Impulse

“We saw him outside the cabin.”

“Your dad—” Diego’s body sprawled a few feet away. She tucked her face into Julio’s throat so she wouldn’t have to see any more death. There was time to tell Julio everything. When they were safe and rested and the pain of having to kill his father wasn’t so raw. “It doesn’t matter.

We’re okay. You’re okay?”

“I knew he was part of this,” he murmured against her hair. “When Patrick and I got close, I knew he had to be. This is where he and my uncle used to come fishing when I was a kid.”

A family retreat, full of death. So much blood and pain, and maybe the crack across the back of the head had knocked her silly, but she couldn’t stop the tears. Not for her own fear and pain, but because her father would be back in Atlanta by dawn, ready to drown her in protective love, and Julio’s father…

She choked on the sob, furious at herself for giving in to it when he needed comfort and support. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It’s not fair, not for you or Carmen or Miguel, it’s not fair.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Julio pulled her into his arms. “We tried to walk away and rebuild our lives, but they didn’t let us. They were never going to. It was always headed here, like this.”

His heart beat so strong and steady she could almost feel it against her chest. She kissed his throat and his chin, bumped her nose against his cheek again and again even as her tears turned his skin salty. It was a gesture beyond words, beyond thought. A quiet affirmation of love and belonging, of submission and safety.

Julio’s arms tightened as footsteps sounded behind them, but it was Patrick who came crashing out of the woods. “I’ve got her gun and your clothes. Can you do your snuggling in the car?”

Julio stood with Sera still in his arms. “Cleanup?”

“I asked Anna to find someone. Might keep her too distracted to get on a plane and come dance on the bodies.”

“She’ll be pissed.”

“What, that she didn’t get to come play?”

“Yes,” Sera said, cutting off any truths Julio might be thinking about spilling with a jab to his side. “Anna hates missing a fight.” Particularly one Patrick was involved in. Anna might well be working herself into a protective fit at the moment, but the last person she’d want privy to that fact was Patrick himself.

Julio looked at her, his confusion fading into understanding. “Yeah. We need to get back to the house. We can call everyone on the way.”

She eased back and steadied herself with a hand on Julio’s shoulder. The ringing in her ears had quieted, but her vision still blurred when she moved too fast. “Can shapeshifters get concussions? I should probably ask your sister.”

He pulled on his jeans and grabbed his shirt. “Patrick’ll drive, and I can keep an eye on you until we get you to Carmen. It’ll be okay.”

She started to protest that he’d been hit over the head too, but the words caught in her throat. That was alpha power, the kind that made wolves three times Anna’s size cower in her presence. She could hit harder, last longer and heal faster, because she was strong.

Sera…wasn’t. Would never be. Shame usually accompanied that reminder, but not today. If Julio and Patrick weren’t here, she’d drag herself to her feet one way or another. She’d do it the way she’d accomplished everything else—by being too damn stubborn to quit. Having different resources at her disposal didn’t make her lesser. Just different.

Her resources were running low, and there was no shame in that either. She waited for Julio to lift her into his arms and tucked her face against his shoulder with a soft sigh. It was his turn to be the protector, to be the hero, and she wouldn’t begrudge him that.

More than anything else, she liked it.

Chapter Eighteen

The bruises on her face had faded, but Veronica still bore the scars from her encounter with Cesar and Diego.

Julio held out the cup he’d brought to the solarium. “From Sera. You like honey in your tea, right?”

“Yes.” Veronica accepted the cup. “Any word on Glenn?”

The wolf had taken the brunt of the damage from Josh’s truck T-boning the car. “His internal bleeding has already started to heal. Carmen says he’ll be okay.”

That brought the ghost of a smile to Veronica’s lips. “Good. He’s been with me and Mom—” Her voice broke, and she took a small breath to compose herself. “He’s been with us a long time.”

Then he was glad, for her sake as well as Glenn’s. Julio sat on the arm of the couch. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“I have, haven’t I?” Veronica lifted the teacup and studied it, her eyes shadowed. “Over a year and a half ago, I had tea with Nicole Peyton. That was the last normal day of my life.

Every one since has been… I’m sleepwalking through life in a haze, Julio. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

How could she? “What do you want to do?”

“I want to know how to feel normal.”

Julio cleared his throat. “Two days ago, I killed my father. Even before that, my best friend apologized for not having killed him already. But it’s not just our family.” He could go on, and he did. “Sera’s mom is in a mental institution. One of Alec’s cousins killed his first wife. We’re not normal, none of us. It doesn’t mean we can’t be happy, but it makes it harder.”

“It does.” She set the cup aside and drew her legs up to her chest. “It’s bad enough that our fathers hurt people we care about. The thing that no one wants to talk about is that they’re still our fathers.”

“Yeah.” Julio had fully expected to regret having to kill his father. But after finding him ready to do the same to Sera… The emotion simply hadn’t come. What had taken its place was a sucker punch. “I never thought I would mourn. My father wasn’t a part of my life in any positive way. He did nothing but hurt my mother and my sister and brother, so why should I grieve?”

“For what he could have been. Or what he should have been.” She rested her chin on her knees and shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes I remember the stupidest things. When I was a kid and my father was still sure he’d have a son eventually, I was his princess. Sometimes I convince myself he had to be a different man than the one who backhanded me for talking back.”

The only thing they could do in the end was swear to do things differently. “I’m going to marry Sera. I don’t care what the legacy wolves have to say about it.”

“Yeah?” For the first time in days, he thought he saw a real smile curve her lips. “You never did care what any of them thought. When we were kids, I was always so jealous of you. You weren’t afraid of getting into trouble. You wanted to.”

“No better way to piss my dad off, right?”

“I suppose so.” She reached out to catch Julio’s hand. “I’m glad, I really am. I like Sera.

She’s tough in a way that makes me a little jealous of her too.”

She hadn’t had an easy life, either, though in different ways. But she’d always fought, and she always would. “She’s the reason I decided, you know. I ran away from this shit for so long, pretended I was human because my mom wanted me to…but I’m not. So I’ll do what I can to change things, and Sera will be right there with me.”

“Change.” Her voice wrapped around the word, gave it weight. “That’s something else I said to Nicole. Before my father—” She cleared her throat. “I told her that I’d always thought our generation would be the one to change things. But I’d stopped believing. My dad, our uncle…

They beat it out of me. Except now it’s happening. It’s really happening.”

Hopefully not too late. “You’ll be protected, free to do whatever the hell you please. It’s what Aunt Teresa wanted.”

A rusty laugh bubbled up. “I don’t even know, Julio. I know what I don’t want. I don’t want to be sold off like a prize mare. And I don’t know if I want to practice law anymore. I’m tired.”