who’s been working on the Presidio murder case will work on this now.”

Her forehead furrowed, and she looked at him from the side. “But that’s a murder case you need to solve…”

Patrick shook his head. “It’s already solved. Cameron killed the jogger in the Presidio. He ripped his heart out, and we have to assume that he ate it.”

Her stomach flipped, and nausea overcame her all of a sudden. Cameron had killed somebody? And eaten his victim’s heart? There was only so much she could handle, and this went far beyond the threshold she believed she had. She jumped up, holding her hand to her stomach, trying to hold down the little that she had in it. She saw no other choice but to hurry out of the room. Relieved that she knew where the powder room was, she almost kicked the door in and bent over the toilet bowl. Just in time.

Somebody followed her, reaching her just as she began to retch.

“I’ve got you.”

It was Isabelle who reached for her hair now and held it back. Fallon threw up the little food she had in her stomach, while fear and disgust gripped her. She was a monster now, a monster that killed people and ate their hearts. How long would she be able to fight against what she was now? When would she start killing innocent people?

She couldn’t live like that. No, she would rather die than be a killer.

30

Patrick had run after Fallon, concerned about her wellbeing, but Isabelle who’d been sitting closer to the hallway, had been faster and reached the powder room before him. She blocked Fallon from his view, but he could hear her throwing up.

“I’ll take care of her,” Isabelle said with a look over her shoulder and shooed him away.

He retreated to the living room.

“Is she alright?” Wesley asked.

Patrick ran a hand through his thick hair. “No. You heard her. How can she be? It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have told her about Cameron eating his victim’s heart. No wonder she’s throwing up.” He looked at his colleagues. “If only I’d taken her seriously when Anita brought her to me and put her in a safe house right away, Cameron would have never had the chance to—”

“Don’t!” Amaury interrupted. “You couldn’t have known then that he’s a werewolf. Nobody could have known. So don’t do this to yourself. It’s not gonna help us figure out how to proceed.”

Slowly, Patrick nodded. Amaury was right. Nothing would be gained by him wallowing in his guilt. He needed to find a solution to Fallon’s predicament.

“Wesley, hit the books,” he ordered. “There must be something about werewolves in your spell books. Charles can help you.” Charles was the other witch working for Scanguards. And he’d been a witch much longer than Wesley and had much more experience and knowledge.

“Alright,” Wesley replied. “But don’t get your hopes up. As you know, most spells are only temporary and will eventually go poof.” He made a dramatic gesture with both hands to indicate an explosion.

“I know. Still, we have to do something.”

“You do know that we can’t harbor a werewolf,” Zane suddenly interjected.

Patrick snapped his gaze to him, challenging him. “Yeah, and why is that?”

Zane narrowed his eyes. “It’ll be perceived as us holding a werewolf prisoner. Her pack’s not gonna like it. They’ll fight us and claim her as theirs.”

“Her pack?” Patrick went nose-to-nose with his much older colleague. “You’re suggesting that the Gallaghers are her pack?” He stabbed his index finger into Zane’s chest. “You listen to me: Fallon was turned against her will. She didn’t choose this. She deserves our protection. And I’ll be damned if I let the Gallaghers take her. They’re not her pack.”

“But they are, aren’t they?”

Patrick spun around to look at Fallon who’d spoken. She stood in the archway to the foyer, looking dejected. There was silence in the room, and he swallowed hard, not sure how to respond, because there was a kernel of truth in Zane’s words.

“So, it’s true,” Fallon said into the silence, standing there as if frozen in place. She tipped her chin up, determination sweeping over her face. “I’ll never be one of them.”

He crossed the distance between them with several steps and took her hands into his. “You’ll always be under my protection.”

With a sad smile, she shook her head. “That’s not enough, is it? Like Zane said, they’ll come for me.” She swallowed, pressing her lips together in a clear effort not to cry.

“They might try, but they won’t succeed,” Patrick said with a firm voice. “We have to confront the Gallaghers about Cameron.”

“What will that accomplish?” she asked, doubt in her voice.