Page 14 of Wolf Bitten

“Warin, we’ve shown her enough.” Glinda clucked her tongue. “Look at the poor girl. She’s pale and shaking.”

I glanced at my hands. They were visibly quivering. Shit. I clasped them together and straightened my back. “Seeing all those people like that …” I shuddered. Though I was used to blood from my studies, it usually belonged to animals and wasn’t the result of anger or maliciousness. Even though I wasn’t looking at the pictures anymore, the glint in Raffe’s eyes would stay with me. “It’s … hard.” I’d like to paint the supernaturals as animals, but whether I wanted to admit it or not, humans had the same tendency toward violence, war, and power.

“Her blood has a hint of an intoxicating coppery smell.” Warin sniffed, breathing it in. “It smells as if her medicine is wearing off.” He smiled creepily.

Without pausing, Glinda lifted a syringe from her pocket. Just like the past few days, Warin’s hand blurred as he snatched it, and I tried to stand to get out of the way, though it was pointless. But just sitting here and letting them drug me, as though it were inevitable, made me feel as if I was giving in or breaking. I needed to fight back, even only on principle.

The needle sank into my arm before I could put weight on my feet, and my blood fizzed. Warin’s pupils dilated, and the rims around his irises turned a faint red.

Strange.

I’d never noticed that before. A chill ran down my back, and something warm churned inside me. I had this feeling whenever Warin drugged me.

He and Glinda felt proud of themselves, and I knew why. They’d made me doubt Raffe, and I hated that I’d allowed them to see that.

“Leave before you get out of control,” Glinda commanded as she took the empty syringe from Warin’s hand. “If you don’t, I’ll make you.”

He frowned and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. His breathing quickened from being near me, but the drug began to kick in, and my blood eased.

Soon, my limbs would be hard to move for a couple of hours. I’d be so lethargic that the two of them could do anything they wanted to me with very little fight.

“I’m better now.” Warin exhaled. “Her magic is calming.”

Between the drug and the pictures I’d seen, I didn’t have the energy to keep up any sort of charade around them. I placed my hands on the desk and pushed back slowly, not wanting to lose my balance. “Thank you for the information and food, but I need to be alone.”

Glinda touched her chest. “I’m sure you do. It must be hard, seeing the proof and then coming to terms with the fact that the wolf shifter you trusted has been manipulating you.” She waved toward the bedroom door. “We should respect her wishes.”

“There’s so much more we could show her, though.” Warin pouted and crossed his arms.

Even as my body calmed, my heart beat faster than it should’ve been able to. What else could they show me? I didn’t want to know the answer because I feared their plan would succeed. Something inside me prickled with hot anger that I’d allowed someone to make me think differently of Raffe. Soul mates or not, we weren’t perfect people, and maybe his dad had more influence over him than I realized. He’d wanted to keep me secret and feared retribution. Fear had a way of making you do things, and I understood that more than anyone.

“Look at her.” Glindatsked. “We can’t do that to her. We’ll show them tomorrow. We don’t want to overwhelm her all at once.”

Warin rolled his eyes. “Fine. She ishuman, or mostly, but I will show her more tomorrow. She needs to see that we aren’t in the wrong and the shifters need to be stopped.”

My mouth went dry. I didn’t want to see any more pictures, but I also needed to know what Raffe and his dad had been up to. There had to be a way to convince Raffe he couldn’t follow in his dad’s footsteps and needed to right the wrongs they’d done. No species or person deserved to be starved, slaughtered, and bullied, and I refused to be with someone who treated people like that, so I had to believe he could change.

I wanted to wrap my arms around myself, but I forced them to remain at my sides until the two of them left.

“I’ll come back later for your tray.” Glinda leaned over and patted my arm. “That will give you time to settle and eat.”

After those images, I couldn’t imagine having an appetite tonight. The food was still sitting way too heavily in my stomach. “No need. I’m done. I just want to sleep.” I yawned, not even attempting to hide it like normal.

“Very well.” Glinda took the tray as Warin exited the room. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” She left the water on the table and carried the items from the room.

Once the door shut, the weight of everything pressed on me. I couldn’t believe that Raffe would do something like that to anyone, even vampires. At least the vampire who’d attacked me in the woods had shown he wasn’t rational and could have killed me and other humans. I understood Raffe’s decision to kill him. But vampires hiding out in a warehouse alone didn’t sound worthy of execution. If the shifters didn’t want them there, they could have told them to leave instead ofattackingthem.

Taking a deep breath, I spun the chair around and scooted closer to the bed. With the drug in full effect, moving those three feet took a few minutes.

Once there, I plopped onto the bed and rolled into the center. Now that I was here, I had nothing to do but stare at the ceiling and let my mind wander.

No matter how I tried to control my line of thought, it kept coming back to those pictures. My heart ached as doubt about Raffe crept in. A picture had a way of telling a story, but not the whole one. I wouldn’t know more until I talked to Raffe and heard his side of things.

That was when I became more certain than ever.

I had to get out of here. They were poisoning me against Raffe, which wasn’t right because he wasn’t here to defend himself. They would continue to do that and show me more and more “proof” until I agreed with their side. That’s how manipulators worked and why they were so effective.

The best thing I could do was sleep off the drug. Then I’d find a way out of here, no matter what.

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