< Chapter 20-1
+25 Points
Chapter 20-1
Freedom was one step away.
All I had to do was turn and leave. I knew the way to the witches. They could come back and get Troy and be prepared for whatever he had in store for them.
And it probably wouldn’t kill him.
So why the hell was I kneeling beside him?
“You’re not breathing,” I snapped, glaring down at him as I examined the trap’s hold. My voice was colder than it needed to be, but I was furious-at him, at me. “You want me to believe you’re too
tough to die but too weak to inhale?”
“Maybe because I was thinking you’d leave me,” he muttered, his tone a bitter stab meant to wound. My gaze dropped to the blood streaking down his leg.
The wound was bad-but not fatal.
“I should,” I said flatly, turning my attention to the spell choking him. The magic pulsed like a second heartbeat, brushing against me, clawing like it wanted to drag me down with him.
I had lied to him. I didn’t have a counter-spell.
I didn’t need one.
The second it touched me, it recoiled. Went black. Then died. Just like that. Dissolved into nothing.
I couldn’t tell him what that meant. Not now. Not ever.
Because I knew what it made me.
My father knew what it made me, and he’d locked me in the house for years while he schemed for
a way to use me.
Nobody was going to do that ever again.
His strangled gasp told me the spell had finally released him. But it had already taken its pound of flesh. Blood soaked into the denim, hot and deep. I hauled him up anyway, gritting my teeth. When he swayed, my voice snapped like a whip.
“It’s just a stupid cut. Get over yourself.”
“Feel dizzy,” he slurred, blinking at me like he couldn’t decide if I was the enemy or the anchor.
Damn it. The spell hadn’t just nicked his flesh-it had buried itself deeper.
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<Chapter 20-1
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Dragging him to the other cave nearly wrecked me. Every step was a curse. By the time I dumped him on the ground, I was shaking from more than just effort.
“If you’d listened to me,” I hissed as I rummaged through the pack, “you wouldn’t be painting the damn cave with your blood right now.”
“True,” he said, his voice grating.
I froze. Not an apology. Not even regret. Just that one-word admission like it didn’t mean a damn thing.
“You don’t trust me,” I bit out, throwing the gauze down. “So why let me tag along? Why bother?”
“No other option.”
The way he said it-like I was just a tool, disposable, convenient-it made my skin crawl.
“Keep talking like that, Troy, and I swear you’ll be dead before sunset. I haven’t done a thing to
deserve this suspicion.”
“Except kill other wolves,” he said, all calm malice. “You admitted it. That night. Women. Children.”
My jaw clenched.
Snapping my head up, I glared at him. “I’ve never killed a child. Never. Not when they begged me
- Not even when I knew they were never going to escape and it would be a mercy.”
His hand shot out, seizing my arm with a grip that hurt.
“Tell me the-”
“Why? Why do you even care?” My voice cracked. “This ends eventually. When it does, you’re free.
You can forget I ever existed. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
His hold only tightened.
“That’s not true,” he growled. “I think of you every fucking day. Didn’t last night teach you anything?
It doesn’t matter where you are. You’re still under my goddamn skin!”
My breath stopped. I should’ve yanked free, but I couldn’t move,
“I keep myself up at night,” he said darkly. “Thinking about pounding into you. About the way you’d
take it. I haven’t touched another woman since the curse, not once. So yeah, Kiana-I do want to
talk about it. I want to know if the only mate who’s ever haunted my fucking dreams is just a cold-blooded killer in disguise.”
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