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10
ADDIE
Back at my house, I waited for Perse to come up and start teasing me about how long I’d been gone. When she didn’t appear, I gripped the paper bag so tight it tore in my grasp. Maddox put a hand to my lower back.
“What is it?” There was a growl under Maddox’s voice that gave away his concern.
I shook myself and cast off the unsettled feeling. There were a million reasons to explain why Perse wasn’t here. Maybe she was out on a date with that nice man she’d met in my bedroom. She could have found a new herd of cats to haunt. Maybe Perse was…
An image of Perse, corrupted like that woman in Maddox’s town, filled my head. My heart skipped a beat. The bag slipped out of my hands.
Maddox caught it, but a tearing sound filled the air. The bag’s contents tumbled to the ground.
“I’m so sorry,” I rushed.
Maddox scooped up the bag’s contents in a few quick motions. It was nothing for him. He made it look languid and easy where I would have been frantically running around my front lawn for the runaway snacks.
“I don’t know what came over me. I don’t…” My voice shook.
Maddox cradled the snacks with one arm and used his free hand to cup the back of my head. He gently pulled me in and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. The gesture immediately soothed the frantic shakiness making me tremble.
“You need a break. I’m sorry I pushed you this far,” he said into my skin.
I sighed, my whole being coming apart in his grasp. It was as if he’d given me permission to fall to pieces and my body gratefully obliged.
“Let’s get you inside. I’ll stay the night here, just in case.” He pulled back. “It’ll save me on gas.”
I laughed and clung to his shirt.
Turning slightly, I looked towards the setting sun. It’d been a long day back and forth. So much had happened, much of it coming back to me now that I wasn’t annoyed with Maddox.
“Shouldn’t you be home, helping the others search the woods for more body parts?” That wasn’t a sentence I ever wanted to say again, but I knew I would have to, especially if I stuck around Maddox.
He gave me a quick grin. “You want to get rid of me that badly? I get it, considering I’ve been feeding off your arcana for the past few days.”
I shook my head as I reached for my keys. I let us inside. “It’s not that. I just…I’m not your priority right now. You have a case.”
He leaned back, becoming distant. When he spoke, he didn’t look at me. “If I stay here tonight, and there aren’t any mystery emergency calls tonight, then we’ll know if I’m the one responsible.”
Maddox…I didn’t want him to be right.
The only way we would know for sure was if we got news of a mystery call here, in the city. Maddox might be able to contact someone in the city’s police force. He could use his current case as the basis for his inquiry. No one would have to know that he was worried about his own sanity.
Something about this didn’t seem right, still. I’d spent a lot of time with Maddox’s beast. Never once had it displayed any kind of aggression. If anything, Maddox’s wolf reminded me of an oversized husky. It was playful and loving, showing aggression only when my safety was at stake.
He wasn’t the problem here. Even though the clues pointed to him, I trusted my gut. We were missing a piece of this puzzle. Knowing that, I regretted taking him away from the search going on back in his town.
Maddox
The city was noisy.I understood why Addie retreated to the mountains whenever she could. It was a quiet getaway compared to the wailing sirens of the city.
I sat on the back porch and breathed in the cool night air. A few mosquitos tried to bite at my exposed skin, but they couldn’t break through. That had to be one of the only good changes since becoming a shifter.
My beast moved inside me. It wanted to stretch its legs and run free, but I yanked it back and forced it to sit down. The beast gnashed its teeth. The movement made my bones rattle. I grimaced, a growl vibrating inside my chest. When the beast thrashed, it slammed into my lungs like it was real and not a presence inside my head.
The air rushed out of me. I hunched over, gasping.
Run. Run. Run.
