Page 54 of Wild Wolf

I nodded, easily agreeing on that. “I thought I’d put my past to rest, but seeing Benjamin again showed me how damn foolish I was to think that. I am my past. Just a walking wound who lashes out at the world because of the anger I feel inside. That anger lies with Benjamin, but he wasn’t there to receive it, so I offered it to everyone else. I am so very filled with hate, Roary, and I think it’s mixed with my blood like venom. There’s no antidote, no cure. I am this heartless creature because of him, but there’s no undoing that now.”

“You’re a fool if you believe that, Cain. And I think you’re a lot of things, but a fool is not one of them.” Roary’s eyes glinted silver as the moon caught in them and I found myself stepping slightly closer to him.

“I’m a miserable fuck who deserves everything he gets.” I tugged up my left sleeve, revealing the curse mark and Roary regarded it, moving nearer. “She told you about this?” I guessed and he nodded, reaching out to trail his index finger over the rose vine that was crawling over my skin.

“I’ve never seen magic like it,” he said. “Rosa holds gifts that go beyond any normal Wolf, perhaps any normal Fae.”

“Not even she knows how to undo this.” I tugged my sleeve back down. “The moon has decided my fate.”

“No fate is ever set. You could still break the curse. Stranger things have happened, Cain. Don’t lose faith just yet.”

“Why are you on my side all of a sudden?” I asked suspiciously.

“Because I’m starting to see what Rosalie sees in you.”

“An easily manipulated guard who now trails around after her like a hungry dog?” I sneered.

“You discount yourself so simply,” he tutted. “Maybe if you tried noticing your good deeds, you’d find more to count than bad.”

“I highly doubt that,” I said bitterly.

“Rosa is forming a pack out of us. You should be a part of that. She wants you to be,” he insisted.

“No, I’m not part of the pack, Roary. But I have decided on something. I’m hers now. Whatever she seeks, I will be in service to her until she secures it. I will follow her commands and do as she bids me to.”

“Well if that’s not the definition of being part of her pack, then I don’t know what is.” Roary quirked a grin at me and I blew out a breath of dismissal.

“The moon marked you as good for her, while it marked me as bad for her. If that’s not proof of our differences, inmate, I don’t know what is.”

“Inmate?” he mused. “I don’t see any bars out here between these trees.”

“Old habits die hard.”

“True. But let them die, Cain,” he said, the smile dropping from his face. “Embrace the new world.”

“Only if you do the same,” I said, arching a brow at him.

“I might need some help with that,” he muttered.

“I thought you’d never ask,” I taunted. “You need someone to teach you the ways of your Order, and the rules that come with keeping our urges in check. The Vampire Code. You almost fell into the hunt before, and I know better Vampires than you who have lost themselves to it entirely. They don’t come back. And you won’t either if it happens again.”

“Teach me then,” Roary urged, grabbing my hand. “Swear you will.”

I hesitated, knowing the responsibility this would be. He should have been taught by the best of our kind, a role model that could teach our ways with patience and understanding. I wasn’t exactly the poster child for the position, but then again, Roary wasn’t your everyday newly Awakened Vampire. So maybe I was exactly who he needed.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

I’d never been one for sleeping in a pack huddle, but I had to admit there were worse places to wake up in the morning than tangled between three excruciatingly gorgeous men. My body ached in a blissful way which spoke only of our carnal claiming the night before and I sighed as I nuzzled Ethan’s chest, Sin’s arm banding around us tightly.

It was tempting to remain in place there all day but I had things to do and places to go. I wished this shit was over but there was still a victim in need of escape who we had to reclaim and I wasn’t going to rest until we had returned Roary’s Lion to him. What we would do with it and how we would go about returning it to his body after the fact would come next. For now, I knew what was needed of me.

I eased myself out of my position between the men I had spent the last night claiming, wriggling free of them and pushing to my feet at the foot of the bed. Roary was still absent after crawling from our tangled limbs several hours into our tryst and I frowned as I took in the empty space on the bed where he should have been.

I knew that sex was only a distraction for him from his grief at the moment but it still stung that he hadn’t returned to us to sleep. Of course that was on the assumption that he had slept at all.

I ran a hand through my tangled hair, a cool breeze raising goosebumps on my bare skin and a delicious ache resonating through my bones. I grabbed some clean clothes and a towel, leaving Sin and Ethan snuggled up in bed, the two of them closing in on one another now that my body didn’t divide them, and I headed for the shower.

I glanced in the mirror after locking the door at my back, the red in my hair glaring at me like a bruise that needed healing. It wasn’t a bad look exactly, it just wasn’t me.

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