Free Dark Wolf Unbound (Heart of the Shifter #2) by Stephanie Rowe

moment. Until Abby touched his face so gently that he felt himself falling into the magic she wove around him. For a brief, fierce moment, he wished he'd never become an alpha. He wished he'd somehow found a life where a moment like this one was his reality, something he deserved, something he could have for more than a millisecond in his life.
    "What if I could help you with that?" she asked.
    "With what? Making this moment last forever?" Shit. Had he really just said that? He snapped his eyes open, and she was staring at him with a shocked look on her face.
    Yeah, so apparently, he had just said that. Damn. He had no place fantasizing about that kind of shit. Swearing, he pulled back, reclaiming his side of the SUV. "Let's get going," he said, his voice rougher than he'd intended. "Back to my place. I don't like being out here."
    She didn't move. "What if I could teach you to be stronger than the song? That's what I meant."
    He went still, his entire body snapping into hypervigilance at the mention of the song that controlled him. "What do you mean?" he asked cautiously.
    "Desensitization. I can sing it and you can practice resisting—"
    "No!" He lunged across the seat and pressed his hand to her belly, pinning her to the seat. "Do you feel those scars?" he asked. "Do you? Because I can do so much worse than that. That song unleashed a monster inside me, and if you are anywhere near me when it happens, you're dead. Do you get it? Dead. "
    "You're not like him," she said, her voice steady, not pulling away from his touch. "You're different."
    "So different that I killed your sister? Your fucking sister , Abby. How can you forget that? I'm the monster. I am the monster. "
    She didn't pull away. No look of horror crossed her face. In fact...she almost looked empathetic. "Jace—"
    "Fuck this. Just fuck this." Why couldn't she understand how dangerous he was? Jace shoved open his car door and stepped out, keeping all his weight on his uninjured foot. He slammed the door behind him and leaned against the SUV. He clasped his hands on top of his head and took a deep breath, trying to calm down.
    Didn't she see him for what he was? How on earth could she possibly suggest she sing that cursed song to him? She might believe that he could build an immunity to the song, but he knew better. He'd been inside his body when his wolf had taken over. He'd tasted the blood and wanted more. He'd stared into the eyes of her sister while he'd stolen her life, and he'd felt the primal roar of pleasure from his wolf. He'd heard the distant screams of horror from his soul, trying to stop the carnage, and he'd felt the deep satisfaction of his wolf when he'd crushed that pathetic spark of rebellion.
    He was the one who'd lived through the moment when his moral code had lost the battle, willingly and completely, to the monster that the song had unleashed. He'd watched helplessly as he'd murdered Melissa, unable to stop himself even as his soul had screamed in horror. He knew the power of that song, and there was no fucking way he would ever trust himself around Abby or anyone else while that song was playing.
    How the hell could she look at him and not see the monster he'd become? Instead, she saw only the man he'd tried and failed to be, and she was willing to risk her own life to prove he was the man she wanted him to be.
    Desperation coursing through him, he stared up at the blue sky. "What the hell am I supposed to do?" He couldn't afford to be around her, but he owed her his help in finding a four-year-old boy who was out there somewhere in the grasp of a psychopath. As long as he was alive, innocents were at risk. He owed the world his death, but he couldn't help Abby and her nephew if he were dead. There was no way to die and help her at the same time. Her mention of the song was a brutal reminder of the predator he'd become, making it impossible for him to delude himself that he had a right to be with her, touching her, and accepting her