“Why silver? Why would he—why would you want something like that? Regular bullets work just fine.”
“Not for the kind of beast I’m up against.” Again, nothing but truth and again, nothing he’d understand.
“Kind of…” Colton shook his head. “Sometimes you worry me.”
“Sometimes I worry myself.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words. Her shorn hair felt light and liberating. “I’ll work my ass off, save as much as I can, as quickly as I can, and get out of your hair, I promise.”
He stiffened. “I never asked you to leave.”
“Surely you didn’t think I’d mooch indefinitely.”
“You’re not mooching.”
“Whatever.” She shrugged. “What else could you call it?”
He looked away, his mouth tight, but not before she’d seen the wounded look in his dark eyes.
“Colton, I appreciate everything you’re doing for me.”
Now he looked back at her, his expression once again stone. “I’m not doing anything anyone else wouldn’t do.”
“Ah, yes you are. You’re risking yourself by taking me in, you know.”
He crossed his arms. “Oh? How is that?”
“They don’t care what they have to do to get me, as long as I’m dead. That’s the kind of people they are. If you get in their way, you’ll be killed, too.”
“I’m not worried.” He looked fierce and, like her own people, as if he was hoping they would come after him. As if he welcomed a chance to take them on.
Her inner wolf growled in approval.
Jewel shook her head. Surely her imagination was running away with her. Colton wasn’t Pack. Any characteristics he might share with her kind had to be merely wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking? She massaged the back of her neck. What was next? She of all people knew better than to believe in fairy tales. Hellhounds. Had she completely lost her mind?
Colton made her feel things she didn’t want, emotions she knew weren’t real. Needs and wants and wishes—all projections of a lonely and confused woman.
If only she could change…
Swallowing, Jewel knew she couldn’t refuse her body’s need, an urge that was as natural to her as breathing. The time to try again would come sooner than she liked. She could only hope Colton wasn’t around when it happened.
Colton. Any way she looked at it, the man was trouble.
She had to get out of his life before they both got hurt.
Inside, her wolf whimpered, feeling the bars of the unwanted cage closing in.
