Bitten By Deceit by Shawntelle Madison Page A

for Kyle. She didn’t spot anyone outside the gas station. But the place wasn’t exactly a tourist trap. The lone air pump was crooked and the two fueling stations were grimy with dirt and rust. A few months ago, a friend had mentioned he’d seen Kyle near here. It was still a gamble. But a town as small as Stone Ridge would still need a mechanic, and that was Kyle’s calling.
    The station’s garage doors were shut, the square windows smudged with dirt. No one lingered behind the counter inside. When another pain from the bite’s infection stabbed her belly, she blinked twice before opening the door. What if he didn’t want to help her? What if she’d left her younger sister behind for nothing? Maybe she should turn back and forget she ever knew Kyle, but she couldn’t. Meg’s life was at stake. Others waited as well, hiding in the shadows, praying they wouldn’t be bitten. Someone had to help. Emma couldn’t save them all by herself. Not now. Not since she was infected. And Kyle was the only one she could trust, but that meant she had to take this first step and ask for help—if she could find him.  
    Determined, she pushed forward and entered the gas station. Her eyes flitted to the food on the shelves. Chocolate chip muffins, candy bars, a whiff of the mouthwatering pizza under heat lamps in the corner made her stomach growl. She hadn’t eaten in a while, but it didn’t matter—she had to search for Kyle.  
    Then she caught in the air a faint mixture of sandalwood and leather that brought back memories of the passion between them before he’d left. Kyle’s smell. The scent increased as she went into the connected garage. She scanned around two minivans, even checked the small office in the back, but couldn’t see him anywhere. His scent had faded just enough that she realized he’d been here mere moments ago, and she’d barely missed him. Damn it .
    A hand locked on her shoulder. “What are you doing here, Em?”
    Kyle’s deep voice coursed through her before she turned to face him. When their eyes locked, pleasure followed by the burn of hate coursed through her. No matter how much she longed to see him after a year, the poison of the alpha’s bite drew her closer to madness.
    The fine lines of Kyle’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t speak. He looked as intoxicating as she remembered, his dark brown hair a bit longer and that rough edge he’d always had still visible in his stubble and skeptical gaze. His partially opened shirt revealed a chiseled torso. When he backed up to leave a healthy distance between them, his shirt’s missing sleeves offered her a view of the muscled curves of his arms.
    “I know this is a bad time and all. But I need to talk to you, Kyle.” She stepped forward, but he didn’t shift. “I’m in trouble.”
    His Adam’s apple bobbed, as if she could see him mentally waffling with the up and down motion, but then he left her to work on one of the vans.  
    As she watched him retreat, she couldn’t help but think she should’ve approached this differently. She should’ve expected him to turn her down after she chose to remain behind in Hadley when he’d been forced to leave town. She’d had the chance to go with him, yet she didn’t.
    “Look, I—”
    “You need to leave,” he said. “Whatever trouble you got, I don’t need to hear about it.”
    She wanted him to face her. To look her in the eye when he turned her away. “This isn’t only about me. Our pack has fallen in a big way. I don’t know where to go for help.”
    “Talk to your pack leader. You chose him over me.”
    “It was never like that between Liam and me, and you know it.”
    His gazed flitted over her before he fumbled through the rack. “The way I see it, your pack leader convinced you to find me so he could rub you in my face. It’d have been better for him if he hadn’t waited a year to do it though. ‘Cause by this point, I don’t give a damn.”
    Emma bit the inside of her