Page 79 of Wolfkissed
“Why come looking after all this time?”
I hide a wince. “Her disappearance was a mystery for a long while. We didn’t know what had happened to her.”
“But if my mother killed your mother,” she whispers, “that means your mother led the wolves to us.”
“She wouldn’t do something like that,” I say firmly. “That wasn’t like her.”
She lowers her gaze, but not before I see a flash of rage. “You don’t really know, though.”
“And who can tell me? I’ve been looking for the truth.”
“Yet, you waited over ten years to go looking for it.”
“I was occupied.”
“What a thing to say,” she whispers and casts me a withering look. “If you loved your mother as much as you say and wolves are as vindictive as they are said to be?—”
“We are. And I did.” I rub my eyes. “I still do. I miss her… At any given time, random things remind me of her, and I want her back. I want her with me. But I know it’s impossible, and the least I can do is find out exactly what happened.”
The flames dance in her blue eyes. They look dark in the dimness, only the dancing flames betraying their hue. “You may never find out the whole truth.”
“I’d like to try.”
“I’ve always wanted to know why we were attacked,” she says, “why I was taken… why I was released later. But nobody ever had any real answers.”
“We’ll search for them together,” I promise her. “You and I.”
“You and I… isn’t a thing.” Her mouth twists. “Our paths will diverge soon. You will continue hunting the truth, and I will…”
“Marry,” I say flatly. “That’s the word you’re looking for.”
She blinks at me. “Yes. Marry. Does it bother you?”
“Me? Whatever for?” I keep digging among the flames with the twig until its end catches fire. With a curse, I hit it on the ground until it goes out.
“Yes, you.”
“It’s your life,” I grumble. “Do whatever you want. It has nothing to do with me.”
“Right.”
I realize she’s still looking at me, and I take a vicious bite from the dried meat strip I’m holding in my other hand.
“A werewolf,” she muses. “My bodyguard.”
“Yeah. Fate sure has a sense of humor,” I mumble around the meat as I chew thoughtfully.
“What are the odds? That Stepfather asked for a werewolf to be captured, and they caught you?”
“The timing was unreal. The hounds came baying, and there I was, hoping for some information on my mother’s fate.”
“And you got it,” she whispers, her soft mouth downturned at the corners. “More than you’d bargained for, too.”
“I did get more than I’d bargained for,” I agree, letting my gaze roam over her face, her hair, trailing down to her arms, her chest, her waist. “I never expected to meet you.”
“Such a blow, huh?” she says ruefully. “The daughter of your mother’s murderer.”
“I wouldn’t call it bad luck,” I whisper and smirk at her.
