The memory of fingers on my skin and tearing at my clothes grips me, and I squeeze my eyes shut, wondering if this is going to be something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.
Breathe.
A single word fills my head, and calmness sweeps over me.
“Yes,” I whisper to myself, forcing myself to breathe. “It’s been one hell of a day. Breathe.”
“Good girl,” Calix says from the doorway, watching as I hurry up the stairs, my heart in my mouth.
Good girl?How did he know what I was thinking? I did speak aloud, though.
Yes, he heard me telling myself to breathe.
That’s all.
Chapter Nine
CALIX
Ican hear her, and she can hear me.
mind-linking, it's called, and I've done it for years with my pack. But with a human? I'm pretty sure that's never happened before.
I'm tense as fuck, and the coffee Blair's aunt gave me does nothing to relax me. But I smile and sip it, barely listening to the idle chat between aunt and nephew.
Instead, I listen to Blair and fight the urge to climb the stairs and take her out of here—to safety—but I know I can't.
I need to tell her what I am and what it means for her, but I can't just drop it on her. She's in shock from her attack—her reaction when I touched her said everything I needed to know.
She's terrified, and I can't blame her. I saw the state they left her in on that rainy night, her clothes torn from her body...
“Have you known Leon long?”
I blink and focus on Ray’s voice, meeting her bright blue eyes before I clear my throat.
“Kind of.”
I'm the Alpha of a pack, a large pack at that, yet this slip of a woman is making me nervous. She's watching me like she's trying to work me out, and I don't like it.
“What about Blair? You two seemed to know one another,” she pries, her brow furrowing as she scans my body.
“Not exactly.”
She raises a brow. “You don't have much to say, do you?”
I shrug.
“Where did you say you're from?” Ray asks, pinning me to the spot with her sharp stare.
I glare back at her. “The mountains.”
Her eyes widen, and she stares past me for a moment, lost in thought.
“The mountains, you say? I met a man from the mountains once. He was like you, big and muscly. Incredibly fast too.”
I still and glance at Leon, who's nodded off on the table, completely fucking useless to Blair.
“Leon.” I shake his arm, but it's no use—he's dead to the world.