“How could you?” I said.  “You’re supposed to have my back, and you just left me with him.”

His tension eased, and he took a step toward me.  In a heartbeat, I was wrapped in his strong arms.  His hold felt like home.

“I’m sorry, Z.  Winifred was persuasive.  Plus, I had questions I knew you wouldn’t want to listen to.”

I didn’t ask what.  He knew me well; and if he thought I didn’t want to listen to him, he was probably right.  I wrapped my arms around his waist and talked into his bruised shoulder.

“I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“You know we’re stuck with them, right?  On our own, the group that’s hunting you girls would find you.  And on your own, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

He was wrong.  On my own, I would stand a chance.  But I wasn’t on my own.  I had Ethan.  He was my weak spot.

He smoothed a hand over my hair.

“What’s making you want to run?  Same thing?” he asked.

I pictured Carlos, cringed, and buried deeper into Ethan’s shoulder.  He sighed and kissed the top of my head.

“How do you feel?  Need to spar?”

I shook my head.  Despite the long ride, the back roads meant fewer accidental pulls; and Grey had kept most of what he’d felt to himself.

“Then, let’s go eat.”

We left the room together and walked the hall side by side.  The rest of the group already waited in the lobby.  When they saw us, Jim was the first one out the door, all the while mumbling about starvation.

Instead of walking, we drove; and Ethan stuck with me.  The Chinese buffet we pulled into didn’t surprise me.  After skipping a meal, I was willing to bet the men would be ready to wolf down anything, as long as it was in quantity.

A long table in the center of the place fit us perfectly, and I found myself between Ethan and Carlos.  Jim led the charge to the six buffet stations.  The variety of food amazed me.  They had standard Americanized Chinese fare such as beef and cashews with broccoli; they had straight up American food such as mac and cheese and chicken nuggets; then they had the atypical foods such as crawfish, eel, and shark bites.  When Charlene walked past the crawfish, she shuddered.  Thomas, who wasn’t far behind her, chuckled.

I didn’t blame Charlene for her shudder.  Anything with eyes still in place was off the menu for me.

Plate loaded with Crab Rangoon, General Tso’s Chicken, and fried rice, I made my way back to the table.  Carlos was already sitting.  He barely had anything on his plate. He had a bit of rice, a bit of something that didn’t look familiar, and that was it.

I studied him as I sat.  As usual, he gave nothing away.

“You sick?” I said.

He exhaled slowly and turned to look at me.  His dark eyes hinted at sadness, though he continued to be an emotional void.

“No.”

“Don’t you like Chinese food?”

He glanced at his plate.

“I’m not sure I’ve had it before.”

Not had it?  It wasn’t in my trinity but it was darn close.

“Then you need to start with one of these,” I said, holding up a Crab Rangoon.  He didn’t even look at what I offered him, just leaned forward and took a bite while maintaining eye contact.  My hand started to shake.  He reached out to steady it, eating the second half in one bite.  His lips brushed my fingertips.

“Thank you,” he said.

I cleared my throat before I attempted to speak.

“No problem.”

For the rest of the meal, I kept my food to myself.  Slowly, the emotions of everyone else in the room started to bleed into me.

If Ethan thought I was unusually quiet, he didn’t mention it.

*    *    *    *

Grey beat me to the room, and I saw my bag on the bed with him.

“Werewolves are ridiculous,” I said before closing myself in the bathroom to change into my exercise clothes and pull my hair back.  When I stepped out again, Ethan was on the opposite bed, reclined and watching TV.

“You game for a little exercise?” I asked him.

He glanced at me and gave me a reassuring smile.

“Nah, I’m going to milk it another day.”

I shook my head at him and left the room.  He probably wasn’t milking it.  He hadn’t asked me to rub any more ointment into his shoulder, and I was willing to bet it was because he didn’t want me to see the ugly colors his bruise was turning.

The exercise room in this hotel was almost nonexistent.  The tiny room had a treadmill, an elliptical, a TV, and a Carlos.  He leaned just inside the door and straightened when I walked in.

I debated turning around but knew I would regret it if I did.  My skin already itched.  He was here and sparring was always better than running.  So I stayed.

Ethan had made a valid point before we’d eaten.  Running wasn’t an option.  That left tolerating these people.  Most days, I didn’t tolerate well.  I needed to set things straight with Carlos.

“We’ll need to be careful in here,” I said, looking around at the foot room.

He nodded and got into his ready stance.  I started out slow with easy jabs.  He blocked each one with an open palm.  His stoic silence, both emotionally and verbally, bugged me.

“What did you think talking would accomplish?” I asked, just before I picked up the pace.

He shrugged.

“Not good enough.”

I dodged around his block and caught him in the ribs.  He exhaled slightly, so I knew he felt it, but otherwise gave no other indication I’d even touched him.

“It was obviously planned,” I said as I continued with a few jabs.  “I mean, you had Winifred say something to Ethan, so he wouldn’t ride in the car with us.  And you said Grey wanted you to drive, so you would stay calm.  Meaning, you talked to him about it beforehand.  If you planned something, you had to have an expected outcome.

“So, what did you hope to accomplish?”

“Alone time.”

“We’ve had alone time.  This is alone time.”

“Alone time where you weren’t angry.”

“Then you picked the wrong topic.”

He stopped blocking and straightened.  I automatically stopped hitting.

“Why did it make you angry?”

“Are you kidding me?  I’ve known about you people for what?  Three days?  You flipped out when I first met you.  The girls in this group—my ‘sisters’—are all paired up with a werewolf; then, the first night Ethan and I join the merry men, Michelle comes to my room and mentions how she was attracted to Emmitt.  Next, you try to start talking about ‘the pull.’  Three days.  How would you react?”

“So, it has nothing to do with him?”

I knew he meant Ethan.

“It has everything to do with me.  Just me.  I will never be with anyone.  Ever.  I kill people, Carlos.  Slowly.  I leave behind burnt-out shells of who they used to be.  Ethan understands that.  He jokes, and I know he would be there waiting for me if things ever changed; but he knows that, to keep him safe, I have to keep my distance.”

“I’m not like Ethan.”

“No.  You’re not.  You’re scarier.  The control you have over your emotions is incredible.  But, you’re a volcano.  When your emotions finally erupt, you will leave devastation behind.  If I’m around you when that happens, I can’t imagine how it would feel under my skin.”

I sighed and rolled my shoulders.

“Now, are you going to help me purge or not?”

He nodded and got back into a ready stance.

*    *    *    *

“Isabelle, get up and get dressed.”  Grey’s loud, firm voice startled me awake.  I sat up as a light turned on.

Grey was out of bed, grabbing my bag.  Carlos was reaching out to shake Ethan.  Grey tossed the bag to me.  His urgency seeped into me.

I quickly got out of bed.

“E, get your lazy ass out of bed.  Now.”

Ethan sat up and looked around at us.

“What is it?”

“Gabby said we need to leave immediately,” Grey said.  “A group of ten are netting this way.  We have five minutes to be a mile from here.”