“A gene. Of course. The ambush you and Kyson lived through?” she said, though it really wasn’t a question. “The one where Kyson was so badly injured.”
“Yeah.”
She chewed on her lip for a moment. “What happened to you?”
The way she said the words made it sound like she really didn’t want to know.
He swallowed hard. “I got shot multiple times in the back. If I didn’t have the werewolf gene, I would have bled out.”
Her blue eyes glistened with tears. “I for one thank God you do have it. If you didn’t…” She shook her head, unable to finish.
“I know.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered how things would have been different if Kyson had turned into a werewolf that night instead of me. Would he have gotten this charmed life I live, while I ended up in a homeless shelter?”
Samantha reached up to cup his jaw in her hand again. “I won’t pretend that I’ve ever had to deal with anything like what you and Kyson went through, and I won’t claim to know him as well as you, but I can’t believe your friend would want you to blame yourself for how his life turned out. You moved to Dallas simply to be close enough to help him. You did everything you could.”
“And he ended up killing himself anyway,” Trey said quietly, realizing how bizarre it was to say that when Kyson was alive and strapped to a table not twenty feet away. “Doesn’t that mean I didn’t do enough?”
“No.” Samantha slid her hand down to rest it over his heart. “It means that life is complicated, and no matter how hard we try, sometimes it doesn’t go the way we expect. Then again, maybe everything that’s happening right now is life’s way of giving you another chance to change the ending of the story.”
They didn’t talk for a long time after that, and as insane and dangerous as the situation might have been, it felt unbelievably good to have Samantha in his lap, her cheek resting against his shoulder.
“I’ve wanted to tell you the truth for a while now. About what I am,” he said softly. “But every time I tried, something got in the way. I know that sounds like I’m making excuses but revealing a secret like this isn’t easy. Especially when it’s not only my life that would be affected if that information got out to the wrong people.”
Samantha nodded her head against his shoulder. “I can understand that. But you have to believe I would never have told anyone about you or your teammates.”
“I know that now,” he murmured against her hair. “But you’ll have to forgive me for being a little doubtful before, especially since I stumbled across all the stuff you have tacked to the walls of your guest room.”
Pulling back from his chest, she looked up at him in alarm—and maybe a little embarrassment, too. “You went in there?”
He nodded. “That night after learning about Kyson. I came out of the bathroom and the door to the room was ajar. I’m not sure why I even looked, other than the fact that I know you’ve been interested in my pack and me for a while. It’s obvious you’ve been spending a lot of your free time checking up on us. It would have been endearing if it wasn’t so scary. I’ve never had a stalker before.”
Samantha let out a little snort of laughter that brought another smile to his face, even in this screwed up situation.
“At first, I was simply curious,” she admitted. “There were so many strange things going on around you and the SWAT team that I couldn’t let it go. You might not know this about me yet, but I have a problem walking away from a good mystery. I guess at some point curiosity turned into obsession. I had to know what you were hiding.”
That answer hurt worse than Trey could have ever imagined. “Is that why you used that favor to get me to ask you out on a date?” he asked, hating how vulnerable the question made him sound. “So you could get closer to me and my pack and learn more about us?”
The fact that she didn’t respond right away was all the answer Trey needed, and he turned to look away as his heart—which was still fragile despite the fact that she’d accepted his werewolf side—fractured a little bit more.
“In the beginning, yeah, that was part of it.” The words were so soft that he had a difficult time hearing them, even with his enhanced sense. “I realized I’d gathered as much information on you and your teammates as I could from a distance and figured that if I could get closer to you, I might learn more. When you and the other guys came by the institute, it just happened.”
“So all that time we spent together—slept together—was just a way to get more information so you could solve a damn puzzle?” he growled, the pain of her betrayal stabbing him like a knife. “Was breaking that coffee mug in your kitchen really an accident or did you contrive that entire situation so you could get a sample of my blood?”
Samantha lifted her head with a gasp, but she didn’t deny it. Before he realized what he was doing, he moved to set her aside on the mattress, instincts screaming at him to put some distance between them, even if the cage wasn’t big enough to allow that.
But then he felt a gentle hand on his arm, stopping him. When he didn’t bother to look at her, Samantha’s other hand came up to capture his jaw and slowly turn his face so he didn’t have a choice but to look at her.
“I’m not proud of it, but I started seeing you with mixed intentions,” she admitted. “Yes, I wanted to learn your secrets, but I also felt myself drawn to you and I couldn’t ignore the pull. Somehow, I thought I could both spy on you and steal your blood for a DNA sample while still being with you. But it all changed at some point. I know this is going to sound like a load of crap, but something happened after I started spending time with you. I found myself less concerned with your secrets and more interested in you. I know the idea of two people falling for each other this quickly is absurd, but that’s what happened. I fell so hard and fast it took my breath away.”
Trey’s heart beat faster. Even though she didn’t know it, Samantha was describing their soul-mate connection. Should he try to explain it to her? He had to admit he was hesitant. What if Sam decided she didn’t like the idea of an outside force controlling her emotions?
“I’m more sorry that you can ever know for what I did to you. I wanted to come clean about everything and tell you how I felt,” Samantha said, interrupting his thoughts. “But like you, every time I tried to say something, it seemed like events were conspiring against me. And then I got chloroformed and locked up in this cage before I had a chance to say I’m in love with you.”
Samantha’s heart began to thump wildly, echoing in his ears. She looked stunned, maybe even a little panicked, as if surprised by what she’d just said.