Rebecca Royce: Summer’s Wolf

Cullen’s voice sounded like music to Summer. “Because we’re mates, you would know if I had died, right?”

“We are mates. That’s right. I hoped I would know. We haven’t performed the ceremony so I was unsure if my absolute knowledge of your death would still apply.”

That didn’t make any sense to her. He’d never come to find her, never showed the least bit of interest in knowing her. She’d obsessed about him for over a year before finally deciding she’d imagined the connection between them. And now, he claimed they had such a deep, spiritual connection he’d know if she were to die?

His eyes roamed her face. He opened his mouth as if to say something but the plane suddenly jerked in a bump of turbulence. Cullen squeezed his eyes shut and she laughed. His eyes popped open to stare at her.

“Are you laughing at me?”

She nodded. “I am.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re this big, tough guy who kills people at the drop of a hat but you’re scared of flying.”

He shook his head. “I’m not scared of flying. Its crashing that bothers me, and it’s only made worse by the fact that Prince Azriel is piloting this particular plane.”

“Sounds like an excuse to me.” She knew she shouldn’t be feeling so jovial. Her parents had not been dead twenty-four hours—but there was something about being with him that made her feel like her world hadn’t just fallen into a million small pieces.

The plane bumped again and Summer felt the pressure in her ears that indicated they had started their descent. She guessed there wouldn’t be any flight attendants walking around to tell them to fasten their seatbelts.

“Cullen, I think he’s descending, you might want to sit down and buckle your seatbelt.”

He looked around and then nodded. Although it felt like it took twice as long as it should have, Summer finally got her seatbelt attached. Cullen, having easily snapped his into place, watched her with a wary look in his eyes.

Finally, he cleared his throat. “Did you travel a lot as a child?”

Visions of her parents on vacations sprung to her mind, followed immediately by the way she’d last seen her parents, dead on the floor. Tears sprung to her eyes, which made her head pound. She grasped her head again. Oh god, she didn’t want the pain to continue. Neither the one in her head, nor the one in her heart.

How was she supposed to get through the day, a minute, knowing what had happened to them? She knew the answer to that. Revenge. Cullen would help her with that.

Want my mate .

Summer’s wolf startled her out of her miserable reverie. She looked up, Cullen eyes were far away, withdrawn as if he’d gone away again. Summer narrowed her eyes. She had no idea why she knew he did this when he was upset. His face was stoic, his eyes calm, but she knew he was deeply hurt.

She cleared her throat, needing to hear his voice again. To bring back the calm his deep baritone encased inside of her. “I know you didn’t mean to bring up my family and cause me pain.”

He nodded and a little light dawned in his eyes.

Her smile wobbled as she tried to ignore the desire that spread through her insides. She didn’t want to know the strange look that must have appeared on her face. He’d already made it clear with his three-year-vanishing-act how little it pleased him to be mated to her, and now he was going to think she made strange faces on a regular basis. Obligation had brought him to New Jersey to rescue her. She should be grateful but she wasn’t.

“I wish Tristan’s Alpha instincts could have brought you guys there to rescue my parents before they were killed.”

At the thought, she closed her eyes. They would be touching down any minute. Her head pounded hard and she couldn’t get comfortable. Cullen reached out to touch the side of her cheek, she tried to open her eyes to look at him but her head swirled and she fell asleep instead.

“Summer, can you hear me?” Familiar, bossy. She knew that voice. Ashlee, her older sister, talked to her in a low voice. Something warm wiped across her forehead. She opened one eye at Ashlee and groaned.

“You’re okay, now. Your headache should be gone and I cleaned you up so you’re no longer disgusting.”

Ashlee was right. Her head felt all right. The twelve piece band that had played inside of it earlier had gone away and now she just had blissful silence. Summer opened the other eye and tried to take in the room. Lights cast a soft glow on the dark beige walls that surrounded the bed she laid in. Two windows showed the deep velvet of the nighttime sky.

“How long have I been here?”

Lines of fatigue drew her sister’s usually fresh face down, not surprising considering the circumstances. Summer sat up slowly, glad the pain didn’t make a reappearance.

“About five hours. Cullen brought you to us as soon as you arrived on the island. He said you were unconscious since right before the plane landed.”

Ashlee crossed to a small wooden dresser and picked up a pitcher of liquid. She poured some into a cup and walked back to Summer. Glad to relieve her thirst, Summer took the cup and downed the water inside. The liquid cooled her scratchy throat. Looking around the room, Summer realized she must be in the Alpha’s suite of rooms at the Institute, Westervelt’s communal headquarters and living space.

“Where is, uh, Cullen?”

Ashlee sat on the bed next to Summer and rubbed her leg. “He left after I assured him you would be okay. He thought you might want some privacy. Tristan told him he’d be more than welcome to stay but he thought you might prefer if he were not here.”

Summer frowned. Why would he have thought something like that? Most of the plane trip was a blur to Summer. She remembered bits and pieces but she didn’t think she’d given Cullen any reason to assume she didn’t want him around.

Truthfully, it was Ashlee she would have preferred to be without.

“What were you even doing there?” So now the inevitable big-sister questions were going to start. “I thought you still weren’t speaking to them.”

“Mom called and said she wanted to try to begin what she called the healing process.”

Ashlee snorted. “Sounds like something Mom would say.”

Summer clenched her fists at Ashlee’s remark. Why did she always have to act like the expert on everything?

“So, I suppose this was inevitable.”

Ashlee’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What do you mean?”

“You brought this on them when you dragged Dad to Mexico and made Tristan’s father aware of all of us.” She hurled the words at her sister with deliberate cruelty.

As for Ashlee, Summer thought she looked like she’d gone two shades paler.

“You blame me for this?” A sob escaped Ashlee’s voice and tears spilled onto her cheeks.

Summer pushed the covers away and stood up. She turned from Ashlee. If her mother were still alive, she would have yelled at Summer for saying such things. She would have been right. But Summer figured she was past the point of being careful of Ashlee’s feelings.

She nodded, turning back to face Ashlee. “I do, I blame you. Tristan too. In fact, I hold everyone who agreed to your crazy plan to steal that witch from Mexico accountable. Mom and Dad would still be alive, still living life, if you hadn’t come up here and destroyed our lives.”

Ashlee’s eyes flared at Summer. “This has nothing to do with Mom and Dad, or their terrible deaths. No, this is about you still feeling resentful about your wolf and because you believe your wolf is the reason your precious singing career didn’t work out.”

Summer’s temper surged, and she knew all reason and good sense were gone. She was going to tell Ashlee what was on her mind now. “Because it was so goddamn easy for you. Oh, look, I’ve met a wolf in a zoo cage that happens to be able to shift into a human so I’m going to follow him up to some island off the coast of Maine! Oh and gee, after we have sex for the first time, he’s going to succumb to some sort of curse that will require me to completely disregard the personal safety of both my parents and my sister and ultimately get my parents killed.”