Blood of the Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

child, I was lost to my people, and when they found me, they didn’t want to take me from my human family. Dragons live hundreds of years. Painful as being separated from their child might be, my natural parents believed they had plenty of time with me. My people waited…until I was of age. The young of our race appear completely human. Even a doctor can’t tell them apart. But at age twenty-six, we change—”
    “You were twenty-five,” she exclaimed.
    “Twenty-five years and three months. Twenty-six from conception. I’d like to say it’s not an exact science, but it never fails to happen at exactly twenty-six years.”
    She was silent for a few moments, her lips pressed together. Pushing against his arms, she carefully extracted herself from his embrace then crossed her own arms over her middle and stared at the floor. Her head nodded twice as she thought then she took a shuddering breath.
    “Can Lucan and I be alone for a minute?” she quietly asked Maks, and Lucan wondered if she’d just remembered the other man was there.
    “Of course,” Maks told her. Good luck, he shot to Lucan then disappeared into the hallway, closing the doorway behind him.
    Meda pinned Lucan with an outraged glare. Her low tone was a cold as ice. “And at twenty- five and three months , you forgot you had a wife? A pregnant wife, by the way. You forgot there was someone who would just about die at the news of your crash. It wasn’t just an accident,” she said through her teeth. “The car was so twisted it looked like wild things had shredded it apart and so burned-out it was barely recognizable. But…” She pressed a hand over her mouth. “There were charred bits of…you. And your wedding ring was there in the middle of it. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”
    Her grief slashed through him, and he knew he could never apologize enough for what had happened.
    “No, I don’t know” he conceded, shaking his head then asked, “A child?”
    She nodded. “I miscarried. They say it was from the stress, but something was wrong. It almost killed me. I can’t have children.”
    He stared at her, as the blow hit him. He’d lost a child and, worse, almost lost his wife. As much as he might have wanted children, Meda’s death would have decimated him—oh God, like “his” had done to her.
    “I’m sorry—”
    “Why didn’t you contact me?” she interrupted. “I mean,” she blew out a breath, “obviously, this place has the means. You’ve got a damned, big-screen TV in your living room.”
    “The change is ugly. Unpredictable.” No explanation would ever be enough. To his ears, his words seemed feeble. “That first time is the onset of many more molts for two years. You wouldn’t have wanted to see me. It would have been dangerous to see me.”
    “Wouldn’t have wanted to see you?” she echoed in disbelief. “How could you believe that? You were alive. Breathing.”
    “But not the same man,” he returned. “Can you honestly tell me you would have easily accepted that I’m not fully human? I’m not even close?”
    She stared at him in silence, the condemnation remaining in her eyes. The same anger clearly said he should have given her the chance. “And after?”
    He took a deep breath and looked at the ground. In the face of what she’d told him, how could he tell her that he’d been scared she’d reject him? That he loved her more than anything—anyone! She was everything to him.
    She punched him hard in the shoulder, knocking him out of his thoughts.
    “I was your wife ,” she yelled.
    His gaze shot up. “You are my wife.”
    Her head tilted slightly to the side, and her eyebrows inched up slightly. A bitter smile mocked him. “No,” she said. “You’re dead. I’m a widow. You lost your rights when you deserted me.”
    “Meda, don’t do this.”
    “I’m not the one who ‘did this’,” she nearly screeched. “You left me alone. You let me mourn for you—do you know how much that