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“You dated Krystal!” he retorted.
“I was a child back then.”
“What?” He shot me a glare. “How old do you think you are now, fifty?”
“I … well.”
“Don’t answer that,” he said. “Do you seriously want all of us to fight in the house and put my mom in danger?”
His argument silenced me as I helplessly pictured the scene in my head.
Realizing my mistake almost instantly, I bit my lower lip. “That’s between you two. You’re the one betraying him by pretending to be something you’re not.”
He sighed, rolling his eyes. “Have you also forgotten you’re a werewolf too?”
I shook my head and dug my nails into my palms. “Not really.”
“Not really?” he questioned, his voice rising. “You were reckless, Gray. How can we blend in if you can’t even control the words that come out of your mouth?”
“Fine,Iwas the one being reckless!” I bellowed. “It just really pissed me off that you literally joined them. They’re our enemies, Cole. It’s like I’m in a performance ofRomeo and Juliet, and I can already tell how it’s going to end if I can’t find a way to stop your love story from blossoming. I don’t believe in keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, okay?”
“It’s not like that,” he said, his voice tinged with sadness this time, breaking my already fragile heart. Knowing how hard this must be for Cole only added to my frustration and guilt.
I inhaled, attempting to quell my boiling nerves. “Whatever you say,” I said, lowering my voice. “I just wanted to warn the two of you. This isn’t a joke.”
“You told him I could be killed by him. What’s he supposed to think? He probably won’t trust me anymore,” he said. It sounded like he was holding back tears. He wasn’t even listening to me.
“No shit, Sherlock,” I snapped. “That’s strictly why I told him. Because you’re a werewolf, and he has this lame duty to kill us all. You’re not supposed to trust each other. I planted the seed of doubt in his mind so he’d stay away from you ortryto kill you so that you could eventually face the harsh reality. Period.” I gave him two thumbs-ups and grinned as wide as the Joker, bracing myself for the great Cole Kimbrough sigh.
Dear god, don’t make him do it.
Cole heaved a deep sigh.
Jeez, never mind.
“I can’t stay away from him,” he mumbled. He turned on his toes, hands running through his spiraling hair like a boy who’d run out of bright ideas, completely lost and in deep shit.
“What?” I shuffled backward. “What now?”
He faced me again, with aI’m-tired-of-carrying-the-world-on-my-shoulderskind of expression on his face. “Listen, I didn’t just sign up to be a hunter because I have feelings for Keith. A few days ago, I overheard someone talking about how one of the hunters at our school had killed a werewolf student who was part of a pack. Keith’s name was mentioned,” Cole explained. “And I don’t think the hunter is him or any of his friends.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “You’re not thinking about what I think you’re thinking of doing for that lame gang called the Nightstalkers, are you?”
“Join me.” His frown deepened. “We need to protect him and the other hunters at school before a pack of werewolves avenge their friend by retaliating. You know how they are. We can’t let them spill any blood belonging to the wrong people.”
He was right.Most werewolves in a pack followed a tradition. If one of them was murdered, the ones left standing would find the killer, tear them to pieces, and burn them to the ground, with or without evidence. Cole and I were both aware of this.
“Ha!” I waited for his laughter to accompany mine, but Cole’s expression remained still. “Oh, you’re serious!”
“Please,” he begged.
“Hell no! No, no, no.” I took a step back, my eyes downcast as a nervous laugh escaped my lips. “Protect someone who hunts …” I lowered my voice in case the neighbors could hear us, “werewolves? You are out of your mind. Why would I do that? That’s a suicide mission. I haven’t lived that long. Did I ever tell you what I want to do for my twenty-first birthday? I want to go on a cruise around the world, but I still have a long way to go before then.”
Cole’s shoulders slumped. He gazed at the floor as if he could find answers there like a pile of laundry. I doubted it, unless he was looking for the crumbs I forgot to clean up before going to school this morning.
“Don’t you dare give me that look.” I pointed an accusatory finger at him. “They are werewolf hunters for a reason, Cole. This was bound to happen. If they didn’t want to get in trouble with a pack, then they should have quit their job and focused on studying. Besides, there are more than twenty of them, and they all have weapons and wolf traps plastered in their houses like older hunters do. We are the ones who need to protect ourselves from them.”
“Keith doesn’t have those.”
