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Jasmine
TOM THINKS I chose this lifestyle out of frivolity.
But the truth is, he’s not the only one who left a relationship with a wound that never closed.
And even though I never talk about it, it feels important to tell him.
“All I ever wanted was to settle down and have a family.” Tom snorts, but when he sees I’m serious, he stills.
“I got married young. Just a year out of high school. To a nice young man. He was an actuary for an insurance firm. He wanted children—at least three. And he wanted to be the big man and support me to stay at home and raise the kids.”
Tom stares at me with disbelief, like I might be making a long joke.
“I wanted kids for as long as I can remember. Since I was carrying around dolls at age three, probably, so it seemed perfect.”
Tom gets tense. “What happened?” There’s a warning growl in his voice, like he’s
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THE SHARP TANG of blood on my tongue brings me fully back.Oh fuck.What have I done?“Baby?” I murmur softly, lapping at Jasmine’s wound with my tongue to speed the healing.Thank fuck—I don’t think I hit an artery. The blood loss is minimal and the wound doesn’t appear too deep.But I just violated pack law. First, I let a human see me shift, then I marked her. Both acts are forbidden. And the oldest of laws would require me to kill any human who knows about our kind.Which obviously isn’t going to happen.But damn. I really screwed up. My alpha is going to have my head. I could lose my place in the pack—again.Again, over a female.But my self-flagellation has no place here right now. I need to take care of my female. She’s injured and probably scared and confused.“Was that a love bite?” she mumbles.“What?” A ch
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LARRY’S MAP was shit and it takes us nearly an hour and a half of backtracking to find the unmarked road he described, but eventually we do. Tom hides the Harley behind a boulder and we hike in on foot. He holds my hand and swings our arms together like we’re on a picnic or date of some kind.The hike is about a half mile in and then the road just seems to stop.There’s nothing here.Tom turns around in a circle. “Wrong road?”The hairs stand up on the back of my neck. “No,” I murmur. “I sense evil here.” He raises his brows.I’m used to people thinking I’m nuts when I say things like that, so I just shrug, but he scans the trees more closely. “From which direction?”The pleasure of being believed does something fluttery to my chest. I close my eyes to feel the energy. It blasts me from straight ahead. I open my eyes and point. Definitely that way.
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I LEAN MY HELMET AGAINST TOM’ back and review what just happened.Hearing the jabs that jerk took at Tom over me has me mad. Not for myself, but on Tom’ behalf. No wonder he’s felt so unavailable to me. My instincts weren’t wrong. We are literally a separate species.And his own kind mocked him for being with me.Maybe, as much as we’re attracted to each other and as much as we care about each other, a relationship is impossible.I don’t want to think about that now, though, so I push it out of my mind. Tom is still here on a job, and I intend to help him with it. After that, we can talk.We ride back to Tom’ place and he calls his alpha to report. I’m not trying to eavesdrop, but I notice he’s only saying I.Not we.He hasn’t mentioned my involvement at all.Would he get in trouble?Or is this more like… emb
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