Page 184 of Jagged Souls

“Who –”

“Don’t –”

“Alright.” He grabs hold of the whore as she tries to run out. I might not’ve attacked him, but I’ve disrespected him in his own home, and now he needs to make sure there’s no witnesses if he wants to keep his throne. The alternative would be to punish me, but he knows that’s damn well not going to happen – not without my permission, but I’ll give it if he helps me find Siome.

“I won’t tell anyone,” the whore whimpers.

He breaks her neck and drops her at his feet. Normally, he would’ve soothed her, given her some false hope before he killed her, but he knows I’m not in the mood to wait for that little play of mercy.

“I haven’t taken her,” he says as he turns his back on me, showing me that he isn’t afraid, that I can trust him. He opens up his bedside table and pulls out a pendant that can cloak us. “The gods want you miserable, and this is the most miserable I’ve seen you,” he says. He turns and holds up the pendant. “When you find her, bring her to dinner. She needs to meet the pack.”

“She’s not staying,” I say. Despite how much I want to keep her, despite how much I want to believe her that being sun-touched is just a superstition told to keep those like me in line, I cannot take the risk. If Artemis punishes me for defying her by killing Siome herself, she’ll never be reborn.

“I know, but she’s going to go crazy with just you for company, and the pack’s getting curious.”

“Give me the pendant,” I growl.

“Your word she comes to dinner or I’ll make you fight me for alpha.”

“You won’t win.”

“No, but I’ll smile in my grave knowing you’re fucking miserable.” He flashes me a cheeky smile.

“If I find her and get her clean –”

“Good enough.” He tosses me the pendant, and as it sails through the air, I drop to the ground and shift. I rise fully in my wolf form and grab the pendant before it hits the floor.

“Shit, you’re getting fast,” Oscar mutters, but I’m already gone, racing through town, my nose in the air, searching for the trail of my mate.

Those two words burn a whole in my chest.My mate.

I dreamed of claiming her one day.

Of making her mine.

Foolish dreams that could never come to pass. So when the yearning got too big, I sent her away out west.

I don’t know if I made the right decision. Don’t know if she would have died if she’d stayed, just like everyone else I cared about. But I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe, even from herself.

I track her to the edge of Shadow Domain territory. The wards around their main street keep out all but witches; even the pendant won’t get me through. But the branching streets are outside the wards so they can still deal to non-witches. The desperate wolfs and vamps like Siome.

“No cash, no product,” I hear a man say, his thick voice carrying on the wind. She’s with him; I can smell her, and I veer off in their direction.

“I can give you Sahara Storm,” she says, her voice shaky. My street name rolls off her tongue like a curse. Sahara for the reddish-gold color of my fur. Storm for the wreckage I leave behind. I have a large bounty on my head from both the Blood Fangs and the Shadow Domain, and hearing her use me to score hits me like a hot poker to the chest.

The man laughs. “He will not care about trash like you.”

A low growl builds in my belly. I turn the corner and see them. Neither of them can see or sense me due to the magic of the pendant, but Siome still stiffens and turns to look behind her.

“I swear –” she starts to say, but he shoves her back. She stumbles out into the street, out of my path, and I barrel past her and into him. He stumbles back into the house. My teeth rip into his throat. He doesn’t even have the chance to scream. Siome does, though, shrieking in fear even though she knows it’s me, and hearing her fear twists the hot poker deeper into my heart. Doesn’t she know I’ll never hurt her?

I lift my bloody jaws just in time to see her run away from me. Noise deeper in the house warns me of another witch coming my way, but I leave him to chase after her. I shift into my human form beneath the cover of the pendant.

“Leave me alone!” she screams as she peels off down the street. There isn’t a lot of people out in this seedy part of town at the moment, only addicts and homeless hiding in corners, so I wait until she passes a side street, then tackle her to the ground, twisting in the air so I hit the earth first. I roll her into the shadows of the smaller lane, stopping as I lie on top of her.

“Siome, stop!” I hiss as I remove the pendant from my neck so she can see me. My face doesn’t bring her the calm it used to though. Doesn’t make her smile. Doesn’t make her hollow eyes light up in joy.

She lifts her head and tries to bite me, the feralness in her eyes breaking my heart.