Free Taming the Heart (Creatures of the Night Book 2) by Tisha Wilson Page B

he stalked back and forth in front of her again with his hands behind his back as he looked down at her.
    “Yes. You used to be full of life. You used to stand at the top of the pyramid. I bet you were supposed to go to college on some type of scholarship. I bet you used to have a strong lithe body, but look at you now. You are nothing. You stand back in the shadows and secretly despise your sister for being successful while you turned into nothing but a copy girl,” he snarled.
    He was obviously trying to goad her into a fight. She wouldn’t be swayed though. She wouldn’t fight him because she wouldn’t win. “Okay. You win if that’s what you want to hear. You win. I’m nothing,” she conceded to which he roared again in anger.
    “No! Fight me you stupid wench! Don’t you have an ounce of self-preservation? Aren’t you anything other than a whining sniveling little brat!”
    “I know what you’re doing, but I’m not going to fight you,” she shot back without meaning to.
    “No. You wouldn’t fight. You didn’t even fight for your sister. You just let them carry her out into those woods to rip her to pieces while you sat there crying like the sniveling brat you are.”
    She closed her eyes and shook her head as the anger entered her veins at those words. Hot tears burned her eyelids. “What was I supposed to do?! I could hardly pull myself out of that wreck.”
    “You were supposed to fight for her! Your mother is sick, your father is dead! You were supposed to take care of her, and what did you do? Lay on the ground as useless as you are,” he yelled.
    “No,” she cried as she covered her ears.
    He grabbed her arms and shook her until her head snapped back. “You are useless. You are worthless. You will never be anything more and because of you your sister is dead,” he screamed in her face.
    “No,” she screamed back. Before she knew what she was doing, she had flown at him and was pummeling him. Her heart beat faster and her teeth felt funny as she landed on top of him, straddling him. She punched him in the face and squeezed his waist like a vice with her thighs.
    He tried to stand up to get away from her but she stayed wrapped around him and hit him over and over again. He tried to disentangle himself from her by pushing her off but she made her way around to jump on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight until she heard something pop.
    Reality returned to her as they sank to the ground and he lay beneath her without moving. “Oh my God,” she whispered as she finally released him. As suddenly as her legs had begun to work, they went limp yet again. She used her arms to scoot away from his body. Had she killed him?
    His eyes were blinking and he was having trouble breathing in the mud, but the rest of his body wasn’t moving. She hurried to lift his head out of the mud. He was too heavy to flip over so she settled for resting his head in her lap turned towards her.
    “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Should I call someone?”
    He closed his eyes as if to concentrate on something. After a few minutes his arms started moving, and then his legs, until he was finally able to turn over and sit up. He rubbed his neck for a moment. He looked at her with… admiration? She had just broken his neck and he looked at her with admiration? He really was crazy.
    “I must say… you are slow to anger but when you do anger, you go for the kill. You would have killed me twice now if I were a more fragile creature, but when you fight the creatures, a snapped neck will only slow them down. You have to finish the job with a silver bullet or knife. Can you shoot?”
    “You wanted me to snap your neck?”
    He shook his head and stood up before he scooped her up as well. She put her arms around his broad shoulders and had to ignore the thrill that gave her.
    “Yes. I don’t know why you are different. It seems that when you go into hunter mode you are completely healed, but when you are