Blooded

“Yes, it was Sean,” I said, coughing. “He’s shifting somewhere at the bottom at the moment.”

Tyler’s face fell. “I’m so sorry, Jess. We just figured out what was going on. Danny realized you were in trouble when he came out and heard splashing. We got down here in time to see you and Sean go under for the last time, and then you came back up and started swimming.” One of my allies would’ve had to have heard the commotion, because even if the other wolves had heard me—which

I’m certain they had—none of them would’ve rung the alarm. Nick had been too far away to hear. I’m sure Sean had known all those factors and had planned accordingly to give himself a good chance at success.

My father lowered himself to one knee and very gingerly spread open my mangled T-shirt to expose the wounds on my stomach and side. He stared at the bloody gashes without speaking, without betraying a single emotion. Then, to my surprise, he reached out and tenderly brushed a piece of wet hair away, his fingers hesitant, lingering on my face for a long moment. He traced the outline of my cheek with the pad of his thumb, and only when his hand fell away did I see the tips were covered in blood. My blood.

His eyes shot completely violet in the space of a breath. He looked away, his mouth thinning in a hard line.

Between the new damage, my still-broken hand, and all the pain, I was barely staying conscious. I needed much more than Percocet; I needed to be knocked out. I squinted upward, moving my head minutely, catching the somber faces of my brother and James. Their anger was palpable, radiating from their bodies. It soothed me for a moment.

Most of the other wolves on Compound had gathered by the water, but in the presence of their

Alpha, there would be no rejoicing. No one dared move a muscle. My father’s head swiveled toward the lake and then back to the dock. He snarled at someone I couldn’t see. “Go fish him out of the lake.

He will answer for this with his life.” Three wolves dove into the water without hesitation. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t swim.

“Jessica?” My father hovered over me again. He was either speaking too softly or I was fading fast.

Then he was on both knees beside me, his hands on my skin again, warming me.

“Yeah?” I mumbled, my eyes dilating, my brain giving in to the pain.

“I’m sending you away.”

I cracked a smile as my eyes closed. “It’s about damn time.”

Meet the Author

A Minnesota girl born and bred, Amanda graduated from the University of Minnesota with a double major in speech and hearing science and child development. After enjoying her time as a sign language interpreter, she decided to stay at home and write in earnest after her second child was born.

She loves playing Scrabble, tropical beaches, and shopping trips to Ikea. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three kids. To find out more about the author, visit www.amandacarlson.com or on Twitter @AmandaCCarlson.

Amanda Carlson. Photo © Paige Carlson.

Also by Amanda Carlson

JESSICA MCCLAIN

Full Blooded

If you enjoyed BLOODED,

look out for FULL BLOODED JESSICA MCCLAIN, BOOK ONE by Amanda Carlson Chapter 1

I drew in a ragged breath and tried hard to surface from one hell of a nightmare. “Jesus,” I moaned.

Sweat slid down my face. My head was fuzzy. Was I dreaming? If I was, this dream hurt like a bitch.

Wait, dreams aren’t supposed to hurt.

Without warning my body seized again. Pain scorched through my veins like a bad sunburn, igniting every cell in its path. I clenched my teeth, trying hard to block the rush.

Then, as quickly as it struck, the pain disappeared.

The sudden loss of sensation jolted my brain awake and my eyes snapped open in the dark. This wasn’t a damn dream. I took a quick internal inventory of all my body parts. Everything tingled, but thankfully my limbs could move freely again. The weak green halo of my digital clock read 2:07 a.m.

I’d only been asleep for a few hours. I rolled onto my side and swiped my sticky hair off my face.

When my fingers came in contact with my skin, I gasped and snapped them away like a child who’d just touched a hot stove.

Holy shit, I’m on fire.

That couldn’t be right.

Don’t panic, Jess. Think logically.

I pressed the back of my hand against my forehead to get a better read on how badly I was burning up. Hot coals would’ve felt cooler than my skin.

I must be really sick.

Sickness was a rare event in my life, but it did happen. I wasn’t prone to illness, but I wasn’t immune to it either. My twin brother never got sick, but if the virus was strong enough I was susceptible.

I sat up, allowing my mind linger for a brief moment on a very different explanation of my symptoms. That scenario would be impossible. Get a grip. You’re a twenty-six-year-old female. It’s never going to happen. It’s probably just the flu. There’s no need to—

Without so much as a breath of warning, another spasm of pain hit clear and bright. My body jerked backward as the force of it plowed through me, sending my head slamming into the bedframe, snapping the wooden slats like matchsticks. My back bowed and my arms lashed out, knocking my bedside table and everything on it to the ground. The explosion of my lamp as it stuck the floor was lost beneath my bona fide girl scream. “Shiiiit! ”

Another tremor hit, erupting its vile ash into my psyche like a volcano. But this time instead of being lost in the pale haze of sleep, I was wide awake. I had to fight this.

I wasn’t sick.

I was changing.

Jesus Christ! You’ve spent your whole life thinking about this very moment and you try to convince yourself you have the flu? What’s the matter with you? If you want to live, you have to get to the dose before it’s too late!

The pain buried me, my arms and legs locked beside me. I was unable to move as the continuous force of spasms hit me one after another. The memory of my father’s voice rang clearly in my mind.

I’d been foolish and too stubborn for my own good and now I was paying the price. “Jessica, don’t argue with me. This is a necessary precaution. You must keep this by you at all times. ” The new leather case, containing a primed syringe of an exclusively engineered cocktail of drugs, would be entrusted to me for safekeeping. The contents of which were supposed to render me unconscious if need be.

“You may never need it, but as you well know, this is one of the stipulations of your living alone. ”

I’m so sorry, Dad.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. My genetic markers weren’t coded for this. This was an impossibility. In a world of impossibilities.

I’d been so stupid.

My body continued to twist in on itself, my muscles moving and shifting in tandem. I was locked in a dance I had no chance of freeing myself from. The pain rushed up, finally reaching a crushing crescendo. As it hit its last note, my mind shattered apart under its impact.

Everything went blissfully black.