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“Need you? You’ve done nothing but take from me since the moment I set eyes on you. Just leave. I never want to see you again, X. Anson. You’re a monster.”
“Yes,” he hissed, closing the distance between us. He grabbed my arm. “I’m a monster. You’d best not forget it. It’s the monster you crave, Tempest. You’re lying to yourself if you don’t admit it.”
“Stop!” I said, pushing back. X let go.
“Anson,” I said.
He looked away, hiding his face from me. He moved into the shadows.
“Anson,” I said again, shouting it. It was my turn to grab him. I pulled him toward me, letting the moonlight fall on his face.
His face.
The cruel scars were still there. Only this time, they carved through Anson’s features. His piercing blue eyes. His full, sensuous mouth. I had begun to love that face. The goodness of him. The way my body woke to his.
Anson.
God. If it was possible to miss a man that was standing right in front of me, I did that day. But then, he was X. The darkness took over. The scars deepened right in front of my eyes, changing the planes of his face. Making him the monster he truly was.
“How?” I asked.
“What does it matter?” he said. “I’m everything you think I am. I’m a thousand things worse. But whether you like it or not, you still need me.”
“Need you? Need you?!”
“They’re sick,” he said, jutting his chin toward the direction of the farm. “The woods reek of it. Death. Decay. You’re lucky you haven’t had a dozen rival packs streaming through these woods.”
“It’s none of your business,” I said. “I can take care of my own.”
“Can you?” he said. “Soon enough, you’ll be all alone, Tempest. You can’t hold Wild Lake without help.”
“Help,” I spat. “Whatever help I need, I sure as hell am not going to take it from you.”
Behind me, a plaintive cry filled the air. Pain. Death. Sickness. X…Anson was right. It was all around.
“Show me,” he said.
“What?”
“I’ll honor your father’s wishes and yours if that’s what you want. I won’t step foot on Wild Lake lands. I suppose technically, he’s still Alpha here.”
“He is!” I shouted.
“Right,” Anson said, sarcasm dripping from the word. “For how long? He doesn’t even have weeks, does he? Days at most. Maybe even hours. Then what?”
“Do you honestly think I can trust anything you say to me?”
His shoulders dropped. “No. I don’t expect you to trust me. But what could I possibly have to gain by coming here, huh? I didn’t know your people were sick until I sensed it. Until I was right here. I came here knowing I’d face the entire line of the Wild Lake packs, ready to rip me apart. Why do you think I did that?”
I had no answer. His words, even his face, had always been filled with lies.
“Because I’d rather die at your feet than face another second breathing without you, Tempest!”
His words shattered me, turned my heart to dust. In its place, something hard grew. Something cold. Something I needed to protect me from one more betrayal.
“What is it?” he asked. “What have you tried?”
“I don’t want you here,” I said, but the edge had gone out of my voice. I felt defeated. Sad. Lost. For the first time in my life, I had no earthly clue what to do.
