The front door opened behind
me. I’d been so focused on Ritch, assessing the danger he posed to the streak
and my mate, that I didn’t even hear Kraig moving around in the house. He was
pale, his expression stricken. He had to have heard Ritch. I half-turned,
refusing to turn my back on Ritch even with Deke at his back.
Kraig clutched the door like
it was holding him up. “I know. I know what happened to Danny.”
Pain and fear spread through
the air, the acrid odors coming from Kraig. I rushed up the stairs to him,
needing to banish those scents. I was careful as I wrapped my arms around Kraig
and pulled him close. He shook as he wrapped his arms around my waist and
fisted his hands in my shirt.
A single footstep on the
wooden steps sent my protective stance into overdrive again. I snarled, glaring
over my shoulder as I gently pushed Kraig down into a chair. “Stay back.”
Deke had his hand on Ritch’s
shoulder, pulling him back. “They’re newly blooded,” he whispered. “Don’t
stare.”
“But...” Ritch stretched out
one trembling hand. “He looks like....”
“A tiger and a cheetah,” Kraig
said bitterly. “A freak.”
Ritch shook his head. “You
were... but you look like him. That pattern on your neck. And the lines on your
muzzle. I saw a picture of his mate once.” He dropped his hand. “How is this
possible?” he whispered.
“Danny was in another cage
when I woke up in mine. They did things to him and me. Then, one day, they...
they....” Kraig broke off, choking on the words.
“Shh.” I dropped to my knees
beside him and ran my hand over the short bristles of his mane. “It’s
okay.” The submissive posture grated on
my instincts, but I wasn’t going to move away from my mate, and I wasn’t going
to make him say it. “Once Kraig was a human werekin like you. What we do know
is that your cousin and his mate were both experimented on by the doctor you
mentioned. He also experimented on others, but somehow—we don’t know how yet—he
transferred their bonded werekin souls into Kraig.”
Tears overflowed and ran down
Ritch’s cheeks. He shook his head, working his jaw. “They’re dead, aren’t
they?” He curled his hands into fists. “I failed.”
“If you failed, then so did I.
Kraig was gone for two years. We thought he died. I let that doctor into my
territory and allowed him access to my streak.”
Kraig grabbed my hand and
squeezed it. “You didn’t know.”
“But I should have. My gut
told me something was wrong about him. Look at what he did to you.”
“This was done before he
brought us here. You couldn’t have stopped it.”
Ritch turned away. “Maybe if
I’d said something when he first disappeared. Maybe gone to the Alpha.”
Park broke his silence. “You
can’t live your life constantly thinking maybe. Come on.” He pulled Ritch back.
“We’re going back to my place,” he told me.
I nodded my permission. “We’ll
talk later.”
When they were gone, I focused
all of my attention on Kraig. He was wiping away tears, and he looked
exhausted. “This was too much. Let’s go back to bed.” He wouldn’t let me carry
him, but I supported Kraig up the stairs.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“Just hold me. Please.”
We’d skipped dinner, and Lydia
called me on it. “How is he supposed to heal if you don’t feed him?”
“Mom, I’m okay. I needed sleep
more than I needed to eat. Besides, I’m healing fine.” The bone-deep slice in
his wrist was a red line, still raw, but completely closed. Two days wasn’t
going to be enough to take away the dark circles under his eyes or hide the way
his clothes hung off his downright skinny frame.
She shoveled a few more
sausages onto his plate.
“Besides, you’re going to make
my stomach explode.” She sniffed, but finally put the pan in the sink. I nabbed
two of the three sausages off Kraig’s plate and stuffed them in my mouth, and
he mouthed, “Thank you.”
I smirked. “I’d hate to see
you explode. Ow!”
Lydia had smacked me on the back
of the head. She sat down in a chair next to Kraig’s dad and picked up her
fork. “No innuendo at the table.”
“But—”
“Don’t even try it.” She
raised that eyebrow, and I clamped my lips shut around what I wanted to say. It’d
been so long since she was like this, back to the woman who’d kept in line
before I became the leader of our streak. “Sorry.”
Clinking of forks and sounds
of enjoyment dominated the morning quiet. “What do you have planned for today,
Deke?” Henry asked.
“I have a few issues to
adjudicate, so I was going to drive over to a few streak member’s houses.”
“They aren’t coming here?”
Kraig cocked his head to the side. “They always did before.”
“Right now’s not the best time
to have additional scents in my home.” My rooms were inundated with my scent
and his mom’s dominated the kitchen. There weren’t a lot of scents that suck
around since the streak members visited briefly, no more than a few hours at a
time, if that. I needed his scent mingled with mine or my instincts would
ensure I drove everyone else out, if Kraig didn’t do it first.
“Okay.”
Henry cleared his throat. “Would
you like Kraig to come home with us while you’re out?”
“If he wants to.” I wasn’t
going to make his decisions for him again.
Lydia froze.
“Of course I do. Park still
lives there, right?”
“No, he has his own place now.
But your room is just how you left it.” Lydia cleared her throat.
“Really?”
“I couldn’t bear to change it.”
Lydia blinked. “It was the last piece we had of you.”
TBCWant more? Well, it's coming next week as Kraig and Deke separate for the first time. Now there's more flash to enjoy, so follow the links below!
Briefers Website
It really hits home that two people died to augment Kraig with bonded werekin souls. Really evil people.
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