Free Wild Hunts by Rhea Regale Page B

about what happened to me a few months ago, so I told Slade.” Another sting to his pride. His brother knew her secret before him. He did everything to swallow back the tension that threatened to bubble up from his gut. Two of her fingers played with a button on his shirt. “I’ve tried to forget, but there are times the memories are triggered. When your…the feel of your teeth on my wrist…well, it reminded me.”
    That was it? Such a simple, rather arousing, motion triggered her panic?
    He lifted his head and glanced down at her. She lay with her head tilted too far down for him to see her expression.
    “What happened to you?” Micah urged quietly.
    “I was dating someone a few months back. He was the first guy Jordan actually approved of in my line of eligible boyfriends. The man’s name was Tom Hardy, and he belonged to a small pack that held grounds just beyond the Washington border into Oregon.”
    “But your brother was aware you were appointed mates,” Micah said. He glanced up the shadow-shrouded hill. A dim light flickered in Jordan’s cabin at the crest, obscured by thick trees. That bastard allowed his woman to frolic around with other men? “Why the hell would he—”
    “It’s done, Micah, but it explains Tom’s vague detachment from me, even if he showered me in affections,” Kasa said. Her words held a wisp of clarification that did little to settle the jealousy stirring in his soul. Having her now, in his arms, he didn’t want to imagine her bed-mussed by another man. Except for Slade. “Regardless, we had been dating for roughly two months when he disappeared. Jordan insisted that he would be back. He probably had to settle some small territorial dispute back home. But even I could tell he was as curious as I about Tom’s abrupt leave.
    “We tried to learn of his whereabouts through our connections with other packs. No one heard of him, knew of him, or had seen him. One of my brother’s pack mates had a friend who had connections with Tom’s pack and learned that he never returned home.
    “Three weeks later, Tom reappeared. Jordan was furious. I was hurt. I ignored him until he was at my door, groveling for my forgiveness. He brought me gifts every day for a week straight. He wrote me long notes of apology, spilling open his heart. In the end, I gave him a second chance.”
    Micah’s teeth clenched hard. A dull pain started thudding in his temple. Jealously was a nasty fuck, one he never cared much for. But his jealously tangled with his need to protect, and here he lay, listening to a story from the past, knowing the outcome would leave him helpless.
    Just like with Reiny.
    “His apology wasn’t genuine, I’m assuming,” Micah said. The raspy bite in his tone had Kasa turning to look up at him. The pain in her eyes twisted his heart. Tears shimmered along her lashes. He reached up and wiped them away with his thumb. “Sorry. I’m a jealous bastard.”
    “You barely know me.”
    “I know you all the same.” He inclined his chin. “Go on.”
    “Something happened to Tom when he was away. Something that made the wolf in his spirit snap at the smallest things. Within a matter of days, I went from hopeful to fearful. His moods reflected those of a rabid animal. His apologies became more and more hollow. His eyes…They scared me shitless. They’d go from comprehensive to mad in a blink. He had turned violent. I broke it off with him. Jordan threatened to kill him, and his pack, if he didn’t leave me alone.
    “He left, and a couple days later, returned with a man I’d never seen. The scents that surrounded them were acrid, evil. The stranger shackled my ankles and my wrists until I was helpless, tied to my bed with a beast hovering over me. Tom started talking about caves and captive wolves. He started muttering about the Dark Moon sisters and their hunt for the whites. He laughed when he declared my destiny at the hands of those women, and he’d be rewarded when he turned