Page 35 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

I blinked at him, the hot words dying on my tongue as confusion replaced anger. What?

“Does she have someone in her life who is hard to deal with?” He spoke with such gentleness, as if knowing the words could hurt.

Pain ached in my heart. Could it be?

Part of me had wondered...

Shen

Pain flashed across her face.Her eyes fluttered closed. She did not show pain. She would be a mighty fine werewolf for the mere fact she acted much like one of us. Always remaining strong regardless of the pain I knew she was in after the fall. It made me wonder what other aches and pains she hid beneath that veneer of calm. And the depth of her pain for such an emotion to consume her face.

I forced my fists to relax.

“I will take that as a yes. Get her away from him, and she will become more at peace. But she must heal what was broken before she can live again. That is the good thing about brokenness: it can be mended with a bit of elbow grease and the right glue.”

Doc was an uncle to me and my siblings, although we were not related by blood. I saw him often enough, that was for certain. He said he liked me keeping him busy, that he was bored in his old age. I guessed it was more for the affection he carried for my father.

Since I had known him for quite some time, I saw the determined line in the hint of his brow. He had adopted this little Red. She spoke his language, after all. I hardly understood a word of the jargon they had spouted, but I doubted Alia realized just how much she ingratiated herself into the Doc’s mind. It would be humorous to see how long it would take Alia to realize the old doc had adopted her into his motley pack.

They continued speaking about her sister as I watched. The way her nose scrunched when she could not express her point properly and was thinking it through. How her hands clenched against the knife handle until they were whiter than a unicorn’s horn when the conversation would turn to the stress her sister was under. She skillfully derailed Doc quite often, but he just asskillfully would bring it back around. He knew where her sister’s situation would lead should they not acknowledge what was making her ill.

My teeth ground together as death pressed the surface of my memory. I took a breath.

It’s still more painful than a blade in the kidney,Lycus whimpered.

Yes, it was. With what happened, I often wondered if I could have done something more. I had given my Alpha the ability to issue Commands with my first kill, but it was the death of Fen’s birth father—and my paternal uncle—which shaped me. Killed by a Red, all because he was driven to insanity by his fated mate.

For years I had assassinated Reds in retribution for taking the last link to my father.

I had thought it was worth it. The revenge. The vengeance. The pain.

But now? Shame was my ever-present friend. It burned a seething pathway through my soul.

My mind turned back to the Red as she rose from the bed, her legs shaking nearly imperceptibly.

“I need to go home.”

I growled. No way was I allowing her to go off while she was ill?—

My brain came to a screeching halt.

She looked over at me, her nose scrunching in annoyance. It was her tell. Her nose spoke more than any other point on her face. “You’ve kept me alive. Your debt is paid. We’ll go our separate ways?—”

“Enough with the debt. That is not why I saved you.”

“Then why?—”

I should have left well enough alone. I pushed a breath out of my nose and stood from slouching against the bed. I stoodover her and sighed when she still retreated from me, as if my presence reminded her that death stalked her every move.

It was time to let this little curiosity growing within die. I had no room in my life for such things.

When in life should we stop living?Lycus asked.

You know better than most, this life is about survival, not living.

Can’t it be both?

Sometimes I wondered if Lycus was the part of me that had not given up hope long ago. I tried to protect him—the wolven part of a werewolf is something indescribable. It was not unlike having another soul, another being within you. It is an odd but intimate relationship. Some wolves had forsaken their humans because they went against their wolven morals. And when a shifter loses their wolf side, they become rogues—insane creatures with a thirst for pain. My uncle was a perfect example of this.

---