Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“Good,” said Nick. “Guilt has a way of eating people alive.”
As Jesse watched the Alpha walk away, he marveled at how right those words were. Guilt had devoured Mia, sending her on a dark path. He’d always thought it would be the drugs that killed her. Instead, she was kidnapped by extremists and taken to an illegal game preserve, where she was hunted like an animal and then killed. They hadn’t even had a body to bury.
He’d tried to find her and save her, but he’d failed. So he’d settled for getting vengeance by helping Bracken and Zander kill one of the bastards who ran the preserve—it had been an act of vengeance for them too, since they’d also lost family to the extremists. Nick had killed the other male who ran the preserve.
Jesse wished he could say he’d grieved for Mia as intensely as his parents had. Wished he could claim to be scarred by her death like any normal person would be by the loss of a sibling. But he’d lost his sister long before that. Lost her to drugs and alcohol and her chosen path of self-destruction.
When her drug addiction had strongly taken hold, she’d changed dramatically. Become someone he didn’t know or like. Someone selfish and abusive. In some ways, he’d felt sorry for her. After all, who actually wanted to be a junkie? Who actually wanted to be someone who would steal, lie, hurt, manipulate, and cheat as easily as they’d breathe? Surely, no one did.
He’d tried to think of her as a lost and weak-minded person who just needed help. He’d even tried to get her that help—over and over, for that matter. But he’d come to realize that Harley had been right in something she’d once said: you couldn’t help an addict unless they wanted that help. Mia hadn’t.
His soul may not be bleeding with grief, but her death had still deeply affected his life. If she hadn’t gone missing, he wouldn’t be a Mercury wolf right now. He, Bracken, and Zander had only chosen to leave the Sequoia Pack because they’d mistakenly suspected that the Alpha—an asshole of epic proportions—might have had some involvement in the kidnapping of the missing members of their families. Rather than return to their old pack, they had remained with Nick, an Alpha they could truly respect and follow.
None of that would have happened if Mia had just listened to Jesse. He had warned her that shifters were disappearing. He’d warned her to be careful, and if she had just listened to him, she might be alive. Harley would take this shit seriously, and he would ensure that the extremists didn’t take her from him. And if she didn’t like that he was suddenly all up in her business, demanding everything she had to give, too fucking bad.
CHAPTER FOUR
It was the smell of coffee that penetrated her delightfully deep sleep, but it was the sensation of a thumb breezing along her jaw that made Harley snap fully awake. And there was Jesse, staring down at her. His expression would have been as blank as always if it weren’t for the way his eyes glittered with a heat that made her breath catch.
“Morning,” he said simply.
She swallowed. “I take it that’s for me,” she said, referring to the cup he was holding. Then she caught sight of a very noticeable bulge in his jeans. Warmth flooded her cheeks as she realized her words could be taken to mean something else. One corner of his mouth tipped up in amusement.
“It is,” said Jesse.
She sat upright. “Thanks.” Taking the mug, she blew over the rim before taking a sip. He watched her, completely still. She felt awkward and vulnerable having him there while she wasn’t fully alert, especially considering the things he’d said the previous night.
“Sleep well?”
Harley nodded. She would have thought that having him spoon her all night would have kept her awake; it hadn’t. If anything, she’d settled easier having him there. Maybe because, for the first time in months, she’d felt safe. And maybe because his bed was the shit. Seriously, the sleigh bed was huge and had the comfiest mattress in the history of . . . ever. Like the rest of the lodge, his wooden paneled bedroom was very masculine and earthy.
Harley had suspected it would take a while before she finally drifted off, considering her thoughts were jumbled and her body was humming with arousal. But minutes after she’d closed her eyes, sleep had taken her. She’d stirred briefly when she felt a solid body wrap around her from behind, but, being a heavy sleeper, she’d fallen right back asleep. “What time is it?”
“Eleven thirty. I tried to wake you earlier, but it would have been easier trying to wake the dead. You haven’t been sleeping well, have you?”