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Naked body shaking, Shane stood a handful of feet from me. “Raika, I’m sorry.” He glanced down at his hands, as if he didn’t recognize them. “I didn’t—”
I ran to him, launched myself at him, and embraced him. With a sigh, Shane wound his arms around my waist and buried his head on my neck.
He inhaled deeply. “I’ve lost control. The Shadow Wolf is stronger. He took over. I couldn’t do anything.” He glanced back, to the dead bodies around the truck. “I don’t remember any of it.”
I frowned. Shit, this wasn’t good. We were halfway through a month, still two weeks from the next full moon. But at the same time, I knew that if the Shadow Wolf hadn’t taken over, Shane and I might not be alive now. Shane was strong, but the two of us against twelve? Those were bad odds.
I ran my hands over his bare shoulders. “It’s okay. You’re okay now. We are okay.”
He stared at me, his eyes rummaging over my forehead, my forearm, my shoulder. All the wounds were practically healed, thanks to our wolf traits.
He cupped my cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“I told you, it’s fine.”
“No. For yesterday.”
My breath caught. “You aren’t mad at me anymore?”
“No, I’m not. I wasn’t mad at you in any moment. I was just shocked. I’m known to have a hot temper and it gets the best of me.” He shook his head. “Raika, I’m sorry. I don’t know why that is so hard to say, but it’s true. I overreacted, I acted like a jerk, and—”
“I should have told you sooner.” That was something I couldn’t change now, but I would forever regret.
“Probably, but it has been only two weeks since we defeated Conri, since you discovered you could semi-control darkfire. And we were busy with the pack, searching for the crystals, looking for a Nightmist witch.” He paused. “And there was me too. I understand why you held back. It isn’t easy to tell someone you care about your darkest secret. You were afraid of my reaction.”
“You can’t be all right with me being a half-demon,” I said. “Damn, I’m not all right with it.” Since hearing it from Franc, I felt the urge to pinch myself all the time, to make sure this wasn’t a nightmare.
“I … I can’t say I love it, but I love you.” He stared into my eyes, his gaze soft. “Whatever happens, wherever this leads us, we’ll do this together.” My chest constricted and my eyes brimmed with tears. “Hey, I didn’t want to make you cry.”
“Just shut up and kiss me already,” I whispered.
A smile spread over his lips. “You don’t need to tell me twice.”
He lowered his head to mine, taking my mouth with his. The kiss started slow, but sped up, and desire flooded my veins.
Shane retreated with me. We almost tripped over a broken tree branch, and that was when I remembered where we were and the bodies littering the forest just a few yards from us.
I didn’t want to sleep with Shane here, in this situation.
I broke the kiss, breathing hard, and whispered, “We should stop.”
He nodded, his forehead brushing against mine. “You’re right.” With a sigh, Shane stepped back. “We need to get dressed, call the pack, clean up this mess, and figure out what’s going on.”
He walked back to the truck. My stomach knotted looking at it. By the moon, we had been inside it and now it looked so beat up, it was a wonder we weren’t in worse shape.
Shane rescued our bags from the truck and threw mine at me. “We have a lot to do.”
That we certainly did.
* * *
Less than two hours later,a group showed up to help us. Dom, Vallin, Killian, and Taos. They asked Shane what was going on, but Shane said we would talk about it when we got back in town, and then he would tell them what had happened.
In near silence, they picked up the bodies, covered them in blankets, hauled them into the back of another truck. I felt sick watching. But Shane said he wanted the bodies delivered to the Whitecrest pack. Even if this was the beginning of a war, he would have wanted his body returned, so he was doing the same.
They also hooked up the truck wrapped around the tree to cables in the back of another truck. Together, we flipped it over, and with the cables, had the truck brought to the side of the road. Vallin was already on the phone with the insurance company, probably talking about how to have the car picked up and all that. He would spin a beautiful lie about losing control of the truck, going down the hill, but thankfully not being hurt. If there was any problem with the person coming to collect the truck and take it to a car shop, Killian would intervene with his compulsion. But we all knew the truck had been totaled.
It was past noon when we arrived back at the pack. Lavinia was waiting for us at the town hall, with lunch—bless her—and a potion she said would help with pain, if we still had any.
