Page 4

I nodded sadly.

Another tear fell. Wes caught it too and then cupped my cheek with his palm. I knew he had to touch me in order to make his memory-erasing talent work. He’d done it to me only once before, the night we’d first met. There was irony buried there but I was too heartbroken to name it. I knew from experience, even if he returned my memories later, this special night would never feel the same in my thoughts.

Wes hesitated and I felt the claws of my imprisoned reality tugging harder.

“Hurry, Wes,” I urged.

He pressed his lips together and nodded. “I’ll never stop looking for you,” he said.

In a fast dip, he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine in a hard kiss. The glowing white fog became darkness as my eyelids slid closed. At once, the apartment felt vast and empty and just … nowhere. The pressure of Wes’s lips on mine suddenly vanished. I was being pulled back.

I tried uselessly to fight it but the exertion, after everything else that’d just happened, was too much. My strength flagged, my muscles gave out. And then the claws grabbed hold and, with a final, piercing yank on my subconscious, everything disappeared…

I woke alone in my cell, my skin chilled. Absently, I rubbed at my arms until my improved circulation provided some semblance of body warmth. For a reason I couldn’t name, I was breathless.

If I’d had another nightmare, thankfully I couldn’t remember it now.

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Dirty Blood

Tara and Wes break up

Wes

I swung out the back door, my hands balled at my sides. I gritted my teeth to keep from yelling out in frustration. The backyard wasn’t far enough. I needed space. Distance. The woods.

The air in that house was stifling. Jack was stifling.

My feet sped without conscious effort. Before I knew it, I was running. Long after the trees closed in around me, I ran. My human feet were loud in the silence of the darkening forest. Not for long. I pulled my shirt over my head and dropped it without breaking stride. My shorts and shoes were a little trickier, but I managed to yank free of them without halting.

My bones stretched and pulled against my skin, suddenly the wrong size to contain all my parts. My feet left the ground in long strides. I blinked, silently calling my wolf out. When I landed again, it was on four paws instead of two feet.

My speed intensified. My mind cleared.

I shoved aside my frustrations. Jack’s demand that I stay here and work. My overwhelming urge to drop everything and go to her. For a few blissful moments, none of it mattered. All that mattered was my wolf. And the speed of the run.

When darkness fell, and my wolf was satisfied, I retrieved my clothes and shifted back. I stayed at the edges of the woods, sliding down the base of a wide trunk and sitting with my elbows on my knees. I could see the backyard from here, the shadowy outlines of the house against the filtered yellow porch light.

I sighed and leaned my head back against the tree. My wolf was long gone and the earlier frustration had returned.

Jack had ordered me to stay away from her. He’d exerted his alpha so I knew it wasn’t optional. It wasn’t up for negotiation. I understood why. Until Leo was caught, I needed to focus. Run patrols, secure the perimeter, follow leads. Spending time with her was a distraction. And distractions could get her killed. Besides, I had to respect her mother’s wishes. And her mother didn’t want me anywhere near them.

Because of what I was.

The thought made my insides heat. It would always come down to that, wouldn’t it?

But Tara …

She knew nothing about this world. Or what it meant to be half of each, one foot on either side of the line. She knew nothing of the shame and disgrace it held. Or how cruel our kinds could be once they knew. I hoped she never had to find out.

Her face appeared in my mind, a smiling picture behind my closed lids. My tense muscles relaxed at the memory of her, of kissing her, touching her hair, her arms. Holding her hand. She didn’t care what I was. She cared who I was. Inside. No one had ever made me feel like that. Like being a Dirty Blood didn’t define me. I loved that about her.

Which is why Jack was right. I had to stay away, at least for now. I couldn’t afford to be distracted. Protecting her came first. We’d get Leo. I’d make her safe. Then, we could figure out the rest.