Bait novel 197

Chapter 197

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Perry is trembling as she looks down at the blood and the body of the creature she’d been terrified of for almost half her life. Tears spill from her eyes while she attempts to stand still, eyes wide and almost pitch black from how big her pupils are.

The hold she usually has on her presence breaks away and almost everyone in the room takes a step back. Her presence erupts all around us. The remaining glass beside her explodes in pieces so small it almost looks like sand.

“Jo, step back,” James whispers. He takes my hand and pulls me away several feet.

We all jump back when a blood–curdling scream comes out of her and she falls to her knees holding the head she just cut off him with both hands. Violetta steps forward with a blank expression on her face as Perry tries to inhale.

“Breathe,” she growls at her.

She can’t. It’s stuck there in her throat. Her face is turning red, her body is shaking as she stares back at her friend.

“Perry!” Knightly shouts. I flinch when Violetta’s hand whips out to slap her across the face.

It’s only then that Perry inhales sharply and drops the head in her hands. Violetta doesn’t hesitate to wrap her arms around her as Perry cries out. I breathe in looking away as she just completely falls apart.

My head swims with the overwhelming grief that floods my senses. My ears are ringing. My body feels hotter than it should.

“Holy shit,” I gasp for air feeling like I’m drowning.

James tries to stop me but I push him away as I reach for my mate needing her closer. Violetta looks up at me, her face still stoic. She nods and pulls away. Perry is covered in blood. Her face, her hands, her clothes.

This girl has some seriously fucked up issues. I know that in spite of all the shit he put her through, there’s a part of her that loved that thing. A part of her that accepted him as the person who could have saved her where everyone else in her life had failed.

When her eyes meet mine, the grief that greets me is very familiar. The eyes of the little wolf that was dragged in and forced to kneel in front of me the day we met. Yet, while my wolf bait’s eyes were cold and empty, my mate’s eyes hold every emotion passing through her right now.

The emotions she harbored, the emotions I fell in love with are all staring back at me. It’s not a phantom feeling anymore. It doesn’t feel like the memory of what had once been. They’re loud and demanding. As if she were screaming at me from every direction.

My breath is shaky as I try to work through the emotions pulsing through our bond. My body tingles. Everywhere. Enough to make me tremble with her. I should feel terrified, but a laugh comes out of me when I open my mouth.

Perry blinks rapidly at the sound almost as if it snapped her out of the box she put herself in and she grins. We both laugh without saying a word. I almost fall back when pounces on me wrapping her arms around my neck. She buries her face in my neck and inhales deeply.

“You smell fucking gross,” she chokes out but inhales again anyway.

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“You feel slimy with all this blood on you. I thought you said you were a professional,” I tighten my hold on her.

She laughs wholeheartedly. She starts getting control of herself and pulls back on both her emotions and her presence. Once she’s sealed it away, the others seem to relax a bit. The glass floating around us falls and she relaxes enough to even her breathing.

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TH

18:14 Wed, Dec 18

Chapter 197

“Jesus,” Knightly breaks the silence and falls back to lean against the wall. “I thought she was going to lose it,”

Q

“You’re the fucking idiot who tried to fight her earlier,” Violetta laughs. “Now you know your place on the food chain,”

The others laugh at him when he rolls his eyes but says nothing to deny it.

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“Do you know where my mom is?” she pulls away to look at the little boy standing behind Roy and Jordan. Everyone looks down at him. “Her name is Mackenzie Phurry,”

“What?” Roy snaps his attention to us.

Perry clears her throat and pulls away from me. She rubs her face on her sleeves and shoulders trying to get the blood off her face. She wipes her hands on the back of her ripped pants. I don’t have the heart to tell her I can see her baby blue booty shorts underneath. James clears his throat and turns away.

“Yeah, I know where she is,” Perry nods and stands to go over to him. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“Not outside of training,” the little boy answers. “Can you take us to her?”

“Us?” Perry asks. The kid steps aside to reveal the little girl that had been with him. “This is my mate,” he states with conviction. The kid can’t be older than five or six. The girl is even younger. “She doesn’t talk,”

“Okay,” Perry kneels down in front of them. The little girl looks to the boy waiting for approval. When he gives her a court nod she steps up to Perry her hands balled together as she moves timidly. Perry tips her head back and feels around her throat. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe now. The bad man is gone,”

“He was her father,” the little boy explains. “Biologically,”

“That sucks,” Perry shrugs. “I had a pretty terrible dad too. I turned out to be okay,”

“Debatable,” Roman says from behind us.

“What’s your name, cutie?” she asks her ignoring him.

“Natalia,” even the little boy flinches at the sound. Her voice is- I can’t even explain it. My vision swims and my body shivers at the sound.

“Oh,” Perry laughs and looks back at Knightly. “She has a siren tone. Just like you,” she gives the little girl her attention. “That’s really cool. I can teach you how to control it. You know, since you guys have to stick together,”

Immediately, the little boy takes her hand. His eyes are fixed on Perry’s bloodied hands.

“My mom,” he repeats a bit more clipped this time. He seems older for a boy his age. Kind of like it’s easy to forget that Perry is only twenty–three going on twenty–four.

“Yeah, let’s get home and I’ll call her. It might take her some time to come get you though. She’s not well,”

“I understand. She didn’t think she’d ever see me again,” he says. She protected me for as long as she could,”

“You know your mom is special too, right? He took advantage of that. She’ll come around. I, on the other hand, will be here until she’s ready. My name is Perry. I’m kind of your aunt,” she brushes his hair back. He smiles and is quick to wrap his arms around her. It catches her off guard for a moment. “Oh,”

“Mom told me about you,” he whispers. “She never lied,”

“What do mean?” she asks pulling away from him.

“She said that one day you were the one that was going to save us She said I could only trust you. You did,” he hugs her again. “Thank you,”

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