Page 28 of New Blood

“Danielle, talk to me.”

When he suddenly stopped and turned to her, he stretched out his hand as if wanting to touch her. She made a step away from him.

“Alright. We’ll talk. I came to live with the Gallaghers six years ago.”

As they resumed walking, Jude asked, “Where were you before?”

She shrugged. It was best to keep her answers vague.

“Here and there. My mother and I moved around a lot. After she died, I came to live with the Gallaghers.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s unusual for werewolves to move around a lot. Was your mother not a member of a pack?”

“She was cast out by her pack.”

Danielle didn’t know the whole story, but she’d asked her mother questions over the years and received a few clarifications about her circumstances, and had pieced together the rest.

“I’m sorry. What happened?”

“She got pregnant with me. But she wasn’t mated to anybody in the pack. She’d fallen in love with a werewolf she’d met somewhere else, but I guess he didn’t want her… or me. I suspect he was mated already.” She shrugged. “When she didn’t reveal who my father was, they sent her away to fend for herself.”

“That must have been horrible for her and for you.” Jude’s voice was softer now than before.

“I didn’t know any different. I was twelve before I even realized that my mother and I were werewolves. She taught me everything I needed to know about being a wolf. She got married to a human a few years later, but Carl was a drunk. I couldn’t stand him. He was violent when he was drunk. Belligerent.”

“Did he hurt you and your mother?”

“He tried. But we were stronger. Mom left him eventually, and we found a pack that took us in.”

And that was all she was prepared to say on the subject.

“That sounds tragic, having to go through so much pain. So the pack you and your mother joined back then wasn’t the Gallagher pack?”

She shook her head. “No. I joined the Gallagher pack after Mom died.”

“Why not stay with the other pack?”

Danielle hesitated. “They…” She let out a tremulous breath.

“Let me guess… They arranged for you to mate with one of their pack members.”

She stopped walking and stared at him. “How did you know?”

“It’s not uncommon,” he explained. “Female pack members without family attachments are often mated to another pack member to keep them in the pack. It’s common practice. But I guess not having grown up in a pack, you’re probably not aware of all the dynamics that rule our community.”

“I learned pretty quickly,” she replied, unable to avoid the bitterness of her experience from seeping into her voice.

“You didn’t like the man they’d chosen for you?”

“Didn’t like? That’s an understatement. He was violent and abusive. I didn’t want to make the same mistake as my mother. It would have been worse than what my mother had gone through with Carl. A human I can fight off, but not a werewolf…” She shook her head. “I knew one day he would have killed me.”

Jude nodded slowly. “You did the right thing by leaving. I’m glad you found a safe place here. Are the Gallaghers good to you?”

Danielle made a motion to continue walking before she spoke again. “I have a roof over my head, and nobody is forcing me into a relationship I don’t want.”