Page 37 of Mated in Darkness

“And then we need to figure out who the hell is killing our people,” Riaz growled.

The four of us spoke some more before Brendan, Rio, and Dean walked in and joined the conversation. We tried to figure out exactly who had come at us and were waiting to see what kind of serum was in those darts, only to find out that it had been a simple tranquilizer for wolves.

Someone knew our biology enough to try to attack us, but with so many of our secrets out in the open, that wasn’t as unheard of as it had been even ten years ago.

Somebody was hunting wolves, and with the way that those humans had smelled wrong and the magic involved in those fake wards, I had to believe it was somehow connected to these black bite marks.

We were missing something, something big, and I had to wonder exactly what it was.

The Healer came out after a moment, saying I could sit with Jason, and so I left my family with the others, knowing that they could take care of themselves, and I went to Jason’s room.

He had said he had no family, that the Pack were the only friends he had, and now he was lying here on the bed, alone, possibly never to awake. Possibly to hate me once he did.

I let out a shaky breath, my wolf whimpering, as I took his hand.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making your choice. Don’t hate me.”

I let out a breath and gasped as Jason opened his eyes.

“Kaylee.”

And I was lost.

Chapter 15

Jason

I could feelsomething prowl within me. Something that wasn’t me, or perhaps had never been there before. How did I know what this feeling was? And how did I know that this was always meant to be?

I shook my head as I gripped the edge of the bathroom sink. I looked into the mirror, sweat coating my brow, and let out a deep breath. Only it came out more of a rumble, and I froze, wondering what that was, who that could be.

I wiped the steam from the window, my shower having been hot enough to scorch the skin off my bones. Not that I wouldn’t have been able to possibly heal from that since, apparently, I was now a shifter. A wolf. A werewolf to some, a monster to others.

A mate to Kaylee.

How had this happened? Oh, I knewhowit had happened. Someone had stabbed me in the guts, men in black garb with knives and tranq guns. They had killed me. I had felt that.

As a scientist, as one who needed answers and not just facsimiles of what could be and couldn’t be, I had always known I would die. I hadn’t known when, or how. But I had known that one day I would be at the end of my line. That death would take me. Yet, it hadn’t this time. Somehow, without Kaylee and I doing more than kissing against that door, a bare brush of need, our mating bond had taken. We had skipped a few of the steps, if what I knew about wolves was true. But she had marked me.

My hand went up to my shoulder, my fingertips brushing along the ridges. The only scar I had left on my body. And Kaylee had whispered to me when she had thought I had still been sleeping that this scar would fade. That mates sometimes would mark each other again, over and over, in a sign of deep pleasure. Possession.

What if we both wanted this? Wanted more? I had heard the temperance in her tone, the hesitation.

She was afraid.

Afraid that she had taken my choice.

Then again, what was a choice?

I was a wolf. Someone had tried to kill me. I had a mate.

I was Pack.

My life was irrevocably altered, the path laid out before me something I had never once thought could ever be, and here I was, wondering at the idea of what life and death were.

Because I had died, but then I hadn’t.

I had been slain, and then I had risen.

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