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He’d only mentioned it once on the phone, but she’d felt it then as well. The loss of his sister had changed Vaughn, taken him to a dark place from which he’d never fully returned. He’d told Emma repeatedly that he never dated and had no interest in forming a permanent connection to anyone. Five Bridges was a violent place, and he’d been unable to protect his sister. With death always right around the corner, he didn’t want to be responsible for another person ever again.
She could relate to his sense of despair and needing to keep his distance.
Shifting her gaze to Max’s clothes, tears touched her eyes. Max had barely moved in when he’d been ambushed and killed on his return to Savage Territory. She’d known nothing about it until two nights later when one of Max’s friends had called her to let her know. Despair had hit her hard. From that time, she’d sworn off men, sex and dating, just like Vaughn.
Then Vaughn had shown up and the sex they’d shared as well as all these weeks of talking back and forth on the phone had worn down her resistance. She didn’t even care that he was a vampire. For that reason alone, she should have shunned him.
Instead, she stood near him in her dressing room and had no plans at all to get dressed, having something else entirely on her mind.
First, though, she needed to tell him about Max. “I see you’ve found my secret.”
He sat up and turned in her direction. “I thought you’d be out for hours.” How she loved his deep voice.
She shook her head. “The potion was designed to be quick-acting and fast-leaving.” She crossed to Max’s clothes, but half-turned toward Vaughn. “You been wondering about these?”
“Yeah, I was.” His gray eyes had a pinched look.
“A few years ago, I dated one of the alphas of Savage Territory. I was madly in love with him and thought we’d be together forever. I suppose I should have gotten rid of these a long time ago.” She ran her hand over the sleeves of the shirts, one after the other. She’d said good-bye many times and in many different ways. This felt like another farewell coupled with a poignant jolt of grief.
“What happened to him?”
She took hold of the sleeve of the shirt closest to her and couldn’t seem to let go. “We’d just moved in together. We’d done the unforgivable as in a shifter, especially an alpha, getting involved with a witch. He was ambushed one night shortly after crossing the main bridge back to Savage. Someone shot him in the back of the head.”
“Because of you?”
“I think I made a good excuse.”
“And I take it the culprit was never found.”
“No.” She huffed a sigh. “But I had my suspicions. Max had a powerful challenger in his pack, a real brute by the name of Dagen.” She shuddered. “I hated Dagen from the moment I met him. He came onto me every time Max’s back was turned.”
“Dagen. The name sounds familiar. Right. I met him a couple of times after Beth died. I’d been searching for her and more than once the path of her abduction led to him, but then stopped dead. He had a real stench about him as I recall.”
“He has powerful connections to the cartels.”
“Figures. So, you think he killed Max?”
“Dagen would never have challenged Max to a straight-up dominance fight because Max would have whipped him in a pit-battle.” The shifter territories had sand pits in various parts of Savage to serve as a staging area for a pack challenge.
“You miss him?”
“Everyday. And I’m sorry I never told you about him before now. I just couldn’t. I mean, maybe the way he died made it worse. I hated that there was no justice for him. Then Dagen took over the pack. They’ve all suffered since.”
She tilted her head. “The funny thing is, I promised myself I’d never date a shifter again, and I haven’t.” She smiled ruefully. “But it seems I have trouble being interested in my own alter species. Now here you are, a vampire, with a towel around your waist in my dressing room.” The air grew electric. “And what I said to you in the bathroom? I’m embarrassed, but it was the truth.”
He rose to his feet and drew close. He gently took her arms in his hands. “Em, we almost died out there in the Graveyard. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.”
“Uh-huh.”
His eyes were low on his lids, and she was pretty sure his towel wasn’t fitting him as well as it had been a moment ago.
“We don’t have to date, Vaughn. I don’t think either of us really wants that. But it’s been a lonely stretch since Max died and I want to be with you.”
“How long has it been?”
“Five years.”
“Shit.” His voice had dropped several timbres.
