After that first taste, I’d feared that taking another warg’s blood would shatter the illusion, like maybe I had fooled myself into believing such fulfillment existed or that I could be part of it. Now I understood my reluctance for what it had been. Withdrawal. That inviting warmth was the drug my ravaged heart craved, and all it had taken was one hit to make me an addict.

Each time I touched that awareness, it healed another fissure crisscrossing my soul. Until the connection snapped, and I was thrust back into the emptiness of my own head, alone. All the companionship gone, the loss ripping those fissures open twice as wide, three times as deep, as they had been before I met Graeson.

Gemini weren’t meant to live solitary lives. We thrived in pairs, our lives intertwined with our twins, our powers held in check by maintaining balance between two people. I was skewed. I had been since Lori died. The pack bond righted my world, and that terrified me.

“You’re making the decision to endanger yourself.” Isaac embodied cold logic I had no hope of fighting. “If you’re brave enough to stay here, fight for Graeson and buck the system, then you’re smart enough to know you don’t stand a chance against either while you’re this weak.”

Weak.

The word had its intended effect. It pricked my heart and made me bleed. It rendered those mental walls to rubble and left me standing exposed to the lash of his intent.

I had failed my sister.

I had let her die.

That was the worst part. Knowing her death proved how weak I had been, how weak I still was.

No wonder my parents left me with Aunt Dot. I would have ditched me and started over too.

“I’ll train with you.” The voice didn’t sound like mine. It was raw, jagged and cut my throat on the way past my lips.

Isaac acknowledged my decision with a grim nod. He’d gotten what he wanted, but it had cost us both.

“I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night.” Aunt Dot shooed him out of the booth, and he kept going until he took the steps. “It’s getting late, and I haven’t started dinner yet.”

I rocked Graeson’s shoulder, and he snuffled. There I sat, baring my soul, and he had slept through it all. I wasn’t sure if I was grateful or insulted that I had bored him to the point of unconsciousness. Ducking under the table, I hit the floor and crawled into the kitchen on my hands and knees.

“I recognize that expression.” Aunt Dot offered me a hand up and pulled me into a hug. “Wipe it off your face right now. Isaac is going to hate himself enough tonight. You don’t have to do it for him.”