Dark Wolf Returning. Rhyannon Byrd

turned her head and the light caught it. It was a healing bruise, and based on how many days since she’d gotten it, he knew it must have initially been brutal. Lycans had accelerated healing abilities, and though she was only half wolf, her body healed much faster than a human’s. Given the look of her face now, Eli imagined she’d been more than knocked around a little, and he was looking forward to paying back the ones who were responsible. In blood and pain and death.

      “Before I left Hawkley,” she finally replied, bringing that dark gaze back to his, “I overheard some of the Whiteclaw soldiers talking about their plans for the Silvercrest. They haven’t managed to secure the number of soldiers they were hoping for from other packs, so they’ve come up with a new plan. One even deadlier than we’d feared. Since you said Eric didn’t go into a lot of detail in his messages, it sounds like there’s a lot you need to be brought up to speed on. But you can believe me when I say we need a miracle, Eli. Unfortunately, the only thing we’ve got on our side, other than my guys, is you.”

      He knew who she meant by her “guys.” There were five men who made up the Silvercrest’s Bloodrunning team: Mason Dillinger, Jeremy Burns, Brody Carter, Wyatt Pallaton, and Cian Hennessey. Actually, he needed to make that six men, since his brother Eric was now working as a Runner, though the last Eli had heard, his brother wasn’t partnered up yet the way the others were.

      At his silence, she added, “You were always rumored to be the most ruthless wolf the pack had ever seen. Jeremy told us you tore the male who attacked Elise into pieces. That’s the kind of man we need.”

      For a moment, he was surprised that Jeremy knew what had happened, since his father had purposefully kept the Runners ignorant of Elise’s attack. The only reason Carla had known was because Eli had told her. She wouldn’t have been able to share that confidence with any of her fellow Bloodrunners without giving away their secret relationship, but that didn’t mean that the truth hadn’t eventually been leaked by someone else. For all he knew, Elise herself had been the one to finally share the horrific story. Or perhaps Eric, since he was now one of them.

      Not that it mattered. Regardless of how Jeremy had learned what he’d done, what she’d said was true. Eli had ripped that bastard to pieces, and he didn’t regret it. But it bothered him that Carla might think of him as some kind of monster, and he couldn’t stop himself from asking her if that’s what she’d meant.

      “Are you calling me a monster?”

      “No.” She slowly arched her brows. “I’d only use that term if I was talking about your personality.”

      He let that slide, knowing she was willing to say anything to make the canyon between them even deeper.

      “So how did you find me?”

      She shifted a little uncomfortably in the chair, but she didn’t refuse to explain. “It was like the thing with the Whiteclaw jolted me out of a fog, and I suddenly knew that it would work. That if I wanted to, I’d be able to pinpoint your location. So instead of making my way back home with the others, I stole a car. Grabbed a map from the glove box. Called Wyatt and told him I was coming after you.”

      Staring at her beautiful face, Eli felt a confusing wave of emotion sweep through him, piercing and sharp. He’d heard that in times of danger, a bonded mate could use the connection that created the bond to locate their other half. And if the distance was too great, they could use a map to help feel the “pull” that would take them in the right direction. From the sound of it, it’d taken Carla several weeks to find him, which seemed longer than he would have expected. But, then, their bond wasn’t complete, which meant it probably didn’t pull as strongly as others.

      He refused to acknowledge how much that little fact irritated him. He hadn’t had any right forming a bond with her in the first place, much less to be angry that it wasn’t as powerful as it should have been.

      “You need to come back,” she said, the quiet words breaking into his thoughts. “Your pack needs you, and Elise and Eric need you.”

      “And what about you? Do you need me?”

      She didn’t try to shy away from the question. Looking him right in the eye, she said, “Like I need a hole in the head.”

      There were so many things that he wanted to say to that. The anger that had initially risen up in the face of her own rage was fading, replaced by a raw, intense knot of regret that was making him break out in a sweat. “We have a lot we need to talk about, Rey.”

      “Like hell we do. All I need is your ass on that mountaintop, ready to do battle, and not a damn thing more.”

      Eli gave a frustrated shake of his head. “You really think we can fight together and not talk about the elephant here in the room with us?”

      “That’s exactly what I think, because I have a few conditions before I agree to let you come home.”

      “You came here for me,” he pointed out, scowling as he picked up on one of his guys snickering under their breath. It sounded like Sam, and he knew the jackass was enjoying hearing him get his ass handed to him by a woman. “What do you want, Reyes?”

      Voice little more than a whisper, she kept her gaze locked on his, and said, “I want the bond broken.”

      His muscles pulled so tight he was surprised he didn’t shatter, a feeling of dread coiling through his insides that felt remarkably similar to fear. “It can’t be done.”

      “It can.”

      “What the hell are you talking about?”

      “Come home with me, Eli. Fight for your pack. And when the blood clears, you and I can erase what never should have happened in the first place.” She leaned forward in her chair, her eyes bright. “We can finally end this nightmare, once and for all.”

      “You really think you can do it?” he scoffed. “Break an unbreakable bond?”

      “Yes.” She gave him a slow, determined smile. “I plan on breaking the hell out of it.”

       Chapter 2

      Carla knew the instant he realized she wasn’t bullshitting him, his belligerent expression slowly giving way to shock.

      It was because of Eli’s supercharged bloodline and her own powerful alpha genes that they’d ended up in this mess. At least that’s what her friend Jillian believed had been the cause of her problems, landing her with a bond that was, but wasn’t. One that was only partially fixed in place, thanks to the crappiest timing in the universe. Or...maybe the luckiest, depending on how you looked at it. In Carla’s case, a partial bond was better than a full, unbreakable one.

      As it was, she’d been able to manage without him. Oh, her heart had been battered and bruised for...well, for a long time after he’d abandoned her. But she’d been able to go on, functioning without him.

      The only thing she hadn’t been able to do was crawl into bed with another man.

      Eli, from the look of things when she’d walked into the bar and found him with a scantily clad blonde passed out in his lap, hadn’t been suffering that particular symptom. And, God, did that tick her off.

      After all, it wasn’t like a guy who looked like him would have trouble getting any woman he wanted in his bed. A man too gorgeous to be real—and certainly for his own good. Chiseled, rugged, and massive. Tall and broad and ripped with muscle. Golden skin. Ice blue eyes rimmed with dark, stormy gray. Thick, inky black lashes. He’d always worn his hair short when she’d known him but it was shaggy now, curling around his neck and ears. Messy in that way that movie stars spent a fortune trying to achieve, while Eli probably just ran his hands through it and let it dry. Unfair, how beautiful he was. A dangerous, primal predator who could slay with nothing more than a sarcastic twist of that bold, sensual mouth.

      He was so breathtakingly masculine, and so impossibly lethal. To the heart as well as the flesh. And she knew that lesson better