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He looked at Daniel.
“I guess I wanted to be saved,” Daniel said. The side of his mouth twitched up.
Kade knew exactly what Daniel was thinking when he made that face.
“At least you made the benefits of being human seem worthwhile,” he said.
“I don’t think I’ll get my sister back the same way I got you.”
“I hope not.”
Across the table, Charlie wrinkled her nose.
“Is ten years a long time?” she asked.
Both men nodded.
“The longest I’ve ever gotten someone back from was seven years,” he said. “And that was pretty hard.”
That had been a bear, too. Kade still had a scar on one thigh from that job. Even after the other bear had stopped trying to kill him, it had taken him three days to be able to shift back. Kade had almost thought that he wouldn’t be able to anymore.
“The longer you’re feral, the less human you are,” Daniel explained, his soft voice serious. “You’re more and more violent, quick tempered, all that. After a while you can’t understand mercy or nuance or moral gray areas any longer. Everything is kill or be killed.”
Suddenly, Charlie jerked her eyes from Daniel to Kade, looking surprised at something. For a long time, she didn’t speak, but she seemed to be thinking something through.
Finally, Kade couldn’t stand it.
“What?” he said.
“Olivia killed those wolves,” Charlie said.
Kade settled back into his chair, listening to the slight creak of the wood under his weight. Charlie didn’t move, but her gaze just kept boring into him until finally, he had to say something.
“I think so,” he admitted.
“Why?”
Kade shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. He hoped it had been for a good reason, but it worried at him constantly. Feral shifters were violent, sometimes for no reason, just like regular grizzlies. Except regular grizzlies weren’t nearly as clever or sneaky as shifters.
Also, real bears were never interested in getting revenge on people they’d gone to high school with, or people who they might have thought killed their best friend.
“I don’t know,” he said, finally. “I’m pretty worried about it, though.”
Charlie still looked like she was working through something, her eyes thoughtful, her brow knitted together.
“What is it?” Kade finally asked.
She sighed, then rested her head on one hand, like she was trying to hide her embarrassment.
“I thought it was you,” she finally admitted. “Back at the FBI, they told me that all the evidence pointed to it being a feral shifter named Kade Lessing, since you lived on the edge of bear/wolf territory.”
“So that’s why you were going to tranq me,” Kade said.
Charlie’s mouth dropped open, and Kade couldn’t hold his smile back.
“You saw that?”
“Of course I saw it, you were fifty yards away with a rifle barrel pointed at my face,” Kade went on.
