Page 43 of The Tracker's Revenge

He rarely gave me anything to work with, but he sure expected me to bare my soul to him. But if there was any hope for him, I had to show him how it was done.

“Anger,” I said. “Anger toward Olivia Hillworth.”

Eric raised an eyebrow.

“She completely rubbed me the wrong way,” I went on. “She made me feel... like I didn’t belong and never would.” I hated that feeling, wished that whatever pack instinct had started to grow in me would just go away. “I don’t need a pack.” The words were random and out of the blue. I wanted them to be true but they stank of lies.

“I would be lying to you if I told you that the...wantgoes away. It doesn’t, but it gets easier.”

I nodded, wishing it could be different, wishing I could somehow extricate that part of me, cut it out with a scalpel and throw it in the trash.

“You do remind me of her,” Eric whispered almost as if he didn’t want me to hear him.

“Who?”

“My daughter.”

I stood speechless, all words wiped clean from my brain.

He stood and walked away. “See you tomorrow at the same time,” he called over his shoulder.

I blew a raspberry and left, wondering how much worse the torture would be if I didn’t remind him of someone he’d loved.

Chapter 14

“What’s that smell?”I asked, wrinkling my nose as I entered my office.

Rosalina’s voice came from the lobby. “What smell?”

“Gah!” I exclaimed, realizing the stench came from my garbage can. I’d left the remnants of a previous meal in there overnight. Gingerly pinching my nose, I grabbed the can and hauled it out of the room.

Rosalina frowned at me. “I don’t smell anything.”

“Then you’re definitely not a werewolf. I’ll be right back. I need to dump this out.”

Holding the can at arm’s length, I walked out through the front door and veered left toward the back of the building. I passed Jake’s office but saw no activity inside.