Page 29 of Blade's Battle
Most?She had to be referring to her husband. Maybe he’d been too injured from an accident to heal and that’s how he had died.
Blade sat down on the bed beside her. “How did you meet him?” he asked. “Kurt.”
The smile that crossed her face told its own story. She was still in love with him, with the lucky bastard who had captured her heart.
“My specialty in genetic engineering is shifter genetics. Four years ago, I visited many packs, researching, interviewing, taking samples. There are a lot of groups, corporations, private investors, government agencies, and medical facilities that want to better understand how shifters shift, but in talking to many of the packs, I learned about a lot of the problems the shifters had and no one was addressing them. The science community isn’t focused on helping shifters but on using what they learn from shifters to advance their own goals.
“I had just started researching the problem weak shifters have in shifting and considered making that the focus of my study when I learned about the problem of some male shifters going feral. That one seemed particularly fascinating to me. My research led me to Kurt’s pack up in Oregon as they had a higher occurrence of feral wolves over the past three decades. Then again, I was going on the word of an alpha in Montana, and one pack alone is a small sample, but still, it seemed like the right place to start.”
Another smile crossed Anna’s face. She looked so at peace.
“He was assigned the job of escorting me through the pack’s territory, introducing me to the shifters who had blood-bonded to stave off going feral and to the families of those who had gone feral. I was there for several months. Everything with Kurt was easy and perfect, from the beginning.”
“No regrets, Angel.”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t regret anything that happened afterward, whatever it was.”
“How did you know—”
“Your smile’s fading. Just remember the good parts, not the bad.”
“Are you speaking from experience, Blade? Have you been married?”
“Not that lucky,” he said, then he grinned. “Tess accuses me of being a lady’s man, though.”
“Now where would she get that idea?” Anna mocked.
“From my fabulous physique?” he suggested, standing taller and puffing out his chest.
She placed her hand over her mouth, trying to contain her laugh. God, she was so adorable when she laughed.
“So, no one special in your life?” Anna asked.
“Just the guys at my pack. I hang out with Callen and Frank most, sometimes Pryce. Damien and Hayden are closer to each other. The six of us often end up kicking back at Damien’s place, though not so much since he mated Tess.”
“She doesn’t like having all of you in her house?”
“More like she and Damien are often busy together. You know, newly mated and all.”
“It doesn’t wear off with time, cowboy.”
“Cowboy?” He turned around, arms out, for her perusal. “What about me looks like a cowboy?”
“It’s an attitude thing.”
“Or maybe you’re guessing I like to ride.” He couldn’t resist wagging his brows and seeing her laugh again.
When she stopped laughing and her smile faded again, he knew her thoughts had returned to her troubles. Blade laid down next to her. “Everything will work out, Anna. It always does.”
“The WSSO doesn’t give up easily, if at all, Blade.”
“I still don’t know how you got involved with the WSSO. You were married to a shifter.”
“Remember how I said there are a lot of groups interested in shifter genetics? Well, the government is one of them. They’re trying to understand shifters.”
“Why?”
