Page 76 of The Tracker's Secret

I ignored him and kept walking, a feeling of terrible anguish building in my chest. I had killed someone. How could I live with myself knowing that I’d ended someone’s life? I grabbed my duffel bag and headed out of the room, feeling lost.

Eric joined me. “Who was it?”

I didn’t answer for a long moment and kept walking down the hall, but suddenly the tremendous need to tell someone, to unload the awful guilt that had suddenly dropped on my shoulders, took hold of me.

“It was a vampire. I...” I paused, wanting to omit the details, but I pressed forward. “I snapped his head off with my bare teeth.”

“You what?!”

Bile rose up my throat as I remembered the bitter taste of the creature’s blood in my mouth.

“Two vamps had cornered Jake,” I said. “They were going to kill him. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to help him. He was already injured and—”

“It sounds like you had no other choice,” he cut me off. “But you don’t have to explain yourself to me. If you killed a vampire, all I can say isgood riddance.”

I whirled on him, anger fizzing up like a chemical reaction. “How can you be so callous? Just because you can go about eradicating entire packs doesn’t mean that others have no scruples.” Too late I realized what I was saying and snapped my mouth shut.

Eric’s eyes narrowed, and his upper lip twitched. His blue gaze grew colder than I’d ever seen it. For a second, he struggled to restrain himself, clenching his fists and quaking on the spot. But then he lost it, and in a flash, he was on me, his hands around my neck as he pushed me against the wall.

He spoke between gritted teeth. “Don’t you dare talk about things you don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry,” I said in a raspy voice.

Sheesh! Did I have a death wish? Yeah, go ahead and piss off the vengeful wolf. Very smart, Toni.

He released his hold a tiny bit, enough for me to catch my breath.

“I was out of place,” I managed to say.

Disgusted, he let me go and stormed away.

“Wait,” I called out, panicking. “Can I come back tomorrow?”

He grunted and kept going, which I assumed meant “yes” since he hadn’t responded with an angry roar. Now that I knew what I was capable of, I needed to learn how to control myself more than ever.

Then, I remembered I was supposed to ask him more questions about rhabo, but I’d totally forgotten, and now he was mad at me.Way to go, Toni.