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My toes curled as we kissed, and I got slightly out of breath. Stepping away, I shook my head at Ridge. He smirked at me.
I ran to catch up with Kyle, and when I did, he shortened his stride so I didn’t have to jog to keep up with him. Another concession my brother had made for me since we were kids, when I wanted to follow him everywhere. He’d never scoffed at my wanting to spend time with him. Kyle had truly been the best big brother.
“You’re a powerful hunter, but you couldn’t have fought all the shifters on your own,” I said to him. “Not without me helping you. That was a really reckless, dumb move, you know. You’re not out of the woods yet.” How could he have been so thoughtless?
Kyle shrugged. “What did you expect was going to happen? Only a handful of them didn’t know I was a hunter. At least Ishowed them what hunters are capable of. That I wasn’t messing around.”
Kyle was right, which I hated. It didn’t stop my protectiveness toward him and my fear of them connecting him to me and discovering my hunter past. There was no telling how the shifters in Blackwood Creek would react to that, or how it’d affect Ridge.
“Keep your eyes peeled,” I said. “The other shifters might still attack you out of the blue. Especially the ones the Greenthornes stirred up.”
Kyle scowled, ruffling and then smoothing his hair. “Those Greenthornes are massive pains in the ass. I can’t believe they disowned their daughter like that over a simple argument.”
“It’s been bad for a long time, from what I’ve heard. And from what I’ve seen since I came here,” I said. “Audrey will be much better off without their toxicity. She’s strong and very independent. With the shifters around here, she’ll never be alone. Diana Bogford took her back to the bed and breakfast to have a breather.”
Kicking a small rock on the sidewalk, Kyle said, “I wished I’d sparred with one of Audrey’s parents. Could’ve made the snapped neck look like an accident, and it would’ve solved a world of problems before they ever had a chance to crop up.”
Laughter burst out of me as I realized just how irked he was by the Greenthornes’ treatment of Audrey.
He frowned, cutting his gaze at me. “What’s your deal?”
“Nothing,” I teased, grinning widely. It was very muchnotnothing. “I justknewthere was something there. I’m surprised Audrey’s your type. I didn’t see it coming at all, but Ridge and I had our suspicions. And you’ve always liked a challenge. At least Audrey will keep you on your toes.”
The giggles took over me, and Kyle’s face remained a big thundercloud. He picked up his pace, trying to shake me.“Absolutely not. There’s no way in hot or cold hell I am interested in a literal monster.”
His words hit me like a sackful of bricks to the gut. I stopped trying to keep pace with him and froze, staring down at the ground. I was aware, of course, that it had been a knee-jerk reaction on his part to call shifters “monsters,” but it still hurt, hearing it from him. It was hard enough to stop calling myself that in my own head.
My brother still thought I was a beast.
Kyle stopped and turned back to look at me. His face fell. “Shit,” he muttered and spread his arms out. “Tor, look, I’m sorry.”
Swallowing, I lifted my face toward him.
He looked genuinely frustrated with himself. “This is all just really hard for me to adjust to. I’m trying to change the way I think. Even if I might never like that wolf shifters exist, I do not, for one second, find you monstrous.”
The sincerity in his voice was genuine, and he was trying to change, but at the end of the day, I was a shifter. It was easier for me to grasp the change because it was part of me. Kyle could never understand it like I did. He might never change his mind about us so-called monsters, and that broke my heart.
“What about my inner wolf? Do you feel the same way about her?” He was my brother, and I wanted him to accept all of me.
Kyle rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “I can’t lie—I don’t trust it. When I first saw you in your wolf form, I thought you were going to turn on me next and rip my throat out. You’re not like the other shifters, Tori. You’re trained and can kick ass, then to add on top of it, you can shift into a wolf? You’re a force to be reckoned with. Even more so now that I know about the feral thing you’re battling.”
Tears pricked at my eyes, but I refused to cry. Kyle had valid reasons to be fearful. I hated it, but everything he said was true.I understood asking him not to be wary of my wolf was too big of an ask, considering I still wasn’t in perfect sync with her myself. So, I tried to drop the subject. Sniffling, I stepped forward and shook my hair back. This would all get easier in time.
Kyle fell back into step beside me, and I pointed to the left. “This looks like the clearing Ridge was talking about. It looks like it will work great, doesn’t it?” I said, plastering on a smile.
“Let’s go see.”
Kyle helped me clear away some of the brush, and we walked the clearing, scaling out how many sparring matches we could get going at one time without people running into each other. The atmosphere between us wasn’t easygoing or relaxed, but it wasn’t tense, either.
“Are you still getting headaches or going feral?” he asked after a while, surprising me.
“Things have gotten easier since I came here and allowed myself to shift,” I replied. “I still struggle with my inner wolf. Sometimes, when I’m angry or anxious, it throws me for a loop.”
It was complicated, explaining my struggles with going feral to a human. There was just no way Kyle could truly understand. Talking to Ridge about it was so much easier because he understood the shift and having an animal living inside him.
“Ridge has helped a lot, though,” I added, smiling at how much my connection with Ridge had healed me. “Being around other wolves, especially him, has made a tremendous difference. In the beginning, it was still difficult, but now that I’ve been around them so much, a small amount of peace has settled over me. When I think about what would’ve happened if I hadn’t ended up here, it terrifies me. I would’ve turned into the monster our father brainwashed us to believe in. If only the hunters knew they were the ones causing such destruction.” Anger leaked through my voice, and I felt my nails sharpening into points. I took a few breaths to calm myself, and my nails retracted.
Kyle’s mouth had turned down at the corner. “I wish I had known about the feral condition sooner. I’ve killed shifters who were probably suffering from it, and now I feel sick about it.”
