“Easy,” Zane says, putting a hand on my shoulder; but I shrug it off.
“Don’t touch me.” My words are low and fierce. I scan the area looking for the threat, ready to kill and destroy; but there’s nothing. I drop to the ground next to Tessa. “Tessa, Baby, what’s wrong?” I reach out and put my hand on her shoulder. She jerks back, crying in pain.
“What the—”
“Slate, calm down, Son.” Alpha Blackwood squats down next to me, and I resist the urge to demand he move further away. “Tessa, Honey,” he says in a very gentle voice. “Are you okay?”
I reach out, but she shrinks back. “Please don’t touch me,” she whispers, and I freeze, her words gutting me.
I stare at her, horrified. “I’mwhat’s hurting you?”
Her eyes plead with me to understand. “I’m sorry, Slater,” she whispers.
And with that, my wolf shreds the distance separating us and rises. A fierce growl rips through me, and I feel my fangs drop and my nails lengthen. I’m going to shift; my wolf is going to force it. I'm powerless to stop it, or maybe I don’t want to stop it. Rage like I've never known consumes me. I’m aware that Alpha is trying to talk to me, but I can’t make sense of his words. That is until a huge dose of his power blasts me, quickly shutting down my partial shift. I stand to my feet and stare down at her and tryto get control. “The bracelet.” I turn to Alpha Blackwood, and his grim look tells me he’s thinking the same thing. “Get it off her.” I turn back to Tessa and take a breath. I don’t want to make her even more afraid and losing control right now will do just that. I drop down into a crouch in front of her. She flinches back, but I keep my face impassive, even though her reaction to me cuts deep. “We’re going to get it off, okay?” I will her to meet my eyes. I need to see those gorgeous eyes. She finally does, and I feel like I can catch my breath at least a little.
“It’s not you,” she whispers, pain in her voice.
“Does it hurt now?”
She shakes her head. “Only when you touch me,” she whispers.
I force myself to ask the next question. “Does it happen when anybody else touches you?”
“I don’t think so. Evie was holding my hand earlier.”
I swallow and speak through what feels like gravel. “What about the guys?”
Her eyes widen, and she looks over my shoulder. I don’t want to see which guy she’s looking at. I really don’t want to kill any of my brothers tonight. “I already touched her, and she was fine. But I'll do it again,” Alpha says and kneels next to me.
“Tessa, I’m just going to touch your hand, okay?”
She nods, but I can see the reluctance in her eyes.How bad is it hurting her?I watch her face carefully when Alpha Blackwood touches her. “Anything?” he asks.
“No.”
“Can I get a look at that bracelet again?” He holds up her wrist and examines it again, even going as far as to touch it. “It’s really tight against your skin. Does it hurt?”
“No.”
I keep my gaze steady on her, but my mind is running circles around the problem. “Can’t we just take it off?”
“Aside from cutting it off, I don’t know how,” Alpha Blackwood says quietly. “There’s no clasp, no mechanism, nothing. It’s like it was fused together right on her wrist.”
“That’s not possible, right?” I ask quickly.
He gives me a heavy look. “With dark magic, a lot of things are possible that shouldn't be. I’m worried there will be other ramifications if we cut it off. That is, if we could even get it off without hurting her.”
“It’s not staying on,” I tell him. There’s no way I’m not going to touch my mate, especially when she’s this scared.
“We can’t do it here,” Alpha Blackwood says. “Why don’t you bring her over to our house? We can try a few things.”
I glance down at Tessa. “Is that okay?”
She pushes herself to her feet and stands up. I have to force myself not to help her. Alpha turns to the others to relay the plan, and I step close to Tessa. She gives me a wary look but doesn’t tell me to step away. “I’m really sorry.”
“Slater, you had no way of knowing; it’s okay. Oh, by the way, good game.” She smiles at me, but her eyes are missing their normal brightness.
“It wasn’t really,” I argue.
