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The animal strained against the bonds that were far too weak to hold it if it became insistent.
She paused. “I shouldn’t come back.”
But she wanted to. He could feel it. Taste it on the air around them.
“I’ll be here tomorrow,” he promised. “Just for a few minutes. I promise. Just to talk a minute. I won’t keep you long.”
He should be pouncing on her. He should be tasting her terror and her blood as she stared into his eyes and realized she was about to pay for her crimes. Pay for the hell she’d sent him to.
She looked out at the darkened landscape for long moments before giving a resigned little sigh.
“What the hell,” she finally breathed out wearily. “It beats the nightmares.”
She turned and moved away from him, a slight shadow amid the darkness, blending with it for a moment before stepping into the moonlight once again and returning to the safety of the house and the protection of the Breeds she’d slipped away from.
It beat the nightmares.
She had no idea, he realized. Just as the other hadn’t known the past that endangered her, neither did this one.
The only thing left of the person she had been was that slight scent of shy, hungry need. Not a sexual need, at least, not then, all those years ago. But a need for warmth, for caring.
Everything else had changed, and he suddenly wanted to know why.
Why was the girl she had been so overshadowed that even her scent had been altered in ways?
And what was that fucking taste—
It hit him then.
Just enough rational thought had filtered through the fury and insanity to drag the animal back long enough for him to make sense of a lifetime of hell.
Her blood had saved his life, but it had turned him into an enraged animal.
When the soldiers had caught him again, that added quality in his blood had spurred them into experiments so horrendous it had broken what little sanity he’d still possessed.
It had been the blood that had transfused him.
The scent of what the Breeds called mating heat, the taste of it in his mouth, the small glands swelling beneath his tongue each time he came near her.
This was why finding her had driven him that last short step into insanity.
She was his mate and he had finally found her.
That didn’t mean she didn’t have to pay for running from him.
It didn’t mean Judd wouldn’t pay for helping her.
It didn’t mean he was sane by any stretch of the imagination.
But with her, he might have a shot at finding his sanity.
At least enough of it to claim what was his.
* * *
He’s stitched up, Graeme,” the medic announced as he left the cell, the guards with him securing the locks as Graeme reached out and secured the electronic safeguards as well.
“Thanks, Doc.” Graeme cleared his throat as he pushed back the memories. “I’ll try to keep him nice and quiet while his scratches heal.”
