Page 19 of Cursed Touch
He shook his head. “Like you, I want to protect her… so I lied, and she saw right through it.”
“Oh no…” Georgia said and dropped her head back on the couch, shutting her eyes.
He sighed. “How do I fix this?”
“Why does this matter to you so much? You could move on and find yourself a witch and add more pains in the asses to this world.”
He scoffed. “I’m glad you think so highly of me when you don’t know shit about me or my family.” A shadow crossed her face, and he turned to face her. “What? What aren’t you telling me?”
“If your sister kept to herself, my brother would be alive.”
The words hung in the air as Carter sorted through the past year. “That’s a bold statement to make, wolf… My sister hasn’t killed any werewolves from the Alumbra pack. If anything, she’s saved them.”
He shook with anger, his magic flowing through him at an alarming rate.
Georgia pushed to her feet and paced the tiled floor in front of his large TV. “If Ryan kept his distance, she wouldn’t have been pulled in, and Peter wouldn’t have become enamored with her. Because of his stupidity, he pulled us into battle at the Sivella compound, and my brother was killed.”
He forced his mind to process her words before he shook his head. “You weren’t there at the compound.”
Her glowing yellow eyes met his as her body vibrated. Carter wondered if she would turn, and not for the first time, he wished he had offensive magic. Healing power would not do shit if she went all wolf on him.
“Maybe if I’d been there, he’d still be alive!”
He remembered the name of the wolf they’d lost as he scooted to the edge of the couch. “Reni didn’t die because of my family, Georgia,” he told her, using the same tone he did to deliver bad news to patients. “Your brother was a warrior… a hero. Would you really rather have left all those women in that madman’s hands?”
“Yes! If it meant having him back, yes!”
Carter pushed to his feet and shook his head. Taking a measured risk, he moved toward her and wrapped his arms around her. Georgia struggled, but something told him it was more from grief. She could have shoved him away with a pinky if she really wanted to.
“No… You don’t mean that. It hurts like hell to lose someone you love. Reni died so those poor women could live. He knew the mission was dangerous, but he went there for them. That could have just as easily been you. You’d never wish that on someone,” he told her, one hand running over the back of her head and the other keeping her steady against his body. “I was there and wish I’d never seen it, but I’m glad I was there to heal their physical injuries. The invisible scars those women bear run deeper than any shit you or I could imagine. Reni helped us save them, and you should be proud of him.”
Carter held her until her sobs were no more and the fight within her disappeared. He kissed the top of her head without a word and moved to the kitchen. “The bathroom is down the hall if you’d like a moment while I pour us a drink.”
A moment passed before he heard her soft footfall and the door click. Carter leaned against the counter and stared at his ceiling, pushing back the images that still haunted him. Even after Reni’s heart quit beating, Carter had tried to revive the wolf. He would never share that with Georgia, but he meant what he’d said.
It seemed their supernatural community was linked more than he knew. Carter did not realize it because he didn’t spend much time with the Alumbra pack, not nearly as much as his sister did. He shook his head as he recalled Georgia’s description of Peter being enamored with Brandy. The alpha held a deep love for her, but since they were without a mate bond, their connection was of brother and sister. Peter would not learn from Carter that Georgia, and quite possibly others, blamed his affection for the loss of one of their own.
Georgia had not witnessed the pain on the alpha’s face when Xander, his beta, had notified him of Reni’s death. Carter knew she was grieving, and he hoped his words helped.
The bathroom opened, drawing him from his thoughts. He grabbed two of the old-fashioned whiskey glasses Brandy had gifted him when he graduated medical school and crossed the kitchen and living room.
Georgia took the glass and nodded. He watched her over the rim as she sipped, pleased to see her savoring the liquor. The smooth liquid slid down his throat and warmed his insides. He moved to the large glass sliding door and stared into his darkened backyard.
“You asked why I didn’t move on… why I didn’t find a witch.” He paused and faced her, leveling her with a stern expression. “Vanessa is my soul mate.”
“You mean symbolically?”
“No.”
“How? You just fucking met her!”
He shook his head. “You of all people know we don’t get a choice in our mates, Georgia.”
Georgia tipped back the rest of her drink before dropping to the couch. “But she’s a fucking human.”
Carter shrugged. “And she’s still mine. She’s mine, and she doesn’t fucking want to see me again because I lied to her. I made her feel a fool and then she caught me in the damn lie, a lie that was meant to keep her safe.”
“Fuck!” she said and dug her fingers into the hair at her temples.
