Aries

by Kim Faulks

  One tour of Soteria showed him the real war—and it wasn’t for oil—it was right here in battle against the corrupt and the wolves—where human lives hung in the balance.

  The kid accepted my proposal the next day…now I was to bury him. I was to bury him and look his mother in the damn eye and promise her his life had meant something—that his death wouldn’t be for nothing.

  And I was determined to keep that promise.

  I scrolled past the other messages, tapped Geek boy, and stared at the three clipped sentences.

  Family killed by Echo pack. Kid taken when she was nine. Dangerous, so be careful.

  Dangerous. Irwin was the second person to say that.

  If only he could see how damaged she was and how the only person she was a danger to was to herself. I slowed the car and turned the corner. My gaze drifted to her window as I spun the wheel. The view was empty. The brakes grabbed, stopping the car on a dime.

  The sun was heading for cover as I climbed out and slammed the door closed. I skirted around the events of tomorrow and wrestled with the bags from the rear seat. Corners of the diary poked through the bag as I headed for the back door. Would she like the damn book, would she even know what to do with it?

  I kicked open the door and listened. The place was silent and empty, didn’t mean a thing. “Hey, X. I’m back.” I dumped the bags onto the table and yanked out the meat. “I got us steak for dinner.”

  The silence felt wrong, like an absence filled the air—a haunting reminder of what I’d had and lost. I headed for the front of the house and scanned the lounge room and X’s closed bedroom door.

  She’s gone. The thought gripped me as I stepped into the doorway, and then another took its place. Dangerous to herself…unstable, unhinged. The band around my chest tightened one more notch. “X, you in there?”

  The room was empty, the bed bare. I crossed the space and yanked the drawer. Her clothes were bundled tight in exactly the same place. She couldn’t have gone far. Maybe for a walk, maybe…

  A hiss of a breath stilled me. I turned my head, scanning the shadows and caught an outline huddled against the wall.

  Jesus. She was asleep. I eased the drawer closed and knelt. “X. X, wake up.”

  The kid was out of it, eyes closed, full lips slack. She looked too asleep…like she was…

  I clenched my fist and reached out. My heart thundered, slamming against the sides of my chest. “X, hey. You’re scaring me here.”

  I pressed against her knee and gave a slight shove. Her head dropped to the side, and she snapped her eyes open.

  X stared at me with the cold, hungry eyes of a killer.

  There was a second where I saw what the others did…a second where my gut clenched and a warning howled through my head.

  I went for my gun, but it was too late. Her fist shot out. The blow hit my jaw and my ass hit the ground. She lunged as I rolled and dragged my Sig free. Pain tore through my jaw and into my head.

  “Don’t you touch me…don’t you ever touch me again!” Her warning came far too late.

  I held up one hand and gripped my gun with the other.

  “No hair…see.” She fisted the side of her head and took a step. She fixed her gaze on me, but there was nothing in those brown eyes…no spark of life, no spark of anything.

  My damn fingers wavered. I opened my mouth and agony bit deep. “X, it’s me, Alpha.”

  “No hair, no hair.” She shook her head. She dropped her hands to her shirt. The fabric pulled taut across her small breasts. Dark nipples puckered under her cruel grasp. She pinched and pulled, twisting until my gut clenched. “Nothing you want…nothing you want…no more, please no more.”

  That tightness squeezed and strangled. Christ, she thought I wanted…thought I was going to… The muscles of my jaw tightened, until I had nothing more than a muffled growl. “It’s me, X. Look at me… Look at me!”

  Her head wrenched up. Her body stiffened. Something sparked in her eyes, a hunger so beautiful and feral it took me by surprise. Her gaze dropped to the gun in my hand and she dropped her hands and stumbled.

  “No…wait. It’s okay. I’m putting the gun away,” I mumbled and slammed the piece into my holster. “You scared me, that’s all. I wouldn’t…not unless you…”

  Her spine flattened against the wall.

  “You didn’t know it was me.”

  No, she didn’t…she thought I was someone else…someone who wanted more than her fucking hair.

  Pieces slipped into place. The party, her hair…her fucking hair…

  Dangerous…yeah the kid was dangerous—weren’t we all when we were backed into a corner? “X. I want you to talk to me. I want you to tell me the truth. Did someone try to hurt you?”

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