by Hailey Storm
“You’re a wolf? A werewolf?” The area between her brows puckered as she continued to stare at me while holding her jaw.
I still couldn’t believe the bastard had hit her.
“I am.” I didn’t know what more to say. I didn’t know what she wanted me to say. I only hoped confirming what she’d said, what she saw, would be enough. Dear god, I wanted it to be enough. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled in a breath before opening them to hold her gaze again.
“I always knew there was something different about you,” she said just before she blacked out.
Chapter Thirteen
Lilla
I wasn’t sure what hurt worse, my head or my jaw. Why was I in so much pain? I pressed my fingertips against my jawline gently. Pain stabbed through the area and radiated outward.
“Be careful, I’m sure that’s still tender,” a familiar voice said. “I got you some ice if you want it?”
My eyes fluttered open to see Tex hovering above me. Where were we? Were we still at his place?
I glanced around, taking stock of where I was. When I spotted Izzy’s doll bin, everything came rushing back.
We were at my house. Bret had been here when we pulled up. He’d been drunk and waiting for me. He was ticked at seeing me with Tex. And then the bastard had hit me. Again.
I swore he would never hit me again after that first time, and I’ll be damned if he didn’t do it again.
Ice pressed tenderly against my aching jaw. I reached up to hold it in place.
“You should hold that there. It’ll help with the swelling and pain,” Tex insisted.
Tex … he’d turned into a wolf somehow!
I jolted into a sitting position, regretting my swift movement an instant later as sharp pains shot through my skull.
“Take it easy. You had a nasty fall. Plus, your ex cold-clocked you,” he said the last bit through gritted teeth.
“You’re a wolf … a werewolf…”
I wasn’t afraid of how he would respond to my odd statement, because I already knew. Somewhere deep inside I’d always known there was something different about Tex. Different could be good, though.
Tex was good.
He was a decent guy, werewolf or not. I knew that much about him.
“I am.” His gaze softened, and I realized he expected me to be afraid of him.
I started into his golden eyes. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For biting the shit out of that asshole ex-husband of mine and scaring him half to death.” I grinned. Hot pain shot through my jaw and I winced. I shifted my ice pack around, placing it on the most intense area. “Maybe now he’ll leave me alone.”
Tex didn’t say a word. He just stood there, staring at me as though I’d grown two heads.
“What?” I asked when I couldn’t handle the silence any longer.
“You don’t think I’m a monster?”
The pain I felt in my jaw drifted to my heart. It was clear from his expression someone he loved, someone he had revealed his secret to, hadn’t been able to handle it.
“No, I don’t think you’re a monster. Bret is a monster, not you.” I didn’t think I’d ever said a truer statement.
Any man who put his hands on a woman the way Bret had me was a monster by definition. Tex was no monster, even though he was a werewolf. I knew he would never hurt me the way Bret did. Never.
A slow smile spread across Tex’s face. “You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that.”
My eyes drifted to the clock by the door. There was still time before Erica was supposed to drop off Izzy.
“Why don’t you get over here and show me.” I hooked my finger toward him, motioning for him to come closer as I set my ice on the coffee table.
He arched a brow as his smile grew and prowled forward. My heart kick-started in my chest. This man was mine. There was nothing that would scare me away from him, not even the fact he was a werewolf.
Once Tex was close enough, I fisted the front of his shirt and pulled him close so I could brush my lips across his in a feather-light kiss.
“Dear God, woman, you’re going to be the death of me,” he whispered.
I locked my arms around his neck. “Let’s hope not.”
Tex pulled away to look in my eyes. Warm, intense love blended within the golden color of his eyes. The sight of it made all of the broken pieces inside of me fuse together. For the first time in a while I felt whole again.
A car door slammed outside and we broke apart. I moved slowly to sit up.
“Erica must be here to drop off Izzy,” I said as I readjusted my clothing.
“It is her. I can hear her little voice.”
I listened, but couldn’t hear anything. “Okay, so it’s true. Werewolves have superhuman hearing.”
“That we do, it’s how I learned you thought last night was mind-blowing.” He winked.
My cheeks flamed as he tossed my description of the night back in my face. I tried to remember what else I might have said in my conversation with Erica, but couldn’t.
“Don’t be embarrassed. I happen to like your choice of words.”
“I’m glad,” I said just as Izzy burst through the door with Erica trailing close behind her.
“Hey, I hope we’re not interrupting anything,” Erica gushed. Excitement bubbled from her and I gathered the impression she hoped she had been interrupting something. The second her eyes landed on me all her excitement evaporated. “Oh my God, what happened?” She dropped Izzy’s bag on the floor and rushed to where I was on the couch.
“Mama, what happened to your face?” Izzy asked as her face scrunched up in concern.
