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Chapter Twenty-Two
“I have a policy against going into rooms that have drains in the floor.” I stood in the doorway of the interrogation room and crossed my arms.
“Try cleaning massive amounts of blood from somewhere without a drain in the floor and you will realize how useful they can be.” Kase slid past me and into the room.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better. Believe it or not, I’ve never had to clean up massive amounts of blood.”
Hunter passed me as well, taking a moment to slap my ass and draw a yelp from me. Not that he looked repentant, even when Kase and Troy offered him murderous glares over it.
Everyone had found their way to the small house in the center of pack territory, miles from any other building or property line, isolated enough that screams would never carry that far.
The actual room where Paul was to be kept was in the basement, and the room had thin silver chains built into the walls and ceiling to prevent escape. Large hooks were secured to the floor, the sort attached to the ends of cranes, and it again reminded me that I wasn’t dealing with humans here.
We were going to have a killer werewolf down here, one I needed to try and have a conversation with without getting myself killed.
“Do you think you can do it?” Kase asked.
I wanted to say yes, that I could force that essence out of the wolf, that I could force it to talk as I had Olin—only better. However, I had no idea how I’d done that in the first place, so what did I know? “Maybe?” The answer wasn’t a great one, but it was honest.
“Everything looks good,” Troy said after testing each hook, after running his hands over the different areas in the walls and ceiling. His palms were bloodied and burned—a reaction to the silver—but he didn’t complain. “I don’t think there is any way that wolf could get out of here. We’ll have him bound in silver as well, so it should be safe to interrogate him, but, Ava, you will need to keep your distance. One swipe and he could kill you.”
“Last time, with Olin, I had to touch him.”
Troy shook his head. “Not a chance.”
“We’ll work it out,” Grant offered instead. “Between the four of us, you don’t think we could restrain one silvered werewolf?”
Troy narrowed his eyes but didn’t respond.
Understanding him better, I knew exactly where his mind had gone. It wasn’t the place to reassure him, though, not in front of the others, so I let the subject drop. “When will he be here?”
“An hour or so. They’ve reached the back gate.” Troy stretched his hands as if they still ached, but the skin had already started to knit back together.
On the main level, the house was nice but not overly large. They probably kept only security teams up top. The benefit was that they did have a few rooms with two beds per a room—so plenty for us if we had to stay a few days.
The pack hadn’t been happy about having all of us there, but Troy had explained it was a non-negotiable part of the deal.
I suspect he only did so because he knew more people meant less danger, and his fear of anything happening to me was bigger than his jealousy or suspicion.
“This is going to be a long few days,” Troy said. “Wolves don’t break easily, so we should all take a break before he gets here.”
Muttered agreements sounded, and we all exited the small, dark basement. The boys went to pick out rooms, and perhaps because they knew how difficult the situation was and how not-useful a fight would be, none of them tried to make a claim on me.
Instead, I ended up in my own room, flanked by them. Kase and Troy each took their own rooms while Grant and Hunter chose to bunk together.
They went about securing the windows to keep the sun out while Grant set up wards. In thirty minutes, the entire place was ready for however long we needed to stay, and I went outside for a much-needed breath of fresh air.
I loved the desert, but in town there was still enough light pollution to hide the stars. Out here, the sky stretched forever in each direction, a huge black ocean with sparking light.
I sat on a large boulder not too far from the house and marveled at how insignificant it made my problems seem.
Which was silly, since if Serrish were right, if we didn’t fix this problem, even those stars would blink out of existence.
“Do you know why I choose to live here?” Kase asked when he walked up beside me.
His voice made me tense, especially after our last interaction. My neck still itched from where he’d bitten me—then soundly rejected me. Being unwanted sucked, but having his saliva turn me into some desperate horny mess while he remained uninterested made it all the worst.
“I always thought it was weird you would pick to live somewhere with so much sun.”
