Page 9

Butt naked, I stride toward Kayla and grab her shoulders. She doesn’t resist as I slam her against the nearest tree. “What the fuck are you doing here, wolf?”

Behind me, while Kayla struggles to answer my question, Sam shifts back. Being that he’s a wolf not a bear, he’s fully clothed and grabs Kayla’s wrist, pinning it above her head.

“He asked you what you’re doing here?” Sam snarls.

Kayla’s eyes widen as she takes in Sam’s face. “You…” she breathes. “How…?”

“We’re asking the questions,” Sam replies. “What are you doing here, Kayla?”

For a moment, Kayla simply stares at Sam as if she can’t quite believe what she’s seeing; like she might have gone mad out here in the woods and be hallucinating. When he tightens his grip on her wrist, her eyes flicker. “Let go,” she says, looking from Sam to me, “and I’ll tell you.”

Eyes flashing, Snow’s anger rumbling in my gut, I let go of her and step back.

“Hard to take you seriously when you’re…” Kayla looks pointedly at my unclothed body. “Au natural,” she adds.

“Talk,” I tell her. “Why are you here?”

“Because I have nowhere else to go.” Kayla straightens herself up, as if looking okay will make up for the fact her skin is carrying a thin layer of dirt and she smells like she hasn’t washed in weeks.

“You should have left town when you had the chance,” I tell her.

I’m about to grab her again when Sam says, “It’s you who’s been killing the rabbits?”

I frown at him. The rabbits? Who gives a shit about some dead rabbits?

Kayla meets his eyes. Hers narrow while she looks at him. Then she shudders and shakes her head. “Why would I leave a trail of dead, uneaten rabbits? Nothing to do with me.”

“You ate that one,” Sam snaps, ticking his head back in the direction of the skeleton we found.

“Because I found it,” she says. “I don’t make a habit of hunting other animals for sport. Food, yes. Playthings, no.”

Sam raises his eyebrows. “If you didn’t kill them, where did they all come from?”

I want to ask why the fuck Sam is asking her about rabbits instead of ripping her throat out for what she did to him, but now he’s mentioned it, it does seem odd. Cats kills for the enjoyment of killing, but most of the creatures in these woods kill for food. Not for the buzz of the hunt.

Kayla presses her lips together. For a moment, she looks like she’s about to tell him to get screwed, but then she sighs heavily. Scraping her hands through her short, black hair, she says, “The Hellhounds. They don’t need to eat, but they like to play. They’ve been hunting in these woods for a few days now.”

“Hellhounds? Bullshit,” Sam says. “We haven’t—”

“Smelled them? No, you wouldn’t. They don’t leave a scent.” Kayla brushes down her shirt and folds her arms. “And they only hunt at night.”

Sam glances at me; whether we like it or not, Kayla just gave us information that might have saved our lives. If we ventured beyond our barrier after nightfall and came across them, especially if one of us was alone, there’s no way we’d be able to fight them off.

“And now I’ve answered your question, you can answer mine.” Her tone changes as she says, “How are you here? I saw you fall. I sent you to hell.”

“With Nico,” Sam says. “You sent me to hell with your son.”

“I didn’t send him there. He was trying to save you,” Kayla growls. Her lips curl into a snarl and she’s about to lurch forward when I step behind her and grab her upper arms. She strains against me, then goes limp beneath my hands.

“You used him his entire life,” Sam spits. “You manipulated him. You made him do things he never wanted to do. You were his mother. He trusted you, and you betrayed him.”

“And then you betrayed him again by trying to murder the brother he gave his life to save,” I whisper darkly in her ear.

A small sob escapes Kayla’s mouth. She hangs her head, and her body starts to shake. She takes a deep breath. Silence hangs thick between us. Then she says, barely audibly, “I’m sorry.” She looks up at Sam. “Please, tell me, how did you come back? Is he here? Is he with you?”

I loosen my grip a little. She’s a monster, but she’s also a mother. Her pain is real, even if she caused it herself. Even if she deserves it.

Sam breathes in deeply. He hasn’t spoken to any of us about Nico since he returned. Even Tanner hasn’t been able to encourage him to share what happened.