Page 60 of Taking Jenny
Rhonda struck me without using her fangs. Her version of a warning.
I knew what it meant, and I didn’t care. “You let her get hurt!”
“Youhurt her first!” Longshot countered.
His words were like a slap, and I froze. I released his collar, trying to make sense of his words. “How?” I whispered.
“Had she not discovered you in Tiger’s bed this morning, she would not have gone off like a crazed jem’hora,” he snapped. “She was trying to burn out her anger at the two of you when she hurt herself. I swear, humans come with a self-destruct feature, and all it takes to activate it is to piss them off. I don’t know how any Ladrian beds them. So damn fragile.”
All my rage drained out of me.This is all my fault. I did this to Jenny. If I hadn’t…if I could have resisted my attraction to Tiger…fuck.
I looked back at Longshot. My brother in arms. My friend. My confidant and my mentor. “I am sorry.”
“Think nothing of it,” he said quietly, already forgiving my tirade.
I glanced at his strigella. “Rhonda, I’m sorry I upset you, too.”
But she just slithered her tongue and curled tighter around Longshot’s shoulder, still not looking at me.
“All of you, I’m sorry.” I jammed my hands through my hair, beyond disappointed in myself. “I…I was out of line. That was shitty of me, and I shouldn’t have done it.”
Discord stepped forward, her tone kind when she spoke. “We all have our bad days, Mal. You’ve always been there for us when we’ve had them. It’s time we were there for you.”
I let out a breath that seemed to scrape at my ribs. “I just…I need time to sort through things. I’ll see you all at breakfast.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Tiger asked.
That’s what had started this whole fucking mess. I shook my head. “I would prefer to be alone.”
My natural state. My punishment. If I was alone, I couldn’t hurt anyone else.
Tiger’s shoulders sagged, the light dimming in his amber eyes. “Okay.”
If I’m not with him, I can’t make it worse.
I turned around and walked to my room, leaving the people I cared about the most in the wake of my emotional wreckage.
CHAPTER 19
Jenny
She’s just a human!
Mal’s words had been muffled by the lab door, but I heard them loud and clear. Sharp enough to cleave straight through me.
Just a human.Like I was nothing. Like I meant nothing.
But that wasn’t the whole truth. I wasn’t just human. Not really. I was half-Ladrian, and I wondered how fast Mal would backpedal if he ever found out the rest—that Volatile Bateen was my father. That I was Justice Bateen’sniece. That my sisters were, too.
Tiger knew. Of course he knew. He’d worked with Jac, Sarah’s companion. And despite the fact that Tiger was now sleeping with Mal, he had still kept my secret. That counted for something.
The lab door creaked open and Surge peeked in on me. “How are you feeling?”
I shifted on the exam table, every movement pulling at the tension knotting inside me. “Not great, but that has more to do with Mal than whatever happened to me.” I glanced down at my limbs, confused. “How…how am I even healed?”
He stepped inside and closed the door with a shrug. “A little of this, a little of that.”
“Surge—”
