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9
I woke to the sound of howling. The sky overhead was dark, and my skin felt ice cold as I sat up, in my human form. I’d slipped out of the change while I slept. Curling my knees into my chest, I leaned back against the doorframe that lead out onto the balcony and sighed.
“Of course, it had to be cold,” I muttered to myself.
Another howl rang out through the forest around me, and I winced. It was the sound of wolves on the hunt, signaling their positions, closing in on their quarry. They could be hunting anything, but I had the sinking feeling it was me they were looking for.
Getting to my feet, I stretched my arms over head and groaned. My muscles were always sore after the change, and it would be a few hours before I could turn again based on how they felt. I could only pray I got to my clothes before any of the wolves found me.
Slinking down the stairs, one at a time again, I made my way to the bottom of the tower and froze in the shadows of the door.
A pair of golden eyes were staring at me from the shadows. A wolf’s nose lifted into the air, no doubt sniffing out my identity, and then it turned, disappearing into the trees. I waited, for a few seconds, and then a familiar voice began grunting in pain as he shifted back into his human form, rising above the bush he’d used for cover.
“Dammit, Jamie.” I sighed, turning to put my back to the stone wall, hiding from him. “What are you doing here?”
“I came…” he said, still trying to catch his breath. “I came because Adrian has the entire pack out looking for you. I got worried. So, I called Maria.”
“Maria saw me come out here. She knew I was out running. What’s with the search party?”
“You haven’t been home in years, Snow. There are things out here that are dangerous even for us,” he said.
I snorted. “I see Adrian is doing a stunning job as Alpha then. Isn’t he supposed to keep the Cape safe for us?”
“I’m not going to argue with you about him,” he said, his voice drawing closer. “There are other things to talk about, and right now the others are probably on their way here.”
“What?” I turned toward the sound of his voice and found him standing beside me, in the door. I spun around on my heal to face away from him. “Don’t look at me.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he said quietly. “You’re beautiful.”
“Uggh.” I started for the stairs to climb back out of his line of sight, but he grabbed me by the wrist.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But please listen. We don’t have much time, and I need to say this away from prying eyes and ears.”
“What?” I demanded, yanking my wrist free from his grasp. I turned to face him, fully expecting his eyes to take in my body, but they never left my face.
He pressed his lips together in a thin line and exhaled through his nose. “Annie didn’t die the way they said she did, and I think I have proof.”
My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach and the ground rocked dangerously beneath my feet. “What?”
“I was going to tell you in the garden, but you ran away before I could,” he said.
“They told me it was a car accident. That a drunk driver—”
“I know,” he said. “It’s what Adrian told me. I wasn’t in town when it happened, but I went to the bridge, and something felt wrong. The details don’t add up.”
“What are you saying?” I demanded.
Jamie jumped and held a finger to his lips. “Shhh, we can’t talk about it right now. Come by my place tomorrow, and I’ll explain everything. Right now, we need to change back and run you home.”
“I don’t know if I can,” I said. “I was in wolf form for hours and fell asleep.”
He opened his mouth, but before he could say a word something cracked loudly outside the tower. Jamie’s head jerked to the side, and he reached for me again, pulling me close in the shadows beneath the stairs.
“What’s—”
He cut me off with a hand over my mouth and nodded to the doorway across from us. I frowned, and squinted at the archway, letting my wolf’s eyes rise achingly to the surface again.
The darkness shifted, and it took everything I had not to gasp out loud as a white skeleton came walking across the front of the ruins. Shadows dripped from it like smoke, and the grass beneath its feet curled up with every step, turning a dead brown.
