Page 65 of Cold Sacrifice

His face was empty. “I am the council’s prisoner. They won’t allow me to leave.”

For a few seconds, I could only stare at him, horrified. “This place is your jail? Why, Wes?”

He smiled, sort of. “Because, Kait, once upon a time, I was a monster. I deserve to be here. Actually, I should be dead. But…” He shrugged. “Some days, this is worse than death. Don’t feel sorry for me. My punishment is fitting.”

“And the council?” I asked. “How did they end up with you?”

“They saved me because they believed they could use me. They were right.”

I reached out to squeeze his hand, and he flinched. “I’d like to know your story, Wes.”

“I can’t remember my story. I can go inside anyone else and drag their secrets out kicking and screaming. I can go after specific memories, like I’m doing with you. I can peel a person apart until there’s nowhere left for a secret to hide. But I can’t go into my own brain and find the memories I’ve lost.” Then he murmured, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him, “Or hidden.”

“You’ve had trauma,” I said. “I can feel it. And what about your wolf? How do you shift in here?”

He turned away from me then. “I lost my wolf when I lost my sight.”

And there it was. There was the thing I was feeling. His wolf was hobbled, just as mine had been hobbled. And I recognized that.

“Your wolf isn’t gone, Wes. It’s hobbled. I feel him in there.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re wrong. My wolf is dead.”

“I feel him,” I insisted. “And what about the pain? What about the pain you feel when there’s a full moon and your wolf wants to tear its way out of you but can’t?” I was whispering, but he heard me anyway.

He didn’t face me, but his body was stiff with tension.

“I’ve been there,” I told him. “When I couldn’t shift, it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. The pain was indescribable. My poor wolf was…she was mad when she was pulled from me.”

“It’s not like that for me,” he said. “I was once fully in control of my shift. I’d already learned to control my moon-shift. So the pain for me is not as vicious as it would have been for you, a wolf who’d never shifted at all.”

I narrowed my eyes and took a step back. “You’re taking things you’re not supposed to be taking from me,” I said, my voice hard. “You’re not—”

“No, no,” he interrupted. “I know things about you because I’ve asked. I know some of your story, Kait, which is why I’m sharing some of mine with you. It’s only fair.” He continued before I was quite finished processing his words and deciding on whether or not I should believe him. “It hasn’t been long for you. Can you control your shift under the full moon now, or does she still control you?”

“She calls me,” I said. “She doesn’t control me. Not anymore.” I shrugged, though he couldn’t see me. “I’m an alpha.”

He did turn toward me then, shock on his face. “That’s it,” he said. “That’s what I’m feeling. That’s why I’m so drawn to you. You’re an alpha.” He laughed, and that time, it was genuine. “Mystery solved.”

“You were worried,” I said, watching him. “Because you couldn’t figure out why you were feeling a certain way about me.”

“Yeah. I was feeling like a wolf would feel for his alpha, only I didn’t know it. It was driving me a little bit crazy. Especially since I’m no longer a wolf and I didn’t know you were an alpha. That’s one thing Lilah left out of her tales. And anyway, you’re not my alpha.”

“Who is your alpha?” I asked. “Why did he let you end up here instead of dealing with you himself?”

“He was going to kill me in front of the pack,” he said. “The elders saved me. They severed my ties with my alpha and my pack and gave me jail instead of death.”

Things weren’t adding up, really, but at that moment, Rick texted and told me the alley was clear.

And it was time to do something I really didn’t want to do. I had to go into the ground and hunt a necromancer.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The guys weren’t in the car when I returned, so I sent Zach a text. I’m ready to go. The alley is clear. Where are you all?

He answered almost immediately. Down the street getting coffee and cinnamon rolls. Want some?

Pretty much always.