One Last Try by Kari Gregg

Author:Kari Gregg [Gregg, Kari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary
Amazon: B06WRWNWS8
Goodreads: 34347898
Publisher: Kari Gregg
Published: 2017-02-19T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“Two steps forward,” Dio said on a low drawl, “three steps back.”

I glared at him under my lashes from my perch on the couch in Dr. Bennet’s office. The alpha sprawled beside me, body loose and relaxed in a way I envied, but his ease also infuriated me.

“I haven’t run,” I couldn’t resist pointing out.

“You run.” Dio sniffed his disdain. “Early in the morning, in the heat of the day, late at night… You’re the runningest damn wolf I’ve ever met, which is saying something considering the years I traveled from pack to pack as a fixer. I’ve known ferals who spent less time in shifted form.”

I flinched at his criticism. I’d taken regular breaks as a wolf since Dio had tossed me out of my old den. That was true. Long accustomed to shifting and exploring alone when I needed an escape, I’d forgotten the others would regard my frequent absences as strange or, without an escort, even alarming. Omegas didn’t hunt and never roamed without a chaperone. The last three days had reminded me with every instance of Dio’s aggravation and concern when I disappeared into the woods, but the changes the move to a new den had forced upon me had rattled me to my core.

I’d managed to avoid everyone in my pack for six years, but now? Dio must have talked to them. No one approached me with more than a welcoming wave or a casually hailed greeting. My nerves still stretched taut. People! So many people. I could handle Asa. We’d been best friends as boys, and unlike most of the pack, he hadn’t hunted me. His quiet steadiness didn’t threaten me, but the others… Veradek smiled warmly at me, but six years ago, he’d tracked my scent trail for days. Odday had baked chocolate chips cookies she left on my new doorstep that morning, but on another long ago morning, I’d listened to her weeping for me, a wounded wolf she’d deemed too “dangerous” to live. After six years, I thought I’d forgotten the hurt. I’d believed I’d buried the pain of my pack’s betrayal and that it couldn’t touch me anymore.

I was a fool.

The pressure built to flashpoint quickly and often. I needed the simplicity of my animal form to soften the edges of my relentless grief more than ever. Boo frickin’ hoo if my retreat into my wolf disconcerted my pack.

Including Dio, although the new alpha fixer hadn’t participated in the long ago hunt to kill me. I ascribed him as no less another author of my pain. Yes, I ran more frequently, but I blamed him. He had ripped me from the safe solitude of my old den and plunked me into the center of pack activity, where I couldn’t avoid the others no matter how I tried. Shifters dealing with personal troubles usually sought out the comfort of their animal forms, and he dared criticize me for it? I resented Dio’s complaints.

“All wolves need to stretch their legs, especially omegas, whatever the rest of you might choose to believe.

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