“It’s okay, don’t worry. Mama is fine. See, Tex even got me some ice.” I picked the ice pack up off the coffee table and wiggled it in the air, hoping to shift her attention away from my busted-up jaw. “Why don’t you go put your bag in your bedroom for me, okay?”
“Okay.” She grabbed her bag from the floor and skipped off to her room.
The instant she was gone Erica’s eyes drifted between me and Tex. I imagined she was thinking something awful must’ve happened. Anger seemed to fester in her hazel eyes.
“He didn’t do this, Bret did,” I said before she could lash out at Tex.
“How the hell did that asshole get his hands on you again?” She gripped my face gently and shifted my head to side, taking in the damage.
“He saw us dancing at the bar last night and must’ve came here to wait for her to get home. He was here when I pulled up to drop her off this morning. Smelled like he’d been drinking all night. Trust me, if I could’ve gotten to him before he laid a finger on her, I would have.” Tex’s body shook as he spoke. Not being able to stop Bret must be eating at him.
I placed a hand on his forearm, hoping to calm his simmering anger. It seemed to work like magic.
“Well, I hope you really let him have it this time,” Erica said as she reached for the hand holding my ice pack and lifted it up toward my jaw again. “He deserves it.”
“Don’t worry, I have a feeling he won’t be bothering her again,” Tex insisted.
“I still think you should listen to your mom and file a restraining order against him. You should press charges against his ass this time too.”
“I will, I’ll go tomorrow.” I’d already made up my mind it was time.
“Does your mom know?” Erica asked.
“God no. She’d flip out if she knew he hit me again. She wasn’t here. I’m guessing she got wasted during her girls’ night out last night and crashed at one of her friends’ houses. It happens sometimes.”
“Show me to your makeup stash. I’m going to show you how to hide this well. The last thing you need is your mom flipping out. She might do something stupid this time, like cut off Bret’s balls or something.” Erica gripped my hand and helped me up from the couch.
“Cut off his balls? Jesus, this woman sounds vicious,” Tex said.
“Any woman is when someone messes with their kid. Remember that,” Erica insisted.
Izzy dashed back into the room carrying her purple tote filled with her princess tea set. She sat in the middle of the floor and began laying everything out, immersed in what she was doing and oblivious to the stranger in our living room.
“I’ll be right back, introduce yourself,” I whispered to Tex and motioned to where Izzy was sitting.
Before I left the living room, I paused to watch as he shifted into a sitting position on the floor beside her.
“Hello there. My name’s Tex, what’s yours?”
“Hi, I’m Isabella, but everyone calls me Izzy. Even my mommy does.”
“Nice to meet you, Izzy. What do you have there?” He nodded toward the cup in her hand.
“It’s a tea cup, silly. Don’t you drink tea?”
“Sometimes, but I’m more of a coffee man myself.”
“My mommy likes coffee, but I think it makes her breath stinky.”
Tex laughed. “I’m sure it makes mine stinky sometimes too.”
I released a long sigh. They were hitting it off well. My heart bloomed with love until it was almost overflowing.
“Looks like he’s a keeper,” Erica whispered from over my shoulder.
“He sure as hell is,” I whispered back, knowing Tex could hear us. When he glanced at me, I winked. He flashed me a lopsided smile and went back to talking with Izzy.
While I might not have been looking for love, it had found me. Sometimes all a person had to do was keep an open mind as well as an open heart.
“Come on, let’s get you fixed up,” Erica insisted.
I followed her into my bathroom and let her teach me how to cover a bruised jaw, knowing it would be the one and only time the skill would be needed. Tex had seen to it, and I would spend the rest of our forever thanking him.
The area where he’d bitten me warmed at the thought of forever with him, and I knew it was true. Tex had marked me. I was his. He was mine. And I was perfectly content with that.
All the lemons life had tossed at me were finally becoming lemonade, and it was all because he had stepped into my life.
GABE
Want to know Gabe and Ava’s story?
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Ava Sinclair has spent the last ten years as a Blood Slave to one of the vilest vampires she’s ever come across, an original named Cole. Tired of the life she’s been living, as well as what she was forced to become, Ava decides to end her miserable vampire existence and run away in search of the only man she’s ever felt loved by—Gabe. Once she finds him old flames ignite and Ava suddenly isn’t so sure about ending her existence by stepping into the sunlight like she’d planned.
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Sophia Davis wants nothing to do with shifters. In her eyes, they only cause trouble and create chaos wherever they go. However, when her brother reaches out for help in clearing his debt with a local group of shady coyotes Sophia’s given an ultimatum that forces her to set her aversions aside.
As old misconceptions fade away and a new light is ignited from within the two find something in one another they never thought possible, but the stakes are high and more is at risk than the possibility of a broken heart when all is said and done.
