Page 16 of Breathe Again

“I said, back-off, Mitch!” Luke demanded as the man tried to make another jump on me while I was distracted.

“We gonna have any problems here, Lizzy?” Luke asked me, and I knew he was referring to the still sitting in my territory.

I looked around and tried to assess just where we were, but I didn’t recognize anything specific to the area. I shook my head.

“You know she’s going to run home and tell her Alpha,” the one who was heading up the attack on me said.

“Lizzy, you aren’t gonna go running off and tell anyone about this, now are you?” Luke asked. I shook my head. He turned towards the others. “I told the lot of you that you were idiots for setting up here. Now take it down and get back onto our land. I don’t want shit with Collier. You know, I’ve got no beef with you, Lizzy,” Luke said.

I nodded.

“Get on home, and not a word of this to anyone or I won’t be able to stop them from coming after you,” Luke warned, looking slightly sympathetic.

I gave him one last nod and backed away. When I had all six of them in my sight, I turned and ran. It wasn’t long before I heard Luke curse. “Dammit, let her be, she ain’t gonna cause us any trouble. Shit. Run, Lizzy, run,” he yelled.

I didn’t look back, but I could hear wolves snarling and gnashing their teeth behind me. I was fast and managed to stay ahead of them. I ran for my life, wanting to stop and gasp for breath, but fearing what they’d do if they caught up to me, so I just kept running in the direction I knew would take me home.

Cole

Chapter 9

The sting of the tattoo gun was just what I needed to take the edge off and dull the pain coursing through my body. I sometimes used the art as a drug. The guy running the place was young, little more than a pup, but he had a steady hand and some great designs. I’d chosen a single red rose dripping blood, just above my Elizabeth tattoo, like the pain she caused was covering us.

Still, after all these years I’d never been able to touch that tattoo. I’d never even altered it. It held a sacred place on my body, and no matter how many times I wanted to get rid of it I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

I knew that girl was my ultimate weakness. It’d been that way since the first moment I laid eyes on her, and after this week I knew it always would be. I was convinced there was absolutely nothing a person could do to break a true bond: not time, not witchcraft, no spell, no magic potion, no amount of other women, no drug on this planet, nothing. Lord knew I’d tried.

Despite the years of agony that woman had put me through, it still hurt me on a visceral level to know the pain I’d caused her when I stormed out of her house. I’d had my say, I’d made my point, but as the anger began to subside it was replaced with truth, and that was a much tougher pill to swallow. When all was said and done, I still loved Elizabeth Collier.

Each and every tattoo that marked my body was a story of her; some of the pain and agony she’d caused me, some of the precious time we’d spent together. But if I were truly honest with myself, they all looped back to her. Laying there in that chair while the kid put the finishing touches on my latest tribute to the girl, I figured I had one of two options. I could continue with life as usual, suffering the loneliness and pain that came from being without my mate, or I could suck it up, put my pride aside, and actually talk to her. The young idealist and often idiot boy within me still wanted to believe we had a chance.

Each choice came with its own list of pros and cons, but I found myself softening just a little towards option number two.

When the kid was done, I paid him and gave him a nice fat tip before leaving the shop. As my luck would have it, Lily, Ruby, and Clara were just leaving Elizabeth’s.

You couldn’t see the patch protecting my latest tat, but Lily took one look at me and gave me a pathetic smile filled with sympathy. “What’d ya get this time?”

I shrugged. “Bleeding rose,” I confessed, knowing she wouldn’t let up if I didn’t just tell her.

“Nice. A little generic for you, but hey, at least it’s not some mutilated heart or something. That’s promising.”

Lily was far more observant than people gave her credit for. I’d never told her that my tattoos represented my various emotions for Elizabeth, but somehow, she just knew.

Ruby’s stare was shooting daggers my way. If looks could kill, I’d be a dead man.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked her.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? She’s your true mate? How long have you known that? Where have you been all these years? Do you have any idea what she’s been through?” Ruby yelled at me.

“Calm down, Ruby. We’re just all a little shocked. Lizzy had a bit of a temper and was so full of life when we were kids, but that light was snuffed out a long time ago. I always thought it was Santos. She never talked about what happened with him,” Clara said.

I growled at the mention of his name, then looked up to the sky and counted to ten with deep cleansing breaths.

“You lost it and yelled at her, didn’t you?” Lily asked. She was smirking, like it was all some big joke to her.

“Yeah, I did,” I admitted.

“Eh, fifteen years of pent-up frustration, it was bound to come out. Just please. . . when the other side of that pent-up frustration comes to fruition, get out of the middle of town. You’re going to scare the kids.” She snorted, finding herself hilarious.

---