All Chapters of Bound by Blood: Last Ruby Wolf and Her Fated Mate: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

I tried to leave the next morning, to go show my parents that I was still alive. I walked out to the car, climbed in the front seat, sat down, and…Nope.I couldn't do it. Lifting my hands to the wheel? No way. They shook like they had when I was drugged.Merrick came out to meet me, plucking me out of the driver's seat and sitting me in the middle seat without noticing my trembling hands. He turned on the car, and my throat seized.Breathing became difficult, and I started panting, then wheezing."Ellis," Merrick's eyes knitted together in concern, his hands finding my upper arms. "You okay?""Fine. I'm fine." I choked the words out, clearly not fine. But he knew that; he knew I would say I was fine when I wasn’t."Talk to me." He brushed a hand over the back of my head, his worry growing strong enough that I could smell it."Memories of my crash are coming back." I fanned my face, unbuckling my seatbelt and scooting forward a bit, so I didn't feel so trapped. "I'm worried—sad—scared

Hazel was pacing again. I wanted to pull her into my arms, to set her on my lap and kiss the hell out of her until her uncertainty was gone and we were both confident in what we were facing. But I couldn’t.I couldn’t fucking touch her.I was pretty sure it was the universe’s way of punishing me for something, though I wasn’t entirely sure what I was being punished for. I’d been a dick to a number of people, and wasn’t exactly sensitive, so there were plenty of possibilities on that front.Not only could I not touch my mate, but her family was also determined to protect her from me. They wouldn’t even leave us alone in a damn room together, like we were toddlers who couldn’t be trusted not to break shit.Anyway, it was 2 AM, Hazel was still pacing, and I was sitting on the couch beside Chandler. She was the lucky one elected to remain between us from 12 AM to 3 AM. Following Chandler, it was going to be Roman’s turn, then Henley’s. There was a fucking rotation already, and we’d only b

As planned, we started with the primates the next morning. It was too far to run in wolf form if we were going to do anything else that day, so we had to drive. It took me twenty minutes to get myself buckled into the truck, my knees lifted to my chest and my arms wrapped around them in an attempt to feel safer, but I did it. And I felt good about that, even though my whole body was clenched and sweating as I anticipated another crash that I logically knew wasn’t coming.Merrick drove, and he kept glancing over at me with troubled eyes. He hated that I had to push past my issues, but his emotions were soothing, and that helped a little. What would’ve really helped was if I could sit next to him, his scent wrapping around me, tinged with my own.But Liv occupied the seat between us, because we apparently still weren’t allowed to be alone together.Even if we were alone together, we couldn’t touch if we wanted to keep living. And we wanted to keep living, so that was out of the questio

Liv didn’t mention that we smelled like lust—a very un-Liv-like thing to do. She stared out the window quietly all the way to the birds’ land. When we got there, she stayed in the truck again while Merrick and I headed into the wild crowd of shifters.I didn’t expect to run face-first into Darius the dickish griffin, but that’s exactly what happened.“Oomph,” I grunted, bouncing backward. He’d walked right into my path, not even noticing me. My reflexes were sluggish, lack of training showing through, and I hated it.“Shit. Sorry.” Big hands closed around my biceps. “Hands off,” Merrick growled.I elbowed the asshole in the gut when he didn’t release me. His pained grunt was music to my ears, but he still didn’t release me.I noticed the pulling sensation, and the energy moving from him into me. Shit—the curse. He was good and stuck, curse giving him back his griffin form in exchange for his energy.“Damn curse,” Merrick snarled, grabbing the guy by the shirt and yanking him away fro

Most of Roman and Henley’s friends left after we gave them back their wolves. From what I heard a few of the women whispering about, they understood that Hazel and I needed privacy. I wanted us to move back to our place, but the privacy wasn’t worth the risk that would come with accidentally touching when no one else was there.Only Arla and Kyler remained—Hazel’s aunt and uncle.“Come on.” Hazel dragged me back to our room, though there was no actual dragging involved.“Okay, put on sweatpants and long sleeves, and tuck them in,” she instructed.I obeyed, changing my clothes while Hazel did the same. She handed me a sweatshirt next, and ordered me to pull up the hood and tighten it so it covered my neck. I obeyed that command, too, then put on the long socks she insisted on. I didn’t have any gloves in her parents’ house, but she dug some out of her drawer for herself and tugged them up to her elbows, over the sweatshirt so there was no way they could wiggle off.“Mom,” Hazel yelled