Page 7 of The Alpha's Grave Secrets

“Elara, I know you aren’t sleeping.”

Reluctantly, I open my eyes, offering a half-hearted smile, “Hey, Kato.”

“How are you?” he asks, eyes flickering across my body like he’s trying to find something broken or wounded. I’m healing too fast for that, and he knows better, but that doesn’t stop him.

“Where’s the pretty blonde you were here with earlier?” I hate myself for asking. Hate me for the jealousy brewing inside.

“Callie,” he says, a hint of amusement sparking in his eyes, “She’s at the crime scene. Why? Are you afraid to be alone with me?”

“Not in the slightest,” I smirk, “She’s a lot easier on the eyes than you are.

I’ll have to ask her who her hairstylist is.”

Licking my chapped lips to hide the smile forming, I push myself up, straining against my sore, dehydrated muscles to sit upright.

Before I can finish adjusting myself, Kato puts a pillow behind my back. ”Comfortable?”

“Thanks,” my lips form a tight line as I lean back into the hospital bed—heat prickling beneath the surface of my skin at his proximity.

My wolf whines again; I wonder if Kato’s is doing the same.

His deep blue eyes look into mine, a longing in his gaze as my cheeks bloom pink and my stomach flutters. After a moment too long, he clears his throat and takes a seat in the chair at my bedside.

“I need to talk to you about what happened. This isn’t going to be an easy conversation. Are you up for it?”

“Would it matter if I wasn’t?”

The painful expression on his face tells me what I already know.No, it wouldn’t matter.A pang of guilt stabs me in the chest.

He’s got a murderer to catch; out of all the victims, I was the lucky one, if you can call surviving something like that lucky.

“I’m up for it.”

“Thank you, Elara; we need your help to solve this case. I know it’s unfair to you, but unfortunately, that’s how these things go.”

“I want to know something. Earlier, I said I didn’t think my attempts to humanize myself helped, but you did. Callie seemed to think otherwise also. What aren’t you telling me?”

Kato hesitates. I can see him formulating the right words as his eyes darken, “There’s no easy way to say this, but you weren’t just the only one left alive. We are still waiting for more information from the medical examiner, but the other women… they were brutalized before their deaths.”

My throat feels like it’s closing in on itself—those poor women. I need to stop thinking about myself as a victim in this situation and start thinking like a psychotherapist. It’s what saved my life, and it’s what is going to help catch this guy.

“When you find out more from the medical examiner, I want to know everything.” I say louder than I intended.

“I don’t think you need to put yourself through that,” he looks like he wants to reach out and take my hand and behind that softness, there is something else. A flicker of rage igniting at what was done to those women, at what could have been done to me.

“Last time I checked, you don’t think for me,” I roll my eyes, “and it’s a good thing, too. If you want me to help you, I want to know everything.”

“Otherwise, what? You’ll withhold information?” he growls.

“Otherwise,” I say, raising an eyebrow, “I don’t foresee any memories returning to me.”

Kato’s eyes darken as he looks at me. For a moment I catch a glimpse of the Alpha Wolf in him, the force that is feared by so many. But then he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closes his eyes. After a long beat, he says, “What can you tell me about what happened to you?”

“The man who took me,” I take a deep breath. My Goddess, this is harder to talk about than I expected. “The man who took me was odd.”

My heart races, and I take several deep breaths to calm it before I can continue.

“You don’t say,” Kato cocks his head to the side, frustrated. “Even I can tell you that much. I’d expect more from a psychotherapist.” A bit of that fire of his still burning beneath the surface.

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