Page 27 of Rejected Wolf
She blinked slowly and took a deep, gasping breath. “Jude?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m here.” I reached out slowly and set a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m so cold,” she said, stumbling into me.
I didn’t hesitate to pick her up, and I swore she didn’t weigh much more than Pax did. “I had such an awful dream,” she said softly, leaning her head against my chest. “I think you were there…”
“Let’s get you back to bed.” Goosebumps crawled up my bare back and shoulders. Was it just a dream, though? All three of us had a nightmare at the same time, and she’d said the doctor wouldn’t give up. What doctor? Surely she didn’t mean one of the doctors from my past.
While I was walking up to Vesta’s cabin, I heard the door to Shan’s place open, and he hurried out to join me. “Vesta? What happened?”
“Just a dream,” I said, looking over Vesta’s head at him. We shared a knowing look. We both knew her dreams were neverjustanything.
Together, Shan and I got her tucked back into bed, and she was asleep within seconds. We stepped outside, closing the door behind us.
“Did she say what her dream was about?” he asked warily, while scanning the woods for danger. The last time there’d been a prediction about us, our camp had been invaded by a cackle of hyenas hellbent on revenge. Shan was right to be worried.
I sighed, staring up at the constellation of stars I’d decided to name Morgan. “We need to talk,” I told him. I could feel him watching me, weighing what I might be about to say.
“Sure, but not out here. You’ll catch your death of cold,” he said, like a doting parent would, and my heart flooded with fondness for my Alpha. “Let’s go grab some tea.”
We walked across to the indoor kitchen, and the warmth of the space wrapped around me like a blanket. I dropped heavily down onto a bench, staring at my hands in my lap. It was well past time to tell Shan about where I came from,and if what Vesta said about the doctor was a prediction of what was to come, then I couldn’t afford to hold back any longer.
I waited as Shan boiled the water then poured it into two mugs, and the comforting aroma of chamomile and mint soothed my nerves.
It’s time, my wolf agreed. We’d kept our secrets long enough.
The door opened, letting in a blast of icy air. “Pour one of those for me too, would you?” Tristan asked, sitting down across from me and leaning his forearms on the table. “You didn’t think I would miss the big reveal, did you? I’ve been dying to hear you spill your guts for ages.”
I glanced up at him. “How did you know?”
He huffed a laugh. “I didn’t, but Pax wouldn’t settle after you left. He just kept patting me, trying to get my attention, and saying ‘Joo-Joo’ over and over, so I knew his dream probably had something to do with you.”
“Yeah, I figure it probably did,” I admitted.
Shan brought the mugs over and sat at the head of the table. “The floor is yours,” he said.
I wrapped my hands around the mug, focusing my attention on the swirling steam so I didn’t have to look into their judging eyes. “You know I wasn’t raised like you guys, I’m sure. When I showed up at your campsite thatfirst night, I had no outdoor skills. Couldn’t start a fire, couldn’t even hunt as my wolf. I wouldn’t have survived without you, I have no doubt. But you might have also noticed that I’m not very good in the city, either.”
Tristan huffed a little laugh, no doubt remembering my intense dislike of crowds, fast food, and hotels. “You don’t say,” he quipped.
“I grew up in a facility, not sure what to call it. A lab, maybe? I don’t think it was government run, nothing so sophisticated as that, but there were guards, doctors…” I remembered watching my little brothers and sister disappear one by one through that unmarked door, accompanied by Dr. Taylor in his white coat with his even whiter grin.
“They were doing experiments on us, like measuring body temps, endurance, hurting us to watch how quickly we healed. Breeding us…” My eyes flicked up, but as soon as I caught a glimpse of the horror crossing my Alpha’s face, I looked back down. “I think I’m half human,” I whispered. I’d never said those words out loud, but I no longer felt the self-loathing at the possibility—not since I’d met Morgan. Being part human wasn’t so bad—it was being related to one human in particular that filledme with rage.
It was so quiet that I heard Shan’s hard swallow. “Your parents…”
“My omega father raised me—as much as they would let him, anyway. He loved me, regardless of how I was created, but he was a prisoner, just like the rest of us. I don’t know for sure who my alpha parent was, but I can guess.” Dr. Gray’s stern face came to mind, his eyes green like mine.
“The rest of you,” Shan echoed. “You once said you had three younger siblings.”
“Yes, a sister and two brothers. Amelia, Carter, and Isaac.”
The pause in the conversation drew out, and I knew what they wanted to know without them asking. “They’re gone now,” I said, choking on the words. A tear dropped onto the table in front of me, soaking into the wood, and I forced myself to continue. “One by one, they came into their wolves, and one by one, the doctor took them through a door… and they never came back. They took my dad last. And then I was the only one left.” I closed my eyes and felt my tears tracking down my cheeks. I hadn’t let myself cry over their loss, and I was scared that now that I’d let the emotions out, I would never be able to put them back in.
I needed to get through this. “I never found out what happened to them. I don’t know if they’re aliveor dead. All I know is that my dad told me if I ever got the chance, I needed to run. So when a door didn’t latch shut all the way, that’s what I did. I ran.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Shan reach for my hand, but he paused as if he knew I wasn’t ready for the contact. If he touched me, I was liable to break before I got to the end of the story. “Why didn’t they take you?” he asked gently.