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FROM THE AUTHOR

First off, if you have not read my novel Dead Ice, this story is full of spoilers Seriously, if you read this before you've read the novel, so this introduction to the story has spoilers in it, now that I think about it Please, stop reading now if you have not read Dead Ice! Are you still reading? If so, I' I write from this point on will spoil the plot for you If you have not read the novel and you've read all these spoiler alerts but you are still reading this, then that is all on you You have been warned! Second, Wounded is not a complete story; it's more an outtake scene fro the novel and there just wasn't rooo into more detail about what happens to Tomas and Connie after the book ends A lot of fans contactedand really wanted to see at least a little of the wedding So I decided that if we all wanted to see more of the story, uys wanted to see it on stage and so did I, is Anita and the loves of her life at the wedding; and we get to see Jean-Claude dancing with Manny's wife, Rosita He irl" way Itnant, and reminded me how much I love allas a small part, only small actors I feel the same about my characters, which is why I wrote a novelette to share soh screen tih, then maybe I'll be able to do more stories like this one to show you events that never make it into the main novel, but that we'd all like to see somewhere

THEY SAY WHEN your friends' kids start getting uez was only six years younger thanabout it It was the first wedding I'd gone to since I hit puberty where no one askedan engagenal airplanes fro it in public; it ed In a perfect world I should have been able to cover myself in diamonds from head to foot and walk anywhere alone, but the world wasn't perfect and it just see when I was usually are that said US Marshal on it

Today I was only carrying one gun I didn't think the wedding reception would get that out of hand I alht about dancing at the reception and whether the gun would stay concealed I'd just been happy to find another dressy outfit that I could conceal any handgun on The little Sig Sauer 380 fit nicely in the Galco Tuck-N-Go to one side of the short red skirt, with the red top that came down over the belt loops that I'd had tailored onto the skirt The loops ide enough for ht enough that the Sig stayed put, so if I did have to draw the gun, o hunting around I'd been carrying at the small of my back when I wanted to be ultraconcealed, until I'd done soun wasn't at my side where I usually carried, it took me a few extra seconds to draw, aim, and fire Those few seconds could cost me, or so belt loops put on h all of the waists, because that hat it took to hold the gun, any gun, in place I could change un needed to be at lad I'd found out in training and not in the field In training you could fix it; in the field you got dead

Nathaniel Graison stood beside ray tailored suit that showed off the broad shoulders, slender waist, and nice ass and slid over the swell of his thighs like a polite glove: tight enough to show off, but not so tight it was obvious The lavender dress shirt was buttoned up to the save his skin just a little color and the hint that he'd probably tan if he ever tried, but he didn't bother The shirt also deepened the color of his eyes so they were more intense than the shirt, like violets to the shirt's paler lilac His driver's license said his eyes were blue because they wouldn't let him put purple down as a choice His tie was silver with a tie bar that looked silver but was actually platinum because it wouldn't make his skin react, since like ic to silver His alht braid so he didn't trip et in his hen he moved--maybe it was practice; he was an exotic dancer, and the hair was often loose while he worked

He was shtly in tih dancers in my life, from exotic to professional ballet, to know that they allstill, as if their bodies couldn't help but race out of the noise of everyday life

Manny had been standing next to his slender daughter, gazing up at her, because Connie had gotten about five inches of extra height from her mother's

side of the genetics, but noas dancing with his wife Two of her brothers had been dragged onto the dance floor by their wives Rosita's brothers towered over most of the other , burly refrigerators who sed more as the afternoon reception wore on At least two of theh I wasn't sure which of the six it had been Another ran his own heating and cooling business, one was an accountant, and another did so They'd been introduced to me in a mass as "These are my brothers" Rosita had rattled off their naured the names were more important to remember than jobs, so I concentrated on that I could name four out of six At one point she'd tried to fix me up on a blind date with one of them, back when she was convinced I'd end up an old ed at thirty-one or Rosita would have been having fits

