Page 54 of Bad Blood Wolf

Chapter 19

Jasmin ran through the woods, trying to outrun the tsunami, but she could feel it bearing down on her, like a huge shadow behind her, growing ever closer.

There was no high ground, nowhere to escape to, no one to fight. Just everything that she’d dammed up in her heart for the last twenty years and more, and when it crashed over her, she would drown in it. It would blast her armor to smithereens, and there would be nothing left but the soft, terrified little girl, trembling in the dark.

She lost track of which way she was heading, dodging and weaving between tree trunks, crashing through leafless underbrush, snow cold under her paws. She was cold all through.

Suddenly another body slammed into hers, hard enough to knock the breath out of her. She flew into a small clearing, hitting the snow-covered ground with a thud and scrambling to get her paws under her.

She didn’t get the chance. The other animal slammed into her again. Shadow-dark, silent, he crushed the breath from her.

She recognized him—his breadth, his strength, his scent.

Xander.

She panicked, claws out, scratching her way out of his hold, snarling a challenge.

He didn’t answer with a snarl of his own, the way he usually did, saying he was ready to fight. Needed a fight. He slapped away her paw as she swiped at him, but didn’t extend his claws.

What the fuck?

She snarled again, hissing. Fight! Fight, damn you!

But he wouldn’t. Xander the homicidal, always ready for a fight, always begging for a fight, was refusing to bleed her.

He leaped at her again, wrapping his front paws around her and slamming her to the ground once more. Her ribs hurt. But there was no slashing pain to keep her heart from breaking, to distract her with rage and survival instinct.

She kept attacking, but he slithered out of the way of her claws again and again, dodging, baiting her, before taking her down once more.

She knew she could take him. She knew she could make him submit. She’d done it before. And yet somehow her body wouldn’t obey her. Her heart was too heavy, and he wouldn’t fight back.

She moved slower and slower. Tears were pouring from her heart—if she turned human, they’d be pouring from her eyes. She’d be soft and sodden, lying in the snow, brought down by a man.

She had to fight back, but she couldn’t.

Finally she just lay there under the weight of Xander’s panther, panting, defeated.

Xander loosened his grip slightly, as if he were trying to see if she was faking. When she didn’t move, he got up and crouched beside her, nosing her shoulder, and then he pushed the side of his face against her in a gesture of affection.

Her eyes went wide. Xander hadn’t been born a cat, and he never showed affection the way shifter cats did. Hell, he never showed affection at all.

He did it again.

Jasmin’s heart broke even further. There was a shallow scratch on Xander’s shoulder from her claws, and she licked it, cleaning it and helping it heal.

There was a shimmer and a crack of bones, and he was human, sitting on the ground with his elbows resting on his knees.

“You okay?” he asked her.

She wanted to just stay cat. She could stay cat, and live in the trees, and never come down or deal with anyone, never have to feel human feelings.

But her jag didn’t want that. It wanted the crew, and it wanted Brody. Especially Brody.

She Changed back to human form. “Why won’t you fight?” she yelled at Xander, hitting his leg with her fist.

Xander just shrugged. “You don’t need a fight.”

She did. She needed a fight, but she was too tired and her heart was broken.