Page 25 of Promise of the Wolf Moon

“She looks like a whore.”

Obviously, my brother had a strong opinion about females with tats. Oh, he loved tattoos, only not on me.

Tillman hadn’t seen them. He never would see them now. His opinion wouldn't have mattered, anyway.

As for my brother? I couldn’t care less.

I loved my tattoo, with all its swirls of white lace in the shape of a wolf beginning behind my left ear, over my shoulder, down my arm, back, hip, and leg, ending at my calf. My favorite part held the twin’s names in the intricate scrolling.

Seff seemed to like my tattoo, too. I wanted him to like it...a lot. The thought of him tracing his fingers over every lacy line made my heart race and caused a throb between my legs like an insistent need.

And someday, I’ll add Seff’s name in some hidden place.

I shook my head and sighed. The last thing I should’ve been thinking about was how Seff felt about my appearance, or how I felt when he touched me.

I had things to do. Calls to make. People to contact. Especially the pack who had taken Tillman in when he’d left Red Lodge.

Tillman.

Bracing a hand against the wall, I closed my eyes, sucked in a breath, and waited for the pain to hit the way it used to. I waited for the guilt, the shame, and the blame to overwhelm me and make me question whether I’d done the right thing by running away.

“Desarae,” Nereida called through the door. “Seff wants to know if everything is okay.”

I rinsed my hair one more time, then grabbed a towel.

“Yes, I’m fine.”How does he do that?“I need to do my hair and put on my face.”

She didn’t answer. She simply walked away, back to their blackjack game.

I stared at my naked reflection in the mirror over the sink. Decker and I had looked so much alike when we were younger, but now I couldn’t see him in me...or me in him. We’d grown apart not only in looks, but in every other way.

That was the way Deck wanted our relationship. In his eyes, I’d failed at life. He also wasn’t happy about Seff comforting me.

And that was just too damn bad.

I tightened the towel around my body and huffed in annoyance.

“Who does he think he is?” I grumbled under my breath. “Not playing his stupid I’m-the-brother games.”

I yanked my hair products and make-up supplies from the shelves and set them on the counter. Dropping the towel, I took a good long look at myself in the full-length mirror attached to the bathroom door. The two weeks I’d disappeared before coming back to Red Lodge were what I’d needed to get my priorities straight. I’d taken those days to cry. I’d swept away all my unrealized dreams and recovered from my broken heart.

Then, I bought a fabulous new truck and came home.

To the outside world, I was the face of the “colony.” I was going to town and smiling my ass off to a bunch of clueless humans. Everything was good. Everything was fine.

I squirted out a dollop of face cream into my palm and mumbled, “Okay, girl, time to put on your happy face.”

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