Page 13 of Grace of a Wolf 1
The room spins. The tattoos burn hotter, Fenris fighting against our bond. I grab the nearest wall, steadying myself.
"Caine?" Jack-Eye steps forward.
"Stay back!"
I'm going to her. Tonight. With or without your permission.
"Like hell you are." The words tear from my throat in a growl.
Pain rips through my chest. The tattoos glow blue beneath my shirt, pulsing with each of Fenris's attempts to break free. My knees buckle.
"What's happening?" Jack-Eye's voice sounds distant.
She's alone. Scared. They cast her out. They've washed away my scent.
"That's not our problem."
It became our problem when you let me protect her that night.
My fingers dig into the mat. "I didn't let you do anything. You ran off without my consent."
"Who is she?" Jack-Eye crouches beside me, his overly friendly voice grating on my ears.
Tell him. Tell him how you watched through my eyes as she curled against our fur. How your heart stopped when she smiled.
"Enough!"
The tattoos flare, and blue light fills the room. When it fades, Fenris stands before us, his massive form casting shadows across the floor. His storm-gray eyes lock with mine.
"You can't stop me, Caine."Fenris's voice echoes in both my mind and the room, flowing out with a pulse of alpha aura, causing Jack-Eye to stumble."Not this time."
"Fuck. I hate when he does that."
"Get back here." I push to my feet, but Fenris turns away.
"I'm done watching you deny what we both know."His claws click against the floor as he walks."She's ours to protect."
"She's human. There's never been a fated connection between a Lycan and a human, and you know it."
Fenris pauses at the door."She's ours."
The blue glow intensifies, and he vanishes. The sudden emptiness in my mind confirms he's gone, racing toward Blue Mountain territory. Toward her.
"Want to tell me what that was about?" Jack-Eye's voice breaks through my rage.
I groan. He's the most persistent bastard, and he has a strange love of the humans' movies. Ones with inexplicably dramatic plot lines. He won't stop until he knows everything. "No."
"Tough. Your wolf just manifested without your permission and ran off to some woman. Start talking."
I slam my fist into the wall. The concrete cracks, blood running down my knuckles. "There's nothing to say."
My beta doesn't even blink, unaffected by my anger. It's not directed at him, anyway, and he knows it. "Right. Because it'stotally normal for the Lycan King's wolf to break free and chase after a human girl."
"Don't."
"Is she why you've been distracted? Why you've been letting me land hits that shouldn't connect?"
The blood drips onto the floor. One drop. Two. Three. "She's nothing."
