Free Blood Reign (#4): Alpha Warriors of the Blood (The Blood Series) by Tamara Rose Blodgett Page B

bruises.
    But it was Jacqueline whom Tony's eyes sought with hate. 
    They separated the two of them after that, fashioning a wall from the sithen itself. It was sentient; the sithen could have refused the invoking of a barrier.
    But it seemed the sithen had grown tired as silent witness to Tony's violence.
    The Were had resigned himself to glaring at her through the clear but impenetrable wall.
    Jacqueline had cried when Domi saved her from the attack.
    She had cried into his hands, and he had caught her tears like diamonds as they fell.
    Pieces of her soul had broken apart that day, and all Jacqueline could hope for was reclaiming them in the future. Whatever her future ended up being.
    Domi still waited for her response.
    “I know,” she said.
    He smiled, his scarlet lips breaking over pure white teeth. “Good.”
    Domi put his large palm on her back, and they moved to the horses. He easily lifted her up and began a forward walk. It would be a long sojourn on horseback, and Jacqueline tired thinking about resuming. However, they needed to travel that way to avoid airplanes and cars.
    The baby she carried only afforded so much temperance this far from Faerie. Metal, was still an issue. It was as the human's fabled kryptonite, a poison to the fey.
    Horses were organic. And obedient.
    The one Singer female who came was Angela, and she made Jacqueline uncomfortable. Of course, Jacqueline was hyper-aware in a way she'd never been before. She girded her loins.
    She did not deserve an answer to her question. “Why do you stare at me?”
    Angela rode beside her, the powerful horse rolling beneath her hips. Her face flushed slightly, her fair skin hiding nothing. “Your aura.”
    “What of it?” It had been the color of bruised eggplant before her fey imprisonment.
    “It is no longer violet tinged with black,” the Feeler admitted with hesitation.
    Jacqueline was now desperate to know: was her change in Faerie certain?
    Domi said nothing as he rode to her right and slightly ahead.
    Jacqueline knew he listened.
    “It is a pale pink, with white at the edges.”
    Jacqueline sat atop the horse in stunned silence, her fingers going lax on the reins.
    She knew what that meant. And she couldn't believe Angela would ascribe it to her.
    Purity.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    The Washington state border loomed in the distance, guarded by Canadian Mounties. The horses pitched around nervously, causing the men on their backs to tighten their grip on the reins. The horses were not dumb. An alert as ancient as any had tweaked their internal alarms.
    Julia watched her husband and the other two females move forward. All half-wolfen. That was what the horses sensed.
    In a perfect world, they'd all be on horseback, and the horses' scent would mask the Were.
    The world was not perfect. Upwards of fifteen Were trailed them by their fragrance. Eau de Body Odor, Julia thought with a thinly concealed snort. She figured they kept getting worse as they traveled. No baths, food where they could get it, sleep a luxury. It was a combo for smelly, grumpy, and beat.
    Jason glanced at her, and she gave a tired smile back. When Julia had been taken, she'd been wearing cute but useless tennis shoes. The kind you buy for nearly free and walk to the mailbox in.
    They were in tatters. Blisters covered every place she looked. They had been especially bad at the back of her ankle and alongside her toes.
    Cyn had healed her from most of it, along with the broken ribs and dislocated shoulder, but the injuries kept returning. The Were changed, in their element out there in the forest, and suddenly there were no problems—for them. Julia was a regular person who'd just walked fifteen miles on no sleep and inadequate footwear.
    Jason lumbered back to her position. She looked up into his face, almost seven feet of half-Were and sighed.
    “I smell your wounds,” he said and she nodded.
    “Likely—they're driving me crazy.”
    She laughed when he put his big paws on his