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“Overcompensate?” Studying my hands, I recalled the devastation she had caused. “She tore them apart,” I whispered. “I burned the remains, but I shifted, and we ran, and we stayed gone for months.”
“You lost control of her?” he asked me quietly.
I nodded once. My brother understood how close to the surface my wolf stayed, despite my many protests that she didn’t.
“But she let you come back,” he said, his voice gentle. “You are still here, Kezia.”
Squinting, I looked at my brother. “You must be having all the sex,” I said with a laugh when I saw his flush. “Who is this mellow guy in front of me?”
Kris grinned, but he still punched me squarely on the shoulder. “Respect my mate,” he admonished, but his smile was wide. “Finish the story.”
“I needed money, so I went to Vance. Stupid mistake really, going back to somewhere I’ve been before. It was Vance who told me I was wanted for questioning for the murders. I was leaving so I didn’t get him in trouble, and Cannon was waiting for me.”
“Your wolf was always better at hiding than you,” Kris scolded. “He’s an alpha and can follow your trail easily enough and would have been waiting for your shift.”
“They caught me, I was put in a cell, and he told me he had the right to do so, as I’m a rogue.” My voice dipped when I spoke the last word. “He said I am packless, a killer, and wild. As an alpha, he could detain me.”
“Who said you are packless?” Kris demanded. “You are still part of the Anterrio Pack. You haven’t been cast out. Your home is still on the mountain with me.”
“I am?” It was?
Kris shoved me so hard that I fell onto my side. “You left the pack…you weren’t exiled. I took a risk in letting you run with your heat, but your home is with me. I am your pack, and our pack is on the peak.”
My eyes welled up again, and Kris looked at me in panic, his expression causing me to giggle. “I won’t cry, I promise.”
“You never cry, it’s…alien.” He scratched his jaw as he watched me. “I don’t understand how you went from suspect to victim. I don’t know whose body they found. Do you think Cannon and his pack killed a human? To cover for you?”
I was already shaking my head. “No, he would never. I’ve listened to several lectures about how I’m more than human and should have run away.” Prodding my leg, I thought about the stern alpha. “It was after one of his lectures that I realized when Bullet shot me, he deliberately shot me to make me lame. As if he knew I wouldn’t heal well and wouldn’t shift.”
“But you did shift.”
My nose scrunched up as I thought about it. “I did…”
“What are you thinking?” Kris asked me.
“When Cannon shot me, it took a few minutes for the silver to react, and when it did, I couldn’t shift.”
Kris was focused on my arm and the silvery mark. “I’ll gut him.”
Turning my back to him, I lifted my hair. “And I have this. They compared the scars, the fainter they are, the older they are.”
Looking at my brother over my shoulder, I saw his frown as he scooted closer to look.
“How did I get this one?”
He was already shaking his head. “It’s not a bullet wound. It’s a birthmark. We both have them. Look.” Turning, he lifted his hair to show me a faint silvery scar running from his neck into his hairline.
“Kris? That’s not a birthmark…that’s a scar from a silver bullet.”
We looked at each other uncertainly, the silence stretching before my brother spoke. “I think I have more questions than answers,” he admitted softly.
“Can Cannon take me back to Blackridge Peak?”
Kris was already shaking his head. “No. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I killed them.”
Kris scoffed. “Says who? Where’s the proof? The humans caught three killers after discovering a dead girl. You’re not dead, so how can it be you?”
