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“Even if we don’t need it to build houses, we can tear it down.” Tris sets me back on my feet, though his arms stay around me. “We can use it for the bonfire at the wolf shifter’s orgy next year.”
That draws a laugh from me. “That’s a good idea.”
“You know, Ros isn’t the only Rambo around here.” He cuddles me closer. “As soon as you heard that scream, you launched into attack mode.”
“Yeah, let’s deactivate that mode.” I shake my head at myself.
What did I seriously think I could do with a picket sign against a monster?
I glance toward Ros and the women. “What do you think made them scream?”
Tris smirks. “They probably saw a naked wolf shifter.”
I try to return his smile, but fail. That hadn’t been the startled scream of impropriety. That was a scream of terror.
Ros glances toward the woods, his expression grim, before he nods at the women and motions them toward the house.
No, they definitely didn’t scream because they saw a naked wolf shifter.
Harper walks with the other women to the foot of the porch steps, where she pauses to watch them go inside before heading toward the garden. There, she stops to speak to Delilah, who pales and gathers her things to shuffle toward the house.
Once she’s on her way, Harper heads down into the sand dunes to gather the others.
My focus shifts back to Ros just in time to catch sight of him vanishing into the woods.
Oh, hell no. He doesn’t even have his gun with him. Ros had stopped carrying it while in Clearhelm, and it now sits in a safe down at the sheriff’s office.
I wiggle out of Tris’s arms and hurry after Ros. He’s not going in there alone.
“Hey, sparky, where do you think you’re scampering off to now?” Tris hurries to keep pace with me, which isn’t hard with his long legs. “Don’t you think Ros would prefer we go inside with the others?”
I double-time my pace. “He’s unarmed.”
“No, he has your very solid picket sign.” Tris catches my hand. “We should go inside where it’s safe.”
“I can’t run and hide.” My hands curl into fists. “Not again.”
Despite my words, I freeze at the tree line, unable to convince my feet to move forward. My deepest nightmares began in these woods. My mother died here, and I thought Owen had died with her. Every trauma I struggle with now began here.
A tremor runs through me, fear rattling my bones. The feel of nightmarish red eyes watching me raises goose bumps all over my body. No matter how much I tell myself that Owen’s and Haut’s fathers killed the rogue werewolf that murdered my mom, I can’t force myself to move forward.
Tris grips my shoulders. “It’s okay to not always be a brave little toaster.”
I take a gulping breath, and the scent of rotted meat fills my lungs, making me want to gag. “They probably just found a dead deer or something, right?”
Tris gives me a comforting squeeze. “I’m sure that’s all it is.”
Tires speed up the driveway just as a gray wolf shoots past me, streaking into the woods. A car door slams, and feet race across the gravel driveway.
Owen stops next to us, out of breath. “What happened? Who screamed?”
“We don’t know. Harper and a couple others were in the woods, looking for wand material, when one of them screamed.” Tris nods toward the woods, where Greyson had disappeared. “Ros went in to investigate.”
Owen nods and cups my cheeks, pulling my gaze to his. “Go inside the house, Rowe. We’ll figure out what happened, okay?”
I reach up to clutch his hands. “Don’t go in there.”
His expression softens. “I’ve been back in those woods hundreds of times since then. Nothing’s going to harm me.”