Sneak Peek
CHAPTER ONE
SOPHIA
A lump formed in my throat as I stared at my cell, watching it vibrate across the café table. Stephen’s name lit the screen.
“How many times is that?” my best friend Liz asked.
I brushed a few strands of dark hair away from my eyes and released a long breath. “Today or this weekend?”
My brother had called me nonstop for the last three days. At first, I’d been pissed because I’d told him six weeks ago not to contact me again. That I was done. My foot was being put down and I wasn’t going to enable his lifestyle any longer. However, as the calls became more frequent, I found my resolve starting to wither away.
Today not even a sliver of it remained.
The pain in the back of my throat intensified as my cell grew still and dark. Another of his calls gone straight to voicemail. Nausea rolled through my stomach.
“What do you think he’s gotten himself into this time?” Liz took a sip from her coffee, her eyes glued to me.
Something big. With Stephen it always was.
“Who knows? Probably something to do with money. I’m sure he needs me to bail him out of whatever trouble he’s found himself in this time.” I wouldn’t though. I’d promised myself last time I would never clean my brother’s messes up again. He wasn’t getting another dime from me. “I don’t care anymore. I’m done.” My hands shook as I lifted my coffee to my lips.
My words were a lie. I did care. I always would. Stephen was my brother. I wished just once he would call me with some good news though. With him, it was always something bad. Last time he’d asked me for five grand. Said he needed it to pay off his debt with a coyote from the other side of town. I’d stupidly given it to him, believing him when he said he’d change his ways.
I should have known he wouldn’t get his shit together.
Stephen had a problem, with both gambling and drugs. He always needed money because of it. The problem was, I didn’t have it this time. He’d tapped me dry over the last couple of months.
“You care, Sophia. I know you do, but I’m proud of you for finally putting your foot down. You’ve helped Stephen way too much over the years. I’m glad you finally realize all you’re doing is enabling his lifestyle.”
Heat rose up my neck and inflamed my face. I hated being reminded of how much I’d done for my brother by someone else; looking at my life was reminder enough. I drove a crappy car because I gave my brother the money I’d saved to get it fixed. I still worked at the local grocery store because the money I had saved to open my own bakery went to my brother’s debt this last time around.
“Thanks. It’s not easy.” Even after everything, I still wanted to pick up my phone and find out what he needed. The desire to ate at me.
“I’m sure, but it’s time. You can’t keep letting him waltz into your life and screw everything up. You’re not a bad person for showing him a little tough love. Whatever it is he’s gotten himself into, he can work to get himself out of it.”
I blew out a long breath and forced my eyes to look anywhere besides at Liz. She meant well, but she had been known to go on long-winded tirades about my brother’s situation and what she would do if she were me. I didn’t feel like hearing one today.
My cell vibrated again, this time with an incoming text. I read it without thinking.
Please talk to me, Fifi. I need you. Call me back.
My cell was in my hand before I could blink. I swiped my thumb across the screen and stared at my childhood nickname. Stephen hadn’t called me Fifi in years. Something was wrong.
“What are you doing?” Liz jerked my cell away. “Stick it out. It’s good for him. Trust me.”
Hateful words burned on the tip of my tongue, but I held them back. She means well, I reminded myself.
“Call me a bitch, call me whatever you want, I know you’re mad, but I’m only
saying this because I care about you.” She set my phone on the table, its screen facing down. “Stephen needs to learn to take responsibility for his own actions. You can’t keep rushing in to fix his mistakes, Sophia. You don’t owe him anything. You never did.”
I did though. It was my fault he was the way he was.
I should have been the brave one out of the two of us. I shouldn’t have frozen when everyone needed me most. I was the oldest. Maybe it was only by six minutes, but that didn’t matter. I was older. In the world of twins, six minutes was a lifetime.
“Stop,” Liz said. Her blond brows pulled together. “You’re beating yourself up.”
“I’m not beating myself up.” I sighed.
“Bullshit.”
I snorted, rolled my eyes, and took another sip from my coffee. While I loved Liz, she definitely had her faults. Calling someone out was one of them.
“I’m not,” I insisted.
“You are. We’ve been friends for how many years now? I can read you like a book.”
“Don’t pull any of that psychoanalysis crap on me today. I truthfully don’t think I can handle.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not.” Liz leaned back in her chair. “I’m talking to you as your best friend. Stephen needs to hit rock bottom to realize he needs help. You always rushing to fix things for him isn’t allowing him to do that. I’ve told you this before.”
My cell vibrated with another text or call coming through. It was Stephen. I could feel it.
Liz’s bright-blue eyes begged me to ignore it, but I couldn’t. Not after reading his last text.
“I’m sorry.” I snatched it off the table before she could get to it first. “It’s something serious. I can feel it.”
