Free Blind Wolf by Aubrey Rose Page B

movement and when he grazed her with his arm as he sat down, she flinched.
    "I scare you," he said. His voice and face were clear: he was miserable. Julia felt sorry for him, in a strange way.
    "It's okay," she said quietly. "Really, it is."
    "I shouldn't have shifted like that in front of you. I know you were scared."
    "You have no idea," she said, shaking her head. "This whole thing is impossible."
    "I'm sorry, Julia. I wanted to tell you in a different way, I swear," he said.
    "The girl you're with," Julia said, suddenly. "The one who was guiding you. Is she..."
    "She's a shifter too."
    "That's what you call them? Not werewolves?"
    "Right," Damien said.
    "So she's in your...your pack?
    "Yes." He paused, his expression pained. "I should tell you—I want to be completely honest. I can't lie to you anymore."
    "What is it?" Julia asked, her voice a whisper.
    "She's the one I'm supposed to mate with."
    Julia swallowed back a sob. She knew. She supposed she had always known, ever since the beginning. He couldn't be hers. Nobody like him could ever really be hers. The girl he had been with was beautiful, gorgeous even. Thin and sexy and everything that Julia wasn't.
    "Okay," she stammered. She started to get up and Damien's hand clasped down hard on her wrist.
    "Wait. Don't leave," Damien said.
    "What do you want from me?" Julia said. She was on her knees in the sand, facing his golden, sightless eyes. They glimmered, or was that the sun? It didn't matter. His beautiful eyes, his beautiful face—none of it belonged to her. "You're a liar. You've lied to me since the moment I met you!"
    "Julia, how could I have told you the truth? You wouldn't have believed me."
    "You could have told me about her ," Julia said. "You could have told me that you belonged to somebody else from the start. Instead you fed me all this bullshit about being lovely. Calling me sexy, saying you wanted to take me out on a date."
    "Julia—"
    "No! You can't just do that!" Julia was furious now, and her cheeks again were wet with tears—when had that happened? She yanked her arm out of Damien's grasp and wiped her face as she stood up. "You made me fall in love with you and you knew all the while it was impossible!"
    "It's not imposs—"
    "You have someone else already! What did you tell her about me? What lie did you tell her about coming out with me today? So that you could fool around with me and then run back home to your real girlfriend?"
    "You don't understand." Damien's voice grew low. He tried to stand up, but his leg buckled under him and Julia saw his wound start to bleed freshly. "You don't know—"
    "I don't know anything about you!" Julia cried, wanting more than anything to turn and run. "And I don't want to know!" Looking at Damien's leg, she realized she couldn't abandon him here. He realized her thoughts a second later.
    "It's fine," Damien said. "I can get home from here."
    "How can you get home when you're..." Julia's words faded in the hot air.
    "Scent, usually," Damien said, pulling out a cell phone from his pocket. "But I need to call one of my friends. He's a doctor."
    "Your leg," Julia said.
    "Not for me," Damien said. "For him ."
    Julia looked where Damien nodded and saw the injured wolf lying on his side.
    "You'll have to stay here, too." Damien said.
    "I'm not going to stay with you," Julia said, her arms crossed defiantly.
    "Unless you want to risk running into another one of those wolves, you'd better stay," Damien said. Julia's breath left her body in a whoosh as she thought about encountering another wolf on the trail. It was miles back to the trailhead, and she had nothing for protection. Except Damien. Except...
    "Don't worry," Damien said. He smiled sadly at Julia, and she saw his golden eyes flicker underneath his dark brows. "They'll be here soon. And I promise not to bite."
     

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Damien
    Damien smelled the three wolves in his pack before they emerged from the forest. Sitting on a log by the lakeshore,