Unleashing the Beast Read Free Page B

fuck your reasons are for keeping this distance from him. You know he wrote you. You know he searched for you. Yet, you still choose to punish him.”
    “I’m not punishing him,” Laura argued.
    “What would you call your behavior? Do you have any clue how much you’re tearing him apart?”
    Laura shook her head, opening her mouth to deny Clara’s claim, but Clara spoke over her.
    “You are. I want to be angry with you, but I can see you’re hurting too. Talk to him. From what I see, your parents fucked you both over. Don’t let them destroy the relationship you could have with Logan now. He needs you, and I get the feeling you might need him, too. If you do, he went for a walk out by the house Isaac lived in. He’s helping Gabriel sort through all the papers there.”
    Clara walked away before Laura could say anything, but the words her brother’s mate had spoken struck deep. Laura was behaving like a child. More specifically, like the child Logan had left behind when he’d joined the Marines. She wasn’t that girl any longer. She was a grown woman, one who far better understood what her parents were capable of.
    With leaden feet, she turned and made her way across the property in the direction of Isaac’s cabin. It would take her a while to reach it on foot, but the walk would do her good, help her clear her mind.
    It was weird to admit, but she missed Isaac. He’d been a shitty father to Gabriel and Daniel, but she’d always felt there was more to him. To hear Daniel speak, Isaac had been madly in love with his wife and had lost everything when he’d lost her. To know he’d loved someone so fiercely made her think there had to be more to him than the gruff, old bastard she’d met when she’d arrived in Oklahoma hot on Gabriel’s trail.
    She scented Logan before he stepped into the copse of trees and stood facing her. Just looking at him made her want to weep.
    He held out his hand, opened his mouth, closed it then dropped his arm and shook his head. “Don’t run. I’ll walk around. I didn’t know you were here.”
    “Liar,” she murmured, but there was no heat to her words. “Your animal may still be dormant, but I know you have the heightened senses. You knew I was here.”
    He sighed and ran the fingers of one hand through his hair, the same sandy-blonde shade as hers. “I just…” His voice trickled off, and he shook his head again. Without offering anything else, he turned to walk away.
    “Don’t,” she said and bit her bottom lip as he paused without turning back. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m not trying to punish you.”
    “Aren’t you?” he asked softly as he faced her once more. “Not that I’m blaming you. I know what happened to you. Gabriel told me when you refused to speak to me. I know what our parents did. Jesus! I’d give anything to go back and be there for you.”
    She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her waist and holding tight as memories fought to invade her mind. She couldn’t think of that, didn’t want to.
    “The way Gabriel found you…” Logan tilted his head back, and she saw his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallowed convulsively. For a brief moment, she swore she saw tears glistening in his eyes.
    “He did find me,” she finally said. “He saved my life that day.”
    “And I wasn’t there.” Pain radiated from Logan’s gaze. She saw it, and God help her, she felt vindicated by it.
    “No, you weren’t. You left. I stayed.” She shrugged her shoulders, as if that said it all.
    “I wrote to you. I wanted to visit, to see you.”
    “So why didn’t you?” she challenged. “I was ten when you left. Why didn’t you come home to check on me even once? Especially when your letters were all returned?”
    “I didn’t want to deal with dad’s bullshit. I didn’t want to have mom try her guilt-trip tactics. I told myself you were okay. That they loved you. Mom always doted on you. I never… I didn’t…” He blew out a