Page 28

The rest of the groomsmen are on their feet. I know they’re waiting to see if Derek’s all right before they shift and tear me to pieces.

“We’ll finish this later,” I growl at Elena’s ex, whose eyes have lightened to a shimmering amber. I can see his facial bones beginning to change and black hair sprouting along his temples.

Sodramatic. I purposely aimed for a spot where I wouldn’t sever any tendons or go through bone, and Derek is a shifter with superhuman healing. His right hand will be stiff but usable by morning. At least the injury will keep him from rubbing one out thinking of Elena tonight.

I’ve never been one to walk away from a fight, but the fight that matters isn’t the kind I can win with teeth and claws. The woman I’m fighting for just walked out of the room.

Not caring how it will look to the other shifters, I stride out after Elena. She isn’t in the alcove outside the ballroom, but I pick up the trail of vanilla and coconut and follow it down the hallway.

It ends abruptly at a set of French doors leading out onto the terrace. Swallowing down my nerves as I formulate an apology, I open the door and slip outside.

It’s completely dark aside from the moon, but my wolf vision is good enough that I can see her clearly. Elena is bent over the decorative stone wall, hands braced on the top. Her breaths sound uneven and ragged, and I taste the same panic on the back of my tongue.

“Elena?”

“Go away.”

The words feel like a punch to the gut.

“Look, I’m sorry,” I say, dragging a hand through my hair. “I wasn’t trying to start anything, but I couldn’t just sit there and let that jackass talk about you like that.”

“It’s fine,” she wheezes, shaking her head. “Just go, okay? I’ll be up in a minute.”

I hesitate. It’sfine?

I can tell from her tone that it’s definitelynotfine, but Elena isn’t the passive-aggressive type. I know she’s still pissed, but she’s not tearing me a new one, which means something else must be wrong.

“What’s with you?”

“Nothing! Justleave.” Elena’s words come out as a growl, but I can tell she’s crying.

“No,” I say as gently as I can. I grip her shoulders and spin her around. “Elena, talk to m?—”

The words die on my tongue. Elena’s big brown eyes are swimming with tears, and she looks like a cornered animal.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as terror overwhelms me. I’ve never seen her like this.

Elena’s bottom lip quivers. Then she bursts into tears. I just stand there like an idiot as she launches herself at me and buries her face in my chest.

“It’s these stupid — panic attacks,” she chokes, fisting my lapels as her body heaves with sobs. “Ever since — the accident. Sometimes I g-get — and I c-can’t control it.”

“Shh,” I whisper, wrapping an arm around her quaking shoulders as understanding hits me.

Raf has been unusually tight-lipped about Elena’s limitations since the accident. I knew she still had some issues with her balance, which basically destroyed any chance she had of becoming a professional ballet dancer. He also told me she didn’t drink alcohol, that she had trouble finding the right words when she was overtired, and that she sometimes got really bad migraines.

Hedidn’ttell me she was having panic attacks, though, and my heart aches for her.

I don’t have any idea how to help her, so I just pull her against my chest and rub soothing circles over her back. I alternate between making soft shushing sounds and planting light kisses along the top of her head.

Comforting words spew from my lips like a song I’d forgotten I knew the lyrics to. I don’t know half the things I’m even saying, but they must be working, because Elena’s sobs die down.

I continue to rub her back until a shudder rolls through her and she pulls away. The terror I scented is gone now, replaced by a burning shame.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, scrubbing under her eyes and trying very hard not to look at me.

“For what?”

A humorless smile stretches her lips. Elena could never look ugly to me, but that’s the only word I can think to describe that self-deprecating smile. “For being such a mess.” She lifts her eyebrows. “I never thought I’d be that girl who runs out of a rehearsal dinner to cry, but that’s justoneof the lovely things I get to deal with now.”