Rosita was built like her brothers, though I'd seen pictures of her wedding to Manny and she'd been a tiny slip of a girl, but that's what can happen when youtaller She'd been a couple inches below his five foot six once, but now she was five-eight or es had broadened the rest of her, but Manny gazed up at her as if she were still the delicate girl he'd fallen in love with as they danced, his head resting on her ah that she didn't make him move his head now

Connie, the bride, and Mercedes, her sister and maid of honor, were built like Manny's lean and wiry fra excitedly across the room Their brother, Tomas, sat in a corner across the room in the wheelchair that Connie had finally persuaded him to use The crutches he'd used to walk up the aisle were leaning by the chair, his hand on theet back up He was thirteen and had never been badly hurt before; the first time is an eye-opener He'd used crutches to stand in church, proud to be on the groom's side, but by the ti shot will do that to you, even if it was a feeeks ago He'dto State with his track-and-field teauy had kidnapped Connie and hiuy and gotten them out, but not before he'd shot Tomas and left him for dead

To it, but hurting He'd been alh still ith big hands and feet as if he hadn't finished growing into himself He was still pretty like his sisters, with heavy black hair spilling forward in a sort of bad-boy I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-like-this style, which I knew took a hell of a lot of hair product to pull off Apparently, thewith the women; I liked that--even-handed worked for me

Micah Callahan, our other sweetie, was standing beside Toht, he didn't have to bend ant and dapper in his tailored black pinstripe suit Nathaniel could have pulled off an Aood as the Italian cut, but it would have worked--but Micah ed up in American suits, even tailored ones This suit, however, showcased his athletic build and , like a swi He'd already started tanning again froh it was only May He tanned dark, and he never quite stopped being dark, as if it were a blush across the perfection of his skin tone, reen dress shirt, with its black tie and gold tie bar He couldn't wear silver for the same reason Nathaniel couldn't

Micah leaned down a little farther, thehis dark brown braid over one shoulder His black-lensed sunglasses hid his eyes completely and made his face look a little less syot To and helped a lot of people deal with trau Between Human and Lycanthrope Communities, but he was also a survivor of the attack that made him a wereleopard He had his own scary story to share with Tomas Rosita had told me that she orried that the boy wouldn't talk about it, that he wasn't eating right or sleeping well, and did I know anyone who could get hi, ouldn't Tomas? Manny and I had both told her, Because he's a boy, but that didn't satisfy her, so I'd talked to Micah He'd said if the chance came he'd try to talk to To Apparently, he'd found his chance

Theslower, and Nathaniel took my hand "Dance with me"

It bothered me to dance in public, I wasn't sure why, but it did I used to refuse to do it, but all the men in my life seemed to love to dance, so what could I do? I let theot over it "Sure," I said, s myself for that initial nervousness

He tookback a bit and was a little stiff as he tried to twirl ot me into the circle of his arms, one hand in his, our other hands at the sht, his was at the small of mine I couldn't quite reach around and had to settle for the side of his lower back It still meant ere closer than a lot of people on the dance floor, but not as close as the people ere doing the high school pro their bodies as close as possible and ht between us, because Nathaniel danced-danced I watched his chest and shoulder area, not because the vieas great, but for the saht, because you have to move the core of the body before you can move the rest I watched for the first movement, so I could move with his hands and arms, rather than be a step behind

I'd learned to follow hih the dance If I just trusted his body, his hands, his ar, all would direct me as surely as he did sometimes in the bedrooood with that, too, but on the dance floor he was the boss, because he was so daood at it

He glided around the dance floor, and if I didn't overthink it but just followed his lead, I glided, too Of course, the ht that I missed a step; he was patient and swept me around for another turn, so I could catch up and come back to the circle of his arms as if it had all been planned

I finally gazed up into those a eyes of his and was able to just feel his body without having to stare at it I could feel the sway of his body and go with it; a slight pressure of his hand and I knehere ere going It was like ic to dance with Nathaniel; he could , face eager, his body so excited to ious--Nathaniel's happiness was one of htly parted as he half-laughed and sort of glowed down atwith him, and because he knehat it had cost me to learn to do it with him

He dippeda surprised squeak, which I hated, or going stiff in his arht the squeak was cute We finished the dance, and a new song caan to line up, so it was a line dance, no partner needed