Page 28 of Wolf Bitten

How was that possible?

The strange presence within me churned, increasing my urge to reach out to him and take away all his pain. I hated seeing him this way and would do anything to alleviate his guilt so he’d never feel this way again.

I laid my hand on his, but he didn’t respond, and his attention remained on the road. A sharp pain shot through me.

“The picture was right. When we reached the abandoned warehouse, there weren’t any humans there. Only vampires,” he said raggedly.

A gigantic lump lodged in my throat, but despite the horror, I didn’t want to pull my hand away. He regretted that day, and I needed to be there for him. Whatever had happened was a burden to him.

I opened my mouth, unsure what to say, but he continued, “What the picture doesn’t reveal is the five humans they were holding in a different location. They were manipulating their minds, making them want to remain blood slaves.”

Mouth snapping closed, I swallowed, making a loud gulping noise around the lump in my throat. “Blood slaves?” I shivered; the thought was horrible. I’d been bitten by a vampire multiple times, and it hadhurt. I understood people had their kinks, but the sensation of those bites was something I couldn’t fathom anyone enjoying.

The black iron sign with the wordsEvergreen Elite Universitymolded into the center appeared in front of us, held up by its two gigantic brick pillars. Usually, the campus felt like home, but not in this moment … not with this horrible story.

“In the old days, when the human population was smaller, vampires would acquire blood slaves so humans wouldn’t question why they had bite marks they couldn’t remember getting.” Raffe pursed his lips like the words tasted bad. “The vampires would usually have a human family live with them so they could feed off six or seven at their leisure. The families were ostracized because they would always wear layers of clothing to hide their marks despite the warm weather. They were deemed strange, and often, the family line died off because no one would marry their strange children, and the vampire would then move on to another family.”

I inhaled sharply. That sounded similar to my experience growing up with people finding me strange and not wanting anything to do with me. Those poor kids. In a way, I understood why the wolf shifters had tried to keep vampires away from heavily populated areas.

We coasted into campus, the huge brick sports stadium where the football team played towering on our right and the student center straight ahead. The cherry trees around the lawn in front of the building, which students lounged under during the warm months, were bare in the cold weather.

Raffe turned left toward the apartment buildings, passing the soccer and tennis courts. “That’s what a few of the vampires were attempting to do again, but they were living away from the family to go undetected.”

Then it hit me. They’d picked a smaller city so they could feast on people without the wolves noticing.

“Dad got word of the situation through a supernatural intranet board monitored by an anonymous source who claims to be a witch. They were passing through the city and sensed the magical essence of mind manipulation on the humans at the local market.”

Ihmmed. “Is it normal to post anonymously?”

He nodded. “People reporting something like that don’t usually share their identity. Supernaturals tend to be vindictive, and it’s essentially a safety net to protect the whistleblower.”

Made sense. My dad worked as an accountant at a large company, and I knew it had a number where you could report violations anonymously.

We passed the administration building, and Raffe pulled into the apartment parking lot. I kept my junky old Honda Civic parked in the back corner, but Raffe parked in a reserved spot in front of the path that led to the two five-story cement apartment buildings.

My focus went to the nearby woods, which were part of the Cascade Mountains forest that trailed up the side and back of the campus. I fixed my eyes on the tree line at the edge of the women’s apartment building on the left, where I’d gone to find Raffe that fateful night Dave had kidnapped me.

I couldn’t hold back a shudder.

Raffe took my hand, rubbing his thumb against my inner wrist. The buzz between us thrummed to life, and my pulse raced.

“We found the humans, and Lafayette removed the manipulations on them once the bite marks were healed. Adam, Keith, and I led a group of wolf shifters to the warehouse.” He closed his eyes, and his face twisted. “When we arrived, we asked for the ones responsible to come forward. Said they were the only ones who needed to be punished, but all the vampires laughed.”

My stomach roiled, but the weight of my concern lessened. As I’d believed, Raffe hadn’t ruthlessly attacked these vampires. Pictures might be worth a thousand words, but they could also be deceiving.

“They told me to head back home … that I didn’t have the strength to do anything to them.” Raffe ran his free hand through his hair, tousling it. “Then two of them attacked me. I was prepared, but Keith and Adam … well, they believed their role was to protect me. The other vampires thought Keith and Adam were attacking them, and chaos erupted. I lost control of the situation, and five of the men with me died, along with all the vampires.”

I tried to pull up the photos in my mind because I only remembered seeing vampires dead on the ground. I counted the people who’d been standing behind Raffe—eleven wolf shifters. “The picture showed only dead vampires and all your men alive.” Had the Veiled Circle photoshopped the picture?

He turned to me with glistening eyes. “By the time the vampires were dead, five of my men lay on the ground with them. I wouldn’t lie about that.”

His hurt seeped into me, and my vision blurred. I squeezed his hand. “I believe you, Raffe. I just can’t believe they’d try to—”

“Drive a wedge between us?” He arched a brow. “Paint me as a murderer to further their cause?”

Those were fair points. “More the latter. It’s going far beyond wanting their rights back and into some sort of perverse quest for vengeance.” They were willing to do anything to take my mate down, and I wanted to make them hurt for what they’d done.

“I didn’t realize how far things had gone, but right now, I want to get my mate inside our home, help her get cleaned up, then hold her in my arms.” He turned off the car. “Can we not talk about all this for the rest of the night? I can’t stand not holding you any longer.”

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