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She blinked.
Then she waited for the laugh. The cruel smile to tell her that it was all some sick joke. Neither came, and after a few seconds, panic set in.
He was serious.
“I can take it all.” His tone all but promised there was a catch. “I canhelpyou…but you have to trust me.”
Trust?
Loren glanced down at her hands, painted red with her own father’s blood. There was nothing lefttotrust. She was a monster. A freak…
“Just let me die,” she whispered, cutting her gaze longingly to the lethal waters of the stream.
“I canhelpyou!” The offer was a growl, whispered heatedly into her skin. “It won’t be easy. You won’t like it…but I can help you.”
He can help,that calm, familiar voice whispered tiredly from the back of her mind.We can trust him.Just let him…
In the end, she didn’t have much of a choice. When he lunged, pinning her with his full weight, the decision was made.
She couldn’t even scream.
9
She was drifting, floating aimlessly from one cloud of delirium to the next. She had no clue where she was, but she wasn’t alone. At some point, bits of conversation reached her like static through a faulty radio connection.
Had to.
The only way.
I couldn’t leave her.
“The pack wouldn’t take her in. It was the only way.”
All at once, the world stopped spinning, and Loren fell unceremoniously back to earth. She was on a bed with a mattress softer than any she could remember sleeping on before. The air smelled safe, rich like the forest. She couldn’t see—it was too dark—but she could sense other people nearby.
Two people.
“Did you call them when you found her?” a gentle voice prodded. Someone female? “Did youask?”
“No—” this voice was gruffer.Definitely male. Familiar, too. A name didn’t come to mind instantly, just a breathtaking face set with silver eyes. “But the other day, you all didn’t seem to give a damn about her anyway.”
“Don’t lump me in with them, Bill. I told you that it wasn’t my choice.”
“There is always a choice!” Anger penetrated his voice in guttural notes, and Loren shivered. Though, for the first time in her life, it wasn’t out of fear.
Discomfort? She didn’t like that he, whoeverhewas, was angry. It madeherfeel something that could have been anger as well. Her pulse raced, surging through her limbs as if electrified.
“She looks so young,” the first speaker remarked. “Are you sure she’s even old enough to—”
“Birth records claim she’s eighteen,” the man replied. Loren could tell from his inflection that he was uneasy. “But… She claimed that the bastard hadn’t touched her tonight—I don’t think he did. But she was covered in bruises. Her memories are like a fucking nightmare. I can’t—”
“Oh, no. That poor girl.”
Poor girl,Loren agreed amid a rush of sympathy. Whoever they were talking about, she seemed to deserve the pity.
“But you can’t really keep herhere,” the woman added. “You said she doesn’t even know the truth. What makes you think that she’ll—”
“I’ll handle it,” the man replied.Case closed.
