Free Wolves’ Bane by Angela Addams

him. “I won’t make promises to you that I can’t keep.”
    I frowned. “What do you mean?”
    When he looked back up his expression was pained. “I can’t promise to love you. I can’t promise that I won’t hurt you.”
    Realization donned on me and I pulled my lips into a tight smile. “So you expect to bond with me but not become one with me, not to have that deep relationship you mentioned? And what? If sex is a byproduct of that union, then it’s all good for you? Is that what you’re saying? It’s all business.” And I thought I’d been in control of the situation. His admission stung more than it should. I’d stopped the intimacy because I needed to know more, and now that I knew more, the romantic aspect was filling my head with a fantasy world of being loved and cherished to a degree I’d never known in my whole life, just as I’d always craved. Just like the psychic said. The only problem was my hero wouldn’t give me his heart.
    Cal shrugged. “It has to be.”
    “It has to be?”
    He stood and walked toward the window. “When a Huntress dies, she takes part of her Hunter with her. He will never be the same again. Those twenty-four girls who have died over the years? Most weren’t even Huntresses yet, but their Hunters were changed, made weaker, less stable. They can never fight again for fear of critical injury. They become our scholars, tied to the texts, questing for answers and constantly burdened by tremendous grief over women they didn’t even know. But at least most of them had it somewhat easier. Their women died before they were actually bonded. The wolves got to those women before we could bring them here.” He paused to suck in a deep breath before releasing it in one long sigh. “Only a few have lost their Huntress after the bonding took place, after they’d allowed themselves to fall in love.” He shook his head. “Those men, they lost everything, sometimes their will to live, but usually their sanity itself. I can’t open myself to such vulnerability. I have to stay distant. I can’t allow myself to let deeper emotions form—I’ve seen what it does to a man.”
    I swallowed a lump in my throat. “So you’re worried that I’m going to die?”
    Cal kept his back to me but shrugged. “It’s more than that. But yeah, I guess I am.”
    “So you’re doing this to protect yourself?” There was something about his words, the tone, that didn’t seem quite right, like he wasn’t being totally honest. “Turn around and look at me. I want to see your eyes.”
    Cal’s shoulders tensed. When he turned to face me, his expression was hard. “I’m doing this to protect both of us. I can’t promise you sunshine and rainbows, but I can give you strength and power.”
    I stayed quiet for a moment. This time all I heard was truth, his eyes unable to hide the conviction of his words. “You said that I mean something to Lazarus—what is it exactly?” Without waiting for him to answer, I continued, “He said that I’m his bride, so he believes that we’re destined to be together.”
    “Yes, he wants you because you’re the only female, his bride, who would be able to carry his young.”
    “But he’s a werewolf!” My stomach lurched.
    “Not all the time. He can transform into a man as well.”
    So that was the other half of Fiona’s prediction—this was the choice I needed to make. One man, part beast, wanted me as his queen to propagate his pack, while the other wanted me to fight while keeping me at arm’s length. It seemed like heartbreak and pain no matter what the decision. Status quo as far as my love life was concerned .
    What made it worse was that I felt something for Cal, and I knew he felt something for me. Was it only lust? I wasn’t sure, but I certainly wasn’t going to test it out and risk losing my heart again, and I definitely wasn’t going to be either a pawn in anyone’s power struggle or the victim of some beast’s violent desires. I stood