Page 23 of Wolf Tamer

Tasha is the type of woman who’s an asset to any who possess her.

As if anyone could.

“It wasn’t enough,” she insists, turning slightly to face me as I float my finger across her cheek to her hairline and trace a line down to her eyebrow. Her hair is so soft, her skin equally so.

She’s prettier than any woman I’ve seen before, and sometimes I wonder how she can possibly be real. How she can be here with me. It seems like a miracle, and one I never expected for myself, because I saw the way my parents’ marriage turned out. And chaining anyone to the family life I had seems like the greatest torture of all.

Yet here we are, and there is no way for me to let her go now.

“It’s okay. You did what you could,” I tell her.

“I should have done more. I should have stayed away from them.” Tasha trails off. “I was stupid. I went right back.”

“We all do stupid things sometimes. The important thing is that you’re here now, and you’re all right.” I stare across the room mutinously, as though I can somehow see all the way back to town to where the witches are surely regrouping. “They’re going to pay for what they did to you.”

“Speaking… about stupid things, Reid…”

I snuggle closer, unable to stop myself from touching her. “Ah, you mean Emily and Crane.”

She nods sharply, then winces, so I run my hand over her face again. Who knows when she’ll let me touch her so freely once she recovers. She’d much rather bite off my hand than hold it.

“They attempted something that is normally taboo,” I say firmly. “They informally challenged their alpha with the intent to kill me and dispatch me from my position.”

Tasha doesn’t need to be awake for me to practically see the steam coming out of her ears.

“I’m going to have to confront my pack again,” I tell her.

“We,” Tash corrected.

Oh, definitely not. “You’re not in a position to help me right now.”

She struggles to open her eyes, only to spear me through with a glance, her expression hard as granite. “Don’t fuck with me on this, Reid. We’re going to hunt down those assholes and punish them for escaping. It’s the only way for you to establish your dominance. And I’m going to help you.”

I hesitate to tell her the conclusion I’ve come to while we’ve been here together. I really should have just let her go. Instead, I have to subject her to something that will be utterly mortifying.

Her skin still feels like it’s on fire, and her face is eight different shades of white.

Is now really the time?

It has to be. “Tash… I want to talk to you about something.” Another man might have waited until his lady feels better before dropping an anvil on her head, at least given a few more days to recuperate. But I’m obviously determined to make her hate me.

“Sounds ominous.”

“It might be.”

After what seems like an hour but is probably only a few seconds, she’s had enough of my hedging. “Rip off the Band-Aid,” she demands. “Come on. I can take it.”

I’m almost too afraid to do so. Only now, I’ve opened my fat mouth and know she’ll compel me to tell her before I draw my next breath.

Hopefully she decides to trust me with what comes next.

She has no choice, really, and so I forge ahead with honesty and more than my fair share of disappointment.

“I’m going to have to punishyou, too.”

Her eyes widen, and she snorts, “Excuse me? That has to be the oddest pick-up line—”

“Punish you for escaping,” I clarify. “Only to keep up the ruse we’ve created. To show that I’m not weak. I can’t let the distension go unpunished, and until I hunt down—wehunt down—Emily, you’re going to have to take the brunt of my ire. I’m sorry.”

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