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“It’s fine, Iris,” Eli said quietly, stepping ahead of me only to open the passenger side door.
I gave him a puzzled look but didn’t argue, grateful just to sit down. I slid the seatbelt over my torso and sighed, closing my eyes. The memory of jumping over those logs — I smiled, even as I heard Eli open his car door and step inside. “Ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
20
ELI
Redwood Motel
Austin, Texas
We stopped for Iris to get a snack, and when we returned to the motel, she disappeared into the bathroom, needing a shower. She said she needed to get all the dirt off. I didn’t see anything, save for a scuff mark on her knee, but I didn’t argue. If Iris needed a few minutes alone in the shower, that was the least I could do.
While she explained that she hadn’t shifted in a while, I had no idea how…difficultthat might be for a wolf. Then again, I hadn’t met someone before whodidn’tshift. The wolves of the Longbow pack had regular runs and monthly hunts. Even if someone had to miss one event, they rarely missed more than two in a row. The children had miniature runs; I smiled as I sat down on the bed, remembering the wrestling matches Myles and I used to have before our parents would catch us. We used to think we were so good at hiding, but in retrospect, I’m pretty sure his mother just pretended not to be able to find us.
I heard the sound of the shower turning on and glanced over at the closed door, but — everything else sounded fine. No sound of someone slipping and falling. It was clear that Iris didn’t want my help, but… I was still concerned. Even after a wolf was severely injured, they might not be able to run for a full night, but they could still run longer than an hour. She’d been so winded, her wolf so tired, it had simplyfallen awaywhen Iris couldn’t hold her any longer.
I’d never seen anything like it before.
Iris was like no other, though. I knew white wolves existed in the far north, but not in the United Kingdom. I’d seen off-white, cream-colored, light gray — but Iris? She was as white as freshly fallen snow, her dark eyes even more alluring in contrast. Just like the human, the wolf was slender and built delicately, but where her human form hid a strength — and spice — not immediately visible, her wolf was fragile.
I frowned, flopping against the mattress as I stared at the ceiling. Even young pups shifting for the first time had more stamina than that. It was true they often needed help shifting for the first time, either from their parents or their alpha, and a few would need help a second or third time, but… I could feel howstuckher wolf was when I cast my alpha over her. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t there because she was, but she’d stayed in the same place for so long that a thicket of brambles had grown over her and tied her down. It would even make moving painful.
She said her pack was killed when she was eleven. Has her wolf been hidden that long?
I supposed it was possible — if the entire pack was killed, who else would know she was a shifter? How would anyone be able to advocate that this orphaned child was taken in by a shifter family instead of a human family? The thought hurt my heart; even if my mother had left me, I still had my father. I still had my pack and my cousins. I didn’t have many friends, but I stillhadthem and I still got to shift.
What does that even do to a wolf?
Another thought occurred to me a moment later, and I frowned.
Wait — didn’t she say everyone was shot? With silver? Could that still be bothering her?
Shifters were so well hidden in England that I didn’t think I’d ever heard of anyone being injured with silver. There were legends, and my father had always warned me of the danger of wolfsbane and silver when I was a young pup, but…I need to look into that. Maybe I can ask Myles to check the library at home.
One of the benefits of being born to a longstanding family was that we did keep records. It would be written down somewhere if anyone had been attacked with silver. I sat up, looking for where I set my phone, and the bathroom door opened. Iris emerged with her wet hair tied up, in a pair of denim shorts, and a black tank top. And nothing else.
All thoughts of my cousin were immediately banished from my head.
There werescars all over her chest and shoulders. She’d been wearing a tee earlier, but I hadn’t noticed anything. Admittedly, I hadn’t looked her over, not really. We were working together, but after she’d royally shut me down at the Moonmate ceremony, I had kept my wolf on lockdown.
He sure wasn’t interested in anything I had to say right now, however. I stood up before I realized what I was doing, walking over to Iris. I wanted to reach out and touch, but even in my wolf-controlled state, I knew that would be unwelcome. My brows furrowed as I looked up and she frowned back, folding her arms over her chest. “I told you I got shot,” she mumbled, looking away.
“You didn’t tell me you got shot in the chest,” I said quietly, suddenly feeling ashamed. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gotten so close — or stared. Iris wasn’t some exhibit to be gawked at. “It looks like it was right next to your heart…”
How did she survive that?
Iris wrinkled her nose. “No, it definitely damaged my heart,” she replied, reaching up to rub the mark as if talking about it hurt. “That’s a pacemaker.” Her voice was barely audible when she said it, as if it were some shameful secret.
It bothered me to hear her speak like that; until this morning, Iris had been all fire and spice. It was infuriating, but… I respected that in her. She had proven to be fiercely capable, and I didn’t like hearing her speak this way. Especially about herself. “Does it still hurt?” I asked, trying not to pry.Did I hurt her by making her shift with me?“You said it was silver?”
“It was,” she said, nodding. “But it was removed completely. I was told that if the bullet had fragmented, I probably would have bled out before anyone found me.” Iris shrugged as if she were telling me about a break-up five years ago, not an injury that almost ended her life at the tender age of eleven. “And… no, not really. It hurts when I have the batteries changed, but only for a day or two. I suppose sometimes I’m just… aware of it, I guess? I stop taking the ‘automatic’ things like a heartbeat for granted.” Iris flashed me a wry smile.
I reached out and she didn’t stop me; I was careful as I traced my fingertips over the long scar across her breastbone. I did not touch the pacemaker, afraid to disturb it. My wolf snarled, pressing against me fiercely as wefeltthe damage there. Howdaresomeone put these marks on Iris — onanywolf. I knew exactly why he felt so specifically agitated by these injuries but I refused to think about it.
“Who did this?” I whispered, retracting my hand before I overstayed my welcome.
