AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thanks,” I said, though I was astonished that Kyle had intervened since they hadn’t posed a direct threat to me.
Kyle shrugged. “They’ve been trouble since I got here.” His gaze was fixed firmly on the door through which the Greenthornes had disappeared, almost as if he was expecting them to reappear at any moment. “I don’t know what it is about them. They just rub me the wrong way.”
“Is this because of the way they disowned Audrey?” I asked, trying to understand Kyle’s sudden outburst.
Kyle rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “Stop bringing Audrey up.” His tone suggested he didn’t want to discuss her.
I let it go when the door to Zander’s room opened, and Elliot and Ridge emerged. They were speaking quietly, but I managed to catch the tail end of their conversation.
“I know for a fact that the Montana Pack’s alpha, Isaac Frost, was once good friends with Jaxon Hyde,” Elliot said quietly.
My heart skipped a beat as I turned to face Ridge and Elliot. Ridge must have been asking about my real father, though I wasn’t sure why. After all, we assumed Jaxon Hyde was dead. Part of me was curious to know anything about him, but there was also a lingering uncertainty. Had he even known about me? If so, would he have wanted me? What if he was responsible for my mother’s death? What if she’d told him about me, and he'd killed her?
“Hey, is Zander okay?” Audrey’s worried tone interrupted my thoughts as she appeared in the hallway her parents had just recently occupied, her eyes darting between all of us. “I’ve been checking in on him, you know, since we were both part of the whole ‘kidnapped-by-hunters’ gang.”
“Zander’s in a stable condition, but he’s still in danger,” Ridge said.
“Your parents were here earlier, nosing around and causing trouble.” I watched Audrey’s expression shift from worry to frustration. “Kyle put them in their place and kicked them out.”
Audrey glanced over at Kyle, raising an eyebrow. “That’s hot,” she said boldly.
Kyle smirked, his flirtatious nature coming to the surface without missing a beat. “You think so? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
The unexpected remark caught everyone off guard, especially me, as I watched Audrey’s cheeks flush a deep red. Now, that was interesting.
The flirty moment was short-lived. Kyle’s face paled, and he mumbled an excuse before turning on his heel and rushing out of the hospital.
“Wait!” I called after him, catching up with him in the parking lot. “Why are you running away from this? You clearly have a thing for Audrey, and I don’t think she’d reject you. I think the two of you would be good for each other.”
“Can’t deny I haven’t thought about it,” Kyle said, moving his head from side to side to crack his neck. “But now that I know shifters can’t actually be cured, I’m not sure I can accept what she is.”
It was like he’d slapped me. All the insecurities I thought I’d overcome regarding Kyle’s acceptance of my shifter identity came flooding back. If he couldn’t fully accept shifters, then how could he ever truly accept me?
“You need to get over yourself and figure out which side you’re actually on,” I snapped. “You can’t be disgusted by shifters but want to save us at the same time.”
Kyle’s face fell, a deep sadness taking over his features. He wrapped his arms around me and said, “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m always on your side, Tori.” I didn’t respond, and he took a step back to look me in the eye. “Remember what it was like when we learned about our mother’s death? Our world was flipped upside down, suddenly filled with stories about these monsters. William presented me with the hunter’s report detailing our mother’s body after the attack. There were pictures, too.”
I hadn’t known that.
“It’s been almost impossible to let go of those gruesome images and the fear of shifters they instilled in me. Those images still haunt me.”
Anger and sympathy swirled inside me, making my stomach churn. Kyle was truly attempting to change his mindset, but it wasn’t easy to overcome the prejudiced crap we’d had been taught about shifters.
“Do you know which shifter killed our mother?” I asked.
Kyle’s jaw worked as he gathered his thoughts. “It was a wolf from the Everwood Pack. William hunted him down and killed him in the faction’s next hunt.”
My pulse raced, and a sickening realization hit me. That wolf must have been Jaxon Hyde. The thought that my biological father might have killed our mother so viciously left me reeling. Bile rose up my throat, and I suddenly didn’t feel so well, my vision blurring as this revelation threatened to consume me.
Chapter 18
Ridge
The relief of seeing Zander still alive washed over me like a cool wave on a scorching day, but it was quickly replaced by a gut-wrenching anxiety. If the hunters were targeting the entire town with a larger witch-powered attack to “cure” large numbers of shifters, this would be the gruesome result: shifters remembering nothing of their former selves, slowly breaking down and hurting people without knowing why before dying. The thought was appalling, and I didn’t know where to even begin to prevent this nightmare from happening.
My wolf snarled as another annoyance festered in my mind—the Greenthornes. They were opportunists, stirring up trouble when shifters were safest here in larger numbers. It was a struggle to keep my wolf back. He wanted to get his claws into the Greenthornes and force them to either accept their place or expel them from the pack. I hated how appealing the idea was. I did not want harm to come to any shifter, but I had to think about the big picture. As much as I loathed the Greenthornes, they had their supporters. I couldn’t afford anarchy in town.
I found an empty room for privacy, pulled out my phone, and dialed Mateo’s number. “Hey, Mateo. I need to know what you’ve heard around town, from humans or shifters.”
