Free Reaper's Justice by Sarah McCarty Page A

on emotions. Took advantage of the distraction to seize control.
    Isaiah had battled long and hard to gain that measure of control within himself during the time They had had control of everything else. He’d figured if he could control the beast, They couldn’t control him. The best he’d managed was a compromise. He hadn’t managed to control the beast, but he had managed to learn to rein in his emotions under most circumstances. He’d gone from fighting at the drop of a hat to the cool customer in the corner that no one could read. They had not been happy with the transformation. That had just made him more determined to broaden that void inside. To control more and more of his anger, to keep it away from Their manipulation. To piss Them off.
    He smiled at the memory. They had not been happy. They couldn’t have their wild card back. He touched the faint thread of scars on his neck. All that was left of the slicing They ’d done to change his mind. The beast couldn’t heal all the damage, but he’d healed most. Isaiah hadn’t cared because, by learning to control his emotions, he’d learned that control could go both ways.
    Addy misinterpreted that smile. “Hi.”
    The softness that replaced the fear in her eyes found an answering softness within him. He squashed it immediately. He couldn’t afford weakness.
    After the War was over for him, it had been even easier to keep his emotions locked up tight. For a blessed year he’d felt nothing, roaming the country, looking for a place he could make his home. For a year he’d known peace. For another year he’d protected it. And then he’d met Addy. A woman whose scent haunted his dreams. A woman who drew him back to civilization time and time again. A woman who stole his peace. A woman who didn’t belong here in the wilds of his mountain. A woman he couldn’t resist.
    He pulled his hand away from Addy’s cheek, straightened, and looked around.
    He’d found peace up here on his mountain so high above the valley. Humans rarely intruded. It was a good place. Maybe too high for most. But there were some advantages to what had been done to him, for someone who had been given a beast. He had more stamina, more speed, more strength. The mile trip down the mountainside to where the game fed was accomplished in the blink of an eye. The cold nights didn’t affect him and the loneliness was a blessing. There was no one here he could hurt.
    He looked at Addy lying on his bed, eyeing him so warily. And reconsidered. There hadn’t been anyone he could hurt before, but now she was here. The one who kept the madness at bay. The one who reminded him of a time he couldn’t remember. The one who provoked that vague sense of “should know.” The one who reminded him of what he’d dreamed of for all those years They had held him against his will. The one who made him feel human.
    They had stolen a lot from him in the dark place, and what They ’d given hadn’t replaced it, but he was going to get it back. He was determined to get it back. He might not ever be normal again, but he would know his past and he would own his future. And he would make a place for himself in the world that had never been kind but had once been his. The human world.
    Adelaide licked her lips and propped herself up on her elbows. Her hand furtively snuck into her pocket, reaching for her worry stone, no doubt, a sure sign she wasn’t as calm as she would like him to believe as she asked, “Where am I?”
    “My home.”
    Her body didn’t move but her eyes looked left and then right. Her lashes fluttered as she absorbed the interior. Just twigs and mud and leaves mashed together to provide shelter of a sort. His kind didn’t need much in the way of shelter, but she did. He was going to have to take her home.
    Inside the beast howled, No . The beast was lonely. The beast wanted her here. He ignored the protest. The beast could just waste away. Adelaide wasn’t built to survive up here, and her